Celestia and Luna lead all of us out of the dungeon beneath Canterlot castle and into one of the conference rooms that branched off of the main hall. The conference room that we were seated in was clearly seldom used. There was a thin layer of dust over everything and there were several scrolls that lay forgotten around a large table capable of seating twenty ponies comfortably.
“I will ensure that news of your new position is made known, and you can expect your first group of soldiers to be ready for lessons tomorrow afternoon. But before any long term decisions are made my sister and I still need a briefing on these Red Court vampires,” Celestia directed at Michael and I.
As soon as we had left the dungeons Celestia’s mood and tone had improved greatly. She held her head higher and her voice became much more calm and soothing to listen to. Whether she was adopting a cool façade so that her subjects wouldn’t see their ruler upset, or if she was simply happy to put the burning vampire out of sight, I wasn’t sure.
“What exactly are you looking for, how they are as a group, their goals, or how best to fight them?” I asked back.
“We’ll leave the fighting lessons to our soldiers, just tell us how they act as a whole,” Luna responded.
I started by spelling out the Red Court’s goals to the princesses as I had done to Twilight and her friends.
“So they simply want us destroyed?” Celestia asked.
“No, if they simply killed us all, then they’d have no food. They want to subdue us, to keep us alive for the sole purpose of feeding off of us,” Michael answered.
Many of the ponies at the table shifted uncomfortably at these words.
“You make them sound intelligent, how intelligent are these creatures?” asked Celestia.
I nodded my head, “They are intelligent as we are. A pony retains their same level of thought process after being turned, unless they go feral of course.”
“So then could they be reasoned with, treaties could be made, bargains struck?” Celestia asked.
“You can’t seriously want to make a deal with these things?” Rainbow yelled from her seat.
I waved her down, and addressed Celestia, picking my words carefully. “Yes, they can be negotiated with, but I would highly advise against that. You have to understand that the Red Court will not stop until they get what they want, they will only honor a treaty so long as it benefits them to do so. If you try to make a long term peace with them, then you’ll fall into the same trap my ponies, uh people, fell into. The Red Court used the peace to build their forces and tried to execute a lethal first strike against us.”
Celestia and Luna glanced between each other and frowned in deep thought.
“There is one other thing,” I added, “the Red Court don’t always look like the monster you captured. They can create a kind of second skin to wear over their true form, a flesh mask. This flesh mask will make them look like any other pony and allow them to move around without being noticed.”
Luna looked shocked at this. “So they could be hiding in one of our cities?”
I shook my head. “It’s definitely possible, but I don’t think so. The three that Michael and I were after will have no idea how to integrate their vampiric nature into pony society, so they’ll stick out wherever they go. The ponies they turn will have a similar problem. Without a teacher that knows how to integrate their new vampiric hunger into the pony society, they’ll be unable to remain hidden for long in any populated area.”
“So it’s much more likely that they have a base of operations somewhere nearby a big city, probably in a location most would avoid, like the Everfree Forest,” Michael added.
“What of their weaknesses,” Celestia asked. “Is there anything we can exploit to hinder them?”
I chuckled a little at that, “Short of keeping the sun in the sky twenty four seven, no not really.”
Everypony there, except Michael, looked at me with confusion evident on their faces.
I sighed and made the mental switch back into lecture mode. “Vampires of the Red Court have one major weakness, they can’t stand the sun. Direct sunlight burns them and if they’re in it for long enough, it’ll kill them.”
I could see the cogs working in Celestia’s head as she processed this information. “Well I can’t exactly leave the sun up constantly, but this does give me an edge I can use.” She directed her attention back to me, “So these vampires are completely unable to operate during the daylight hours?”
I shook my head, “Not necessarily, no. They are hindered of course, but they are clever at finding workarounds. I’ve seen vampires move during the day by slinking from one shadow to another, by wearing extremely thick clothing, or even by burrowing a simple tunnel system.”
Celestia looked back at me after a moment of consideration. “Alright, I think that will be enough for now. The first group of soldiers I send to you will be those that are assigned to your command. You can expect them in the east wing of the castle barracks tomorrow after lunch. Twilight will be able to show you the way.”
I looked around at Twilight, one eyebrow disappearing into my mane, “You know where the barracks is?”
“Well yeah, I did live here for most of my childhood,” she said, giving me the same frustrated look that normally preceded a facehoof.
I smiled sheepishly, “Oh yeah, right.”
Damn it, that’s right. She was Celestia’s student. I wonder if this means I can get away with my usual level of property damage.
“Until then you can all consider yourselves off duty,” Luna said to all of us, then turned her attention to Twilight and her friends. “Why don’t you six show Mr. Dresden and Mr. Carpenter around the castle or around the city. I’ve already sent word for bedrooms to be prepared for each of you within the barracks, they should be ready by the time you’re done sightseeing.”
The eight of us got up and started heading for the door.
“Until later then princesses,” I called over my shoulder as we left them to their planning.
We walked into the entry hall and gathered into a group.
“Well we’ve got an afternoon free, what do you guys wanna do?” I asked to the group.
“Well like Luna said, I reckon Twilight should show us around the castle. The rest of us been ‘ere a few times but never long enough to really get a handle on the layout,” said Applejack.
“Then after we should go into Canterlot and socialize a bit. I think I need to take my mind off what we saw earlier,” Rarity piped up.
“Alright fine, but remember tomorrow we’re starting training. So stay up only as late you feel comfortable with,” Michael commented.
“Dude, do you ever just crash and have fun?” I poked at the guy.
“We just saw Celestia kill a vampire and now you want to have fun?” he responded.
I shrugged, “Hey, I take my laughs where I can get them. With the kind of life I lead, I’m always looking to get a couple laughs in.”
At these words Pinkie just kind of appeared in front of me. “I can take care of that! I am the Element of Laughter after all. Now I’m going to need balloons, streamers, and cupcakes! I wonder if Vinyl is around…”
I placed a hoof on her shoulder, cutting her off mid-thought. “Pinkie, Pinkie I need you to listen. Okay, are you focused? Pinkie, focus on my words. I do not want a big crazy and loud party. I get enough of excitement when I’m working. I prefer a nice calm night to just hang out with my friends, where we just sit, chat, and maybe play a board game or two. Think you can handle that?”
“That actually does sound kind of nice,” whispered Fluttershy.
Pinkie looked from me to Fluttershy, and then put on the biggest puppy dog eyes I’ve ever seen, “Can I still bring cupcakes?”
Who was I to deny her sugary treats? I nodded my head, “Yes Pinkie, I would love for you to bring cupcakes. Just promise me we’ll keep it quiet.”
Pinkie began bouncing on the spot. “I Pinkie promise! Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!” She made various gestures to accompany her promise.
“Okay, we’ll plan for a game night later. I think we’ve got plenty to do tonight though.” I turned to face Twilight. “Alright then, Twilight, how about we get this tour on the road?”
Twilight seemed delighted at the opportunity to show her friends the specifics of her childhood home. “Well let’s get going then!”
Twilight gave us a brief tour of the castle. She showed us all the main features that would be important for the days to come. She started with the throne room, a massive hall with marble pillars, and long red carpet ending at two ornate thrones side by side. The walls were decorated with stained glass windows with images depicting the two royal sisters.
I let out a low whistle, “Wow, you guys really go all out don’t ya?”
Twilight nodded her head beside me. “Yeah, Celestia really likes to keep up appearances.”
From there she showed us to the kitchens, where we managed to sneak a few apples, then we made our way to the castle gardens.
At the sight of all the different kinds of animals that lived in the gardens, Fluttershy began inching back and forth between the tour group and the collection of colorful animals. After several seconds of indecision she resigned herself to sticking with the group, not wanting to miss out on the rest of the castle. She did however cast a few longing glances back at the garden as we left.
I held back from the group and whispered to her, “Don’t worry you’re going to be staying here a while, so you can go and visit them whenever you’re free.”
That seemed to cheer her up immensely. She gave me a huge smile and trotted a little to keep up with the group. My shriveled little heart melted a little when I saw her smile, and I couldn’t help breaking out in a smile of my own.
From the gardens Twilight led us to the entrance of the barracks, so that if any of us got separated during the rest of the day, we could at least make our way back here. The barracks entrance was a large set of wooden double doors, reinforced with iron bars. Two armor-clad guardsponies stood on either side of the door and eyed us warily.
As we approached the barracks, Michael broke off from the group. “I think I’ll stay here for now. If I’m going to be of any use tomorrow I’ll need to be able to actually spar with and teach the other, uh guardsponies.”
“Alright man, I’ll see you later,” I called after him.
Michael drew Amoracchius from Rarity’s scabbard and made his way through the barracks doors, presumably going to whatever sparing grounds were inside.
I turned to Twilight and asked, “Hey Twilight, does this place have a library on magic or something? I’d like to see how different magic is here than at home.”
From the look she gave me, you’d think she’d just won the lottery, walked in on a surprise party, and gotten a new younger brother all at the same time. The smile plastered to her face was one of pure excitement and was, gonna call a spade a spade, kind of creepy.
Somewhere behind and above us, Rainbow muttered, “Oh great another egghead.”
Twilight completely ignored her friend’s remark and practically exploded into her haste to answer. “Yes, there’s the Canterlot Royal Library! It has books on almost anything you could want. Oh, just wait until you see the Starswirl the Bearded wing!”
Twilight led us to one of the upper levels of the castle and through a large stone archway with the words Canterlot Royal Library inscribed on them. We passed into the library proper and got a look at all the potential reading material, I felt my jaw hit the floor and began drooling a bit. All around me were tomes of arcane knowledge stacked on shelves that reached the ceiling high above us.
I just stared around at all the ancient tomes, imagining the possibilities of what could be in them. “Hells bells, if knowledge is power, then I just found the BFG.”
Twilight gave me a confused look, “Found the what?”
I shook my head, “It’s nothing, hey what’s the checkout policy here?”
“Just take whatever you want to checkout to that desk over there.” She pointed at a desk where a rather bored looking unicorn sat.
I moved over to a nearby bookcase and picked out three different tomes more or less at random and made my way over to the desk Twilight had pointed out.
Behind me I heard Rainbow trying to whisper to Twilight, “Hey Twilight, do they have the new Daring Do here?”
I snickered at Rainbow’s hypocrisy and turned to face Twilight after I had signed out the books. “Hey Twilight would you mind if I put these in your saddlebag, I don’t really have one.”
She smiled and took the books from me. “I don’t mind, we’ll have to get you a saddlebag when we go into the city.”
“Which by the way may we go there now? I’ve already seen enough of this castle, I want to get some shopping done,” Rarity moaned.
“Well If Harry doesn’t mind…” Twilight began.
I cut her off, “It’s perfectly fine with me. I would like to get outside a little.”
So we all made our way out of the castle and towards Canterlot proper. The entire trip Rarity was listing all of the points of interest that she saw as important, which is to say almost every boutique or artsy place in the entire city. I wasn’t really listening, I generally preferred to just randomly wander around and stumble across things until I create a list of places that I like. It’s not really a fast system by any means, but it’s how I like to do things.
“So what’s this place called again?” I asked, speaking through a mouth full of delicious donut.
Twilight sat across from me at our booth and was enjoying her own piece of doughy perfection. “Donut Joe’s, I used to come here all the time when I was studying under Celestia. Isn’t that right Joe?” At the last couple of words, she raised her voice and faced the shop owner.
“Yes indeed, you and your little dragon friend were my best customers until you went to Ponyville,” replied Joe, a large unicorn with a light orange coat and a dark orange mane and tail.
“Well this is very delicious. I think I’ll just have to eat at Joe’s more often.” My joke was completely missed by Twilight.
Pop culture has failed me! I’m going to need to make new material, I thought to myself and sighed.
Twilight and I had been exploring Canterlot for most of the afternoon and the sun was starting to set. The rest of the gang had long since tired of my aimlessly wandering and run off to go do their own things. Rainbow had flown off, looking for some kind of nightclub. Rarity saw a poster of some random fashion show and promptly galloped off to attend it. Applejack left shortly after Rarity did, and headed back to the castle. I think Fluttershy left to go back to the royal gardens; she just kind of mumbled something then ran off so I couldn’t really be sure. While Pinkie, I have no idea where she went, and I probably don’t want to know. It would take more Ritalin than I think existed before I'd willingly try to figure out Pinkie's thought patterns.
So Twilight has been my only guide for the last couple of hours.
I noted the lateness of the day and asked Twilight, “Is there anything nearby you wanna check out? If not we should probably head back.”
Twilight looked out of the shop window and down the street, “No, I don’t think there’s anything nearby worth… Oh wait, I remember this street! My parents’ house is right down here. We should go say hi!”
“Uh yeah sure, but let’s make it quick, it’s getting late.”
I dropped a few gold bits that Twilight had given me, from my new saddlebag onto the table. We got up and went down the street towards Twilight’s parents.
Twilight knocked her hoof against the door, and within a few seconds it was answered. Twilight’s parents answered the door and upon seeing their daughter, broke out in broad smiles and swooped her up in a big family hug.
Twilight’s parents were both unicorns. Her father was maybe an inch shorter than me, with a blue coat and wavy navy blue mane and tail. His cutie mark seemed to be two yellow crescent moons, one within the other. Twilight’s mother looked remarkably like her daughter. Her coat was a pure white and her mane and tail, done up in almost the exact same style as Twilight’s, were a combination of white and purple stripes. Her cutie mark was simply three stars in the same shade of purple as the stripes in her mane.
“Mom, Dad! Oh I’ve missed you!” Twilight shouted as she hugged her parents.
“Oh sweetie, we’ve missed you too. We haven’t seen you in ages,” Mr. Sparkle said after her broke away from his daughter.
“Why don’t you write anymore? We haven’t gotten a letter from you in a month,” Mrs. Sparkle asked.
Twilight shifted uncomfortably, afraid that she’d caused her parents to worry. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been so busy. The Princess keeps giving me various jobs to do on top of my friendship reports.”
Mrs. Sparkle put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s alright dear, don’t worry about it.”
“So, to what do we owe this pleasure?” Mr. Sparkle only just noticed me and turned to examine me, “And who is this?”
“Oh, Mom and Dad, this is my friend, Harry Dresden,” Twilight said, waving a hoof at me.
I smiled and tried to look friendly, “Nice to meet you.” I raised a hoof, which Mr. Sparkle shook.
Despite my attempt at politeness both of Twilight’s parents gave me the exact same suspicion-laden glare that Spike had shot at me.
I don’t get it, do I just look hostile?
Twilight continued as though she hadn’t noticed anything odd, “Princess Celestia hired him to give her soldiers lessons about, uh, a situation we’re dealing with.”
“Oh, so you’re a military man. Our son’s captain of the Royal Guard,” Mr. Sparkle said with pride evident in his voice. “What’s your rank?”
“I, uh, I don’t really know. Did Celestia say anything about our ranks?” I directed my question at Twilight.
Twilight thought about it for a moment. “Well she’s putting a whole battalion under your command, so I would assume that you’re a commander. My friends and I are a special ops group under you, which is a rank in itself. Now that I think about it, you’re my commanding officer.”
I’d completely forgotten about that. “Oh yeah, I guess I am. Ugh, Rainbow’s going to be a pain to rein in, isn’t she?”
Twilight’s parents were shocked into silence, and were staring at their daughter like she had just voiced a desire to live underground. After a second or two they broke out of their haze and started yelling at us.
“What do you mean you’re in a special ops group?” Mr. Sparkle shouted.
“You didn’t think to talk to us about this decision?” Mrs. Sparkle shouted in equal volume to her husband.
“And why would Celestia allow this, what does she need you for?” Mr. Sparkle added.
Twilight made several hushing motions to get her parents to quiet down. “If you’ll calm down I’ll tell you. Now have you heard about any disappearances in neighboring cities?"
“We’ve heard rumors, that’s about it,” Mrs. Sparkle said.
Twilight nodded her head, “Well they’re true, ponies have been disappearing lately, and Harry has information about the things doing it that can help Celestia’s soldiers.”
“But honey, what about you, why are you involved in this?” Mrs. Sparkle pleaded with her daughter.
“Well what was I supposed to do? Ponies are getting hurt and the Elements of Harmony can help, so we will. It’s as simple as that,” Twilight said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Twilight’s parents looked at each other with worried faces, and then turned to me.
“Just what is going on out there?” Mr. Sparkle asked me.
I hesitated for a moment. I don’t know what Celestia’s policies are for revealing sensitive information, but it would probably be best if the details of the Red Court didn’t become common knowledge. Just a little fear in the right place could kick off riots with humans; I assumed that these ponies wouldn’t be very different. Besides even if the news didn’t spread beyond them, all it would do is make them worry more about Twilight. I didn’t want to cause any more stress than was strictly necessary.
I held my head high and tried to copy Michael’s reassuring voice, “I’m not sure if Celestia wants that to be known just yet. If you really want to know, go ask her. I can say that we are doing what we can to stop it.”
That clearly didn’t satisfy them, but they did seem a little reassured at least, knowing that there was at least some kind of reason and order to what their daughter was doing.
“Well it really is getting late, and I start my training tomorrow. We really need to get going, Harry.” Twilight started turning around to leave. “Mom, Dad, I promise I’ll visit when I can, so please don’t worry.”
Mrs. Sparkle nodded her head, “Okay honey, just be careful.”
I turned to follow after Twilight, but was stopped by a blue hoof on my shoulder.
Mr. Sparkle gave me a determined look, and after a moment, spoke with a shaky voice, “Just, whatever happens, please bring her home to us. We already have one child we worry about getting hurt. I don’t know what we’d do if something happened to her.”
I froze and looked over Twilight’s parents carefully. Many different thoughts about what I could say to make them feel at ease passed through my mind, the one I settled with was perhaps the most effective, and risky.
I straightened up and spoke in a clear carrying voice, “I promise, by my power, that I will do everything I can to protect Twilight.”
Promises have power, especially among magical beings. Whenever you make a promise, some energy gets invested into that promise, and if that promise is broken, that energy backlashes against whoever made the promise. For most people that just means a slight headache, or maybe a short run of bad luck. But for a wizard a broken promise, especially one sworn by their power, causes that wizard’s power to diminish slightly. It’s not a large loss by any means, but it is still a loss of power, and the wizard is therefore less able to defend himself magically. No wizard would dare break a promise sworn by their power.
I doubt that Twilight’s parents understood what I just did, but if the smiles on their faces were anything to judge by, they were as comforted as I could make them. I smiled and gave them a small nod, and then galloped off after Twilight.
“What was that about?” she asked as I caught up to her.
“Oh nothing, your dad just wanted a quick word.” I looked around at the street we were on. “Uh, which way leads back to the castle? I’m kind of lost here.”
She sighed and trotted off down the street. “Just follow me.”
It took several minutes, and a couple wrong turns, but we eventually made our way back to Canterlot castle. Waiting for us outside the barracks entrance was the rest of our group, gathered in a small huddle. Michael looked up as we approached, smiled and waved us over.
“Well there ya’ll are. We were ‘bout to start searching Canterlot for ya,” Applejack said as we approached.
“Where were you two?” Rarity asked.
“Twilight wanted to say hi to her parents, and then we got a little turned around on the way back here.” I shook my head wearily. “Are our rooms ready? If I don't get some sleep soon, I will make a bed, out off Celestia's throne if necessary.”
Rainbow yawned and floated lazily in the air. “Yeah, they’ve been ready for over an hour, and now that you’re here we can finally go to bed.”
We pushed through the large double doors into the barracks. The immediate entryway was a fairly standard large cross-hallway. Straight ahead of us was a hallway lined with doors that would presumably open into various armories, smithies, or classrooms. To my left the hall opened into a large, open, and mostly vacant, sparing ground. There were several wooden dummies set up to practice on. I thought I saw one particular dummy with several gashes sized to fit Amoracchius in it. To my right was a spiral staircase extending to the floors above and below us.
Michael made for the staircase. “Our rooms are on the floor above us.”
We followed him and made our way to the second floor. As it turns out the princesses had gotten us rooms almost right next to the entrance. On the second floor landing there was only one hallway that extended back over the barracks entrance, the end of the hallway opened into a balcony overlooking the sparing ground. In between the staircase and the balcony were several doors with our respective name plates on them.
I made my way over to my door. “Goodnight all, see you tomorrow. Word of warning, I am not a morning guy, wake me up at your own risk.”
Various forms of “goodnight” responded back as I went into my room. It was a fairly simple room as such things go. There was a large bed, a chest to store my stuff in, and a little desk, all in all, not bad.
I dropped my saddlebag into the chest and noticed a small pouch on the desk. I opened it and saw it had a generous amount of bits inside.
A startup salary I assume.
I tossed the bag into the chest as well, and then collapsed onto my bed, completely spent.
Tomorrow should be fun, I thought to myself, the Bearers of the Elements start their training and I get my own personal battalion of soldiers. Oh if the White Council could see me know. I looked down at my hooves. Okay they’d probably laugh in my face but still. So, what should I do first tomorrow…?