The Gates of Equestria

by SapphireRose87

Chapter Three

Lord Thunder was asleep at his favorite spot by the Center Gate. Once again, Rainbow Dash was doing another bragging session about how cool it is to work with a dragon. This crap again? That pony doesn't know how to shut up, does she?

While it was true that his full name was Lord Thunder, even though he didn't rule over a country or anything like that, he still had the title of "Lord" added to Thunder. But he preferred to go by Thunder for short. Thunder stretched and yawned, standing up, and looked Rainbow Dash square in the eyes. "Listen Rainbow Dash, I know you're excited to work with a dragon and all, but this is just a job and that's it. This job needs to be taken seriously, can you tone down the cockiness for once?"

"Excuse me?" Rainbow Dash snapped. "I'll have you know I don't have a big ego!"

"Oh yeah?" Thunder said with a raised eyebrow. "Let's see how many times a day have you done a bragging session this month?"

Rainbow Dash paused. To Thunder, it looked like he had hit the nail on the head. She couldn't stop her bragging to save her own life.

Thunder gave Rainbow Dash a smug look. "I wonder, true you can do your sonic rainbooms that you just love to add into your bragging session but, my lightning is a lot faster than sonic rainbooms any day."

Rainbow Dash scoffed. "Hmph! Why don't you prove it?"

Thunder held up one claw and lightning crackled from it. "Go ahead, do one of your sonic rainbooms for me. I bet you I can summon a lightning bolt and the average lightning bolt travels about 270,000 mph, so by the time you even get to do a boom before you create your rainbow, my lightning bolt will have hit this nearby tree."

"Oh, a little bit of healthy competition huh?" Rainbow Dash said with a raised eyebrow. "Well then, maybe we should do this in front of a crowd and let them decide who's better."

Thunder rolled his eyes and pointed his lightning bolt at a nearby tree. It sliced the tree in half and Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped at the sight. She got over her shock and smiled at Thunder. The look that Rainbow was giving Thunder made him very uncomfortable because he had no idea what that look meant.

"Interesting, though I think that because you're working with me," said Rainbow Dash, "you should have a flashier hooded cloak."

Thunder shook his head, "Yeah no thanks. Besides this cloak has sentimental value to it. It's connected to someone that once was very important to me. I loved her very much."

Rainbow Dash tilted her head, "Once was very important to you?"

Thunder sighed, "She's dead now."

"Oh." Rainbow Dash said. "Well, then that makes it even more of an excuse to get you a flashier hooded cloak. You know, so you don't lose this one?"

Thunder stood firm in his objections to Rainbow Dash's idea of getting him a flashier cape. "Nope, I'm not interested, now if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to taking my nap."

Thunder laid back down at his favorite spot, curled up like a cat, adjusted his cloak, and pulled his hood over his tightly.

Rainbow Dash scoffed, "Fine, but this isn't over with Thunder. Mark my words, you will see things my way sooner or later."

Thunder fake yawned, "Yeah, I doubt that."

Once Thunder went back to his pretend nap, he smiled as he heard Rainbow Dash fly away.

* * *

When Aether saw the conversation between Rainbow and Thunder, he thought it was entertaining. That's because he knew Thunder would never agree to be like Rainbow Dash. Thunder was a humble dragon, kind of like Spike in a way.

Aether chuckled as he went up to the resting dragon, as he knew Thunder was pretending to sleep yet again. "Hey Thunder, having another pretend nap to get rid of your new friend, I take it?"

Thunder stretched and yawned, "Yup, you guessed it. She's just about as bad as Fluttershy is with Melody." He chuckled, "But it seems to be the other way around with Applejack and Firewing."

Aether rolled his eyes, "No kidding, did you see the way he gave Applejack googly eyes at the Appointing Ceremony? They barely made it up to Sapphire in one piece."

"Wow." Thunder said. "Anyway, so have you asked Melody out yet?"

Aether hated it when Thunder and anypony else teased him about Melody. "Um, no and I'm not interested in her like that. I mean sure she's cute and all, but um… not now."

Thunder raised an eyebrow, "Why not now? Melody seems like a good fit for you. Unless… Ohh, yeah I get it now. Melody doesn't seem like she's interested in stuff like that at the moment. So, yeah I understand your hesitation on asking her out. She'll probably say no. I don't know much about romance, so I can't really help you out much on that."

Aether looked away, then he smiled and looked back in Thunder's direction. He laughed. "I can't believe how somepony like Firewing wants to be with somepony twice his age?"

"Yeah, you might want to ask him about that." Thunder said.

"Ask me about what?" When Aether and Thunder heard Firewing's voice, they smiled when they saw him.

"I was wondering, why are you hitting on a pony who's twice your age?" Aether asked.

"Applejack is strong, kind, she's a hard worker too, she's my kind of mare." Firewing gushed.

Aether gagged at the thought of somepony liking somepony old enough to be his mother and then some.

Firewing frowned, "I know that look Aether. What you might find disgusting, I find beautiful! Besides, I can see why Melody wouldn't be interested in you anyway. You're too small of a stallion to date somepony like her anyway."

"Firewing, take that back!" Thunder snapped.

"Excuse me, I like my size thank you very much." Aether smiled.

Aether saw the look on Firewing's face and he knew he was about ready to say something snarky to him. But Aether would always take whatever Firewing could throw at him as a compliment. Aether stared down Firewing daring him to say something.

When Aether saw that Firewing couldn't think of any good insult to throw at him, he smiled. "What's the matter Firewing? No more compliments for me today?"

Firewing hesitated, Aether found Firewing's reaction amusing. He jumped about a foot in the air startled when he heard Melody's monotone voice behind him. "Hey guys, so who else are we waiting for?"

"Oh, hey Melody, how's it going?" Aether stammered. He had no idea why he got so nervous around Melody all the time. They were good friends after all. Every other time they saw each other, they would actually sit down and write songs. He couldn't get over the sound of Melody's voice, she sounded like an angel to him when she sang.

Melody rolled her eyes at Aether. He sighed, "For now, we're just waiting for Fancy Mark."

"What's that guy's deal, he's weird and doesn't really want to talk to anypony much," Firewing said.

Once again, Aether knew to keep his mouth shut about Fancy Mark. There was no way he was going to betray Fancy Mark's trust by telling ponies about his private life. The same thing goes for Melody. Aether always liked the fact that Melody felt comfortable around him to vent her frustrations about her mom Applejack always sending Fluttershy to do welfare checks on her.

"I think it's stupid that all of the Guardians have to be present just to enter the training arena," Melody said.

Aether nodded in agreement even though he knew Melody couldn't see him. He looked at Firewing to see that he had a look on his face as if he were trying to think of a good way to insult him. Once again, Aether stared Friewing down daring him to say something.

"I'm glad the Element Bearers can't come into the training arena." Thunder said. "At least Rainbow can't bug me about wearing some flashier cloak in there."

"No durr," said Fancy Mark, "I'm surprised she didn't get paired up to work with Firewing instead." He chuckled, jabbing a hoof at the pegasus.

"Hey!" Firewing snapped.

Aether smiled when he saw Fancy Mark, "Hey Fancy, it's about time you got here."

Fancy nodded, "Yeah, sorry I'm late, as always. Getting out of my place that I'm staying at is kind of an issue fer me. I... can't say anything more about it."

"It's no problem, Fancy," said Melody, "as long you're here so we can do our weekly training, that's all we need. I do wonder why we have to go through the Center Gate to get there."

Thunder shrugged, "I don't know. Well, we should probably go ahead and go inside."

Thunder opened up the portal that led to the training arena. One by one, the Guardians entered, once Thunder went through, he closed the portal behind them.

* * *

Princess Twilight watched as her cousin Purple Artist sat down on the balcony attached to the observation room, by his telescope to look at the stars. She knew he wasn't happy. She knew this because she hadn't seen his smile ever since the Appointment Ceremony took place.

"Knock, knock." Princess Twilight said before she entered. Since the balcony had no doors to open she didn't have to knock to come in. But she always said knock, knock out of respect for Purple because she didn't want to startle him.

Purple looked at her with the same sad face he had ever since the Appointment Ceremony took place. Princess Twilight pulled over one of the huge pillows big enough for a pony to lay down next to Purple. She sat down and put a wing over his shoulder. When he shrugged it off Princess Twilight frowned, "What's wrong Purple? Are you still upset that you didn't get picked to be a Guardian this year?"

Purple sighed and nodded, "Yeah, I don't get it. Why am I on the backup team? I know that it’s important to be a backup in case something goes wrong. I mean, I'm just as powerful as that dragon that was picked to guard the Center Gate. Sapphire knows that too!"

"Come on Purple," said Princess Twilight, "you got to think positive. Sure you weren't picked this year but Sapphire probably has her reasons. You know, I've seen what you can do as far as rearranging the stars at night."

"Yeah I know, but it's not really noticeable to the naked eye." Purple stated.

Princess Twilight smiled, she had an idea of what might cheer Purple up. "Hey, I have an idea!"

Purple looked at her, "What?"

"Why don't we rearrange the stars together?" Princess Twilight suggested. "I'm the ruler of Equestria now and I haven't given anypony else the responsibility in taking care of the night yet. So what do you say? Wanna do it?"

Princess Twilight smiled because as soon as she said rearrange the stars, Purple perked right up, "You want to arrange the stars with me?"

Princess Twilight smiled and nodded, "Well yeah, this time it will be visible to everypony! So why not?"

"So how do I go about doing this?" Purple asked.

"Well, you have to stand up first," instructed Princess Twilight, "charge up your horn and think of whatever you want to put up in the sky."

Purple nodded, "Okay, sure."

So Purple did what Princess Twilight told him to. He lit up his horn and Princess Twilight lit up hers. She used her magic and combined it with Purple's. What happened next, looked absolutely amazing! Constellation after constellation twinkled in the night sky. Some of the stars weren't just rearranged as constellations, they were rearranged as different pictures of whatever they wanted ponies to see in the sky. Purple even put a couple of shooting stars in there because shooting stars always made him smile when he saw them.

After a while of rearranging the stars Purple and Princess Twilight sat down and it made her happy to see Purple laughing. She looked up at the stars to see what they had done. Her jaw dropped when she saw how beautiful the night sky looked.

Purple looked at her, "What is it? Did I do something wrong?"

Princess Twilight shook her head. "No, it's not that it." She pointed a hoof up at the sky. "Look!"

Purple looked up at the sky. Princess Twilight grinned when she saw Purple had a twinkle in his eyes.

"Whoa!" Purple said, with a grin on his face.

Hmmm, Princess Twilight thought, I wonder if he's ready for it? I figured Sapphire might not pick him to be a Guardian, more than likely because he's an Alicorn. But, I can do the next best thing! I need to think more about this, but he might be ready to take on the responsibility of taking care of the night after all!

Princess Twilight didn't realize she was so lost in her thoughts until Purple tapped her on the shoulder. "Oh sorry Purple, I was pondering something I've been thinking about for a while that's all."

She saw Purple look kind of sleepy now, he yawned, "Well, I guess I could take a nap."

Princess Twilight raised an eyebrow, "A nap? You realize it's nighttime right? Don't you mean you should go to bed?"

Purple shook his head, "Nope, since I don't have much to take care of during the day, it's a nap for me. Even though I'm part of the royal family because I'm an Alicorn. I'm still the youngest Alicorn ever. Considering I became one when I was only twenty years old. So yeah, I could use a nap."

"Well, I'd better go," said Princess Twilight, "I'll see you around Purple, maybe we can do this again? Would you like to do that?"

Purple smiled, "Yes I would love to!"

Princess Twilight left the observation balcony, she couldn't help but ponder if she should give Purple the responsibility to take care of the night or not.