The following day had gone better than expected. Midnight had not teleported into the barracks of the sleeping ponies. Instead he came in through the side door a few hours later than his normal wake up call. As he trudged along he would use the tips of his wings to gently nudge all of the sleeping ponies. After a few minutes he had awoken everyone within the barracks. He made his way back to his normal position in the middle of the long room as he began to speak up.

"Good morning everypony. Today I have a special treat for you all. It has been brought to my attention that although you are the royal guard, you are given time to yourself ever so often in order to return to your families and friends or just to spend that time relaxing. As you know from my prior stories, I was never given this opportunity. I stayed in basic training for sometime before graduating and then was shipped off overseas to fight a war that was not my own. But we are not in my world now are we?"

"NO SIR!" Shouted everypony in the room.

"This means that I have the opportunity to not only get a weeks vacation myself but to come up with some new routines and exercises for everypony." He smirked only to get a loud groan from the entire barracks.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Midnight shouted causing them all to tense up.

"YES SIR!" They shouted.

Midnight gave a snort putting on a scowl which slowly faded as it was replaced by a grin before he burst into laughter. "I'm sorry for giving you all a hard time just now. I was just joking. I would however like to state that as of this moment you are all on vacation for an entire week."

A roar erupted from the barracks as many of the ponies burst into laughter, some in dance while others gave each other a hardy pat on the back.

"BUT!" Midnight shouted gaining their attention once again. "As part of the final day of your vacation I have planned a special event for you all. I have heard many of you talking over these last few weeks about a certain pony making an appearance in Canterlot. She is apparently well know by the lot of you. Although I have yet to see her for myself, I feel a little uneasy about inviting her to the base. Never the less, I have managed to invite Rainy Days for Sunday's entertainment."

Another roar erupted from the crowd as many came up to Midnight thanking him. Some giving him a hug before saluting and running off. After a good ten minutes the barracks had cleared leaving Midnight by himself as he trudged along before heading out the door.

Midnight made his way to the captains quarters entering the building and knocking on the doors of each one. The doors all began to open as each captain made their way out following Midnight as he went into the room at the far end of the hall. They all sat quietly waiting for Midnight to begin.

"Stallions, today is the start of your first vacation from training. I am sure you all have been wanting to do this for some time. You have Celestia and Luna to thank for this. I had planned on finishing your training before letting you have leisure time, but things are run very differently here than when I had been in training in my home world." He spoke as he sat up straight.

"So now you are free for an entire week to do as you please. But be back here on Sunday early, I have arranged for Rainy Days to come by to sing for the guard." Midnight smirked causing the captains to look at each other in shock.

"Are you serious?" Whip spoke out in shock.

"Yes, so don't be late." Midnight smirked. "Dismissed."

As the three captains left the room, Shining Armor remained behind with Midnight, he began as soon as the door closed.

"Midnight, thank you for giving the guard some leisure time. Your training has been rough on them. I honestly would never have believed that you went through such hell when you were trained on earth. How did you manage to keep your sanity through it all?" He asked giving a concerned look toward Midnight.

"Armor, I am going to tell you something very few know about me. This includes every pony in this world so I will take into confidence that you will not repeat any of this." He spoke out in a serious tone as he placed his hooves together in front of him on the table.

"You have my word." Shining spoke giving a salute.

Midnight gave a grieving sigh as he began. "After training in my home world I had been shipped overseas to fight for my country. You know that much already. What you don't know is who or what I was fighting and for what reason." He began as he thought back to his time at war. "I was sent overseas to fight against a third world country who had been given technology by my country in the near past. Once we had given them weapons we all but left them to fend for themselves. Over time they grew hatred toward my country because not only did we not share their religion, but abandoned them with technology they were not familiar with to fight a loosing battle. The war was bad for them and many lives were lost. Later on they attacked my country in retaliation for not fighting their battle for them. I was sent along with many others to fight them. When I arrived I was shocked to see many children and women killed and their bodies left to rot in the sun. After some time and a few deaths later I ran into a child who was running from some of my unit who were shooting at him. He had no weapons on him and had been shot and was bleeding badly. I managed to calm him down enough to dress his wounds and give him some of my water and food I had in my pack. We both heard my company coming down the path. He was frightened but I assured him it would all be ok. Once my unit arrived and we verified that we were part of the same unit they entered. They all looked at the boy pulling up there rifles and pointing it at them. I jumped in front of the child to keep them from killing him. It was a tense standoff as they began to tell me that the child had shot one of my unit. They pulled the soldier that had been shot inside so he could verify, but before that happened the boy grabbed my sidearm and fired a shot killing one of my unit. Without thinking I grabbed the gun away and snapped his neck. It was all from the training I had gone through and was now instinct within my body. As soon as I let the child go he fell to the ground dead. He couldn't have been more than ten years old. I watched him take the life of a dear friend and then killed him without even thinking. From that moment until a year later I had been placed inside a military compound as a catatonic soldier. Permanently disabled from the terror of war. After that long year I woke up. I was back but not without problems. During my time in that military hospital I lost both of my parents in a car accident. My grandparents had died during my time overseas and I had no wife or child. I was completely alone. A friend had taken my parents home so that I could return to it should I ever come back to reality. I moved back in and stayed for about six years before being pulled into this world. After that, well, you know the rest from your sister." Midnight finished his story, his eyes lifting from the table to see Shining armor silently crying. Without a word Shining came forward and wrapped the Alicorn into a tight hug. Midnight gave a sigh giving him a hug back before gently pushing him away.

"Listen Armor, My past is in the past. I have grown to accept what I had done as part of my duty to protect any and everything I love. That child from my point of view had been raised poorly and with terrible morals. Although his parents would think differently. It was still wrong in my eyes. I will forever regret what I did. But I will never let something like that happen again. I will do everything within my power to save every living creature, no matter who or what they are." Midnight finally gave a disheartened smile as he finished speaking.

"I'm sorry to have doubted you before this moment sir. I now realize the hell you have gone through and respect your decision to help us keep Equestria safe. You can count on me to help train our guard without fail." He saluted Midnight giving a determined smile.

"Dismissed Captain, please be back here on Sunday for the special event. Until then please enjoy your free time. Tell Cadence I said hi as well." He chuckled giving a wink.

"Hey now, you have my sister already. If you even think of going after my wife I will kick your flank regardless of how powerful you are." Shining smirked.

"That's good to know. Now get out of here and give yer mare some love. I'm sure three weeks without a stallion has her quite pent up." Midnight winked causing Shining to blush furiously at the thought. That was until he gave a big grin and bolted out the door.

Midnight went back to leaning against the wall of the room giving a contented sigh. He could feel a considerable amount of weight lifted from his shoulders now and felt more at peace with his surroundings. Although he felt bad about letting a pony know about his past, eventually, one of them would find out through one method or another. Now however was not a time to dwell on the past, now was the time to go home and spend some quality time with the mares he loves along with all his friends.

Midnight had made his way back into Ponyville along the dirt path from Sweet Apple Acres. It was still very early and everypony was out in force. Many ponies from the base had gone into town to spend a few bits or drinking or trying to woo a single mare within the town. It was a very uncommon site to see the the small town like this. He would continue trotting along giving a nod to some of the guard that he would pass until her reached the boutique. Upon arriving he noticed quite a few stallions standing outside the open door to Rarity's shop. Cocking a brow he spoke up gaining the attention of several stallions from the guard.

"What's going on here?" He spoke up.

"CAPTAIN!? Uh sorry..... we heard that there was a beautiful mare that works at this shop so we all came by to try our chances at her affections. So far everyone that has gone in has either been tossed out, bucked, or singed by her magic." He chuckled.

"Were you going to try your hoof at her?" Midnight asked as a hint of annoyance surfaced within his tone.

"No sir, I have a wife and two foals. I just came by to laugh at these morons for trying their luck." He laughed.

"I guess you are in luck then." Midnight snickered.

"Why is that captain?" He asked cocking a brow at Midnight.

"Because the mare in the shop is my fiance." He spoke with a hint of ice in his voice.

"Oh Celestia. I think I am about to see some fireworks." The young stallions choked out as Midnight began to push his way through the crowd.

"I told you all I am engaged! Now get out!" Rarity shouted as she tossed another stallion out the door and into several others.

"Oh come on now sweetheart, what's your stallion got that I don't?" An earth pony spoke up walking back toward her from being tossed out of the boutique.

Rarity quickly noticed Midnight approaching and gave a big grin before speaking. "Well for one he has a horn and a pair of wings, not to mention a fantastic ethereal mane and tail that you could roast marshmallows on." She chuckled seeing the expression of horror on everyponies face.

"Is there a problem here?" Midnight spoke out in the royal whee catching there attentions. That was of course until they all bolted away shouting "NO SIR!" into different directions.

"Thank you darling, it has been an absolute madhouse here for almost three hours. I had to put poor opal in a room by herself to keep her from being trampled, the poor dear. Not to mention all the dust and dirt that has been tracked into my lovely boutique. This is an absolutmmmmMMPH!" She was quickly silenced as Midnight pressed his lips to hers.

"I missed you to." He chuckled finally breaking the kiss. Rarity smiled kissing him back for a moment before breaking it and pulling away.

"You have left me alone for three weeks darling THREE WEEKS! Not even a kiss until just now. How exactly are you planning on making this up to me hmmm?" She smirked.

"Hmmmm I'm not to sure. I could take you out to dinner, we can go for a movie in Canterlot, then to Sugar Cube corner for desert." He chuckled only to be silenced by another kiss for a moment. Rarity pulled back from him giving a devious grin.

"Oh I think desert should be given first, and second. Maybe even third and fourth as well before dinner." She giggled trotting up the stairs of the boutique, Midnight close behind.

"Guess that means we are now closed for the day." He smirked turning the sign around and locking the door.

Yup, this next week was going to be fun, and who was Midnight to argue with otherwise?