Our new Friends, Our new Enemies

by The Potato Guy


Chapter 10: Reborn

“So apparently when Princess Luna isn’t seen for more than three days, it means she’s gone to the moon to get away from everything. Not that I blame her, it must be peaceful up there”

There Thick Plate stood, tall and proud in his shining gold armour, a member of the respected and elite Day guard.

What an embarrassment he was to that ancient institution.

“What the buck are you going on about?” Solar asked in pure amazement. Solar knew this guard to be far, far less clever than he thought he was, but this was seriously demonstrating just how stupid he was.

“Yeah, well that’s what I heard” Thick Plate said, obviously realising this was a comment he had to defend himself from. “I’ve heard quite a few Guards say that too now”

Sure, try and pin the blame on another pony. Coward

“Well the other Guards are just as idiotic as you if they believe that” Solar’s tone came across harsh and condescending. Not that he had any qualms with that. Stupid beliefs should be always challenged, and if it took feeling bullied or embarrassed to ensure that point came across, then so be it.

“Luna has many isolated and private places she can go, except the Moon Garden now. It seems Celestia has allowed Human guards to be positioned nearby. Perhaps that explains why Luna hasn’t been seen, she never agreed with such a proposal.” Solar continued, feeling sure in his own belief.

What he didn’t explain was that another reason Luna hadn’t been seen these past three days was because of his and the Princess’s last encounter.  However Solar now felt, it was clear Luna had taken the whole incident to heart, such was the severity of her reaction. It may well have influenced her decision to not be seen these past few days.

“Huh, well when you think about it, I bet she could do something like that, as in go to the moon. She does cont---“

Solar wasn’t going to allow such verbal diarrhea continue however.

“She controls it only!” Solar scolded. “Under no circumstances could she possibly get to the moon somehow, let alone survive on it”

Solar watched Plate’s lips carefully, awaiting to see if any more words would come out of them. Just as they started twitching, Solar sprang into action.

“And before you say anything, when she was banished to the moon, she wasn’t just stuck there, walking on the surface. She became almost a part of the moon itself. So give up with this crazy idea she’s there now. Take it from a Shadow” Solar said, making sure to use apparent position.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right” admitted Thick Plate with a sigh, apparently still having a little trouble dismissing his foalish idea.

How did this guy get into the Guards?

“But hey, since you’re part of the Shadows, shouldn’t you know where she is? Why do you need to ask a lowly Day Guard?”

Oh shit

Solar’s heart raced for a few moments and these words, worry building up at the possibility of being rumbled.

Luckily, Thick Plate had demonstrated a severe lack of a sharp mind in the slightest. Relief flooded Solar as the heat building up within his chest cooled down, all thanks to Thick Plates stupidity.

“So we are to know everything about Princess Luna? Where she is every second of the day? Where she goes to escape every pony? Where she goes for total privacy? Where she goes to shit?!” Solar felt confident at his feigned anger, perfect in convincing Plate his defence of his Princess was genuine.

“I guess you’re right there too” Thick Plate again conceded.

Damn right I am. Now stop trying to act so clever. You’re not ratting me out, even on accident,

“But that doesn’t explain why me”

Buck you!

Solar really wanted to shed himself of this fake inclusion in the Shadows, just to deliver a swift buck to Plates face. With great restraint however, Solar maintained his lie.

“Is this some sort of test? To see what I know so if the Humans come asking, I can be trusted to keep the Princess’s whereabouts private?” Thick Plate asked to an annoyed Solar.

“Sure” Solar simply replied, tired on associating himself with this amebae of a mind.

“Really? I bet it isn’t” Plate replied, a smile on his lips from his guessing games.

At first Solar raised an eyebrow at this possible act of somewhat sense. It mattered not in the end however. In Plates eyes, he was a member of the Shadows, and it was time to act like one.

“Does it matter? Would I ever tell a drone like you?” his tone was both condescending but still full of authority, a combination to which Thick Plate only could accept. With a shake the Guardspony helmet glad face, Solar consolidated his position.

“All you need to know is that, aside from all other duties, right now you serve the interests of the Shadows and by extension, princess Luna herself. You will not question this, you will not deny this, you will not tell others of this, you will only comply. Is this understood?”

The Smile of Thick Plates face had long gone. Vanquished by Solar’s seriousness.

“Yes Sir” Plate said, falling into line.

Sir? I could get used to that

“Good, now Thick Plate, you never saw me, got it?” Solar questioned, almost threateningly.

“Saw who?” Plate replied, a smile returning, albeit far slyer.

“Better” Solar concluded, allowing the Guard this one compliment with a nod of his head.

With this though, Solar made his exit.


He soon found himself positioned at a balcony, overlooking the glistening city of Canterlot, watching ponies of all shapes, colours and sizes go by their day.

Worthless foals. What are you all doing, moving around like machines?

As Solar watched the day reach its end, and as he watched the Sun slowly descend into the horizon, he couldn’t help but realise the monotony of all the lives of the ponies down in the city. Comparisons couldn’t help but be made, and while at first Solar almost wanted to laugh at how much better he had it, with all his adventures, connections currently to Royalty and his quest for something truly great, the mood of such comparisons soon grew sour.

Sure, his life could be described as more exciting.  Far more exhilarating, dangerous…. stressful…. cruel…

Ugh, it may be more monotonous down there, but at least they are happy doing it. How much shit and impossibly hard work must I go through to end up satisfied?

This was the first time, in a long time, that Solar felt true discontent for his life. A true disconnection to what could be.

It wasn’t nearly satisfying enough, despite always apparently knowing of the power and influence he sought.

It was depressing, it was dark.

It was shit.

Years of making no visible progress. Only falling back to the start constantly, his life forever at risk. Repeated attempts at progress making no head way in any form.

His failures, his hollow victories, no matter what he had worked tirelessly for in the past, he had nothing to show for it now.

And despite all this, despite sitting here, his mood dropping faster than the sun in the sky, all his thoughts of his life now ended in one result. A result that he couldn’t help make comparisons to as his thoughts of life went by.

It just kept coming back to Luna.

No matter how hard he tried just self-punish himself with dark and saddening thoughts, Princess Luna always ended up at the end of them.

Solar could do nothing to keep these comparisons out, and the more he tried to ignore them, the more they made their presence known in his mind. A silent mental voice thrusting comparison and her mere name to the forefront of his thoughts.

He had to give in to them, had to think on them. It was the only way to understand their unexpected presence.

And the understanding came quickly and clearly.

For Celestia knows how long, Solar had sat here now, just thinking his painful thoughts. Thoughts of his life not going his way, and his eternal quest for power ending in constant misery and failure.

It was the substance of these thoughts in which the explanation of Luna’s mental presence originated.

As soon as he compared his situation to her, it all made sense.

Yes, their lives had developed differently.

She was an eternal Alicorn Princess, not just being on the side of the law, but practically being it, being the joint head of state of course. He was a downtrodden and dishonest agent of the criminal underworld, helping no pony but himself, and always an enemy of the law.

In that regard they were polar opposites, resulting in such confrontations such as the other days, and when he was removed from the Guard, but deeper down, within the small print of their lives, Solar discovered similarity after similarity.

Even if he made these discoveries last year, they would still be valid.

It was well known that Luna was often in her Sisters shadow, the constantly futile act of trying to escape ending in failure. The greatest of these being her banishment to the moon. Yet even after this it was common fact that she was not satisfied with her position, just like him.

Yet as many ponies felt the same in regards to that, they couldn’t say the same when it came to further similarities Solar and Luna shared.

From being in the Night Guard Solar knew Lunar to be regularly frustrated with her official duties and how it related to her ordinary life. Many a time he had seen her reach the point in which he almost knew she could again take no more. She wanted escape from the pains of Royal duties, to live a life she could control and be happy in. Solar shared this sentiment, not wanting to be under the control of ponies with more power than him. It was humiliating and taxing for him.

Furthermore, being knowledge Solar was slowly catching on, the divide that arose from the Luna’s unwanted duties of being a Princess, and apparent hidden knowledge Celestia kept from her, was creating a rift between the two Sisters. Solar heavily disliked the Princess of the Sun, for multiple reasons, but he couldn’t say he shared the division Luna now bore with her. It was because Luna had not been kept privy on whatever Celestia knew that he saw familiarities in. Being excluded from such great things was limiting. It cut down a pony’s freedom, and Luna, in being kept ignorant of such matters, shrunk her freedom as a Princess.

Now however, with the arrival of the Humans, further parallels were made.

It was clear, thanks to accepting a criminal a traitor of the crown back into the ranks of Royal servitude, that Luna took seriously her job that was to investigate the Humans. Solar knew this not just for curiosities sake, Luna wasn’t that simple. She sought control of her situation. To collect power over this development.

Whether that meant power of the Humans themselves, Solar couldn’t say. Only Luna knew her true desires, but it was still power knew she craved, and it was the exact thing he was after for here, that was the only reason he hadn’t made his escape yet.

Yet tragically, personal reasons were preventing them both from achieving this power. Celestia was hiding things and Luna’s own hesitations of her Royal life were in her way.  For Solar, his current inability to reach the top obstructed his way.

Whatever the reasons may be, both ponies were after the same thing, the underdogs that they in effect were.

Now here Solar stood, seeing nothing but increased affinity with the Princess.

And he found his opinion of her softening.

Sure, he hated her authority over him, but he couldn’t help himself but not feel somewhat connected to her. This was the reason he felt bad for betraying her trust the other night, why he hadn’t yet given up trying to find her until now…and why he stayed.

It was a realisation and a feeling which morphed into a catalyst, one feeding into his power hunger. Nothing had really changed in the past few days, but now he felt closer to his goal than ever before. Now he had a Princess on his side, almost.

His mind casted back to the rumours he had heard recently. That Luna was so thirty for control that she was planning to remove these Humans, the secretive and mysteriously dangerous beings that they were.

Were Celestia to be truly hiding something about them, perhaps even to the extent of plotting with them, Solar only now knew he wouldn’t hesitate to support the Princess of the Night. It wasn’t just his own personal and selfish desires driving him now, it was something else, a newly formed connection to Luna he now felt.

Whether or not these rumours had legitimacy however, Solar knew not, but should Luna even perhaps seek control to the point of doing the unthinkable again, Solar knew what his choice would be.

For good or bad, he was with Luna now, trapped with her almost in this unhealthy but addictive quest for influence.

Solar had remained here, making no attempt of a risky escape so that he may wait out the storm, to see what he may scavenge from his situation. It was a necessity for him to do so, leaving little free choice. Now though, he made no escape not because he shouldn’t, but because he didn’t want to.

He was going to help Luna, even if he felt almost like a parasite, sticking by her side for the power and influence that came with it.

He was going to help her now in fact, Solar decided, watching the glow of the moon rise and leaving to find the riser of it.


The fresh and unfamiliar determination carried his legs swiftly through the Castle hallways, newly lit torches now lighting his way, and Day Guard now being replaced with their counterparts in the Night Guard.

Solar was on the way back to the Throne room, guessing Luna may be there is she did indeed raise the moon.

Passing the courtyards plenty, he had to stop himself when he attempted to cross one.

Situated in the middle of it stood two Humans, Victus and Commander Starvation. The tone of their conversation was serious and severe.  The Commander seemed to be accusing Victus of something, who in return looked to be passionately denying or arguing against it.

Fingers were being pointed and testosterone seemed the be filling the air like a vicious gas, yet Solar was still out of ears reach so that he could hear.

Briefly he considered hiding and attempting to eavesdrop, but such an idea proved futile when Victus turned his head to angrily gaze upon him, obviously not happy to see him again.

The Commander now also looked upon Solar, and with such a look, it seemed all desire and energy to continue his fight with Victus left him.

“Go…Now!” Solar heard him demand, an order Victus seemed all too happy to comply with.

The dismissed Human approached Solar, but didn’t seem interested in stopping for him.

As Victus moved closer to the pony, Solar allowed himself a snide smile at the visibly angry Human. It had been the third time out of Solar’s three encounters with Victus in which he had been dismissed, and Solar couldn’t help himself but silently gloat at him, Solar finding great amusement in his failures.

“Don’t think you’re in the Commanders good graces for ever, pony!” Victus spat through gritted teeth at Solar. “You and your Princesses can’t shit us on us forever. My people won’t stand for it!”

Solar knew Victus expected no reply to this thinly veiled threat, and his guess was proclaimed correct when Victus simply continued storming off, and act Solar could never grow tired at. He seemed a bitter, emotionally unstable and a douche of an individual. Seeing him storm off and sulk like a foal was a truly beautiful sight.

When Solar turned his head back to where the argument had occurred, he was surprised to see the Commander had already joined him.

“Well, if it isn’t young Solar Virtue again!” proclaimed the Commander, now seemingly not so stressed. “I still don’t think I’ll ever get used to your names though”

His confession drew a small laugh from Solar’s lips, feeling somewhat comfortable around this Human, following their previous conversation.

“You haven’t heard the worst of it yet. I’ve heard some ponies with some really weird names, even to me!”

Solar’s joking comment found some success, the Commander provided him with a token smile, but it was obvious the Human wasn’t sticking around so for the entertainment. Solar needed to capitalise on Starvations’ presence here.

“Something the matter?” Solar said, nodding his head towards Victus’s escape route.

At first, the Commander seem taken back from Solar’s apparent concern, but this feeling quickly dispersed upon realising the question seemed, on the surface at least, born of curiosity only.

Still, he couldn’t help but allow of stressful sigh.

“I’ve fought many battles, but none are more difficult and frustrating than the war of attrition that is politics. It’ll be the death of me”

Solar could only agree with him in this regard. The irony was however, despite sharing a similar distain for the back-stabbing world of politics, it was his look it was the world he now found himself in, and relied upon.

“Tell me about it…” agreed Solar.

“No” immediately replied the Commander rather strongly, Solar not knowing if he purposely ignored the rhetorical nature of Solar’s statement or not.  “But what I can say, to you at least, is that I never expected the awful politics back home to follow me. You ponies sure do love your paperwork”

Again, Solar could only agree, but this time not with as much negativity.  The red tape of Equestria had been used to his advantage many a time before to further his dishonest regime.

“That’s what you get after centuries of peace. Nothing better to do then regulation after regulation”

But it again seemed Starvation wasn’t in the mood to further Solar’s points.

“That damn Victus Vane isn’t helping either. He brings only his family’s arrogance with him.”

Starvations words were filled with continued annoyance for Victus and Solar thought this a good chance as any to further investigate it.

The Commander’s eyes feel heavily upon Solar, a little disbelief in them.

“What you’re asking all boils down to asking about our politics instead. You sure that’s what you want?” he asked, obviously not taking much joy in talking about this subject.

“May as well hear about it once” Solar shrugged, hiding his excitement to learn of the Human world.

“Ugh” The Commander groaned, yet still accepting Solar’s answer. “Well in our country, Salutis, it’s a horrible mess of politics.  The structure of it all is basically this. Historically, we’ve had a central commander figure, a King if you want, but in recent years we haven’t, ever since the last one horrifically died in a pool of lava”

Solar’s attention pricked at this point, a visible change in appearance picked up on by the Commander.

“ugh, ask another time. As I was saying, without that central figure power resides in two sides. On one side, you have the council. A bunch of old, rotting, spineless pencil pushers the lot of them. True politicians. Kill ‘em all I say”

Oh wow, no icing on those words it seems

“They discuss things only, and are shit at that even. Why we still have them, I will never know. Yet on the other side isn’t something too much better. They are called the Collective. High ranking members of society from around our nation. Everyone from Military men to landowners to men of industry. If you’re important and have plenty of power, you’ll be part of the collective. That’s the group who sent us, specifically Lord Vanquisher or Victus mentioned the other day. He basically organised this entire thing.”

The Commander face then turned sour. “It’s also the group in which Victus’s father is a member of. Him and the rest of the miserable Vane family are, as much as I hate to admit it, pretty powerful. They command great wealth and influence, a good thing, were it not for the fact they are all arrogant, snide, smug and horribly sneaky, and they are all traits our Victus shares.

“Then why bring him?” asked Solar.

It wasn’t a question the Commander liked.

“It wasn’t my fucking choice! I may be in command of this mission but I didn’t have the fortune of organising it. I’m sure the boy’s daddy had a hand in ensuring his son got the second most valuable position here. I swear, if he could, fucking Victus would have already buried a knife in my back already, leaving the top job wide open for him”

Despite the Commanders visible anger and frustration here, such an intriguing fact fascinated Solar. Hatred and possible assassination was a sure way to make politics actually interesting. Though he was somewhat cautious about Victus’s intentions, such was his bitterness in being here.

“It’s all nothing like being in the field, is it? I myself I’m not too used to being here. Nope, it’s the dangerous life out there for me!” Solar proudly proclaimed. It was a true fact, but one used to charm the Commander, to further gain his favour. Something Solar knew would be invaluable in the future.

And it worked!

A simple smile and nod was all it took from the Commander for Solar to know he approved of the pony’s life attitude.

After a moment of an almost creepy look of approval from the Human, the Commander again spoke.

“I think you’re one of a kind, Solar Virtue”

It was an unexpected and oddly positive compliment, and coming from a high-ranking Human of all things, Solar felt practically giddy at this rarity. Was he the first pony to be openly complimented by a human? Truly historical.

“Don’t get too full of yourself now, or you’ll end up like the Vanes!” followed up the Commander, bringing Solar down to earth again. “From what I’ve seen so far, you ponies seem to be overly peaceful, soft and scared of tough decisions”

The Humans’ words were true, and Solar agreed with the entirely, yet he thought it at least appropriate to counter just a little.

“Perhaps that’s a good thing? Means we’ve had it good”

The Commander gave a hearty laugh at this, seemingly not at all impressed by this possibility.

“Damn right you’ve had it good! Back in our world there’s trouble around every corner. Society barely functions at all, and I can’t even tell you how many people have died within the last month even.”

The Human world sounded completely grim, and the more the Commander spoke of it, the more Solar was thankful he lived in a world of soft and monotonous ponies. They were easy to exploit at least.

“Eh, it’s not completely perfect. Its shiny and nice on the outside, but there’s defiantly some shady and dangerous spots here and there. Defiantly some bad areas and things about Equestria. A lot more dishonest ponies emerging these past few years too”

Yeah, namely me

Starvation only raised an eyebrow at this. Whether he believed it or not, Solar knew it made little difference. Equestria was a gentle and peaceful place on a whole, and Solar and his associates past activities did little to change that.

“Still, you ponies don’t seem to have what it truly takes to survive when it counts. You’ll need the help of a god the moment a war comes to you. “The Human quickly began to seem unimpressed at Equestria. Solar felt no loyalty to the place, but with representing Luna, and just being a pony, he felt the sudden urge to defend it in some way.

“Maybe, I can only speak from my own experiences, and those experiences have taught me Equestria can be downright hard and gritty if you know where to look. There are many bad ponies out there, ponies whom I’ve spent time and fought against.”

Solar felt a wave a weight overcome his mood, his past flashing before his eyes.

“I’ve seen…I’ve done things…things you can’t imagine. Things in which, if the Princesses knew, they’d throw me in a cell and throw away the key. We ponies seem remarkably like you, so you know what somepony can do if they are desperate, cruel or power hungry enough.”

The irony wasn’t lost on Solar at all. He would be counted among those ponies and was complaining about them now.

He felt something tug in his chest. Could it be guilt? Solar didn’t give himself a chance to find out.

“Even without the shitty, gritty and dirty underworld of Equestria, I’ve still bee, in situations that have been among the most difficult of my life. Life threatening, back breaking and defining moments requiring difficult decisions. “

Through his speech, the Commander had watched Solar intently. Despite his disapproval of Equestria as a whole, every time Solar now spoke of himself, he had received a look of somewhat appreciation and approval from the Human, and now wasn’t any different.

“Interesting. You get a shit ton of that back home, especially when you’re in the Military like me. Although my name was given for a reason most would despise, I’ve still had do shit I didn’t want to, things I wasn’t proud of doing.”

This was the first time Starvation was seeming to open up, to show what sort of individual he truly was, and the emotional and truthful face he now bore was studied fascinatedly by Solar.

“There are things in life no one would wish to do, and even if they did, they’d never be proud of them. But back home, the weak don’t survive, and even the strong ones who don’t do they shit they need to do get killed or fucked in life. The mark of any worthy individual, one who knows what it truly takes is the one who is willing to do anythi----“

“Anything to survive”

Solar completed the Commanders sentence for only one reason. Because they were the words he truly believed in.

The willingness to do whatever it took, no matter how dirty or dangerous it seemed, was the thing he had lived his entire life to. Not afraid of doing what should or shouldn’t be done, either for the greater good or the advance of his own fortunes.  That’s the difference between he and his fellow ponies. Like he saw earlier on the balcony, they lived their simple lives each day, not knowing what it took to make a difference.

Solar’s respect for Humanity, at of Commander Starvation, was born here.





This seemed to be a respect that was mutual also.

With a half-smile, gentle eyes, and a relaxed look, the Commander seemed at total ease with Solar. All sense of officiality or rank seemed to disappear in this moment, and in those few seconds, they weren’t two races trying to forge an even functional relationship, they were comrades in arms.

“Well well well…you continue to surprise me, Solar Virtue. I wonder if there are other Ponies like you” The Human said, allowing himself the almost vulnerability of opening up.

“Maybe there are. Maybe there aren’t. All I know is for as long as individuals like you and me, we may just very well be ok in life. If only ok”

Solar paused again for a moment, feeling triumphant in this moment.

Alas, it wasn’t a moment he could spend any more time in, Luna was still awaiting him.

“But anyway commander, I have a duty to fulfil to the Princess. Forgive me, but I must leave.”

“So be it, Pony. “and with that, he continued on his way, stopping quickly for one moment.

“I eagerly await the results of our two species relationship”

With a nod in which Solar was only too eager to return, the Commander left, allowing Solar to continue to make his way to Luna, feeling even further confident in his future.

Maybe life isn’t going to be too bad from here on.