A Promise Not Forgotten

I’m going to try writing without perspective, see how it fits. Tell me what you think of it please.

Dan and Colin walked reluctantly out of the cell. Neither of the humans wanted to see their friend in that dreaded cell any longer. Colin took the lead as Dan paused to take a look back at Aidan before the door slid shut. The dungeon was comparable to one in a cartoon, as redundant as it sounds in their case, but gave them a depressed feeling because neither of them ever expected to end up in a place like this.

Colin stopped near the exit of the hallway to wait for Dan, who was still struggling with the current predicament they found themselves in. Of course, the pain of betrayal at the hands of the princess was felt too by Colin, but the teen was able to hide it just almost as well as Aidan himself could. Colin watched his not-so-close friend mope around in deep thought as they walked out of the long hall, back into the main part of the dungeon as his own mind was filled with new questions, new problems, and new doors.

“Hey, Dan,” Colin said. “What do you think about this plague?”

Dan let loose a long sigh; this was hardly the thing he concerned himself with at the time. “Well, I think it’s just another nail in the coffin,” Dan said, slightly annoyed at Colin’s lack of focus on Aidan’s predicament.

Colin, of course, noticed the feelings Dan had but ignored them anyway. He knew that Dan was both fully capable and willing to do whatever he could to get Aidan out; any input by Colin would just hinder Dan’s efforts, so he decided to look upon a different aspect of their wall of problems. Colin wasn’t directly known for solving problems, having difficulties explaining what he was thinking (Which is usually where Aidan came in), but would be able to take their wall of problems down brick by brick.

“What do you think is causing it?” Colin asked, still ignoring any negative feelings stirring in Dan.

Dan scratched the back of his head in annoyance, “I don’t know, aren’t you good with magic?”

Colin accepted that as a minor complement, but still persisted, “Well, yeah, but magic can only go so far.” That gained a quizzical look from Dan, “Well, wounds can be tended, and sickness eased, but viruses can’t actually be affected magically.”

Dan’s quizzical look turned into one of disappointment, “I should have guessed, still, can you treat the patients in the meantime?”

“Maybe…” Colin said loosing himself in thought, “Actually, I’ll be back later. Come get me if you need anything.” And with that Colin left Dan to gather his flock of supporters.

“Will do,” Dan said knowing exactly where he was going.

Princess Luna walked out of her room, to find her two loyal guardsponies. The two prestigious guards bowed lowly before their ruler. “Good afternoon,” Luna said, greeting the two ponies as they rose from their bow. “Any messages while I was asleep?” Luna asked.

“Yes, ma’am,” The male pony started. “Dan stopped by earlier and said he would be waiting in his room.”

Luna remembered their previous meet and the plans they made. She nodded to the pony, “Thank you Cobalt Crystal.” Cobalt had a dark purple coat with an even darker mane his light blue eyes stood out from the rest of his colors like a sore thumb. He also wore a dark blue set of night issue armor, for obvious reasons the guards decided to blend in with the night.

The other pony, Rain Dasher, still stood at attention, remembering Dan’s visit that morning. “Princess, with all due respect, I don’t think you should associate with Dan,” She said with a straight face. Rain Dasher had a white coat and a cobalt mane with lighter stripes running through it. Her eyes matched the cobalt color of her mane, and her dark blue night-armor made her white coat stand out even more.

“Thank you, Rain Dasher, for worrying, but I assure you there is no need. Dan is trustworthy,” Luna replied.

“Princess, just,” Rain Dahser’s eyes closed for a second, fighting the urge to say something more but finding no words. “Please be careful. We don’t know what Dan is capable of quite yet.”

Luna noted the worries of her guard. That was why Luna preferred Dasher, because she overanalyzed everypony. Rain Dasher always assumed the worst so that if anything bad happened she would be the first to stop it. Her fellow guard, Cobalt, was quite the opposite, and overlooked any negative undertones a conversation might have. While this may have been a compromising way of life for a guard, his close partnership with Rain Dasher helped both of them surpass their fellow guardsponies. The unique combination provided the different perspectives needed to solve many problems that found their way to the doors of the Princess. On rare occasions Rain Dasher couldn’t find anything bad about somepony, but instead of going through great trouble to find anything, that pony usually gained a form of mutual trust and protection from her, but that only happened once before, to Cobalt.

“Thank you Rain Dasher,” Luna said to the pegasus as she walked down the steps and headed for Dan’s room in the castle.

The duo of guards watched the princess as she left, “Dasher, do you really think Dan can’t be trusted?” Cobalt asked.

Rain Dasher looked to her friend, “Actually, Dan is one of the only ones who can anymore.”

That gained a rather confused look from Cobalt, “What? What do you mean the only ones?”

Rain Dasher rolled her eyes, “Haven’t you seen what’s been going on lately? There is a storm coming… This is something different though, I don’t know what, but it’s big. Why else would Luna want to talk with Dan?”

Cobalt looked down in thought, “Think we should tell anypony?” He asked.

“No. We don’t know who can be trusted anymore, let’s just stick to Luna and the Humans,” Rain Dasher said.

“Why the humans?” Cobalt asked.

“I don’t know, they are different. I don’t know how I know, but I just know, ya know?” Rain Dasher said.

“No. But I’ll give it a shot,” Cobalt said with a smile, knowing to trust Rain Dasher’s trust instincts.

Dan was sitting on his bed, unable to sleep at the current hour and instead holding Aidan’s magical revolver. The very gun that could have killed Aidan had Prophet not saved him. The idea that Prophet was, in fact, trying to help seemed alien to Dan and completely impossible. Dan thought about it more as the time passed, he traced the glyphs on the revolver with his thumb. The gun was still glowing with its same glow, never changing, never dimming. Dan’s concentration was broken when he heard a knock at the door.

He got up off the bed, leaving the revolver on his bedside table. Opening the door he was greeted a smiling Luna, “Hey,” He said.

“Hello, Dan,” Luna said, ready to get to work on gathering supporters.

Dan looked back into his hotel suite before closing the door and stepping out. Even after being in Equestria Dan thought of the lack of a true home, it still bugged him, and even kept him up at nights. It truly is strange how something so trivial to one can be so important to another. Shaking away the depressing thoughts Dan said, “Ok, so, let’s get down to business. I was thinking that we should go talk to Discord and the Elements, try to rally a force, ya know.”

“I think that’s a great idea. Should I call for a carriage?” Luna asked. Despite her experience as a ruler, she had never done anything quite like this. The idea that she was working against her sister troubled her, but injustice troubled her even more, being a victim of unnecessary punishment.

“Yeah, they should be ready by the time we talk to Discord,” Dan said as he started on down the hall with Luna in tow. “Have any idea where he is anyway?” Dan asked.

“No, but we can ask the guards, they don’t have much else to do,” Luna said. She knew exactly how boring the guards’ jobs were, but the decision to keep this many wasn’t hers.

Before Dan could respond a hearty laugh was heard from down the hall. Both Luna and Dan looked in the direction it came from. The unmistakable laughter rounded the corner and Discord looked to Dan, then down to Luna, who was just shorter than Dan, excluding her horn.

“Oh, Dan, Luna, how absolutely wonderful it is to see you!” Discord said cheerfully.

“What are you so happy about?” Dan asked crossing his arms in amusement.

“Heh heh, well, animating suits of armor apparently scares these guards!” Discord said through laughter. “A LOT!” Even though chaos wasn’t his primary function, having formed it into a habit it was now impossible not to enjoy it.

Luna raised an eyebrow, unimpressed and Dan shook his head. “You really are something, ya know?” Dan said. “Come on, we need to talk.”

“Oh, me first!” Discord said. “I had a glorious idea! We need to get Aidan out of the dungeon!” Discord said with a wave of his hands.

“Actually…” Luna started before being cut off.

“And we can go get a group of supporters, and protest it. I know you don’t like the whole chaos thing, and I know that breaking him out would cause more trouble than it’s worth, but this is completely legal!” Discord said, getting excited with his plot.

“Dude, we literally just had the exact same idea,” Dan said with a smirk.

“You know what they say about great minds!” Discord chirped happily. “So, who are we going to get next? Iron Hoof?”

“We,” Dan said waving to him and Luna, “Have to go get the Elements,” Dan said. “Besides, Iron Hoof is already in on it.”

Discord’s face turned sour at their mention, sure he was good now, but that doesn’t mean old wounds have healed yet. He grumbled a bit, “Why can’t I go? Come on! It will be just like old times!”

“What you want to get knocked out again?” Dan asked mockingly.

Discord smirked at him, “Not as much as you want to get zapped!”

“Heh, anyway, yeah, just stay here. Everything would run much more smoothly with just us two. You can help by gathering all the ponies you can here in Canterlot, gather a public assembly for tonight,” Dan said.

“Fine,” Discord groaned like a child. “But you owe me!”

With that Dan and Luna parted from Discord and made their way to the runway.

“So, who first?” Dan asked as he stepped onto the carriage.

“Twilight Sparkle. Even though she is my sister’s personal student, she will see the justice in this,” Luna said.

“Cool,” Dan said. “We can get them to bring as many ponies to support us as they can, too.”

“Right,” Luna said with a smile. The idea of Aidan’s freedom becoming more feasible by the minute.

A few minutes passed as they flew over the land on their way to Ponyville. Luna broke her gaze from the window to look at Dan, who was also looking out his window to the ground below. Flight like this wasn’t a normal thing for him, but he easily adapted. Dan looked up to her, “Uhh, do I have something on my face?”

Realizing that Dan had just noticed her staring at him made things awkward. Luna stammered a bit, “Uh, no, just, well…” She returned her gaze to the window and thought of something to say. “Do you think this will work? The whole freeing Aidan thing,” Luna said with a wave of her hoof.

Dan said, “Honestly? Not at all. There is no doubt in my mind, we will fail.” His admittance shocked Luna. “But I just want to prove myself wrong,” Dan said looking back out of the window.