"Extra, extra! Governor calls for town-wide meeting tomorrow night at seven! All residents expected to attend!" The local news colt yelled out from his paper stand, attracting the attention of some ponies, as well as Night Shadow's.
"You hear that?" Night turned to Thunderblast with an eyebrow furrowed.
"I do. A town-wide meeting? What for?"
"I don't know. Think we should go to it?"
"Well, he did say it's required for all to attend. It must be that important."
"True that," Night glanced back to the news colt. "I do wonder what it's about."
"As do I. For all we know, it may interfere with our plans."
"What plans?" Dawn Blossom suddenly appeared, floating upside down and grinning in Thunder's face.
"AAAAAaaa Dawn! What are you doing here?" His cheeks heated and turned a crimson red, and he awkwardly chuckled.
"Nothing, Dawn. Sheesh you are nosy."
"Aye, you know that's my job big brother!" Dawn laughed and landed beside them. "But seriously, what are these plans you two talk about?"
"I already said they're nothing."
"Come on, tell your little sister."
"No."
"But why?"
"Because."
"Because why?"
"Because they're none of your business!"
"Do I need to bite you?"
"What?"
Before Dawn could answer, she skipped to Night Shadow and playfully bit his neck. He yelped in pain and rubbed at the bite mark, which wasn't too deep. "Ouch! Did you really?!"
"I told you I would."
"Oh I'm going to-"
"Guys, stop." Thunder turned to Dawn. "Look, we will tell you when we get back. For now, stay quiet please. Can you do that for me?"
"Oh ... er, of course." Dawn shrugged. Behind her, Night Shadow was motioning his hoof with pupils wildly shrunk, trying to tell him to cut it out, but it was too late. "In that case, should we head back?"
"No!" Night yelled. Dawn turned around and both her and Thunder stared at him. He blushed hard. "I-I mean, no. Let's walk around town some more."
"Is ... everything alright?" Dawn asked, staring at her older brother in concern.
"Of course," Night smiled awkwardly. Dawn shrugged again and trotted off, while Night walked up to Thunder and glared. "What are you doing?!" He asked quietly.
"She asked, we have to tell her what's going on. We have to."
"Thunder, she is my little sister! She will not like this at all!"
"Night, the best thing we can do right now is to let your entire family know what's going on. So that way, we will have more ponies on our side. Isn't this what you want?"
"Well, yes ... It's just ... I'm afraid to..."
"Afraid to what?"
"Tell ... my father. He would slay us."
"Oh come on, it won't be that bad. Sure, he's a big guy, but you're his son. He can't disown you for your decisions."
"He did once before..." "Y-yeah," Night slowly looked down.
Thunderblast raised an eyebrow. "Look, do I need to talk to you about this entire thing, this plan that was your idea?"
"No, Thunder. It's just hard to ... explain things to my family."
"Night, listen," Thunder rested a hoof on the grey pegasus' shoulder. "You need to learn to be more assertive. That's one of the key factors to being a royal guard. If you're going to be afraid to speak up, then ... I'm sorry, but being a guard ... just isn't the job for you."
"W-what?" Night slowly glanced up, his eyes widened. "So ... after all of that training, I don't deserve to be a guard?"
Thunder sighed, then slowly nodded. "You did well in training, you certainly proved yourself. You stayed strong after losing a good friend of ours, and you passed basic training in flying colors! You even impressed the captain, Night. You impressed both of them, to be exact. Who knows, maybe you're the next Lunar Guard captain," he then smiled.
Night's ears slowly perked, and he cracked a smile. "You really think so?"
"Of course."
"Thanks ... but, a captain? I don't know about that. I'm not a good leader."
"Neither am I, but Captain Armor seems to think so. He's pretty spot on about things, but I guess only time will tell. For now, we need to get your family on our side."
Later on that evening, the three had returned home for dinner, which at the time was still being made. Instead of stopping to talk, Night Shadow and Thunderblast flew upstairs and into Night's room, who had locked the door behind him.
"Damn it all, Thunder. This is going to be harder than you think! Trying to explain things, serious things, especially to my sister is like trying to teach algebra to a two month old."
"So you're comparing your fifteen year old sister to a two month old? Brilliant. I highly doubt she's like that."
Night sighed. "Do you have the potion?"
"What potion?"
Night's eyes widened. "The ... venom potion! You have it right?!"
"No, what potion?!"
"The potion to turn you back!"
"Nope."
"Are you serious?!" Night glared at Thunder, who burst out into a laugh. "What's so funny?!"
"I'm kidding," Thunder walked up to the nightstand beside Night's bed and opened the drawer, sticking his hoof in and picking up a small glass potion bottle of a transparent purple liquid, which glowed slightly. "It's right here."
"And how do we know you won't permanently stay a pegasus once you drink it?"
"Because, if I take a couple of drops, I will turn back after a minute or so, enough time to show your sister. The only way it'd be permanent is if I drank it all, which I won't."
"Oh ... well then. Dawn?" Night yelled downstairs.
"Yes?!" Dawn yelled back.
"Come up here, please!"
Dawn didn't reply, instead the only sound to be heard were approaching hoofsteps, and the door trying to open. "Open the door!"
"It IS open!"
"You locked it, dimwit!"
"... Oh." Night reached a hoof and unlocked his door, blushing in embarrassment and opening his bedroom door to see an angry Dawn. "Sorry."
Dawn grumbled and trotted inside, then hopped onto his bed and got comfortable, lounging with her hind legs crossed. "Aaah," she shut her eyes lazily. "So, what's up?"
Night shut the door and once again locked it. "Dawn, we have something very important to tell you."
"Oh?" She kept her eyes closed.
Night sighed and turned to the other stallion beside him. "Thunder?"
At his word, Thunder pulled the cap off of the potion bottle and sniffed it once, then regretfully lifted it to his mouth and very slowly lifted it, allowing two or three drops of the liquid in his mouth, then capped it once more and set the potion on the nightstand. Dawn barely opened an eye, suddenly spotting Thunderblast and opening her eyes wide.
"What the?!" She squeaked, surprised. Instead of seeing a black-maned bat pony, she was staring at a well toned pegasus of the same colors, but a lighter grey coat and eyes the same as Night's, but blue. "Thunder ... is that you?"
Thunderblast nodded. "This ... is actually me."
"But ... I ... MO-"
Night Shadow quickly covered Dawn's mouth, she let out a muffled scream and stared with shrunk irises.
"Ssssh. Ssssh. Please don't yell. Dawn, listen to me. I told you this was important, but you need to actually listen. Will you promise not to scream?"
Dawn took a moment, but then slowly nodded and eased herself. Night slowly pulled his hoof away, and the bat pony mare sat up.
"You're telling me, Thunder is an Equestrian?"
"That I am," he nodded once. "Long story short, we need your help, and that is why I am disguised as a bat pony. The potion won't last long, I only took a few drops. I'll be turning back soon. But for now, you need to know what's going on."
"Well, w-what is going on?" Dawn slowly turned to Night, who inhaled a little before speaking.
"Okay, so I'm certain you already know about the great war we had with the Equestrians all of those years ago?" Dawn nodded. "We're out here to talk peace between our races. If we don't, another age of war may be upon us, and we want to stop it. Just today, Thunder convinced me to talk you, mom and dad to be on our side. We don't mean any harm to our race, Dawn. We just want to prevent another war, and possibly extinction of our race."
"I ... extinction?" Dawn's ears drooped. "W-what makes you think that?"
"You know what happened last time the bat ponies tried going to war with Equestria. We're lucky to even exist today, Dawn."
"Y-yeah ... s-so, you came here to stop a war, how do you plan to do that?"
Night sighed. "That's where we're kind of stuck, there's us against an entire army if they find out our plans. Which is why we need dad on our side, they will all listen to him."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Thunder said, groaning a little as his wings began to slowly reform into bat wings. "Governments have the right to throw high ranking soldiers from power if they disagree with their decisions."
"The governor wouldn't do that, he's the one that promoted my father, I highly doubt he would remove him from the Legion after his service record."
"You never know. Things can change in the blink of an ey-" Suddenly, Thunderblast's eyes widened and a brief glow filled the room. Moments after, he was back to being a bat pony. "Speaking of which..." He grumbled.
"So, Dawn. You get what we're trying to say here?" Night turned back to Dawn.
Dawn nodded. "I do, and I support the both of you," she smiled. "I'll do what I can to help. We still need to talk to mom and dad about this, the last thing we need is to be sent to the dungeons for trying to help. I just can't believe Thunder is actually a pegasus!"
Thunder chuckled and blushed. "Well-"
"Dinner is ready!" Midnight called from downstairs.
"DINNER!" Dawn's eyes widened of joy, and she flew up and towards the door, but instead of flying out, she crashed into it face first and fell to the floor. "Did you really lock the door again?!"
Later on, following dinner, Night Shadow and Thunderblast returned to their room, tired from the long day walking around town.
"So, are you sure you want to try hanging? It takes a little while to get used to it and not have the blood rush to your head," Night Shadow said, fluffing the pillow on his bed.
"It doesn't hurt to try," Thunder stared up at the wooden perch above him. "So, how do I get up here?"
"Alright. First, you fly up there, then you wrap your tail around the perch, and that's it. That's all there is to it."
"You sure?" Thunder opened his wings and floated up. "And, will this be strong enough to hold me? It doesn't look too sturdy."
"Should be, I've used it many times," Night Shadow laid down on his bed, pulling the sheets over him.
"If you say so," Thunder worked his way to a position, then began wrapping his tail around the perch. Afterwards, he stopped flapping his wings. Almost instantly after, his tail lost grip, and he fell to the floor with a thud. Night sat up and stared down at Thunder, a smile growing on his face.
"You okay?" Night grinned.
Thunder stood up, wobbly after taking a hit to the head. "That ... really hurt."
"I bet it did. What did it feel like?"
"What does that mean?!"
"You know what it means," Night snickered.
"Trade me."
"Nope, you already said you wanted to hang by your tail. Gotta get used to it!" Night tucked himself further into his blankets and purred softly.
Thunderblast grumbled and floated back up to the perch, once again wrapping his tail around the smooth wood bar, and instead of closing his wings, slowly worked his way to hanging, then stopped flapping altogether. This time, he kept a good grip on the perch, and glanced around in awe. "I'm hanging!"
"Don't die," Night said, his eyes shut.
"Wh-... What's that supposed to mean?!"
The following morning started off similar to the one before, but with the exception of Skywatcher cooking breakfast rather than Night Shadow or Midnight. After breakfast, Sky once again left for his shift before the meeting later that night. Nothing new had developed on what it was about, but both Night and Thunder had raised suspicions that it had to do with the future of both sides.
"So, what are you two going to do tonight at the meeting?" Dawn asked, sitting on Night's bed again.
"Nothing. We're going to hear it out, and leave. Nothing more. We will do this in a more private way, going in front of the entire town plus an army decreases our chances of being successful dramatically," Thunder replied.
"Thank you, Thunder. We really needed a scientific response," Night rolled his eyes. "But he is right. We're going to go to the governor tomorrow."
"And do what?"
"Talk to him. Do whatever it takes to make peace, and talk him into speaking with the princesses."
"And if he doesn't?"
"...Then..."
"Well?" Dawn turned to Night, as did Thunder.
"Then ... we will try a different approach."
"And that is?"
"...I... don't know yet."
"Perfect. So, no plan B, huh?"
"Not yet there isn't. We'll fight if we have to."
"Whoa whoa, you're saying you want the five of us to go against our entire town, plus the Legion? Smart idea Night, you'll land us all in a dungeon for eternity!" Dawn hissed.
"Dawn, listen. It won't be that way. I-"
"Night, are you even thinking about this?! You're going against the government of our race, who is probably on the verge of starting a new war with Equestria, and you want to just talk to them? Do you really think out of everypony, they will listen to you?"
"Why wouldn't they?"
"Many reasons actually," Thunder started.
"Shut up, Thunder!" Night and Dawn both said, and Thunder recoiled back, embarrassed.
Night sighed. "Dawn, just trust me this once, will you? We have to make this work."
Dawn calmed herself. "We do..."
"Let's just ... talk to mom and dad, okay?"
"Dad's at work. He won't be back until later to pick us up and go with him to the meeting. Besides, telling him in front of everypony won't be such a good idea."
"Worth a try," Thunder shrugged.
"He's right."
Dawn let out a quiet sigh. "Fine, fine. When are we going to tell mom?"
"Now would be a good time, while it's still day. We just have to make sure she doesn't freak out. Thunder, what do you-" Night looked to his side, seeing Thunder was no longer there. He turned to his other side and saw the grey stallion trot out of his room. "Thunder, wait!" He chased after, as did Dawn.
Thunderblast trotted down the stairs. "Mrs. Midnight?"
"Yes, sweetie?" The mare walked out of the kitchen, having washing the dishes and eyeing Thunder with a smile on her face.
"Me and Night have to tell you something. I'm going to make this quick before he probably kills me, but I am really a pegasus from Equestria," Thunder stared seriously.
Midnight's eyes widened, then she let out a small laugh. "Oh, Thunder. That's a good one!" She giggled some more, but stopped when she noticed the stern look on his face. "You're... Not kidding are you?"
"I'm afraid not. You see, I-"
Before Thunder could finish, Night Shadow tackled him to the floor and pushed his face into it. "Oh, ho ho. Sorry mom, Thunder's been eating some raw mushrooms. He's going a little crazy," Night blushed in embarrassment and chuckled awkwardly, but instead received a slight glare from his mother.
"I can see right through that smile of yours, Night Shadow. Why is he here?!" Midnight yelled, still glaring hard at Night, and soon at Dawn as she came downstairs.
"Mom... That's why I'm here," he slowly stepped off of Thunder and helped him up with a hoof. "You see, our race and Equestria have been throwing hatred at each other for so long, almost nopony knows our race still exists. We're here because... Well, because we only wish to bring the peace back, to stop this ongoing hate between our races. Mom, we want to stop a war, a war that would probably wipe us all out again."
Midnight kept a hard glare, but it soon softened as she listened in, then she glanced to Thunder and back to Night. "That's why you're here?" Both Thunderblast and Night Shadow nodded, and soon Dawn. Midnight softly sighed. "Does your dad know?"
"Not yet, unfortunately. Mom... You're not, mad are you?"
Midnight stared at Night, but then shook her head and smiled. "How could I be? You're taking a big step towards peace ... towards something nopony in our colony has ever thought of doing," she moved closer, smiling still. "You're special, Night. I hope you know that."
Night blushed softly and smiled back to his mother. "I am not, mom."
"You are," she smiled and nuzzled him gently.
"Whatever you say, mom," he smiled.
"For now, let's wait to tell your dad. You remember what happened last time," Midnight looked down. "Telling him would set him off ... you know how he can be."
"Right, right. Of course, mom."
"But... I just want you to know, I'm proud of you. And so is your father. He may still be uncomfortable with your decision of becoming a Lunar guard, but deep down, he is even more proud, knowing you took the steps of going somewhere else while following his."
Night smiled even more, then pulled Midnight into a hug. "Thanks, mom."
"Oh, you're welcome sweetie. I love you, my little Nighty."
"I love you too, mom."
Many more hours later, the sun had already disappeared below the western horizon, allowing the night sky to take over with Luna's moon, which barely lit the world below with a faint, soothing white light. At that time, most of the townsfolk were on their way to the main government building downtown, a three story domed building with signs posted on the outside telling ponies where to go for the meeting. Across town, the front door opened to Night Shadow's old home, and Skywatcher trotted inside.
"You all ready to go?" He asked, staring at his family, plus Thunder seated in the living room with a faint smile.
"We are!" Night replied, and the four stood up and walked in single file to the door. After locking it behind him, the five all made their way on hoof downtown, soon arriving in line at the town meeting center.
Once inside, they stood in a large crowd towards the back. Inside, the building had cathedral ceilings, with small bridges on the second and third floors above leading to offices and other rooms. Up ahead, the podium where the governor was to speak was heavily guarded, with Legion soldiers standing at almost every doorway around them. It was certainly an important meeting. Minutes later, the doors shut, meaning nopony else was coming inside, and soon, a slightly taller, extremely dark blue bat pony stallion walked up the podium and stopped before the microphone, clearing his throat.
"Good evening, my fellow mares and gentlecolts. Tonight, we are all here to discuss... Ahem, our latest discussion towards a movement that will bring us back into Equestrian territory," he stopped. Thunderblast and Night Shadow turned to each other, their eyebrows raised, then they whispered to each other.
"Are we too late?"
"I dunno. Let's just listen."
"As of two days ago, we have learned of the return of one of our own, a pegasus with bat pony parents. I am sure he is here, in the crowd." Night Shadow's ears perked, and he glanced around, catching the looks of a few others. He knew the governor was talking about him, but how? "But, there is also word spreading around that there may be another pegasus in the mix as well."
A few gasps spread around the building, followed by ponies looking at each other and saying some things inaudibly.
"Please, allow me to finish," the crowd quieted. "Thank you," the Governor cleared his throat once more. "But, that is not of any import. What is, is our movement into Equestria, starting with the take-down of the west coast."
Night Shadow and Thunderblast's jaws dropped, and they looked to each other in shock, but then turned back.
"We all know what they did to us, the princess allowed her subjects to neglect us like pets, then destroyed most of our kind when we retaliated. Now, we will do what she did to us. We will storm through every city, and wipe out any Royal Guard base for hundreds of miles. After this, we will take Canterlot. We will not let these...ponies...look down on us ever again!"
Bat ponies throughout the crowd looked to each other, some fear spreading around, but it quickly vanished as ponies began to cheer for joy, including even the Legion soldiers guarding the building. Night Shadow turned back to Thunderblast, then to Dawn, staring at them in concern and whispering.
"We need to go. Now!"
As he finished, he gasped, staring at Thunderblast in shock.
"W-what is it?" Thunder stared back worriedly.
"The venom...it's wearing off!" Night shrieked, accidentally catching the attention of the crowd, who turned to him and Thunder.
Thunder looked at himself, realizing his coat was back to it's original shade, and he no longer had bat pony wings, or fluffy ears. "Oh shoot..."
The Governor heard the commotion, spotting the two pegasi in the crowd, then hissed. "A spy, get him!"
"An Equestrian!" One pony yelled, and soon bat ponies scattered around, screaming in fear and towards the exits, while Legion soldiers flew up and towards the two.
"We have to get out of here!" Night yelled, grabbing Thunder's hoof and yanking him towards one of the exits, which was quickly blocked by two armored guards, armed to the teeth with their fangs and spears. Backing away, the two soon realized they were surrounded when more Legion soldiers ran up, spears pointed towards them.
"Well, this went well," Thunder sighed.
"Yeah, tell me about it."