Two Weeks Later...

“Do you feel better knowing that you’re in tip-top shape now?” Helena put her hands on her hips, as if she was scolding Andrew.

“Yeah, luckily Night Shade knows healing magic, or else I wouldn’t be able to move right now.” Andrew for once felt happy, he didn’t have anything to worry about, and everything to him was just another day in the field.

“That’s good to know, meet me in my office.” Andrew looked as Night Shade passed by the training grounds, hearing a voice go through his head again.

“Hey uh, I have to go, duty calls.” Andrew pointed towards the barracks with his thumb, making his way to the shower room first.

He undressed himself as he shed his training uniform, tossing it into the laundry basket to be washed with the other clothes. He opened his locker door, revealing a small mirror; he could see that he needed to shave eventually, the stubble on his face was starting to turn into a beard. He could care less as he looked for his uniform, it wasn’t hard to find as it was the only thing on a hanger inside of his locker.

His normal uniform wasn’t anything to be drooling over, it was a normal dark navy blue patrolling uniform, he couldn’t tell how many he had even if he tried. His spiky black hair fell over his eyes, and he was silent while he put on the uniform.

“You must be Lieutenant Colonel Andrew, it’s a honor to meet a legend!” Andrew finished buttoning his shirt and turned around, seeing a group of four right in his personal space, four sets of eyes were staring right at him.

“Heheh, sorry kiddo, that’s far from the truth,” he responded.

“B-But, you and your team are famous! Practically everypony in Equestria know who you guys are!” Another tried to back the first one’s claims, only to be shot down by Andrew once more.

“What? Will you leave me alone if I give you my autograph or some shit?” All four of them nodded, causing Andrew to sigh in grief as he brought out a Sharpie marker.

“You wanted to see me?” Andrew opened the door, Night Shade welcomed him and offered him a seat.

“It seems like you’re quite popular, Andrew.”

“No, I’m pretty sure it’s not just me.”

“I don’t think you get the point.” Night Shade was being as vague as Celestia herself, all things aside it wasn’t normal for Night Shade to be vague, usually he was straight forward and to the point.

“What do you need me for?” Andrew started to get restless, as he was exhausted from training, feeling as if he was weighed down by a thousand Elephants.

“I’ve received a letter from Black Talon, he says he wants to meet you.”

“I’m not liking the looks of things...”

“Neither am I, but if it’s gonna stop the war anyone’s expendable.” Night Shade explained to him, Andrew on the other hand wasn’t buying it.

“It says here that he wants to meet you and your team, alone.” Night Shade said sternly.

“What’s your take on the matter?”

“Well, I would go ahead and stakeout the area, but I know Black Talon’s smarter than that. He’s also a man of honor, probably wanting to settle it with a traditional sword fight.”

“That’s too easy, Night Shade. High priority targets don’t just give themselves up like that.” Andrew shrugged. Night Shade couldn’t help but to agree with Andrew’s claims, Black Talon wouldn’t just give himself up like that.

“I know, and that’s what worries me.”

“He’s probably going to use himself as bait, if we have your Special Forces Unit back us up, we might be able to wrap this up by the end of the month.”

“I’m not sure that’s the smartest idea, Andrew. I mean, you do have that sword that you almost never use, but, it’s too risky.” Andrew remembered that Night Shade had a sword, technically speaking it was under his ownership now, but it was Night Shade’s sword to begin with.

“We all need to take risks, don’t we?” Andrew seemed like he wanted to do this, despite the fact that he knew it was an obvious trap.

“Give me a week to plan this out, then I’ll let you know.”

“So... should we reply to this guy or something?”

“There’s no return address, it only says to go to the town of Nightingale by May 1st.”

“’Nightingale?’”

“A small town in the Griffin Kingdom, I can take you there, it’s not that far from the border.” Andrew nodded silently, waiting for Night Shade to continue talking.

“Look, this isn’t some regular op, I can tell from that right away.”

“Well what do you suggest then?”

“We’re going by the means of ground travel, so you’re gonna have to travel light, so you and your team aren’t going to be able to wear most of your body armor.”

“What about our weapons?”

“If what I’m assuming is correct, you can bring anything. It won’t be a surprise for a nobleman to fight dirty.” Night Shade became more and more fixed into the conversation, Andrew was on the verge of passing out due to the massive amount of information being crammed into his head.

“Would you advise that I bring my sword?”

“That would be most helpful, yes.”

“When will we be heading out?”

“I’ll let you know by tomorrow morning, for now, you deserve some R&R.”

“Yes sir.”

Andrew wandered around the castle for some time after being dismissed by Night Shade, his superior officer. Andrew thought that Night Shade was very laid back for a Commander of the Army, let alone being the adopted brother of Celestia and Luna.

In his thoughts, he could see Night Shade meeting Starswirl or whoever Twilight keeps pestering him about, he was certainly old enough to do so. If his assumptions were correct, Night Shade has to be at least Celestia’s age, if not younger. Celestia herself was around 6,000 years old, and by ruling that out Luna had to be about 4,000. He couldn’t possibly know how old they were to be certain, but they had their fair share of years alive.

“I guess I’m going to be using a sword again, I’d never thought I would touch that thing anymore,” he mumbled to himself, deep within his train of thought.

“You should be grateful, that was Night Shade’s finest work back in the day.” Andrew turned to his right, seeing that Luna was walking right next to him.

“The Sword of Light, believed to be the very sword that driven out the Darkness from our land. I’m guessing he was a Legend of Zelda fanboy, the thing looks exactly like the Master Sword.”

“You know about video games your highness?” Andrew truly was shocked. If anything, the tech here wouldn’t be nearly as good as it is back on Earth.

“Oh, I’ve had my fair share of gaming alright,” she boasted, Andrew let out a small chuckle.

“I see, well now I know where that design is from, still I have to admit, it looks cool as Hell.”

“Indeed it does, not only that it’s one of the strongest swords ever made, it’s been enchanted to never lose its sharp edge,” she said happily.

“I think it’s about time for dinner, don’t you say? It’s almost time for me to raise the Moon.” Andrew shook his head and let out a sigh.

“I still can’t believe you and your sister control the sun and moon respectively, it’s quite magnificent when you see it up close.” Andrew put his hand on Luna’s neck, stroking her mane.

“Oh! Uh... What are you doing?” Luna asked innocently, Andrew immediately took his hand away and hid it behind his back.

“I-I’m sorry your highness! I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s alright, you just caught me off guard for a moment.” Luna’s face was flustered red. Oblivious to this, Andrew smiled at her like nothing was wrong, and continued towards the dining hall.

“So I hear you’re in a relationship with one of the Elements, Rainbow Dash?” Luna brought up, causing Andrew to turn bright red.

“Yes ma’am, we’ve been doing stuff for about six or seven months now.”

“I’m surprised an inter-species relationship like yours has survived for this long.”

“Is that an insult?”

“Far from one, Colonel, in fact a compliment. Most inter-species relationships either work or they don’t, most of the time they don’t, let alone a species from an entirely new dimension.” Luna giggled, as a response Andrew started to pout.

“Anyways, that aside, we need to get going, or our food will get cold!”

Andrew opened the large gate to the dining hall, and surprisingly the gate weighed almost nothing to him. In fact, he almost tripped upon entering the room, managing to catch his balance after stumbling forward a couple feet.

“Some door you have there your highness.”

“What? Would you expect giant doors to be heavy?” Princess Celestia teased.

“Well yeah, they can’t be that light for a door that size,” he complained, both sisters giggled at his mistake.

“I see you’ve found your way to the dining hall okay.” Andrew looked to the left, and saw Helena, Nick, and Jhon sitting side by side.

“When did you guys get here?”

“About fifteen minutes ago, we sent Luna here to come and retrieve you.” Nick crossed his arms, slumping back into his chair.

“I have to apologize, but I’m not hungry.” Andrew admitted, everyone, including Princess Celestia, seemed surprised.

“Don’t you always eat around this time?” She asked, Andrew shook his head.

“I’m going to need some time alone, to put it in a way you would understand, I have some, ‘reflecting’ to do.” He turned around and walked back the way he came, going straight towards the entrance to the castle.

“Why is it that Andrew keeps doing this to us?” Luna pouted, the others looked at each other in concern.

“He has a lot on his mind, for a Twenty-Six year old I’m surprised he hasn’t lost it yet. It isn’t a surprise, he’s gone through it all.” Jhon took a sip of his tea, mumbling a few extra words between himself and Helena.

“Alright then, I guess we can go talk to him when we’re done eating.” Night Shade said, being able to hear his own stomach growling.

“Don’t worry about him, he’ll be back by tomorrow morning.”