A couple of months had passed and nothing too interesting happened. One thing that was good to hear was that construction on the new guardian fortress was underway, and that my beautiful wife, yes.. wife, she was now two months pregnant with a foal on the way. I found it kind of odd at first. With me being an entirely different species and still managing to “pollinate” her. I guess that it wasn’t all too hard to understand, it was an entirely different universe with magic and such, and not to mention that they support the same trait humans carry. You know, two hands, stand on two feet.. whooves. Basically human.

“Hun, do you really have to go?” Asked the glowing ebony queen.

“Yes love, I’ve been called on by Celestia for an important assignment that she see’s worthy of a an old guardian’s attention.” I replied. The day was only just beginning, and I thought it would be best if I got a head start on the journey and leave just before daylight.

“Can’t you send one of the guys?” She asked.

“I could’ve, but I’ve already tried that. The first I sent was Terra, he was denied. The next I sent was Axton. They chatted for a bit but then again, she rejected his proposal. Next was Night Strife, he seemed to make the most progress, but once again. Denied. Pyro didn’t seem too interested in going, so I didn’t want to bother him asking.”

“What about Intell? Didn’t you ask him?”

“I would have, yes, but as of this moment, he and Pyro are patrolling the continent in search of capable and trustworthy candidates for the role of Guardian. Another reason I didn’t want to ask our flamey headed friend.” I told the queen. I finished strapping on the rest of my gear and wrapped my pack around my waist. I strode up to the ebony queen and planted a kiss on her sweet lips for a brief moment or two, then knelt down and kissed the newest member to our family. As I stood back onto my feet, I gazed into the eyes of my queen and said,“Stay safe, I’ll be back in a few days time. Farewell for now.”

She wrapped her arms around my neck and gave me a heartwarming goodbye hug.

As I crossed the field of green, I gave one last wave back to Chrysalis as she started to fade into the distance of the horizon. My day today would be a long and arduous one. I would have to find my companions and lead them to the castle of Canterlot. The first of the guardians I would set out to find would be Axton and Night Strife. The last I heard of them, they had stopped to pick up some supplies in Manehatten from their shop, but they’ve been delayed due to their having to wait for their actual shipment to arrive.

I loosened my shoulderblades and relaxed my body as I was trying to take a good stretch. I hadn’t attempted to fly in nearly two months, so I needed to prepare for the worst of accidents to occur. With one swift movement, I spread my wings and took to the skies as I pushed off the solid and trusty ground. My form wasn’t steady as it once was, but such things would be less trivial with time. I switched from flying to walking and then back again every few miles, with the absence of flight, my wings had become stiff and sore. With this switch every now and then, I could exercise them and slowly regain what was once lost.

With my focus set on the prospect of my sore wings, I hadn’t noticed that I was starting to near the once distant city. Almost rapidly so. “No.. No!” I cried through gritted teeth as I collided with the side of a small shop. “Damn it...” The impact with the wall had winded me, but I peeled myself away from the building and gazed from side to side, checking to see if anyone saw my little embarrassing moment. Thankfully to my relief, no one saw.

After I regained my breath, I strode down the sidewalk of the city. I noticed ponies of all colors, genders, races, all of which were staring at me, smiling. I gave a brief wave and just continued along my merry way.

I was starting to arrive at my desired location, Axton’s house of Mechanics. I found it almost inspiring that he owned his own tinkering shop. Since he was fairly versed in enchantments and mechanics, he decided to start a shop, co-owned with our night blue coated stallion Night Strife. While Axton worked with enchanting mechanical devices he’d make, Strife would study the stars and use his particular talents to harness the power within the stars themselves to double the strength of Axton’s enchantments.

The things those two could create, it was amazing. Back on earth, cars were a common sight but the types of transportation vehicles they could craft? Amazing. Last week, they came up with a vessel, designed after an arachnid, that could travel many miles and scale mountains with ease. It didn’t rely on fuel at all, it just needed to rest like an everyday creature.

As I pushed through the doors and entered Axton’s shop, I could hear talking amongst the two inside.

“Like... this?” Asked Night Strife as he swiveled around two mechanical parts, trying to wedge them together.

I heard the sound of Axton’s hand slap against his forehead as he groaned to himself. “No. Try again, this time.. have tha’ end connect to tha’ there!” The brown stallion pointed towards the part on the machine. “Come on, I know you can do it.” His Oatsralian accent was funny to listen to sometimes.

“I just work with the stars and planets! I’m not even sure why you’re trying to teach me this.” Strife shot air out of his nostrils in irritation as he finished.

“I’m teachin’ this to you because it would really help with...” Axton trailed off as he spotted me standing at the doorway. “Oh! Dark, I’m glad you’re ‘ere. Ova’ ‘ere.” He quickly trotted to my side and pushed me towards the already seated blue stallion.

As I was seated down next to Strife, I looked to him and he held a worried expression. I gave him a small smile and said,“Hi.” I gazed back towards Axton and he just stood there watching the two of us,“Why?” I asked plainly.

Axton passed me a few pieces of scrap metal and other miscellaneous things. “‘ere, just try to do as Strife does.” He said. Night Strife looked to me and planted his hand on his face in frustration.

“I’ve been sitting here for nearly an hour still and I don’t even know what this is for!” Strife said as he turned to Axton with anger in his eyes.

The brown stallion gave a small smirk and signalled me to scooch over, I slid over to the side and Axton planted himself right next to us. He took the parts into his hands and began working at the metal. With a few twists and turns and a slight touch of magic, the brown stallion held in hand a small mechanical machine. “See? It’s easy! This is what I’ve been tryin’ to teach ya.” The machine looked to be a small arthropod, a scorpion to be exact. “It’s the easiest thing I know how to make and it’s the basic “Baby step” into engineerin’. The reason I’m tryin’ to teach you how to work the metal is for the guardians. It’s going to make things a lot faster in terms of defences, you’ll be helping me set up mounted crossbow turrets, hall patrolling monitors and other things we could use to strengthen the fortress.” He stated as he looked to the blue stallion.

Strife seemed to be dumbfounded, as if a massive amount of pressure had been shifted into his shoulders. He looked to Axton and gave a weak smile,“Umm.. I don’t know if I can do it.”

I looked to Night Strife and gave him a small nod,“Don’t worry, you’ll have plenty of time to learn engineering. In fact, you’ll have about seven months to learn, that’s when the fort should be built and filled with newly trained fellow guardians. While Axton is teaching you all this, I’ll be training all the new recruits Pyro and Intell gather up.” He seemed to ease at my words and gave a slow exhale of relief. After a moment of contemplation, Strife looked to me in confusion.

“If we’re doing all this, then what’s Terra doing? Is he just going to patrol like normal?” He asked with a raised eyebrow.

I leant forward and rested on the table,“Actually, Terra’s had his hands full for some time now. He’s been stationed up in his house in the mountains, smithing. He’s been practicing up, trying to master the notes Firefist had made on the old guardian armor sets. I’ve heard word from him from time to time on the progress he’s made and from what he’s told me, those suits should be complete and mastered within about a month. Then you and the others should have guardian armor sets of your own.” I leant back on the seat and ran my hands over my face in exhaustion,“And I have to train all the newcomers. Why is it you all get the fun jobs?”

Night Strife opened his eyes wide open and shot towards me in excitement,“Hey! I could trade jobs with you! It’d be easy!”

“You’re willing to train... I don’t know.. fifty or more new guardian recruits at a time? Sure, then be my guest.” I held out my hand towards him to shake on our agreement.

He slowly slide back down onto his chair. “On second thought, maybe I’d be better with engineering.” He gave off a few uncomfortable laughs and returned to his pile of metal. I pulled my hand back and pulled the chair back as I stood to my feet.

“Well, I’m sorry that I have to cut this short but pack your bags. We’re going to Canterlot.”

Axton turned to me and gave me a confused look,“Is this about tha’ mission? If it is, I’m not sure why you’re bringing us along.”

I looked to the stallion and smiled,“Well, companies always welcome, and I have a feeling this one might be a little too dangerous to for me to handle alone. Thanks to some useful advice from Pyro, I’ve decided to bring you all with me to watch my back as I watch yours.”

“Ah, well if you say so, who am I to reject. Alright, give me and Strife a moment to pack and we’ll be ready to head out.” And with a quick nod from the two, they turned around and went to pack some essentials. After a few minutes, Axton and Strife returned with their packs. We left the comforts of the shop and strode towards the edge of the city, towards the the city of Baltimare.

As we traveled through the seemingly endless green hills and watched as it split into orange dirted ground, Axton turned to me and asked why we were heading in such a direction, I told the stallion that it was where Pyro and Intell last sent word of a new recruit, though the recruit would stay behind.

After some time spent walking, probably for the entire party due to them mainly being earth ponies, and the fact that my wings were currently out of commission at the moment, we all arrived on the outskirts of the city. The day was only half over as the sun hung overtop of all of us, peering down on us. As we began to near the town, sounds of drunken slurs could be heard from every which direction. “Only twelve o’clock and ponies are already drunk. Didn’t you say that they found a recruit here? I can see how that’s gonna pan out.” Night Strife said as he rolled his eyes with a small sigh.

I looked to Strife and exclaimed,“Well, with Pyro and Intell in town, I believe they have good reason.” I gave off slight chuckles and I turned to Axton and he held a look of disgust as he thought to himself.

“What if Pyro’s tried to cook for them?” I watched as Axton shook in his spot from top to bottom, cringing at the thought.

“Ah come on, It’s not that bad.” I told the two, then Strife looked to me with a smirk.

“Coming from the guy with no taste buds, sure.” He gave off a small laugh and pointed towards the nearby parlor, the main source of the constant noise. “I guess we could start searching for them in there. Who wants to make a twenty bit bet? I say that they’re both drunk off their flanks.”

We pushed through the swinging doors into the bar and found many ponies singing and dancing, and other things expected by western ponies. I gazed through the hordes of stallions and mares and finally spotted our two friends sitting in a booth. I lead us through the crowd and sat us down beside them in the booth, I looked to Pyro and Intell and made not that they were completely sober. I turned to Strife and he tossed me a small pouch of bits.

“What’s that?” Pyro asked me as he raised an eyebrow in interest.

I looked back to the fiery maned stallion and said,“Ah, nothing. Anyways. How’ve you to been?”

Intell spoke up,“Well I’ve been good. Thought the blasted heat from this place is starting to get to me. I honestly can’t wait to get out of this place and go to the next city.”

Pyro turned to the metallic stallion and said,“I like it here actually, but then again, we do have a job to do.” He swung his head back to me and took a drink of his beer,“So, what brings you three here?”

“To give you the newest location of your next stop.”

“And where would that be?”

I gave a small smile,“Canterlot. Once you’re both ready, we’re heading there with a new mission. I thought I should bring you all along with me, for safety measures. With that known, I kind of want to know a bit about the new recruit, is he here?” I asked.

“Yeah, he is.” Pyro stood up and called out over to the far end of the bar,“Hey Blue, get over here!” He sat back down and turned back to me,“You’ll like him, he’s a good guy, a bit talkative but other than that, a fairly good pony. Though there’s something you should know about him, he..” the fiery stallion trailed off as a deep blue maned pegasus stallion cut through the crowd and sat down at the booth. “Ah well, Darkmoon, meet your newest recruit, Skyler Blue.”

I held out my hand and it was immediately grasped by the cobalt coated stallion,“It’s an honor sir! I’ll try my hardest, I swear!”

Pyro whispered into my ear, as to not offend the stallion,“He’s just a bit too friendly...”

I turned away from Pyro and faced Skyler,“Well recruit, I’m Darkmoon’s Crescent. Leader of the Guardians. You know where to meet with all the others right?” I asked him and he nodded. “Ok, when you get there, tell the others that training will have to wait till I get back from my mission. Bunk down for a few nights at the site and I’ll get back as soon as I can, do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

“Alright, It was nice meeting you Blue, but we need to get heading on our way before the sun starts to set.” I shook hands with the stallion and stood from my seat and signalled for the others to follow me. “One last guardian to grab, then our next adventure starts.”

It’s been almost too long since I’ve seen everyone together like this, and I can honestly say that I’ve missed it. Brothers till the end, the bitter end.

Well, took a bit longer than expected, but I finally got it. I've got a question for all those that have read thus far, would you like the chapters to be longer than 1000 words or just the usual 1000 some word count? I actually like these kinds of chapters though they take longer to write. Leave me your thoughts on this in the comments.

Keep it cool, Condemned.