You know what really bothers me? Grinds my gears? Ruffles my feathers? All those ponies whining about how modern progress is ruining things in the world. I think if our kind really thought that preserving hydra habitat was more important than new residential areas, we would have those, instead of new neighborhoods. If modern combustion engines were really that evil, not everypony would have one. The fact that they do probably says that they improve quality of life, but I digress. Those hippies do have a point now and again, even if they’re failing to think logically. I wouldn’t trade the city of Denspur and all it’s productivity, those happy lives, and beautiful mountain scenery for a cleaner view of the night sky above. It would be nice though…
I lay on my back with my wings spread wide, legs down against the ground, gazing up at the darkness above. Little specks of light hung suspended, a reminder of just how great of powers lived in this world. Celestia may control the sun, but Luna controls the vast reaches of space beyond. I could have spent hours just staring, running over what little I knew of the heavens. There one star twinkled. It was probably a pulsar. The concept of a star the size of our planet rotating thirty times a second was mind boggling. Over there was one that was red. The red was coming from a concentration of iron in the core, when the fusion process got far enough down the chain to fuse together that many hydrogen atoms. To have that much ionized metal it its middle, that star had to be very old indeed. Billions of years is an incomprehensible time to a pony who has only lived for twenty, and I really didn’t want to understand it.
As the minutes passed, my eyes adjusted to the darkness and the void above with just a few specks of light gradually began to fill with a multitude of bright motes. It almost reminded me of when I lived out in the country, years ago. I could get home in the evening, and my closest neighbor was a quarter-mile away, with one porchlight; nothing to stop me from gazing up into the sky to see that it was brilliantly lit. A sea of stars, thousands at least, covered the sky from horizon to horizon, bright enough that I could walk through the pasture without stumbling. I once read several of those ‘stars’ were actually galaxies far enough away to appear as one star, and I had to wonder just what Luna was capable of.
For now though, I struggled to piece together what few constellations I could see. I never spent a lot of time reading star charts or anything like that, so I only knew a few. Starswirl’s hat was clearly visible off to the east, though I avoided looking too far, didn’t want to get the city lights in my eyes. Over to the north was the Big Horseshoe. I knew the Little one better, but couldn’t find it tonight. Maybe it’s just the wrong time of year. It didn’t matter too much anyways. Ponies in this part of Equestria don’t need stars to find their way. Our sense of direction is ‘to the mountains’ and ‘from the mountains.'
It was then that I noticed my left wing was going numb. I’d be needing it sooner or later, and flying with a numb wing is one of the best ways I knew to introduce my muzzle to the dirt. There was exactly one cure: sitting up. As I did, my view shifted from the sky to the top of the mesa. I was sitting on a raised island of darkness in between two voids of light. South Rocky Mesa was the barrier between the massive city of Denspur, and the small town of Aurum where I lived. Beyond Aurum lay the foothills, and beyond that the mountains, a sight I was going to miss dearly.
My gaze wandered over the path about ten lengths below. Still nothing, all the way down to the town. It would have been foal’s play to hear anypony coming up, unless they were wearing cloth hoof-covers like I was, and trained in stealth. And even if they were, it wasn’t as if they’d see me. I was hiding in a shadow cast by the starlight from one of the rocky outcroppings, rendering me invisible to anypony walking along in that faint light, let alone to anyone still letting his eyes adjust. The old Royal Guard camouflage fatigues I was wearing certainly weren’t hurting and my gray plumage blended right in. Ponies have told me before that I’m really good at hiding, but that’s about all there is to it. Hold still, in the shadows, hold still, be quiet, and hold still.
I’d watched several ponies go by, just taking a late night hike. They never noticed me. It was almost terrifying to think of; I could have just crawled a little further forward, jumped off the outcropping, and swooped down on them. That was exactly what I was waiting for, if those darn trainees were ever going to get here. I’d been waiting for the better part of an hour, stargazing out of boredom, waiting for anything interesting to happen. Right now it seemed the most interesting thing to do was hold my wing as still as possible to avoid letting the pins and needles feeling bite me.
Soon enough the tingling wore off, and I spread the wing out and back to kill the rest of it. It felt better, so I ever so slowly got back down, on my stomach this time. This way when the trainees finally got here, I could just glide on down. As I settled back in, the sound of voices drifted over to me. At least one mare, and at least one buck, but I couldn’t make out what they were saying. A light appeared in the distance, not on the trail up, but level with me out on the mesa top. As it drew closer, two ponies came into view; an earth pony mare, and a unicorn stallion holding a flashlight in a blue nimbus of magic. I couldn’t really see their colors, as the flashlight was pointed down at the trail so they could find their steps.
“Why couldn’t we have gone during the day? I can barely stand on something that isn’t slipping!” Typical unicorn. Guess the great outdoors was something he’d never had to cope with before coming out here. The earth pony was doing just fine of course. Never slipped once.
“Oh come on Gearbox, it’s so hard to get a little quiet time in the dorms.” Ugh, freshmares. “Out here it’s just you and me, isn’t it nice?”
The unicorn was about to respond before his hoof caught a loose rock, and he began to tumble down the slope. Right before he would have crashed into her, the earth pony turned around and caught him with ease, holding up his shaking form. Before he could say anything, she kissed him, and they remained locked like that for a lot longer than I really cared to see. When they finally broke apart, gasps for breath rent the air, and she set him back down. The two lovers continued down the trail, passing almost directly below where I was hiding.
“So Gearbox, did you like that?”
He sounded ashamed. “I...I did.”
She reached over and pulled him over until their sides were pressed together. The magic grip on the flashlight flickered for a moment. “Well then, do you want to do it?”
“Oh, uhm...I’m not really sure I’m ready yet.” They reached the bench further down the trail. Even after sitting in the dark for an hour, I couldn’t see too much further than that.
With a twirl she pulled him close again, and for all the world, it looked like she was eating his face. Judging by how the flashlight dipped, he might have been changing his mind. Oh please Celestia, don’t let them do this. I really don’t want to watch this. I reached for a rock, and tried to decide between throwing it at them, or finding out just how quietly I could fly away.
“Alright, yes. Lets go back to your place,” he gasped. She giggled and hurried on down the trail out of sight. I set the rock back down. As their voices faded away, I was left to wait again. Checking my watch, the display told me it was 21:13, and I was sick of waiting. They should be here by now.
Two figures clad in the same camo tore down the path from further up the mesa, making little sound as they did. Even they didn’t see me, so I bit open the front pocket on my fatigues and pulled out my phone. One tap on it ensured the backlight came on, and I held it up. Immediately the pegasus in front stopped, though the unicorn behind kept running.
“Hey Silver! Stop!”
“What is it West?”
“Well look and see, dumbass.” Westwind raised a foreleg to point at my phone, and Silvertongue stopped too. Satisfied, I put the device away and glided down to meet them.
“Hey boys, any luck?”
“No sir, I don’t even know if they made it to the top. I’ve been so bored playing ‘patrol’ for the last hour.” Westwind grinned at me. “But on the upside of playing the clueless guard on his phone, I got to spend an hour talking to my marefriend.”
“Well good on you.” I punched him lightly in the foreleg. Westwind and Silvertongue were two of the toughest Royal Guard cadets I knew, and I’d had the pleasure of training them myself the year before. “Head on back to the storm-ball fields, and I’ll catch up with you in fifteen. Make sure you have plenty of PT planned. They messed this up badly, and I want them going home with tired legs, wings and horns.”
“Oh you bet,” answered Silvertongue. They took off running quietly down the path, and I chuckled as they went. It was amazing to see how my brother had changed in the last few years. From a unicorn who wanted nothing more out of life than chess to a determined warrior, hell-bent on becoming a doctor. If I wasn’t careful, I might lose my rightful place as the most beloved son.
The wait would not be long. They had fifteen more minutes to finish the mission and those darn trainees hadn’t bothered to make it up this far yet, so I wouldn’t be seeing them until I got back. If that was true though, why was I hearing voices behind me? Slowly, I stood up and looked back up the trail. Three ponies clad in black were picking their way down the trail, escorting a fourth, dressed like me. Pale Whisper was acting as a downed recon pegasus, and they had to ‘rescue’ him. I could only guess they had gone up the harder trail to avoid me. That at least had done that much, so it was time to cut them a break.
Standing as tall as I could, I faced away from them and casually began to stroll down the trail. They’ll notice me soon and run like hell. But the hoof-falls kept getting closer...and closer…I had to deal with this. They were still walking closer, though the one in front had just spotting me and stopped.
“Contact front!” she yelled out. Good job Quickwing, now what comes next?
I started to walk toward them. “Well? What do you do now? Do you just stand there?” They waited, staring at me. Those poor fools. “When you see an obvious threat, you should probably…” I trotted right up to Quickwing. “RUN!” I bellowed at them.
They tried to scatter backwards, but I leapt forward and tagged her foreleg. “You’re captured,” I spat. “Pushups, now.” She fell to the ground and started heaving. “This is ridiculous! There is no way you could have not seen me! I am disappointed in you.” Leaving them to figure out what to do next is probably the best thing to do...it can’t be that hard to figure out...I mused as I galloped on down the trail.