It was a sunny day in Canterlot, only a few clouds littered the sky. The Sparkle household was calm, everypony sitting next to the dining table, eating the homemade lasagna that Twilight Velvet had made.
"Tell me, son, how is it at boot camp? I heard that the Sergeant was pretty hard on the new recruits?" Nightlight asked his son, Shining Armor.
Shining swallowed down the piece of lasagna he was eating with a loud gulp, earning a glare from his mother and a mumble about not learning proper customary behavior. Shining didn't notice that, though, and instead moved to answer his father's question. "Oh, well yeah, he can be a bit hard sometimes, but he knows all the cool things about how to spar and how to use a spear without magic, and a bunch more! Next week we're finally gonna start actually practicing instead of just reading some dumb old book about it." This time he got a glare from the purple filly sitting next to him, say that books are not stupid. Everypony chuckled at this, everypony but Comet that is, who agreed with Twilight.
It had been a couple of months since Comet started living with the Sparkle family, not requiring to have guards with him in the sparkle household or when supervised by a trusted adult. At first, it had been quite awkward, the young colt not being very talkative. But as time went on he started to open up a bit, though mostly to Twilight. It had started with simply talking about books, math, and magic, but soon enough even Comet went with them to the park, though he usually carried a book with him, not unlike Twilight herself.
Things were perfect to Twilight, nothing should be able to ruin this day. But something did. Dark clouds formed in the sky, blocking out next to all light. just as her eyes started to adjust to the low light levels, lightning flashed. What Twilight saw had her fall back on her haunches. In front of her were not only an adult Comet, but all of her family, all hanging from nooses around their necks, each one of them lifeless. A cruel laugh echoed, as she turned her head around she found none other than Nightmare Moon, clad in her light blue armor, an evil smile on her snout.
Twilight took a step backward and tried to run away from her, to no avail as she was picked up in the dark alicorn's blue magic. She tried to scream, to struggle, anything, but she couldn't. She couldn't even look away. She was brought up to her worst enemy as she whispered something to her. "Wake up."
Star flew up from her bedroll, sweating profoundly. It wasn't the first time she had had a memory twisted like this. Truth be told, it was actually becoming somewhat of a regular thing now, happening every other day or so. That didn't mean that she enjoyed it, oh no, she didn't enjoy it one bit. The twisted memories relentlessly kept haunting her. At first, she had theorized that it was Nightmare Moon that was doing this, but she let that go as she had no proof of Nightmare being able to do something like that and chalked it up to guilt. Of course, that didn't mean that she didn't blame her for it, no, Nightmare was still the one to hang her best friend, only friend. Except her old foalsitter, her brother and some others from school, Moon Blaster, or something like that.
With a grunt, Star rose up and started to make herself look like she hadn't just woken up from a nightmare, she didn't want to show any weakness to the others. She combed her mane to look somewhat orderly, but not to the same precision as when she lived in Equestria, it would get ruined anyway. She dried herself and the bedroll with a quick spell, not wanting to get a cold and become dead weight or sleep in something that smelled too terribly and was cold.
She got out of the tent to find Graywing watching the fire, making sure that it didn't cool off nor got too big to handle while she was asleep. The gray griffin looked tired, he had probably been sitting there for a while now.
"How're you doin', Graywing?" She moaned out, stretching her legs to really wake up.
Graywing grunted in response but answered soon enough. "Urg, been here around three hours. Of course I had to be the lucky gryph' to get the longer watch." He said sleepily as he moaned, too.
Star gave him an understanding smile as she sat herself next to him. "Well look at it this way, you won't need to be sentinel next time, as you already had the worst this time."
He sighed. "Well, I guess you're right about that. Still wished I could get some more sleep before we head out." He said as he watched right into the fire.
Star, too, stared into the flames as they flickered to and fro. "We're heading out as soon as everygriffin is ready, the others should be up anytime now, so, with that in mind, it shouldn't be too long till we arrive in Gryphonport. Then we might get some real beds, too."
Graywing gave Star a weak smile. "Yeah, you're right. You know, I don't remember you being this talkative, care to give me the story?" The smile had turned playful as he jabbed her shoulder.
Star's eyes danced to the sides as she mumbled. "Oh, uh, just something Gilda said, there isn't really any story to it." Star looked everywhere except in Graywing's eyes.
"Oh, now I definitely know you're lyin'. So tell me, what's the real reason?" He was grinning by now, it was rare to get something out of Star, he wouldn't let this go, it sounded very juicy by how Star sounded. The truth was far from it.
With a sigh of defeat, Star was just about to reveal the true reason, but luckily, or unluckily depending who you ask, Gilda interrupted her before she had said anything. "Hey Graywing, Star. Up and about early, as usual, Star?" Star sighed in relief, while Graywing grunted in annoyance. "Uh, did I miss something?"
Star was quick to respond, not wanting Graywing to reply himself. "No no, nothing important. Just Graywing being Graywing." Gilda was not convinced, though. "Heh heh, I'll just look, uh, how the others... uh, you know, so we can get going as soon as possible." Star gave them a cheap smile, as she trotted away, a little faster than normal, to the other tents.
"Damn, so close." Gilda just gave the griffin a confused look.
The group of six griffins and one unicorn moved through the dense forest, some of them carrying a backpack with the tents while Gilda and Graywing carried the provisions they had bought and the meat from some of the animals they had hunted. The only one without anything was Twilight, instead, she was casting spells so that everygryph could see and to clear the way of the worst of the foliage. With Twilight doing this, the group moved much faster than they had before.
Still, something was wrong, Star just couldn't say what. Their trek had been rather uneventful, but she would get the feeling of being watched some times, but no matter where she looked could she find anything in the darkness. Of course, the darkness didn't help to calm her nerves. But she had other things to do than to worry about something silly like the dark. She was, after all, the one who lit up the path for the rest.
After two hours or so, they reached the end of the forest. Blunt Force, a dark gray and white griffin with the face of an owl, spoke up. "Remind me, why did we have to take the old and abandoned 'path' through the forest when there is a newer one, one that doesn't go through the forest?" Graywing groaned as Star facehoofed.
Gilda was the one to answer. "Blunt, we're trying to avoid the nightmare guard, remember? That path is patrolled by them, the one we took wasn't."
Unbeknownst to them, the path was actually guarded. A night pegasus, or batpony as most called them, scout clad in a blueish armor took to the skies, flying to where a squadron of other nightmare guards was stationed. He landed in front of one of them.
"The mercenaries are headed for town, Captain! What are your orders, ma'am?"
"Good work, Lieutenant." The sky blue pegasus with a prismatic mane and tail spoke so that all present could hear. "The traitor and her pals have been found and are heading for the city! We will set up an ambush there and capture them!" Every one of the nightmare guards shouted in approval. "We're heading out in fifteen minutes, everypony get ready! We will be traveling in small groups as to not arise suspicion, is that clear!?"
"Ma'am, yes ma'am!"