Jaze was young, running through the dusty, crowded streets of the dry city with a loaf of warm sweet-bread clutched in his hands. He had managed to snag the delicious treat when the baker had been distracted, but the guards had seen him and were racing to catch him. The baker, knowing the penalty for stealing from a gang owned business, had stalled the guards to allow the young boy a chance to slip away. Now he was running flat out, dodging through the crowds and trying to stay several steps ahead of his pursuers.

His chest burned and his legs ached for rest, but he could not stop. He needed a place to hide, a place to wait for the search to die out and move away. The boy slipped into an alleyway, and had to stifle a laugh as the stupid guards ran past. He started to walk down the alley, away from the heated search. A shadow detached itself and sauntered over to the now terrified child. He was wrapped in shadows, shadows of the evil this man had and had yet to commit. The man’s hand reached out and took the youngster’s chin between his thumb and forefinger, squeezing until it hurt.

“I could use you…”

Boom!

The sudden noise tore the assassin from his dream-filled slumber. He heard a sound that he had not heard without warning for several months; the pounding fury of a thunderstorm. The wind tore at the house, the rain beat the roof, and the lightning cracked the skies. For some reason he found the noise pleasing on a subconscious level and started drifting off to sleep. Until a small gray blur tore into the room and leapt, shivering with fright, between him and the bed’s other occupant.

“Jazer, what happening?” Zephyr asked with a squeak at the newest crack of thunder.

Trixie rolled over blearily to give them both a smile, “Don’t worry baby, it’s just a storm. But I didn’t know we were scheduled for one.”

“We weren’t, not until next week.” Jaze mumbled through his sleep numbed mouth, “But it is nothing to worry about, just a storm.”

Something about that word stuck in his mind and refused to go away. Storm, storm, storm, his tired mind ran the word around to make it latch on to something, storm, wait a storm? A storm! He jumped from the bed, the fog of sleep suddenly gone in his excitement, and threw open the window. The rain moistened wind blew across his face; he stuck his arm out and let the water run down his arm. A smile of relief crossed his face as he watched the trees of the Everfree Forest bend and whip in the strong gusts.

“Jaze,” Trixie asked, sat up and pushed her mane out of her eyes, “what is wrong?

“Absolutely nothing!” he whispered happily, “This is the greatest thing to happen all week!”

“What, what is it?”

“The storm! The Cye will short out if they go outside right now!” He let out a short, quiet laugh, “Even nature wants to help us, it would seem.”

“So we are safe from attack as long as this storm lasts?”

“Yes, we are safe.” The thunder cracked again, making Zephyr squeak frightfully again. “Do you want to sleep with us tonight, Zephyr?” the human asked as he lay back down next to her.

“Yes pwease.” the filly said as she snuggled in between Jaze and Trixie, “Dat noise is scary.”

“It is nothing to be afraid of,” the azure unicorn assured, “it is just a lot of noise.”

“Yeah,” he tickled the filly’s side to make her giggle, “and we’re here for you. So you just get to sleep.” Zephyr’s mouth curled in a wide smile as she cuddled up next to the soldier, quickly falling back asleep.

The rain was slowly turning the bottom of the trenches into a sucking pit of mud. The older soldier had his back pressed to the wall of the trench, his suit and helmet hiding his dark skin from the pounding rain and howling wind. The day was quickly turning horrible, but the old soldier was not here under orders, he was here on his own. He felt that it was sheer stupidity not to have a few men in the trenches to keep watch. Of course, he had been fighting wars since before most of these kids were done suckling at their mothers, as he had often said; most of them against people who weren’t afraid to get wet.

And so the rain pounded around him, flowing across his armor and streaking his visor. The soldier looked up and down the line of the deserted trench, and he had to admit that being in bed was sound more and more appealing. His boots kept sinking into the mud, and his calves ached from pulling the mud-laden boots back out.

“Goddamn planet,” he grumbled, “goddamn trench, goddamn rain.” He knew that it was only the rain stopping the Cye from attacking, but it didn’t stop him from hating every moment of it. He had been on the verge of retirement when the Cye had attacked six years ago. “And now,” he grouched again, “I am stuck on this backwards planet with these goddamn ponies and they’re always goddamn happy ways.” He heard the sound of splashing footsteps, or rather hoofsteps, as one of the brightly colored inhabitants of this world approached from the camp.

It was one of the horned ones, a female with a silver coat and a light gray mane. The unicorn had an umbrella held above her head, the orange glow of magic holding it aloft doubling as a flashlight in this dark, rainy day. The unicorn dropped into the trench next the soldier, holding her umbrella high to shield the older man from the fury of the storm. The simple gesture brought a warm smile to his hidden face, it was probably the nicest thing anyone had done for him in a long while.

“Alright,” he asked in a gruff but friendly voice, “what does the pony want with old me?”

She smiled, “The pony has a name you know, it’s Starlight.”

“You can call me Jerom, nice t’ meetcha.” The pair lapsed into silence, listening to the spatter of rain hitting the umbrella around. The soldier, Jerom, could not stop glancing at the pony next to him. Her long mane covered one side of her neck, and she was wearing a small smile.

“So what are you doing here?” she asked demurely.

“Waiting to get shot, same as always.”

“That is an… interesting view on your situation.” Starlight remarked.

“Interestingly true.” Jerom replied sarcastically, “That is all guard duty is, waiting to get shot. God knows I have always managed to find some way to nearly get killed.”

“Does that worry you?”

“Does what?”

“You know, does the thought of dying scare you?”

“Nope, I got no reason to hang around.” The older man snickered, “Except for pissing off the young morons that are supposed to replace me.” They lapsed into silence once more; the soldier suddenly wishing that the war was over, and the unicorn wishing that this human could be home and not thinking about dying.

“Uh, miss,” the soldier’s voice was low and regretful, and he looked away from his companion, “I don’t know if it helps at all, but I am sorry for that city.”

He glanced over to see her quietly crying, “Th-thank you, I-I h-had f-f-friends in Cl-Cloudsdale and they, they…” She finally fully broke down, sobbing into her hooves.

“Hey,” he condoled, awkwardly patting her on the back, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you cry!”

“I-it’s not y-your f-fault, how c-could you have kn-known?”

“Don’t change the fact that I feel like an ass.”

“Wh-what can I do?” she begged of the soldier, “Why sh-should I live when m-most of my f-friends didn’t?” He finally saw why this pony was able to get into his head so quickly; she reminded him of the child he had lost two years ago, his daughter Marin. Tears slowly seeped into his eyes, and he had to fight to keep memories of his little girl from entering his mind.

“Little lady,” his hand went to her shoulder in a fatherly manner, “The only thing we can do is live for those we lost along the way. They don’t want us to be sad, or worry for them. They want us to be happy. Try and do that for them.”

“Okay, I’ll try…”

For the better part of the next hour they sat together, swapping friendly banter and soon the soldier felt a warmth that had nothing to do with his controlled climate suit. He could see why several people thought the ponies were the most amazing creatures in the universe. This pony was so caring, and willing to share what she had with a complete stranger of another species.

During their conversation, the old soldier saw a few shapes moving in the rain. It could not be the Cye; they could not stand up to the rain. Of course, it had been assumed that they could not fly either and look how that turned out. So Jerom grabbed his rifle from next to him and brought it to his shoulder, training it on the figures.

“Who goes there?” he called out, silently vowing to unload on them if they did not answer quickly. One of the figures waved to him and began walking purposefully towards the pair in the trench. The older soldier slung his weapon; the Cye did not wave, after all. There were two figures, and one of them with graying light brown hair and nearly black eyes jumped into the trench.

“How’s it going soldier?” the man asked in a warm voice as the other man, a dark haired man wearing sunglasses despite the darkness, jumped in as well and stood near Starlight. Both of them were wearing lightly armored, skin-tight black suits which merged with the darkness of the day well.

“Not too bad, guy.” Jerom reached out and shook hands with the other old soldier, “So what brings another old fart out here in this kind of weather?”

“Oh just testing the enemy, seeing what they are up to, that kind of thing.” The graying man replied with a smirk.

“So is that why you came from over there?” Starlight asked, pointing to where the Cye had landed.

“Yes, that is it.” the newcomer replied quickly; the second stranger had yet to say a word.

“Find anything interesting?” Jerom asked curiously.

“Not much, but I would like to know where Colonel Armand is. Any idea as to where I could find him?

“Nope, I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”

The newcomer let out an apologetic sigh, his dropping the warm, friendly tone “Then I fear I have no use for you.” Instantly, the older soldier felt the atmosphere change from rosy and friendly to cold and threatening.

“I’m sorry,” Jerom said quietly, “but I don’t think I caught your name.”

An evil smile curled across the man’s face, “It is a name you should be familiar with. My name is Carn.” Jerom reacted quickly, spinning and lunging towards the man near Starlight. He hoped to keep them busy a while so she could run away. But it was not meant to be, for Carn was slightly faster. He jammed a knife into the soldier’s back, slipping it between the vertebrae and taking the man’s legs out from under him.

Jerom fell in a heap, a mere few feet away that may as well been the universe’s largest desert for all his inability to cross the distance. He could only watch, helpless, as the silent man in sunglasses lifted the terrified unicorn by her mane and horn, making her scream in pain.

“Now, I know you know what I want to know.” Carn said happily as he squatted next to the soldier’s head, “So if you tell me what I want to know, I will let the pony live.”

Jerom felt like his helmet was closing in around his head; he tore the thing off and exposed himself to the cold rain. Soon the water had plastered his black and gray hair to his skull, and chilled him to the bone. The soldier tried to move his legs, but he got no response. There was little pain, but a burning rage at how he had been taken for a fool ignited within the soldier as he struggled to rise.

Starlight was struggling hard against her captor, and every pull of her mane and horn made her scream anew. She tried to kick the human holding her but she could not get the leverage to do any damage. As she continued her struggles, a fist came out of nowhere and struck her in the stomach, forcing the air from her lungs.

“Quiet pony.” the silent captor finally spoke. His voice was like that of a machine, flat and lifeless.

Carn lifted the prone soldier to his knees and held him there with one hand, “Now listen, I am not a patient man. Tell me what I want to know, or she dies.”

“I’ll tell you what I know.” His voice was strained, the pain was starting to filter up his body, “And that is nothing. There are a hundred and one places that the Colonel could be.”

“Wrong answer.” Carn produced a knife from his belt and jammed it into the soldier’s chest, just below the sternum. Jerom curled around the invading object, coughing up the blood that had made its way into his lungs. The Cye ruler snapped his fingers and the other human pulled a knife faster than the kneeling human could follow, pressing the sharp blade to the dangling pony’s throat. “Let’s try this again.” He lifted the dying soldier’s head, “Tell me.”

“I told you everything I know.” Jerom pleaded, “Let her go, please.”

“Well, I am a man of my word. And if you really don’t know…”

“I don’t know where Colonel Armand is, I swear. Just let her go, I beg you.”

“Well, since you have asked so nicely.” A sigh of relief crossed the kneeling soldier’s lips. “But I think that you are lying.” The back of his hand connected with Jerom’s head, sending him sprawling, face down in the mud. The prone man looked up just in time to see Carn make a quick slashing motion across his throat. The man holding Starlight let an evil grin curl across his face and in one quick pull cut the unicorn’s throat.

Blood erupted from the horrid wound to splatter the man’s face. Her legs kicked and jerked, while her eyes watered in pain and fear. The unicorn’s mouth opened and closed; trying to breathe but unable to draw any air past the cut. With a flick of his powerful arm, the killer tossed the broken body next to the prone soldier.

Jerome reached out with a shaking hand, “I am so sorry.” Starlight’s eyes closed from the pain, tears still seeping out from under them. She could not speak, but the soldier could see her pain clear as the falling rain. She began to twitch violently, before finally lying still. Carn stepped, hard, on the man’s outstretched arm at the elbow, snapping the joint and making the man scream in pain.

“Now look what you did,” the Cye leader mocked, “you made us kill an unarmed civilian just because you were too stubborn.” He lifted Jerome to his knees again by the back of his suit and leaned in close, “You going to tell me now?”

The injured soldier managed to spit in the other’s eye, “Fuck you!” He pulled his belt knife from behind his back and raised it to thrust into the evil man’s neck. Carn calmly stepped on the knife still protruding from his chest, laying the man open from breast to groin and spilling his viscera across the muddy earth.

The dying man was kicked on his back, and his killer stood over him, “Before you think you died heroically, know that we already know exactly where to find your Colonel. We just wanted to test your loyalty.” The world slowly went dark for Jerome, and the last thing he heard was, “Congratulations, you passed.”

Jaze awoke, his eyes still closed, sore from the trials of war and less than willing to face the day. Then the sound of rain filtered into his mind and a smile bloomed across his face. Great, no need to get up, he thought tiredly, until his stomach growled, I guess I should get up and eat.

He forced his tired eyes open to see he was alone, though the bed was still warm from the two other bodies that had occupied it. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and grabbed the nearest clothes he could find and quickly got dressed. He stood, every joint and muscle aching, and made his way into the kitchen where Trixie and Zephyr were already making breakfast. Meaning, Trixie was cooking pancakes while Zephyr sat at the table and talked.

“Morning, you two.” Jaze yawned, scratching the back of his head.

“Good morning Jaze.” Trixie smiled from next to the stove, “How do pancakes sound?”

“Morning Jazer!” Zephyr called out excitedly, “Twixie is makin’ panny cakes!”

“I see, and would Twixie like any help?” Jaze asked in his best impersonation of the little filly.

“No,” Trixie gave him a slight glare from the stove, “I think that I can handle this.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes!” she suddenly snapped, “Now sit down and get ready to eat.”

Jaze took his place at the table next to an oblivious Zephyr, “Trixie, what is wrong? You are not usually so… waspish.”

The unicorn heaved a sigh, “I don’t know. I have been agitated since I woke up.”

“Is it the storm?”

“No.” She stood still for a moment, “I just feel like something terrible is coming.”

“We’ll have to be careful, but I doubt anything bad is going to happen with this storm.” For the last several minutes, Zephyr had been glancing between the two of them; an idea taking shape in her head.

“Jazer,” she finally asked, “is Twixie your fiwy friend?” Trixie had to turn away from the look of confusion on the assassin’s face to keep from laughing herself into a coma. For his part, the Colonel tried to find an answer, but had no clue how to answer.

“No,” he finally answered, “we are just friends, I guess.”

“You should be Jazer’s fiwy friend.” the filly said to Trixie, “You weawy nice.”

“Well,” the unicorn put her foreleg around the filly’s shoulders, “sometimes it is not just how nice a pony is that determines who their filly friend is.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know, little one.” Jaze said quietly, “But that is just how it is.”

“Well it shouldn’t be.” the filly said in a huff.

“Maybe one day it won’t be.” Trixie said, her fuchsia eyes fixing on Jaze with a meaningful stare.

“Yeah, maybe one day.”

“But why do you have to go?” Trixie asked sadly. The almost an argument had been going on for nearly half an hour, ever since breakfast. Zephyr was sitting on the couch, bored stiff by the lack of fun things to do while the adults talked. The adults in question were standing in the kitchen, trying to avoid upsetting their small house guest.

“Because,” Jaze replied quickly as he pulled on his uniform and belting on Sairugi, “a lot of people and ponies are hurt. It is only right of me to show them that I care by at least showing up.”

“Then let me come with you, maybe I can help.”

“Please,” he whispered, pointing meaningfully to Zephyr, “we can’t just leave her here alone, and she does not need to see this. She has seen enough.”

“She won’t see anything; most of the wounds will be covered by now.”

“Alright,” the exasperated soldier finally growled, “you two can come, if you answer one question for me.”

‘What is it? Name it.”

“Do you just want to come with me because of your premonition?”

The unicorn turned her head away, embarrassed, “A little bit, yes.”

“Alright, you two can join me. Besides, little Zephyr there would be a nice bit of brightness for the wounded.”

“Thank you,” Trixie called out to the little filly, “Zephyr, you want to go with us to see somepony?”

“Yes,” the gray filly answered quickly, “who we meet?”

“Some of Jaze’s friends.”

“Okay, let’s go!” Jaze pulled open the door to watch the rain fall while Trixie threw Zephyr across her back for the dash to the human camp. Before they left, the human and the unicorn drew magical shields over their heads to block most of the rain, but they still managed to get soaked on the way over.

The first thing they did was to run into the medical tents, where they were greeted by a humbling sight. Celestia was moving amongst the wounded ponies and humans, offering kind words and as much comfort as she could. Dash was there as well, passing out food to all the injured. When the cyan pegasus saw Jaze enter the tent, she dropped her empty tray and ran from the room.

“Dammit Dash,” Jaze called as he ran after her, “wait!”

Trixie left set Zephyr down, who immediately started going around to all the occupied beds and talking to all the patients. Her sweetness brought smiles to everyone’s face, human and pony alike. Celestia picked her way through the beds over to the unicorn, who bowed her head in the presence of the Solar Princess.

“Hello Princess,” Trixie said respectfully, “I did not know you were here.”

“I only just arrived.” the white alicorn explained, “Luna is in another tent to see the rest of the wounded.”

“How are they doing?”

“Well enough, we have brought more doctors from Canterlot to help deal with the number of hurt.” For a moment, the Princess watched the little filly move around the room to talk to everypony. “That is not the only reason I am here, however.”

“What is wrong?”

“Luna and I felt something was wrong here, we brought a small contingent of Royal Guards with us to help find out what is going on.”

“Have you turned anything up?”

“Not yet; this storm is dampening our efforts. We cannot see more than a few feet, and we don’t know what we are looking for. The only thing we have to go on is a mutual feeling between Luna and I.”

Trixie’s eyes were drawn to the door Jaze had left through, “I think that I need to talk to Jaze.”

“Yes, please bring him back. I need to speak with him on this.” Trixie ran from the room, Zephyr close in tow.

Jaze ran after the cyan blur in the rain, the cold water making his hair run into his eyes. Dash was flying, trying to get away from the soldier, but the rain was slowing her down. “Dash please,” the assassin called out, “wait!”

The pony stopped and turned back to the human following, “What do you want?” She was hovering above the ground at just around waist level.

“I want to talk.” He finally caught up with the pegasus, who immediately reached out and punched Jaze on the chin. The assassin calmly wiped the blood pouring from his lips away, letting it wash off in the rain. “I guess I deserved that.”

“You know you did.” Dash replied angrily, “Why did you leave me here? Cloudsdale is my home! I could have helped.”

“No,” he said quietly, “you could have died.”

“I wouldn’t have died! I would have helped save Cloudsdale!”

“And that is why you would have died. We couldn’t have saved the city, we were lucky we saved what we did.”

“Lucky?” Dash yelled, “Almost everypony I know is dead! And you didn’t let me help! You took Twilight but not me!”

“Is that what you are mad about?” the assassin asked, his own blood boiling, “That I took your friend and not you?”

“Well, yes! Twilight is an egghead, and I am a…”

“A civilian. Twilight joined the Marines; that is the only reason she went with me.”

“Then let me join as well! I can fight too!”

“You can’t hold a gun.” Jaze stated harshly, “And this is not going to be a battle of swordplay. This is war, and…” He hesitated, unsure of how to say what he felt.

“And what?” the angry pegasus prompted.

“And I don’t want you to get too far into the fighting.” He whispered quietly, “I want as many of you to stay away from this hell as possible. You are all too innocent for this, and I don’t want to see any of you hurt more than you have been.”

The anger slowly left her magenta eyes and she settled down to the slippery ground, “Why can’t I stay mad?” The assassin realized that she was softly crying for the home she had lost.

“Because you are loyal to your friends, and I seem to fall under that category.”

“Well,” she said with a teary smile, “I guess there is that. And I suppose that you are right.” She hung her head, fighting to get her rebellious eyes under control, “I’m sorry Jaze, but I need time to think this over.”

“I understand,” she started walking away, but Jaze had one final thing to tell her, “And Dash? You and Twilight are honorary Angels. You have done so much for me and this fight that I feel you deserve it.”

Her eyes lit up, “What about Applejack?”

“Her too, if feel she will help a lot before the end.”

“Well that is cool,” Dash replied as she made her way toward the medical tent, “but you are not off the hook with me!”

Jaze shook his head as the pegasus disappeared into the rain. He no longer cared about how wet he was getting, in fact the cool rain felt soothing at the moment. He stared into the rain, and could just begin to see a figure striding toward him. The figure turned into a man dressed all in black, sunglasses covering his eyes despite the darkness.