//------------------------------// // Onward to Ponyville // Story: Night Day Harmony // by Bass Blitz //------------------------------// //:Onward to Ponyville ‘Huh where am I and how did I get here?’ Shine thought to himself. He had finished his patrolling in Canterlot, but had nothing to do afterwards so he headed back to the barracks in order to pack for his vacation with Derpy and Sugar Bliss. After everything was packed and ready to go his eyes felt heavy from exhaustion so he thought he would catch some sleep, he found himself here. Shine took a look around to get familiar with his surroundings. Shining Steel found himself in the middle of a forest, not a bit of light coming through the canopy. “This place seems familiar,” Shine said to himself whilst he strolled through the forest. Something out in the distance caught his attention. As he approached the clearing his eyes widened in shock and just a small bit of fear. Sitting in the middle of the clearing was a wooden fortress. Shine stood there, contemplating wether this could be real or not. 5 minutes passed with Shine standing in disbelief until the front gates started to creak open. Shine reacted to this and galloped behind a tree to hide so he could see what came out without being seen himself. None too soon, he ran behind the tree, two shadow forms walked out of the wooden fortress. One looked to be a Pegasus while the other a unicorn Shine continued to watch them walk away from the fort Shine before hearing some growling and judging from the couple they did too Shine turned his attention back to the gates what Shining Steel saw made his heart stop, for from the gates emerge four timber wolves. And as soon the couple saw the timber wolves they started to run towards the trees but they weren’t fast enough to out run the timber wolves Shine quickly looked away as he heard the screams of the couple been ripped to pieces by the wolves. He noticed that another timber wolf started to approach him from the bushes but stopped as it was right in front of Shine who was starting to shake with fear. The timber wolf then got ready to pounce in which caused Shining Steel to get into a defensive stance. “Time to wake Shine.” Growled the timber wolf which caused Shine to lower his stance in shock. “W-what?” He stammered but before he could say anything else the wolf pounced onto him whilst starting to rip him apart. “Gaaaaah” Shine quickly shot up whilst hitting his head on something hard and wrenched at the pain despite him wearing his gear as the pain slowly started to disappear he noticed that he was sweating all over which made him remember that it was just a dream. “What the hay was that all about?” He said to himself then he quickly checked the blankets for anything but sighed in relief as he found nothing. “Well at least I didn’t wet the bed this time.” But then wrenched in pain as his head started to hurt again. “Ow what the hay did I hit my head on.” He whined but then Shine heard a slight moan to his left when he found the source of the sound his heart nearly stopped for their laying on the ground was Derpy. After a few seconds had past Shining Steel finally snapped back to himself. “Oh crap Derpy are you ok?” Shine ask worriedly, whilst getting out of his bed. He failed as his hooves got caught in the blanket luckily he manage to stop himself from landing directly on top of Derpy. He couldn’t help but blush about how cute Derpy looks when she is at peace despite the fact that he was the reason that she was in this state but he still continued to stare until he heard a knock on the door followed by it opening. “Derpy have you woken Shining Steel yet because if you don’t hurry up we will miss the trai… oh my.” The moment Sugar Bliss walked in was the moment she wished she hadn’t her cheeks grew a shade of red and she quickly galloped out of the room whilst slamming the door shut behind her leaving a rather confused Pegasus in thought in what the hay just happened, he looked back to Derpy who was still in her unconscious state and then it hit him he looked at the position he was in then looked back to Derpy. POOFH He looked to where Sugar Bliss was a moment with his face as red as a tomato “Oh hay no!.” He yelled out loud. One hour and twenty-three minutes later Derpy finally regained consciousness but as she stood up she noticed Shining Steel sitting next to her looking worried and embarrast at the same time. But she frowned as she recalled what happened. “Celestia, damit Shine don’t wear you armour to bed.” She whined whilst rubbing her head, but before she could say anything else she was interrupted by Sugar Bliss calling out from behind the door. “If you two have finishes your fun time can we go now? We have only a seven minutes left before the train leaves” Derpy’s eye’s widened in confusion just as Shine’s face reddened Derpy turned back to Shinning Steel. “Are you all set to go Shine” She asked. Shine nodded but before he could grab his saddle bag and walk out the door he was stopped by Derpy who jumped right in front of him staring at him. “Is there something wrong.” Shine asked but Derpy gave him a stern look. “Just to remind you what we’re doing, we are going to Ponyville for a visit not on duty so what I want you to do right now before we head off is remove your armour for I’m pretty sure that you won’t be needing it” Before Shine could complain, he quickly thought that it would be best if he allowed her to win this one after all they didn’t have much time left before the train departed. Before he started to remove his armour he took note that Derpy was still watching him, which to him felt really awkward. “Umm Derpy if it’s not too much to, ask but could you please look the other way while I remove my armour it just that I don’t feel comfortable with somepony watching me as I undress.” He asked out of slight embarrassment. Derpy rolled her eyes whilst turning the other way to give Shining Steel his privacy, but she couldn’t help but smirk as she noticed that there was a mirror in the direction that she was looking. The first thing Shining Steel removed was his helmet which caused his mane to change from blue to a banana colour. The length of his mane was rather short but it didn’t change the fact that Derpy was finding it interesting to see what Shine really looked like. The final step was to slowly remove his body armour. Whilst doing so, Derpy’s heart started to race for in a few seconds she would see the real Shining Steel. As the body armour was placed on the ground nothing happened. Shining Steel’s coat remand white which in return started to confuse Derpy. “Err Shine didn’t I tell you to remove all of your gear?” In which it was Shining Steel’s turn to be confused. What was she talking about? and how the hay did she know that he had remove them but, that second thought was quickly answered when he saw the mirror. “Hey I told you not to watch” He said in an annoyed tone but Derpy didn’t reply at first for she was too busy chuckling at Shine’s reaction. “Not my fault, somepony put a mirror in the way.” Shine just grunted in response “Anyway moving back to my first question I thought I told you to remove all of you gear” Derpy asked again whilst turning around to get a better look at Shine but Shining Steel raised an brow to her question. “Umm Derpy in case you haven’t noticed that I have already removed my gear” He replied with a slight grin appearing on his face. “Wait, so your coat really is white?” Asked Derpy Shine nodded in agreement. Before the conversion could continue the door opened and in walked an annoyed Sugar Bliss “We have now missed the train.” 45 minutes later at the train station…. Finally “Look Sugar Bliss I’m very sorry that we weren’t able to leave on schedule but I didn’t know that time would go so quickly”, apologized Derpy, Sugar Bliss facehoofed in annoyance. “Ahh Derpy for the twentieth time I said that I forgive you and besides I’m not really the one that you should be apologizing to” Derpy took breath of relief only to became curious on what she meant by that. “Ok then who should I be apologizing to?” Sugar Bliss look at Derpy with a worried expression but still answered her question in a low voice almost like a whisper. “The one that you have to apologize to is my friend who will be now at Ponyville train station expecting us to be on the early train that I mentioned in the letter and I will tell you this now, she will not be happy to find that it turned out that weren’t on that train”. Derpy nodded her head slowly in understand but giving it some though she realized that Sugar Bliss never really told them about her friend whom they were expecting to meet in Ponyville. “Say would you mind explaining this friend of yours for I’m rather curious about her?” Sugar Bliss recoiled to Derpy’s question obviously not expecting that question to come so soon. She took a moment to think about it but then she realized that they were missing something or to be correct somepony. “Umm Derpy before we start talking about my friend where is yours?” Sugar Bliss asked. “Errr Bliss I think we might of left Shining Steel waiting for us at the public toilets” Sugar Bliss looked at her in confusion so Derpy continued. “Well you see when we told him to wait for us at the entrance and I kind of forgot that there was a back entrance so in short we left Shining Steel waiting for us at the front entrance while we went out the back”. Sugar Bliss soaked in the info and thought for a minute, soon she started to chuckle “So how long do you think he has been waiting for us?” asked Sugar Bliss while trying hard not to laugh. Derpy thought for a few minutes then grinned. “If I’m correct he has been waiting for us for forty minutes.” The moment Derpy finished her sentence Sugar Bliss couldn’t suppress her laughter any longer which was soon followed by Derpy joining in. After the two had their moment they both decided that it would be best to go and see how Shine was going. Eight minutes away from the train station Shining Steel was on the brink of losing it. He continued to pace around in a circle while still waiting for the mares to finish their business. “Oh for Celestia’s sake what the hay is taking them so long? it feels like I’ve been waiting here for forty minutes” He mumbled but stopped to have a quick think “That’s because I have been waiting here for forty minutes” He sighed, he looked at the toilets then he looked both ways and saw nopony out in the streets he looked back to the toilets he took a deep breath and slowly approached the toilets. When he was in front of the two doors of either gender he took one last look around but still seeing nothing he entered the mare’s toilets. Derpy and Sugar Bliss: After a few minutes of walking had past of total silence Sugar Bliss thought it was time for a conversation while they were going to re-join their missing companion. “So Derpy how long have you known Shining Steel for?” At first there was no response but in the end Derpy faced Sugar Bliss. “Oh I never really met Shine till he graduated and became assigned to my platoon so I’ve only really known Shine for about one and a half mouths” “Ok then but what was he like back then?” “Oh well from what I’ve heard from the officers that trained him he hasn’t really changed much since then but they did say that he used to be very distant to everypony for some strange reason I guess it has something to do what happened to him in the past.” “Really what happened to him?” Sugar Bliss asked with great interest but took notice that Derpy’s head sank low. “I’m afraid I’m not sure whenever I ask about it he always tends to snap or try to change the subject…. Or both (sigh). The only thing I’ve learned is that he was born in the Everfree forest” When Derpy turned to face Sugar Bliss she saw that she was no longer walking beside her but had stopped completely behind her, walking up to the frozen mare in confusion, Derpy shook her slightly which brought her back to realistic. “Are you alright Sugar Bliss?” Derpy ask worriedly. “Huh oh um y-yes sorry for a moment there I thought you said that Shining Steel was born in the Everfree forest, but that can’t be true for nopony is crazy enough to live in there right” The baker laughed for a bit but stopped as she heard that nopony was joining in she looked at Derpy in the eyes which showed nothing but sadness. “You weren’t joking were you” Derpy shook her head as a response. After what felt like hours of total silence Sugar Bliss’s ears perked up as an idea came to her. “Hey Derpy” She called getting Derpy’s attention she continued. “How about on the train we try and get Shine to talk about what happened in his past?” “Ummm Sugar Bliss, not to ruin your fun or anything, but there is such a thing called privacy.” Derpy replied as she continued on with her walk towards the public toilets. “Aww fine I won’t try and make him tell us about his past.” Sugar Bliss whined whilst still smiling ‘Though I will still ask him about it.’ Noticing that Derpy was ahead of her she quickly re-joined to her side while still smiling which Derpy saw it made her feel a bit uneasy. “Umm Sugar Bliss” “Yes?” “Could you please promise me that you won’t tell Shining Steel that I told you about some of his past?” Sugar Bliss gave her a confused look, but applied by doing a familiar motion. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” “How do you know the pinkie promise” “Pfff please, who hasn’t heard of the pinkie promise” “Apparently Shine hadn’t” “You’re kidding me” “Nnnope” as the two had their laugh, off in the distance a scream of a mare was heard in the direction that the two were heading. “Umm I think we better leave our conversion till later and quickly find out what that noise was about” Sugar Bliss suggested receiving a nod from Derpy the two quickly galloped to the source from which they heard the scream. When the two finally arrived at the toilets, the back entrance door swung open and a very angry looking mare stormed out. As she was about to disappear around a corner she took notice of Derpy and Sugar Bliss staring. “If you two are going in there I suggest that you be careful for there is a white Stallion pervert hanging around” After she warned them she left leaving the two to facehoof as they had a pretty good feeling that, that white pervert was. As the two mares walked around the toilets towards the front they saw Shining Steel sitting a fair distance away from the entrance while facing the other way as the mares slowly approached Shine must have heard them approach. “I swear on Celestia’s royal flank I didn’t see anything!” He screamed with his face as red as a tomato the two mares chuckled before Derpy spoke up. “Aww and here I was going to ask did you like what you saw in there” Shine’s ears perked up in recognition and quickly turn to face the mares while reliving a swollen black eye. “Where the hay were you two for I’m pretty sure that it doesn’t take forty minutes to come out of the toilets!” “Well sorry we kind of forgot that there was a back entrance so we sort of forgot about you” Sugar Bliss said while trying to recover from all the shouting. But before they were able to continue the little reunion there was a sound of a whistle off in the distance. “Oh crap the train, come on you two love birds we’ll talk about this later on in the meantime let’s not miss this train” Sugar Bliss called out as she galloped off towards the train station. She was soon followed by the others but not before Shine called out. “Where not in love with each other where just friends” While Derpy’s ears folded back. 10 minutes later on the train “Well that was fun, we nearly missed the train…. again” Sugar Bliss said, taking in a deep breath. “Yes and that time it wasn’t my fault” Shining Steel pointed out “Well it wasn’t our fault” “Who were the ones that left me waiting at the toilets then?” “Oh… Well…. some of it’s your fault” “How?” “Well because somepony wasn’t smart enough to see if there was a back entrance to help confirm that we weren’t in there” “You were the one who told me not to go anywhere” “Well then nex..” “Oh for Celestia’s sake will you two shut up its noponies fault because we didn’t miss the train!” Derpy yelled ceasing the argument between Shine and Sugar Bliss then they both look at each other then moved away. Shining sat next to a window alone on the far end of the train while Sugar Bliss sat next to Derpy with a smile spread across her face which confused Derpy. “Hey Sugar Bliss” “Hmm” “How can you be smiling after having an argument with Shine?” Sugar Bliss turned to face her. “Because I reckon that I’ve just found out a bit of his past” she explained in a low voice. “Well you see as he started to walk away I caught a glimpse of a symbol on his neck hidden underneath his mane” “Oh that. Yeah I’ve already seen it he told me he got it before he join the guard” Derpy explained whilst looking at the scenery outside. “Oh ok then *sigh* well I don’t think I will ask him about it for he doesn’t look like he’s in the talkative mood at the moment.” Both mares looked at Shining Steel who was staring back at the two mostly eyeing Sugar Bliss before turning his attention back out the window. “Yeah well he has had a pretty rough morning….. Hey speaking of mornings Sugar Bliss do you mind telling me what happened. For all I can remember is us two meeting early in the morning, whilst waiting on Shining Steel. And from there I went to go get him which, it turned out that he was still asleep and having another having a nightmare which ended when I told him to wake up also making him shot up. But then it all goes blank, mind you then waking up finding that we only had a few minutes left and you saying something about fun time. So if you don’t mind me asking what happened?” Derpy asked but before she got her answer they were quickly interrupted by a sudden bang both mares looked towards where Shining Steel sat and saw his face completely pressed against the window with his checks showing a shade of red. “I think he can hear us”, Sugar Bliss pointed out causing another smile to appear on her face. “Well we are the only ones in the cart” Derpy pointed out. “Oh right…… Anyway what I recall is when you were taking so long just to wake Shine up so when I walked in I saw you on the floor and Shine was on top but I didn’t know that you were unconscious so that means that Shine….” “It’s not what you think!” Shine yelled out from the other side. “Then how come I saw you on top of her?” Sugar Bliss asked, Derpy’s mouth hang open after hearing what Sugar Bliss said and slowly looked at Shining Steel whose face was showing a lot of embarrassment. “T-that’s because when I knocked her out I tried to get up to help her, but my hooves got tangled in my blanket and I only just manage to stop myself from landing directly on her” Derpy slightly relaxed but it left Sugar Bliss with one question. “Wait how did you knock her out,? Did you punch her?” “Not exactly when I woke up from a nightmare my head accidently collided with hers” Shine said sheepishly, Sugar Bliss nodded her head in slight understandment but it was now Derpy who had a question. “Hey Shine, isn’t this your second nightmare in a row? That isn’t a good sign, so if you don’t mind me asking what was that Nightmare about?” Shine winch at memory of the dream, but he didn’t think it would be best if the mares knew about it yet. “Umm sorry but I don’t really remember much of it but let’s just say it wasn’t a pleasant memory” Derpy stared at him expecting that there was more to it than that but thought it would be best to drop it for now. “Err well sorry about that incident. But you can’t really blame me, for what was I supposed to suspect when you see a stallion on top of a mare” Sugar Bliss said, whilst rubbing the back of her head, Shine waved it off before looking back out the window. As Derpy rested back on her seat the silence didn’t last long as Sugar Bliss spoke out. “Well whose up for a game of I spy?” which caused Derpy to giggle and Shine to facehoof. “Well fillies and gentlecolts welcome to Ponyville”, announced Sugar Bliss as she stepped out of the train that was then followed by the other two at first Shining Steel was a bit surprized at how peaceful this town was and how many ponies were up and about. As he looked at his surroundings he found that he already started to take a liking to this place but as he looked further out, he saw a forest that he knew all too well. Derpy took a deep breath of the fresh air of her former home enjoying every moment of it. ‘It feels good to be home again’ she thought when she looked at Shine to see what he thought of Ponyville but saw him staring off into the distance to where the Everfree forest was. Sensing the discomfort, Derpy quickly thought it would be best if they found this friend of Sugar Bliss who was supposed to be waiting for them. “So Sugar Bliss how about we go look for this friend of yours?” Derpy suggested but Sugar Bliss shook her head. “There’s no need for that because she’s right over there”. Derpy and Shine both looked to were Sugar Bliss was pointing and in the middle of the town square was a fountain where a few ponies sat which Derpy recognised. One of them she was an earth pony with a cream coat with a navy blue colour mane and tail with a pink running along the middle. “Wait! So Bon Bon is your friend that we are meeting up with?” Derpy asked but Sugar Bliss gave her a confused look. “What? Oh no! My friend is the one that is sitting on the far end of the fountain”. Both Derpy and Shine look more carefully to were Bliss had pointed out and sure enough there was a pony there, but they couldn’t see her very well due to the distance. “Heh, it looks like she’s asleep, come on!” Sugar Bliss said as she started to head towards this mystery mare. Shine and Derpy both looked at each other and shrugged before following Sugar Bliss. As they approached, the two were close enough to get a better picture of the mare. She was a unicorn with a purple coat, a long but wild yellow mane, as well as a long tail which was also yellow and her cutie mark was some sort of a speaker as for her eyes the two didn’t know because she was asleep. When the three were in front of the mare Sugar Bliss moved directly in front of her face after a few moments Sugar Bliss had an evil grin on her face whilst rubbing her hooves together, then not a moment too soon she pushed the sleeping mare into the fountain which resulted in the mare waking up in a small pool of freezing cold water. “Huh wha who” Stammered a confused and wet mare but when her eyes fell on Sugar Bliss her confused face turned frown. “Suugaar Bliiiiss” “Yes?” She replied with an innocent look “You are so dead!” Moments upon finishing her sentence Sugar Bliss quickly galloped away from the mare whilst laughing as the very wet and angry mare went on the chase. While the two ran around the town square Derpy and Shining Steel watch in amusement as the chase was on and as they were watching they couldn’t help but laugh as the mare chasing Sugar Bliss continuously crashed into something’s and some ponies due to having her wet mane pretty much covering her face. But it all ended when the mare crashed into a building which resulted her horn getting stuck. While Shine and Derpy started to approach they saw a number of ponies trying to get the mare free including Sugar Bliss, but from what the two saw was that the ponies were too busy laughing than to put much effort into trying to get her out. Shine and Derpy couldn’t blame them for its not an everyday thing to see a unicorn get their horn stuck but it all ended when the mare finally came free from the building. The owner of the house wasn’t too happy to see a hole in their wall so to avoid any argument the mare quickly fixed the hole with her magic before re-joining to Sugar Bliss’s side as she approached the rest of the group. “Well that was fun” exclaimed Sugar Bliss as she wiped the tears away. “Maybe for you cause you weren’t the one who got stuck” Barked the wet mare whose mane was still covering her face. “Well guess who wasn’t smart enough to move their mane out of their eyes hmm” “Hey I was angry at you for one …. Two reasons one you weren’t on the early train like you said you would and two you pushed me into the freezing water” Sugar Bliss looked at her friend with a smile spread across her face. “Well sorry but how else was I surspose to wake you” “Well you could of…” But the mare was quickly interrupted as Shining Steel coughed to remind them that they were still here. “Oh sorry you two, B these are the other ponies I mentioned in the letter” “Hello there my name is Shining Steel” Shine said introducing himself which Derpy took as a sign it was her turn. “And I’m Derpy Hooves” The mare nodded her head in acknowledgment before she spoke. “Well you two nice to meet cha as for me you may call me ….” “Oh for Celestia’s sake would you at least be civilized enough to get your mane out of you face or even better dry it” Sugar Bliss interrupted which received a groan from the mare possibly because she was interrupted again. Within moments her horn glowed a dark purple before steam started coming her body after a minute she gave her mane a finishing touch by giving it a shake which returned it to what it was like before and this time they were able to at least see one eye which was closed due to focusing her magic, but the other one was covered by her wild mane, as the magical aura disappeared, the mare reopened her eye which surprisingly appeared to be a similar colour to a ruby. After the rest of the stream disappeared into the air she turn to Sugar Bliss in waiting of an answer Sugar Bliss stared for a moment before giving her a nod of approval then the mare turned back to the rest before continuing were she left off. “Anyway as I was saying my name is Bass Blitz and I will be your guide here in Ponyville.”