The sun was just rising over the mountains, its light peeking through the crevice between the rocky cliff sides. The mist on the grass glistened in the morning light, and the cock-a-doodle-doos from the farm’s roosters could be heard off in the distance.
In the library, Spike and Twilight were wandering around, preparing themselves some breakfast. It wasn’t too long into their morning meal that Wildfire had gotten out of bed, crawling down the hallway and dragging his hooves over to the table in the middle of the library second floor, just outside of the kitchen. Twilight was sitting at the table, reading a book as she sipped on her apple juice. Spike came from the kitchen, carrying a bowl of corn chips and milk over to the table.
“Morning, Wildfire!” said Spike, taking his seat at the table.
Twilight looked up from her book, glancing at Wildfire and greeting him before turning her attention back to the pages.
“Good morning!” said Twilight.
“Morning.” moaned Wildfire.
His big and bulky mane was a mess; bunched up out of his face and standing mostly straight up. The dark circles under his eyes didn’t exactly scream well rested either. He took a seat at the table, placing his hooves up on the table top in front of him and propping his head on top of his elbows, mashing his goatee between his chin and his legs. He gave a groan, along with a sigh as his eyes struggled to stay open.
Spike and Twilight looked at him, concerned about him and what may have kept him up all night.
“Uh, you ok?” asked Twilight.
“Yeah, just adjusting to the new bed. That’s all…” said Wildfire, yawning mid-sentence.
“I think it’s a pretty comfortable bed, though.” said Spike, with a mouth full of corn chips.
“It’s not uncomfy… it just… unfamiliar, I guess.”
The air went stiff for a moment, except for the crunch of Spike’s cereal and the chirping of the birds outside.
“So I had a thought last night.” said Twilight, eyes down at her book. “Rainbow Dash was talking about a pony that was ignoring her, then beat her in a race. I didn’t think that could be you, that is, until you apologized to the Canterlonians yesterday, and after seeing Rainbow’s attitude.”
Wildfire went silent, looking at Twilight with an innocently curious stare. She looked up from her book with a sly smile.
“I meant to take that up with you last night, but you were studying!” continued Twilight, somewhat cheekily.
“Yeah…” Wildfire nodded. “That was me. Am I in trouble for it or something?”
“Not by me.” said Twilight. “Not by anypony, really. But Rainbow was pretty upset by it.”
“I should apologize then…? I mean, for being a jerk to her.” said Wildfire.
“If you think that would help set things better, then sure.” said Twilight.
Wildfire inhaled and exhaled deeply, squinting hard as if to adjust his eyes. “Ok, sounds like a plan…”
“How did you do it anyway?” asked Twilight.
“Do what?” asked Wildfire.
“Outrun Rainbow Dash.” answered Twilight. “I mean, she is just about the fastest pony in all of Equestria. How did you outrun her?”
Wildfire paused, his half shut eyes opening a bit wider, his tired expression turning to a vacant one as he stared at Twilight, searching for an answer.
“Um, I don’t know.” said Wildfire, shaking his head. “She was moving pretty slow when I caught up to her. Maybe I just caught her off guard?”
“Hmm.” said Twilight, eyes falling to the table as her mind went to her imagination, trying to picture the moment.
“I didn’t even know we were racing.” said Wildfire with a shrug and another shake of the head.
Wildfire thought for a moment, pondering why one would have been so angry for just losing a race.
“Is she really upset?” asked Wildfire.
“Well, if it is the ‘race’ she’s angry about, then that’s probably just her ego.” said Twilight. “But, I’d think giving her the cold shoulder would have been enough to do it.”
“Oh, that.” Wildfire said, “You mean ignoring her, right?” Twilight nodded.
“I guess I was just in a bad mood. She didn’t deserve the attitude I was giving her. I’ll make sure to apologize for that too.”
Twilight smiled, “That sounds like a good idea.”
Twilight perked up some, gasping lightly as an idea hit her. “I got it; maybe you can try making it up to her by helping with weather patrol today.”
Wildfire smiled in approval. “Ok, I can do that.”
The room went silent again. Twilight turned back to her book once more, and took another sip of her juice. Spike kept chowing down on the cereal as their conversation went on. The silence was broken by the growl of Wildfire’s stomach, which he tried to pacify with his hoof. Spike caught ear of it and turned his attention to Wildfire.
“Geez, Wildfire. You hungry? Do you want cereal?” asked Spike.
“Oh, sure.” said Wildfire, taking his hooves off of the table and sitting up straighter.
“Juice too?” added Spike, putting his spoon down and waking back to the kitchen.
“Orange juice?” asked Wildfire.
“No, sorry. But we have apple!”
“Oh…” Wildfire thought for a second. “Um, sure. Please!”
Spike went into the kitchen and pulled a bowl and a spoon out of the cupboards. He went into the fridge and pulled out the cartons of milk and juice, and began fixing Wildfire his breakfast for him.
“So, what exactly is this Summer Sun Festival?” asked Wildfire. “I don’t think I’ve ever really celebrated one.”
Twilight marked her book with a small red ribbon and shut it, turning her attention to Wildfire’s question. “Well, it is sort of a Ponyville thing… What we do is celebrate the summer solstice!”
“The day with the longest period of sunlight!” said Spike, from the kitchen.
“Thanks Einstein!” giggled Twilight. “It officially begins tomorrow at midnight. Then, basically, it’s a party until Princess Celestia arrives. Then we get to witness her raise the sun the next morning.”
“You gotta stay up all night though!” said Spike. “Or else you might miss it!”
“Alright. Sounds like a good time.” said Wildfire.
“Usually is!” said Twilight.
Wildfire nodded in approval. “Well, alright then.”
The birds were still chirping outside the window, their morning song a soothing melody to hear at the early hour. Twilight reopened her book, taking the marker out of the pages and picking back up where she left off. Wildfire was intrigued by it. It appeared to be a book with some age to it, being somewhat tattered and worn.
“What are you reading?” asked Wildfire.
“I’ve been gathering information on the Great Griffin War after I read this article. I was fascinated by it, to say the least.” said Twilight with a giggle. “The article talked about a myth of the war. About some…”
Twilight turned to the book to the glossary and took out a small scrap of slightly yellowed paper.
“It talks about; A Guardian Angel. A mysterious ‘god in the flesh’ who ended the war single handedly.” Twilight put the paper down, and turned back to the book.
“I’m… familiar with that legend.” said Wildfire trailing off some.
“It says here in this book that a peace treaty was created and taken to the Griffin front lines by a flight of pegasi under a white flag. But the treaty never made it to the Griffins. None of the flight’s ponies were never seen after this. It is assumed that the flight was ambushed and attacked by a small group of Griffin scouts. Then, it says that the Guardian Angel pony, an alicorn from Canterlot, supposedly flew all the way out to Featherton, the Griffin Army’s camp, and destroyed it all by himself, setting the entire camp a blaze in one night!” said Twilight, becoming enthralled by the story.
“It was the next day that the Griffins surrendered, seeing the destruction of the Griffin camp.”
“Aw, are you still reading that same article, Twilight?” said Spike, bringing a full bowl of cereal and glass of apple juice over to Wildfire.
Wildfire thanked Spike, immediately picking up the spoon in his hooves, in a somewhat awkward manner, and digging in.
“We grew up together during this time, Spike. It’s a part of our generation! How could I not?” said Twilight. “If this pony actually existed, do you know what that could mean!?”
Wildfire, spoon in his mouth, and Spike both stared blankly at Twilight who was gleaming with excitement.
“Um, no…” said Spike. “Why don’t you tell us.”
“Well, it says here;
The Guardian Angel is a mysterious power, as it is unknown where the amounts of magic used by this pony would have come from. It is hypothesized that the Guardian Angel might have used the elements of harmony to aid them, but it is unlikely as it would have taken multiple ponies to wield them.
It is, however, also hypothesized that the amount of magic used by this pony might also be an incarnation of a seventh element, created to bring balance to the elements and bring them even closer. The purpose of this Guardian Angel could also be a gateway through which the heavenly magic of the seventh element is to interact with the tangible world. Perhaps it is even a way for the magic of the Elements to help protect against darker forces. For example; The Dark Gate. A portal to what is considered pure evil; death itself.
… turning to page 563…” she flipped the pages over and read on over to the next paragraph.
“Oh come on Twilight!” said Spike. “I’ll give them the Dark Gate thing, but nobody knows where that thing came from. The rest of it is just a whole bunch of garbage!”
“Through the magic of the Elements, anything’s possible Spike!” said Twilight.
“Twilight, you haven’t let this go in weeks.” said Spike, blunt as can be.
“Oh, it just study!” said Twilight.
“I don’t know Twilight…” said Wildfire. “I think Spike might be right.”
“Thank you!” said Spike.
“Knowing your stuff is one thing, but taking it to obsession is just unhealthy.”
Twilight marked the book and floated it back over to the podium by the far bookshelf.
“Fine.” she said, getting back to her breakfast.
“I’ll remember that when I’m dragging you out of your room by your tail.” said Twilight, her sly smile returning to her.
Wildfire and Spike both chuckled, their mouths full of cereal.