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// The E.S.O. 
// Story: Autumn's Storm 
// by AeroDynamics 
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"The E.S.O? What’s that?" I asked, staring at the unicorn in front of me. “I know I’ve heard that from somewhere before…” my mind trailed off trying to remember. Was it when… nah. Oh well, I guess that it doesn’t really matter. I looked back forward and Shining Armor just sighed and sat down on the couch, looking over to me as I did the same.
“E.S.O stands for Equestrian Special Operations. We are the group that takes care of all the little problems that princess Celestia doesn’t really want everypony to know about.” He turned around to look at Alex and told him to go get the others. Getting up, he told me to follow him. I got up and started walking behind him. We walked into out of the room into a large hallway. I looked at the walls, which were decorated with pictures ranging from personal pictures of ponies that I never met, to those that I could recognize Shining Armor, Alex, and… Kage. I frowned when I saw her in those pictures, she looked so happy and…carefree? It seemed so off, compared to the Kage that tried to kill me just a couple hours ago. We continued walking until we came upon a large metal door, at which shining wrapped them in his magic, opened, and walked inside.
We walked inside and I gawked at the sheer size of the room, if it could even be called that. In the middle rested a large black tower that stood well over a hundred feet tall. The ceiling was at least double that, and the rocky walls stretched at least 500 feet across! I only stopped when I ran into him and fell to the floor. “Would you please fly me to the top of the tower? Unlike my sister, I can’t teleport” he said turning to face me. I nodded my head and jumped off the floor just enough to hover. I looked down at him and wrapped my hooves about his body. 
I lifted him off the floor and slowly started to make my way up to the top of the black tower. I pumped my wings to make up for the extra weight of another pony. We reached the top and I set my companion down, then set myself down beside him. He walked over to the edge, smiled, then told me to come over too. I made my way over and was surprised to see clouds floating around the sleek black monument we stood on, and above too. I peered over the edge and looked at one that just stay there, harmlessly floating around. I leaped off the edge and landed atop it, and quickly brought it back up to the top of the tower. Shining armor made a face, and I stuck out my tongue in return. I looked at him and asked “So… what are we waiting foOOOoooAAAAAAAA?” I yelped as I fell off the edge. I caught myself and flew back up to the top of the tower.
He looked straight forward and said “For the others to get here. I told Alex to get them, but he sure seems to be taking his time in getting them.” He frowned. Then, as if on cue, a group of ponies set foot on the roof across from us and started to walk over. We met them in the center, and I saw Alex and Kage, another earth pony, and a unicorn. Once again, they all had an AI for a cutie mark, but other than that, there were no similarities, except for their race. 
“Autumn, I would like you to meet the members of the E.S.O. You already know Alex and Kage” they both raised their hooves and said hi. He pointed to the earth pony. “This is Glory” he said as he pointed to the yellow earth pony next to Kage. 
“Nice to meet you Autumn” she said, with a bright smile on her face. “It’s always nice to see a new face”.
Shining Armor then pointed to the unicorn colt standing beside Alex. “This is Ratchet. Now, he may seem young, but he is the most gifted pony I’ve ever met when it comes to anything technology”.
The tiny little unicorn gave me a salute. “Ratchet, at your service” he said, a smirk on his face.
“You can all go back to whatever it was you were doing now”. He dismissed them and turned back to me. “I want you to spend a day with each of them so that so that you can get to know them better before you go on any missions with them.” He motioned and I hopped off my cloud and I once again picked him up and flew him back to the floor where I promptly set him down and hovered beside him as he walked back to the door. “The day is almost over, so I’ll take you to your room and you can start in the morning. I would start with Kage, she feels really bad for what she did to you”.
We came up to another door, which Shining Armor quickly magicked open and led me inside. It was bare, save for a bed and a dresser. The walls were plain blue like the sky. It wasn’t a very large room, probably only about 12 feet across, and there were a couple of mechanical devices on the walls that glowed far brighter than any candle ever could have. I threw a hoof in front of my eyes to shield them from the sudden brightness. “What are those?” I intoned, pleading for them to stop being so bright.
He walked over to a switch on the wall, flipped it, and the lights dimmed. “Sorry about that, we had the maids come in and clean up this room before you came.” He walked over to the bed and sat down, then fell through and hit the floor.
I burst into laughter and fell to the floor, at which point he started to laugh too. “Well, that’s obviously a cloud bed, since you can’t sit on it. He got up through the bed and I jumped into the air and fell onto it with a plop and rested my head against the very soft pillow. He looked at me with a look of that is so unfair. I grinned, sat back up and faced him.
“This is your room and you are free to decorate it however you like. There is also a neat little trick that you should see” he pulled a lever near the light switch, and a puff later, a cloud popped out of a hole in the ceiling. “Pull this lever if you ever want to remodel or something. I have the weather ponies around Canterlot bring some of the clouds here, so no worries about using too much. We resupply every day.” He pulled another smaller lever next to the first and I turned to see a huge hole open up in the wall and suck all the clouds from the room, including the one I was sitting on. I hit the floor with a THUMP and saw Shining grin as he shoved the lever back to its original position.
“I’ll have Kage come get you in the morning, so redecorate this room as you please, and try to get along with her tomorrow. She normally isn’t so… aggressive. Good night Autumn” he said as he started for the door.
My head hit the pillow… um, floor as I tried to flop back down on the bed that wasn’t there when it hit me. I yanked the door open and threw myself outside and I felt my face hit the wall across from the door. Shining armor turned around with a confused look on his face. I pointed my hoof at his face. “Wait, what makes you think that I want to join eso?”.
“E.S.O.” he corrected me.
“Whatever, what makes you think that I want to join the E.S.O anyways? I was just brought here randomly from my house in Ponyville! Kage just tried to kill me!” my voice faultered “I mean, she was stopped, but still, She tried to kill me. What would stop her from doing it again” I said.
“Yeah… I’m really sorry about that, she kinda has some anger issues. We wanted to sort that out before you came, but that didn’t happen. Look, I already told you how bad she feels about it. Just give her a chance. Oh, and as to why you would join the E.S.O.” he emphasized the E.S.O. part “Because of all the perks. Plus that you would be helping Equestria, All of equestria, from war. It’s a pretty important job. Just spend one day with each of them. If you’re not totally convinced to join after that, then I won’t make you stay.
“Fine… g’night Shining Armor.”
“Night Autumn” he said as he turned and continued walking down the hallway. I too turned and walked back into “My” room. I pulled the lever under the lights and a tuft of cloud came out of the ceiling. I flew up and grabbed it and brought it to the floor. I recreated the bed that was there when I first walked in, then noticed a door in the back of the room. I walked over and opened it, finding a bathroom. I walked over to the sink, brushed my teeth and closed the door behind me as I walked back out.
I pulled back the covers and crawled in for a good night’s sleep. I passed out before my head hit the pillow.