What It's Like To Call This Place Home

Echo and twilight were walking home from an eventful dress and tuxedo fitting at the Carousel Boutique, when twilight went to open the door Echo stopped her "Hold still." Echo slowly disappeared "Something big is heading over Ponyville." Three green dots appeared before Echo's nano bots could hide his knight-vision goggles. Echo reappeared as he was removing the goggles. "It just some lunar guards heading two reds Sugar Cube Corner, which means I'm probably going to be getting a letter soon."

"Okey, so first we find Spike?"

"Eeyup." They opened the door just as Spike was reaching it, making him freeze up like a fainting goat, and fall onto his back. This caused Echo to burst out laughing.

"That wasn't that funny." Twilight said helping her assistant off the ground.

"Your lying, it was totally that funny."

Spike, who was now the same size as an adult pony, was giving Echo a death stare "You have a letter, Echo."

Echo noticed a difference in Spike's voice 'Oh, I may have pissed him off, I haven't made him jump that badly since he was still small.' Echo stopped his laughing, making Spike raise an eyebrow "I'm sorry Spike, I didn't mean it that way, if you'd seen what we had for comedy back on Earth, you'd see how I thought that was funny, I've been doing that all day. Anyway, you wanna pass me that letter, so you don't miss your date?"

"Oh, hear, I almost forgot! Do you think Emma is gonna be mad?"

"Not if you hurry. You shouldn't be late, if you use that parkour I taught you, hell if you start now, and use parkour the whole way, you should be early."

"Thanks, also twilight can't be standing behind you when you open it; magic something or other, the princesses put in it, bye!" Spike sprinted out, jumping onto a fence, then leaping onto a nearby roof and out of sight.

"You really think he'll make it?"

"Trust me, he'll be early, as long as he keeps his pace steady at what he was doing." Echo moved back, then faced Twilight "Well, lets get this over with." Echo made sure his hooves were firmly on the ground, then looked at the letter in his hand. He opened it, immediately getting enveloped by a golden magical aura, after a few seconds there were two bulges under the back of his T-shirt, then they ripped two holes in the back, revealing them to be new wings, the feathers were light blue, but shifted in the light, and made no sound when flapped, unlike Pegasus wings. Twilight immediately began inspecting his wings as he read the letter aloud.

-Dear Twilight and Echo,

-Please gather the other Elements, and Spectors, something important has come up. I have given Echo permanent wings, that suit his stealth style combat, they do not posses normal avian feathers, but owl-like feathers. You've probably also noticed that they shift in the light, so that your nanobots don't have to work so hard. It also imprinted the knowledge of how to use them most efficiently, we will see you soon.

-Celestia & Luna

Echo put the letter on a table near him "Well, I guess I'll see you later." He turned towards the door "Dimitri, Atlus, RED, PK, move to Celestia's position, I repeat, Dimitri, Atlus, RED, PK, move to Celestia's position."

-"Affirmative, I am on my way." Atlus responded.

-"I'm already there, E, and I've sent lunar guards to retrieve PK, an Pinkie."- RED replied.

-"I've got Fluttershy with me, we'll see you there."- Dimitri stated.

"Great, I'll get rainbow, and meet everyone there." Echo flew out into the knight sky.

After several minutes, Echo finally found Rainbow Dash sleeping on a random cloud, higher than the rest. 'This is too perfect!' Echo slowly went invisible, then stopped at a hover in front of the sleeping multi-color pony "Rainbow Dash, wake up!" Echo yelled, making her jolt awake, then look around, trying to find where the loud voice came from.

"Odd, I could've sworn I heard a voice..." As she began a single blink, Echo became visible again.

When she opened her eyes, Echo was inches from her face. "Boo." She froze, making Echo start to laugh, until Rainbow bit his outstretched finger "Ow!" Echo stopped laughing, holding his finger close "You bit me!"

"Yeah, I did." She smiled "And I'll do it again if you scare me aga- wait, how are you flying?"

Echo turned his back to her, revealing his wings "Celestia gave me permanent wings, cool huh?"

She looked at them, noticing they made no sound when they moved "How are you doing that?"

"What?"

"Your wings don't make any sound, how?"

"Oh... Owl feathers."

"Ah." She stared at him for a moment "Well?"

Realizing he had almost forgot his reason for being in the air he quickly answered "Celestia wants the elements, and Spectors to report to Canterlot Castle! Lets go!"

After a few minutes of flying as fast as they could manage, they arrived at the palace, rainbow entered through the front door, while Echo dropped into the hole in the roof. He landed at attention with his comrades.

Celestia was sitting at her throne, Luna sitting next to her, with her eyes at the floor. Then he noticed a new allicorn, lunar guards at his sides, his hooves were bound in chains, and he looking at Luna sadly. Echo decided to break the silence, before the rest of the elements arrived "What the hell is going on here? Who is this guy? And why is he in chains?"

Celestia looked at his in a way that said *mind your own business, and do your job* then she addressed his questions "He has been arrested for fleeing the country when he was the only one who could save it."

"That makes no sense, and who is he?" Echo broke formation, walking to the allicorn, the lunar guards went to stop him, but he just threw them aside "What is your name, and why did you flee?"

The allicorn looked him in the eye "Cosmic Plane, and I did not flee."

"Liar! He teleported away, when my sister was being taken over by Nightmare Moon! He was the only pony that could stop the proce-"

"Shut the fuck up! I wasn't asking you!" Echo bursted, shocking all three allicorns, and the guards "Now what really happened?" He looked into Cosmic Plane's eyes. He could see fear, sadness, pain... anger.

"I went to use my magic, to put a shield over her and I, incase I failed. The Nightmare messed with my magic, and sent me four hundred years into the future. I did not know how long Luna was sentenced to the moon for, so I kept trying to replicate the magical failure, but kept failing, and having to move to another town. Every time I failed, the townsfolk called me a witch, then tried to burn me at the stake. After twenty years I perfected a portal to the past, so I could stop Nightmare Moon, but when I jumped through, I fell from the top floor of a barn. Then that human thing found me, and brought me here." He looked to the ground.

Echo walked over to Luna, and put his hand on her shoulder, making her jump "What was his connection to you?" He whispered.

"He was my closest f-friend... And... And...." She closed her eyes, looking down.

"Everyone out! Now!" Echo ordered, his comrades look at him questioningly.

Celestia looked offended "What makes you think you can order me arou-"

"NOW!" he yelled, slammed his fist into a column. There was a crunching sound as his arm was bent at an awkward angle, only for it to move back together. The Spectors moved, pulling Celestia, the guards, Rainbow, Pinkie, and Fluttershy out of the room. "Leave Cosmic here." The doors slowly shut. "Luna, please tell me his affiliation with you?"

She looked into his eyes, they held nothing but understanding and pain, not physical, but emotional. He slammed his hoof on the ground, causing a wall of emerald sprout from the floor "It's sound proof, if you don't want him to hear something out of uncertainty, now is the perfect time to tell me." She said nothing "Listen, I respect you, almost as much as I respect my brothers, that is why I accepted you as the new director for the Spectors. And I refuse to just sit by and watch my leader, no, my friend in this kind of emotional turmoil... So you can tell me whatever you deem fit for me to hear."

"I... Before... Before the Nightmare tried to take over, he and I were the closest of friends, but I've always liked him more than he thought I did... But I never got the chance to tell him, and when he teleported away, it made me think he did not like me anymore... I was going to tell him the night that the nightmare chose be begin the procedure..." A tear fell from her face as she closed her eyes, looking down to the floor.

"I'll bet the Nightmare messed up his shield, because it sensed that love you held for him..." Echo walked towards the wall, a doorway opening for him, as he walked through it, it shut. 'Now I want to hear what he has to say about their past...' As he got close to Cosmic, he summoned a sapphire dome over both of them "Cosmic, what is your history with Luna, what is your opinion of her?"

"We were always close friends, but I wanted more than friendship... I wanted love... But she never acted like she felt the same, I was always afraid that if I confessed to her, that she might laugh at me, or never talk to me again... And I was going to confess after I freed her from the Nightmare's grip... Celestia an I could sence it long before it tried to take over, and it was Celestia who told me to develop something to stop it, my great creation was the Elements of Harmony... But before I could try to use it, the Nightmare sent my into the future..." He looked down, echo made the gem seep back into the ground.

He walked to Luna and stood next to her "Cosmic, come here, you both have something to say."