“Alright, so let me get this all straight,” Midnight said, looking around at the assembled group. Asli, General Ocax, Snow Bank, Orestes, Shade, Marina, and Sapphire, as well as all the members of the Bearer guard currently not asleep, were gathered in the first floor dining room of the inn just before noon. All of the nocturnal creatures were tired from being awoken but knew this was important and had gotten awake quickly.
“Because I’m from the Storm Clan and can turn into a wyvern, the Turka Rookery wants to pledge allegiance to myself and the Storm Clan and is not only willing to leave their ancestral home to follow me back to Ponyville but is also willing to do anything to stay in my good graces. Correct so far?”
“Yes, we pledge,” Asli said, accompanied by a noise of ascent from her father.
“And there’s no way to persuade you all otherwise?” Midnight asked.
“We have been long time with no wyverns to follow,” Asli said, her voice begging. “We do what you ask and help as we can. We pledge this.”
Midnight let out a long sigh and Sapphire patted her hoof. “It’s not ideal but it might only be for a little while, at least until you see the clan,” she offered.
“So no getting out of having a huge flock of owl harpies following me home. Fine, I’ll take you under my wing,” Midnight told them. “And the FIRST thing you ALL are going to do,” she followed up with quickly, interrupting Asli’s and Ocax’s happy noises, “is learn the common tongue so everyone can communicate properly. Once that’s done we can see what the next step will be.”
“Some join guard?” Asli asked, an eager look in her eye. “Some wish to learn to fight, learn to protect ourselves better!”
“One step at a time,” Midnight told her, then turned her attention to Snow. “And you are here because my grandfather sent you to find me, right?”
Snow nodded excitedly. “Yep! I even have a note from him and the picture he gave me to recognize you!” She dug around in her pouch and pulled out three items. First was obviously the note, the next was an old picture, and the third was a crumpled newspaper clipping.
Midnight first inspected the note, a scroll, really, and it indeed said for Snow to go south into Equestria to look for his granddaughter and to start the search in Manehattan as that was the place her father had left her and her mother. It seemed legit enough and the picture helped with that a lot. It was a picture of her when she was barely two, smiling and reaching up for the camera. A taloned foot could just be seen in the corner.
“Aw,” Sapphire said, leaning in to look at it, “you were so cute back then!”
Several guards tried to look as well but Midnight put it face down on the table. “I can just remember my dad taking a picture of me before he left, so this checks out. Did my grandfather say why he wanted to see me now? What about my dad? Why didn’t he send for me to come north?”
“The Patriarch just said it was time to meet you,” Snow said, not looking Midnight in the eye again. “As for Windstorm… I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Why can’t you talk about my dad?” Midnight pressed, “What’s going on?”
“I just don’t want to,” Snow said, still not looking her in the eyes.
Midnight studied the white owl harpy as her friends eyed her with confusion. She really couldn’t imagine her father doing anything to warrant such a reaction but then she remembered what she’d been told about how the other races saw the wyverns. Maybe they’d found something in another group’s favor that hurt her rookery and she blamed her father for it or he’d taken some kind of action against her rookery. She wanted to press Snow but could see that it wouldn’t get her far. “You’re not going to elaborate, are you?”
“Nope.”
“You know how suspicious that sounds, right?”
“Yep.”
“I’m going to find out either way what’s going on if I go north, right?” Midnight asked. Snow just nodded and stuck a candy cane in her mouth. Midnight nodded with a sigh and picked up the newspaper clipping.
“We found that in Manehattan,” Orestes said. “We used it to figure out you were in a town out west.”
Midnight merely stared down at the photo of her and her guard at the wedding, her only outward reaction being a blink.
Scarlet leaned over and nudged her with an elbow. “Wanna bet another wyvern clan finds you with this one?”
“Well, there’s no way I’m not heading north,” Midnight finally said, putting down the clipping and pointedly ignoring Scarlet. “But there are things I have to take care of first. As Captain of the Bearer Guard, I have a duty and responsibilities to protect Equestria’s greatest defenders. I trust my officers but we need a game plan first. Second of all,” here she looked at Sapphire, “I have family here in Equestria that I can’t, and won’t, just up and abandon for who knows how long to just visit on my grandfather’s whim.”
Now Snow looked back at her with interest. “You have family besides your mom?”
“Yes. Besides her there’s my baby half-sister, then my daughter, and my marefriend, not to mention those close enough that I consider family. It’s not just working responsibilities, but familial ones I need to sort out, too.” Snow’s ears flicked up and down in thought and once again Midnight couldn’t help but stare at them. She stopped when she felt Sapphire poke her in the side. “Anyway, that’s where things stand, so it’s going to take some time before we can go.”
There was a small cough behind her and Midnight turned to find Night Sky standing there, a note in her hoof. She’d been one of the last to get to bed and Midnight felt bad for just dropping responsibility on her to go to sleep herself but she really had thought about things rather than just going to sleep, her racing mind only allowing her to doze. “I’m sorry ma’am but,” here she cut herself off to hide a massive yawn, “it might take a bit longer than you think.”
“Ponyville,” Midnight said, letting out a long-suffering sigh as she took the note.
“It’s not an emergency, per se, but if you’re planning to head back soon it’s something you should know. There’s been no change since this morning,” Night told her.
Midnight read the note, then passed it off to Sapphire and gently let her head flop down on the table. “I don’t know which is worse,” she groaned, “someone attacking the town or leaving them to their own devices.”
Sapphire let out a sigh of her own. “If I tell you Celestia was involved, are you going to say something nasty to her the next time you see her?” When Midnight looked up, the pegasus pointed out the part where Twilight had gotten the spell from a book the princess had sent.
“Yes, Sapphire, I most likely am,” Midnight told her, not even in the mood to try and make it snarky. “I’ll even slander her now and put bits on her sending Twilight the book because I was gone.”
“From what you told me that Luna told you, I wouldn’t be surprised either. Can you at least promise me you won’t go charging into Ponyville like a rabid bull?”
“I promise not to be rabid,” Midnight said and Sapphire rolled her eyes.
“Now I’m really interested to see how your daily life is like,” Snow said, “and to meet the rest of your family!”
“Let’s get everyone up and ready,” Midnight told Sky, “everyone can sleep on the train. We’ll need it before walking into this.”
-----------------------------
“We, uh, we can call this an emergency now, right?” Blackberry said as they all looked at the mark in the floor. Just a minute before, Twilight Sparkle had been standing there, properly finishing the spell that had set everything off that morning. She’d figured out how to help her friends after nearly giving up and had spent the afternoon getting them to do the things their real cutie marks symbolized and, one by one, they’d become their old selves again. Putting their Elements on seemed to help them finally reach this epiphany. Once they had, Twilight seemed to have an epiphany of her own and they’d all returned to the library where she’d proceeded to redo the spell properly before the guards could stop her. The other Elements had all shot colored beams at Twilight, who’d been engulfed in a spinning ball of light, then disappeared in a flash, leaving behind a scorch mark on the floor where she’d been standing. It was oddly shaped like her cutie mark but the present guards and other bearers were slowly panicking too much to really notice that.
“The captain’s going to have our hides for this,” Mane said. “Damn it! I should have tackled her before she did it!”
“You could have messed up the spell if you interrupted it, sir,” Corporal Rock Bottom told him. “Better to let her finish and deal with a predictable outcome. Interrupted spells can do things you don’t expect.”
“So do spells that you have no idea what they do in the first place,” Hazelnut said.
“Twilight thinks faster than Rainbow can fly,” Spike said, “half the time even I don’t know what she’s about to do until she does it.”
“So, what do we do now?” Spine asked and the remaining bearers all looked at them.
“Spike should send a letter to the princesses,” Windrunner said, “they sent her the book in the first place. All we can do now is wait for them or Midnight to get back.”
Spike did just that and they all filed out of the library into the darkening streets. Midnight’s train along with Shoal should be arriving any minute now and the princesses had a track record of responding to Spike quickly. In fact, Windrunner could swear she could hear the train pulling in when there was a flash of light in the sky over the library. Shielding their eyes, everyone looked up to see Twilight’s cutie mark hanging above them, glowing like a star on top of a Hearth’s Warming tree. The cutie mark descended, landing between them and the library, then flashed again, disappearing and revealing a certain purple someone.
“Twilight? Is that you?” AJ asked, astonished.
Indeed it was Twilight and for the briefest second all the guards breathed a sigh of relief. They all stopped and went wide-eyed when the unicorn stood up and opened her wings.
“Ah… Ah’ve never seen anthin’ like it!” AJ said, still amazed.
“Ha! Twilight’s got wings!” Rainbow cheered. “Awesome! A new flying buddy!”
“Wait, she’s got wings but still has a horn?” Blackberry said. “But, wouldn’t that make her-?”
“An alicorn!” Rarity gushed. “I didn’t even know that was possible, darling!”
“You look just like a princess now, Twilight!” Fluttershy said, meekly touching the unicorn’s new wings.
“Do you know what this means!?” Pinkie yelled. When they all looked at her blankly she yelled “ALICORN PARTY!!”
“Can we take this one step at a time?” Windrunner said. “Twilight, what happened?”
Before Twilight could answer there was another flash of light and Princess Celestia appeared. “What happened, First Lieutenant, is that Twilight has reached her full potential as a unicorn and has ascended. Fluttershy is partly right, but the rank of princess is-”
“ARE YOU BUCKING KIDDING ME!?”
Everyone jumped and spun to see the recently arrived Midnight, Sapphire, and guards, who had booked it from the station the minute it pulled in. She was looking between Twilight, Celestia, her guards, the other bearers, and back towards the station, where they could see Shoal and a veritable cloud of strange ponies coming towards them. “I’m only gone for… I’ve had to deal with all THAT…” she motioned to the flock coming towards them, “then I hear about them,” she motioned towards the bearers, “and now there’s THIS!?” She motioned towards Twilight.
“Midnight, we figured something weird was going on, just take deep breathes,” Sapphire said, attempting to hold her and pat her with a wing.
There was another flash of light and Luna teleported onto the scene. She first looked at Twilight and the bearers, then the swearing Midnight, then at the flock of owl harpies now hovering above them, then finally at her sister. “Thou really couldn’t have waited a few days to send the book, could thee?” she asked, eyes tabled.
-----------------------------
“Are you calm?”
“Yes ma’am.”
“Are you going to yell or attack anyone in there?”
“No ma’am.”
“Are you lying in order to have a chance to bite Princess Celestia?”
“I’ll have a better chance when she thinks this has all blown over.”
Sapphire sighed and rolled her eyes. “At least you’re honest.”
“I try,” Midnight said.
It was the day after Twilight had become an alicorn and they’d gotten back to Ponyville. Once the two princesses had gotten everyone calmed down (mainly Twilight and Midnight) and understood the scope of all that was happening, they invited everyone involved to Canterlot Castle to stay the night and they’d hold one big meeting in the throne room to get it all sorted out. Midnight had spent the previous evening and night calming down by venting to herself in another room, eating all the sapphires she could order, and getting a full night’s sleep with Sapphire tucked under her wing. When she’d woken up she felt a lot calmer but the weight of everything that had and was about to happen still weighed on her. Sapphire was great at helping talking to her to keep a cool head and get everything organized before they went to wait outside the throne room. The princesses already had the reports from Midnight and both lieutenants so they knew what had transpired in Hollow Shades and would be up to speed with almost everything.
Snow and her companions were also brought up to the castle when the princesses had been told they brought word from the Storm Clan. Midnight assured them that the alicorns were just eager to hear from their old friend. Snow in particular looked nervous and she wondered what the harpy’s deal was. Shoal had taken charge of the Turka Rookery back in Ponyville and had explained to them that Midnight had to go up to Canterlot for a day or two but would return and help them get integrated properly into the town. Until then they’d be staying with her out in the relatively safe Everfree Forest. Midnight had told them to stay close to the edge of the forest and even roost on some of the houses if it made them feel safer while she was gone. She didn’t think the town would get too worked up, not with the majority of Bearer guard still in town to let ponies know the situation and them sleeping out in broad daylight. Asli had insisted on coming along, pointing out that whatever affected Midnight would affect her rookery as well, so she was standing there with them.
As they were in Canterlot, only a few of the Bearer guard needed to be there to watch the six bearers. The Solar and Lunar guard, as well as the secret service, would keep an eye on them with the few who were there while the rest would keep their homes and families safe. Right now that contingent was Midnight, Windrunner, Blackberry, Scarlet, Long Spine, and Umbra Shroud. Sapphire’s main roll was keep Midnight calm until the meeting started.
They were in the waiting room as well keeping an eye on the bearers as they talked. Twilight seemed calm enough, talking to her friends like she normally did, but any time the word “princess” was brought up in reference to herself, the purple once-unicorn seemed to get nervous. Midnight would have thought that becoming royalty would have been a dream come true for someone who studied under Princess Celestia for most of her life. Then she remembered how she felt about the idea of “ruling” over the Turka Rookery, how Honey felt about being the queen of her own hive, and all the normal stuff she herself had to deal with on a normal day running the Bearer guard, and she realized that Twilight knew exactly what being a leader entailed and it terrified the poor girl. How could it not, though? She was a student and a librarian before this and leading her friends in certain situations was completely different.
“How do you think this is going to change the guard?” Sapphire asked, following her gaze.
“Honestly? I have no idea,” Midnight admitted. “As a princess, she’ll need her own guard, however she’s still a bearer, so she still falls under our protection. That idea of splitting the Bearer guard into six different guards might be how we go forward. I feel sorry for whoever has to be in Pinkie’s.”
The door to the throne room opened and a Solar guard announced the princesses would see them now. As they proceeded inside, Midnight noticed that both she and Twilight were at the head of two different lines. Behind Twilight were the rest of the bearers, who seemed to be giving her space because of her new title and looked like a bunch of petitioners whom she saw following around the other princesses before. Sapphire was walking, as best she could with three good legs and the fourth still wrapped up, beside Midnight while Snow, Orestes, Shade, Marina, and Asli were behind them, looking as nervous as Twilight and her friends. Bringing up the rear behind both were the other five Bearer guards.
Celestia was on the throne with Luna standing beside her and both watched their approach with kind eyes. “Well met, everyone,” Celestia announced when they came to a halt near the bottom of the throne. She nodded at Midnight first. “Princess Luna and I have reviewed the reports and I can confidently say we are glad that you went out there yourself, Captain Storm. We know that you have excellent officers but neither they nor any of ours would have been able to achieve the results you were able to. You have our deepest gratitude.”
Midnight nodded. “Thank you, your highnesses.”
“As most of what we need to discuss here today revolves around yourself and those you’ve brought with you, I would like to address the other concern in the room first.” She turned to Twilight and the newest alicorn stood up straight. “Twilight, while you have made me so proud I almost can’t put it into words, I feel there is something everyone is assuming, yourself included, that I must address and that is that you are not a princess. Not yet, anyway.”
Twilight looked visibly relieved but still had a frown on her face. “Did I do something wrong?” she asked. The other bearers made distressed and confused noises as well and even Sapphire looked confused.
“But she’s an alicorn, isn’t she? Doesn’t that automatically make her a princess?” Dash asked.
Celestia shook her head. “While it is an understandable assumption to make, given the precedent of my sister and I and Princess Cadance, being an alicorn does not give one the right to rule. That was the whole reason behind Discord going down the path of evil in the first place. My sister and I were given the title of princess when we defeated Discord and there was no-one higher in rank than us when the fighting was over. Cadance’s rank was more of an honorific until the Crystal Empire returned. Her family is the last to have ties to the old ruling families that were overthrown by Sombra. If we bestow the title on her at all, it will be an honorific like Cadance’s originally was.”
“That kinda makes sense, thinkin’ back to how the Hearth’s Warmin’ tale goes,” AJ said.
“Speaking of Discord,” Midnight spoke up, “I’m surprised he isn’t here. I’d think a new alicorn would be cause for at least a little chaos.”
“Once he knew of our sister’s plans, he angrily stormed off to spend time in Las Pegasus,” Luna informed them. “He was not thrilled with a descendent of Steel Spark being allowed to wield such magical power.”
“He’ll come around,” Celestia said, though she didn’t look like she believed her own words. “Either way, we have a different title in mind for you, Twilight, and hope your friends will accept it as well.” Ignoring the confused faces of the bearers, she turned her attention back to Midnight. “To begin with, we already have specialists working on studying the “strange beasts” you brought back from Hollow Shades. Once we’ve learned ways of deterring them that don’t include skyscraper-sized dragons and burning half the forest down, we’ll implement them immediately to keep Hollow Shades safe. Until then, a guard presence will be sent to supplement Chief Night Stick’s police force and there will be a ban on extending the town or building any farms."
“Next, about the owl harpies thou brought back,” Luna said. “While they have not been known to us, they are still citizen of Equestria and enjoy all that entails. However, we also know the bonds between certain races and the wyverns. While it is another burden, we ask that you indulge the Turka Rookery for the foreseeable future.”
Midnight sighed but nodded. “Asli’s asked if some of them can join the Bearer guard. In all honesty I don’t really mind and it’ll make night patrol easier on the few thestrals we have, however if they simply join up with the Storm Clan when I’m finally able to see them, then we’d be back in the same position so I don’t see much of a point.”
Asli, who’d been listening to Orestes translate this entire time, drooped at this.
The alicorns shared a look. “I think you will find them more loyal than that, Midnight,” Celestia told her. “I would say let them join and let them prove that themselves.”
“I will then,” the kirin said and behind her Asli perked back up.
“As for these messengers,” Luna said, “step forward please. We would speak to thee about thine mission.”
Snow looked nervously up at them, then looked to Midnight as if she was a life line. When the kirin motioned for her and the others to step forward, she reluctantly did so.
“Do not be afraid, my little creatures; you are among friends here,” Celestia assured them.
“We merely wish to confirm that thou are indeed from the Storm Clan. Captain Storm reported thou had a letter and a photograph?” Luna added.
Nervously, Snow reached into her pouch and procured both the scroll and photo. Luna’s magic enveloped both.
“I-I don’t think you need-!” Midnight started, trying to grab the picture but it flew past her and up to the princesses. She winced as they both looked at it.
“Aw, Midnight; you were so cute as a foal!” Celestia said and the kirin growled unhappily and muttered under her breath.
“It has been some time, but I am sure this is Firestorm’s claw-writing. Do you not think so, sister?” Luna said, exchanging the letter for the photo.
“It certainly looks like it,” Celestia agreed. “And you can confirm the photo is genuine, Midnight?”
“Yes, I can,” the kirin growled, ignoring the wing Sapphire hit her with.
“Then I believe that there’s no doubt that Snow Bank is telling the truth,” Celestia announced, returning the items to the owl harpy. “How is Patriarch Firestorm, by the way? He was a good friend of ours when the clan was still in Equestria and we’ve both missed him and others dearly.”
“The Patriarch is doing fine, as far as I can tell,” Snow said. “He doesn’t talk much about the past, though.”
The sisters both nodded. They could understand wanting to leave certain things in the past buried and leaving healed scars alone. Celestia turned to Midnight. “Our next question then is what do you plan to do, Captain Storm?”
Midnight stood straight again. “I wanted to arrange things here for an extended absence. While Twilight not being crowned a princess makes things less complicated for the moment, I can only assume the trip to and from the clan will take some time, not to mention I don’t know how long I’ll be there for. I’ll try to get back as quick as I can, but…” she trailed off, looking at Sapphire with a sad expression. With the pegasus injured as she was there would be no way the kirin could take her with her, meaning she and Squeaks would be home alone without her again and that stung them both.
Both alicorns looked at each other again and smiled. “Thankfully, Captain, there will be no need for such measures,” Luna told them.
They all looked up at them in surprise. “But, your highnesses, what do you mean? The bearers…” Midnight said, waving a hoof at the six of them as if they hadn’t been noticed.
“We are aware,” Celestia assured her. “From the moment we met, Midnight, I had a feeling things would come to this, so I’ve made certain preparations for it.” She turned to the bearers. “Twilight Sparkle, though you will not be given the title of princess, we would instead grant you the title of Plenipotentiary and have you and your friends serve as ambassadors from Equestria to the Storm Clan. As the six of you will be going, should you accept, that will mean the entirety of the Bearer Guard will be going as well, negating any need to split their forces. Will you accept this mission?”
The throne room was dead quiet.
“That. Is. AWESOME!” Dash yelled, doing a loop in the air. “It’s almost like a going on a real Daring Do adventure! Daring Do and the Lost Wyvern Clan! We’ll be famous!”
“Slow your roll there, partner,” AJ said, then turned to Celestia. “We’d all love to go yer highness an’ help Twilight and Midnight, but we all have jobs and families that we can’t leave either. How will the farm get along without me?”
“That’s true,” Rarity added, “I have several orders to fill.”
“And I can’t leave some of my animals right now,” Fluttershy said.
Midnight sighed. She knew what the princesses had offered would be too good to be true. And even if they’d all agreed right there, how were they supposed to all get up north, anyway? Traveling by hoof and keeping everyone together would be a nightmare of logistics .
“If thou would “hear us out”,” Luna said, “we would like to offer a bribe of sorts.”
That caught everyone’s attention.
“First, you will all be paid for your work as ambassadors, so there should be no loss of income for any of you,” Celestia started. “Applejack, we are prepared to hire for you twenty new workers to work the Apple farm in you absence, to be trained by you before you leave so that you know the farm is being taken care of properly.”
“That’s mighty generous of ya’ll, princess, but I’m still a might uneasy about leaving the farm ta anyone other than an Apple. Can I talk with mah folks first?”
Celestia nodded. “Rainbow Dash, we will send a letter to the Ponyville weather team excusing your absence.”
“Alright!” Dash said, doing a little dance.
“Pinkie Pie, we are prepared to compensate the Cakes for whatever loss of business your absence will cause.”
“If you’re giving us all a week to get ready, I can smooth things over with the Cakes easy-peasy,” Pinkie assured her. “I can also do all the parties I’ll miss ahead of time!”
Celestia smiled and turned to Twilight. “We can send someone from the royal library to look after the Ponyville library until you return.”
Twilight nodded thankfully.
“Now, as for Rarity and Fluttershy,” Celestia said, “what if I said there was a way that you could both work on your trip and take care of your animals? Would you agree to it then?”
“I suppose…” Rarity said, “but how am I suppose to take my whole boutique with me?”
“If I could take them that would be fine but how?” Fluttershy asked.
Celestia smiled. “There is a project that has been in the works for some time now. Shoal nearly ran across it when she came to Canterlot Mountain looking for you,” she told Midnight. “We’ve retooled it from its original purpose and, by fortune, it is almost complete. If you will follow us, we can explain.”
Stepping down from the throne, Celestia and Luna made for a side door out of the throne room. Everyone looked at each other, gave some variation of a shrug, then followed them. They quickly began descending through the castle, taking paths and stairs that even Twilight hadn’t seen before. Midnight started wondering if the sisters were leading them down into the crystal caves under the castle. They did, sort of, though the passage ways they went through were more recently cut and well maintained. “Where are we going, exactly?” Midnight asked as they went through yet another doorway.
“Originally this project was meant for myself,” Celestia said. “When Cadance took over ambassador duties, I began having it remodeled for her use. However, she liked to travel by train; said it helped make her seem more down to earth to those she met with, so it was going to go back to use for myself and Luna.” She smiled down at the kirin. “Then you came along and I had the perfect use for it.”
“And that would be?” Midnight asked. They all could now hear the sound of working and machinery up ahead. It sounded like a lot of work was being done in a large, open section of cave.
Celestia and Luna stopped by a large set of double doors where the noise seemed to be coming from. “For this,” Celestia told them, using her magic to swing open the doors and motioned for them all to go through.
Ears flattened against the noise, they went through this last doorway, which opened up onto a balcony of sorts.
Their jaws all dropped.
“For the royal airship Return of Harmony!” Celestia announced, her foreleg sweeping towards the largest airship any of them had ever seen. Midnight guessed it was even bigger than Shoal, if it could be believed, with enough length and decks that they could all move their entire houses into it and still have room for a few more. Ship builders and what they presumed to be sailors crawled all over it, inspecting parts and installing things and testing out machinery. The air sacks that would lift it were missing but the spares that would attach the ship to them were there and on the rear of the ship were three huge propellers. Just the size of it alone certainly made it seemed fit for royalty.
“Rarity, we can provide you with extra large dragon fire lighters that will send large packages to us to ship out on your behalf,” Celestia said with a raised voice to be heard over the tumult of work. “And Fluttershy, your animals will have plenty of room to move about in one of the cargo bays and can easily be brought up on deck for fresh air!”
“Oh my! Traveling on a royal airship!? That’s such an honor! And I can certainly bring enough materials to get my work done!” The white unicorn gasped. “Why I could even come up with a whole new line of nautical designs! I could take the next summer season by storm!”
“I guess there’d be enough space,” Fluttershy said, “and I know some of them would like a ride in a royal airship.”
“I can have one of the animal caretakers from the castle look after any that want to stay behind,” Celestia assured her.
Midnight was just amazed at what she was seeing. Celestia really had been preparing for a day like today, when the Storm Clan, and one of her closest friends, was found again. There wasn’t just enough room for the bearers and her to move in; there was enough room to garrison the entire Bearer guard, sans Shoal of course, and a shipboard crew besides with rooms to spare. This also solved practically every logistics problem she’d thought of, especially after Celestia had said she wanted all the bearers to go in this trip.
“Kinda hard ta say “no” after bein’ shown this,” AJ said, looking sheepish.
“I don’t know how any of you can say no!” Rainbow yelled, doing another loop in midair. “This just keeps getting more awesomer!”
‘This is really happening,’ Midnight thought as she watched the bearers tell the princesses they’d agree to her terms. ‘After all this time, I’m really going… I’m going to find…’ She looked at Sapphire, who had laid a wing on her and she realized her cheeks were wet. “I’m gonna find him,” she told her, “I’m finally going to find him.”
“We’re going to find him,” Sapphire corrected.
Midnight felt another wing on her shoulder and she turned to find Celestia looking down at her. “Does this all work for you, Captain Storm?” she asked.
“It does indeed, your highness,” Midnight told her, “and thank you. Thank you so much.”
“No, Midnight, thank you. And when you find your father and Firestorm, tell them how much Equestria, we, miss them.”
“I will Celestia,” she said, turning back to look at Return of Harmony. “I’ll tell them everything.”