"Hey grandpa, can you tell me more about Ms. Hurricane and Mr. Summereyes?" your grandson asks the next day, it was the weekend and his friends would be here in an hour or two.

"I don't see why not… What would you like to know kiddo?" you say getting him to sit beside you.

"Well, I wanted to know what they were like… like how they were personality-wise." he says getting you to think back to how they were.

"Well… I don't really know how to describe them with just their personality but I do remember one day that I think fit them perfectly." you say think back to the particular day.

"What happened?" he asks, getting you to drift deeper into your memories.

"Well, from what I remember, it was about two months after they were released from stone, they had just started training again, I had watched as I was curious as to their training……

"Again!" you hear Emerald call out as Scootaloo got up.

"Ah come on, we've been practicing for two hours now sensei." you hear her complain as she slowly gets off of the ground.

"That is true, but you are still no closer to being back in your natural rhythm." He responded before striking at Scootaloo again, making her quickly scramble away. "You still have your mind focused on a goal we have much to do in order to achieve Scoots, stop thinking about Daybreaker and focus on getting back into nature." he said before attacking her again.

They had gone on like this for the last month and a half, training their bodies, their magic and their minds in order to defeat Daybreaker, but what Emerald said got your attention.

"Ah, Mr. Summereyes?" you call out, he quickly stops attacking and nods his head for you to continue. "What do you mean by you have a lot to do in order to defeat Daybreaker?" you asked getting him to sigh and bow to his student before turning to you.

"What I meant by that is we can't just go into Canterlot and expect to fight Daybreaker then and there, she will most likely have guards, golems, and who knows how many traps and enchantments lining her castle halls. We need allies, and in order to do that we need to go out and search Equestria for anypony who's left, not to mention that the dragons and the griffions would be great allies in fighting off Daybreaker's forces." he explained before ducking under a kick and striking his student.

"Damn it, just let me hit you already!" Scootaloo exclaimed backing up again, making Emerald shake his head in denial.

"But why would we do that when the two of you could sneak in and take her on yourselves?" you had asked, not seeing the logic yet.

"Mr. Storm, while that is an excellent question, that can be answered simply in the fact that we'd be overrun by her forces that would back her up, however, if said forces are distracted by say, a large group of people bashing through the gates and attacking the castle, she would have less reinforcements to aid her when we attack her directly." he said making you nod in agreement when the logic was put in front of you. "Not to mention, the more people we have, the better we will fare in the overall battle, it will be like playing chess, only the board being Canterlot Castle." He explains before attacking his student again, who blocked it and attacked back. "There you go Scoots, now you're getting back into the rhythm of it." he said before they started blocking and striking at each other.

"It will take awhile… I hope he knows what he's doing." you think as you watch them continue to train for the rest of the day…

"Wow, is that really what they were like?" your grandson asks as you come out of the memory.

"Most of the time yes, but there were times when Ms. Hurricane would act just as calm as Mr. Summereyes, and I remember seeing Emerald in battle, he was like a entirely different stallion, gone was his calm and collected behavior and replaced with a determined rage that sent any who looked him in his eyes into a panic, for they only saw their death within them." you say remembering the one time you looked in his eyes, and the fear you felt when you did.

"Woah, he must have been scary in battle then." he says, making you chuckle.

"You have no idea kiddo." you remark patting his head gently…

It's three hours later when your new listeners arrive, they chat and play around for a bit before eventually sitting down in preparation for some more story.

"Ready to continue young ones?" you ask as you open the page to where you left in the journal.

"Yes sir." they all say with excitement in their voices.

"Very well, now I believe I last left off on me just starting on my four day trek to Manehattan, is that about right?" you say getting comfortable in your chair.

"Yep!" one of the colts said making you nod as you drift into the memories of the hundred midday years.

"Ah yes… now I remember." you say as the memory starts playing in your mind. "The trek wasn't anything special, and nothing truly extraordinary happened during it, but I do remember my walk through Ponyville, and how desolated it looked back then…"

<Storm, Everfree outskirts, 2125 H.M.Y.>
As you walk out of the Everfree forest, you notice the destroyed town of Ponyville, now you've walked through this town before, but you never took a chance to really look at it. You remember what it did look like before the midday years, you lived there after all, but it didn't look anything like that small little town you knew.

Most of the buildings were charged from the fire that raged through here all those years ago. Almost everypony died in the magical heatwave that took the town, and as you look around you see the skeletal bodies of ponies who were running away from the flames, some of the buildings did catch fire, you could see a few that you had visited when you were younger either with your friends or your parents, the burned and destroyed Sugarcube Corner which had part of the roof caved in, then there was The Carousel Boutique, the entire top had been ripped apart and thrown away in the chaos of the flames, and even the regrown Golden Oaks Library, it was a surprise to see it still standing even after it got engulfed in flames, but you could see that it was ready to collapse.

"Such destruction happened so quickly… I have to find that book, and if I'm right, Apple Bloom will know where it'll be." you think before trudging forwards and following the train tracks to the east.

Nothing truly happened during the trek to Manehattan, you paused every now and then to eat and drink, making sure you found a shady place to rest every so often, but after four days, you made it to the coastal city, the big apple of Equestria, the now desolate iron city that's called Manehattan. You could tell that the flames reached here too, for every window of every building was shattered, almost all of the buildings had burn marks painted upon them, it looked like one of the Dragon Land volcanoes erupted and Manehattan got covered by the ash that fell, as you entered the city, you could already see the bone corpses of ponies and griffions laying across the streets and hanging from windows, none of them could have made it to safety, none had a chance to escape the wall of death that approached them, some were probably caught within the flames unknowingly, asleep until their deaths.

You walked the streets of this once great city, looking for any sign that you could be near the camp, until you heard shuffling coming from one of the stores near you, approaching it you saw a figure inside looking through what was left by the dead in their attempts to flee.

"Hello? Can you help me?" you ask loud enough to hear, they had stopped searching and turned around.

You couldn't see much, but you could tell that they were looking for food by the pile near them, they slowly moved closer until they were about to be in the light when they spoke.

"AnD wHo aRe yOu lOsT oNe? You dOn't lOoK LikE tHoSe sEaRcHeRs fRoM tHe SuBwaYs." they said, their voice shaking as they spoke.

"You know of the encampment? Well good, I was looking for it, do you know where it is?" you say as you move slightly closer, just so you could talk normally.

"YoU're nOt fROm hEre… wHIch meANs no bAck up… wHiCh MEans… FREE MEAL!" they said before leaping at you, having not expected this, you fall backwards. "COME ON YOU LITTLE MORSEL, I WON'T BITE YOU THAT HARD!" the being said as you try to fight them off of you.

"Not happening!" you say before pushing them off and quickly getting up.

Now that they were in the light, you could see it was a pegasus stallion, but his stomach was very sunken in and his ribs were showing, he had a disheveled mane and tail, both cut slightly short and were extremely dirty, his coat was dull from no water, cuts were marking his body, his clothing consisted of a very torn pair of shorts that barely held themselves together and some underwear, his eyes told you that he had gone insane some time ago, but was only barely still a sentient being.

"You will not eat me, just tell me where the camp is and I will leave you alone." you say getting him to chuckle briefly.

"BuT wHy do tHAt wHeN yoU'Re gOiNg to Be my nExt meAl, mAYbe I cOuLd saVe pArTs of yOu for lAtEr… yEs, thAt wOuLd be niCe." he said before pulling out a slightly rusted blade and attacking you again.

You continue to dodge and weave the crazy stallion's attempts to harm you, he eventually sliced your arms and managed to stab you in the gut when you tripped on some rubble that you didn't see.

"It's tiMe to Dig iN!" he said as he was about to bring his blade down upon you once more.

Just as he was about to strike however, an arrow pierced his chest making both of you look at it, the arrow was around where his heart would be.

"Ouchie…" he says before a second arrow hits him square in the head making him fall back off you and slowly stop breathing.

"You 'kay there stranger?" you hear a feminine southern voice ask as a shadow looms over you.

"I'm slightly injured, but otherwise doing fine… who are you ma'am?" you ask as they block out the sun enough for you to see them properly.

"Names Applejack, what's yours." she said as you could see her clearly.

Applejack Apple, you remember what she used to look like, and you could see the difference as clear as the midday sun, her sun bleached mane was now sporting a lot of grey in it, it was also cut short, just above her shoulders if you saw it correctly. Her clothes were tied up showing her midriff and a lot of her legs, she still had her steton on, but it was slightly burned around the back edge, if that black mark was a burn mark at least, she had a few scars here and there, but the most prominent was the one one her side, where you could see a slash mark going from her waist to the middle of her left side, her eyes held sadness in them, sad determination that you would know from an Apple that lost a family member.

"Well miss Applejack, I don't know if you remember me, but I'm Storm, I came from a camp near Ponyville in order to talk to your sister about someone." you say as you push the dead body of the stallion off of your legs and stand up to face her.

You could tell she had a slight hunch in her back now that you were standing up, you quickly applied pressure to the stab wound before something too bad happened.

"Ah see… very well, follow me Storm, mah little sis is a medic back at camp, might as well talk to her as she's fixin' ya up." she said before grabbing the arrows out of the corpse and start walking toward the camp.

"Thank you miss Applejack." you say as you follow her as best as you can with a stab wound.

It takes another ten minutes before you walk down a set of stairs and into the subways of Manehattan Square, you quickly are shown where the medic tent is and are brought in.

"Hey there Bloom, got a newcomer that's needin' a bit of a stichin' and he wanted tah talk tah ya too." Applejack said as you entered the tent.

"I'll see tah 'im in a sec sis, just patchin' up Sweetie here real quick." you hear being said as you sit on an open bed.

"Aight, just do it quick now, this fella got stabbed by one of the loose folk up top." AJ replied before nodding to you and leaving you in the tent.

It takes about five more minutes before Sweetie thanks Apple Bloom and walks out of the tent, Apple Bloom walks over to you, you could tell that she was an Apple already, her bright yellow coat and cherry red mane and tail said it all, she was an Apple, and one that you needed to listen to.

"Aight, let's see the damage." she says making you lay down and removing your hand. "Well, it's nothin' too deep, I can easily patch ya up, but sis said ya wanted to talk, so talk." she says before grabbing a needle and some stitching thread.

"Well, I was wondering how much you knew about a pony by the name of Scootaloo Hurricane." you say getting her to stop and look at you, you could see emotions just under a mask of calm in her eyes.

"How do you know that name?" she asks before slowly going back to work on you're wound.

"Would you believe me if I told you that I saw her recently." you say making her go ridged, before taking a deep breath and relaxing. She heads over to the tent flap and opens it quickly, you don't know why she did so until she shouts very loudly. "SWEETIE BELLE!" she shouts, making those you saw near her cover their ears, the mare that left earlier returned quickly.

"What's up AB?" she asked, only to get dragged into the tent and placed at the end of your bed.

"Tell her what ya just told me." she says before quickly and efficiently getting the needle ready to stitch up your wound.

"I'm assuming that both of you know the mare by the name of Scootaloo Hurricane well then?" you ask, making Sweetie go wide eyed.

Now that you could see Sweetie Belle clearly, you could see that she was an angel, a slim body with slightly dark well fit clothes that contrasted against her slightly dirty white coat, her duel colored mane was done up in a ponytail behind her.

"We… we do, she was our best friend, why do you ask?" She replied before Bloom started stitching the wound.

"Well, I happened to have come across her and a journal that had a note written by her inside." you say making Sweetie shake her head.

"That's impossible, she died, I know she did, I saw her burn alive in front of me." she remarked before looking you dead in the eyes. "There's no way you're telling us the truth." she says, making you chuckle a bit.

"The proof is in my bag, the white book, fourth page." you say gesturing to your bag, she quickly looks inside and takes out the book before opening it and turning to the fourth page, before stopping.

"What's it say Sweetie?" Bloom asked as she continued stitching you up.

"It says: 'Hello to whoever found this, my name is Scootaloo Hurricane, I am the apprentice to Emerald Summereyes, my master had gotten trapped in stone by princess Celestia and Luna, but now I will try to recall the day I found one of his journals in the castle of the two sisters and I do hope you can free us, as we have a score to settle with Daybreaker'… it's even signed in her name, and it's written in her writing style… he's telling the truth." she says reading off the letter before looking at you.

"I've read up to the fifteenth page, but I wanted to ask you something about Miss Bloom." you say as you look from Sweetie to Apple Bloom.

"What's the question?" she asks looking at you really quick.

"Did Miss Hurricane give either of you a red book, one with an emerald on the cover?" you ask just as she finishes stitching you up.

"None that I can think of, what 'bout you Sweetie?" she replied before looking over to her friend.

"No, no book with that description, but maybe AJ or my sister knows something." she replies, shaking her head.

"Maybe… let me finish ya up before we go and check." she says before tending to the rest of your wounds and bandaging you up…

"And that is where we will end the story today children." you say closing the book and looking up to the kids.

They stared at you wide eyed for a few moments before exploding into a ton of questions, you however can't hear a single one as they're all asking their questions at the same time.

"Children, children, calm down, I won't be able to answer anything if I can't tell what's being asked." you say gesturing for them to calm down.

"Were you really stabbed by a crazy guy?!" one of the colts asked, making you sigh.

"Yes I was, I was a naïve adventurer at the time, I barely knew how to fight, much less keep myself protected." you answer before another speaks up.

"What was the Manehattan subway camp like?!" one of the fillies asked, making you chuckle.

"I will tell you that next time, but I suggest you all head home, before your parents worry about you all." you say motioning for them to leave, they do so after saying goodbye.

"Another rousing story time with grandpa Storm sweetie?" your daughter says as she enters the living room.

"Yep! I can't wait for him to continue." your grandson says before hugging you. "Love you grandpa!" he says before rushing to the bathroom to wash up.

"Still a nonbeliever sweetheart?" you ask as you stand up from your chair.

"I know it's just another made up story, just like all of the other stories you've told me when I was younger." she says before heading into the kitchen.

"True… but none of those were made up my dear." you quietly say as you look towards the shelf. "Sweetheart, I won't be eating tonight." you say as you move towards the bookcase.

"Are you sure dad?" she asks from the kitchen.

"I'm quite sure dear, I'm going to be a little busy." you say placing the white book back on the shelf before moving your hand over the books. "Four over, two down and one to the left." you think as you pull on a book that seems to get stuck halfway through pulling only for the bookcase to slide up, revealing a secret entrance, you chuckle a small deviously knowing chuckle. "Yes… quite busy indeed." you say to yourself before entering the passage and closing the entrance behind you.

"Hey grandpa, mom said you weren't eating with us tonight, is that… true… grandpa?" your grandson asks entering the room a few moments after the bookshelf put itself back in place.

The everburn torches light up as you traverse the secret hall behind the bookcase, their purple flames dancing without the presence of wind in the place. You take your time reaching the end of the hall before it opens up into a large room with large bookcase lining the walls, book on every single shelf. In the center of the room was a large U-shaped desk with a few books bottles and even a few magical focus runes inlaid in stone or some metals that hold fire magic in them.

"Right then… let's get back to work… just like the old days." you say stretching your body before activating a pair of runes that connect to certain spells. You start to get to work on making potions and other magical items for future use, unchanged by the time outside of this room.

Author's Notes:

Chapter 4 and this time its a quick blast to the past, i cant wait to write more for you guys, and i hope you all enjoy, and remember.
Stay terrifying my little nightmares.
-Night Quill