The chapter begins with Shining and his squad having calm and quiet tasks in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Since Winter-Wrap-Up is tomorrow there are not many students and guests around and the task is actually very easy. Everything is so nice and calm that the pegasus interviewer starts to get bored with the unicorn and starts to mock him. Considering what Shining's exiting days are like, he really deserves more normal days. Running Gag is reading Narutrot and claims that it is "technically loosely based on true events three hundred years ago." I don't believe it. Meanwhile Shining is struggling trying to process a Sunny Day article and it seems to begin to slowly erode his ability to form sentences. And since that lovely lady is actually Princess Celestia she never insults Twilight, Cadence, or Princess Luna and fights against the "Molestia stories." In fact she actively praises these three but considering the others things she writes about herself, the term Trollestia still comes to mind.
Suddenly Spike runs into the room and wants Shining to help Twilight since she is not feeling well. Her brother immediately and very literally rushes into action and leaves the dragon behind. And in his panic he notices many, many, many, many books in Twilight's room but needs some time to process that his sister is there as well. It turns out that her illness is a mere cold. It is something very minor but the castle's apothecary and Lemon Hearts are no longer willing to supply cold relief after the students started to abuse that to pretend to be sick. At least Lemon Heart didn't take her lemons and burned down life's house with them. Spike can't get the cold relief himself since he is known for using something like this to add a topping to his gemstone meals. Shining leaves and is about to begin his epic quest for medicine but Running Gag catches him and it seems the squad was able to figure out that Twilight might have a cold and Gag was sent to bring some to the unicorn.
But it turns out that there is nothing left and they would have to go into the city to get some. Shining pragmatically walks back in and tries to get his sister to go to bed and get some rest. Predictably she is too focused on studying to just accept this. And she sounds just adorable like this. Her brother tries to argue with her and points out that the room is way too drafty for her to continue like this. Suddenly Sergeant Harper is standing behind them. He is a pegasus from Emerald Isle and both his appearance and character intimidate the other soldiers. Gag thinks he is a dragon disguised as a pony. Shining tries to slowly describe the situation but the Sergeant already knows what is going on. Apparently Lieutenant Coke's platoon is responsible for the lack of medicine and the Sergeant’s empathy for them is horribly fake. He is also pragmatic enough to suggest Twilight to get some rest but she isn’t giving up that easily, even if someone like him tells her to do it.
Then Harper offers an alternative: The sick unicorn goes with her brother to the assistance desk and Running Gag and he will seek some medicine in the city. Shining tries to get the Princess involved but thanks to Spike that is hardly any problem. It seems the unicorn is genuinely worried about letting Gag leave alone with the Sergeant. Soon the brother has his answer from the Princess herself and she is showing sympathy for her stubborn student and her loyal and dutiful brother and guard. He even has to blush as he reads this. So he decides to get some blankets for his sister to keep her warm but she again rejects his extra care. It reminds both on a similar event where she was sick and her brother managed to beat himself accidently with a branch. She apparently laughed at much that she had to be brought to the hospital. No matter how clumsy his attempts can be, he will always try his best to be there for his little sister.
And it was all just a dream. After everything he had to go through Shining expected dreams that would show fear of the Blank Wolf, death or Mr. Makarov but instead he got a dream that shows that he is worried about his little sister. As he goes into the shower his replacement alarm clock radio becomes active and we get the start of the song Black Dog On My Shoulder. Shining reacts calmly and crashes into the shower head causing him to fall in the shower. This time he has better security and some guards enter immediately, only to find the embarrassing and non-threatening situation.
Cadence, Sunset and Twinkle Shine follow very soon. The Alicorn is worried while the griffin finds the entire situation just hilarious. As Shining walks outside to meet his superior he notices that she bolted outside her own shower to come to his aid. The room is a mess but the important items are still there: The letter from Twilight and the picture of her and her friends. Shining also briefly talks about the letters he has prepared in case something happens to him so that at least his loved ones will hear on last time from him. The unicorn interviewer seems somewhat shaken by the idea.
Meanwhile Cadence looks inside the sixth Royal Guard regulation book and finds the list of every Equestrian Royal Guard who died in the last 400 years in line of duty. And it seems that Cadence had nightmares after the last night and considering that it involved letters, she might have dreamed that Shining died and that she had to take care of his last letters and there is surely one for her as well. Soon the Earth Pony Private Garnet seems genuinely worried about the unicorn and having a connection to life surely makes earth ponies very good medics (and assassins). Cadence becomes interested in the situation and since she couldn’t sleep that well last night, she read a bit and noticed that his command squad should have 6 members including a platoon medic. Shining wonders where the medic was the last night when he could have really needed one but then Garnet was at the train station. The unicorn is curious how the Princess could even hear the ruckus in his room but it was the magic of open windows that made this possible.
For various organisational reasons Shining didn’t have a medic in his team when he could have needed one the most. The Princess points out how easily this could have led to his death. He still seems hesitant about taking a medic out of one unit and adding one to his own squad but the Alicorn is much more willing to do this and points out that as a Commander he can also do this. Cadence decides to take care of this herself and to talk with Garnet’s officer about it. Next she orders the unicorn to hurry with his assessments so that he will be ready at ten. Then she continues to show her commanding skill by ordering Garnet to take her immediately to her leader but she also shows her ability to overlook certain details like the fact that the Alicorn walked just out of a shower. Sunset tries to remind her that both she and her knight in shining armor got out of the shower but it comes out the wrong way. The unicorn interviewer shows her dictionary abilities and translates the sounds Twinkle Shine is making. Shining notices that it seems that innuendos keep stalking him and soon all the water the Alicorn left on her track here causes someone else to slip. Both Cadence and Shining share the same kind of bad luck.
The two victims where Ranger and Gag, the first one slipped and as the second one tried to save him both of them crashed into the glass display cabinet. Someone got hurt from all the glass and since he wasn’t in armor, Gag was injured worse. Gustave Le Grand seems to work at the kitchen staff and is busy trying to revive the fainted pony chef as other guards stop anybody from reaching the two fallen guards. Ranger seems much more worried about the head injury of his friend and unfortunately the fainted pony was the one responsible for first aid in the kitchen. Garnet begins her first test and examines Gag with the aid of the equipment of her chamfron. It seems all the time he remembers with Twilight has rubbed off and Shining thinks about how this equipment is useful for reading. But the situation is not as harmless as it seemed and Gag can only stare blankly at the medic.
A pegasus tries the horrible joke that it at least didn’t hit someone important and Cadence gives a cold remark and an intimidating glare at this kind of humor. This would be Discord’s sense of humor. In this most inappropriate time Gag himself jokes that he is very important like the Queen of Eagleland. It is incredible. He actually managed a funny joke that showed that he was not gone and cheered Shining a bit up. Then Gag tries to explain his problems to concentrate as being distracted by the cute medic before him. She takes it with humor and continues her own duty. Meanwhile the unicorn takes the chance to make clear that while he does make fun of Running Gag’s sense of comedy, he does admire his skills as a translator and as a soldier. But most importantly, he likes him as a person. Soon Minuette begins to take care of the second injured soldier. Garnet reveals her results: It is definitely a concussion but with a 48 hour break, someone there to take care of him and maybe the aid of a doctor he will recover. Next Minuette wonders if all the cute soldiers will get injured and Shining sees that Gag didn’t notice that she just called him cute. The unicorn doesn’t seem to notice the fact that she just called him cute as well. But for now Running Gag is more focused on Private Garnet. A classical case love at first sight and injury.
Shining tries to lighten the mood with a joke as well but nobody does seem to find it funny in this situation. However he does manage to get Gag to talk a bit about his family including his siblings Couch Gag and Overly Long Gag. It seems the reason that Overly Long Gag has this name was that it took forever for her to get born. Ranger was much luckier then Gag and only got few damaged feathers and some light cuts, he will be fine. Cadence feels horrible that one act of well-intentioned carelessness could have such consequences and Gag is still determined to cheer them all up. He wonders if Mr. Makarov should have spilled a few drinks instead of bringing armies and death tanks to kill them all. The unicorn again tries a joke by proclaiming that concussions were the key to make Gag funny and they should do that more often. The reaction is predictable cold and Minuette immediately scolds him. Eventually Gag is escorted away to eat something. So now Shining and Cadence need to continue in the shower what was interrupted.
Sunset is together with Ranger, while Twinkle Shine and Minuette are still together with Shining and Cadence. The Princess still wants to finish her shower, add Private Garnet to his squad and many of her plans for today were cancelled by the crisis the city just had. In the evening they will have to visit a variety performance in honor of the new president. As the unicorn still needs a suit for such events, he suggests his Parade Uniform but in the end the two hoofmaidens speak up against it. There is no hope to escape the suit. And it turns out that Twinkle Shine was able to dry the unicorn within such a short time that he notices that it is somewhat suspicious that she didn’t just do that earlier. Maybe she hoped that the wet look of both the soldier and the Princess could lead to something romantic. And Minuette has still not yet recovered from what she had learned in the last chapter but Cadence would be there for her.
Soon the unicorn is in the embassy canteen and it seems that Gag begins to recover. It seems both Minuette and Private Captive Audience want to have some quiet time. Lance-Corporal Ellis Bitter Apple is also still struggling with what he had to see in the brutal battle. None of them are able to shake off the psychological effects that easily, their recovery will take some time. Lieutenant Price noticed that Bitter Apple needs help and has sent one of his troopers to aid him. Not only is he from the same hometown but thanks to the Black Thistle training he is better prepared to deal with this kind of situation. Shining wants to talk with the Lieutenant in private and he seems unsure if Minuette is afraid or in love with Captive Audience. It seems there were four ponies Shining would trust enough to let them ask Twilight out: Ellis Bitter Apple, Cherry Coke, Running Gag and Captive Audience. It seems Bitter Apple and Running Gag are just suggested because the unicorn knows that nothing will come from this but he genuinely thinks that Cherry Coke would be a nice guy for his sister. The unicorn interviewer thinks that Captive Audience would be willing to die and kill for her but Shining actually thought more about the influences his family had on him and that this could make Twilight like him. Soon the other two interviewers notice that he keeps changing topics to avoid talking about something. But they are willing to give him a break and the pegasus interviewer hands him a gamecolt with Invertebrates in it.
The chapter continues with Shining being asked by Baseplate to meet him in the garden. Somehow the unicorn feels uneasy that he is suddenly that serious when even the battle to the death with Mr. Makarov’s forces didn’t seem to faze him. The garden is empty and only the Germane Embassy is nearby while Price is making sure that nobody will surprise them. Baseplate respects and likes Shining but tries to make very clear that the unicorn should NEVER tell anybody else but Princess Cadence herself. Twilight’s brother seems perfectly willing to not know anything about this if it is possible but considering what position Shining is in, this is no longer an option. He is in command, he has to know this now: Baseplate is part of the Special Air Service, a very normal sounding unit, but the truth is that every one of them is Black Thistle protocol.
They are the unit who is responsible for facing missions where lethal force can very likely not be avoided. Shining is scared of this very idea. Black Thistles were not supposed to form an entire group and he is worried that they and their methods are just the easy solution for a problem. The unicorn openly wonders if they are plan B in case Cadence’s mission takes a turn for the worse. But the official plan B is the Special Emergency and Life-preservation Service (SEAL) who are as effective and good as the Special Forces of the other nationalities but are at the same time able to uphold the Equestrian ideals of compassion and empathy. Yet there are situations where this will not work, times when lives have to be ended to prevent a greater loss of lives. Not killing is unfortunately not always an option. Sometimes taking lives is the only option to save more lives. It would be wonderful if they could live in a world where this would never be necessary but that isn’t the case and they have to be able to live with that. The Special Air Service is responsible for the missions where either the SEALs fail or the situation needs to be ended permanently before it gets even worse.
Shining seems to take this reveal well until he realises that they were activated shortly before Nightmare Moon’s return. Suddenly he jumps to conclusions and thinks that they were there to kill Nightmare Moon in case the Elements of Harmony wouldn’t work and the Nightmare would slaughter his sister and her friends. Then the unicorn suspects that they were with Cadence in case Mr. Makarov does succeed in killing Shining and his troops and they were meant to dispose of the arrogant Hooviet afterwards.
To calm the unicorn down Baseplate pragmatically headbutts him and tells him that he took what he had into the completely wrong direction. They were prepared for Nightmare Moon and ready to kill Celestia’s sister in case there would be not other option but they were never supposed to wait quietly for the Elements of Harmony to be slaughtered. They were nearby in light airships and ready to swop in to save Twilight and her friends in case they would not be able to activate the Elements before Nightmare Moon decides to just snap their necks. They were willing to die for the Elements if necessary. Now Shining feels ashamed for what he had thought minutes ago without any real evidence to support this. Instead he starts to get impressed with the courage to fly so close over the forest of death.
And just like they were watching over Twilight, they were watching over Shining in his battle with Mr. Makarov’s army. In case he had captured Shining to trap him in the extended, detailed and prolonged fate worse then death, they would have caught him very soon. And they did show up and brought Air Naval Cavalry with them when the unicorn was about to be overwhelmed by the sheer mass of enemies. Now Shining feels really stupid but that might be one of the things Cadence finds endearing on him. He does make mistakes, he can get very emotional, especially if his family or comrades are involved but Shining is a good person and willing to admit when he was wrong.
The interviewers know from what the members of the Special Air Service told them how difficult their mission was and how many hardships they had to overcome. The earth pony wonders if they should share the details with him but the pegasus thinks that revealing it is up to Baseplate himself and that the forest was so dangerous that Princess Celestia should have placed one of the soldiers together with the Elements of Harmony to protect them more directly. The unicorn wonders if Nightmare Moon could have been killed by normal means anyway. She was so insane and wasted her powers with flashy actions like a tornado of darkness that a few attacks might be able to slip past her defences and wound her mortally.
But the Elements of Harmony still needed to bond with each other to unlock the power of Harmony and being close to guards ready to kill Nightmare Moon could have made this impossible. Celestia wanted to give her sister one last chance and deep down Luna wanted to be saved or the obstacles weren’t chosen to be so fair. The first traps all challenged honesty, kindness, laughter, generosity and loyalty directly and where able to be overcome with the Elements. Compare that with Discord’s traps that were are created to break them and when it didn’t work, he would just brainwash them anyway. Nightmare Moon fought much fairer. But in the end Luna could have killed Twilight in the final confrontation and she definitely didn’t loose intentionally. Yet if she really wanted to win at all costs, she could have just turned into mist and stabbed one of the Elements while they were distracted with one of her obstacles. Luna did choose to fight fair against them, even in her deep insanity there was enough of her left to be able to do that.
At the same time Shining does realise that his sister got her wish of a few elite platoons in a certain way. Cadence talks about Flight Lieutenant Ace Rimmer, who will take over Shining’s duties while he is off-duty and wants to know something about him. The unicorn knows him from the academy and how unusual it is for pegasi to enjoy flying in tight light airships. The pegasus is friendly, helpful, modest, chivalrous and a bit of a ladies man. He also managed to become friends with Prince Blueblood, maybe on one of Blueblood’s many political missions. Shining briefly notices that according to Sunny Day, Celestia’s nephew volunteered for these missions. He wanted to be able to see something from the world after being trapped in the castle for his entire childhood. Then the Princess asks the unicorn if he is okay with her organising the addition of Private Garnet to his team but he has no problems with that. He also notices sarcastically how poorly the military can handle their resources and that they might be sitting on a lot of useful technology but never really bothered to use it. At the breakfast Shining learns that their next stop will be Zebrafrica. The hoofmaidens are again busy singing and Shining decides to get his troops ready for the assessments.
Suddenly the unicorn is assaulted by loud music. He recognises the source as a Thunder Guitar, which can get music out of a thundercloud. Twilight’s brother notices that most pegasi prefer Horse Metal and might have gotten deaf from that but it seems that the Pegasus interviewer is either making fun of him or really can’t hear him over the loud music. Thunderchild and Corporal Griffen had their fun with this instrument but the unicorn calmly tells them to be more silent the next time. But maybe they should think about weaponising sonic attacks in the military. If it worked for the Doctor so well… It turns out thanks to the loud music they didn’t hear anything about the accident and Shining remarks sarcastically that tanks could have sneaked up on Thunderchild in this state. The unicorn also thanks his friend for saving his life the last night and the pegasus instantly got a reward in the form of the priceless look on Mr. Makarov’s face.
The other troopers are getting to know their squad members and don’t have to wear their uniforms for the moment. Meanwhile Shining notices that they all react differently to what they had to see. He tries to encourage his troopers to talk about what they had experienced in the assessment and to not try to face it all by themselves. He knows that only thinking about it for too long can drive them insane and there are few people he would wish this kind of mental trauma on. Shining thinks that the only ones who would deserve this kind of suffering would likely be so twisted, that they don’t even fazed by that. But the unicorn interviewer knows that even the completest monster could eventually be broken by the realisation of what they had become and that there is simply nothing waiting for them on the end of their journey.
Soon Cadence, Minuette and Commander Bond arrive. The Princess wants Commander Bond and Flight Lieutenant Rimmer to aid in the assessments and neither Shining nor his troops have any objections. While these talks are going one, the Alicorn takes the chance to have a pleasant chat with the troops. The unicorn wished that it could be easy but he knows that trauma needs to be faced or it could become even worse. But Shining is very happy to see Ace Rimmer again and gets two nicknames very quickly: Shiney Sparkle and Iron Balls. It seems many already know what happened between him and Mr. Makarov in the last night and what kind of attack the arrogant half-deer used on Shining. Ace doesn’t talk much about himself but is impressed with what his friend was able to survive. But soon the friendly chats are over and the traumatised Lance-Corporal Apple is interviewed about what happened.
He didn’t seem to have a problem with the death of the first Diamond Dog, likely because it happened within the flow of battle. Then at the station he was happy that they managed to capture the other dogs alive and as the deer attacked them, he still hoped that they could stop them without killing them and that everybody left could live. The first Diamond Dog was killed within a battle but the deer just slaughtered the helpless canines. There is a huge difference between these two kinds of killings. When Apple realised that they were all dead and that there was nothing he could do anymore, he had a horrible breakdown. The way he talks in a very repetitive manner shows how painful it still is for him and how much he is tormented by not being able to protect life. Shining accidently calls him just Bitter Apple and the Lance-Corporal laments how few people call him by his first name Ellis. Shining tries to make it clear that it was a slip of a tongue and that Apple is together with friends who want to help him. He was one of the persons Shining would have no problem with, should he ever get interested in his sister and considering how limited that group was, that is saying something.
Ellis was completely devastated from seeing this slaughter and Shining is sorry that he couldn’t protect his friend from that, he is enraged what Mr. Makarov did to his friends and is sorry that he was unable to stop the deadly attack on the Diamond Dogs. Ellis can hardly remember what happened next but thanks to the Black Thistle protocol Captive Audience realised what was going on and tried his best to help his friend with his trauma. Apple could hardly sleep or eat and Rimmer can see that it is a serve combat stress reaction. Bitter Apple blames himself for their deaths. But there is the hope for recovery, Ellis has friends with him who know what he feels and saw it happening as well. They can understand it. And Rimmer knows what the most important thing to say is: The death of the Diamond Dogs was not Bitter Apple’s fault. Nobody of them was responsible for that. It was Mr. Makarov who chose the Diamond Dogs, just to dispose of them as soon as it was over. Their deaths were his intention from the very start and he is the one responsible. Shining admits that the only one who could have done something was himself but he didn’t realise what the deer wanted until it was too late.
The unicorn would never mock his friend for having trouble to process this horrible memory but is happy that he is at least able to be honest with them. The mention of honesty begins to inspire Apple to talk about his mostly honest family and how the cousins in Manehatten need to remember that they are not alone and he realises that he is not alone either. Shining couldn’t be prouder on his friend for being stronger then the misery Mr. Makarov threw at them. The others took the events better then Bitter Apple but that doesn’t mean that he is weak. Despite being in the same room, experiences can be very different and even the very same events can be seen in a very different light depending on what you have experienced and learned in your life so far.
Star Dancer is sorry for the dogs but happy that the troopers survived and that Apple began to recover. Private Happy Party wished that there would have been something she could have done for the canines but can accept the fact that there was nothing she could do. She finds comfort in the fact that they didn’t have to suffer and recovers in her own way by enjoying the simple things of life like Shining’s mane. The unicorn wonders if she is related to Minuette but she sounds a lot like Pinkie Pie as well. Marelowe however feels no pity for the Diamond Dogs. To him they were mercenaries who choose to live like that. In a country like this they could have found a lot of work, that doesn’t involve such crimes. It reminded him of Kundu and how the country was torn apart by mercenaries. He thinks that mercenaries are pathetic for naming their fractions the Radicals, the Hive, the Nasty Boys and Shadow Company.
Even the names of the two big anti-government groups sound pitiful to him: New World Order and Nation of Domination. He sees nothing but faceless killers in them. We also learn that the Hooviets made the situation even worse and in the end his perspective shows very well that you can’t demand pity and compassion for others. Some people will never be able to forgive certain crimes and that is also part of life. He didn’t enjoy their deaths but he will not feel sorry for them. Everybody has different lines, that once crossed will make it impossible for them to feel empathy with someone who crossed those lines. It can be violence against children or torture and once someone does this, they will never be forgiven. You could argue that it is not fair towards the Diamond Dogs who were used as disposable pawns but forgiveness is a choice and not everybody is willing and able to make this choice.
Soon the most difficult case begins and they start to talk with Captive Audience. Shepard, Bond, and Hornblower are here to hear his case. It could even end in Court Martial. All the time the pony seems calm and collected. He describes how well the Diamond Dog was shielded and that Shining and Frost seemed unable to break these defences. At the same time the shield of the unicorn would eventually run out of mana. He knew that there was little time for a decision and trying a stun spell would alert the Diamond Dog of his position and could get himself or others killed very easily. Anything but a lethal attack would have done nothing to stop the canine from trying to kill the troopers. He tried to make the death as fast and painless as possible.
Bond wonders if he would have acted differently if the Griffin had better weaponry but Audience is sure that if he had those, then there was a reason that he hadn’t used them so far and was unable to do that. He couldn’t rely on someone else finding a solution. Shepard asks if Stun spells could have been used but the Diamond Dog was too well protected for there being any real chance that this could have worked. Compared to that uncertainly his bow shooting was much more accurate and reliable. Teleporting was also a high risk and the dangers of it were surely one of the reasons that Shining didn’t do it so far. The unicorn noticed how dangerous it was when he later had to teleport to save him and his allies from Mr. Makarov’s next deadly trap. The entire time Audience is calm and collected and able to answer their questions. It shows nicely how much difference the Black Thistle protocol can do. While Apple was nearly completely broken, Audience was able to handle it much better. But deep down he might suffer just as much and also needs the support of his friends.
Now it is time for the decision. Both Commander Shepard and Bond consider this choice justified and see no other option that wouldn’t have endangered more life. Finally it is Hornblower’s time to make his judgement. Shining knows what is at stake. His fellow trooper and friend could fall into a downward spiral. This incident could hunt him for his entire life and ruin it. Or worse it could make him decide that taking lives is his true calling and he would leave Equestria and go to a place where there are different views on killing. He could embrace taking lives and seek a profession where he will have to do that constantly.
