A/N: Welcome back! Took a few days off of this, mainly to spend time finishing the campaign of Star Wars: Empire at War on hard difficulty. And when I say hard, it was HARD. If I didn't know better, I would have thought the computer was cheating the whole time. The rest of the time was spent playing some Assassin's Creed 3. Killed some guys, killed some boats, killed some animals, punched a dude in the face, and killed some more guys. It's a very diverse game. After a while, I began to think to myself, 'Wait, wasn't there something I was previously engaged in? Something involving words… Nah.' Well, here we go. Me, getting back to work. I'm also putting all OC submissions on hold. The last chapter ushered in quite a few OCs. Have to sift through some. Well, onto the review responses.

Apollyon62: Thanks! I thought those were some of the more fun parts to write. I'm glad you like it!

Skullcrusher206: Yep, he made it. Put him with Shiningshadow1965's OC to get two birds with one stone. I'll call them… the DYNAMIC DUO! Lol. Now, what is the meaning of the seventh period? Shame on thee who isn't paying attention in school. Jokes aside, thank you for a positive review.

Biggmomma46: Thanks! And extra points for using cudos. That's a fun word so say. Cudos. Cudos. Cudos. Wow, it's fun to type, too! Cudos. Cudos. Cudos. Cudos. Cudos. Cudos.

DatAss111: Now come on. I can't have cool, multi-colored awesome ponies in EVERY chapter. I believe in too much of a good thing. Also, thanks for the complements on the combat scene!

ShiningShadow1965: Thanks! I'm glad I got him right.

CoughDrop: Thanks! Wow, I'm getting pretty repetitive with these. Ok, ¡gracias!, merci!. Eh… I'm gonna stop with that. I fear I might piss someone off.

Major Simi: Thank you yet again for another positive review!

ONTO THE CHAPTER!

Disclaimer: IN SPANISH! Ve a leer las renuncias de otros.

Ch 9: *Reader's Choice*

The trip back to the library was mostly silent, mostly due to Rainbow's embarrassment and my shock. I was still furiously going over what had happened not too long ago, a mental battle raging inside my head. It's wrong. You can't feel this way. You don't… She obviously has feeling for me. Damnit! You haven't known her long. I… I can't feel this way, towards a PONY. It's WRONG! But, why do I FEEL otherwise? Aaggghhh.

Rainbow must have noticed my mental distress, and to break the silence asked, "Everything all right?", still not looking directly at me.

I waited for a moment as the question finally registered in my mind. "Uh…. Yeah. Yeah, I'm… I'm fine."

Silence fell again, and it continued as we finally came up to the library. All I wanted at this moment was some time alone. Time to sort all this out, without distractions. As we walked up to the door, there was a sign that read closed, and I could hear some talking on the other side. Apparently only Rainbow came after me, I thought. Rainbow Dash knocked on the door, which was answered almost instantly with, "Who is it?"

"It's me, Twilight," Rainbow Dash answered back.

The door swung open, revealing Twilight with the other four behind her. "Where did you go? We were about to come fi-", Twilight didn't finish as her gaze fell onto me. "YOU!"

Well, shit, I thought as I turned to run. There was a flash from behind me, and I soon figured out as Twilight appeared in front of me making me come to a quick halt. Damn, I mentally cursed as I made a quick about face and started in the other direction. I didn't get far as a certain orange pony tackled me. I quickly pushed Applejack off and stood back up. One side, I had Twilight, ready to zap me with whatever spell she had ready. On the other I had Applejack, ready to charge.

"I don't wa-," I started, but was cut off as Applejack charged me again. I quickly dodged her and, as she ran by, grabbed her and redirected her forward momentum. Right at Twilight. She rammed into her and both ended up on the ground.

"Like I was saying," I once again started, walking over to the two mares, "I said I-". I was cut of yet again as another pony in my peripheral, rush me. Well shit, I thought. Jumping to the side, I tried to dodge, but was too late as the new comer tackled me. As I picked myself up, I found I was surrounded by the two mares and got a good look at the pony who tackled me. An armored pegasus, but instead of feathered wings, they looked leathery and bat-like. His coat was a hue of blue that was borderline black, roughly my height with a dark blue mane and tail. Must be military, royal guard, or something, I thought to myself as I readied for another bout. I had no plans on hurting the girls, or the new guy, but if he wanted a fight, he'll get it.

First to charge was Applejack, who I yet again redirected towards Twilight, both ending on the ground again. Now to deal with him, I thought, turning towards the now charging stallion. He jumped, spreading his wings to gain some air to pounce. I quickly side-stepped and tackled him as he landed on the ground. Quickly, as he tried to push me off, I shoved him against the ground again and put my now unsheathed knife against his neck. His stern face quickly turned to one of shock, as I assume he hadn't expected this to happen.

{-}

Silent Wind was shocked to say the least.

He was originally stationed in Ponyville to watch over Twilight as she over-saw the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration and to keep an eye out for Nightmare Moon's return. After that, he was ordered to stay in Ponyville to watch over the Elements of Harmony in secret. That lasted about a week, until this morning, the Princess had visited on account of the mystery pony showing up. Before she left, she left him a letter containing orders to keep any eye on this mystery pony now identified as Star.

He had lost him going into the Everfree forest and had only just found him as he was in a 'fight' of sorts with two of the Elements. His first instinct was to attack and keep him from harming the Elements. So, he did. Silent had soon found he had underestimated this Star, mentally cursing himself for making a rookie mistake as he looked up Star's eyes.

{-}

I looked down at the stallion, knife pressed to his throat, drawing some blood. He had attacked me twice, and I was about to return the favor. Luckily him, Rainbow yelled out.

"STOP!"

I held the position, still thinking of going through with it. The pony's expression had turned to one of suspense, waiting for me to finish it, or to get up.

"Stop, please…"

I let out the breath of air I had unconsciously been holding and removed the knife from the stallion's neck. He visibly relaxed as I slowly pulled away and sheathed my knife. I turned to question Twilight as to why she attacked me, but Rainbow Dash beat me to it.

"Why did you attack him!?" she asked in a not so quiet manner.

"He yelled and threatened the Princess," Twilight said firmly, "and we wanted answers to questions without him running away." She seemed to get less confident as she went along.

Rainbow was about to answer back, but I butted in, "And attacking me is the best way to get answers? Have you ever thought of just asking if I mind?"

"B..but-" Twilight began.

"But WHAT? If I say no? Then take it and move on," I cut in harshly, Twilight flinching at the reprimand. "And you," I continued, facing towards the stallion who was now getting back up, "Who the HELL are you and why the HELL did you attack me!?"

The pony in question dusted himself off and replied," My name is Silent Wind. Trained in the equestrian military for most of my life and member of the Royal Guard. My orders are to watch over the Elements of Harmony and to keep an eye out for and on a pegasus named Star. As to why I attacked you, I saw you attacking two of the elements, so I decided to subdue you."

And look how great that turned out for you, I thought as I looked at the group gathering around us. By now, there was a large group around who had seen or heard the fight and were now watching and listening in to the conversation. "I think we should continue this inside," I suggested.

Silent looked around before replying with a short, "Agreed".

The group that had gathered moaned and began to disperse as the Elements, Silent, and I headed into the library.

{-}

UUA Home Fleet

UUA-001 Light of Hope

HIGHCOM de-briefing room

Location: - Universe, Deep Space

"The council is fully aware of what information you obtained from the Justice," one of the men sitting in front of Peterson said. There were a total of three, uniformed, highly decorated individuals in front of Peterson. Each one a member of the UUA Council, which headed UUA HIGHCOM and governed the decisions of the UUA, stationed aboard the titanic dreadnaught and home ship of the UUA, the Light of Hope.

"But," the man continued, "we also understand the risk that you undertook to obtain this information and the reason behind it. We don't doubt your abilities as an officer, Captain, but we cannot ignore the blatant disregard for life or the safety of a UUA vessel, just for you to go chasing after a MIA officer and ship."

"We all are sorry to hear the loss of one of our best strategists, founder, and most effective leaders," another spoke in, "but we can't risk ships or crew just for information that MIGHT hold a way to finding him IF he's still alive. All ships we have are needed for the protection of systems still allied with us."

"With all due respect to the council, I recognize this," Peterson stated. "That is why we acted alone."

"Now onto the matter of the search party. We've decided that it would be too costly for the UUA to dedicate too many ships just to search for a possibly destroyed frigate and dead admiral. Your request has been denied, and you and the Shroud will be transferred to the defense fleet over B-105 to defend our mining facilities."

Peterson was getting pretty annoyed at the Council now. Ever since the Shroud had gotten back in touch with HIGHCOM and they were briefed on what happened with the Ominous Justice, Peterson had caught nothing but grief. From threats of court martial to demotion, he swore he heard it all. The Council's quick decision on trying to find the Admiral pissed him off more.

"Council, I think we can all agree that a simple stealth frigate won't be worth much when clumped together with a defense fleet," Peterson began, "That was why I'm asking that I take the Shroud and her alone with a volunteer crew on a search and rescue, not a fleet. This would keep the UUA from any major losses and keep any experienced crew that doesn't want to be there available for tasking."

After a few minutes of talking amongst themselves, Peterson was starting to get impatient as he waited for their reply. Damn bureaucrats, he thought to himself. They're what makes this job unbearable. Indecisive bastards. Why did the Admiral even make these positions? Before he could question Michael's decisions on the structure of the UUA anymore the lead council member spoke up.

"Well, what are you waiting for, Captain? Get a crew together and go find the Faith," he said.

"Not so simple, sir. We need to decrypt and examine the MV-"Peterson started, but was interrupted.

"Captain. To put it bluntly, we don't care. If it gets you out of our hair for the time being, do what you need to do. You're dismissed," one of the councilmen interrupted.

Peterson smirked and saluted before walking out the door into one of the many hallways of the Hope. Now to get to work, he thought before heading down to the hangar holding the Shroud.

{-}

As I lay on the cot in the basement of the library, I went over the day's events. One hectic day, I mentally concluded.

After heading into the library, Twilight had offered some food as a sort of apology. I was a little skeptical of eating grass, but luckily they had other fruit and vegetables besides the lawn weed. I couldn't say no, and was a welcome change to the daily MREs I had been eating. All the technology and we still can't make them taste worth shit, I thought. After a short conversation and Rainbow quickly preventing a Q&A session, I found myself down here in the basement. The time passed quickly as I laid on the bed thinking. I looked up to the clock on the wall that was in the room and saw it was coming to about 6:00. Must be getting dark, I thought.

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard the door to the basement open and footsteps… hoofsteps down the stairs. I looked over the see Rainbow walking my way from the stairs. She stopped a few feet away from the bed looking off to the side and towards the floor, a slight blush only barely visible. I turned my gaze back up towards the ceiling, part of me hoping she would leave, the other silently hoping she'd start talking. The other got its wish.

{-}

Rainbow opened the door to the library's basement and made her way down the stairs. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw Star looking over. She made her way to a few feet away from the cot before stopping. She felt a bit anxious and flustered, but managed to compose herself.

"I came down to check on how you're doing," she said softly. "You've been down here for a while and I was about to head home."

Star merely laid there staring up at the ceiling. She continued, "I just wanted to thank you again for saving me and to apologize for what I did. It wasn't right."

He still continued his gaze into the ceiling. "Well, I'm going to go," she said, starting to walk to the stairs. "Bye, I guess."

This was stupid, she thought as she slowly made her way towards the stairs. He doesn't want to talk to you. He probably doesn't feel the same way towards you. Just look how nervous he was on the way back. I shouldn't have kissed him. So stupid!

Rainbow made it to the foot of the stairs before she was stopped by a word. "Don't."

She turned around, finding Star still staring at the ceiling. "Huh?" she replied. He exhaled before continuing.

"Don't second guess your decisions. You did what you felt was right," Star said, eyes still on the ceiling. "If you start second guessing you'll get less daring, take less risks. You'll start being someon… somepony you're not."

Rainbow was a bit confused at what he was saying. Star looked over and picked up the confusion on her face. "Heh… I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't change," he said before turning over. "Have a nice night."

"Oh, um… yeah. Heh, good night," she said before continuing up the stairs.

She opened the door, taking a quick look back down before closing the door thinking; maybe he does feel the same…

Well, there we go. The WAY overdue chapter 9. I kinda left some stuff out about what was holding me up. On top of finishing some games, I also had a college algebra exam and some high school projects to do. Didn't help that there was some writer's block and laziness involved. As for the disclaimer, for any too lazy to go translate, it says 'go read the other disclaimers'. Hurray for Spanish 1. Also, any ideas as to what to name this chapter? I'm at a loss of 'cool' names. PM me if you have an idea. I know it's cheap, but meh. It's a win-win. Reader's get a chance to name a chap, I get to take a break. Well, that's that. Until next time, Arwingmaster1 out.