After Luna and Big Mac left, the rest of the ponies came back into the main room.

"Ah would have never thought in a million years Big Mac would like Princess Luna!" Applejack said. She was right, no pony else in the room would have ever guessed that Big Mac would fall for Luna. The party continued on as Soarin walked up to Silent Shadow.

"So I take it you heard about Gore and the Steel Talons?" Soarin asked.

"Yes, I hear they are quite formidable." Shadow replied.

"You ever fight one?" Soarin asked again.

"No." Shadow lied. "Have you?"

"The other day some of those goons attacked the place I was at. Me and Skullcrusher over there tried to fight back but they were too strong." Soarin said.

"What happened then?" Shadow asked.

"Five ponies in black armor were walking on their back legs beat the crud out of them. I have never seen anything like it!" Soarin said. Shadow felt a small smile crawl across his face. Soarin saw Rainbow looking for him so he had to go.

"Sorry but duty calls." Soarin said referring to Rainbow Dash.

"Aye." Shadow said quietly as Soarin flew away. Shadow was finding it difficult to keep his powers under wraps. He had broken numerous cups due to his powerful grip. He was also wondering about Fluttershy. Shadow had never talked to fillies when he was younger, all of the friends he ever had were colts. He always heard other colts talk about 'having a crush' and wondered if he had a crush on the yellow pegasus. He decided he was not the pony she would want. She was so innocent and kind while he had a body count in the hundreds. She was scared when she figured out he was the Ghost of Appleloosa. His thoughts were interrupted when a pink pony appearered out of nowhere scaring the daylights out of him.

"AHH!" He yelped as he fell backwards and did a somersault before landing back on his hooves.

"So..." The pink pony said. "Do you have a crush on Fluttershy? OH OH OH are you gonna get married and have little foals? I'll have to start planning it! It'll be my best party ever!" Shadow began to run red at the mention of liking Fluttershy. He was very scared of this hyperactive pink mare.

"Um well I don't- wait! uh..." Shadow said not knowing how to answer. Rarity took notice of this and came over to help Shadow.

"Now now Pinkie it is not polite to be in somepony's face like that." Rarity scolded.

"I guess your right, sorry." Pinkie said.

"It's okay." Shadow said giving a look of gratitude towards Rarity. "You know, you remind me of somepony I know." He said again referring to Solar Blitz.

"Really? What's their name? I'll have to throw them a party too!" Pinkie said as she hopped around. "Let me guess their name! Is it Rosebud? NO its Lillypad, or is it Rocksmasher?"

"Yeah she definitely would like Blitz." Shadow thought as the pony nearly bounced off the walls. After an hour of partying the ponies decided to call it quits and began to head home.

"Where is Big Macintosh? He's gettin me worried sick." Applejack said noticing her brother was still gone.

"AJ I'm sure he's okay, he has been trained with the best. I'm sure Luna and him are just fine." Skullcrusher said comforting her.

"Hey Shadow where are you staying?" Soarin asked.

"I uh don't know." Shadow said. All COLTS stayed in the barracks at COLTS-01 but Shadow could not reveal his identity so he didn't mention it.Fluttershy took a step forward towards him.

"You can um stay with me. If it's alright! I mean-" Fluttershy said as she hid her face behind her mane.

"That sounds nice, thank you." Shadow said as he left the barn with her back to her cottage. He was about ready to faint! A mare asked him to stay at her house.

"Goodbye everypony!" Rarity said as she headed outside to be met with a gust of cold wind. She tightened her coat and scarf as she trudged through the snow back to her house. It was almost midnight and it was quite dark. After about ten minutes of walking she heard hoofsteps behind her. She looked around and saw nothing so she shrugged it off. She heard it again not even ten minutes later and began to get a little frightened. She saw three figures down the block following her.

"They must be soldiers doing a patrol thats all." She thought to herself. She tried to comfort herself with safe thoughts but the figures were still following her, she began to jog and than heard the hoofsteps jog too. Now she was scared.

"Hey where you going little lady?" A voice said as a black unicorn stepped out of the shadows.

"Nothing, just going home is all." Rarity said nervously.

"Oh a cute lady like yourself shouldn't be wandering out this late at night." Another earth pony said walking out of the shadows. "You might get hurt."

"How about we escorts you personally?" The leader said with a laugh. Rarity knew exactly what he meant by that.

"Um no thanks gentlecolts. I think I'll be alright." Rarity said as her heart began to beat against her chest. She didn't think and began to sprint.

"GET HER!" The leader screamed as two earth ponies brought her to the ground and held her down.

"HELP!" She screamed before a hoof was placed over her mouth.

"I dont think so. You don't wanna ruin our fun do ya?" The leader asked as he licked her face. Rarity struggled but it was no use. She lost all hope until she saw a figure standing down the alleyway.

"Let her go!" The figure growled.

"Whose do youze think you are?" One of the earth ponies said pulling out a knife.

"Get em boys!" The leader said as the three ponies charged at the figure. The leader brought his knife down as the figure caught his hoof and threw the unicorn into a wall. The two earth ponies went to tackle the stranger but both were quickly knocked out. The leader made one more run at the stranger but was bucked in the face and sent flying through a brick wall. The stranger than went up to Rarity.

"Miss! Are you okay?" He asked as he helped her up.

"I"m fine." She said as she looked up at her savior. "Autumn?"

"Rarity?" The stranger said.

"OH AUTUMN!" She yelled as she tackled him. "THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!".

"Your welcome Rarity." Autumn said as he pulled himself back up.

"I must repay you somehow!" She said.

"No really, I was just doing my job." Autumn said.

"But I haven't seen you for six months! Do you have a place to stay?" Rarity asked.

"I was going to stay a hotel or something." Autumn said when in actuality he was going to head back to the barracks at base.

"Nonsense! Dear you may spend the night at my house if you wish." Rarity said.

"I don't wanna be a burden." Autumn said as Rarity interrupted.

"No buts! I will hear no more! You will be no burden to me and my sister." Rarity said with her hoof up.

"Well if you say so." Autumn said as he followed the white mare back to her home. Rarity felt a sense of comfort knowing Autumn was there and wouldn't let anything hurt her. The two ponies arrived at Rarity's home. Sweetie Belle was already sleeping so the two figured now would be a good time to talk.

"Autumn, where did you go?" Rarity asked. "You disappeared for six months!". Autumn had to think of a quick lie so he wouldn't blow his cover.

"I uh was deployed to the eastern front." He lied hoping she wouldn't see through his fib. As hard as a time he was having with lying he knew it was much worse for Big Mac since his sister was the element of honesty.

"Oh okay then." Rarity said as she eyed the stallion up and down. "My Autumn you've grown so much since I last saw you." It was true due to Autumns augmentation he stood at twice her height.

"Must have hit a growth spurt I guess" He said putting his hoof behind his head after realizing how stupid that sounded.

"Must be going around the troops, I saw two stallions earlier who were rather large." Rarity said referring to Big Mac and Silent Shadow. "Well I suppose we should be getting some shut-eye now."

"Yes." Autumn said as stretched out on the floor and began to close his eyes.

"Autumn what are you doing?" Rarity asked.

"Going to sleep." Autumn said as he laid down.

"Oh no no no! No guest of mine shall sleep on the floor! I have an extra bed upstairs." Rarity said.

"I don't think I'll fit." Autumn said as he stretched out his body and flexed his muscles to rid them of soreness. Rarity watched as his large and toned muscles contracted under his skin.

"Well um." Rarity said a little distracted by Autumn's build. "Very well than, I will sleep on the floor with you."

"With me?" Autumn said a little surprised.

"No not like that deary." Rarity said realizing how her statement sounded. "What I meant was I don't want you to sleep on the cold floor while I'm in a bed it just isn't righ."

"That's very kind of you but really I don't mind sleeping on the-" Autumn said but before he could finish Rarity used her magic to bring a large pile of blankets and pillows to where they were. She quickly made herself comfortable and fell asleep.

"Or not." Autumn said as he sat down. He tried to sit far away in case her sister saw and got the wrong idea. He too soon fell asleep.

Sure enough the next day in the newspaper...

COLTS Confirmed

Yesterday at 2:00 pm, Ponyville was attacked by griffon special forces led by the notorious Captain Gore. The garrison at Ponyville was overrun and defeated. The griffons were stopped by five ponies in black armor. The ponies showed incredible strength and combat skill even killing all of the griffon Marines and one of the special force griffon. There is now no doubt in anypony's mind that these ponies were in fact the Covert Ops and Lethal Takedown squads.

"I totally called it! They're real" A pony shouted. Outside of Ponyville far across Sweet Apple Acres, a princess awoke.

"Big Mac?" Luna asked as her eyes opened. She saw the stallion was still sleeping. She wanted to stay with him but she had to return to Canterlot. She leaned over and planted a kiss on his forehead.

"I love you." She whispered before flying away. Big Mac awoke twenty minutes later to find Luna was gone.

"Where is she? Was ah dreamin that whole thing?" Big Mac asked himself. He knew it couldn't have been a dream because he remembered walking to the frozen river the previous night. He assumed she must have gone back to Canterlot. He stood up and stretched and headed back towards his home.