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Pony POV Series Season Six: Dark World/Shining Armor

by Alex Warlorn

Chapter 35: Episode 100: (Shining Armor) tsomlA lamorN Almost Normal (and meet the Neighponese princess)

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My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic
Pony POV Series
Shining Armor Part 9
Written By lz0291
tsomlA lamorN
Edited by Alex Warlorn, Kendell2, And Louis Badalament.

"So tell me more about Ranger-Oh! Hey, Minuette!" Twinkleshine greeted, sitting up from her bed.

"Hey, Twinkleshine, hey Sunset." Minuette telekinetically took off her hoofmaiden's dress and slipped on her nightgown.

"So how was Shining Armor?" Twinkleshine asked.

"He's fine."

"Oh? And how's Cadence?"

"She's fine."

"So how are they together right now?" Twinkleshine grinned.

"They're fine." She spoke in a monotone.

"Minny, are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She crawled into the bunk.

Now Sunset did look up in confusion, and she and Twinkleshine looked at each other hoping for an answer. When they thought to ask their friend directly, she had turned around pulled the cover over her.

Minuette lay on her bed staring outwards peaking through a small opening in her defenses at the room and the infinite muddled world beyond. Her eyes refusing to close. 'What am I even doing here?' she thought to herself.

"Hey! Minuette! Lemon Hearts! Look what I found!" Twinkleshine said laying out the want-ad. "They're hiring staff for Princess Cadence now that she's coming of age! Including hoof-maidens! The pay's good, we can get through college easy!"

"I dunno," Minuette said.

"It's a chance to meet Canterlot Royalty! Why pass up a chance like that?" Twinkleshine said.

"Did you show this to Moondancer?" Minuette asked.

"She said it felt too awkward. Can you believe that?"

"If you two want to do this, go right ahead. But I'm not gonna be a glorified house-servant to pampered royals who can't brush their own teeth."

But what Lemon Hearts said struck a cord. "Brush their own teeth eh?" Minuette thought.

That had led to an awkward first day on the job with Princess Cadence in her bathroom both had sworn never to speak of.

Minuette sighed as she finally closed her eyes.

Her dreams that night included being chased through a jungle by doll-sized ponies with spears and butterfly wings, and then being in Canterlot Castle redesigned by M.C. Neigher being given different nonsensical orders from two Princess Cadences three times her size. Finally she dreamed the floor fell out from under their beds leaving her clinging for dear life against the walls as the landscape thousands of feet below past by and Sunset didn't lift a wing to help her, telling her "Don't be such a baby!" Minuette did not wake up feeling rested.

This was obvious to their friends as they ate breakfast early, they had to get up earlier than their princess after all, to have everything ready to make her mane combed and her fur brushed by Sunset, her barding polished by Twinkle Shine, and a hundred other little things, all for the public to see their goddess.

And that meant they had to look presentable too, they could go making the goddess of music and harmony look bad by association after all. Washing, brushing teeth, make sure the hoofmaid dresses are clean.

There was a certain pride that came that no matter how bad her bed mane or what happened the night before, the three mares could turn Cadence into Princess Cadenza every time.

"Minny are you okay?" Twinkle Shine asked when her friend spent even longer than normal brushing her teeth.

"It's nothing. The Princess has a lot of things planned today, we better not dawdle."

Minuette forced herself along, she had to proof-check Princess Cadence's schedule for the day after all. The Princess depended on her, and by extension therefore, Equestria did.


"It is the view of this officer that Private Captive Audience, in using lethal force against an unknown suspect, was wholly justified in his actions. It is the view of this officer that no viable alternative that did not increase the risk to life was present."

I fought not to jump up and scream 'Yes!' This all but cleared him! I don't think I'd been that relieved since Twiley told me she passed the entrance exam to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns!

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Were you...ever scared of... of Twilight, after what happened at that exam?)

Never. Okay, I was shocked, surprised, but I was more focused on my little sister suddenly being our goddess' apprentice. I was a little freaked out at what happened, but I wasn't freaked out at her. Oh! Thanks for the hug there.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): You're welcome!)

"Let the record note that the panel's opinion is unanimous. We therefore recommend that Private Audience be placed back on duty by midnight tonight, if not sooner, and that he be placed under psychological observation to ensure that he is coping properly. We remind the Private that this record is to be sent to the Ministry of Defense, alongside any further relevant information, and that we may be asked to further investigate or move to a full Court Martial. Does the Private accept this outcome?"

"Yes, Ma'am."

"Let the record show that the inquiry has been concluded."

The Ensign stopped typing a moment later.

"And now we're off-record: Bloody good shooting, Audience," Bond said.

"Thank you, Sir."

"So, Captain, you're off-duty now, yes? Got a suit to be measured..." Shepard teased.

"Yes, I think so..." I sighed. She grinned.

"You're as bad as my children. They're twins, Cadets in the Air Naval Academy. My son could throw a hay of a tantrum as a colt when you told him he needed to wear a suit... But I got my daughter to grow out of dresses pretty darn fast. She takes after me, you see."

"I'm not that bad, Ma'am... And I didn't know you had children."

"Well, now you do."

She then followed the other Naval Officers out of the room. I began to head to where Cadence was waiting for me to tell her we were done, and face the suit-measuring music.

"Uh, Sir, am I back on duty?" Audience pondered as we made our way out.

"Not as such. You can stay in uniform and carry weapons, but I want you to keep an eye on Gag the next couple of days. He's your room-mate, right? Medic says the concussion means he might have an unexpected problem further down the line."

"Okay. Don't I need assessed about my mental health though?"

"Oh, yeah. Any nightmares?" I asked

"Nope."

"Loss of sleep?"

"No."

"You seem good to me right now. You can take a single cookie from the jar as a reward for being a good boy and we'll keep an eye on you for the next few weeks. Oh, and Captive?"

"Yes, Sir?"

"Thanks for saving my flank last night. If you ever need to speak to me about what you had to do, I'm there, okay? I know you have better training but I know..."

I trailed off, but he seemed to get the message.

"You're welcome, but, Vigilo Confido, Sir. If I can make sure somepony else doesn't have to that's what I'm for."

"Well, remember, we're here for you if you need us, Captive."

"Yes sir."

The other troopers were just making their way out. Cadence seemed to be talking to Ellis, but I couldn't quite hear the conversation. I wasn't really all that shocked when he nodded and she gave him a hug. She's a huggy sort of pony.

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): Jealous?)

I get my fair share of huggy Cadence at times.

"...Remember we all appreciate what you did, Ellis. And if you want to talk I can always find time somewhere."

"U-um, yes, ma'am..." He said, blushing a little bit. No, still not jealous.

I then noticed Commander Bond was lingering. Seemingly he'd beat me to it and told Cadence things were done. Minuette muttered something I didn't quite hear. Cadence gave her a nudge with her back hoof.

"Ah, hello, Shining, Audience. I've heard about the outcome, glad everything was on the level. Shining, Commander Bond, can you head upstairs and wait for me? I just have something to talk to Minuette about first."

"Er, yes, Princess."

Audience and the other troopers all wandered off, while Cadence led Minuette back into the room they'd just left. Bond and I made our way to...

"Er, where are we going?"

"Your room, so we can discuss some developments."

He cast his spell on us again as we walked.

"They'll think we're on about golf if anyone overhears us. Alright, first thing. You might know I work as a representative for Intelligence."

"No, I don't... Wait, golf?! I don't play golf!"

"Few non-unicorns do, that'll make this easier since no one will care to listen in. Anyway, last night, I was not representing either the Air Navy or Intelligence when I went out to meet a friend who works here, who was not representing his own Navy either."

"Okay, so you had some drinks with a friend. Wish I'd been doing that," I noted.

"I wish I'd been doing it too. We'd barely been in the place five minutes when we were passed a message to go meet someone."

"Wait, YOU didn't get dragged into a Hooviet ambush too, did you?"

"That's the trouble. It might have been part of the same plan. I did notify Commander Shepard, but it still meant I was away from the place she could easily contact and notify me. First I heard of the attack was when I saw your flare. I headed here, Mason headed for his own base..."

"Wait, did you say 'Mason?'" I vaguely remembered the deer I had met in the embassy, shortly before first crossing paths with Makarov.

"Yes, Dai Arfwisg Mason, Lieutenant Commander, Columbian Navy. Do you know him too?" Bond wondered.

"Dai... 'Dai Arfwisg?' Am I even saying that right? No... the Mason I met was Alexi Mason, plus his friend Reznov at the Hooviet..."

It was Bond's turn to be surprised. "Reznov? Victor Reznov? With an Alexi Mason? Son of a bitch... Look, Captain, things just got a lot more complicated there and I haven't even told you what Dai is."

"What, is he a Hydra or something?"

"No. He's a Red Deer, and he's in your room waiting for us." Bond told me, right as we reached it.

I'll admit I felt a brief flash of worry about encountering another deer, but it didn't last long. For a start, he wasn't in assassin's black but a navy blue uniform and he was unarmed. Music played on the radio as we entered...

"Hunt you down without mercy, Hunt you down all nightmare long …"

"Ah, Commander Sparkle, I presume? I'm Lieutenant Commander Mason. I hope you don't mind but I put your radio on while I waited..."

We shook hooves. For simplicity, we'll call him Dai.

"Dai, things just got stranger. Apparently, Shining bumped into Reznov and an associate a couple of nights back at the Hooviet shindig. Don't get pissed off, but the associate called himself Alexi Mason."

A flash of anger crossed the Deer's eyes. "Son of a bitch."

"Uh, sorry, but what's the problem here?" I wondered, confused.

"Reznov is known to us. He was a spy catcher around twenty-five years ago. And twenty-five years ago we suspect he was behind the disappearances of Office of Strategic Services agents, as well as agents from other nations, within the space of a week. Among his victims was Alex Mason, my father."

"Oh. Horseapples. You mean to tell me the guy I met was using a cover name stolen off a dead person?"

"What did he look like?" Bond asked.

"Long beard, but otherwise well-dressed."

"Yeah, we met the same guy all right."

"You met with Reznov last night?" I asked.

"Yeah. Me, the Intelligence officer, drawn away from a place I was easy to reach, to meet a known Hooviet agent who had been off the radar for about a quarter century."

"Makarov's a sly little son of a bitch," Dai said.

At that, Cadence appeared.

"Sorry about that, just clearing something up. Have you told Shining why you're here, Commander Mason?"

She was quickly brought up to speed.

"I see. So you haven't told Shining anything about the other new developments from last night?"

"No, and to be honest, we hadn't quite told you what Reznov wanted. He claims he defected from the Hooviets years ago and wants to meet Captain Sparkle," Dai said.

Cadence frowned. "Sorry, but just to be clear: This Hooviet, a known spy, responsible for a number of deaths, claims to have defected but was possibly involved in what seems a blatant attempt to confuse us last night, and he did it to arrange to meet with the same pony his alleged former boss was trying very hard to murder? Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Because you'd have ruled it out and we'd never have even had a chance," Bond said with brutal honesty.

"You're right, I would and I do. Shining is NOT going into another ambush!" She fumed.

"Princess? With respect... We might have to send him. Reznov claims to have vital information regarding the disappearance of the HSSDefiant, but he said he had to give it ONLY to Captain Sparkle. He's refusing to give it to anyone else," Dai noted.

Defiant had been one of an old type of Destroyer, a Type-42. It had vanished twenty years ago, in Zebrafrica on a goodwill mission. Captain Saltire Bond and his wife, Monique, were among the victims missing, along with the other three hundred Air Naval crew, and thirty civilian passengers: Diplomats, the families of officers, and the families of diplomats.

"We can't trust him though! I'm not sending Shining off to get himself killed!"

"Cadence, I'm sure they must have something planned or they'd not tell us." I tried to calm her down.

"...Well, now I see why you're so protective, Your Highness. You're obviously quite close to Captain Sparkle." Cadence rolled her eyes. I just thanked Celestia the Hoof-maidens weren't there to hear that. "But I assure you, we do have a plan. You see, I work for Naval black ops, the Direct Operations Group. As it happens, Reznov has a meeting place we can cover quite easily. I'm not saying it would be risk-free. But we can cover the Captain very well, and get him out if there's trouble," Dai said.

"...How many Special Forces units DOES this country have?" Cadence groaned.

"Four. Army Unit Metal, Navy DOG, Marine Force Recon Operations Group, Air Force Special High Altitude Reconnaissance Command. Sea Dogs, Beach Frogs, Sky Sharks. But we're the best, of course." Dai said smugly.

"Well, if there's to be ANYTHING done with this, I want Unit Metal involved too. I know who they are at least, and Shining worked with them last night and saved some of their troopers, so they have every reason to want him safe. I've never even heard of your unit, no offense."

Lieutenant Commander Mason nodded.

"I'd be fine with that, ma'am. They're cocky little cloacae at times but they're good backup. I do advise we keep any Equestrian involvement to low numbers though."

"That assumes Shining agrees! We haven't even asked him. Or said what the point in this would be."

"Um... I think the point is that if Reznov is telling the truth, we get important information that could help with the Hooviets in general, Makarov in particular. Plus, the Defiant has been one of our greatest mysteries and tragedies. And if something DOES happen, I'm no slouch with my shield spells." I said.

"Would it be worth the risk though?" Cadence wondered.

"I'd say yes," Bond confessed.

"I'd agree too. He claims he has some useful intel on Makarov, and also a few things Captain Sparkle needs to hear. He gave us a letter. We scanned it: no bombs or other traps," Dai added, passing this letter to me. I carefully opened it.

"I can tell you why you are here. I can tell you the nature of the beast that stalks you."

I read that aloud, and then the words on the paper proceeded to vanish.

Cadence frowned even as my blood turned to ice. "'The nature of the beast that stalks you?' What does that even mean?"

In the silence there was just the faintness of the radio, turned down low. A new song was playing: "Destroy everything you touch, today, destroy me, this way."

"...Are there any songs in this country that aren't pure nightmare fuel?" I wondered, and for some reason decided to change the channel instead of switching it off. And bumped up the volume at the same time.

""- We get so close, near enough to fight. When a Hooviet gets me in his sight..."

"Sweet Celestia, that's even worse!"

"Shining?" Cadence asked, sounding a little worried.

More dial-turning. "-Don't cry for your love, cry tears of joy, 'cos you're alive, cradled in love..."

"Better, much better. That's the kind of omen I can get behind..." I sighed.

"Omen? Captain, are you all right?" Bond wondered.

"Uh? Oh, um... Sorry, just... uh... The letter, the words... They vanished. And the radio was being kind of weird."

"Disappearing Mana-Ink. Common trick, it vanishes about thirty seconds after it contacts magic. The envelope would have shielded it from mine but the second you read it, pooof. 'Never existed,'" Bond noted. "As for the radio... well, you're just being jumpy."

"Shining, are you feeling all right?" Cadence asked with obvious worry.

"Princess, I... I think we need to go through with this. When does Reznov want to meet me?"

"Half-past midnight, at Darkplace Hospital on Colony Island," Dai said.

"Wait, a hospital? That's a pretty PUBLIC place, even for after-midnight..." Cadence noted.

"Uh, ma'am, I should clarify, Darkplace closed twenty-five years ago. All that's there now is a burnt-out, vandalized ruin and some partly-flooded tunnels in the basements."

"Brilliant. He wants to meet after midnight in an abandoned hospital... Doom Zone Hospital."

"Darkplace." Bond corrected.

"Right. Bet it's a mental hospital closed because the patients saw the spirits of the dead walking the halls..." I muttered.

"...Funny you should mention that. Urban legend has it that it was built on the convergence point of numerous leylines, the flow of mana around the world. Magically-sensitive beings could apparently see shades of other worlds if they let their minds wander."

"...When did I become a weirdness magnet?"

"Can't answer that question. But it's just a legend. Anyway, we can put snipers on a nearby tower block, and I have access to a flat overlooking the hospital from the near side of the river." Dai noted.

"Is it some kind of safehouse?" Cadence wondered.

"Um, no, it's my cousin Toneigh's apartment."

He produced a map book of Liberty, showing the area. He penciled in a marker to show his apartment, overlooking the island from the western side of Algonquin. He drew a ring around where the hospital lay, and another marker on a tower block nearby.

"We could... No, darn. Normally I'd have liked one of my troops to scout the area out and another one provide long-ranged cover, but Gag's out of it. And I don't want to involve Audience in something like this so soon after last night..." I had began to say.

"Yet you're fine involving yourself..." Cadence muttered not as quietly as she probably hoped.

"Well, if you want someone you know to scope it out, why not the SAS?"

Baseplate and Price were summoned.

"Starting to think we should rename ourselves the Sparkle Assistance Service. That's three in a row," Price noted. Thankfully, Dai did not ask for elaboration.

The plan we ultimately decided on was simple enough. I'd be covered by three teams of two snipers, the 'Sparkle Assistance Service,' on the tower block, and a sniper team each from DOG and Unit Metal in the apartment. The apartment would also be where Columbian Spec-ops troopers would wait, along with more SAS that Commander Bond would be with.

In total, there were going to be about twenty ponies, griffins, and deer inside Commander Mason's apartment. I hoped it was big, and that his neighbors wouldn't object to the fake party they'd be holding as a cover story for having half a regiment show up...

Unfortunately, Cadence then had an idea.

"...Okay, this is still going to be Shining's decision in the end, but I will accept this on one condition, to help make sure Makarov tries nothing funny. I want to be in the apartment."

"...What?!" We all said together.

"Any of his goons show up, I see how tough they really are."

I just stared as my brain processed this insanity. "Princess, you seem to be very mixed up here, I am your bodyguard, which, contrary to what the term could be interpreted to mean, does not mean I am supposed to get you killed so I can guard your dead body! I'm meant to keep you away from danger!"

"You said it yourself last night, you dying would just cause Makarov a few setbacks in return, the world won't notice, and he's the kind of nutcase who might be okay with paying that price. But I doubt Makarov wants to harm me. Because trust me, I think Auntie would care then."

"She'll kill me herself if I let anything happen to you!" I said, utterly stunned she was thinking this at all.

"Ah, but I'd be letting it happen to me to protect you. I'd be ordering you to do it." She smiled.

"Remind me... which of them's the bodyguard?" I heard Dai ask Bond.

"Well, then, there's no way I'm going." I told Cadence. "I'm not putting anyone but myself at risk," I told her.

"Shining? If Makarov WAS trying anything, every single pony, griffin, and deer there would be at risk," Bond pointed out.

"...Don't tell me you think this is a good idea!" I rounded on him.

"I think its bucking mental, which is why I think it'd work," Bond confessed.

"I'm not exactly thrilled at the idea of it myself but I think Makarov would be very much averse to battling an Alicorn," Dai noted. "Even assuming that Makarov actually killed Cadence... a goddess-princess is gonna be quite a tough sell, when it comes to arranging an 'accidental death scene.'"

"...This is crazy," I muttered and sat on my haunches.

"I may be young compared to Auntie, but I'm still an Alicorn. I'm not exactly made of glass."

I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing I kept forgetting I was body-guarding the Goddess of Harmony.

(Interviewer (Unicorn): I'm sure Cadence preferred it that way.)

"But you're not indestructible. I'm not your bodyguard just to look nice."

"Tell me, Shining, would you order your troopers to do anything you wouldn't do yourself?" Cadence said as she came over to rest a hoof on my shoulder.

"Well, no. But this is different... It's putting you in harm's way. I'm meant to protect you."

"And if I know you're okay, you WILL be helping protect me."

"...Okay. Fine. I can see you're dead set on this. But how the hay are we going to cover up both of us being away from the Embassy at once?"

"Oh, easy. It turns out the Germane Embassy is next door: one of the diplomats there is an old friend, and she should be okay with letting us sneak out that way." She said.

"Sorry, but you want to sneak out through the adjacent embassy, with your Guard Captain, who is widely known to be a childhood friend, and you can't see any issues that may arise if you're spotted by the gossipmongers?" Dai noted.

"...Er, well... I was planning on keeping this 'under my crown,' so to speak, but... Shining, I have a sort of... illusion spell that can let me blend in with other ponies a little better. I'm not telling you where I got it or how it works. All I'm telling you is I can make myself look like a regular pony."

I stared. "...So, what, you'll disguise us both?"

"Uh, I was going to disguise myself. I can't really cast it on another pony that well yet and... Oh, bother, we'll figure it out later."

"That all seems as resolved as it can be for now, right?" Dai cut in. "So, if there are no objections, I'd like to turn the conversation to other matters. Namely; we recovered items from the scenes of Shining Armor's fight with Makarov last night, and there are a few developments I think you should be aware of. First, regarding the wrecked Tankettes we recovered from the yard..."

"Tankettes?" Cadence blinked. "I thought they were some kind of tripod walker."

So had I.

"There's a black dog a coming tonight. Black dog's a coming tonight

I silently shut the bucking radio off, ignoring the chill down my spine.

"Tripod walkers?" Dai's confusion was genuine. "...There must have been some misunderstanding, ma'am. What we recovered were the wrecks of one-crew fighting machines on tracks. That's a tankette to us; a miniature tank. They did have a rather disturbing power source."

"Unicorn horns?"

"Correct. And it's horrible to say, but from what our lab boys were able to tell, they made for a highly effective, if barbaric, power source. Only Elerium-115 holds more magic energy than a unicorn horn for anywhere near an equivalent mass, and Elerium synthesis... Well, if you know anything about chemistry, magic, and radiation, you know why that's complicated. Not to mention the crystals aren't reusable once they burn out."

Fortunately, everyone in the room had a grasp of it. In fact, Princess Cadence turned out to be very up-to-date on some of the advances in nuclear chemistry conducted at the Black Mesa research facility in the Columbian Desert.

...You're looking a bit puzzled there. Oh, please tell me you three know something about this subject! It hurts my brain to talk about that stuff. And it kind of frightens me, to be honest, especially the urban legends about archaeologists digging up 'demon spheres' or worse.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): ...Don't worry, Captain, if any readers are truly curious we can give them some information on it in an appendix to this part.)

Thank Celestia!

"The tankette designs themselves were quite novel too. Armament was interesting, we thought the Hooviets had abandoned Tesla Coils. The volley guns were a bit of a surprise too, we had no idea their firearms were up to speed with ours."

"Up to speed with... You have weapons like that too?!" I said, startled.

"Yeah, I'm carrying one now. It's not loaded though, Bond has my cartridges..."

To my surprise, Commander Bond produced not a brass casing, but a wax-paper tube, with a brass disc on the end. The actual bullet was a round ball of what looked like lead, and Dai showed us a strange type of pistol with a cylindrical portion towards the rear.

"The brass disc is called a percussion cap. If the needle or hammer of a gun strikes it, it explodes and detonates the powder inside the paper case. It's fairly new, but we hoped it was an advantage over the Hooviets. Guess we just have to stick to Depleted Elerium penetrators in our AT guns to be in the lead..."

"Shining, I thought you said the whole thing was brass? And that the guns fired lots of shots at once, even the ones they had in their hor... er, antlers?"

"Those were interesting too. Sadly we never recovered any actual rounds, and we've no idea how the casings worked. We think it might have been magic-based, the sight on the weapon a Unit Metal trooper recovered was magic-powered. Very similar to something we call a reflector sight."

Well, THAT still matched up, at least. Thank goodness, I thought I was going mad...

Dai continued his story. According to him, the paper 'cartridges' were used in the volley guns last night, the one that had been used by the diamond dogs had been the only one recovered, however. The one Unit Metal had hijacked seemed to be missing, and the one that exploded had, well, exploded. Similar cartridges were used in the newest Columbian rifles (or Dai's pistol), since they could be reliably fired in the rain or when wet... Made me wonder why Unit Metal never mentioned them, let alone used them.

"Well, Spriling weapons and bows are quieter and guns produce a lot of smoke even with our newer gunpowders. Not so good for covert ops. Good range on them though. Better armor penetration too," Dai explained.

"Is there anything else?" I asked.

"Well, I've been asked to tell you that we're cremating the recovered horns, overseen by your ambassador, but odds are the best we can do is cremate them and scatter the ashes. We suspect many of the horns were Krakohzian in origin so we're consulting with their government-in-exile over in Hayris. We've also got divers dredging the riverbed to try recover that larger vehicle you said crashed in there. They'll find it if it's down there. Though it could have been washed away in the current depending on how much damage it took when it exploded."

"Is there any other word on the Diamond Dogs from last night? Or any of the suspects arrested?" Cadence wondered.

"Not to my knowledge. That's mostly the LCPD's worry at this point."

"Well, thank you for letting us know about all this, Commander. I'm afraid we have things to attend to, so we'll probably see you later tonight if we're going to go ahead with this mission."

"Understood. Don't forget we'll still be going after Reznov with our assets even if you decide to pull Equestrian troops out of it."

And with that, the four black-ops troopers left. I followed Cadence as she headed off, presumably to wherever the tailor was. I wasn't getting out of being suited.

"Okay. Now we can maybe stop worrying about all this stuff and get on with actually visiting Columbia in the name of peace."

"Not quite yet, Shining. The tailor is waiting."

"I know that..." I grumbled.

"Oh, I didn't get a chance to tell you, but it seems Ellis already has a suit so I had the tailor help spruce his up a bit first. I thought you might have appreciated a friend along, and I think Ellis could maybe use a bit of a day off."

"I'd agree with that. How was he when you spoke to him?"

"He seemed to be a little flighty and nervous. I could tell he was still a little worried though. He seemed to be trying to get past it though. It's good he talked about it though..."

The tailor had set up shop in a disused bedroom downstairs, and was a unicorn mare I'd seen amongst Cadence's civilian staff. Ellis was inside and Twinkle Shine was there too, as were Mactavish and Dunn standing guard outside.

"Very good timing, Your Highness, I just finished up with the Lance-Corporal. It wasn't that tricky a job to spruce his suit up actually, it was quite well tailored," the tailor mare said.

"Heh, well, Savanneigh folks take pride in their work, Ol' Outfitter Stitches ain't no exception..." Ellis noted. He wore a black suit jacket, with light grey shirt and red tie. Oddly, though, given that he was a pretty big guy and had a blond mane, he looked more like a businesscolt than a hitpony.

"It just seemed to have been neglected in storage. And strangely seemed to have some very small powder burns."

"...Well, the storage part, ah last wore it for Heath's wedding and after it got cleaned ah just put it in mah kit. And the powder burns, well, Heath's wedding. Like hay we were letting the bride anywhere near the fireworks given her track record of third-degree burns."

"Ah, the unexploded one that got stuck in the roof of the bandstand. Thought you said you'd put your barding on for that," I said, recalling that story.

"Sucker exploded in mah FACE, sir. Just lucky ah had the welding mask and ear protection on too."

"...Why did you even go back to it?" Cadence wondered.

"Well, 'cuz everypony figured, 'hey, Ellis knows explosives and he's a guard'. Nopony listened when Ah said Ah hadn't actually finished the bomb disposal course, just the course on how to use explosives."

"Ah. Well, anyway, Captain, we'd better get started..." the tailor said.

"Twinkle Shine, you should probably go make sure Minuette and Sunset are ready. And the rest of you should get ready yourself," Cadence said, getting rid of the others. Not herself, though. Oh well.

"So... What did you say to Minuette about Audience anyway?" I asked Cadence as the tailor began measuring.

"Did you manage to hear what she said?"

"No, but you didn't like it."

"...She said he was just following his programming like a good machine. And I know that's complete rubbish and told her. "

I sighed.

"I know she's a bit shaken by it but... She really needs to get past that. She barely even knows him and now she thinks he's some sort of sociopath? She needs to talk to him, find out what he's really like."

"I agree. I told her she wasn't being fair on Audience or herself making those kinds of assumptions. For all we know she's denying herself at least one friend if she's scared of him, and if she makes a habit of this she's just going to start annoying the other troopers. And... well, she admitted she didn't know him too well. But then again, neither do I."

"Well, Princess, if I'm honest you and she should probably get to know him together. I'm afraid I'm pretty biased. I respect his father quite a bit and I regard him as a close friend."

"... I see. Well, maybe one thing you can help with. He said Vigilio Confido - 'I am Watchful, I am Relied Upon'. What's that about? I know he reads at least..."

"His family motto. His father is a Guard, Brigadier-General Audience. His grandfather was a guard... basically they're an old military family."

"If his father is a General why is he a Private?"

"Family tradition, they always start in the ranks. Not one of them hasn't become an officer by age thirty."

She then seemed to realize something.

"Wait, Brigadier-General Audience? I think I spoke to him. When he heard I was being given a new branch of the Guard he tried to speak to me about assembling it along modernized lines... Testing out new ideas. I can't say I understood him that well..."

"Sounds about right. He was pushing for more active conventional defenses. More use of gunpowder weapons, trying to purchase tanks or armored self-propelled vehicles. Last time I saw him he was complaining about some new light airships being bought though, thinks they'll be useless and just stuck onto ships to float around the coast."

"Oh, actually, we're collecting some new light airships to test them when we leave Columbia. Just an Air Navy thing, nothing important to you and me I imagine."

"Not really. Airships aren't my department. But you're trying to get Minuette to calm down a little then?"

"Yes. I don't want it to cause any problems for the two of them or anypony else if we can avoid it."

After that, Cadence was silent except to give comments to Tailor while the suit was made. It only took her about twenty minutes to make the whole thing but it felt a bit longer... Especially since I felt the outcome was a bit iffy.

"I think that looks nice," Cadence nodded.

"I think I look silly... Nopony's going to recognize me..."

Unlike Ellis, I couldn't pull off the dignified professional look. Instead, as I feared, in the suit I'd been put into, I looked like a hitmane. Or an undertaker..

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): What was the suit like?)

...Oh, black jacket and tie. White shirt too, not that you'd tell given my coat had always been white even before I joined the Guard.

"Will you have time to make the tuxedo too?" Cadence asked the unicorn mare.

"...Tuxedo?!"

"Well, yes, it's formal evening dress at the show." I was reminded.

"I'll look like a penguin! Or the world's worst Con Mane impersonator!" I protested.

I also detected immense hypocrisy given that I'd been denied a fez but a bow tie had been forced upon me. And I was a bit miffed as my Parade Uniform was intended for things like that until I realized that my uniforms would have stood out too much.

"We could use a dummy and let you get on with your day, Your Highness. Now that we have the Captain's measurements we could make it and adjust it accordingly on our own, if needed," Tailor replied.

"Excellent. We'll do that then. Thank you very much."

"We can't use a dummy, Gag has a concussion and he's smaller than me, and Blueblood's probably still in Stalliongrad..." I muttered.

"Okay, so, the carriages will be ready shortly. The Hoofmaidens should all be ready too."

The tailor bowed to the Princess, and we went off. We made our way down to the main hall of the embassy. Misfit 2-1 was to be the guard detail today, Ace bringing along Pilot Officer Washburn to make up the numbers to six.
Agent Kennedy and a few other Presidential Marshals waited alongside the Royal Guardsponies. Wearing sunglasses for some reason. At least I wouldn't be mistaken for one of them. Mostly because they didn't look daft in suits.

"How come guys who are actually carrying concealed weapons look less dangerous than I do..." I muttered.

"I don't think you look all that bad, Captain," A female voice said behind me.

I turned to find Lance-Corporal Alleyne of Misfit 2-1. Private Newcastle, the Zebra mare, was with her.

"I agree. I actually think you look pretty good, Sir."

"Er, thanks."

"Sarge, doesn't the Captain look good?" Alleyne prompted as Reinolds wandered over.

The Unicorn Sergeant gave me a look. "...Sorry, Sir, but you look like a hitmane. Bendis, doesn't he look like a hitmane?"

The Misfit 2-1 Pegasus nodded.

"...You speak less than Ramirez." Newcastle sighed at her squadmate.

"By the way, Captain... Is little Gag in your squad getting a marefriend?" Alleyne asked

"Oh, the medic? It's possible. He does have a concussion but on the other hoof she didn't seem to want to set him on fire like most mares he talks to."

Reinolds sniffled theatrically. "Newbies grow up so fast... Before you know he'll be an NCO too, ordering around other little rookies and newbies and steering his own Officers..."

"Pfft, yeah, right, Sergeant. Us Officers just let you NCO's think you're the ones really in charge, it's all a double bluff. Why else do good Sergeants get promoted to Lieutenant? Nopony holds the reins over an officer of the Royal Guard!" I said with pride.

"Shining, come along, the carriages are ready!"

"...Er, yes, Princess..." I said with compliance. I looked at the four soldiers who suddenly seemed fascinated with the ceiling, and trying not to laugh at me. I tried to play it cool as Cadence pulled on my invisible reigns.

"...and of course since he had landed it in the circle, he argued it was a pass because the rules said nothing about him being in the airship or it remaining intact."

The cart ride had fortunately been mostly Ace's domain. It seemed that stories of flight schools intrigued everyone when said flight schools involved flying machines instead of feathered wings.

I did notice Minuette seemed to be quiet. Probably pondering events.

"Minuette? Are you all right?"

"Hm? Oh, yes, Captain. Just a few things on my mind."

I had nothing really to say at that. We eventually arrived, and... well, I was trying to keep my mind off recent events and maybe relax, but come on, we were visiting a Stock Exchange. I'd be bored witless and would start worrying about recent events without any meaningful distractions and start repeatedly looking over my shoulder every five minutes for a sniper or that...thing.

This was crazy! That thing could have just been some ghost of a dog just going through! Yeah...That's it...

Well, it turned out the Neighponese party was here as well, where I learned that of all the Neighponese royals that could have been sent, it was one I technically had a history with: Imperial Princess Euphie. And one Cadence also had history with, as the two were chatting like old friends as soon as we realized both our parties had arrived near each other.

Neighponese royalty is both a little more complex and simpler than Equestrian royalty: It has around fifty "royal" families able to call their children Princes and Princesses, but unlike Equestria the hierarchy is a little clearer cut into three tiers. Daimyo or Noble families, Shogun or Regal families, then the Divine or Imperial Family. The latter term is something of a misnomer as by the common definitions of the word, neither Neighpon or the Imperial Family have ever held an empire.

Imperial Princess Euphie was a rather sweet, kind-hearted and innocent pony who wanted everypony to be happy. She believed that everyone could be friends, and was prone to throwing large parties for diplomats at short notice. For instance during a visit to Canterlot a few years ago, Celestia granted her the right to use Canterlot Castle since the Neighponese embassy ballroom was being remodeled at the time.

Long story short? I wound up losing my leave, missing my mother's birthday, being unable to plan a good birthday party for Twilight, and nearly wound up getting stuck as a Lieutenant until I was thirty after a misunderstanding between me and one of the Princess' bodyguards who had been completely blitz.... somewhat "tired and emotional" that led to a similarly drun... "tired and emotional" Neighponese Prince trying to start a fight with me. I refused, of course.

(Interviewer (Pegasus): What is it with you and getting into fights with foreigners?)

I wish I knew. Point was, I had little real reason to talk to the Neighponese Princess. I tried to keep my distance, feeling like I was being watched the whole time, as self-conscious as a Presidential Marshal who'd lost his sunglasses.
And then somepony recognized me, contrary to my wishes at the time.

"...Shining Armor Sparkle?"

I almost jumped into the air at the voice behind me. And for good reason too. It was a Shinobi Pegasus and his team. An entire four-pony cell, sometimes called a Fire or Leaf Team.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): You do realize that if they LOOK like ninjas, then they aren't very good ninjas. It's a SAMURAI'S job to scare off assassins by acting as a visible threat. A ninja's job is to work from the shadows.)

Yeah, well, this was actually a rookie team, and these are different times. Having said that I spotted at least another five so there might have been a minimum of eight in disguise amongst the Neighponese party. You see, the modern Shinobi are all unified as a single service and part of the modern Armed Forces - in fact they're very similar to Marines and other elite light cavalry as used by other nations, but the individual clans still have their members compete for contracts as bodyguards amongst...

(Interviewer's Notes (Pegasus): That's fascinating. Shining, just continue, please.)

Fortunately, I knew the leader of the squad, the light blue unicorn with an unruly brown mane. His name was Taichi, and he'd been sent to Canterlot as part of a cultural exchange program set up a short while after the incident I just mentioned. He'd hung around for a few months in Canterlot. The other three, I didn't know, but they looked about fifteen or sixteen at most.

"Er, hello, Taichi... I'm guessing you're part of the Neighponese security detail?"

"Yes, a Shinobi team is usually attached to a Royal Bodyguard, but since it's a fairly simple mission I felt bringing along my little genin-cadets would be a valuable experience before they graduate to real operations. I'll have them say hello..."

He spoke to them. They all said something. All of this was in Neighponese so I never understood a word. I looked at the three younger Neighponese ponies.

"Daisuke, Hikari, and Takeru." He introduced them: dark blue colt pegasus, pink filly unicorn and green colt pegasus.

"...They can't understand Equestrian, right?"

"No," The blue colt said, getting kicked by the green one for it.

"They can, but they cannot understand Roedinian..."

The filly rolled her eyes at this, looking annoyed. It turned out not to be a coincidence that it reminded me of Twilight's occasional frustrations with me any time I've tried to tease her...

"Shining? Can you come over here?" Cadence shouted.

I wanted to say no, given that the Samurai beside the Neighponese Princess was now glaring right at me, but I had to. I wisely bowed to the Neighponese Princess, making sure to bow lower than she bowed in return. Neighponese have an honor system where you bow lower than the one who outranks you in greetings. What? You think I didn't go out of my way to avoid accidentally insulting a Neighponese noble AGAIN (even though the drunken bodyguard falling over made it impossible for me to bow further)? "Er, yes, Your Highness?"

"Since I had to miss the breakfast at the Neighponese Embassy, and our schedules seem to coincide, I've decided that our two parties are going to travel alongside each other for the rest of the day. I hope that's okay with you..."

"...I've no objections," I said.

"You are Shining Armor Sparkle-san, yes?" Princess Euphie's Samurai then spoke.

'Horseapples, he recognized me.' I thought.

"...Yes." It hit me that I had no idea who he was! This time I didn't admit to it.

"You may not remember me but I am Shosa Suzaku, of Her Imperial Majesty's Samurai Land Divisions."

'Shosa' is a rank and not a name, by the way, translates to roughly a Major.

"I am dismayed to have learned how Makarov misinterpreted events and used them for political gain. Makarov is an upstart, prone to inciting incidents and hostility while framing the opponent as an aggressor. He has justified the invasion of countries using such underhoof tactics."

(Interviewer (Unicorn): It should be noted that for a Neighponese pony to NOT use an honorific suffix in such a situation is seriously insulting in their culture.)

"So what happened to me... WASN'T just him being a first-rate prat?" I marveled.

"He is a creature of such low honor that to fake an overreaction to a most trivial 'insult' is not beneath him but a key part in his deceitful repertoire of skills..."

"He pretended to be upset just to pick a fight? What a meanie." Princess Euphie sighed.

"Yes, quite a 'meanie', Euphie-chan," Cadence noted.

For the record, Cadence was the ONLY one present who could get away with calling Princess Euphie that, and only because the two were close friends. Anyone else would've likely incurred the Samurai's wrath on the spot.

"Try asking for information on what he did in Krakozhia, Euphie-sama," Taichi suggested. "Let's just say in one village that had a high unicorn population before the Hooviets came, I never found a single horn amongst any of the dead..."

The way Cadence paled a little at Taichi's words indicated she'd understood. The way the Neighponese princess just looked confused indicated she did not.

Twinkle Shine trotted forward, "Oh princess you have to tell me! What's a cherry blossom festival like? Is it true you, ick, eat fish? Your line claims to be 'Descendants of the Sun,' so how are you all related to Celestia? What's your favorite anime play? You HAVE TO tell me how you get your mane like that!"

The Samurai stepped between them, "Silence, servant! You should know better than to address a Princess with such familiarity!" He looked ready to lop her head off.

Twinkle Shine's horn glowed dangerously as she took a trot forward, "Why I oughtta-"

Cadence stuck a hoof out stopping her. Twinkle Shine looked shocked and trotted meekly behind her. Our Neighponese Princess looked more confused than upset. Twinkle Shine should've known that the proper way for a servant like her to address her was as 'Princess Euphie,' or 'Euphie-sama' would've been even better. This was when I spotted one of the other hidden Shinobi, by the way, when a mare in a green turtleneck with a white rose cutie mark produced a kunai for a split second.

Even with a sheltered Neighponese princess and her retainers along for the ride, there wasn't much happening after that. The owners of the Stock Exchange had an elaborate lunch prepared for us. We even managed to see some trading. I didn't follow but they seemed to have mostly been selling frozen concentrated orange juice.

After the lunch, we went to the riot zone, which was... a little humbling really, seeing civilians sweeping broken glass off the streets and sifting through burnt-out homes. The majority blamed the gangs, citing an unruly and misinformed youth seeking any excuse for a fight. The unruly and misinformed youth were not available for comment.

I still felt myself looking over my shoulder every few moments just in case. I also noted the paparazzi seemed to be uncharacteristically AWOL. Perhaps we'd gotten lucky, and some bigger scandal had distracted them.

Cadence spoke mostly with ponies who'd been caught up in it. Their reactions were interesting. Most Equestrians bow and stammer upon facing a princess. Columbian ponies were just polite. We met some firefighters, spoke with a few police, chatted with community leaders, visited a row of shops where the owners of the whole row had proudly stood up to a gang trying to torch a falafel restaurant owned by some Saddle Arabians. We ate there.

(Interviewer's Notes (Earth Pony): Was it nice?)

Yeah, it was. On the whole though, I just kept thinking there was something not right. We were being watched, I was convinced. Reznov, Makarov, the black dog, maybe even Princess Euphie's Samurai... whatever it was I kept thinking that they were watching me.

One of the most memorable places we visited though, was a temple of a Griffin religious sect, The Order of the Talon, where a choir was going to practice for the Royal visitors. The Order followed the teachings of a legendary historical figure known as the Pegasarch, supposedly a large pegasus in golden armor who had ended the fighting between the Griffin tribes and nations centuries ago after, er, Nightmare Moon's banishment. The basic philosophy encouraged ideas of charity and also self-advancement: you would accept the help of others to grow, and whenever you could, you would also help others to advance. Even after you died your legacy would grow if you had been successful.

In short: Be excellent to each other, and be remembered. A philosophy I could get behind.

(Interviewer (Earth Pony): I agree, it sounds nice.)

The temple itself was rather bare, apart from a frequent recurrence of a symbol that was apparently a rising sun emitting three points of light from the upper portion, trailing a large 'cape' portion below it. The Griffin Priest, a rather short grey fellow wearing a white robe, told us it was a symbol for the new dawn of the Griffins heralded by the end of the war. Even non-members of the Order were known to wear it as it was seen by many griffins as a general symbol of Griffindom. In fact, Griffin members of the Royal Guard had permission in the uniform code to wear that symbol somewhere on their armor.

The priest was briefly surprised to note that the green pegasus rookie ninja had a similar but five-pointed symbol for a cutie mark, apparently a symbol of hope in Neighpon for connection to the goddess Amaterasu. It soon emerged the first time the Neighponese encountered Celestia, several centuries ago, they identified her as Amaterasu, and therefore, that symbol with five points represented Celestia. Considering that's one of her middle names and she IS a several thousand year old goddess, I'm beginning to wonder.

Anyway, another (Talonian) custom the priest explained was that their hymn book held a hundred different songs, and they were all traditionally chosen at random by using two spinning wheels going from zero to nine.

"...Er, Your Highness, I hope you don't take offense at this but it seems that Hymn 12 has been chosen by the whims of the Pegasarch..." The priest sounded nervous.

"By all means, let Hymn 12 be sung!" Cadence blithely encouraged him. "Who am I to contradict the decree of the Pegasarch?"

I have to admit it was almost surreal to be in a room with an Alicorn when fourteen Griffins begin singing a song like this:

"Our god's bigger than your god,
Our god is just in a different class!
Our god's bigger than your god,
Our god could whoop your god's ass!"

Jaws dropped.

This time Sunset put a hoof over Twinkle Shine's muzzle and horn while Minuette held her back preemptively as the mare's face turned red looking to fight all fourteen griffins signing the lyrics single-hoofedly.

"I'm convinced now. This definitely has Auntie written all over it. It's the spitting image of some of her pranks," she spoke lowly.

Her eyes then widened in horror.

"...I do not want to know what Hymn 69 is!" She squeaked.

"Maybe 88 is about two fat ponies..." Washburn mused.

Personally I was confused on what 'god' they were singing about since they technically didn't mentioned the Pegasarch becoming a deity in the first place nor having any sort of divine lineage. Making me wonder if Princess Celestia had a hoof in this as Princess Cadence suggested.

Fortunately the next two hymns were a little less strange. 22 turned out to be about ducks, and 42 was something about the meaning of life.

'Helpfully', the Priest gave both Princesses a hardbacked copy of the hymn book. Of special note is 23, which is a pretty odd hymn about the concept of chaos, and 47, which is, er, about aliens. It also seemed that you could combine Hymns 02 and 91 to result in something that started off light-hearted, took a dramatic turn, and then managed to waffle on for ages before anything interesting happened again. Oh, and Hymn 63 is actually a Hyrn.

I should say though inside that temple I felt a little... safe. That sensation I was being watched wasn't there. I don't know why. The place just felt... hopeful, I guess.

Then we came across a large crowd in an open plaza in the midst of area of tenement housing that had felt a bit more like Clydesdale than Manehattan. This was Aesir Plaza, where the LCPD had apparently been shot at last night.

"What's going on here?" The Neighponese Princess wondered.

In addition to the crowd, there was plenty of police, and quite a few hovering pegasi and griffins with cameras and press badges. Someone seemed to be giving a speech. We couldn't hear anything over the audience's applause, or get a good look at the speaker.

One of Taichi's little Genin landed beside us -- I hadn't even seen him leave -- and gave his report.

"I think we should maybe avoid this area. Another... diplomat is present."

Then the applause died down, and a familiarly grating voice echoed out across the plaza.

"...Comrade Chekov's heroic sacrifice, and the sacrifices of all the brave Hooviets with him, were made by their own volition. They were the ones standing between insanity and the innocent in the name of peace and harmony."

"Makarov," I spat, perhaps a little too venomously. "Agent Kennedy, what do you know about this?"

"Last night during the rioting, a remarkably well-organized and heavily armed group of unknown individuals showed up in Aesir Plaza during the rioting. We've no idea who they were, but they drove the police back. The Hooviets are claiming a few of their guys were here visiting the local Greater Good society, based in that burnt-out building, there, when the attack began. They've attributed all their losses last night to this incident, here, probably because it shared the building with an orphanage..." He said.

I felt my blood freeze.

"...The foals got out okay, right?" Cadence asked.

"Yeah. No leads on the attackers. No one even clocked their species."

"Hold up, where'd the Neighponese guys go?" Ellis suddenly asked.

I looked up and saw them trying to make way through the crowd. While we'd been speaking, it seems the Imperial Princess had decided to go and take a look at the 'meanie'. The Samurai did not seem happy.

"Please move aside and make way for the esteemed Princesses of Equestria and Neighpon!" Makarov was saying.

Brilliant. He was up to something, and it smelled political. When we drew close enough, we saw he was standing in the wrecked remains of a fountain, using the slightly-raised area as his stage. Spetsnaz stood around him, along with regular police. He'd also apparently found a new Commissar somewhere, if the red-coated deer behind him was anything to judge by.

"I welcome and greet the Imperial Princess Euphie. It is a pleasure to meet you."

He said that in Neighponese, no doubt impressing much of the audience. It seemed the Neighponese princess was falling for whatever Hooviet mind trick he was playing, as she blushed and stammered out a reply.

"...Darn, she just thanked him and invited him to her party tomorrow evening." Cadence translated for us. "Even her Samurai seems taken in."

I studied the Neighponese party quickly. Much of them seemed to be nodding and smiling, either diplomatically, but the Shinobi seemed rather more stern. Taichi spotted it, and Daisuke broke off from his party to come over to us.

"Hikari spotted a genjutsu in play. We've dispelled it for us, but I think almost everyone else is taken in. It's weird though, it's like there's no source to it, like rain without any clouds, like it just exists, like gravity. That's supposed to be impossible."

"'Genjutsu'?" Twinkle Shine wondered.

"The Neighponese term for mind-altering or hallucinogenic magics. We Equestrias call it a Mind or Psyche Altering Spell or Solution. MPASS for short." I told her.

Pronounced like 'Em-pass', by the way.

"...You mean a geass?"

"No, I don't. Geass actually refers solely to a range of compulsion spells and potions, and is too often misused as a catch-all for any type of mind-altering magic. Geass also means 'Power Of The Princess' or 'Curse Bore By One Chosen To Be Princess.' Thanks to that, calling it a geass causes confusion if it's actually something completely different."

"At least that explains why the Samurai didn't call him out for referring to himself as 'Ore-sama'."

Ore-sama means-

(Interviewer (Unicorn): Ore-sama, honorific term meaning 'my esteemed self'. Use is considered extremely arrogant, especially since Princess Euphie technically outranks him.)

Exactly, point is, the Samurai would never have let him get away with doing that normally. Officially, he was only the military head. In hindsight he might have been confessing to how things really were...

Anyway, Makarov's wooing of the Neighponese seemed to be over. I felt he looked far too pleased when he looked at Cadence. Or he might have been amused to see me.

"And my greetings once again to the Third Alicorn, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza Equestria. And you seem to have a new Guard Commander..."

Maybe I'd got lucky and the suit was disguising me! Or Makarov was being a prick.

"Temporarily, I'm afraid. Flight Lieutenant Ace Rimmer, standing in for Captain Sparkle while he's off-duty, following last night's incident," Ace introduced himself.

Makarov then gave me a smug glance. So he was being a prick. In other words: he was currently breathing.

"Yes, quite... Before I speak of more important matters, Flight Lieutenant, perhaps you are better informed about my reputation?"

"Oh, certainly. I must say, I liked what you did in the invasion of Ruritania. Lure them into a false sense of security by attacking head-on a few times, make them expect something different and not be ready for the double-bluff of doing the exact same thing you did the last three times. Novel application of psychological warfare."

Makarov just smiled and nodded smugly to himself, somehow standing taller. Come to think of it... any pony who stood next to him always seemed to be shorter. Or rather he was always taller.

"Yes, yes, you flatter me," he said in a tone that was anything but flattered. Everyone, including Ace, just smiled and nodded in return... like the Cervicorn wasn't the world's worst actor. "Now... Captain Sparkle, I feel we should talk."

I stepped forward.

"Last night's incident was... regrettably, partially my fault, I fear. I have it on good authority the Diamond Dogs that attacked you and your troopers were followers of the Greater Good. They may have been misled by the little misunderstanding we had in the Embassy. I apologize to you for their rash actions. I am informed that they were all caught up in last night's gang violence. Much like some of my own soldiers, and a dear friend, Comrade Chekov, who regrettably lost his life in service of the Greater Good, standing between violent vermin and the helpless innocents."

Obvious troll is obvious. But you can't call that sort of thing out in diplomacy. Not with the various press-packers and paparazzi literally hovering around. And I wasn't quite skilled enough in counter-trolling to drench a snappy retort in honeyed words, the way Celestia could've.

In fact... bizarre as this is to admit... I remember feeling this strange little voice within me, urging me to apologize to him. Beg forgiveness.

The hay I would.

"I understand. Thank you, General-Admiral. My condolences on your losses last night."

He wasn't too pleased at that, I could tell. Yet he was acting the part of the grieving, but proud, commander and diplomat. Breaking character would be an unwise move, mind magic or no mind magic.

"...Thank you. I can assure you that I will do everything in my power to destroy the criminal who murdered my troopers. In fact, I suspect that the one who had you attacked also ordered this attack..."

What a cleverly subtle way of admitting it WAS a false flag attack.

"I was thinking that myself, sir." I said.

"And... Unlikely as this may sound, I have a favor to ask, Captain Sparkle. If you have any information on the... beastly creature that I suspect ordered this heinous act, please try to let me know, hmm?"

"If we can. Who is your suspect?"

"A traitor named Reznov. You cannot trust him, Captain Sparkle. I am glad I spoke to you first, in fact, for he is a deceitful Deer. He will fill your head with lies and show you visions of nonsense. He will no sooner give you useful aid than he will throw you to the wolf."

Makarov KNEW. To everyone else... the Wolf-thing was completely imperceptible, effectively a nonentity... but for whatever reason, Makarov was ALSO aware of this Wolf's existence. So I really hadn't hallucinated the beast. It made for cold comfort, though. Because I felt my skin crawl, just at that oblique reference to it. I could practically hear it sniffing for my scent...

I felt the little voice from before swat me in the flank with a paddle. How discourteous of me: not acknowledging Makarov's glorious splendor! It tried to cut out a piece of my brain and insert 'Makarov rocks, you suck' in its place. Not happening for this stallion! But the Princesses, the crowd, and even the ninjas all suddenly had sparkles in their eyes for him.

"I see now. The genjutsu was keeping us from seeing his true greatness," Somepony muttered.

I suddenly felt alone. Truly, what an oddity it was that the audience would be so enraptured, so spellbound, as to allow this P.R. speech, (which was receiving nationwide press coverage) to veer so off-course -- onto Reznov! -- And all the people could do was continue basking in awe.

"Reznov actually went rogue many years ago, but because he was so highly placed he concealed his use of Hooviet resources. He acted without authorization and had a number of spies and suspected agents of foreign powers killed... He even may have been behind the disappearance of the Defiant according to some of the records we found when we finally learned of his treachery. Surely Equestria suspected foul play in the loss of one of her most reliable and renowned Type-42 destroyers, a mere six weeks after a refit?"

"We never found the Defiant, we'd suspected it to be an accident..." Cadence said, truly alarmed by his claims. She gave a little jolt, in fact, the sparkles in her eyes fizzing out.

Makarov's brow twitched as Cadence regained her senses, and that was so satisfying. And made me suddenly feel not so alone.

"We foolishly tried to capture Reznov covertly, but he was one of our best. He evaded all capture to this very day. We have no idea of his current whereabouts. He has learned to hide himself well."

Great. Now I had no idea about tonight. Either Reznov was a traitor to Makarov, or he was a loyalist playing a part, with Makarov offering that tidbit to aid in the deception, make us think Reznov had good stuff.

Suppose Reznov were to kill me when I went out to meet him... well, what was I doing there anyway? Of course! Espionage! -- or so the intelligentsia would conclude. Shining Armor Sparkle was clearly a duplicitous covert operative!

Of course, I'm no spy -- that's Bond's department -- but in that scenario, Equestria is put in an awkward position and I'm put in the ground. If there's enough left of me to bury.

Interviewer's Notes: (Earth Pony): Poly-ticking and esper.... epi... spies, were a lot more fun to read about in Daring Do books.)

Interviewer's Notes: (Pegasus): Ditto.)

I advise you to never read the Hoofsard Official Record of Parliamentary Congress. Either from the House of Common Representatives or the Lord's Senate House. You will be bored to tears.

"Anyway, Captain, Princess, I'm afraid time is short. I have much to do today, but I wish to congratulate your trooper, Captive Audience in his absolution of guilt. I am sure his mother and father must be glad to know he will not face problems. But then, it really only makes sense he would be found to have performed a legitimate kill. Especially after the debacle surrounding your own kill, Captain, long ago..."

Brilliant. That spy was real it seemed. That or he was intercepting our communications somehow. And even worse, I could swear I just heard a mare gasp... I felt it was best to ignore her. Hopefully Makarov would dismiss it.

With that, he went resumed his speech to the crowd. Cadence sighed as we made our leave.

"He really IS using some sort of charm spell. I almost fell for it again. But how? I'm an Alicorn!"

"You managed to beat it when you were aware of it, Cadence."

"Yes, but you never seem to be taken in and you weren't aware of it until now either."

"I'm properly paranoid, I guess," I said.

"Maybe. You seemed to be looking over your shoulder a lot. Now I remember, you were doing it earlier, too..." She sighed again.

I could swear I hear something heavy snuffling...

"Anyway, I think we should head back to the Embassy now. You have dresses picked out for tonight, right, girls?" She said to her Hoofmaidens.

"Er, yes, ma'am..." Minuette replied.

"Makarov... he's so handsome," Sunset said dreamily at the super-buck. Cadence helpfully blocked her maidens' view with her wing. And geassed, genjutsu-ed, whatever, hoofmaiden hooves wasn't as strong as one Alicorn wing.
She also managed to snap Princess Euphie out of it, before Euphie could propose to Makarov on the spot and declared him honorary Neighponese nobility and buy for him a new personal harem. The Princesses bid one another farewell.

As we returned to the carriages, we were surprised to see Lance-Corporal Griffen waiting, presumably sent as a messenger. It reminded me his squad were actually the only on-duty and flight-capable squad we had right now thanks to Ranger's minor injury.

He saluted us, and passed on his message:

"Your Highness, Captain Sparkle. Commander Bond would like to meet you at the airship yards. The Columbian Navy have recovered something from the riverbed and they thought you should see it."

"...How long will it take?" Cadence wondered.

"Should be no more than a five minute detour depending on how long Bond takes."

And so off we went. And what we were shown was quite a shock.


"...None of this makes any sense. This isn't what we saw last night," I insisted.

Cadence seemed taken aback as well, but said nothing.

"It's what they recovered," Bond maintained.

We were in a warehouse at the shipyards. A number of Griffin marines stood in full combat gear outside. Before us lay four wrecks. Three small armored vehicles, like tricycles with the wheels replaced by a set of tank treads. And a strange looking flying machine, not a super-walker.

"...I know what I saw, this isn't what I saw..."

"The reports the Columbians got say it is," Rimmer added his two bits.

"That makes no sense either! I told them it was walkers. These are nothing like walkers!"

"Maybe... Maybe all four of them were those flying machines and Makarov managed to replace the ones on land somehow. It was dark, Shining, you were under a lot of stress..." Cadence tried to reason.

"Princess, the were referred to as 'Tankettes' in every report I've seen." Bond shot her theory down.

"No, that's impossible. What about Thunderchild? Unit Metal? Everyone else?! What did they see?!" I said, raising my voice a little.

"These. Their reports on last night's incident mentioned these. Even the ones that didn't mention 'Tankettes' by name, well, the descriptions they provided was unquestionable. T-31 Tri-Tread Tankettes. Armed with automatic crossbows and magic-powered Tesla Coils. Classical Hooviet small tank weapons, just with a nasty power source and more high powered weapons because of it. Come by my office: you're free to read their reports for yourself."

"I know what I saw last night!" I virtually screamed. "The vehicles they sent against us were FAR superior to this!"

"Shining, please calm down!" Cadence put a hoof on my shoulder.

"...I'm sorry, it's just... Maybe all of you are right... maybe I was confused last night. I'm not sure any more." I sighed in defeat.

"Makarov was out for your blood," Cadence reasoned, "if his mind magic's powerful enough to make himself SOMEHOW charming... maybe he tricked you into seeing these super-walker things to freak you out more?"

"That... sounds logical." I simply said.

Once my emotions had settled, I pointed at the odd flying machine, vaguely oval-shaped with a tail, and rotors. It also had a huge hole in the nose. I guess it had been from Frost's antitank rocket.

"So what's this? Some new Hooviet airship?"

"It's called a Mil-4 by the Hooviets. The Columbian reporting name is 'Hound'. And I'm afraid the design is almost forty years old. Also, it's not an airship, but it is Hooviet. This one is pretty heavily modified and modernized though. Magic engine, two tesla coils, two rocket pods, and it looks like whatever nose gun it had was destroyed by the rocket fired at it. A better use of their tech, I guess; updating an old airframe to be more reliable."

"It seems a pretty complicated machine," Cadence noted.

"If the wings are traveling faster than the fuselage, it's probably a helicopter - and therefore, unsafe." Rimmer quoted.

We looked to Rimmer for further wisdom.

"...Helicopters work with rotors for lift and thrust, instead of anti-gravity magic engines or rotors. Lose the tail or the main rotor and that's it. On top of that, the Hooviets used some bizarre engine design to power it. It ran off that flammable liquid Dragons like to drink, so it was a bit prone to exploding. Especially whenever they accidentally filled it with cheese instead."

"Cheese? Quit joking, Rimmer."

"It's no joke. Story goes the ground crews were forced to refuel blindfolded, because the fuel itself represented a state secret."

"And they couldn't tell the difference between the smell of cheese and Dragonwine?" Cadence wondered.

"The Hooviets did not make good cheese then," Bond explained.

"Judging by the sandwich I had at their embassy, they don't make good cheese now." The Princess noted.

"...Was there anything else found in the helicopter?" I asked Bond.

"Just two pilots and another unicorn horn-rig serving as the chopper's power supply."

I sighed. I found myself taking another glance over my shoulder and nearly jumped at a shadow.

"...I think we should head back now. We've seen all there is to see." I suggested.

And so we did.


My penguin suit had turned out to be fine and needed no adjustments. I decided to leave it in my room, figuring I could probably get away with something more casual now. We had about two hours until the show, dinner in about a half hour. That should have been plenty of time to maybe actually enjoy something approaching relaxation. I'd felt paranoid all day, the stock exchange, the riot zone... Makarov and the oddness with the Helicopter and the Tankettes.

And then Minuette knocked at my door. "Um... Captain, can I ask you something quickly?"

"...Is it about what Makarov said?"

She nodded, looking very nervous.

"I'm sorry. He was telling the truth."

"You... You had a reason though, right? Like Audience did? You were saving somepony else, right?"

I sighed. "Only myself by the time it happened, and it wasn't even anything I made a conscious decision about. I panicked. And... and it wasn't just me that paid the price for that mistake."

She then looked horrified. "B-but, Captain, you're the same age as the Princess. She's-! If it was..."

"Afraid so. Look, I know this must be even more difficult for you than Audience, but... believe me, it's not something I ever want to do again if I can avoid it. I didn't want to kill anyone. Still don't. Neither did Audience last night, but the enemies we faced wanted to kill us."

She closed her eyes, as if calming herself.

"...Captain, I... I don't really like knowing the things I know now. But I guess... I guess I was a little unfair on Audience. Having to kill doesn't make you a bad pony."

I nodded. "Troopers like Audience are trained to assess the situations, trained to try handle it better. Thankfully we've had very few cases where a trooper has HAD to use lethal force. You also train them to deal with the fact that fellow Guards might be killed too. If you're not ready for either or both it can be devastating."

"...I'm sorry if I raised bad memories, Captain," She said.

"It's okay. We all have our bad spots. That's what life is. The trick is pushing past them instead of just falling to despair. But do me a favor, please. Just talk with Audience and get to know the real him, please. I know you've felt worried about being around him."

"Um, no, Captain. I was worried about... Well, er, Twinkle Shine thought he was kind of cute and... It probably seems silly..."

"You thought you were looking out for a friend. That's not silly at all to me. That's my job, Minuette. The troopers aren't my subordinates, they're colleagues, friends, brothers and sisters."

"I understand. It's a lot like with me, Twinkle Shine, and Sunset. Anyway, thank you for answering my question, Captain. It... it's really helped, I think."

"No problem."

She left. I could hear her come to a stop outside my hallway. "Oh! Princess, I was just..."

"It's okay, Minuette. You were only talking to Shining. I could hear a little of the conversation from outside. Seems he's popular today..."

"Heh, yeah." The Hoofmaiden said. I heard her continue on. Cadence entered my room.

"Well, at least we've resolved her problem. But Shining, I think I need to talk about you."

"...Eh?" I imaginatively replied.

"You spoke to all your troopers who were there last night, but who speaks to you?" She wondered.

"I, er... Well, no one does, not really. It's what's expected of Officers. We're meant to look out for the troopers. They come first."

"They've come first. They're okay. What about you?" She came over and looked me in the eye.

"It's not about me, Princess. An Officer is as much a servant to the troopers under them as they are a leader, if not more so."

"And you've done them a fine service today. Now let's look at you, Shining, because last night affected you too. Contrary to what my cousin believes, a Princess's job is not all that unlike your own; a servant to their subjects. And you're my FRIEND."

"Really, I'm fine, Cadence. Just a little high-strung, I guess. I'll be okay."

"Then what about the radio? Your overreaction to it? All it did was play songs... and you were treating them like omens! And you've been looking over your shoulder all day, even before we ran into Makarov. And that whole business with the tankettes and the helicopter... Shining, something IS wrong and I want to help you. Please, be honest with me."

What could I say? Everyone else's memories about the tankettes were wrong? A ghost canine was hunting me? Part of why I wanted to see Reznov was to get answers about something I might've hallucinated? I wasn't sure what to say.

"Did you even realize how similar last night was to then? I think deep down, you might have. You might have been trying not to connect it in the open, but you know. And that's part of why you're so frightened. You've been remembering that night.."

In a way, it made sense. I was so highly strung because I'd been ignoring it. Bottling it up.

"...You might be right. I think... I think you helped Twilight out a lot back then, didn't you?" I said.

"I did. I wanted to try and speak to you as well and bring Twilight to see you, but... Auntie said it was complicated."

That was one way of putting it. To say I was a complete psychological wreck to the point I once had to be reminded that the two ponies who came to visit me the day before were my own parents, and that I had to be reminded the NEXT day the pony who told me that was Princess Celestia herself was a more detailed way.

No wonder Cadence and Twilight had been kept away.

"...I know it's silly but... I had a bad dream last night." She then said.

I recalled her reaction to Volume Six of the Guard Regulations. The one that is occasionally referenced in black humor as Volume Styx. What I didn't mention was it's updated annually, and reissued near the start of the year. It also has some blank pages at the back, and each Guard that falls in the line of duty during the year, we add their names when we're informed a brother or sister in arms has fallen.

"...I think I know what your nightmare was. You get a copy of Volume Six every year too, don't you? Most royals and nobles are supposed to if I recall." I replied.

"Yes, and all I ever read is the back page or two before I put it away and try not to think about it the rest of the year. And my nightmare involved it. I went to look for my hairbrush and tried to start getting ready but the book was lying there instead. And I found myself opening it. I saw your name, and the name of all your troopers, in the back in quill ink. I dropped the book and then I saw that my desk was covered with letters. To parents, siblings... And then I woke up. Or I thought I did. I'd went to speak with you, and instead, you were at the desk, writing the letters instead. And then you just vanished as you finished the last one, addressed to me and Twilight."

Actually quite close. I'd yet to have time to write a "just in case" letter to her though. I figured I probably owed her one. If I could figure out what to say in it...

And then I started to worry I was still dreaming when everything happened this morning. I I didn't even know Gag had siblings last night, but I remember clear as day, letters to a Couch Gag and an Overly Long Gag. That's why I was so alarmed when he mentioned them."

She paused after that. I wasn't sure what to say, so she moved onwards.

"Anyway, Shining. I think maybe it'd be for the best if you took more than one day off. Goodness knows, I want to try and relax a bit after the past twelve hours or so, so I think you'll need a bit of R&R yourself. I think forty-eight hours off-duty is more than called for: you've really gone above and beyond for me, these past few days, Shining. Thank you."

Hopefully I'd have Gag back to scout out

"...What about tonight?" I had to ask.

"Oh. Right. That's still your choice, but, to be brutally honest, Shining, I have a bad feeling about it. It might sound silly but I just can't help this strange feeling that if I'm not there, if I don't know you're safe... You won't be. I don't really want you to go but somehow... I can see you feel that you have to."

"I... I feel I kind of owe it to the Defiant and her crew... but I'm really not sure myself after all this. I guess I'll have to figure it out nearer the time, once we've got a clearer view on it all."

"Okay. Whatever your decision, I'll be supporting you. By the way, are you wearing that to dinner?"

"Hm? Oh, I planned to... I don't have to wear the suit, do I?"

"Oh, no, no. I did say casual wear... But if you're going to wear your Marsenal shirt..."

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): ...She didn't.)

She was only joking. It would probably have been misunderstood, all things considered...

Anyway, we went on to enjoy the evening. I noticed one of our Hoofmaidens seemed to have said something to a reporter, and he looked very pleased. I wondered what...

Cadence, the Ambassador, myself, Rimmer, Commander Shepard, and the Hoofmaidens were the party heading off to the variety performance. We and four guards would sit in a VIP box. The Guards were Misfit 2-2 this time: Lance-Corporal Griffen led that squad, and the rest were all Pegasi: Princesses were traditionally accompanied by Pegasus Guards on very formal occasions as a bit of a pun - They were flying the flag. Since they had wings.

Of course, we were actually sharing the box with Knossos, Ponsia, and Mexicolt, but this was a sign of Columbian respect: It meant we four nations were being highly regarded with our VIP section to the right-talon side of the Columbian President and President-elect. It also meant that Knossian Royal Guard Griffins in their Blue and Gold uniforms and the Immortals with their species and gender concealing silver face masks and black tunics were trying to out-soldier the Royal Guard Ponies (and one Griffin). The Mexicoltian bodyguards just wore fairly simple dark green dress uniforms and wound up looking like professional soldiers instead of cool ones.

Neighpon, Brayzil, Prance, and Germaney had the box to the left. Princess Euphie managed to give a wave across the way, Cadence returned it. The Hooviets had been shunted off to their own box quite far off. Not because of any snub, but because they'd brought a small army of guests and no one else could share.

"Ironic that a so-called Greater Good devoted to the people and the idea of unity and equality should bring such a huge entourage of people. I think they outnumber the Columbians..." Private Pike, one of the Royal Guards with us, commented to Lance-Corporal Jones.

"Nearly. There's about fifty of them and sixty Columbian VIPs." I whispered to him.

Not that I'd been counting...

Anyway, the show began. It wasn't really all that memorable. It consisted of comedians and musicians. I found it a nice little touch that they'd managed to get performers from many of the nations currently in the hall tonight. Equestria was represented by the Manehattan Philharmonic Orchestra. But first...

"Remember, everyone, we all have to stand when they perform the Columbian National Anthem. And mime. In fact, even if you know the words you'll probably be drowned out anyway..." Cadence told us.

I looked at the stage.

"...Are those Thunder Guitars?" I asked, before a Griffin in evening dress approached a microphone. The band behind him looked ready.

"Chicks and Gentlegriffs, Mares and Gentlecolts, Roes and Noblebucks, Cows and Gentlebulls, Jennies and Jacks, Rams and Ewes, Esteemed Guests from Foreign Lands and from across the nation, the President of the United Republics of Columbia extends you greetings and welcome to tonights performance, and requests that all stand for a performance of our National Anthem!"

"It starts on piano traditionally - the guitars kick in at the chorus. Brace yourselves for noise on 'now it's our time to be free', everyone." Cadence warned us as we stood.

I, however, found myself distracted as the song began by the fact Cadence singing along was quite audible in our box (considering she's the personification of music, you can guess how it sounded). She seemed to be the only one who knew the words nearby. It meant I almost jumped in fright when the guitars kicked in and the singing voices raised in volume. Hers included.

"Where the eagles fly, I will soon be there!"

I think she might have used Royal Canterlot Voice to deliberately be heard: The singer on stage certainly gave a pleasantly surprised look and a salute in our direction during a guitar solo, after he'd saluted his Presidents. And to be honest, even though I knew she was a trained diplomat and an Alicorn of music (hence knowledge of national anthems was very much her department) I still found it kind of surreal an Equestrian pony Princess was cheerfully singing a patriotic Griffin song about fighting for freedom that included the line "let everyone be king"...

But I will say...her singing made my paranoia go away, just for a little bit. There was something about it that settled my nerves.

(Interviewer's Notes (Unicorn): Knowing Cadence, I imagine it was intentional.)

I agree.

Anyway, that was one of the highlights of the evening. Our orchestra was wonderful when they played our national anthem, and I was touched the Master of Ceremonies accorded our anthem a request for the crowd to stand as well even though Cadence told us he would ask that for any national anthem performed, which that night would be those of the Prench, the Hooviets, and the Knossians.

Most of the other bands and musicians were okay - Even the Hooviet Soprano Roe (Sopranroe?) who sang the Hooviet March wasn't bad but the lyrics did spoil it a bit. I mean, come on, how can a song that starts "Our Hooviet Empire subjugates the whole world " NOT be a pretty obvious statement of intent?!

Some of the comedians however, were atrocious.

"Anyone else missing Private Gag right now?" Cadence sighed, as a local Pegasus duo named Merryweather and Pull Sky ran through a rather sad routine of random slapsticky humor.

Ten hooves and one talon rose in a unanimous show of agreement. The pair of them were dying on their hooves, the only applause coming from the polite, the trolling, and the moronic. Princess Euphie and her bodyguard Samurai were clapping. Not sure if polite. But pretty sure not trolling...

Anyway, despite that, I did find I'd enjoyed myself actually. I'd really began to feel relaxed for possibly the first time since we'd got to Columbia.

Of course, I had the meeting with Reznov to come, and that realization came to the fore of my mind. Things seemed to be drawing to a culmination.

" Esteemed Guests, The United Republics of Columbia thanks you for attending tonight's performances and hopes that you have enjoyed yourself. As a special conclusion to tonight's show, we would like to present one additional performance tonight, the Manehattan Philharmonic Orchestra featuring Griffowar, in tribute to the recently returned Princess Luna Nyx Selena Equestria."

We were so stunned for our part none of us were able to clap at first. It was... strange. We'd come to Columbia, to extend a hoof of friendship. Nightmare Moon had come down and Luna had been freed on our way here. We'd had to wait to inform the Columbians, but Makarov had beat us to the punch with his spoiler. We'd spoken of her casually, to others. Makarov had mocked her. She'd been problematic when we'd spoken of her at the Executive Nest. But here, now, seemed to be truly when it hit home for all of us that we had three Princesses. Even for Cadence. To hear such music, to have such a tribute paid...

It was highly emotional. And when the combined bands played an arrangement of Beethooven's Moonlight Sonata, a blend of the Griffin guitars and drums with the Equestrian string instruments... It brought tears to our eyes. Cadence was crying and grinning like a loon at the same time. I couldn't help but wonder how Luna would have responded if she were here. We'd come to Columbia, to extend a hoof of friendship. But a talon of peace was already outstretched and waiting for us.

Next Chapter: Episode 101: (Shining Armor) tunH dnoceS Estimated time remaining: 31 Hours, 60 Minutes
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