How is everything going, Shining Armor? Are you eating well? Sick? Any injury? Your father and I have been worried about you ever since you finally joined the army.
We know this is something you dreamed of for some time ever since you left high school. Speaking of which, have you contacted that marefriend of yours? A mare doesn’t like when her coltfriend doesn’t write her often when he’s away, you know.
Everything is fine around here. Well, your sister is still the ever diligent student as always. She is scoring ‘A’ in pretty much every test in her school. We are really proud of her (and you too). But, one thing worries us about Twilight.
Other than us, her teachers and Princess Celestia (I still can’t believe the Princess is giving our little filly private lessons for years now) she doesn’t speak with anypony else! At first we thought that she was being bullied, but it’s not the case. From our “investigation” (well, we asked the teachers and even Celestia herself) all her classmates invite her for parties, sleepovers, play after school, but she simply refuses it all claiming that “she has a lot to study”.
The only time we remember of her going out to have fun was when you were still here and played with her. It’s good that she is such devout student, but we want her to have a nice childhood as well. We don’t want her trying to compensate it after she’s an adult.
Surprisingly, when we talked to her about it she replied “I don’t have time for having friends, I need to study and learn a lot to make Princess Celestia proud.”
We thought about asking the Princess to stop with her lessons in order to encourage Twilight to hang out with fillies and foals of her own age. But we believe that this would do more harm than good. Twilight idolizes the Princess and she is great to our daughter. We don’t really want to take them apart.
The reason why we even cogitated that was because when we asked her Highness to encourage Twilight to have friends, all we got was “She’ll have some good friends in the future. I’m sure of that. I asked her to bond with her classmates, but she simply isn’t interested.”
I don’t want to sound rude, but we are getting worried about your sister. It’s not healthy for a nine year old to not have any friends. She barely even leaves her room when she’s home.
Yeah…I’ve heard some other parents saying that we’re lucky Twilight is so focused on her studies unlike their children, but it’s just not healthy to live on extremes (either a party animal with F grades or hardcore student with no social life).
Next time you are on vacation, can you talk to Twilight? Maybe she’ll listen to you. You two were always close. She still calls you her BBBFF (Big Brother Best Friend Forever) and asks when you’ll come back home. I hope you can come to Hearth’s Warming this year. It’s just not the same without you.
We know you’re an adult and brave stallion, but, for us, you’ll always be our baby.
Please be safe.
With love,
Twilight Velvet.
An unicorn with white fur and dark blue mane was lying on his bed with the letter floating with his magic above him. After he finished reading it. he folded it and levitated a box next to his bed. And placed the letter inside of it. Inside of this box were several letters from home.
The stallion sighed heavily as he heard the rain assault his quarters. It was small, but had everything he needed, like a bed, a desk with drawers for him to do his work, a chair, among other things. Well, except for a bathroom, which was outside and for everypony to use. But those who had the rank of Sargent and onward had quarters big enough for his or hers own bathroom.
At least he didn’t have any roommate to peek at his letters like when he was still a cadet. He was getting a bit tired of the constant teasing from other soldiers because his mother still referred to him as a child. ‘One of the few perks of being Second Lieutenant.’ he thought.
However, Shining Armor did not mind how his mother treated him.
The letters reassured him that his family was well and still cared about him. He loved hearing news from home. But he grew worried about Twilight. He had left to the army about a year after she passed the exam for Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns.
Before he left, the two always hanged around in Canterlot, even if most of the times were from Shining Armor’s initiative. But, without him, Twilight seemed to have shut herself in.
He remembered how Twilight always thought it was unnecessary to meet new people, but he did manage to convince her of otherwise a few times, like, for example, with Joe, the owner of a donut shop. But even so, she didn’t try to actively talk to him, but instead use his shop at as a place to eat and study at the same time.
The shop owner once told Shining that he was amazed how the filly could focus even with the noise of his shop.
Yet, Twilight still refused to talk with other foals and fillies of her age. But the Second Lieutenant would at least try convince her again of making friends once he got home.
It hurt him a little that his young sister didn’t consider anypony else as her friend, other than him.
When he glanced at the clock he saw that it was 6:22 p.m.
It was almost time for his night shift. The stallion the used his magic to levitate his golden armor and wear it. On the breastplate there was two small bronze stars which symbolized his ranking of Second Lieutenant. The First Lieutenants had one big blue star and other rankings had a different armor color.
After he placed his armor on, he levitated his spear and took it with him. He got out of his quarters immediately groaning because of the rain. He considered creating a shield above his head, but continuously creating one would be tiring for him, besides, he didn’t want to show off in front of the other soldiers.
“Suffering builds character!” is the motto of the Sargent in charge of the outpost, a yellow unicorn with his green mane almost entirely shaved called Iron Teeth.
Shining Armor’s outpost is located at the border of Equestria. It was located on a cliff area that had a few rivers on the bottom and a long bridge connecting with the gryphon territory. Their job was mostly welcome visitors, merchants and even diplomats who decided to take that route.
Also, not only gryphons liked to use the route, ponies and other species, like pelicans, also used it for going back and forth between kingdoms.
Their main job was secure and guard the area from possible invasions and also conduct researches to prevent any kind of contraband or commerce of illicit items.
The outpost had about 300 pony soldiers working there. They always had some fast pegasi ready to fly to the nearest base in case of invasion. And for that reason the pegasi chosen for the messenger duty were stationed at the back side of the outpost in order to give them time to fly away and prevent being caught immediately in case any invaders from gryphon kingdom decided to strike.
They always did drills to keep in form. However, the place was quite peaceful, aside from some smugglers and occasional criminals trying to cross the border to escape from justice form their respective nations.
As Shining Armor walked he saw a small commotion at the bridge that connect to the Gryphon Nation. He then approached a cadet, who had a spear resting between his forelegs. He was the Second Lieutenant’s friend since the training to be qualified to enter the army. His friend was an earth pony called Damp Rock. His parents chose such a name because his fur and mane were both a mix of grey and green, but his mane had a darker tone.
“What’s going on over there?” Shining Armor asked from behind him.
The other pony turned and saluted his superior with a grin “Sir, it appears two groups of merchants had arrived. One is a gryphon trying to sell artisan crafts and the other is just a pony group returning home after selling their products at the Gryphon Nation, sir!”
Damp Rock knew that Shining wasn’t used being treated with formalities since Shining Armor had been promoted just a few weeks ago.
The unicorn cringed and said: “You don’t have to treat me like that when we’re alone, Damp.”
The earth pony just grinned wider and said: “You’re just too fun to tease, Shining. Try relax a bit. The higher you go, more ponies will respect you.”
The unicorn sighed and tried to change the subject: “Do you know how many are there?”
Damp simply shrugged and replied: They’re about twenty gryphons and, as for ponies, they’re a group of forty, including children. Apparently, some of them dragged their entire family to enemy territory. I bet he’s doing it to his own people just to provoke them to go to war against us.”
The unicorn glanced his friend and scowled: “The gryphons aren’t our enemies. The problem is that rogues from both sides are trying to drag down our countries to a war. It’s not some conspiracy from the gryphon king.”
The earth pony simply glanced at him and replied: “Yeah, sure. A bunch of random rogue ponies can take down one of their most fortified cities. If that’s the case, then they’re more pathetic than I thought. Let’s not forget that our people is also dying by the hands of gryphons.”
“I know…I’ve heard that Celestia and Icarus were almost at each other’s throats after he accused Celestia of waging war against his kingdom.” The Second lieutenant said giving a few steps forward trying to see what’s going on, but the rain made it difficult.
He couldn’t see, but guessed correctly that the groups were having their tax documents and merchandise were according with the law.
“Our princess shouldn’t be so kind with that king. She would never harm an innocent soul. She has been like this for over a millennia. Why she would attack now when there were so many better chances to do so in the past?” The earth pony said before walking right beside his friend.
Shining Armor turned and nodded: “Exactly! It makes no sense. It would need an organized army to do that much damage. But I wonder why would some ponies do it? I mean, there were some…pony bodies whenever a gryphon city or settlement is attacked. The same goes when we find dead gryphons when our villages and groups are attacked.”
“War is just crazy. At least we know that those brave ponies didn’t go down without a fight…But it disgusts me that they don’t even spare children. Tartarus, even is gryphon children were slaughtered.” He finished closing his eyes a little bit. He also had siblings. He knew all too well that he would lose his head if any creature dared to touch a single hair of their mane.
“Yes...” Shining said solemnly as he felt the water run through his fur and armor. Then he told his friend: “I’ll see if they need some help over there. You know, before Iron Hoof has another heart attack.” He finished with a smile.
His friend snickered and replied: “You’ll be demoted if he hears you saying that nickname of his. That o he’ll make you give 100 laps around the outpost. Going up and down the hills.”
Shining shrugged and said: “Yeah…He would be capable of that. See ya, Damp.”
Then the Second Lieutenant walked to the where the two groups were, next to the bridge that connect to the Gryphon Nation. As he approached he heard the Sargent Iron Teeth looking at documents being levitated and protected from rain by some of the soldier unicorns.
“The documents are in order.” Iron said signalizing for the unicorns to return the documents to the respective owners. Then he turned to the other soldier who were finishing inspecting the merchandise and carts both parties were carrying. “Is everything in order?”
The soldiers then replied finishing up: “Yes, sir! Everything is checked and according with the trade laws, sir.”
The Sargent nodded as he glanced the gryphons, who were obviously not very happy to have a bunch of ponies to go through their stuff, but given the animosity between the two nations, the gryphons decided to not complain unless the ponies crossed some line.
But then an old stallion, with black fur and green mane, stepped forward and asked the Sargent: “I don’t want to be demanding, sir, but do you think it’s possible for us to spend the night here? It’s getting late and it’s raining a lot. I think we all would be safer if we spent the night here. We’ll pay for the lodging of course.”
Iron Teeth shook his head and said with a barely noticeable smile: “You don’t have to pay for anything, unless you need to buy food dirty the place or break something. We have special quarters for situation like this. But it might be a little crowded given your numbers.”
He then turned to the gryphons and said, but more serious: “The offer applies to your people too. If you excuse me, I need to fill some reports at my quarters about your arrival.”
The gryphon leader of the group, who had brown feathers with a golden tail, felt like refusing the offer, but even he had to admit that traveling in another nation in the dark while raining would be rather dangerous. So he decided to take the offer as well.
The Sargent then ordered two soldiers to escort both groups to the guest quarters in the outpost.
As they walked that same old pony asked: “Life here must be hard here, right?”
The soldier, who was a white earth pony, shrugged and said: “Sometimes, yeah. Especially when Gryphons around…”
The black stallion nodded and replied: “I agree…I fear that they will sneak attack us while we sleep and use this as a pathway to invade Equestria.”
The earth pony smiled and assured him: “Fear not. In case any gryphon try any funny business here, our pegasi messengers will quickly fly to Canterlot to warn Celestia about their treachery.”
The other stallion pondered for a while and asked: “But won’t they be attacked first? How can they fly before the gryphons reach them?”
The solder replied: “Our pegasi are very fast, mister…”
“Night Desire. And your name, soldier?”
“Grand Stomp.” The soldier replied before continuing: “Our pegasi are at the very back of our base. The moment they realize that we are being attacked they’ll fly as fast as they can. So, they’ll have plenty of head start.”
The other pony then sighed in relief and said: “That’s good to know. Thanks for reassuring us.”
The soldier smiled “You’re welcome.”
After that, the ponies, for being in a bigger number, were led to a bigger quarters than the gryphons. While it was tight for both sides, they could at least have some rest. The ponies ended up buying some food with the bits they had bought, while the gryphons ate the food they had brought with them due their fear of probable poisoning.
Night Desrie ended up inviting Grand Stomp to share some food for a quick night snack. The soldier ended up accepting and entered the quarter as well.
After a couple of hours, the intensity of the rain only increased for the annoyance of the soldiers. Some soldiers even tried to convince some of the pegasus soldiers: “Come on, guys, it’s not enough to have to endure to live in this forsaken place and we have to endure this as well? Go up there and clean the sky a bit, will you?”
The winged ponies were about to agree when they saw their Sargent coming from behind them and with a very stern expression he said: “It’s just water! If you can’t stand it, why did you even join the army, soldier? I’ll also not let them meddle with nature over something that’ll disappear in a fear hours.”
The soldier who had suggested grumbled under his breath and said: “You ordered them to move away the clouds before when some nobles passed by…”
With a huge scowl on the face the Sargent threatened: “Listen. I’m going to let this go now, but don’t question me again, understood?”
The guards swallowed dry and replied in unison “Sir! Yes, sir!”
“Good” Iron said before starting to walk towards the back of the outpost. He was soon followed by a group of ten pony soldiers. One of them asked: “Everything, alright, sir?”
Iron Teeth nodded and replied: “Yes. Let’s check on the pegasi.”
The others merely nodded and followed the Sargent to the place where the pegasi were supposed to be. It was an area with a few high towers with some pegasi on the top of them.
“Attention all soldiers, please assemble for inspection!” Iron said loudly while the other soldiers on his side scanned the area to make certain that nopony had heard him or was watching. The rain and nighttime made it hard for any pony to see anything from distance.
Five pegasi flew from the towers and assumed position in front of their commander. “Sir, is anything wrong?”
“No. This is just an inspection.” He said coldly. After scanning them he said: “Is everypony here?”
The pegsai looked at each other confused and one of them, with a white fur, replied: “Yes…We are just five. You chose us yourself, sir.”
Iron quickly nodded and replied: “Right. I’m sorry. We just received about sixty guests and I had to fill the paperwork about them. I apologize.”
That got from them a weird look since they had never heard the Sargent apologizing for anything before.
“Anyway, give your weapons and gear to us for inspection. We might have to replace them or have them sharpened.” The Sargent explained.
They thought that such request was bizarre, but they decided to not complain to not draw the infamous wrath of their commander upon them.
The pegasi used their wings to remove some daggers from some sheaths attached to their armor and delivered to the other ponies next to the Sargent, who quickly grabbed them using magic.
What shocked them the most was that only a two of them were unicorns. Before they could even ask what was going on, their own daggers moved swiftly and cut their throats blocking them from screaming or warning others. Then the daggers moved with sudden strength to pierce the exposed areas around their neck. It didn’t take long until all pegasi were killed. Their eyes were filled in horror as they watched their commander merely staring at them with a serious expression. It was almost almost like he didn’t even care.
Their last thoughts were condemning Iron Teeth to Tartarus.
“Take their bodies back to the towers quickly, while others cover the ground with dirt to hide the blood.” Iron Teeth said.
They nodded and replied: “Understood, general Nocturne.”
Half an hour after the incident, Shining Armor was patrolling the east side of the outpost, when he had to leave quickly to attend nature’s calling. He told another soldier that he would come back shortly.
He then went to the bathroom, which was located past the quarters were the gryphons were staying. After he left, he saw that what seemed to be a guard leaving the gryphon quarters through the door, slamming it shut very loudly with magic.
The Second Lieutenant blinked a few times finding it strange because the gryphons had made clear they desired no pony assistance for the night. He even started to worry if they had been fighting with the soldiers. He then decided to check if everything was alright, but the last thing he wanted was to cause a war between the two nations.
He got to the door and breathed deeply hoping that the avian would forgive the other soldier for being rude and he opened the door, he couldn’t see well given the lack of light in the room.
“Hello, there. I’m sorry for barging in, but…” he started to say as he walked inside and heard a few *splash* sounds as he walked. “Huh?” was all he could say when he felt his hooves hitting something wet on the floor.
He lit light on his horn to brighten the room and his jaw fell and eyes went wide in horror. All twenty gryphons were dead and their blood was splattered all around the floor. He could see that their throats were slit and then he quickly turned and quickly started to yell: “HELP! HELP! SOMEPONY KILLED THE GRYPHONS! HURRY!”
He was both confused and angry, because a guard had done it. He had seen one leaving the place right before he got inside. The second lieutenant decided to wake the other soldiers from the day shift to help him, but when he burst through the door to tell the emergency, he was greeted by the same scenario, but, this time, the victims were his brothers-in-arms.
His breathing started to increase as he went outside screaming for help. He had never seen anything like that. All his previous combat experience had been chasing after some smugglers who couldn’t even put up much of a fight. The unicorn had never even taken a life away before and what had just happened overwhelmed in in a horrible way.
He started to cogitate what was going on. Insurrection? Those ponies who came along with the gryphons? Other gryphons? The rogue ponies?
His mind raced to find the other soldiers, but for his further horror, he saw nopony else, but a bloodied Damp Rock. Shining Armor gasped and rushed to his side.
Before Shining could even ask, his friend said with distress in his voice.
“We need to run away! The guards started killing each other. Everypony got crazy! We need to go warn Canterlot, the higher ups, anypony!”
Shining quickly looked around and then at his friend again. He couldn’t tell where he was hurt, but he could see that his right foreleg was hobbling, plus he was covered in blood, which was slowly being washed away by the soft rain.
“Let’s try go down the slope. We might lose them while it still rains.”
“Okay.” Damp said making a face making a painful face as he trotted the fast as he could with his limping leg.
Shining thought about levitating his friend alongside him, but that would deplete his magic if he did it for long and he didn’t know he would fight. He still levitated his spear next to him as he trotted next to his friend in order to protect him from any attack.
They ran for several minutes, going though a small forest on the area, until the got to a cliff area with a descending slope. On the bottom there was a river, but they could walk on the margin of the river, even under the rain, the river was too wild. But the problem was the wet slope. Shining thought that the only option left was indeed levitate his friend to safety. He thought about teleporting himself, but he wasn’t very good at that.
“If we follow that path, we’ll reach The Big Apple city. It’ll take some days, but we’ll make it.” Shining said pointing to the path.
Suddenly, Shining turned to the forest when he heard the sound of hustling bushes. “We’ve been followed! Don’t worry, Damp, I’ll take us out of here!”
But when he turned to see his friend, he wasn’t there anymore. It was a black pony-thing with both a horn and insect like wings and he also had two big bright blue compound eyes.
“Sorry, but your friend and all other soldiers are already dead. But soon you’ll be. Thanks for the instruction, thou.” Said the creature. Levitating a dagger out of Damp Rock’s former armor.
Shining Amor could barely process what was going on. But he could understand three things: that this thing wasn’t his friend; his friend was dead alongside everypony he knew at the outpost; and that he wanted to kill him.
The unicorn snarled and quickly created a shield around himself repelling the knife, for the changeling’s surprise. The shape shifter didn’t expect him to react so quickly.
The Second Lieutenant levitate his spear and threw it with all his power against his enemy piercing him on the chest.
The changeling yelled in pain as he fell on the ground whimpering trying to remove the spear from his chest. Shining armor undid his shield and he used his magic to make the spear go deeper inside of changeling making him yell.
The unicorn saw red as he looked at this….monster. He then levitated the dagger that the changeling had tried to use against him intending to end him right there.
But then he heard a voice of a child, making him turn his head.
“Leave him alone!” Shining Armor saw a purple unicorn foal with green mane trotting towards him.
“Get out of here, kid!” Shining Armor said not believing what was about to happen.
The foal’s body was covered in green fire that made a sizzling sound as the rain evaporated as it touched it. Before the soldier could react, the ball of fire tackled him hard, burning him and shoving him out of the cliff.
Shining yelled as he fell making a loud ‘splash’ sound when he fell on the river on the bottom.
The fire then died down to reveal a very distressed young dragon was about seventy centimeters tall. The dragon didn’t know what to do. But then when he heard other changelings approaching, he yelled: “Someling, help! Raizel needs a doctor!”
Raizel however, coughed some blood: “Please don’t let my sister see me this way…Please, Spike…Take care of her for me, okay…” he managed to utter to the dragon who was now crying and begging for him not to die.
However, as some changelings approached, Bella Noche included, Raizel closed his eyes for the last time. His little sister kept screaming for him to not leave her. Spike kept sobbing quietly and apologizing for being so late to help him.
In fact, Spike had wanted to be by Raiel’s side when he approached the last remaining pony to dig out any other possible escape route in the area. But Nocturne had forbid it because it would be too dangerous for a twelve year old and they wouldn’t risk the life of a child in their very first mission.
But Spike, Bella Noche and some other adult changelings had to follow the two from afar and check that everything would be in order. None of them expected to see a pony outfighting a changeling in a surprise situation.
They also figured that the pony who fell down was pretty much dead because if the water impact didn’t kill him, he would certainly drown.
However, there was nothing they could do to consulate the two kids in front of them.
An earth pony couple was filling some buckets of water, at the river, for their home. Both had brown fur, but the stallion had a darker shade and his mane was red, while the mare’s mane was pink.
They were finishing the job when they saw something weird being dragged by the water. The stallion gasped and let go of the bucket and jumped into the river.
“Earth Explorer!” the mare shouted seeing her husband suddenly jumping. But she then noticed why he did it.
Her husband had rescued a pony from the river. He was an unicorn with white fur with some burn marks on his fur.
“We need to take him home fast.” Earth said while trotting as fast as he could.