• Published 27th Jun 2014
  • 557 Views, 5 Comments

KAMI: Malicious Edge - Tai Ichi



There is whole different world out there, a world of gods and monsters living next to our own, sometimes interacting with us and influencing our life and tonight, the night of the Moon Fest, it will become part of Tai Ichi's life.

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Prologue: The Moon Fest

Prologue

The Moon Fest

“And in 495 C.R., after a 7 year war, the peace treaty between Saddle Arabia and the Griffon Kingdom was finally signed…”

Except for Greymane’s lecturing and the sound of the scribbling that came from the pens of the few students, who were actually paying attention, the only sound that could be heard was the sound of the clock in front of the class. And its message was clear to many of the students in Greymane’s class. Only five more minutes left….

Greymane’s lesson was almost over, and by the looks of it, the students were happy that they could almost go home.
Not that the lesson was boring, Greymane was a brilliant teacher. Only today he wasn’t able to fascinate the adolescents with his lecture and he was not to blame, after all what kind hearted teacher could blame his students for wishing to the qilin fest tonight? After all the two-horned dragon-like equines threw excellent festivals. Their eastern traditions and rich culture, it was what made the festivals colorful and beautiful.

The celebration was an initiative from the qilinese population in Manehattan.
The streets of Manehattan would be filled with festival stands.
Ponies would be wearing traditional qilinese attire and festival masks of Nightmare Moon, Luna, Celestia and even masks of the faces of the wielders of the elements of harmony.
Lanterns, with qilinese symbols on them, would light the streets of Manehattan and on every corner there would be at least somepony playing some kind of instrument, most likely qilinese instruments like the horsagai, the neighkan or the shineighbue.

Most of the time the streets are going to be filled with the noise of merchants trying to sell trinkets and souvenirs to tourists, the simmering of oil used to fry qilinese festival food, foals who are laughing and trying to win at something at the festival games, music and conversations.

But when the moon is on her highest all the sound would go quiet, all the lights would be dimmed, all the foals would stop their little games and all the eyes would turn to the night sky.
Luna would then present her night in all her glory, the moon would be brighter than ever, the stars would twinkle in perfect harmony with the peace and serenity of the city and a thousand falling stars would draw lines in the blackness of night and after Luna’s performance the Qilin would light fireworks, the whole sky would be filled with colorful explosions which would give the sign that the festival would continue.

The “Moon fest”, as the qilin called it, was a celebration in honor of Princess Luna’s return to Equestria. The qilin saw this as a sign that balance had returned to planet Equis, which they considered a very important event and big events were to be celebrated with even bigger festivals.

Needless to say the Moon Fest is one of the most important festivals of Manehattan, not only because the city will be visited by the four princesses, it is also a very important attraction for tourists and for most merchants it’s a good source of income.

So everypony was eager to leave school, get home and get ready for what will be the best, and longest, night of the year.
That also counted for the white earthpony with black mane and a pattern on his coat that looked like he wore a black jacket and his flank wore a taijitu as cutie mark.
Tai Ichi was his name. Most ponies called him Tayson, but nopony really knew where his nickname came from.
Tayson lives with his grandma in the qilin town in Manehattan. His grandma runs a little shop where she sells herbs, potions, charms and other trinkets.

Like a gong in a monastery, the school bell, with her soft but loud four tones, filled the whole school building and released the tension of the students who were more than eager to leave school.

“Ok class, seems like we have to finish this chapter next lesson, everyone have fun at the Moon Fest and we’ll see each other next Friday.” Greymane’s words only reached a few ears, most already left the room when the bell rang.

Ponies like Tayson, who realized that leaving two minutes later wouldn’t make any difference, started to pack their things after the bell rang.

“Tayson, I’ll go ahead ok?” Silver Breeze said, “We’ll see each other at the festival?”

“Cool, I’ll join you and Lily as soon as the festival stand of my grandma is set up.”

“Take your time ok? I would like some time alone with Lily.” Silver Breeze winked and grabbed his saddle bag.

“So, you’re going to ask her tonight?” Tayson chuckled.

Silver blushed a bit. “Well, I’ll try, if my nerves allow me to form a somewhat coherent sentence when I ask.”

“Well good luck.” Tayson gave Silver a hoofbump.

“Hey kids if you don’t want to miss the Moon Fest, I would propose that you leave now.” Greymane smiled as he was standing next to the two colts.

“Of course sir.” Silver quickly grabbed his saddlebag and left.

“You too Tayson.” Greymane turned to Tayson.

“Of course sir.”

“Oh before I forget, did Crystal remember my order?”

“Of course.” Tayson rumbled a bit in his saddlebag until he found a brown bag with the name of the shop of his grandma on it ‘Crystal’s charms and brews’.

“Here you go, a dozen bitter bite roots. But are you sure that you don’t want to see a doctor? Maybe he can prescribe something that would help better against your rheumatism.”

Greymane smiled and took the bag. “Thank you for worrying,” Greymane smiled, “but these roots are all I need. Besides pills don’t taste as good as tea now do they. So how much do I owe you?”

“Well granny said they were for free since you are my teacher.” Tayson grinned sheepishly. “She believes it will help with my grades.”

Greymane chuckled. “Stubborn as always, huh? It's no wonder she gets into financial problems if she keeps giving discounts and free stuff to everypony even slightly connected to her. Can't have that now can we? Here's ten bits. Just drop them in her cash register, like always.
Tayson grinned as he took the bits and put them in his pouch.

“Thank you sir, have a good weekend.” Tayson took his saddlebag and trotted out of the room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

As Tayson left the ‘Littlehorn academy’ and started his trot home, the sun was already setting, he could already see some qilin, ponies, griffins and zebras setting up their stands for the festival.
Most of the streets were already decorated and on a few corners he could already see some musicians tuning their instruments for their all-night performance.
The festival would start in about two hours. Crystal was undoubtedly waiting for him to come home so they and Pick Up—the qilin who helped her in the shop—could start to set up their festival stand too.

But before he could go home, he had to pick up one little thing. A little filly who’s lessons would stop in three, two, one.

As predicted, the bell of the Manehattan elementary school rang. Soon a stampede of little hyperactive fillies and colts, who were forced to sit still for several hours, exited the front gate of the school where their parents were waiting to get them home, fed and ready for the festival and some of the younger ones ready for bed.
When the stream of foals thinned out you could also see a few teachers with ruffled manes and tear bags under their eyes. Those were probably due to exhaustion caused by having to deal with spoiled brats, correcting homework, dealing with annoyed parents and occasional, in the younger grades, having to stop a colt from eating glue.

Now Tayson waited for the filly that lived in the apartment above his.
Her two mothers were always friendly and often invited Tayson and his grandmother for tea or dinner.
Usually, when her parents went on a date or the one had a gig where she was performing and/or the other was invited to play in a symphony orchestra, which happened more then one would expect, they asked Tayson to foalsit Melody.
Since the little filly adored her foalsitter, her mothers asked if Tayson could accompany Melody home after school.

After two minutes he could see a light grey coated Pegasus filly with a blue mane leave the school building. She was accompanied by a middle-aged white-coated unicorn with a red-orange mane, which looked like a bee nest, and a red pen and a piece of paper as cutie mark.
Melody’s teacher had the same grumpy face as always and on the I’m-not-amused face of Melody he could see that something happened on school today.

“Good afternoon Miss Pen, may I say that you look charming as always.” Tayson tried as subtle as possible to compliment his ex-equestrian teacher.

“Good afternoon Tai Ichi, may I ask you to inform Melody’s mother.”

“Mothers…” Tayson corrected.

Red Pen was clearly not amused with being corrected. Sadly she was also not amused by the fact that Melody had two mothers. “Fine, her… motherssssss,” she said the last word with a hiss and an undertone of disgust, “that Melody had a fight today.”

“THAT JERK STICKED GUM IN MY HAIR!” The little filly tried to defend herself.

“Melody, please…” Tayson pleaded but the damage was already done.

“Excuse me little miss but I don’t tolerate this language.” Red Pen said with a firm tone.

“Miss Pen I don’t want to be rude—” Tayson said before being cut off by his former teacher.

“Then don’t.” Red Pen interrupted with a firm tone.

Tayson sighed internally. Why has she always to be like this?
“AS I was saying,” Tayson continued, “I still got a lot of preparations for the festival and my grandmother is already waiting so could I get the short version please.”

Red Pen huffed. “Very well then. She bucked a colt in his face.”

Tayson looked unamused at the little filly and cut Melody off before the filly could try to defend herself again with the same statement she just used. “Very well Miss Pen I’ll make sure her parents will be informed of the misbehavior of their daughter and I’m sure she will be punished accordingly.” Tayson turned his attention to the little filly who then left the side of her teacher so she could stand next to her favourite foalsitter.

“I’m sure you will.” She glared a last time at the filly, huffed and turned around to take her leave.

As soon as Tayson was sure Red Pen couldn’t hear him he groaned like he always groaned after a conversation with her.
He then looked at the filly. “Seriously?” His voice filled with an unamused tone.

“It’s not my fault,” Melody whined, “You know what a bully Sapphire Crown is. Earlier this week he did called Babs and I ‘blank flanks’ again.”

“But did you have to buck him in his face? Inside the school,” Tayson stressed, “I mean you know how exhausting it is having to deal with your teacher.”

“Hey, I have to deal with her every day. Besides all the other fillies and colts cheered when I bucked him in his bucking face.” She puffed her chest out in pride.

“Well I had to deal with her too for six years so I shouldn’t have to deal with her anymore.”

“I’m sorry…” The filly looked down and poked the ground.

“It’s ok.”

“Are… Are you going to tell mom and mom?” She looked at Tayson with pleading eyes.

“Well, I guess I have to.” He shrugged.

“Dawww… Guess Babs has to go to the Festival without me.” Melody knew she would be in trouble now. Not only with both her mothers but also with best friend Babs Seed.

“Don’t worry, I’ll talk to your mothers and I promise that they’ll let you go to the Moon Fest after all.” Tayson winked.

The filly’s eyes lit up. “Really? Pinkie promise?”

“Pinkie what now?”

“The Pinkie promise, it’s something Babs learned when she went to her family reunion in Ponyville.”

“Well ok,” Tayson shrugged, “but now we should get going, my grandma is already waiting. Show it to me on our way home.”

The filly jumped on Tayson’s back and they started their trot home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I’m hooome.” Tayson shouted throughout the entrance of the three story tall house.

“Me toooo.” The filly on his back shouted with the same tone in her voice as Tayson used in his announcement. The two went the up the stairs till they were on the first floor.

“Ah Tayson, good to see you,” an elder grey coated earthpony with her light blue mane in a bun and two long thick needles through it left her apartment and stepped near to Tayson, “we should hurry, the festival will start soon.”

“I’ll join you in a minute, I have to speak with Melody’s mother.” Tayson gave his grandmother a nuzzle.

“Ok but don’t take too long, Pick Up is strong but he can’t levitate everything himself.”

“Hello Crystal.” The filly on Tayson’s back chirped.

“Hello dear, how was school today.” Crystal turned her attention to the filly.

“Not good, a bully stuck gum in my hair…” The filly’s mood fell.

“Oh no, don’t worry I’m sure you’ll have a lot of fun with your friends on the festival.” She patted Melody’s head which conjured a smile on her face, while her whole mood lifted at the notion of the Moon Fest.

“Well, I better get going otherwise Pick Up will do all the work himself, can’t let that happen now can I.” With that Crystal Clear left the building.

Tayson now rose the stairs and knocked on the door of Melody’s apartment.
A grey coated mare with amethyst eyes and a charcoal mane opened the door, she wore her pink bow tie as usual and purple sol clef as cutie mark.
Melody jumped off Tayson’s back and jumped at the mare in front of them.

“HI MOMMY.” The filly chirped. She nuzzled her mother and ran inside to greet her other mother.

The grey earth pony rolled her eyes and smiled as if she had expected her daughter to act different then always. She then turned her attention back to the stallion who ‘escorted’ her daughter back home.

“Hello Tayson, thank you for bringing Melody home.” The mare smiled gracefully and her tone wore the same sophisticated tone she always used.

“No problem Octavia. Oh but…” he leaned to Octavia to whisper something in her ear, “She had a fight with a bully today on school.”

Octavia backed a bit away. “Oh no, she isn’t hurt is she?” She tried to call her daughter so she could examine her for bruises. Tayson however was able to get her attention back to him. “No she isn’t, the bully however.” Tayson’s stretched the last word as if he tried to buy time to express what he was about to say as soft as possible.

“She didn’t…” Octavia had a you-got-to-be-kidding-me expression on her face.

“Well, she bucked him in the face…” Tayson said while he flattened his ears.

“Oh Celestia, I swear she has that from Vinyl.” She turned around, ready to scold her daughter. Tayson however cut her off. “Well he did put gum in her hair and he was bullying her for the entire week.” He tried to defend Melody.

“Fine, I’ll see Red Pen on Monday to discuss what to do with that bullying problem.”

“Could you do me a favor?”

“Sure, what do you need?”

“Well if you’re going to scold her, could you please let her go to the Moon Fest, you can still ground her on another day, right?” Tayson smiled sheepishly.

“Well…” Octavia considered Tayson’s proposal.

“I’ll foalsit her free for an entire month!” Tayson interjected whatever decision Octavia would have made. “I kind of promised her that she could go.”

She gave him a smile. “An entire month?”

“Yes, just don’t be too harsh on her ok?” Tayson said.

“Deal.” She grinned

She turned around to see her wife with her daughter on her back trotting to the door.
Vinyl gave her wife a kiss then turned to Tayson so she could give him a hoofbump. “Yo Tayson wassup.”

“Well I got to go help Crystal with her stand.”

“Cool, we’ll come too, isn’t that right champ?” She looked up where she could see the grey Pegasus filly that was climbing on her head.

“YEAAAAH.” Melody cheered and almost tumbled off Vinyl’s head.

“We’ll see each other there than.” Tayson smiled and started to make his leave. As he went downstairs he could hear Octavia starting a conversation about why it isn’t ok to buck somepony in the face followed by an amazed Vinyl who almost prized her daughter for winning a fight and an annoyed Octavia who told Vinyl that she shouldn’t be encouraging such a behavior.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Setting up Crystal’s festival stand didn’t take as long as Tayson had expected. Pick Up had used his magic to levitate all the heavy parts like the supporting beams and the boxes with all the tradable goods that Crystal wanted to sell on the fest. Tayson’s job mostly consisted in assembling the whole thing. Pick Up’s magic was too rough to handle little parts, like the screws and nails, with the precision needed to make sure the stand would be able to support its own weight. Crystal’s eyes on the other hoof weren’t the best anymore so she made sure that the lay out of the stand was appealing enough for the customers.

After almost half an hour the whole thing was set up and ready to use.

“I think we’re done here.” Pick Up said in his deep and heavy voice.

“Thank you for the help boys, especially you Pick Up. You had to see us last year, we almost spend half an hour at only transporting the whole stuff here.” Crystal laughed in nostalgia. “Your levitation made it way easier.”

“The pleasure is all mine Cristaru-san, I’m more than happy to lend my strength to you.” The yellow equine smiled proudly and puffed his massive chest and his muscular furry legs.
“A qilin’s magic comes from his physical strength after all.”

Tayson looked at the qilin. He always found it a weird concept that the qilin got their magic from their strength since every unicorn he knew who good was at magic relied more on their mental sharpness than on their physical strength.
But it would explain why he was able to lift the whole stand on his own. He was big, even for Qilin standards, he almost doubled Tayson height where other qilin were about one and a half times his height. He was so big that Tayson wasn’t even able to see the ‘cutie mark’ on his back.
He did see it once but it looked different than a cutie mark, it had the same meaning but it was abstracter. It looked more like an ink drawing, like every other qilin cutie mark, then like a picture like ponies had.

“Tayson?” Crystal, who now stood in front of her grandson, snapped Tayson back out of his thoughts.

“Yes, sorry, what did you say?” Tayson smiled like he was a foal caught in the act of raiding the cookie jar.

“I said that I was thankful that you helped me setting up my stand and asked if you shouldn’t head to meet your friends.” Crystal smiled.

“Oh right, almost forgot about that.” He gave his grandmother a nuzzle and turned around to start trotting of.

“Have fun with your friends and send my regards ok?” Crystal waved and turned back to her stand.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After half an hour trot he finally arrived at the Manehattan central park, where he would meet Silver and Lily.
The trot from Qilin town to the central park normally just took ten minutes. But Tayson had taken a detour and met Octavia and Vinyl (who looked gorgeous in qilinesian kimono, Vinyl had also left her shades at home at once which made the amethyst eyed pony and the ruby eyed pony stand out). Apparently was melody now in the care of Babs Seed’s mother and was now trying to get her cutie mark with the aid of the cutie mark crusaders, whoever they were. “Oi, sleepyhead we’re right over here!”

Tayson could hear Lily’s, soft but strong (almost tomcoltish), voice and saw Silver standing right next to a green unicorn mare who was waving at him. He lost no time and sprinted off to meet his friends.

“Hey guys, sorry that I’m late, you know how long it takes to set up Crystal’s stand,” Tayson lied flatly.

“Wasn’t Pick Up of any help?” Lily looked skeptically.

“He was the one who saved us the most time, but some of the screws were rusty and one of the power cables was broken so we had to fetch new ones.” Tayson’s lie was very effective. Lily smiled again as if she just lost any doubt, not that it would matter if her friend lied to her.

“So did I miss anything?” Tayson smiled mischievously at Silver who could only flush and shake his head fast but subtle.

“Naah, we were just talking about school stuff when you came here.” Lily said with a nonchalant tone. “Anypony who wants some ramuneigh? I'll pay.” The two stallions nodded and smiled as Lily trotted off to get some of the qilinese soda. The grin continued for a second or two and stopped when Tayson threw his gaze at his friend. He looked with an unimpressed look at his friend.

“Look I know what you’re thinking but I’m just waiting for the right moment to ask—” Silver grinned nervously.

Tayson punched his friend’s shoulder. “NO, you’re procrastinating.”

“But let me explain,” Silver whined as he rubbed his sore shoulder, “I saw her sitting here and thought that it wouldn’t be romantic enough to just ask her in the park.”

“PROCRAASTINAATING.” Tayson interrupted the almost pathetic excuse Silver tried to use on his friend. “If you’re going to wait too long someone else will snatch her away right in front of your nose, you moron.”

On Silvers face you could see what the horror of seeing his crush with another stallion (or mare) meant to the silver coated Pegasus.

“'kay, I promise I'll ask her when Luna’s show starts, ok?”

“Pinkie. Pie. Promise.” Every word was fortified with Tayson moving his head closer to Silver’s.

“Pinkie what now?” Silver’s head was now filled with confusion.

“Something Melody showed me. If you break the pinkie promise apparently a pony called Pinkie Pie will break you.” Tayson’s gaze intensified. “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Now say that phrase while doing these movements.”

Tayson showed the ritual movements of the Pinkie Pie Promise. Silver looked embarrassed but copied the movements of his friends without any resistance or questioning.

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. I promise that I’ll ask her at Luna’s show.”

FOOOREEEVEEER!!!!!” A roar was heard throughout Manehattan, most ponies looked confused, not sure what just happened, but most resumed shortly after like nothing ever happened.

“Whoa guys, did you just hear that?” Lily just returned with two closed and one opened bottle of ramuneigh from which she took a sip before levitating the other bottles towards her friends.

“Heard what?” Tayson said with artificial honesty and turned his gaze to the now terrified Silver who had probably second thoughts on the pact he just made.

“Well the roar, you know… the… well never mind, so what were you guys just talking about?”

“Well I had to talk to Miss Red Pen today.”

“With that old homophobe hag? What did you do? Did you talk about how the immigration rate of zebras has a benefit on the equestrian culture?” She laughed at the almost infinite ways that could force Tayson to talk to one of the worst teachers in the history of bad teachers.

“You know the little filly that lives above my flat?”

“Yeah, what about her?” she chuckled as she took a sip from her drink.

“She kicked a bully in the face.” Lily spitted the soda all over the Silver’s face.

“Oh my Celestia, I’m so so sorry.” Lily gasped as she realized what she had done

“No problem.” Silver gave an embarrassed smile said as he wiped the soda from his face.

Lily grinned sheepishly. “Let me make up for this pleeeaaase.”

Tayson grinned. I know how you could make up for this. His mischievous smile turned to Silver who blushed and threw a glare at Tayson.

“Wait I know how.” Both stallions now turned their attention to the orange-maned unicorn. “I learned a cleaning spell today, just hold still for a moment.” The unicorn with an enchanted water rose as cutie mark focused and a magical shine formed around her horn. There was a flash and soon after that Silver was as clean as if he had an all-included treatment in the spa.

“See, better.” The mare smiled at her successful spell. “Now you’re clean enough to go on a date with every mare you’d like.” She winked.

“I-I guess, th-thanks Lily.” Silver stammered as he became as red as a ripe tomato.

Tayson gave Silver a last mischievous smile, which made the Pegasus flush even more.

“Well let’s go, unless you guys want to spend all night in the park. I for my part want to explore the festival.” The mare trotted of. Both stallion looked at each other, smiled and galloped after their friend.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The trio had just finished exploring almost a quarter of the whole festival. The mare had bought and won a lot of stuff: a pink kimono with flower pattern on it which she now wore, a metal flower-styled hairpin which now graced her mane, a mask, several boxes with sweets inside and of course a ton of stuffed animals which she had won on the many festival games.

“You know, you could always just levitate all this stuff.” Silver said as his bones were crushed under the massive amount of stuff his crush had acquired on the festival.

The mare who lead the trio assertively through the streets of Manehattan turned around and flattened her ears. “Oh, I’m sorry,” she looked at silver with watering eyes and sniffed a bit, “if it’s too heavy then I’ll take it over from you.”

She is evil.

Silver regained his posture at the mention of his physical limits. “Did I say that it was too heavy? I… eh… meant that… eh… if you find something else I can carry you just have to ask.” Silver smiled nervously.

Tayson looked at the soon-to-be couple and face hooved.

“Oh look, another arching stand. Back in a second guy’s ♫” The mare trotted off towards her next target. It is way too creepy how good she is at arching.

Tayson looked at what was still visible of his friend beneath the pile of festival stuff. “You’re such a pushover you know that.”

“NO,” The Pegasus defended himself, “I, my friend, am in love. And you know what they say: “Love is the greatest power of them all.”

“Love also makes stupid.”

The Pegasus paid his friend’s statement no attention as the green mare came back with two more stuffed animals which she threw on the growing pile of festival trophies she had acquired. Silver tried not to squeak on the extra load that was just added and Tayson could only watch in disbelief on how fast the mare had won. “That was fast, even for you.”

“Well it wasn’t that difficult, it was a big target.”

Tayson glanced over the mare’s shoulder only to see a merchant with his mouth wide open at the look of a target where the bull’s eye was pierced with about twenty arrows.

Tayson gulped. I probably shouldn’t make her mad when there is a bow in range.

“Well gentlecolts, let’s head towards the park, Luna’s performance will soon begin.” The assertive mare smiled and lead the way. Silver who was almost unable to move followed her obeying, Tayson looked for a second at the two and followed them in disbelief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the park there were already a bunch of ponies, zebras, griffons and qilin assembled.
The most of the open space was already filled with friends, family and lovers who had already spread blankets across the grass field and shared emotional or familiar moments under the black blanket of the night.
The two stallions looked around to see if there still was a place where they could put their blanket. Both were snapped out of their concentration when they heard Lily shouting their names.

“GUUUUYS, come on, I’ve already found a place.”

The two looked at each other and shrugged. In their trot—to the place that Lily was able to conquer—Tayson poked Silver. “When the performance starts, I’ll leave you two alone ok? And then you ask! OK?! Oh and send me a text message if she says yes and you want some time alone ok?” Tayson gave a gleeful smile.

Silver’s face froze at the mention off what he now had to do. He wasn’t sure from what he should be more afraid off, the rejection of the mare he loved or whatever demon would devour his soul if he even dared to break the pinkie promise. He decided for the later, after all what was the worst that could happen? She could laugh, be disgusted, say that she’s sorry, say that she is gay, say that she thought that he was gay, get angry, laugh even more, she could run, ignore him, the world could explode, she could say that she has a crush on Tayson, ask a restriction order, say that she simply isn’t interested, don’t forget the laughing, she could stop talking to me and our little clique could fall apart and she would tell everypony on school and everypony would laugh at me for even trying and, and, and.

“Sure thing.” He gave a confident smile.

Tayson rolled his eyes and sat down on the blanket Lily had laid on the grass field.
After a few minutes all the noises in the park were silenced as all the lights were dimmed.
Well I guess this is my cue.

“Guys, I’m going to search for a toilet.” Tayson whispered, trying not to break the quiet.

“What? Now?” Lily exclaimed loud only to be shushed by every other pony on the grass field.

“I’ll be quick, don’t worry, I’ll be back before you know it.” Tayson smiled as he trotted off. He went down the street and left his friends alone on the grass field.

The last light was dimmed which made the only light source the moon herself.
Everything was quiet and everypony waited for Luna’s performance to begin.

Silver Breeze lay next to Lily Petal, he glanced at her and quickly turned his eyes back to the twinkling stars. Silver’s breath became labored, he tried to calm himself by breathing deep in… and out… in…. and out…. But it only worked for a while.
He glanced back at Lily. She was gorgeous. Her Beauty was only supplemented by her kimono and her mane was elegant with the metal flower-styled hairpin she wore. And the moonlight hid every last little imperfection there was. She looked astonishing, amazing, gorgeous.

“Do you like what you see?” Lily now looked with a seductively smile at Silver Breeze.

“I… uh… well… I was just…”

The mare chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, I’m just teasing. Now if you don’t want to miss the spectacle you should look at the sky.” The mare turned her azure eyes towards the night sky.
Silver tried to regain his calm. Ok any minute now.

As the first falling star drew a line across the dark blue sky, there was a sound of awe. Soon came a second and a third.
Silver gulped. I guess that’s my cue. Geronimo!

“H… Hey Lily.”

“Yes?” The mare let her gaze slowly drift to the stallion who lied next to her. Her azure eyes were now looking at the silver coated Pegasus and her small but warm and serene smile made Silver’s heart flutter.

Silver took a deep breath.

“There was something I wanted to tell you.” For a moment he could see the face of the mare switch from serenity to surprise back to serenity.

“Yes?”

“I… I l… love you.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tayson had found a little quiet spot. Now he just waited for whatever is going to happen to Silver.

He was pretty sure that Lily felt the same way Silver did. I mean, yes, Lily was always a little harsh towards Silver, but letting him carry all her things was just the peak of the iceberg. There even was a time where she’d force him to do her math homework, which she was perfectly able to do herself. She was smart and very talented when it came to subjects like alchemy, magic and mathematics. So Tayson always assumed that it was her way to ask (or more like demand) for attention.

Then again, he had no proof, so he could be wrong.
Looking up he could see that the show had started. Tayson sighed, it was peaceful and he enjoyed the serenity. Manehattan was always a busy place, nopony had time to spend, it always was rushing from one place to another without looking at the path one was walking on. Nopony ever looked how beautiful the city was, not just in the physical reality but also the abstract part. This city was the home of thousands and thousands of ponies, zebras, gryphons and qilin. They all lived here, worked here, loved here. The city wasn’t just a complex of buildings, shops, offices and hotels; the city was alive, a living being who took care of the ponies that lived in it. Yet nopony wanted to take care of the city by choice (except for a few), some even harmed the city by besmirch it with graffiti or dumping their garbage at the streets. But tonight everypony was just quiet and they just watched, no deadline to catch, no place to rush to. Everything was serene and peaceful.

Tayson was snapped out of his thinking as he felt something vibrating in his pocket.
He actually asked. Tayson smiled and grabbed in his pocket. He pulled out his phone and looked at the screen. 1 new message. From: Silver.
He clicked on open but before he could read the message his phone was hulled in a purple shine and grabbed out of his hooves.

“HEY, THAT’S MINE!” He yelled.

In front of him stood two ponies, one was a unicorn and the other was an earthpony. Both wore sunglasses and had no expressions on their faces. The unicorn who was levitating Tayson’s phone now ceased his spell and let the phone fall to the ground. Before Tayson could even attempt to grab the phone and run, the earthpony stepped forward and crushed the phone under his hoof, never stopping to stare at the now a little terrified earthpony.

“You will now come with us.” The two said in unison.

“Yeah right.” Tayson didn’t waste any more second and tried to run as fast as possible only to be grabbed in another purple levitation field. He floated over to the unicorn who still wore no expression. “That was no request.” The unicorn smashed Tayson towards the next wall with as much force as possible. Tayson was only half-conscious, this quickly changed when he hit the wall a second time.

Author's Note:

Special thanks to NobleValor for proofreading this chapter.

I hope you enjoyed this chapter. If you have questions or concerns, leave them in the comment section or send me a PM. I answer every mail and comment.

~Angel~