//------------------------------// // Chapter 33 // Story: The Angel of Equestria // by Robobrony //------------------------------// Chapter 33 On the night after the ponies returned to Ponyville from the wedding, Black Cloud left from the train station and flew through town towards the Everfree forest. Black Cloud soon came to the entrance and made his way in. He flew on for a while looking for something, it didn’t take him long to find it as he soon came to a clearing with a campfire glowing with an inviting warmth. In front of the fire was a Pegasus mare, Black Cloud’s destination. “Pure Valkyrie, it is good to see you again.” “Black cloud, it’s always nice to see you too.” The Pegasus greeted with a smile. The two nuzzled each other lovingly. What was odd about her was that her wings were slightly larger than a normal Pegasus. Her coat was white and her main and tail was gold with silver streaks, as was her wingtips. Her cutie mark was an arcane rune with an alchemy mortar and a pestel. She was wearing a druid style dress with a hood that had runes on it. Off to the side was a pair of saddle bags and some armor lying next to them. The armor was a chest plate and a pair of lower foreleg bracers and light chainmail coverings for the wings. The two broke their embrace as Black Cloud Spoke. “Pure, please tell me you will come with me to town tomorrow morning, comrade Charles will be leaving then and I would very much like you to meet him.” Pure seemed a little hesitant. “You mean this human you keep talking about? I don’t know, what if he and your other friends don’t like me?” “Dey will like you, you are wonderful mare, I just don’t like you staying in forest by yourself like this.” She gave him a playful smirk. “Black Cloud, you know I can take care of myself.” “Yes, I know, you are of the Valkyrie race. But even so, I still worry for you, won’t you please finally come to town with me so you can meet my friends?” Pure Valkyrie finally conceded. “*Sigh* All right Black Cloud, I’ll come with you, I’m still nervous though.” “Don’t be, you will be welcome with open forelegs, trust me. I will stay with you tonight so we can go together, yes?” Pure smiled. “All right, thanks Black.” The two then snuggled up together and lay down to rest for the night. The next morning: The sun was just now barely rising over Equstria. Black Cloud awoke with a yawn next to Pure. “*Yawn* Good morning Pure, are you ready to go meet friends?” Pure awoke as well with a yawn. “*Yawn* As ready as I’ll ever be I guess.” Black Cloud stood up. “Pure, I promise my friends will like you, then you won’t have to be living in forest anymore, you may even be able to join town royal guard with me.” Pure stood up and made her way over to her armor and placed them in her saddle bags. She stood a little taller than Black Cloud. Once her bags were secure, she readied herself to fly with Black. “Ok, let’s go.” The two took to the air and headed out of the forest for Ponyville. Black Cloud led Pure to the south side of town just in time to see all the guards and the girls gather around to say goodbye to Charles. He was wearing his all black outfit and had his staff on his back. He also had a black back pack on that was most likely full of supplies with a sleeping bag on it. They landed and trotted up. Pure froze a moment. Black Cloud saw this and came up beside her and placed a hoof on her back as best he could since she was a little taller than him. “Pure, it is all right, I promise friends will like you, come on, before he has to go.” Pure looked to Black Cloud as he smiled. “Ok, just stay close ok?” “Of course.” Black Cloud led Pure over. “Comrades, is good to see you this morning!” He called out, the group all turned to face him. “Hey black Cloud, glad you could make it to see me off.” Charles greeted with a smile as he walked up to Black. The two shared a hoof/fist bump. Charles then noticed the mare with him. “And who is this lovely mare with you?” Pure shied away with a blush at Charles’s compliment, she tried to hide her face with her hood. “Comrade Charles, dis is my marefriend Pure Valkyrie, she is of race of pegasai known as Valkyries. She is very shy and has been living in Everfree for three years now.” Dusk Fang came forward to comment. “Three years in the forest, wow, you must be a strong fighter to live in that place for so long.” “Um, h-h-hello, it’s…..v-very nice t-to m-meet you.” Pure said. Twilight then came to greet her. “Well hello there, I’m Twilight Sparkle, welcome to Ponyville. “Th-thank you.” Black Cloud went into her story. “Pure was exiled from home because of her unusual size and wings, she found her way here to Everfree. She found me in forest one day while I was injured after a mission I was on a long time ago that didn’t go so well. She nursed me back to health and things just went from there, so we are together. “Black Cloud, there you are!” A happy sounding voice called out. A unicorn mare with a white mane and tail and a navy blue coat came running up to him. Her cutie mark was of a white sheet of paper with a paint brush on it. “White Paint, you made it!” Black Cloud happily called back, the two embraced in a hug. Once they broke, the new unicorn, White Paint, noticed Pure. “Oh, hello, you must be Pure Valkyrie, I’m white Paint, it’s nice to finally meet you.” “Oh, uh, hello, Um. So……you’re White Paint?” Pure asked. White answered with a smile. “I did just say that didn’t I?” “Pure, White Paint is originally from Manehatten, she moved here because she thought it was boring there. I know I told you about her, and her about you. You are ok with this yes?” Black Cloud asked. “Y-yes,……I remember, it’s…..nice to f-finally meet you.” Pure said nervously. White stepped up closer to her. “Wow, Black Cloud wasn’t kidding when he said you’d be tall. I mean that in a good way of course.” Charles finally stepped forward. “Black Cloud, is this mare another mare friend of yours.” He asked with a smile. “She is, and I feel very lucky to have these two as my mare friends.” “Hey look, Celestia is coming.” Rainbow Dash pointed out. Celestia was indeed on approach in her glden carriadge, as was luna in her dark carriage with Night Shine with her, and there was another alicorn flying with them. The carriages touched down and the princesses and Night Shine got off. The ponies all bowed. Pure was a little afraid, especially of the new alicorn that appeared, he looked very intimidating. Once the ponies were back up, Celestia gave her greeting. “Good morning my little ponies.” Fluttershy found the courage to speak up. “Princess, what are you doing here? Not that we’re not happy to see you.” Celestia smiled as she responded. “We came to see Charles off of course.” Luna came up next to her sister with Night Shine, the other came up on Celestia’s other side. “We wished to see him off, also, Apex here was finally compelled to come meet the human every pony has been talking about.” Luna informed as she gestured to the new alicorn. “He is our general of our forces. He stood about as tall as Celestia. Apex had a black coat with red tribal markings, the markings covered his entire body, the ones on his head looked like a skull while the rest of them just covered his body in a circuit pattern. At the center of his forehead was a spade. His mane and tail were spikey and black with silver streaks. His cutie mark was a winged tribal skull surrounded by five stars. His eyes were two different colors, his left eye was a metallic light blue while his right eye was metallic red. He was wearing a long black officers great coat and a black beret with a patch on the front of it. This new comer had a very serious look on his face, even Charles was a little intimidated by him. “General Apex, long time no see.” Carbon spoke up. Apex looked at Carbon as he approached. “Carbon, good to see you, I trust your keeping to your duties?” Carbon gave a salute. “Yes sir, I’ve been doing my best as a guard here.” “Good to hear.” He never smiled as he spoke. He then looked to Charles. “So you’re the one every pony is talking about huh.” “Uh, yes sir.” Charles simply answered. Apex walked up to him and circled him around a bit. He stood back in front of Charles. “Not bad, you certainly seem like a capable warrior. And given what I’ve heard, I suppose you can handle yourself in a fight.” Charles lost all his fear of this stallion before him as he spoke. “With all do respect sir, I AM capable, I can handle myself just fine.” “So I’ve heard, I’ll be keeping an eye on you, as I understand, you’re supposed to go find some new power we haven’t heard of, correct?” Charles spoke casually now, but still showed respect for this officer, since he was a general, he was Charles’s superior officer. “Yes sir, I am to go and find these things called the elements of life. They reside somewhere in the southern parts of Equestria.” “Just watch yourself out there, the southern areas without any towns are more dangerous than the everfree forest, even we don’t know what you can expect to find out there, Celestia is against any pony going there because of the dangers. But she seems to have confidence in you that you can do this, so I will trust her judgement.” Charles gave a salute. “Thank you sir, I won’t let you or any pony down.” Apex then turned to Night Shine. “And as for you Night Shine, I am well aware of your situation, I still say it’s a bad idea to have you around after what you did, but again, the princesses seem to believe your good now. Just in case, I’ll be keeping an eye on you as well.” Night Shine smiled at this. “Fine by me.” She said dreamily. Luna giggled. Luna then put on a mock pout. “What about me Apex, If you’ll remember, I was Nightmare Moon at one time. Haven’t you been keeping an eye on me too?” Apex rolled his eyes. “Princess Luna, it has been a long time since that incident, I have seen no signs of you turning back into Nightmare Moon, I have no reason to suspect you for anything bad, therefore, no reason for me to watch you.” “Awe.” Luna gave a fake sad smile. But was still having fun with this. Celestia chuckled too. “So Apex, I don’t suppose I could interest you to join me for dinner with my sister and Nightshine, just the four of us?” “Sorry your majesty, but with this threat you mentioned looming, I need to make sure the troops are in top physical condition and all weapons are ready to go.” “Surely you can take a little break this afternoon?” “*Sigh* Fine, one dinner, then I need to get back to my duties.” The three alicorn mares smiled at this while mentally, they were celebrating in their minds at finally getting a date with Apex. “Thank you Apex, I just know we’ll have a wonderful time.” Celestia informed. Charles then addressed every pony there. “Well every pony, it’s about time for me to head out.” “Awweee.” This cry of disappointment came from Charles’s wives. “Do you really have to go now?” Pinkie asked. Charles answered with a smile as he looked over his four mares. “I’m afraid so, but look at it this way, the sooner I leave, the sooner I can come back to you all. I’ll try to make this trip as fast as possible and come home real quick.” The newly married herd gathered for a group hug and Charles gave each of his wives a kiss. He said his goodbyes to Rainbow and Fluttershy too as he simply hugged them. Charles walked up to Lightning Thrash. “Well captain, this is it, I’ll try to be back on duty as soon as I can sir.” He gave a salute. Lightning returned it. “Understood, you take care of yourself out there, that’s an order.” “Yes sir.” They dropped their salute and Charles went to the princesses. “your majesties, thank you for coming to see me off, I’ll be sure to be back soon with the elements of life so I will be ready to do my part to defend this land when the time comes.” Celestia and Luna smiled at him. “Thank you Charles, we know you will succeed in your quest.” Celestia informed. “Indeed, I shall watch over you in your dreams Charles.” Luna said with a smile. “Thank you, just….try not to come into one of my dreams if I happen to be dreaming about……um….you know….being with my wives.” Charles blushed a little. Luna blushed a little too. “Of-of course not.” Celestia and Night Shine laughed. “Anyway, now that goodbyes are out of the way, it’s time for me to fly, I’ll see you all later, and I’ll be thinking of all of you.” Charles said as he looked over all his friends, the guards, the princesses, and the six mares who changed his life. He flew up above their heads and looked back down at them. “I’ll be back before you know it. You all take care now, I’ll miss you all!” He gave a wave as he finally flew off to begin his journey.