//------------------------------//
// Land of Shadows: The Awakening 
// Story: New World: Land of Shadows 
// by Fire Feather 
//------------------------------//

	Knock, knock. "Princess? Are you awake?"

Twilight rolled over in her bed, trying to get away from the irritating knocking. "Go away," she groaned. "Go bother somepony else."

The knocking continued.

"I'll report you to my mother!" Twilight threatened the knocking guard with the most dreaded form of punishment, being brought before the Queen herself. The knocking stopped. Twilight sighed and rolled back over.

"Actually, Your Highness, the Queen asked me to summon you," the guard replied.

Twilight paused. The voice was familiar. Who did it belong to?

"Princess? Are you okay in there? The Queen said it was urgent."

Upon hearing that, Twilight got to her hooves and opened the door of her bedchamber, bringing her face to face with the guard. "Oh! Captain Dash! What brings you here?"

"Trying to get you to wake up, lazy," the Captain replied, her rainbow tail twitching with annoyance. One of her gauntleted forehooves kicked the ground aimlessly, but her helmeted head was straight up, allowing her to stare Twilight in the face. "The Queen has called a secret meeting."

"Which means that only her trusted advisors and the other rulers will be there. Excluding you, of course. You're still in trouble for performing tricks during practice," Twilight replied, a dry expression on her face. "Not even the Captain of the Shadowbolts can escape getting in trouble."

Rainbow responded, not amused at Twilight's remark. "Just get ready, Princess Egghead. We need to get down there. Oh, and the Queen said that I am no longer in trouble, because she needs Equestria's best warriors to combat the threat. Hah." Rainbow couldn't help but shove it in Twilight's face. Ever since the ascension of Twilight, the two had been engaged in a friendly rivalry.

But of course, Twilight came up with something that distracted the rainbow Pegasus. "Speaking of 'Equestria's best warriors', is a certain blue Lieutenant going to be present?"

A thump was heard from the other side of the door as Twilight walked toward her dressing table to get ready. She smiled a satisfied smile. It was no great secret that Rainbow Dash, the incredible Captain of the Shadowbolts, had a crush on Lieutenant Soarin of the Lunar Army. The Lunar Army was good, but the Shadowbolts were the elite. Hoof-picked by the Queen and King themselves for fighting skills, cunning, and bravery. The Lunar Army, however, would accept just about anypony as long as they were good fighters.

Twilight calmly fastened the silver clasp of her deep purple cape and placed her silver crown adorned with purple gems on as Rainbow Dash struggled to think of a comeback. Finally, she settled on, 

"How many ponies know?"

Twilight dropped one of her gauntlets as she heard what Rainbow said. Of all of the questions and comebacks available, she had asked how many ponies knew? Very unlike her. That must mean that she actually liked him and he liked her. Pausing to fix the gauntlet, she replied, "Don't worry, only I know. And my hoofmaiden, but she won't tell anypony. Your secret's safe with me."

As Twilight walked out of her room, she was greeted with the sight of a blushing Captain. "How long have you know?"

Deciding to give her a truthful answer, Twilight replied, "Oh, ever since he got shipped off to the Everfree Castle. My hoofmaiden knew longer, but I didn't believe her."

Dash sighed. "Your hoofmaiden. She knew about my crush and you didn't believe her?"

"No. Why would I? Although, I don't know much about crushes and special someponies. I need to spend more time with Cadenza. But for now, I have a meeting to get to. Lead the way, Captain."

"Gladly," Rainbow replied, leading the way down the corridor. "Cadenza? I thought she was a prisoner. Why would you ask her?"

Twilight replied with a straight face. "She's not a prisoner anymore. The Queen liked what she had to say about relationships and love, so now she is the Royals' personal Love Advice Giver thingy. It's confusing."

Rainbow was laughing so hard, she could barely talk. "There's such thing as a Love Advice Giver?! Seriously? You're joking, right?"

"...No. The actual term is Royal Love Advisor."

".....Royal Love Advisor. That.....just......seriously?"

"Yes, seriously. I didn't believe it either, but when Mother told me, she sounded very serious. Like, super serious."

Rainbow just shook her head. "Royal Love Advisor. What are they going to think of next? Royal Taste Tester? Royal Spear Sharpener?"

"..."

"What?"

Twilight looked at her with a frown. "Those are both actual things, Rainbow. The Royal Taste Tester is to make sure none of the food is poisoned, and you should know who the Royal Spear Sharpener is. 

She comes every day."

"Do you mean that gray pegasus with the funny eyes?" Rainbow asked, rubbing her chin in thought. "She's always knocking the spears over and nearly impaling my crew. We just pick her up and deposit her outside. She's mostly harmless. We sharpen our own spears, anyway. We don't need a pony who does that for us. How will we know if they're as sharp as we want them?"

Twilight cringed at the description of the pony. "Yes, I think that is the pony. I was not aware that she was that problematic. I'll inform my mother. She'll have her removed immediately."

"Thanks."

They walked in comfortable silence for a while, traveling down corridor after corridor and descending flights of stairs until they came to a simple black door that shimmered with the magic of silencing and secrecy spells. Nothing could be heard from within, and to get in you had to open a lock. Twilight walked forward and inserted her horn, bubbling with dark magic, into the lock. The lock bubbled with the same magic, and the door swung open.