Lieutenant Haze is walking off to the barracks, she had just went through a long shift dealing with drunken fools trying to find their way home and instead caused all manner of annoyances by wandering off into the forest. While walking down the corridor pondering all of the night's events she sees a door crack open to her left and a head poke out.
“Ah, Lieutenant, I was wondering, could you help me with something for a moment.”
“Sorry sir, but my shift is over, ask a solar guard.”
“It is not work related, I’m just in a little over my head.”
Her wings droop a little and she sighs, “Fine, five minutes, but then I’m off to the barracks, I had to break up several fights tonight and I want to sleep.” she takes a step towards the door to Marius’s quarters, then she hears it. She gives Marius a quizzical look and opens the door with her hoof, there on the floor is a little grey filly.
“Why do you have a foal?” deadpans Haze, walking up to the little pony.
“A mare asked that the Princess take her in, she wasn’t able to so I suggested we bring her in too train under my watch with the intent to take my position.”
“So that’s what I’ve been hearing about, you know, you care too much for your own good Marius, do you even know how to care for a unicorn foal?” She asks, tired eyes never leaving the foal.
“No,” he admits, “that’s why I am asking for your help.” he says, picking up the giggly filly.
She thinks for a moment, “Well unfortunately I can’t help you very much. All I can do is tell you the very basics of caring for a foal, unless it is a pegasus, for unicorns, go talk with Private Starburst.” she says, turning to leave.
“Do you know where I would find her?”
“I would start with the mess hall, she’s one of the solar guards, got out of basic one month ago, she’ll likely be with all the other newbies in the corner.” her sentence trails off as she exits the room, closing the door behind her.
Marius looks to the foal in his arms, “Well I suppose we’re off the the mess,” he says as he opens the doors, turning right towards the mess hall, “Let’s go find the private.”
It’s a short walk to the mess hall from the section of the castle housing the royal quarters. Shade is mesmerised by all the bright colors of the morning light, giggling at all of the little birds singing gleefully outside the windows. Marius only smiles, but he still wonders how he will care for this foal, he still has his standard duties to attend to.
As Marius steps into the mess hall, he sweeps his gaze from left to right, searching for the private, he sees several guards staring at him. There is no rivalry between the two guard divisions, but it was still odd for the solar guards to see someone from the Lunar guards in the mess with them, and Marius, in his black tunic and breeches, makes it very clear that he is the odd man out, although they could also be staring at the filly in his arms.
Upon looking to the corner table to his right, he finds the table with all of the privates, their ranks only visible by the the small insignia on their pauldrons underneath the sun emblem engraved in every solar guards armour. There is about twenty-five guards around the table as he approaches, all chatting and laughing amongst themselves, while eating the morning meal of eggs, fruit and hay cakes, while the human guards have regular toast instead of the hay cakes.
Marius approaches the young man at the corner seat closest to the wall, saying, “Private, I am looking for Starburst.”
He looks up, somewhat surprised and a bit startled, “Yes sir, she’s right over there,” he says, pointing down the table, “Starburst!,” he calls, “got someone looking for you!”
At that, a yellow unicorn mare leans forward, looking at the Captain, as she inspects him her face begins to form a great smile as she sees the little foal, “I’ll be right over!” she says, standing and walking towards Marius, her helmet floating along in an amber aura.
The rest of the privates are staring at them both by now, as well as some of the other guards, even most of the conversation has died down in the immediate vicinity.
Marius takes notice of this turning back to Starburst, “Would you mind if we speak in the hall Ms. Starburst?”
“By all means,” she says, passing Marius while taking Shade in her amber aura.
Marius stands there, a bit surprised, but ultimately accepts this as he turns and follows her out the main entry way and into the hall where Starburst turns around, sits on the floor, making silly faces at the little filly she sets on the floor in front of her, eliciting fits of giggles from the foal.
“Well aren’t you the cutest thing!” she cries smiling at the giggly filly, “What is her name? Is she yours?” she asks, looking up at Marius, “I mean obviously she’s not YOURS, but are you her father?”
Marius thinks this over a moment before responding, “I suppose I am, yes, Shade’s adoptive father.” it hadn’t really occurred to him up until now, and even now it can probably be said that the full weight of that meaning has not yet sunk in, “Which is why I am here, I was informed that you have experience with unicorn foals, and I need advice on the subject.”
“Haha, in over your head, goodness, that’s how my husband and I felt with our first foal, she’s about fifteen now, and she has two brothers too, both around eleven, I can tell you now it doesn’t get easier. How old is she?” says Starburst, still in a bit of a reverie.
“I believe the paperwork shows her age to be about two months.”
“Oh then I hope you are ready for quite a bit of cleaning, when unicorns are first born they are prone to bursts of magic, nothing too serious but when you walk into a room and find things levitating where they shouldn’t, it can still cause a headache,” she watches the foal shakily walking around on the floor.
“So how do I help teach her to control her magic?” he says, crouching next to Shade.
“Do you use magic at all?” She asks, looking up to Marius.
“No, I had a mentor when I was very young but since practicing takes a couple of decades off of a human’s life span I chose to pursue the sword in lieu of the arcane.”
“An understandable position but in this situation a tad unfortunate, I would suggest you find a tutor for her, she won’t understand most of what’s being told to her but she’ll try to mimic the teacher and that's good for development.” she says bumping her hooves together with Shade’s.
It is at this point that a small frown begins to overtake the foal’s face, and tears begin to well in her eyes. Not a moment later, Shade begins bawling on the floor, all the while releasing what can only be described as shrieks.
“Haha, it sounds like you need to find her something to eat, speaking of,” she says standing upright, “I need to go finish my meal, I have to start my shift shortly.” she gestures towards the few guards beginning to wander out of the mess.
Replying with, “Well thank you for your time Ms. Starburst,” picking up the weeping foal in the process, “your advice is much appreciated.”
“Oh, be sure she has mostly milk for the first four months, you could probably find what you need at the apothecary, they generally have that sort of thing, after that she can start eating more solids like alfalfa and such, good luck!” she says, rounding the corner and headed to somewhere in the mess.
Marius begins to gently rock Shade in his arms as he walks down the hall to the main entry way into the castle speaking in a soft voice to the child.
“I remember the first time I laid eyes on the night watch, I saw them and knew straight away that I was meant to be a soldier of the night.” he says rounding a corner, passing a patrol, “It can be said though, that I never even imagined that I would become the personal guard for Princess Luna; at the time, this position belonged to a unicorn stallion named Iron Heart, and my god, he scared the piss out me, and everyone else.”
“Iron Heart always had a scowl on his face, also never said more than five words, generally, if you heard more, it meant someone was about to go to the stockade.” as he continues his story shade quiets slightly, “I don’t think that pony had a single friend, not even the Princess, she always seemed bored with him lingering about, which was always. Don’t misunderstand, he was an excellent guard, a shining example of what it means to wear the armour, he stopped his fair share of assassination attempts, Iron was the one who made it known that the Princess was not to be trifled with.”
“He really was a bore, but he definitely made your job far easier Marius.” a voice calls from behind.
Marius stops in his tracks, turning to the voice that has interrupted his story, only to find Luna emerging from a side hall he had just passed. He sees her and smiles, as does Shade, seeing a familiar face.
“And I will not soon forget it.” he says, offering a small bob of the head.
Luna walks toward him and Shade, “And much like Marius replaced Iron Heart, you will one day replace him, and likely do an even better job than he.” giggles Luna, “So where are you two off to?”
“Shade needs food, it was suggested that I go to the apothecary for milk.”
“Then might I join you two, I must get some fresh air after the meeting with my dearest sister.” says Luna, putting a little too much emphasis on ‘dearest’.
“By all means Princess,” replies Marius “I take it the meeting did not end well?”
“It most certainly did not,” Luna says with a sigh, “Celestia won’t listen at all to my position regarding the treaties, She will likely go through with all of them without taking my opinions to heart! She even went so far as to undermine my authority, she is overturning last night’s sentencing and then on top of all of this I have to apologize to him!” she raises her voice slightly at the end of the last statement, stopping in her tracks and looking up into Marius’s eyes.
“Did she explain at all why?” he says, still rocking the foal.
“She says that we can’t risk the treaties and that we need all of the money that rat gives!” she says, continuing forward.
Marius can feel her anger rising, during the silence he thinks of how to switch the subject, settling on using Shade for this job, “do you think she will be a strong magic user?”
It is clear by the look on Luna’s face that she is still upset about the meeting and she knows what he’s doing but she welcomes the opportunity to distract herself with something more light hearted.
“It is hard to say, she may have no natural ability but if she puts her focus on the arcane arts then she could be just as powerful as Starswirl.”
Marius stops, stepping off to the side to allow a maid to pass after she gives a quick bow to the princess of the night. After the maid has rounded the corner behind them, he continues walking, keeping pace just behind Luna.
“Marius you are not on duty, you need not walk behind me.” Luna says; taking note of his reluctance, she prods him forward a bit with her magic.
“My apologies, it’s a habit that is not easily ignored, that reminds me, do you know who would be a good mentor for controlling her magic?”
“Speak to Starswirl, he will be able to teach her, he may be a bit reluctant to take on a student so just tell him it is a personal favor that I ask of him.” Luna says looking up at him.
They arrive at the main entrance to the castle, the doors are wide open, granting all who wish to see the princess of the sun access to do so. The mid morning sun hangs low in the sky when they step outside, it warms their faces as a cool spring breeze washes over them. Marius follows Luna down the steps into the city. The streets are packed tightly with humans and ponies on their usual business, either running errands or going to work Marius imagines. As they walk down the street, Marius watches in all directions, ever vigilant for any dangers that may be lingering about, but there is really nothing noteworthy happening as everyone in the Luna’s path part much like water flowing around a stone, offering her a space of roughly ten feet. Even though he has seen this many times before, yet it still somewhat amazes him, finding it a bit odd as he spends all of his time in relatively close proximity to the Princess, but then, only he sees her as she is and not the leader of a nation.
It is only a short walk to the apothecary and when he and the Luna arrive, Marius can smell the strong scent of various herbs hanging from the ceiling and outside in the sun to dry. It is not unpleasant, merely overpowering to the point where Marius cannot smell anything save for the shop in front of him, and while he is thinking of this, he finds Luna walking inside prompting him to follow suit.
It is an old unicorn mare behind the counter, her lavender coat has paled over her long years, who smiles as they enter, “Welcome! Do forgive me Princess for not properly greeting you, but these old knees don’t work the way they used too,” stepping out from behind the counter she pushes a stray gray hair from her mane out of her face, and offers her hoof to the Luna.
“It is quite alright Granny Dreams,” she says, pulling the old mare into a hug.
She accepts the hug with a warm smile, the kind you really would expect from a grandmother, and returns it in kind,“So what brings you to my shop?” she asks, breaking away from the hug.
“Oh I only tagged along, Marius is the one shopping today.”
“Well it’s about time you found a coltfriend, though I will say I didn’t think you were interested in humans, what with how you used to look at some of the colts that walked in,” she says walking up to Marius, a mischievous smile spreading across her muzzle.
“Granny!” Luna cries, her face blushing almost imperceptibly.
“Haha, oh I kid, I kid, I know this strapping fellow is your guard,” she leans a little closer to Marius, “though that shouldn’t stop you from trying your hand…”
Luna walks forward, pushing the somewhat pervy old mare away from Marius, “Enough!” she says in a huff, face burning, “Marius, tell her what you came for!”
“Yes… I am looking to buy milk for Shade,” he says gesturing to the filly.
It takes a moment for cackling Granny dreams to respond, “Ah yes, I do sell that, but not to you,” she says wiping a tear from her eye, “take what you need, I won't have a friend of Luna’s pay for anything in this shop.”
“Please, I must repay you in some way,” he says, grabbing the bag of milk out of the air.
“Well there is one thing…” she says trailing off as a wry smile forms.
“Granny,” Luna’s voice is low and menacing as she turns and walks towards the spice wall behind her.
“Oh alright, I’ve had my fun, but I still stand by what I said.” Granny retakes her place behind the counter after floating a bag from somewhere in the back full of bottles of milk and nipples to Marius.
“Perhaps you could send Shade here to learn how to mix potions like I did all those years ago,” says Luna, stepping away from the wall of spices she was looking at, likely using them to hide any embarrassment still lingering on her face.
Granny ponders this for a moment, “that would be splendid, I haven’t had a student since you mastered the art Luna, and I miss the company! If you wish to repay me then when she can speak fluently, bring her here and I will teach her my craft.” smiles and looks at Shade.
“One last thing, how do I feed her?” Marius says, holding up the bag.
“Haha, that’s easy,” Granny says, levitating one of the bottles out of the bag placing one of the nipples on top, and letting it glide into the hooves of the excited foal, who immediately starts guzzling her meal, “foals aren’t too difficult, just have to give them what they need and they’ll do it themselves for the most part, only thing you have to really do for them for the first year or so is change them and bathe them.”
“Well thank you Granny for all of your help, I will certainly be sure to send her here for potions training.”
After all have said their goodbyes, Luna and Marius depart the cozy shop, headed back to the palace to rest before the evening's duties begin. It is a quiet walk back as Shade falls asleep while Marius and Luna both pass the time by looking at the townsfolk and the shops. Partly out of habit and partly out of politeness, Marius walks Luna back to her quarters where they both bid good day.
“Sleep well Luna,” Marius says offering a slight bob of the head so as not to disturb the sleeping foal.
“You as well Marius, and if need be, feel free to take tonight off to spend time with Shade, the more time you spend with her the more likely it is that she will adhere to your training.”
“No, I will continue my duties as usual, but I will have to have Shade with me, it would be good to start her seeing the work, although I understand she may become a distraction so would you rather I stand guard in the hall while on duty.”
“You may take up your usual post,” she says with a wave of her hoof, “I should likely spend time with her as well seeing that she will become my guard, best she learn now that formalities are not to be used in private hours unlike someone.”
Marius chuckles at that, “My sincerest apologies your grace,” he says, giving a curtsy, “please forgive me for any offence, and please accept this curtsy as I may not bow!” his voice is dripping in sarcasm.
Luna holds her hoof up to her mouth to stifle her laughter into nothing more than a giggle, “haha, I accept your apologies, good day Marius.” she says with a slight bob of the head, and closing the door behind her as she enters.
As he watches the doors close, in front of him, he turns to his left and wanders down the hall to his quarters not far from the Luna’s, where upon entering, he lies on his bed with Shade in the crook of his arm and drifts off into sleep.