Circle of the Moon

by GJT_Productions

What You Are In The Dark

"Oh come come Excelsior, it's not that bad to be involved in that particular role."

"Sir, a griffon and a manticore are barely..."

"You're getting a costume. A good one, not the cheap stuff you would see on foals this time of year."

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"That doesn't really make me feel any better, sir." Guard Upper Class Excelsior replies with a cynical stare at Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor as they travel the hallways of Canterlot Castle. Lieutenant Vesper, the batpony stallion that is Excelsior's immediate commanding officer, chuckles at Excelsior's expression as he walks beside the griffon in the hallways.

"Excelsior, did I mention that Princess Celestia didn't just sign off on this, but is involved herself?" Shining Armor asks with a hopeful grin, copying an expression frequently on the face of his younger sister Twilight Sparkle.

"Well, since you put it that way, sir..." Excelsior calmly replies, the contemplation now on his face indication to Shining that his tactic had worked.

"See? I knew you'd come around! Didn't I tell you he'd come around once I mentioned Celestia, Lieutenant?" Shining exclaims, and Lieutenant Vesper nods eagerly in response.

"Only because you mentioned Celestia, sir. That's it." Excelsior bluntly states, causing both Shining Armor and Vesper to both chuckle in response.

Excelsior, as the rare combination of a griffon and member of the E.U.P. Guard, owed not just his current employment but his life to Celestia's mercies, her magic transforming and regenerating a ravaged, runty body into that fitting of a warrior. He still felt not quite fitting in around Canterlot though, despite remaining under the command of the similarly "different" batponies, and had hoped to be assigned as a liaison to Griffonstone in place of his current Canterlot service.

"Do you think participating will help me get that transfer I've been wanting, sir?" Excelsior asks Shining Armor hopefully once the chuckling subsides.

"Beats me, Excelsior. But ever since part of the Griffon Ambassador's party decided to run away to Griffonstone rather than go back across the sea just to get something chopped off, Celestia seems to think having Prince Blueblood over there 'protecting them' is better than throwing a bunch of bits at the problem." Shining Armor explains with a shrug, referencing the aftermath of the incident that lead to Excelsior's employment in the Royal Guard in the first place.

"What is he even doing over there? Paying off the Griffonstone government to avoid handing over the refugees to the griffons across the sea?" Lieutenant Vesper asks.

"It seems only he and Princess Celestia know what he's doing, and Celestia isn't willing to talk about it." Shining Armor replies unhelpfully.

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The conversation came to end at that point as the three traveling the hallways had arrived at their destination - Shining Armor's office. The unicorn guard posted in front of the door opens it with his magic as the trio approach - and stop in their tracks once they are able to see inside.

Lieutenant Vesper immediately starts chuckling at the sight before them, followed by Excelsior only partly successfully trying to hide a smile spreading across the beak with his talons. Shining Armor lets out an annoyed sigh followed by an eyeroll, and then a glare at Vesper that stops the latter's chuckling cold.

"If you're quite done Lieutenant, I'll handle this myself. You two are dismissed to your duties." Shining orders with irritation.

"Yes, sir." Vesper coyly replies, but as he and Excelsior turn to leave for their duties Shining hears Vesper still twittering in amusement while Excelsior asks something Shining can't make out.

Shining finally turns his attention fully to the source of Vesper's amusement - Princess Cadance laying on her back on Shining's desk as if it were a bed, looking over at Shining with the attention-seeking "doe eyes" that usually indicated she really wanted Shining's attention - and mutters under his breath in irritation as he rolls his eyes again. The cynical stare returns as Shining approaches the desk and Cadance switches to an innocent stare.

"Is there a particular reason why you've decided to lay yourself all over my desk?" Shining asks as he stares down at the smiling Cadance.

"I need to know if we're still going out in costume on Nightmare Night, that's all." Cadance replies, continuing her pretense of innocence.

Shining knew what she was talking about - in previous years, Celestia had allowed Shining and Cadance to go out together on Nightmare Night in costume as an impromptu "date night" of sorts. Filly Twilight Sparkle had once been involved as well, but as she grew older she lost interest in the activity. Obviously Twilight would not be able to do that this year, and Cadance had not been available the last Nightmare Night, so Shining empathized with Cadance's worry, but...

"I thought you heard already, Cadance, Luna has started shutting herself in again. I need to be on duty that night to make sure nothing snaps." Shining replies with a sad worry in his voice.

"Aunt Celly was telling me Aunt Lulu would have trouble with this time of year, but it's that serious?" Cadance asks, switching to concern in her expression. She rises to a sitting position on the desk, forcing Shining to shy back a bit to avoid getting smacked.

"Yep, it's that serious. I'm going to be doing a lot of checking on her until all this blows over, including right now..." Shining answers as Cadance smoothly slides off the desk and onto all fours on the floor.

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. Maybe next year, hm?" Cadance offers with a shy smile.

"We'll see. Maybe next year Luna will be able to handle things better. This year though... it's too risky to leave her unattended." Shining answers with a sad shake of his head.

"Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then. Hopefully we're all worrying for nothing, though." Cadance tries to reassure, giving Shining a kiss on a cheek as she passes by him on the way out of the office.

"I wish I could share your optimism..." Shining comments to himself as he watches Cadance leave, then he sighs and turns to fix his desk and get the mandatory paperwork done. He already knew this was going to be a long night, and he hadn't even checked in with Luna yet...

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LATER THAT NIGHT...

"Who knocks upon our door?"

"The Lieutenant Captain, brightest star..."

"You may come in."

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The curt cutoff of Shining Armor's usual greeting was disconcerting enough, but the scene Shining came across once he opened the door made that feeling worse. Around his hooves were many empty candy wrappers strewn all over the floor of Luna's suite, and it didn't take long to find the source of the wrappers - Princess Luna laying on the floor and gorging herself on recent donations of candy. Shining hated those candy donations - doubtless they were well-intentioned, but only served to affirm the "reality" of the Nightmare Moon legends.

Luna's state disconcerted him even more - reverted, albeit by voluntary shapeshifting instead of forced power removal, to the smaller appearance she first arrived in Canterlot as. And although she had turned away from the door, Shining had caught glimpses of chocolate smeared around Luna's mouth and the bags under the eyes of sleep deprivation (Shining later speculated that the creation of the Tantabus entity happened shortly before because of this evidence). As Shining looks over, he can see Luna stuff some more candy in her mouth via unicorn magic while a few tears trickle down her face.

Shining Armor immediately recognized this behavior as a version of "drowning sorrows", and was cause for immediate action. He starts tenatively forward, but stops when Luna rises to her hooves. Her turning around is reluctant, as if not really wanting him to see her like this, but she does complete it anyway to see her face smeared with streaks of chocolate and stains of tears. Shining's heart falls to his hooves, and an uncertainty crosses his face as he debates internally about what to say and whether to say anything or not.

Finally, Luna breaks the heavy silence by speaking through a full mouth: "We know why you are here."

"Everypony's worried about you, with the holiday coming up..." Shining spits out, finally feeling free to speak after Luna had spoken first.

"WHY DO THEY DO SUCH THINGS?!" Luna blasts out, gesturing toward the donated candy stocks. "WHY DO THEY SAY SUCH THINGS ABOUT US?! WHY? Why? Why..."

Luna trails off as she again collapses to the floor, fresh tears flowing out from her eyes. In that moment, Shining seemed to realize Celestia's fears were correct, and that he would probably be spending the whole night here. He moves to a short distance in front of Luna and lays down facing her.

"I know what those legends say is not really true, but they will not go away." Shining answers, trying to keep his voice from breaking as he can feel tears welling up in his own eyes. "I am certain your sister is trying to help as best she can, but we still have to deal with this. Let's at least deal with it together, instead of alone. Deal with it as friends, as I'm sure Celestia wants it to be."

The logic seems to persuade Luna, as she essentially leaps right into Shining, tears flowing freely now. Shining turned this into a proper hug, not being afraid to let some "liquid empathy" flow out as well. Neither Shining Armor nor Luna know how long they stay embraced like this, but it didn't really matter - the point was the friendship magic and empathetic release that it provided to the hurting Luna at that time...