//------------------------------// // On the demestic front // Story: Night Patrol 2: Awakening // by Foxgear //------------------------------// Night Patrol 2: Awakening Ch 9 By Foxgear On the dawn of the sixth day that Luna left for Nippon, Princess Celestia finally found some spare time to inspect the Equestrian Air Naval Fleet. Something she had not done in a while. But now that the matter of Discord was settled for the moment and Twilight wasn’t spelling ponies to a fight over a doll. Now seemed like the perfect time. In these peaceful times, it was hard to justify the need for such a large fleet. Thus the matter of maintaining it was pushed to the side as more pressing matters needed to be addressed. Now she stood on the catwalk overlooking the fleet’s harbor with utter shock and horror. Her fleet of airships had rotted away. The fleet, numbering one hundred and seventy-eight ships, stood desolate, the wood rotting of the sides of the ships, the cannons piles of rust, the sails mere rotted tattered rags. She did not even want to think of the engines and what poor shape they might be. She called for the royal engineer. A stout pony with a bushy beard named Tinker. Asking for an estimate on what it would cost to repair the fleet. Celestia listened to Tinker ramble to himself for several minutes until he gave his answer and she found it less than appealing. “To repair this rotted mess… three hundred billion bits. Give or take, that’s including material and labor costs. Frankly Princess, it would be far cheaper cost and time wise to scrap the fleet and rebuilt it from scratch. The hulls of these ships are so worn we would basically be rebuilding the ship anew anyway.” “How much would it cost to rebuild the fleet?” “Depending on the design and size, the cost could very a few million in either direction. To keep it simple, to rebuild a hundred of this same class of ship, which are twenty-gun battleships with a single mast. I would suspect it would be in the range of two hundred billion bits.” Seventy-eight ships less, but they would be operable. Seems like a fair enough trade-off. It’s not like they needed them right away either. “Very well, I want at least three different designs of ships with their cost and pros and cons on my desk by next week. That will be all Tinker.” “I will get right on it ma’am.” Satisfied with her actions Celestia moved on in her inspection only for not one, but two letters to appear before her. One from her sister and one from Daring. She opened Luna’s first. Dear Celestia, A Canterlot huzzah for my retrieving of Nightingale’s memento. My excitement knows no bounds as I eagerly return home to continued my search. However, this is not all I have gained this trip. Besides the friendships of King Kusanagi and Queen Haibara and their children, I have regained my true might! Unfortunately, there is some ill news in my writing. Upon our second day of voyaging, we were attacked by Germanian Privateers, ordered by the Kaiser himself to disturb trade. I am sorry I did not inform you sooner of the matter but rest assured I have informed King Kusanagi. I hope to see you soon, love Luna P.S. I have found a most interesting artifact, I cannot wait to show it to you! I think you will be most surprised! “The Kaiser of Germane? What is he up too now?” Celestia wondered as she switched over to Daring’s letter. Who was the current Kaiser anyway? The ponies of Germane have been so quiet in recent years and they never attended any summits. It was rather worrying. “Let’s see what Daring has to say.” Opening the rogue wonder’s scroll, which was magically sent by a special glyph Celestia herself taught the tawny mare, the Princess of the Sun was surprised to find a letter written in Germane sealed inside. Her eyes scrolled through the writing. Several times she had to stop and reread as her Germane was lacking. She could make out the gist of the letter though. The letter was directly from the desk of the Kaiser, granting permission to attack Equestrian ships. Specifically, ships that looked like they were carrying relief supplies. Celestia recalled signing an order to provide relief effort to several zebra nations. The letter dictated that the supplies were then to be given to waiting Germane ships, who would then deliver Equestrian supplies to the Zebra nation under Germane. A cold shiver ran up Celestia’s spine. Such actions would be cause for war. Not only that but it made her nation look bad in the eyes of the world. Promising aid, but then not delivering on said promise was a very big deal when it came to trading and alliances. Why would the Kaiser do this? (No, I must think more clearly. This could be a plant by some other nation to blame Germane for their crimes. I need more evidence, before rushing to judgment.) As she folded the letter, another slipped out and fell to the floor. This one was written personally by Daring, “Luna has blue Alicorn Amulet.” It read, peaking Celestia’s interest as she rolled up the letter. As of today that would mark the third Alicorn Amulet Daring has found. The others being the pink and teal Amulets. With the Yellow amulet being eaten by Sixes, and the green and orange by Emerald Cutter and Overheat, there hopefully are not much more left in the world. “The red amulet that Sombra used is probably still in the Crystal Empire, I’ll have to think about getting that soon…” Celestia muttered, deep in thought, until a light poke in the side made her aware of her surroundings again. Confused she looked down to see Timer Keeper looking nervous while fiddling with his watch. “Um… Princess, are you listening? We have to move onto the next item on the agenda for today. You a meeting with the Majors of Equestria’s major cities today.” Celestia pressed her hoof to her nose and huffed. The majors were important, but the Kaiser and the Amulets were more pressing. “Cancel everything and reschedule Time Keeper, I want Vice-Captain Fleetfoot and Commander Bricks to be in my office in five minutes.” Celestia vanished, leaving the watch carrying pony a dazed and blubbering mess as all of he dropped all of his carefully planned time sheets to the ground. “Well… ok then…” he mumbled wandering off like a zombie. Fleetfoot hurried through the Canterlot castle halls, still in her training flight suit and sweaty from running drills when Celestia’s personal assistant came and told her she was needed in Celestia’s office. Orders such as these were rare. Meaning it was probably a high-profile mission! What fun! Rounding the corner, she bumped into the last pony she wanted to see right now, Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor. “Move it Captain Purple, I have somewhere important to be, unlike you.” To the other branches of the Equestrian military, such as the Wonderbolts, which were separate from the Royal Guard. Shining Armor was despised. Not that he didn’t have talent in his shield spells, but given his familial relationship with Celestia’s student Twilight Sparkle, and then his rumored relationship with lesser known Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, who was Celestia’s niece. He wasn’t making a lot of friends after his recent promotion. “Oh yeah, what would that be? Hard to believe YOU the sub to Captain Spitfire would need to do anything other than keep Spitfire’s seat warm,” Shining sneered, tired of the outright disrespect he was shown by the other division leaders. Things have gotten worse after rumors circled around that even Princess Luna, a pony that didn’t know about the scandals around him, didn’t seem too fond of him. It really frustrated him that the position he worked so hard for was being undermined by his happenstance of being related to Celestia’s student and dating Celestia’s niece. He didn’t want special favors and he wouldn’t have accepted any if they were offered! At least he had Cadence to confine in. Complaining about his situation to the higher ups would only make things worse. Fleetfoot’s heckles rose, “I outta!” “Vice-Captain Fleetfoot,” Celestia said poking her head out the door of her office. “That is quite enough. Please enter, now.” “Yes, ma’am!” The Wonderbolt saluted, shooting a nasty glare at Shining as she passed. That really got Shining’s blood boiling. Keeping his cool he faced the princess as the Captain of the Guard was expected to. “Is there anything I can do to assist, your highness?” He stood nervously as Celestia looked at him as if she was just noticing him. “No,” She said flatly, “I’m afraid this matter is beyond the scope of the Royal Guard. Please continue on with your duties.” Shining’s ears fell flat as the door slammed shut. Times like this he really wished Cadence was back from her trip. He could really use her support. Putting on a stonily expression Shining Armor trotted down the halls of the castle. He would prove his worth. Not just to the princesses, but to everypony! Inside Celestia shuffled some papers around as Fleetfoot took a seat next to the other pony in the room. A white earth pony donned in blackish/gray armor with a skull and lightning bolt patch on the shoulder with the letters S.E.A.L stamped below the patch. The stallion was Commander B. Bricks of the Special Equine Assault Legion. Also known as Celestia’s horn. As they took all important missions beyond Equestria's borders. If the princess wanted something done, she called in SEAL. “Commander Bricks,” Fleetfoot saluted taking the chair next to him. Giving her full attention to the Princess as she laid out several files. Levitating them for both commanders to read. “I don’t need to tell you why I summoned you both here. I have a mission. A team consisting of both Wonderbolts and ponies of the SEAL will be sent on a top-secret recon mission to Germane. Your mission is to determine whether the Kaiser of Germane is organizing pirate attacks against us or if he is being framed. If it is the former, report back immediately, if is the latter, follow the trail as far as you can while keeping me posted. “Yes, ma’am,” The two ponies saluted taking their leave. Bricks holding the door for Fleetfoot. The princess chuckled silently as she watched Fleetfoot fought between her pride and looking flattered. The light blue mare seemed to settle for flattered as a blush rose in her cheeks and she stepped through the doorway. Appreciating the old fashion jester. Reorganizing her papers Celestia recounted the number of times this has happened. There was no doubt in her mind that Bricks would be the center figure of Fleetfoot’s fantasies for a while. The Princess of the Sun could already picture her next annual meeting with Spitfire, grumbling about Fleetfoot’s ramblings as the Wonderbolt captain doled through her reports. Wishing under her breath that Fleetfoot would just pick a stallion and be done with it. It amused Celestia to hear the usually professional Wonderbolt Captain vent to her. She rather enjoyed their semi-professional relationship. It was nice to not have a pony be so uptight around her all the time and with Luna befriending Spitfire. Perhaps the Wonderbolt captain would loosen up even more. “Maybe I should go in disguise and join the Wonderbolts? I mean Luna can handle covering for me for a few weeks… Nah, better not. Luna could handle it, but I doubt everypony else could.” Oh, the faces on everyponies faces of having to work with Luna. Not that Luna was bad to work with, she was… different. “I’ll put a pin in that idea. It sounds amusing at the very least.” Clearing her desk of the clutter. Celestia went about organizing files, requests and everything else on her desk. Slowly, yet surely the mountain of papers diminished. She stopped once to begin lowering the sun. The moon just beginning to peak out over the skyline. Her sister’s aura surrounding the white marble in the sky. The sight brought a smile to her lips as she turned back to her desk, now cleared of everything, safe for a single book. “So that’s where it’s been.” Celestia chuckled levitating a copy of Starwind’s fundamentals of magic and mechanics. She should really return this to the royal library. Less it falls prey to her desk again. “There’s some time left in the day. I might as well go visit the library. Perhaps I’ll select a more leisurely read this time.” Humming a soft tone Celestia trotted to the royal library. Seamlessly popping past the iron bars over the entrance via teleport. She was rather confused about why they were there, it’s not like the guard wouldn’t let any pony in. Knowledge of the Royal Library was free to everypony at any time of day or night. “Here you are, home sweet home,” Celestia chimed, returning the book to its proper place. She popped over to the fiction section. Intent on checking out a nice steamy romance novel for her enjoyment when she spotted lavender in the corner of her eye. Placing her raunchy novel away, Celestia trotted towards the mass of purple, a devious grin playing on her lips as she rested her head beside the unwitting pony’s ear. “What are you reading?” She said. Her grin widening as her adorkable student flew out of her seat, screaming in surprise. “Energetic as always I see.” Celestia laughed as Twilight came crashing down to earth. Clutching her book for dear life. “Princess Celestia! What are you doing here? Isn’t it a bit late for you to be up?” Twilight said in a jittering mess. That really peaked the Princess’s interest. Is her adorable student reading something naughty? Probably not, but she relished the chance tease her uptight student. Twilight really needed to learn how to relax more. “I’m more surprised you’re here in Canterlot. Usually, you send a note unless you didn’t want me to know you were here.” Celestia leaned in close to the purple filly, a mischievous grin dancing on her lips as she watched her student sweat. “Why don’t we see what you're burying your nose in this time!” “Wait, Princess NO!” The book flew from Twilight’s grasp, her forelegs flailing after it as Celestia turned the cover towards her. Celestia was hoping for a romance novel or something like that, it would be nice for Twilight so show some interest in something other than magic for once. But Celestia knew her student, so she wasn’t surprised to see it was merely a spell book. However, the type of magic made her pause. “Want it, need it, Tier 5 theory and method… and I here I thought you’d have enough of this spell to last a lifetime.” Twilight withered under her curious stare. Before her very eyes, Twilight seemed to unravel once again. As she had the other day when she spelled almost the entire town of Ponyville to fight over a doll. As serious as mentally altering a pony mind was, Celestia had to admit seeing ponies fight over a doll was rather amusing. What wasn’t so amusing was seeing her student on the brink of insanity. As she seemed to be doing again right before her eyes. Twilight’s hooves were nervously combing through her mane, her pupils seemed to shrink as she muttered out what sort of punishment she would have to endure for reading the spell book. It pained the Princess to see her brave student break down so easily. “Twilight,” Celestia said softly, “ Take a breath.” Twilight did as she was told. Taking a long drawn out breath and then exhaling. A blush adorned the lavender mare’s cheeks as she hid her face beneath her violet hair. “Sorry, it’s been a few days, but I still feel… nervous… after the Smarty Pants incident.” “I can see that,” Celestia said with a grin, hoping to liven up her student’s spirits. Yet as her eyes darted to the book in her grasp, her own fears rose to the surface. “What are you indenting to do with this book, Twilight?” “I just wanted to find out what went wrong. I’ve seen Cadence use that spell so many times in the past and she never caused anything like I did.” Celestia groaned, “Oh by mother’s mane! I told her not do that anymore!” Twilight blinked, looking confused, “Do what anymore?” “Look Twilight, I won’t go into detail, but what Cadence did with that spell… I would… no, I command you, as both your Princess and Teacher, to never to do. It is lucky that you only merely started a brawl over a doll. Things could have been much, much worse. Simply ask Cadence next time you see her.” “Oh… ok…” Twilight said warily as the Princess rubbed her temple Taking a deep breath of her own Celestia regained her smile, “That matter aside. Are you studying anything else?” “Just some history. Ever since the return of Princess Luna, I’ve been fascinated by her. I would have just asked you directly, but you seemed busy lately or I guess all the time. I was going to ask Luna face to face, but I wasn’t able to find her.” “Ah, I see, I’m sorry to tell you my sister has gone on a diplomatic mission to Nippon. She should return in less than a week. I’m sure she would be happy to tell you her war stories.” “War stories…” “Yes, she has many. I suppose I do too, but I’d rather not talk about them. Oh my, look at the time. I really must be going Twilight. Promise you won’t stay up too late. A young mare needs her sleep.” “I will,” Twilight waved as the princess disappeared in a golden light. As the final gold sparks of Celestia’s magic faded Twilight noticed the Princess had taken her book with her! Whether it was by accident or intentional, it left Twilight lacking reading material. “Maybe I should read some history books for a while.” She mused deciding that playing with mental magic could wait for another day. Perhaps after she runs into Cadence again. She was curious about what happened with the pink Princess and her own trouble with the want it, need it spell. “Now to figure out this gap in history. Since Luna’s return, Twilight has been looking for any book that might have to do with the Princess of the Night. Surprisingly or maybe not so surprisingly, there wasn’t much material on Luna in the past thousand years. Going back any further in time really didn’t shed much light either. There was, of course, the founding of Equestria and in the original texts, it did detail the two sisters, while as more modern only referenced Celestia. That would have to be changed. What really had her attention was the early years after Nightmare Moon/Luna’s disappearance. There were no records of Luna. As if she didn’t even exist. The books only talked about Nightmare Moon and her defeat. (Maybe Celestia did that to preserve Luna’s image. So, ponies wouldn’t think of Luna and Nightmare Moon as the same pony.) The ethics of altering history aside. There was one book Twilight stumbled across in her search. It was not so much a history book as more so a journal. She had found it via a book broker and has yet to read any of it. The journal was old, with six red claw marks on the cover, mostly likely that had been the writer’s cutie mark or emblem as they called them back then. “I’ll just read a few entries and call it a night,” Twilight said aloud, opening the old journal. Excitement building as she flipped opened the cover. Before she could even begin reading the book suddenly slammed shut and flew from her hooves! Twilight blinked, rubbed her eyes, and blinked again. The book floated in midair. As if mocking her and then flew down the rows of books shelves. “HEY! THAT’S MINE!” She screamed galloping after the book. “This isn’t funny! You don’t come between a mare and her book!” Twilight reached out with her magic, holding the book in place for a second, before a black and silver aura of magic overtook her own purple/pinkish magic. Pulling the book away. Whoever was stealing her book was powerful, but that did not deter Twilight as she continued her pursuit. Rounding the corner at the end of the library Twilight come to the dead end, where a tall cloaked figure stood still holding her stolen book. “That’s mine! Give it back!” Twilight demanded. Charging up her horn. The cloaked pony peeked an eye from under her hood, silver magic shimmered brightly like lightning in her black iris as she pulled the book under her cloak. “This does not belong to you, nor are you ready to read what’s inside. Now, be a nice little filly and SLEEP!” A wave of drowsiness overcame Twilight, her mind became hazy and clouded to the point she could no longer stand up straight. Her eyes rolled back and she fell in a heap to the floor. The cloaked pony leaned over the fallen mare, black hair with glints of silver sparkles fell out from her hood. With a tawny hoof, she poked the sleeping lavender mare. “Good, sound asleep, now just a little memory altering here and there. And there are now no witnesses, just as it should be.” The cloaked mare gathered the sleeping Twilight up in her magic and teleported to an empty bedroom and tucked the sleeping unicorn into bed. “I don’t know if this is the right room, but it’s better than the floor. I expect a thank you next time we meet. Whenever that is.” There was a soft tug at her horn, the cloaked unicorn sighed, knowing what that meant, “Sorry to just cut and run, but my goddaughter is in trouble… again…” With no more than a flash and whisper on the wind, the cloaked mare vanished, as if she was never there. Daring galloped through the hordes of animated metal ponies, the same kind she fought in the Nippon castle not two days ago. “Or maybe it was three, how long has it been?” Daring wondered out loud as she kicked a metal pony in the face. The rusted pony’s neck twisted and snapped, the magic powering it flew away, deeper into the temple. Like before the metal ponies were being powered by a powerful artifact, more specifically an alicorn amulet. In the case of this temple, there were two different colored energies, black and purple. Meaning the black and purple alicorn amulets rested here. Hammering her way through the hordes of metal ponies, Daring pushed her way through to a larger room with even more metal ponies waiting for her! “Oh buck,” She jumped to the side as a wall of arrows came flying at her. Diving behind an old shield. Daring waited for the barrage to end and hopefully quick as her meager shield was showing its age as the arrow heads broke through the thin metal. The arrow’s stopped. Taking the chance Daring jumped out from her cover and took the air. Another barrage of arrows already coming her way! Acting quick Daring flew up, but it quickly became clear she wouldn’t make it! “Shit!” She cursed closing her eyes, bracing for the pain. Only it didn’t come, instead, there was lurching feeling like she was being pulled by something. She opened her eyes and found herself in a completely different spot with all the metal ponies defeated. Their body’s disintegrating into a rusty dust. This was not the first time this happened. “So now you decided to show up! Some guardian angel you are! Where the hell were you when I was pinned down in the castle?” Daring screamed. Her voice echoing throughout the old tomb, but no pony replied. No one ever did. Grumbling Daring continued onward. Kicking away the piles of rust dust as she went. Her mother, Tomb Raider, always told they had a guardian angel watching their backs. At first, Daring had assumed it was just a story her mother told her when she was young to chase away her fears. However, when she first started exploring ruins and then working for Celestia to find the Alicorn Amulets. She’s noticed strange things happening around her. Traps that caught her off guard would be disabled before they hit, puzzles too difficult for her to solve would be solved magically behind her back, any rare ancient book she needed was available at any bookstore she walked into. And much, much more. At first, she had played it off as just unnatural good luck. As she took on more dangerous missions, not only did these events become more frequent, but gaps in her memory began to emerge. She noticed when she was writing her cover up book, the Daring Do series, there were parts of her adventures she had no recollection off. Things had gotten so bad that she had gone to see her mother before she passed, and explain was happening. Her mother’s response? Was to smile and say, “Oh good, she’s still looking out for you.” Since then Daring has been trying to draw out her supposed ‘Guardian Angel’ with no luck. She could tell when the mysterious mare was interfering in her life though. Kind of like a sixth sense. “Fine, keep quiet! But the treasure here is mine!” Running into the next room Daring was surprised to find next set of traps were already disabled. In the distance, she heard a faint, click, click, of booted hooves up head. Could this be the time she finally meets her guardian angel in the flesh? Spreading her wings Daring flew for all she was worth, passing through the remaining chambers with ease. The puzzle and traps already disabled. (How did she get through here so fast? Even with magic, it would take more time than this!) Coming to the deepest chamber, Daring stopped on the bridge that spans across the underground lake, up ahead standing by the altar in the center of the lake. Where the two Alicorn amulets rested, stood the mysteriously cloaked mare. A long horn poking out from her hood as well as black and silver tufts of hair. She turned towards Daring. The two Amulets aloft in her black/silver magic. “Those are mine!” Daring crossed the distance between them in a second, ready to fight for the amulets, but before her hoof could even touch the mystery mare, she was gone! There had been no aura of magic, no flash, no nothing, she was simply gone! Coming to a stop Daring looked down at the dropped amulets, confused and flustered. Whipping her head around she spotted the cloaked mare at the other end of the bridge, staring at her with blackish silver eyes. “What do you want! Who are you!” Daring snarled at the mare. The mare looked solemnly at her, her eyes shimmering in the darkness as she faded away. Daring looked frantically around for the unicorn, expecting her to pop up and take the amulets from under her nose. She looked for a full minute. Before finally picking up the two amulets and tucking them away in her pack. Warily Daring began her journey home.