Paperwork - the bane of any officer in the Canterlot Royal Guard. Anypony with an officer's commission had to do at least some of it as part of their duties. Unicorns had it relatively easy: manipulating a quill pen to scratch writing on parchment. Pegasi and earth ponies had it harder, because there was no good way for either of them to hold a quill pen - they used a kind of typewriter with which they could peck at keys using hooves, and even then it was a slow, tedious process.
Lieutenants had to do paperwork to monitor their squads - generally a named folder was used that had a copy of each required sheet for each guard in their squad, resulting in a fairly thick package. Lieutenant Captains, on the other hoof, had to assemble and set up all those folders in addition to the assignments for all the Lieutenants, which lead to long and tedious hours behind a desk for them.
It is in this situation we find Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor, sighing and with a thoroughly bored expression on his face as he manipulates the quill pen to scratch out the required entries on the parchment. Two stacks of manilla folders lay on his desk - a short stack of folders stuffed with papers and a longer stack of empty folders. Assembling a Lieutenant's folder necessarily involved much paper manipulation and pen scratching, thoroughly necessary and tedious drudgery that had to be done.
The relative silence of Shining's office, the only real sound being the scratching of the quill pen, is broken by calls by the two guards posted at the door. Shining looks up, not having heard what the guards were saying.
"Repeat that?" Shining calls out to the door guards.
"One of the griffons insists on seeing you, sir. He's carrying something." the answer comes back.
"Confound those annoying griffons... send him in!" Shining orders, followed by him muttering how stupid the griffons would have to be in order to think they could bribe him into getting their way.
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Shining stops his work in surprise when he sees the crippled-wing griffon slave walking into his office, a jar of something in one of his taloned forefeet. The two door guards follow him in.
"What do you want?" Shining asks as he stares down at the griffon, who responds merely by putting the jar on the desk. An eyebrow goes up as Shining telekinetically levitates the jar up and gives it a good lookover.
"Open it, take a sniff." Shining finally says as he levitates the jar in front of one of the guards.
"Sir?" the guard in question, a dark-coated unicorn, asks with a confused and alarmed look on his face.
"That's an order!" Shining snaps out with a fierce glare at the guard.
The guard hesitantly uses his magic to unscrew the top off the jar and then takes a short sniff as a sweet odor fills the room. Immediately he reels back, his face scrunching as he stumbles and his partner guard shifts to keep him from falling over.
"Chloroform. Probably mixed with something else." Shining Armor concludes as he uses his magic to screw the jar shut again. A faint sweetness lingers in the room as Shining gets up from his desk, carefully observing the guard that inhaled the knock-out gas as still rather unsteady on his hooves and having the same kind of eyes Derpy Hooves typically exhibited.
"Get him some fresh air. Have the stand-by guards over here as quickly as possible." Shining orders the guard that had not inhaled the chloroform mixture.
"Yes, sir." that guard replies, his comrade placing one foreleg around the withers to help steady himself as the two of them work their way out of the office. When the two guards are gone, Shining turns to face the griffon he was now alone with in the room.
"Why did you bring me this jar?" Shining asks the crippled-wing griffon sternly.
The griffon slave - his useless wings splayed out and him shrinking down in a manner similar to what Fluttershy often did - hesitated to respond at first, but finally the words come out in a quiet, pleading croak, accompanied by a tear trickling down his face: "I bring... bring it as proof. Your princess... is in danger. I have less... than 24 hours... and I plead... for asylum."
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ABOUT 15 MINUTES LATER...
"Back, someone's coming!" Shining gives a quiet command as he looks down the hallway which passes the doors to Luna's royal suite.
Around the corner with him was Captain Gibraltar, whom Shining had brought the griffon slave to after hearing what the latter had to say about the danger to Princess Luna. The two of them were able to quickly prove the truth of the griffon's statement by catching the two afternoon shift guards to Luna's suite away from their posts - the pegasi stallions had little choice but to admit to their role in the plan and were currently being bound by Lieutenant Vesper's bat ponies, their final disposition put off until the immediate threat was averted. The griffon himself was locked in "protective custody" with another bat pony as a guard.
"Who is it?" Captain Gibraltar quietly asks, both he and Lieutenant Vesper beside him just behind the watching Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor.
"Griffons. Two of them. Looks like they're part of the guard, the ambassador is probably incapacitated too much to do it himself. I'll wait until they're distracted." Shining replies in a whisper as he pulls back out of view.
The guard officers wait patiently, one minute, then two, the only sounds being the quiet motions of the waiting griffons. Finally, they begin to talk among themselves about where the slave with the chloroform is, making growls of frustration about how he was wasting precious time to execute the plan.
Around the color, Shining's horn glows with a magenta color, and a bubble of the same color rapidly encases the two griffons. Impatience quickly turns to panic for the two griffons, but before they can do anything an ear-piercing screech fills the hallway - a bat pony's call could match a griffon's roar in magnitude and was far more shrill in tone.
The faces of the griffons contort in pain, temporarily causing them to let their guard down, and before their ears can stop ringing the three Guard stallions are almost upon them! The magenta bubble comes down, and there is a mighty collision as Gibraltar, Shining Armor and Vesper hit the two griffons sidelong.
Mere moments later, a confused Princess Luna opens the door to her suite to see a great scuffle going on in the hallway, with the two griffon guards on one side and the three Royal Guard officers on the other. Despite the ferocity and resolve put up by the griffons, they had neglected to don their armor and weaponry while their Equestrian opponents wore their armor. This, in combination with the advantage of numbers going to the Equestrians, quickly wears down their resistance, although it takes a good deal of bucking and hoof-smashing from the three Equestrians before the griffons yield.
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"What is the meaning of all this?! Explain, Captain!" Luna shouts when she finally is able to penetrate the echoing ruckus. Captain Gibraltar, Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor and Lieutenant Vesper are tired and scratched from the struggle. The defeated griffons, each with a number of bloody circles where the hooves impacted and broken bones, expend their last resistance in a futile effort to prevent other guards converging on the scene from taking them into custody.
"I'll explain once the rest of the griffon party has been summoned here, Your Majesty. I can assure you your sister will soon put an end to their trouble for good." Captain Gibraltar explains through panting.
Princess Celestia had not had occasion to use her version of the Royal Canterlot Voice for many years. But tonight might give reason for her to use it once more...