High Moon Ch. 49:

Intentions

Gathering outside, Dusk, his mares, Arctic, and the Elements all waited for Dusk’s sisters to come out so they could head to the after-party that Vinyl was hosting. The wait was an awkward one, as there was still some animosity from the Elements directed at Dusk. This animosity was mainly centered between him and Rainbow Dash.

However, the two were tricked into speaking with each other by their friends and loved ones.

“So, you’re thinking of joining the guard?” Dusk asked after the topic was brought up by Pinkie Pie and continued on by the rest of the elements. It wasn’t any of his business, but it wasn’t hard for him to tell when his mares and Arctic wanted him to be someone’s friend. “That’s cool, what with my sisters being in charge of the new recruits.”

“Uh, yeah, they seemed...fun,” Rainbow said, still on the fence about joining the guard, especially now with Dusk’s sisters in charge. But after having thought about it for a while now, she was starting to see no other option. She needed to make something of herself.

Dusk let out a small groan as memories of his youth came rushing back to him, most of which consisted of either Verdite or Rogue torturing him, only for Wave to come to his aid. “Yeah, fun,” he said with a laugh that was filled with sarcasm. “That’s the right word to use. Anyway, if you’re really dead set on it, the best to ya.”

“Hey, thanks man,” Rainbow said before letting out a small sigh, obviously still nervous about the idea. “Honestly,” she started, rubbing her arm as her nervousness continued to rise. “I’m joining to make my chance of becoming a Wonderbolt real. Just wish it was for my flying skills.”

Dusk looked over towards the rest of the elements for an answer to the mare’s nervous behavior, but didn’t get what he was looking for. “Hey Rainbow Dash,” Dusk started, taking a brave step towards the mare with a tone of worry in his voice. “You alright? You sound pretty nervous, well...I mean you have every reason to be about joining any military, but…”

“I know, I know. I really am being a nervous coward,” Rainbow said with a long sigh as her wings fell from her back from the heavy weight of the thoughts she had been having for a while now. “You were right, okay! I’m not the tough mare everyone thinks I am.” Closing her eyes, Rainbow took in a deep breath to calm her nerves. “Look, I really wanted to get in the Wonderbolts for my flying, and I told myself that joining the guard would be a last resort. Sorry.”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Dusk said in a low tone of voice as Rainbow refused to look him in the eyes, forcing him to believe that Rainbow didn’t believe him. “Listen Rainbow, sometimes...sometimes life doesn’t work out the way we want it to, and well, we gotta make tough choices to make our dreams happen. You know that, right?”

Rainbow let out another long sigh as she turned her head towards Dusk to look him in the eyes. “I do now, thanks Dusk. You know, you’re not such a bad guy,” Rainbow said with a small smile on her face, showing a small glimmer of hope. “Too bad you’re off the market though.”

Dusk opened his mouth to retort when Jinx suddenly came up behind him, wrapping her arms around his waist while Sketchy stood in front of him with a very flat look on her face. “Miss Dash, is there something else behind that joke?” Sketchy asked in a slightly menacing tone of voice that was magnified by her eyes being hidden behind a glare in her glasses.

“Uh...n-no ma’am, just a joke, you know, to lighten the mood,” Rainbow said as she rubbed the back of her head with a sheepish smile on her face, making a mental note to not make a joke like that around Dusk’s mares. “But seriously, I gotta say he is a catch.”

“Rainbow, that’s not helping your case,” Twilight gently popped the back of Rainbow’s head, sighing at her friend’s absent-minded speaking. Honestly, she hadn’t ever seen Rainbow make a move on anyone, so it was no surprise to see that she was pretty bad at it. “But if you don’t mind me asking, just how did you three meet anyway? I’m sure it’s a good story, right?”

“Oh, oh, lemme tell it this time!” Jinx said, standing up on her tippy-toes to see over Dusk’s shoulder so she could tell the story along with her other two lovers. While the three went over the events of the rugby team and what happened afterwards, Arctic timidly moved to stand next to Fluttershy, taking the mare’s hand in hers.

Fluttershy reflexively flinched when she felt Arctic’s fingers interlocking in her hand, but quickly snapped out of her shy nature to return the gesture with a small smile and a blush on her face. They hadn’t openly said what was on their minds, but they both knew that they were going out with each other. Fluttershy, naturally, was too shy to ask a mare like Arctic out. And Arctic was the same. So they had just moved into a relationship without really talking about the situation. It had worked well for them so far.

“And then we just started hanging out more,” Jinx ended the story with a bright smile on her face. She had a lot of happy memories from the days after Dusk’s fight with the rugby team, despite what happened as a result. “And more, and more still until…”

Groaning, Dusk let his head drop when he realized that Jinx was leading on for him to finish the story for her. “Until I finally worked up the guts to ask them out. Believe me when I say that it wasn’t easy.”

Jinx giggled for a bit before she climbed onto Dusk’s back, wrapping her arms around Dusk’s neck as she place a kiss on his cheek while crossing her legs around his waist to keep her there. She then slipped her left hand into Dusk’s shirt while her right one crossed over around to Dusk’s ear to play with it.

“But it sure has been worth it,” Dusk said with a laugh at Jinx’s playfulness, unable to stop his tail from wagging behind him due to her playing with his ear. “Anyway, the moral is, you won’t know what will happen until you take the plunge.”

“Well you certainly took a plunge alright,” Twilight said, now fully believing Dusk’s story about him taking on an entire team of drugged-up minotaurs. Especially since Sketchy had showed her evidence of it in a newspaper clipping she had kept. “But that’s incredible of you Dusk, you risked your life for someone you barely knew.”

Dusk began laughing for a bit, opening his mouth to say something about the situation when he felt something move behind him. Suddenly, Wave popped her head out from behind Dusk, taking the group by surprise. “That’s because dad told us that the only wrong way to tackle a situation is to not act,” she said with a smile on her face before walking out from behind Dusk, wearing a light-blue sweater that covered her down to her mid-thighs, while she had a black tank top on underneath that and with light-purple and blue striped leg-warmers.

“Act, don’t react. That was always dad’s motto,” Wave continued to say as the castle doors began to open up for Verdite, wearing a simple purple t-shirt with black jeans, both with the designs of Nightmare Moon’s cutie mark on them. “Isn’t that right, big brother?”

“Yeah, and he also had a habit of calling you ‘Ghost’ sometimes,” Dusk joked, still trying to understand just how Wave moved so quick without a single sound, but she would never tell him. “Wave, how do you do that? Please tell me already, I’m tired of playing this guessing game with you.”

Wave, after moving her hands behind her back, began swaying on her heels in thought while Verdite came to a stop with her hands on her hips. “Mm...no~ You have to guess. That’s the point of the game, Dusk.”

“Oh come on,” Dusk groaned with a sigh of blue embers, tired of playing Wave’s game. “I know it has something to do with sound manipulation, but that doesn’t explain how you suddenly appear out of nowhere.”

“You still haven’t told him yet, have you Wave?” Verdite asked with a knowing tone in her voice, having been told the answer a few years ago. “Dusk is gonna blow a blood-vessel if he thinks too hard about it. Why don’t you tell him already?”

“Because it’s one of the few things me and Rogue agrees on,” Wave said in a giggle as she turned her head up to the sky to see some type of large bird flying above. “Besides it’s fun, and I’m sure Dusk will get it one day. He’s smart like that.”

Everyone, aside from Dusk and Verdite, raised an eyebrow at Wave as she continued to watch the bird, her own wings flexing ever so lightly, as if she wanted to take off. “Yeah right, I’m never gonna get it,” Dusk said in a groan as he turned to start walking down the street with Jinx still on his back. “Come on, I promised Vinyl we’d make it to the after-party.”

“Oh righty, Dusk! That last show was killer!” Pinkie cheered as she hopped over to start walking next to Dusk, having been to each of Vinyl’s performances in Canterlot this weekend. “I mean all of those lightning wolves running around Vinyl and Rave was incredible! How you do that with your magic anyway? I thought dragons only breathed fire.”

Dusk started to laugh at the grown mare’s excitement, somewhat unsurprised that she was at the concerts. “Yeah, dragons do breath fire, but it’s a bit more complicated than that,” Dusk said, knowing about Equestria’s lack of basic dragon knowledge thanks to what the twins had told him. “Fire breathing is normal for dragons. The magic comes in what element, or elements, the dragons carry.”

Seeing a chance to learn about dragons, Twilight sparked her horn, making a notepad appear in her hands, landing next to Sketchy, who was on Dusk’s left side. “By elements, do you mean elements of nature? Like fire, air, water, and earth?”

“Exactly, Princess Sparkle,” Wave answered for her brother as she walked next to Verdite in a whimsical manner. “Each of the elements is represented by a Maker of the planet. And each of those Makers had children with each other, so on and so forth, making other elements.”

Twilight worked furiously to write everything Wave was saying, finding dragon lore to be more fascinating every time she heard about it. “And I’m assuming that these elements are everything else? Like lighting, ice, plants and others?”

“Hm, impressive Princess,” Verdite said with a small laugh as she was truly impressed with how fast and easily Twilight was catching onto dragon culture. “If I may say, I believe you were a dragon in a previous life. Yes, the mixture of elemental-magic makes other types of elements. Lighting, for example, is created by fire and wind magic.”

“And it is possible for some dragons to have three different types of the original four Makers magic,” Dusk added, thinking back to his father, who wielded fire, wind, and earth magic. Along with all that, his father possessed all of the elements in conjunction with them. “It’s extremely rare, but it can happen.”

Twilight continued to write down what Verdite and Dusk were telling her, making notes to ask further questions about it, along with live demonstrations if they ever had the time. “Okay, so dragon magic is centered around the elements of nature. But I still have one more question if it isn’t too much.”

“Sure, Princess Sparkle,” Wave continued with the same cheer in her voice that still baffled the elements, given her position in the Lunar Guard. “Dad had us study dragon culture and stuff, so we should be able to answer your questions.”

“Uh, thank you,” Twilight said, thinking about her question again before asking. “So anyway I wanted to know, is there such a thing as...I dunno, light and dark magic for dragons? Like how there is for unicorns?” Twilight thought back to the battle with the former King Sombra a year ago in the Crystal Empire. “I know they aren’t necessarily a part of nature, but they are aspects, right?”

Suddenly, all three half-breeds’ faces took on a look of dread as each of them certainly had an answer for Twilight. However, none of them wanted to remember it. The abrupt pause from the three siblings caused Twilight and the others to begin worrying about them. But before any of the equines could say something, Wave began laughing a bit, hollowly.

“No Princess...stuff like that is only a fairy tale for dragons,” Wave said, both of her eyes covered by her hair, all traces of joy having been drained from her voice. “Like fallen angels, demons, spirits; just a part of a hatchling’s fairy tale.” Wave slowly lifted her head up, revealing her white eye to Twilight. “Or their biggest nightmare.”

“Rogue, that’s enough,” Verdite said firmly, placing her hand on to her younger sister’s shoulder to draw the attention of Wave’s alternate personality away from Twilight. “You’ve answered the question, you don’t need to say anything else.”

Rogue let out a small laugh as she closed her eye, obviously not listening to Verdite. “Well, I figured that Princess Sparkle would want as much information as she could get from us. What with Equestria not knowing a single thing about dragons. However,” she paused to move her hand up over to the part of her hair that was covering her purple eye. “If you want me gone, all you have to do is ask.”

Once Rogue had fixed her hair back over her white eye, Wave let out a small sigh as she dropped her hands to her sides. “Uh...sorry about that Princess Sparkle,” she said in an apologetic tone of voice as she kept her eye lowered to the ground. “That kind of happens sometimes.”

“Oh no, it’s quite alright,” Twilight said, puzzled about the situation with Wave’s alter ego. However, she wasn’t going to question it, feeling that it wasn’t quite her place to ask such a question. “You… uh Rogue, did answer my question, in a way. So I think that’s enough for now.” Twilight could easily tell that there was something the siblings didn’t want to reveal to her, but she was confident she could find the information she wanted somewhere else. Celestia, maybe?

Wave didn’t respond to Twilight as she continued to look down at the ground, but was snapped out of her daze by Verdite placing her hand on Wave’s shoulder to bring her closer. Wave looked up at her sister to see what she wanted, getting a feeling that she was about to get scolded for letting Rogue take over.

“Wave, I think it’s time we did something about your hair. Maybe a hair band, or a bow,” Verdite mused with a pondering look on her face, considering a few alternatives. “Whatcha think Dusk?” Verdite asked her younger brother as he had been uncharacteristically quiet for a moment, and because she was never good with things relating to beauty.

Dusk was silent for a moment before he turned his head back to Verdite with a raised eyebrow. “I sure as hell dunno,” he said with a laugh before he turned his head back down to the street, seeing the place where the location of the after-party was. “Mm, I want to say hair band. But, every time Jinx wears a bow I swear I almost get a heart attack from the cuteness.”

“Oh shush you,” Jinx teased as she buried herself into Dusk’s neck, taking a small bite of his neck while her tail wrapped itself around his. “Then maybe I should always wear a bow huh? How do you like that, mister?”

“Okay you two, save that for later,” Sketchy said as she shook her head, laughing at her two lovers. “We’ll talk about bow, ribbons, and all that other stuff later. Behind a soundproof door.” Jinx stuck her tongue at Sketchy as Dusk was too busy laughing, both enjoying the banter that Sketchy brought to their relationship.

While the three continued their playing, Arctic used that as an opportunity to make her move on Fluttershy by stretching a wing over the mare. Fluttershy again started blushing when she felt the warmth of Arctic’s soft wing on her, laying her head down on top of Arctic’s shoulder with a soft sigh.

Unknown to the two, Rainbow caught their affectionate move from the corner of her eyes, but didn’t say anything about it. She might have only met Arctic the other day, but from what Rainbow could tell, Arctic was a perfect match for Fluttershy. Just a little shy like her, but more open to trying new things.

“Yeah right, Sketchy,” Dusk said as they got to the club Vinyl was hosting the after-party at, the star herself standing outside with Rave at her side. “There is no way that you’ll ever leave your hair in pigtails for a week. Know what, if you do that, then I’ll wear one of your hair bands for a month.”

“Mm...if you wear it while I have my hair like that, then you got a deal,” Sketchy said, knowing that there was no way Dusk was going to make it even a single week, let alone a whole month, wearing a hair band.

Once the two shook on it, Jinx got down from Dusk’s back with a giggle at how fast their banter escalated into another bet between the two. “Heh, and I’ll be keeping track of this bet!” Jinx said as she sparked her horn in it’s normal light-blue shine, wrapping both Sketchy’s and Dusk’s wrists in her aura to create a blue-and-green trimmed band over each of their right wrists.

“Really Jinx, we’re doing this bit again?” Dusk groaned as he looked at the band on his wrist with regret, as if he’d seen it before. Because he certainly had. “Last time this thing was on me it wouldn’t come off until the bet was over,” he growled in annoyance at the memory of the last time he’d made a bet with Jinx around.

“Because that’s the point, silly,” Jinx teased, giggling at the crossed-eyed look Dusk’s face had when she poked him on his nose. To get more of a reaction out of Dusk, Jinx began spinning her finger in front of his nose before she poked it with her purple nail-polished finger again. “That way if either of you come home one day and it’s gone, we’ll know who won the bet. Isn’t that fun?”

Dusk was going to answer when Jinx flicked her finger upwards, forcing his head to turn up to the sky for a moment before he regained his composure. “Yeah, fun,” Dusk deadpanned as he rubbed his nose, glaring at Jinx, who only stuck her tongue at him. Rolling his eyes, Dusk turned towards a giggling Vinyl and her friend. “Laugh it up Vinyl, because I’m telling ya, you’ll find yourself in the same situation as me. Trust me.”

“Ha, yeah right,” Vinyl laughed as she rolled her red eyes before placing her glasses back on. “So who are the two new half-breeds?” she asked, noticing Verdite and Wave standing behind Dusk, both looking oddly similar to Dusk. Only explanation for that would be… “Dude, they your sisters, or something?”

“Uh, yeah actually,” Dusk said in a surprised tone of voice, wondering how Vinyl knew that Verdite and Wave were his sisters, but waving it off as her making a good guess. “Vinyl, Rave, this is my eldest sister, Verdite,” Dusk paused, waving his hand over to Verdite who gave the two performers a simple wave. “and my youngest one, Wave.”

As Dusk’s gestured over to Wave, the half-breed’s eyes widened at the sight of the two famous performers standing in front of her. “Oh. My. Gosh! Dusk, why didn’t you tell me that you did a show with the Rave Melody and Vinyl Scratch?!” Wave shouted as she suddenly appeared in front of Dusk, giving everyone aside from her siblings a start.

“Because I didn’t think you knew them? I mean, how was I gonna know, Wave? You remember the different types of music I used to listen to back in the Republics. Heck, I still do listen to most of it,” Dusk said, not sure himself of what to make of his sister’s sudden excitement. “Just how big are you two anyway?” he asked the two performers, as he had only just started to see how big their fan base was.

“World. Wide, dude,” Vinyl said with a smug smile on her face, happy to hear that she was at least making some progress in the Lunar Republics, if Wave’s excitement was anything to go by. “Now get your tails in here, we got a party to have fun at.” Shrugging his shoulders, Dusk followed the music stars inside the club, with the others right behind him.

After having spent a good portion of the evening with his mares and siblings, Dusk thought it was time to get Verdite and Wave caught up on current events. And to ask Twilight what she had to say about everything. So, leaving his mares and Arctic to have their fun, Dusk led his sisters and Twilight into a private booth, where they began filling each other in about what they knew.

This began with Dusk telling his sisters about his element and the event that led up to it, sparking Verdite’s curiosity when he mentioned Spike and Quill. After filling his sisters in on them as well, leaving out Spike’s ghost-heart, Dusk went over what he believed the situation was.

“Listen, that guy can’t be working alone,” Dusk said while he had his elbows placed on the table, his fingers interlocked with each other, and his mouth behind them. “I don’t know about you guys but for him to working alone, it would be pretty dumb to attack the town that the Elements of Harmony live in.”

“Therefore he has comrades with him. Is that what you’re saying Dusk?” Verdite asked her brother, knowing the situation was serious if Dusk had put so much thought into it. “It makes sense, but how many do you think he has?”

Dusk shrugged his shoulders as he shook his head, unsure of the number of possible enemies they could be facing. “Dunno, doesn’t matter how many though, the power that one guy had was enough to make an army. Literally,” Dusk said, snorting out a cloud of smoke through his nose. “I do know this, they’re not gonna go for Ponyville again.”

“How do you know that?” Twilight asked, placing her hands on the table as she continued to process everything that’d been said over the last few minutes. “Granted that his attack and search ended in failure, that still can’t be enough to save Ponyville from more attacks, right?”

“No, not really but…” Dusk paused to think about his theory, trying to make sure that he had a good chance of being right. “It wouldn’t make sense to attack the same place twice, especially with a greater chance of defeat.”

Verdite and Wave nodded their heads, both knowing where Dusk’s thoughts were coming from and that he was likely correct. “See Princess,” Verdite started, knowing the best to explain why Dusk could be right. “There’s a game of hide ‘n’ go seek that we would play back home on our islands. One of us would be ‘it’ while the rest of us would hide on the different islands. The trick was that in order to win the game we would have to best each other in a sparring match.”

“Yeah, and someone loved to cheat,” Dusk cut in, glaring at Verdite who used to unearth the ground every time they would play the game. “But anyway, if you’re ‘it’ and you won the sparring match, the person that lost had to help you get the others. However, if you were ‘it’ and you lost match, then you couldn’t come back to that island unless you’d gotten someone else.”

“And after you checked all the islands, you won the game!” Wave finished for her two siblings, now wanting to play that game again, but holding that thought off for what was really important.

Twilight cocked her head at the three half-breeds for telling her about a simple game from their childhood, wondering how it could apply to the situation they were in now. However, as she continued to think about it, Twilight began to fill in the missing pieces for herself.

“So, you all are saying that this unicorn won’t return, not because he didn’t find the filly, but because the opposition he will face alone is too great?” Twilight asked, getting nods around from the other three, showing that she was on the right track. “And he also won’t be coming back anytime soon because there are other places to look for the filly.”

“Exactly,” Dusk said, not surprised that the former student of the celestial goddess was able to figure out what he and his sisters were getting at. “Besides, if the filly was in Ponyville, I’m sure that she would’ve been found by now, right? I mean, the town is so small there’s no way somepony wouldn’t have noticed her by now.”

“I suppose so Dusk,” Twilight said, breathing out a sigh of relief when she realized that Ponyville was in the clear for now. But that only meant the rest of Equestria was a target. “So now the questions are: where is this filly, what power does she hold that’s so important, and why do these ponies want her?”

Silence overcame the three as the small group thought about what Twilight said, but no answers came to mind. They couldn’t come up with anything with the little amount of information that they had. It could be just as simple as they all thought it was: the goal being dominion over Equestria.

“Princess, as good as those questions are, we can’t answer them for now,” Verdite said, wanting to take the conversation in another direction. “So instead, I say we should focus our energy on the opponents themselves.”

“Well, it’s like I’ve already said,” Dusk said, leaning back against the leather seat as he rested an arm on the back of it. “There’s no way of telling how many there are, and we don’t know where they are operating at. All we do know is that they are all possibly dragon-hunters, as were their ancestors.”

“Why would that be?” Twilight asked, not knowing anything about the abominable practice of hunting dragons for various parts of their body and magic. Beyond that it was passed on by bloodlines as a ‘tradition’, as it was attempted to be justified as.

Verdite opened her mouth to answer when the sound of heavy knocking on the glass door caught their attention. When they all looked up to the booth’s entrance, they saw the familiar dark-blue fur of Obsidian.

“Oh, it’s Sergeant Obsidian. Wave, open the door for him will ya? He might be able to shed some light on this situation,” Verdite said as she gestured for Wave to open the door for the dog so he could come in.

Wave nodded her head as she slid over to the handle of the soundproof door to push it open for Obsidian to walk in. Once the dog was in and sitting down next to Twilight, Wave closed the door so they could speak without the music from the speakers. “Hello everyone, I’m guessing that we are all roughly on the same page now?” he asked the others, having faith that Dusk would do his job of filling his sisters in, at least.

“Yes sir, we are,” Verdite answered with a sigh, wishing she had more to offer to the dog about the matter. “Thus far, we’ve been able to determine that they are not working alone, and they won’t likely strike the same place more than once or twice.”

Obsidian began nodding his head, unsurprised by the information. “Good, at least now I know that my hypothesis could be proven right,” he said as he leaned on the table with his arms, looking each individual in the eyes for a moment. “Anything else I should know, or are we stumped for information?”

“At the current moment it seems like the latter,” Twilight said with a sigh as she continued to rack her brain for an answer as to why a group as powerful as these unknown ponies would want a little filly. “This is utter cruelty, hunting down a defenseless filly like some mindless animal,” she hissed as anger began boiling inside of her, causing her horn to begin glowing in a bright purple light.

As the light got brighter, Obsidian took it upon himself to calm the mare down by placing a hand on her shoulder. “Princess, I know how you are feeling right now. Trust me, now isn’t the time for anger,” he said in a strong voice, having had the same dark thoughts when he was younger.

Twilight closed her eyes before taking in a deep breath to let out a slow and calm sigh as the shine in her horn started to die down. “Sorry, it just makes me so mad that a filly, out of anything, has been caught in this. She hasn’t done anything wrong, so why should she be the target of all this? It isn’t fair for her.”

“Princess, we know,” Obsidian said as he took his hand off of Twilight’s shoulder with a sigh leaving his lips. “This filly doesn’t deserve to be hunted down like this, but we have to find her. Cerberus knows something bad will happen if the enemy finds her. And trust me when I say that Celestia has been focusing on just that.”

“Yes I know,” Twilight started with a calmer and more controlled tone of voice. “Celestia has told me that she’s been doubling the guard in major towns and cities to defend them and to search for the filly. She’s also been looking for ways to keep the public calm about the matter. Which is why she took interest in that flight competition in that cloud city called... Stormfront, I believe.”

Nobody in the group thought to question why Twilight was up to date with Celestia’s moves and motives as far as the situation was concerned. However, there still was the question of whether or not Obsidian’s team had found anything useful for finding the enemy.

“That’s all well and good, but what I want to know is, is there a way to find these guys?” Dusk asked, not really interested in flying competitions more than he was about the enemy lurking in Equestria. “I mean, we won’t be able to get them if we can’t find them, right? So full-blood, has your team found out anything about the unicorn I fought?”

Sighing, Obsidian shook his head as he, his team, and even the research department were all tired from trying to trace the unicorn’s magical signature. And if they couldn’t find it soon, the trail would go cold. “Sadly no, we haven’t been able to locate where this unicorn is from. It’s almost like tracking a ghost that keeps moving.”

“A ghost that keeps moving around huh?” Dusk mused as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand, thinking to himself for a bit. “Then, I don’t know about you, but it seems there is only one thing we can do if that’s the case.”

“And just what that would be, little brother?” Verdite asked, happy to see that Dusk had done a lot of maturing over the last few years since she last seen of him.

Dusk closed his eyes as he took in a deep breath, causing the tension to rise in the private booth. “I say we wait for them to make another move,” Dusk finally said after a few moments of pure, unsettling silence. “It’s not like we have any other option right? We don’t know where they are coming from,” Dusk paused to hold up one finger as he began to list the disadvantages they had. “We don’t know how many of them there are. We don’t know exactly how strong they are, and we don’t know when they may strike, or where.”

“And to top that off, we don’t have a single clue where this poor filly is,” Wave said, only adding to the fingers Dusk was counting with. “The power she holds, why she is a target, where she is, or how to even find her. We got nothing, so how can we act against this?”

“You two are right,” Obsidian said in a calm voice to keep the two half-breeds calm as well, despite him not being sure about the ordeals ahead of them. “We know nothing about our enemy and their intentions. All we do know is that they can not win this fight. We can only prepare ourselves for the rough time that’s ahead.”

While the canines were nodding their heads in agreement with Obsidian, Twilight thought to herself for a moment about the steps Celestia had been taking against this threat to Equestria. “That’s why the guard is recruiting, isn’t Sergeant Obsidian?” she breathed out, still not wanting to believe that those words left her lips. “Celestia is preparing for war…not just some simple battle, like we’re used to.”

“Princess, please understand,” Obsidian started, knowing that Twilight would want a full explanation of what was happening. “No one is doubting the power that you and your friends have. But, something has Celestia worried.” Twilight slowly turned her head towards Obsidian, with a look of disbelief on her face. “I can’t tell you what it is, but something has been bugging her ever since the twins showed up in Ponyville after the incident with that unicorn. She is just making sure that Equestria can take a few hits, that’s all.”

“No...it’s something more than that, isn’t Obsidian?” Twilight questioned, knowing Celestia wouldn’t act with military force unless the situation called for it. And the only reason it would call for it is if Celestia believed that the Elements couldn’t handle themselves. “Celestia doesn’t believe we can do it, does she? She’s afraid that we’ll fail.”

Obsidian let out a small sigh, now knowing that he couldn’t hope to lie to Twilight now that she was piecing everything together. “Alright, alright. It’s not that Celestia is scared that you and the other Elements will fail, she just wants you girls to be able to live normal lives. You shouldn’t have to bear all the weight of Equestria on your shoulders by yourselves.”

“I know Obsidian, but…” Twilight sighed, reaching for the starburst necklace that was hanging around her neck. “After I was named an Element of Harmony, I vowed to keep everyone safe. To protect everyone precious to me and to make sure that everyone was happy at the end. However, now…”

“Twilight, lemme tell you something,” Dusk started with a sigh as he turned towards Twilight to look her in the eyes. “Sometimes things go exactly as planned, sometimes, even better than we’ve planned. Then...then sometimes we have to swallow our pride and move on with our own lives for the better.”

A long sigh escaped out of Twilight’s lips as she dropped her head along with her shoulders. “I understand,” she said before she snapped her head back up to at Dusk, eyes hard. “But, there is no way I’m not dropping out of this fight. I have a duty as Equestria’s newest princess to do whatever I can to protect innocent civilians.”

“Well now,” Obsidian started with a laugh, impressed with the spark in Twilight’s eyes. “Dusk, I think you’re starting to rub off these girls a bit,” he continued with another laugh, getting everyone aside from Dusk to laugh.

“I didn’t do nothing,” Dusk said in a sarcastic tone of voice as he held his hands up in a defensive manner, purposely using a double negative. “They’re grown mares, they can make choices on their own.”

“Aw, why th-” Twilight started, only to pause as she thought about what Dusk said and how he phrased it. “Wait a minute, hey! You used a double negative on purpose, didn’t you?” Twilight questioned, glaring at the snickering half-breed with the same piercing gaze she used on the twins when they made similar jokes. “Dusk that’s not funny, for a moment there I thought you were being serious.”

While her younger brother continued to make a fool of himself, Verdite let out a sigh as Wave did her best to keep from laughing as well. “Don’t worry Princess Sparkle,” Verdite started as she gave Dusk a dry stare, not surprised that there was still a small bit of the Dusk she knew inside her brother. “He had me fooled for a moment as well, good to see that you haven’t changed much Dusk.”

“And it’s good to see that you haven’t changed much too sis,” Dusk said with a laugh as he began to calm down to show that he was serious again. “At any rate, we’re all on the same page with this cult thing right? We wait and prepare for them to strike, then we act.”

With nods all around, and with the final plan set, the group left the booth, as the party was starting to hit last call. Obsidian said his farewells to the others, saying that he needed to get back to work on a project that might be able to help with the fight against the enemy. Wave left to go speak with her idols again, Verdite following to make sure Rogue didn’t take control.

So this left Twilight and Dusk to chill at the bar with their friends and loved ones, walking into a conversation about a specialized style of unicorn magic from the Republics. As the two found their way into the conversation, Sketchy began informing Twilight about the technique of compounding the one’s own magic with another, and vice-versa.

Not surprisingly, Twilight noted that there would be a magic feedback loop between the two unicorns until the magic was released via a spell, and that the spell would be stronger than it normally was.

Sketchy surprised Twilight when she and Jinx touched their horns together, causing a bright white spark to arc between their horns before they both began to use a spell at the same time.

Suddenly, Dusk began floating off the ground with no explanation of how he was doing it other than his mares’ magic. “Aah, girls, didn’t we talk about this?!” Dusk asked loudly as he continued to be lifted off the dark-red vinyl couch. Dusk continued to float upwards from ground, flailing his limbs around.

Jinx giggled, “Hehe, c’mon Dusky, I thought you like flying.”

At first, Twilight thought that the two unicorns were using an advanced levitation spell. That was proven wrong, though, when the bright white light from the two’s horns began fading away, and Dusk still remained in the air. Jinx quickly moved to push on Dusk’s head, sending him aimlessly over into the club. Led to believe that this was a different type of spell, Twilight looked over at Sketchy for an answer. “How...this can’t be what I’m thinking.”

“Yes Princess, it is,” Sketchy said with a small giggle seeing Jinx and Pinkie playing around with Dusk, who was helpless to stop them from doing so. “It’s an anti-gravitational spell Jinx learned in her advanced alchemy class back in high school.”

Twilight looked back over at Jinx and Pinkie trying to reach Dusk, who had clung to the ceiling with his claws. More specifically, Twilight was watching Jinx as she again sparked her horn, causing her legs to glow with a faint blue light. Suddenly, the mare was able to jump straight up to Dusk, wrapping herself around his body to pull him down from the ceiling.

“Normally, unless she’s really trying, Jinx wouldn’t be able to use spells like this without a sort of catalyst,” Sketchy informed as Twilight looked away from the two giggling mares. “This catalyst would be me. I provide a loop for Jinx to build up magic quickly and safely, all while helping with the spell.”

“Oh, I see,” Twilight said as her horn faintly shined in a purple glow, using her magic to write this information down as she thought about it. “So you give Jinx a balance for her to work on while keeping her raw magic in check?”

Sketchy nodded, “Yes Princess that would be correct.” Sketchy turned around to the countertop behind her to pick up her glass of pink-lemonade. “It’s like this drink really. Imagine Jinx’s magic being the actual liquid and my own as the ice-cubes.” Twilight looked into the pink drink, wondering what Sketchy was getting at. “Alone, Jinx, like most other gifted unicorns, has a vast amount of magic. Their trouble comes with controlling it to their fullest potential. However that’s where unicorns like me come in.”

Twilight tilted her head slightly as she thought about what Sketchy was saying to her. “I get it now,” Twilight gasped, “You’re just like the ice-cubes, you regulate the intensity of Jinx’s magic. Basically keeping her under control.”

Sketchy laughed softly from seeing a bright spark in Twilight’s eyes. “That’s right. I’m the cap for Jinx’s magic. At least when she try spells like that anyways,” Sketchy said as Jinx soon brought Dusk back over by holding onto his tail like a balloon string. “Jinx still has to learn the spells herself, but after that I can help her better.”

“Yes, this is all fascinating, and I would love to know more if that isn’t too much of a trouble for you two.” Sketchy pushed up her glasses with her middle and ring finger out of habit of thought. “Oh please, won’t you? I’ve been meaning to learn new methods of magic lately, and I don’t have much on Republic unicorn magic.”

“What about learning magic?” Jinx asked as she looked between Sketchy and Twilight.

“Well, Princess Sparkle here was asking if we’d be willing to show her more about the things we know about Symphonias. I want to but I’m not sure if we can,” Sketchy said, worried that they might not have time to do it with their jobs. As much as she really did want to, actually.

Jinx, however, gasped in shocked excitement as she quickly ran to Sketchy’s side to plead with the mare, consequently letting Dusk’s tail go in the process. “Oh come on Sketchy, please!” Jinx pleaded, clasping her hands together. “You know I’ve been wanting to learn a little Equestrian-style magic. And who knows, this might be able to help me with my own magic in the process.”

“Oh yes, I would gladly show you anything that you’d be interested in,” Twilight said, still trying to convince Sketchy to show Twilight the magical techniques they had learned back in the Republics.

Sketchy looked between the two mares before sighing in defeat. “Alright, alright, I guess we could work something out. I hope this won't be too much trouble, Ms. Belle,” Sketchy said looking over towards Rarity, who was sitting at the bar with Applejack and Rainbow.

“Oh no dear, by all means,” she answered with a shake of her head. “You’ve been so much help with my designs, and we finished them all earlier than I would have thought. So I don’t mind if you take a few more days off, at least until I can catch up with what you’ve turned in.”

“Great, then we’ll just have to talk to Ms. Bonbon to see what she has to say,” Sketchy said with a small nod that got Jinx to let out a short squeal of delight.

“Does that mean what I think it mean?” she asked, almost shouting at Sketchy, looking like she about to start hopping up in joy. When Sketchy nodded her head, Jinx let out another short squeal before she rushed to wrap her arms around Sketchy in a tight hug.

Everyone close by started laughing at the overly excited mare as she continued to hug Sketchy with her tail wagging behind her. Everyone was laughing besides one certain alpha drake.

“That’s great and all girls, but could you let me down now?” Dusk asked in a flat tone of voice as he was standing on the low-hanging ceiling of the club’s bar. Both of his mares looked up towards him with a small giggle, causing him to roll his eyes. “Yes, yes this is pretty funny. And really awesome when someone isn’t trying to use me as a beach-ball.”

“Come on Jinx, let’s get our little mutt down,” Sketchy giggled while Jinx was wiping away a tear.

“Yeah, can’t mess with him while he’s up there.” The two were about to cross their horns again when Verdite and Wave came back over to the group.

Verdite raised an eyebrow at her brother, before looking at Jinx and Sketchy. “Neat trick. So, I’ve been meaning to ask you girls about your necklaces. When did you get engaged?”

Jinx and Sketchy blinked at the half-breed, before blinking at each other. “Uh, what?” Sketchy asked, confused as to how the necklaces were related to them being engaged.

Verdite began laughing, before looking up at her brother, his eyes wide in horror as he was making ‘no, no’ motions at his sister. She smiled evilly up at him, saying, “Oh Dusk, Mom would have thrown you through a wall for not telling them, and still giving them necklaces.”

At her side, Wave giggled, “You’re going to be in the dog house after tonight, big brother.”

Jinx cleared her throat, asking, “So, what’s up with the necklaces?”

Verdite finally managed to get her laughing under control, and addressing the mares, “In diamond dog culture, giving a necklace or collar to someone you’re close with is often a proposal. With the way that Mom raised us, ensuring we all had collars, and her and Dad raising us equally between the two cultures, I’m shocked Dusk didn’t tell you.”

Sketchy looked up at Dusk, eyes glinting behind her glasses. She didn’t seem to noticed that she was absent-mindedly fingering her necklace. “Uh, what?” For her part, Jinx didn’t seem upset, but she did look thoughtful. She was fingering her necklace as well.

Dusk glared at his older sister with eyes of hate, before looking over at his two mares. “I didn’t make a big...ger deal out of it than them being something I wanted to give you, because you’re not diamond dogs. I didn’t expect you to know or care much for their traditions.” His eyes looked at them pleadingly, and his two lovers could tell he was worried about something.

“Jinx,” Sketchy said softly, “Let’s get our mutt down.” Jinx merely nodded her head before the two crossed horns. A faint white glow cloaked Dusk’s body for a moment before fading away. Once the light was gone, Dusk quickly fell from the ceiling and onto one of the chairs with a small grunt coming from him as he landed upside down in the chair. Jinx started laughing at Dusk as he remained dazed from the sudden drop, his tail bending over his back to stop at the bottom of the chair, his right foot twitching a little.

Soon, the half-breed regained his senses as he moved to sit up-right in the chair with a look of annoyance on his face, before it was replaced with worry and fear as he met the eyes of his two mares.

“So, girls…” Dusk started, not sure what he was going to say.

“Dusk, we will talk about this later. Trust me,” Sketchy said, her eyes still hard, but Dusk had been around her long enough to see the hurt in her eyes.

“Yes,” Jinx murmured, climbing into Dusk’s lap. She had none of the hardness or hurt that Sketchy had, but instead a heat that Dusk had seen often enough to know what it was. “It’s not something anyone else should hear.”

“Um… ok?” Dusk said, unsure of what else to say for now. He put his hands on Jinx’s hips, running a finger along the hemline of her pink shorts to gauge her reaction.

Giggling as a bright blush came onto Jinx’s face, she leaned over into Dusk’s face to steal a kiss from him. Somewhat surprised that Jinx wasn’t as upset as she was feeling, Sketchy took a seat on the arm of Dusk’s chair, trying to put aside her own feelings for the moment in order to continue telling Twilight about the technique to combine magic.

“Anyways, Princess Sparkle,” Sketchy started while Jinx’s tail began lifting slowly higher from the ground, a sign of growing arousal. “The technique, Symphonias, can only be performed between two that trust one another. Isn’t that right, Jinx?”

“Yeah, mhmm,” was all Sketchy could get out of Jinx as she continued to lock lips with Dusk, apparently desperate to finish what they started earlier today. Soon the excitement began to rise in her so much that Jinx began rubbing her hips into Dusk, her hands traveling down his body, slipping up into his shirt.

“Also,” Sketchy continued, trying her best to ignore her two lovers, still upset with Dusk. “When I said that it was only done by unicorns…that wasn’t the entire truth. Other races can do it as well, and while done under different names, the results are still generally the same.”

“I-I see,” Twilight said as she tried to force herself to keep her eyes on Sketchy, and not her two lovers showing their ‘healthy’ affection in public. However, that was hard to do with Jinx making eager sounds. “And from the sound of things, it almost sounds like the way we use our Elements.”

Sketchy nodded her head, not really knowing much about how the Elements of Harmony used their powers, but sure that Twilight, out of anyone, would know how they worked. “I suppose Princess, but there is no real guarantee.”

Twilight had opened her mouth to add onto her hypothesis, when a loud, sloppy sounding moan came from Jinx. Followed by what sounded like, “Mm, how does no-gravity sex sounds big guy?” from Jinx before she went back in for more of Dusk’s lips.

“And on that note, I think we should head in for the night,” Sketchy said as she hopped off the arm of the chair, after noticing that Dusk’s hands had began slipping further into Jinx’s shorts. “Uh, Arctic you coming with?”

“Huh?” Arctic started, snapping herself out of a brief daydream about Fluttershy that was starting to become much more frequent as she spent more time with the mae. “Oh, uh...nah I’m good here,” she said, taking Fluttershy's hand with a small blush on her face that was mirrored by Fluttershy. “I’ll meet you guys at the train station in the morning, though.”

“Okay Arctic, don’t have too much fun,” Sketchy said with a small wink as she nodded her head with a smile before she turned to her two lovers that were still locking lips. “Jinx, Dusk, come on, we’re leaving.”

“...”

“Jinx. Dusk, let’s go,” Sketchy repeated, her eyes shifting back and forth with a very dark blush on her white cheeks.

“...”

“Guh, are you serious?” Sketchy sighed as Jinx and Dusk continued to make out with each other, forcing her to take it upon herself to get them back to their hotel room. “Jinx, you forced me to do this,” Sketchy said as she worked her way behind Jinx, wrapping her arms around the mare’s torso, locking her horn with Jinx’s to send a spark down the mare.

Suddenly, the three lovers were teleported out of the club in a flash of bright blue and black light. Twilight assumed that it was another one of the techniques that Sketchy was talking about. It was fascinating how much the Republics had achieved with the vast variety of different races that live with them, producing advances of all kinds.

And from the sound of what the plan was to deal with the enemy, Twilight and the others would benefit greatly from learning a thing or two from the Republics. And as a princess, Twilight was going to ensure that everyone was kept well and safe, against all evil that threatened their home’s peace.

It was her duty as a princess; it was her destiny, and it was her vow.