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Prologue, Meat-ing The Crew1,317 words
Chapter 1, Memories of Past1,517 words
Chapter 2, Old Friends and Enemies1,567 words
Chapter 3, Choosing Loyalties2,251 words

Chapter 3, Choosing Loyalties

Star and the gang were walking down the streets. Both Star and Gilda had conflicted thoughts about their meeting with the Captain of the Nightmare Guard, but both also knew that they had more pressing matters. Like the increase of guards in the area. Heh, looks she sold us out. But what did I expect from a Nightmare Guard? Star thought. She probably lied about everything she said, too. Damn if she wasn't convincing though, maybe they have 'formal training' for that. Wouldn't surprise me.

The only reason they hadn't been caught yet was that it thankfully was rush-hour. But even with the added protection of rush-hour, they still had more run-ins than they had had before. Star had to use her invisibility spell more than she would have liked, magic exhaustion becoming a real threat to her, having to repeatedly turn it on and off. At this point, it was almost not worth turning it off at all, almost. Like for the fact that she might need it for some other spell.

There was a small breeze blew through town, causing Star to shiver, although the others didn't seem to notice. Star shrugged. It's probably just my nerves. Yeah, that's it. "Keep to the left. There's an abandoned shack there. You could hide in there."

"Huh? Hey, guys, I think we should keep to the left. There's an abandoned shack there." Star said in a hushed tone to the others who, while giving her strange looks still complied. Seconds later a pair of Nightmare Guards landed right where they had just been.

"Damn, thought I saw them here." They heard one of the guards say before they closed the door behind them. As soon as they had made sure that no one was listening in, everyone turned towards Star.

Gilda was the first one to speak up. "OK, I'm gonna voice the question we all have. How did you know about the guards, and how did you know about this place? And I don't think it was just luck this time."

Star shied away a bit from the others, not knowing what to say. "Uh, w-well." She sighed and hung her head. "Truth be told, I have no idea. It's just like I knew, even though I've never been here." Star said, shaking her head. "I would'a told you if I knew, you know that. The only thing I can guess with any means of probability is that it's magic, dark magic in specific since almost no other type has any, other... " Star trailed off.

Twilight was walking down one of the many white corridors of Canterlot Castle. The glass windows through the hall depicted many different events in history, some more remembered, some less. All of them were made out of colored glass, every single one different from the other. Well, of the stained glass windows, that is. There were still regular windows, perhaps for future events? Only Celestia knew.

The white marble tiled floor glimmered in the sunlight, bathing Twilight in light. The first few times Twilight had been stunned by the beauty of it all, but she was used to it nowadays, paying it no mind. No, she was enraptured by the book she was reading, barely aware enough to avoid collision with the odd guard or servant that she passed. Thankfully she knew the whole castle by heart by now, something that was rather useful to her considering how often she had her muzzle in a book.

As Twilight continued down her path she meets fewer and fewer ponies, until she reached her destination, the more or less abandoned Starswirl the Bearded Library. It rarely saw any use due to two things, one, ponies just didn't care that much about libraries nowadays, something Twilight thought unfathomable, because who doesn't like to spend their time reading books in a library? And two, it was a restricted area that only a select few had access to, Twilight, being the princess personal student, was one of them. So when she found the door slightly opened, the young filly found it rather suspicious.

Ripping her eyes from the book, she tried to sneak into the room, not wanting to alert the potential burglar. What she found was no burglar, but Comet and a guard. Comet was too deeply into the tome he was reading to notice Twilight and the guard was doing what Twilight's brother had mentioned as the first thing a Royal Guard should learn to do; Sleeping while standing. The unicorn guard was barely holding onto his spear as he leaned on an old bookshelf, much to Twilight's horror.

Just as she was going to lecture the guard that you should, in fact, NOT lean on old bookshelves full of priceless and one-of-a-kind books and scrolls when she tripped over a pile of notes and fell headfirst. The guard startled awake, lost his balance and had to pick himself up too, while Comet simply looked up from his books and notes, a small snicker escaping him at the sight of Twilight and Royal Guard alike splayed out on the floor.

Awhile ago Twilight would have almost lost it with the messes Comet would leave and sorted it all, but living with the colt had taught her that it was futile. He would call it 'organized chaos', something she soon found out to be an actual thing. Just because it was an actual type of organization didn't mean that she had to like it. No, she did not like it one bit.

Quickly banishing the urge to organize it all, Twilight headed to Comet, asking him what he was reading. "Well, it's a very interesting subject. It's how you could almost talk using only your mind! And magic, of course. It's practically the safest way to converse since only a mind walker would be able to listen in. And since the art of mind walking was lost a millennium ago you don't have to worry about that! Cool, right?"

Twilight simply stared at him. "I... guess?" Comet gave her a big smile, but before he could continue, Twilight cut in. "So... what have you been doing today?"

"Hmm... Oh! Well, I was talking to Cadence earlier, she had been looking for you. The weird thing was that she had this look that she knew something I didn't, that's more like Celestia, I wonder if the Princess is rubbing off on her... But besides that, I have mostly been reading, though I did promise Shining to see him later, something about something called Dungeons and Dragons, whatever that is." Comet said while rubbing his chin with a foreleg.

"Oh! D and D, it's Shiny's favorite game, though I didn't really get it, I mean, I understood the rules, but it seemed pointless to me. Just, uh... Don't tell Shiny that I said that." Twilight said nervously.

Looking behind Twilight, Comet saw a white hoof quietly open the door, a small, toothed smile spread across his muzzle. He tried to look as innocent as possible and failing miserably. "Don't tell me what?"

That voice. Twilight froze. How much did he hear...? She slowly turned around to face her big brother, a nervous smile on her muzzle. "H-hey, BBBFF! What are, you doing, here? In a library, I mean. Hehe?"

"Oh, you know, was talking to Cadence and she told me that Comet was here, and considering how the both of you can forget time easily when reading, I thought I'd bring him with me for supper. But since you're here too, wanna come too?"

At the mention of food, both filly and colt perked up, putting away their books, Twilight neatly while Comet put them in what seemed like a completely random order. When they were done Shining asked what they wanted to eat.

"Hayburger!"

"Fried chicken!" Both Twilight and Shining turned towards Comet, both somewhat shocked. "What? It's good, you should try it!" The colt said resulting in Shining shaking his head and turning Twilight a bit greener than usual.

"Uhh, right, let's get going." The young stallion moved out of the room with the two younger ponies right behind him, leaving the fast asleep guard behind, the slam of the door shocking him to awareness only to find the room empty.

Star shook her head, returning to awareness. "You OK?" A somewhat concerned Gilda said. "You were staring into nothing there for a while."

Star turned towards the griffin next to her, giving her a small smile. "Yeah, just remembered something. Heh, guess he was right, chicken does taste good." The smile turned sad as she thought of the last time she had seen him.

"Wanna talk about it?" Gilda said, seeing that something was troubling Star.

"I think we have bigger troubles than that, like the guard. I'm guessing they're still looking for us?"

The griffin let out an amused laugh. "Ha, from what I heard, they're pissed. Hey, Graywing's on lookout, volunteered even."

This caught Star's attention. "Ha, okay, now you're joking. Since when does Graywing volunteer for anything, he's always grumpy about something? Are you sure we're talking about the same griff' here?"

"You know, if somegriff' had told me that, I'd respond more or less the same way. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't heard it myself. Said something about getting some alone time."

"OK, that's a bit more like him, but still." Star shook her head, clearing her head from any wandering thoughts, this was not the time for that. After sitting down and taking it easy with Gilda for a few minutes, she rose. "We should get going, just because it's safe here now doesn't mean that it'll stay so."

Gilda never got to reply as the building's doors were kicked open. Through said door, Nightmare guards rushed in, catching the occupants off guard. The griffins and unicorn tried to resist the guards, but the sheer number of them was too much to them. They were held down and had their wings bound, while star got an enhanced magic restrictor on her horn.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the purple menace that has been running around." A sadistic voice rang out. Star looked up to find a lunar pegasus walking towards her with an equally sadistic smile on her muzzle that showed her fangs. "You've been rather annoying to get a hold on, especially for a former noble."

"First and foremost, I'm magenta, not purple. My mane is purple. Secondly, who are you, you're not Captain Dash, that's for sure." Star told matter-of-factly with mock ignorance, much to the displeasure of the lunar pegasus in front of her.

"I'm Second Lieutenant Fangs, Exile. That's all you need to know. Captain Dash was following a 'lead' saying that you were on the other side of town, tried to take most of the soldiers with her. It doesn't matter as I had, back-up with me." 'Fangs' spat in Star's face with a smug grin. "She's always talking about honor and such nonsense, the fool. But with you, I'll replace her as Captain of the Forward Nightmare Guard."

"What in Tartarus is the 'Forward Nightmare Guard?" A confused Gilda asked, causing the 2LT to snap and told her that it was none of her business.

"It's kind of the scouts of the guard, like how the Royal Guard was the princess personal guards tasked with accompanying her and guard the castle itself, though it was mostly against burglars and spies and crowd control. Therefore they were mostly trained to handle civilians since they wouldn't need too much combat training." Star told Gilda, getting an 'ahh' in return. It also continued to agitate the second lieutenant even more.

"Ugh, get them out of my sight! I want them on a transport to the Everfree Castle ASAP! What are you waiting for!? Get going!" Fangs shouted as she turned and walked out of the front door, causing all guards present to shout 'Yes, ma'am!' in return.

Star, Gilda, and the four other griffins were escorted outside town where two cage-wagons were stationed. One of them already had one occupant. A bloodied and bruised Graywing with, what looked like, broken, disfigured wings in addition to being bound. Star tried to look away, not wanting to see someone she considered a friend in such a state. Gilda, Edgy and the others were lead to the cage containing Graywing, while Star was lead to the empty one.

As soon as everyone was ready, the guards moved out, leaving Gryphonport behind them.

Rainbow Dash was pissed. One of the pegasi had spotted 2LT Fangs with a whole squadron leaving Gryphonport, including seven prisoners, six griffins in one cage and one unicorn in the other.

"Ma'am, should we follow them? We should be able to reach them within the hour if we move quickly." A light blue pegasus with a near-white mane, the one who had spotted the 2LT, asked.

"No, corporal, I'll deal with this myself. I'm placing you in command while I'm away, understood?" Rainbow sighed, trying to not let out her anger on the corporal. "And, Flitter? Whatever happens, I still consider you one of my friends, I hope you do the same."

"Uh, of course; Dash," Flitter said nervously before flying off to the rest of the guards. After looking over the city of Gryphonport one last time, she too took off, but in the other direction. I'll get you back, Gilda, no matter what.

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