I've been lying in bed for most of the day now, holding onto my tear soaked pillow. I'm still crying, but I've run out of tears to cry out, so now it’s just shallow breathing and heavy sobs. I can't believe after everything he pulled, he goes and pretends to forget me. As if everything we ever did never happened. As if he can just sweep this all under the rug and let it go. Then, just to throw salt on the wound, he goes and tries to show me pictures of some mare he's probably sleeping around with. He won't get away with what he did to me.

"Twilight?" Spike says from the side of the bed. He's been here the entire time, trying to get me to calm down, but I don't want to hear it. "Come on Twilight, at least say something, anything." I tighten my hold on the pillow, ignoring his pleas. "I thought you were over that creep a long time ago."

"I am!" I snap. "But that doesn't mean he gets to just get away with what he did. I swear, the next time I see him I'm going to..." Before I can finish, Spike burps up a letter. I pick it up and read it over.

'My faithful student,

Thank you for agreeing to write to me about the human in addition to your other responsibilities, but I'm afraid I have another request to make. I need to know more about this human and his past. I can't shake this feeling of him being somewhat familiar. When you can, could you please try to find out what you can from him. Though I wish to find out as soon as possible, please be discreet about this. I do not wish for him to be aware that you are trying to pry information from him. I await your response.

Princess Celestia.

P.S. I am sending Captain Storm Cloud to Ponyville to keep an eye on him, please do your best not to blow his cover. You should be able to recognize him when you see him, but please do not interact with him. He has strict orders to lay low. He will be staying at the local inn until I determine that this Miles is truly not a threat.'

What... I... I don't believe what I just read. I read it over and over again until Spike takes the note away, even then, I can't break my gaze.

"Captain Storm Cloud!" Spike yells out in surprise. "But then, who is this Storm?" I hear Spike but I don't react. If that's the Storm from before, then... I jump out of bed and begin to run to the door. I need to talk to Storm... the not-a-complete-jerk Storm. I run down the stairs and open the door with my magic to run straight out, but as soon as it opens I run into somepony.

"Aw... glan sakes girl, what's got ya so worked up?" Applejack asks, getting to her hooves.

"AJ, have you seen Miles or Storm? I need to talk to them."

"Uh... well, that's sorta why I'm here... There's been an accident, Twi."

---

Aw fuck, my legs are burning like all new sorts of fuck. We've been kicking trees for what feels like hours. The sun is already past its highest point. I had to take my shirt off just to cool down from the heat, and because I'm sweating like a pedophile in a daycare center. Storm and I must have done... at least three hundred trees, made three times as many trips to the storage cellar, and have done it all in complete silence.

"Hey." Well, there goes the silence. "You still owe me an explanation."

"For what?" I ask, but know perfectly well what he's talking about.

"Why were your feet on fire?"

"Fire!? Now that's just crazy talk. If they were on fire, how would I be standing here right now?"

"But there was fire, look at the back of your pants! They're burned all over." I look down at my pants and sure enough, the back of the bottom halves are burned off, showing my calves.

"What are you talking about? My pants have always been like this." Storm looks at me for a second before he facehoofs.

"You're messing with me, aren't you?"

"Haha, yeah, but to answer your question, they weren't on fire." Storm does a double take as he looks back to me.

"Miles-" I flare the magic in my hand to shut him up.

"It's not fire, it's Soul." Storm gives me a confused look as he walks toward me. I sit back on the ground and hold my hand out so we can both see. Storm takes a seat in front of me as I begin to explain. "You see, humans can't naturally do magic without using some other means of energy conduit, usually gems. But, back before the celestial calendar, we discovered another way for us to interact with the world around us: Souls. We found out that if we make a portal like this," I point to the black lines and archaic text, "we can gain access to our Souls. With this, we can manipulate the world around us. Our only limits are our knowledge of the object we put our energy into, and our spiritual ability."

"I don't get it. Why would you need to know about the thing you're trying to manipulate?"

"Because if we put our soul into something that we are unfamiliar with, we run the risk of losing a part of our soul."

"What would that do?"

"Well, in small portions, nothing. Your soul would grow back and fix it. Big chunks, you start to change." I shut off the magic in my hand and look him straight in the eyes. "You begin to lose yourself. It starts small, forgetting dates, maybe you lose your sense of smell, but the more you lose, the worse it gets. At seventy-five percent, you go comatose for life, there's no fixing your soul at that point. At eighty percent, your soul begins to bleed out of you, burning you because you've become foreign. No one has lived past that."

"If it's so dangerous, why would you use it?" I flare the magic in both my hands and bring them in front of me. I charge my magic, letting the dark lines go past my wrist, and create an orb of white energy. White flames burn from the orb as I levitate it.

"This... is called Soul Fire. An orb like this has the potential to power anything. Jets, cars, mining drills, as long as you could sustain the energy you can travel to the farthest reaches of the universe. Why would we not try to utilize this kind of power - don't touch it!" Storm looks down and puts his hoof back down, giving me a small smile.

"Soul Fire is very dangerous, though not to its wielder. If you were to touch this, you would lose your hoof. I, on the other hand," I grab the orb and hold it in my hand, "can do whatever I please with it, like for instance," I begin to crush the orb until I completely close my hand. I then throw my hand forward and grab Storms armor. In a white flash, I bring my hand back and shut off the energy. "I can remove enchantments." Storm looks over himself, finding that his body has returned to normal.

"How did you do that?"

"I read the energy in the metal and removed it. I was pretty talented in enchanting things. Every one of my friend’s weapons had some kind of enchantment that I put there. Speaking of which, next chance we get, let me see your sword." Storm looks as if he's seen a ghost, I guess this is a little too much. "Can't you use magic?"

"Only unicorns and alicorns can use magic. The rest of us have to do everything by ourselves."

"What!? How do you live without the awesome cheating abilities of magic!?"

"We get by. But it's not endless like yours. Unicorns can only use magic in relation to their special talent. Like, if a pony's talent is farming, then spells meant to help them farm are easy. But if they try to do something related to, let’s say enchanting, they will never be able to do it."

"Wow, that sucks."

"Miles...we’re in trouble."

"What makes you say that?"

"If the Princess knew that you could use magic... she’d either kick you out of Equestria, or station a different guard with you. I don't want either."

"Hmm... well, why don't we just keep that between the two of us then?"

"I can't just lie to the Princess! That goes against everything I've been taught for the royal guard."

"Well then, just don't lie. Look, if she knew I could use magic, she wouldn't have put you with me. All I have to do is keep that between the two of us and we'll be good as gold."

"Good as gold?"

"Shut up, it's a Terradisian thing. Look, if she asks, tell the truth, but if she doesn't, just don't mention it, alright?" He looks away for a bit before he looks back to me with a smile.

"Alright, my lips are sealed." He raises his hoof so I give him a fist-hoof bump. We both stand and begin to walk towards Applejack's place, albeit at a slow pace.

"By the way, what happened yesterday?” I pester, looking to the bump on his face.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, what was with that stupid look you had and why did you have a bruise?" He looks away and gets that same smile back on his face, but quickly hides his face from me.

"Well... I'll tell you, but you have to share an embarrassing story as well. Deal?"

"Deal, you first."

"Fine, well, basically Twilight asked me to move the cots, so I took off my armor and lifted both of them into the air. I'm not sure how, but when I was setting them down, I guess my... thing... popped out... in front of her-"

"BWUAHAHAHAHAHA, you flashed Twilight! HAHAHA... welcome to the club man, HAHAHAHA!" I nearly fall over from laughing.

"Yeah well, what gave me the look was what she said," he defends, pawing at the ground slowly.

"AW fuck, what’d she say?" He gets the biggest smile on his face as he turns to me.

"She said 'I don't remember you being so big.' I kind of... ya know... lost it after that, so she slapped me and ran out of the room. Looking back now, what she said kind of makes sense."

"Two things: one, I'm never asking you to move shit and two, at least you will be able to please her-"

FWOOSH

"...assuming she ever speaks to you again."

DE-FWOOSH

"Who do you think that other Storm is?" he asks quietly as we continue to walk through the trees.

"Don't know, but one thing is clear," I stop and look to Storm, "if we ever find him, he's gonna pay." Storm nods to me with a solemn look before we both continue to walk. As we walk, a shadow suddenly forms around us, making us both stop and look at each other, before looking up and seeing a mass of round orange things flying straight for us.

---

"ARGH! Why would they use that catapult again!?" I yell at Applejack from across the kitchen table.

"They thought they would git their cutie marks in pumpkin chuckin', so they took the catapult again and fired it into the orchard, hitting Miles an' Storm."

"You realize that this is the second time that the girls knocked out Miles, right?" I say as I rub my eyes with my hoof.

"Ah do, and don't fret, Big Mac an' I already had our little spout with the three of 'em. Plus, this time, they have ta apologize ta Miles and Storm."

"The next question is, where did they get a hundred pumpkins and how did they fit them all on one catapult?"

"Ah don't know, and ta be honest, ah don't think ah want ta know."

"*sigh* Well, no use yelling about it now, where are Storm and Miles right now?"

"They're back at the farm, wanna go check on them?"

"Yeah, just give me a minute to speak with Spike." She nods and heads outside. I call Spike over and wait patiently for him to arrive. When he does show up, he jumps into the seat AJ was in and looks me straight in the eyes.

"What's on your mind?" He asks innocently, swinging his legs back and forth.

"Storm-"

"Which one?"

"The not-a-jerk-but-still-a-perv one." I answer quickly, trying to get on subject.

"Oh, what about him?"

"I... well... what do you think about him?"

"Well, I had a little chat with him at the party, he seems like a nice enough guy," he tells me with a shrug.

"What did you talk about?"

"Miles."

"What about Miles?" I think I know where this is going.

"*sigh* Look, I know you had that touching moment and all, but I still feel as if he's hiding something. I know I don't have any proof or facts to go with that, it's just a gut feeling I have, and a dragon has to trust his gut."

"Well, I trust him, but back to the point, do you think Storm is a good stallion?"

"Huh, oh, yeah I guess, we only talked for a while and we didn't even talk that much. But, he's a royal guard so I trust him." I process this for a while before I get up and begin to walk out of the library.

"Spike, I have to go to Applejack's to pick up Miles and Storm. I want you to stay here and pick up the place. You can have tomorrow off for cleaning everypony else's mess."

"Sweet!" I meet Applejack outside and we begin to trot over to her place. I want to believe that this is the right choice, but I can't help but feel as if this is going to end badly. I just hope that I don't find what I'm looking for.

Next Chapter: Chapter 24 Secrets and Lies Estimated time remaining: 83 Hours, 8 Minutes