“Well folks it’s been quite the productive week for us hasn’t it? A couple of crazy mares and their one stallion army gave me my interview and gave a few of you a purpose. Now news has spread like wildfire of this recent surge of pony power running around. The Enclave are bound to catch on, so keep your gun at the ready and be sure to kill any of those bastards you see. The wasteland is better with them gone. That’s all for the news.”

I managed a small laugh. A productive week it had been. But they weren’t ready yet.

“Early morning training session?” Harmony trotted over to the window.

I nodded keeping my eyes pinned on the makeshift gun range below us. “If we’re going to win this war we’ll need them to be crack shots. But…..”

They were at the very least knowledgeable about the weapons they carried, but seeing as that shot had missed its target by a foot they still had a ways to go.

“They’ve got a lot of training to do.” Harmony looked closer at the field below. “Is that Silver down there?”

“Yeah. He’s trying to figure out that pistol he carries. From what little I’ve watched him shoot I know something’s wrong.” I gave Harmony a smile.

“He’s had trouble with guns ever since we were in the military.” Rose was sitting behind us eating an apple.

I jumped slightly. “Do you have any idea as to why?”

Rose shrugged. “He never received proper training with guns. He trained himself on the field to use his pistol. Always looked a bit off the way he shot it.”

Aurora flickered into existence. “It’s a possibility that he’s shooting with the wrong eye. I’ve known soldiers without training to shoot with the wrong eye for years before figuring it out.”

“That seems…. Oddly simple, but plausible.” Rose tossed her trash into the nearest garbage can. “I’ll go see if I can help him out.”

I stared out that window at the ponies training in the city. They needed a lot of training before I would even trust them to fight the Enclave. Much less win a war of this scale against them.

Harmony laid her tail over mine. “Give them time. All good soldiers need time to get acquainted with their weapons.”

That soft tone eased me a little. I was still not sure that this would work out for us. “I…”

Harmony gave me a concerned glance. I guess I had stepped before I had really started to speak. “Is something wrong?”

“I… I don’t know anymore..” I dropped to the floor. “I want to help them. I really do. But I would rather just lay down my weapons. I’ve seen too many horrible things in my life. I don’t want to fight anymore.” I sat there and let the tears flow.

Harmony sat down in front of me. Waiting for her moment to console me. “I know you don’t. I don’t want to fight anymore either. But they need us. Just a little while longer honey. I promise you. We’ll be finished with the fighting and be living for ourselves soon. You just need to stay with me. We’ll make it through this together.”

I kept crying. The words were what I needed to hear. Even if I wasn’t going to internalize them yet. I knew Harmony was always with me. She had always had my back. Even from the very beginning when we barely knew each other. She’d always been there for me. And I felt horrible for never returning the favor. I was always leaning on her for support. But I had never once been there for her when she was in need. “Why?”

“Why what?” Harmony looked into my eyes. The caring look of a mother.

“Why is it that you’re always here for me? But when you need me I’m not there for you.” The words hurts. They hurt worse than any gunshot ever did. Because it was true. I was never there for her.

Harmony swept me up into a hug. “You do more for me than you could ever realize. I’ve needed you everyday since we met. I just never let on.” I could feel the warmth as she started to cry. “I need you more than anything else in this world. I’d be lost without you.”

Silver’s POV

I fired the gun again. And just like the last ten shots I missed the target by a good foot. “Son of a bitch.”

The magazine fell to the ground and I slammed a new one in. I pulled the slide back and let it crack forward. It hadn’t been that long since I had used a pistol had it? I might have been a little inaccurate with my old .45 but I could still hit a target from this distance.

I emptied my mind and put the gun up so I could look down the sights with my left eye. With a steady grasp on the gun I squeezed the trigger again. The bullet missed by a few inches instead of a foot. “Buck me!”

That hoof on my back felt amazing. Only one pony knew how to do that. “Hi honey. What are you doing down here? I thought you were meeting with Midnight and Harmony today.”

“I was going to talk to them but they said you might need some help with your weapon.” Rose moved up slightly to move the gun. “Just tell me when you can look down the sights with your right eye.”

I opened my right eye and closed my left. I waited until I could see clearly down the sight of the gun. “Right there.”

“Now try to hit the target again.” Rose moved back a good ways from the firing range.

Ok what the actual buck? I’d always shot like that. I might have been inaccurate but I could still hit the target. What was this going to do for me? I pulled the trigger again.

“Bullseye?” I had hit the target square in the middle. “What. The. Buck?”

Rose was smiling at my side with a gun in her mouth. She waited until I took the pistol from her. “You’ve been shooting with the wrong eye. Aurora suggested that you might have not gotten the training you needed with guns. She figured that you might have not been shooting with your dominant eye.” She stepped back a ways. “Now try it again.”

I didn’t understand to much of that. How was my left eye not dominant? I did everything else with the left side of my body. Always had my left side more towards the enemy so I could use my wing to block or kill.

The next trigger pull yielded close to the same result as the last. And then another one finished off a small group of three bullets within an inch of each other. “I think I’ve got it.”

Rose was smiling happily behind me. The one thing that was always shining so brightly in my world.

I emptied the rest of the magazine without missing the bullseye by more than an inch. I set the gun down and returned to my wife’s side. “Now let’s get you off your hooves.” I lifted her up and set her atop my back.

“Woah. Silver you know I don’t like being up here. And the foal.” She was right. I knew she didn’t like being off the ground all that often.

“Are you sure? I could carry you back to our room.” I sat her back down on the ground.

“I know you don’t want me to be walking. I’ll be fine though.” Rose bumped me with her flank. “As long as my knight in no armor opens the doors for me.”

I flung the door open on our approach. “After you.”

Rose giggled. “Why thank you kind sir. Perhaps I’ll have to repay this kindness.” The meaning was all to clear with that wink.

“I think a kiss would suffice for now.” I smiled bringing Rose into a kiss.

After she broke the kiss Rose bit my ear. “Just you wait until the foals born. Then you’ll get more than that from me.”

The blush was hard to hide. “Still not comfortable with you talking about that out in public.”

“I know you’re not.” Rose tapped my face with her tail and made sure to stick her flank out as much as possible as she walked away from me.

That was always a great sight. The one good thing about her never wearing any armor outside of combat. I shook my head. Dammit not now. I could do a lot better without having to deal with my damn dick right now.

“Silver are you coming?” Dammit Rose not helping.

“I’m on my way.” I didn’t know if it was out of respect or fear but the guards suppressed their laughter.

I kept my head held high. No matter what I wasn’t going to let these guards think I was embarrassed in any way. I closed the door as quickly as I could behind me.

I heard the guards laugh a little through the door. Bastards deserved a sharp kick to the face. For now I had to deal with the two mares on the floor near the window and Rose who was trying to comfort them.

Rose waved me over just to be there. Saying nothing we just sat there as Midnight and Harmony cuddled on the floor.

They had been there for me when I was at my lowest. Now I was here for them if they needed me.

Is this what friendship was supposed to be like? I had never had many friends growing up, so I had no idea what the actual buck was going on with this whole thing. I’ll just sit here and be ready to offer my two cents.

No such opportunity arose as after a few more minutes Harmony helped Midnight to her hooves and she led her home.

Rose opened the door to our room. “Come here.”

I followed Rose into our room. The pleasant scent of the candles Rose like filled the air. This room was very nice on all the senses. Especially the amazing silk sheets we had.

Rose was sitting down on the bed looking at me. “Snap out of it.”

I shook my head. “Sorry. What?”

Rose sighed. “I’ll ask again since you seem to have been lost in thought. What were you doing?”

I looked back on everything that had just happened. What was it she was talking about? Couldn’t have been the gun. Couldn’t have been the journey back here. It finally clicked. “I was comforting Midnight. I’ve done that before.”

“You’ve never held your wing over anypony else. That’s the first time I’ve seen you do that with anypony.”

I shrugged it off. “I do that to show I care. Midnight knows that from past experience. I just wanted to let her know in my own way that I cared.”

Midnight’s POV

There it was. The front door. The two way portal that could lead me to either a day of relaxation or a day of this life.

I pushed on the door. To my surprise the door was locked. I pulled the spare key out from underneath a rock. I liked to imagine that’s what ponies did before the war. Hid spare keys under things just incase they got locked out. Maybe somebody was planning something for me. Wouldn’t that be wonderful. Some good food, friends, and the love of my life.

The door swung open and I was greeted by two of the three things in my mind. Harmony stood there beside me equally confused. Demo and Onyx were already in the house. Now the only thing missing was food.

But it seemed Demo had found himself a meal on the table. That meal being a dressed up Onyx. He saw us. “Oh bloody hell. We didn’t expect you back for a little while.”

I didn’t know whether to laugh or be grossed out. One the one hoof it was hilarious seeing Onyx dressed up in such fancy clothes. On the other, I did not need to see his dick now or ever.

In the end I settled on laughing for a few seconds before scolding him. “Ok for one what are you wearing? And for two why the table? We eat there.” I tapped my hoof trying to hold back the laughter.

Onyx blushed as he tried to find the words. “I…. um….”

“I always wanted to blow a high class stallion. Especially on the table.” Demo was looking between us and his prize.

Ah dammit. I really didn’t want to see his dick. Maybe it had been a thought in my mind at one point but I never really wanted to see it or any other cock. “We’ll leave you too that then.”

Onyx was still looking for words to say. He eventually just stopped and laid back down.

“Enjoy your breakfast Demo.” Did she actually just say that. A little racy for my taste, but it was still funny.

“With pleasure.” And with that we left the two to themselves.

I got about halfway into the room before everything went dark. “Power outage?” I looked around for the lamp.

“Guess again.”

“Time for my favorite thing in the world?”

“Closer. Now come here.”

I put a hoof on the bed. I knew Harmony was there waiting for me. I could see the faintest aura being emitted from her horn.

The room light up as all but a few of the candles were lit simultaneously. That romantic lighting was always amazing.

And it made Harmony look enchanting. She beckoned for me to join her.

I did as I was told and laid down next to her. I was about to speak. To tell Harmony how much I loved her.

“You don’t need to. I already know.”

“Where do you think she’s gone this time?”

“I have no idea. We’ve looked everywhere we possibly can for her.”

“She must be hiding from us. Trying something.”

“It is a possibility she is still trying after all these years to bring them back.”

“I hate to know that she’s suffering like this. If only I had told her earlier.”

“Do not blame yourself sister. We are both at fault for this.”

“Our sins outweigh our righteous deeds. What has become of us?”

“We are still who we once were. We will be here for years to come sister. Someday we will find her and set this problem to rest for good.”

“And then what? Our kingdom is destroyed. All of our subjects have chosen a life of chaos. All we have is this group of ponies.”

“Calm yourself sister. They are more promising than any who have come before. They’ll soon prove themselves worthy.”

“But what of our kingdom? Our former glory? What will we do after they win this war?”

“We might one day wear our regalia again. But only if Silver permits it. After all we did make him the new king.”

“Thousands of years and we finally declared a king. Princesses for millennia and finally a king and a queen.”

“Will we still be princesses sister?”

“By the oath we took we will still be princesses. Always ready incase we have something like Sombra happens again.”

Author's Notes:

Sorry for the late upload. Been busy with graduation and all that comes along with that. I'll still try to post every other week.