//------------------------------//
// The King In Charge 
// Story: Cronus is King 
// by fanficlover 1 
//------------------------------//

Ch 25

We had made our way back to the dining hall in complete silence, I was to busy trying to figure out what was wrong with Luna and she seemed to be zoning in and out as she walked. I was afraid she would tip over at any moment but thankfully it didn’t happen as we had reached the room, filled with now cold food, with no accidents happening. As usual, I took my place at one end of the table whilst Luna took the other and we began eating. The only sound that could be heard was the clinking of silverware on dishes.

Normally this would already be awkward but with everything that had happened, it seemed much worse. I had to say something, just to take my mind off it but I had no idea what. With nothing off the top of my head, I went with my usual plan and just spouted off whatever I could.

“You’ve seemed extremely tired recently, is something wrong?”

And of course I ask the one thing I had to be careful about.

“Hm, nothing wrong just lots of late nights for the Night Court.” Huh, I was expecting some kind of backlash, or really angry remark. I could probably roll with this.

“Night Court? I don’t think i’ve ever heard of that.”

“It’s a time when I would do my regular duties and settle disputes or problems with the more Nocturnal ponies of Canterlot. It hasn’t been easy since a lot of ponies have decided to wait for the night court instead because of some weird superstition of going to the princess of night during the day.”

“Sounds rough.” She smiled at that.

“In a way, yes. But I need to stay strong otherwise i’ll be letting my sister down when she had to do the same for so many years.”

“Really, the entire time you were gone, she was doing Night Court as well as Day Court. Considering the state of the city, and country really, I think she might have just slept during that time. Maybe you should just close down one of the courts so you can have a little sleeping time.”

“No! Celestia did this for me, for 300 hundred years, I won’t give up in less than a quarter of that time! I will do my duty and uphold the Courts of Day and Night just like she did!” Her out burt nearly made my eardrums burst as her voice made the entire room shake and the table rattle with all the silverware still on it. I need to calm her down.

“I get it, this is a big task that you have to do and you want to do it right.” She started to calm down now. “Maybe instead of stopping, you could get some help instead, you know so you can get a little sleep and not shirk on your duties.”

“But if I do that, then I still won’t be doing what I need to. Besides, who could I get to help? Celestia is unconscious and Candece already has enough to deal with, with the crystal ponies and their rehabilitation into modern Equestria.” Even while dead tired, she still resisted sleep. Gotta give her props for that but I still needed her to sleep before she hurt herself and possibly others.

“You don’t have to sleep all night, just for a few hours, Just enough till you feel better, As for who could do it, why not one of the nobles.” She laughed outright at that.

“”The Nobles? They can’t do anything except worry about themselves, there’s no way they could deal with the responsibility of the Night Court. I would rather have you do it instead.” She seemed to pause and think for a moment. “Actually, why don’t you do it?”

“What? You can’t be serious!”

“Of course I am, you already look like royalty with that other form of yours, just transform and fill in for me while I take a quick nap.” Before I could say anything, Luna created a strip of paper from magic before using a quill that she had pulled from seemingly nowhere and began writing. Once she had finished, she called forth one of the guards to spread the news to the rest of the city. All of this happened in the span of about a minute while I just sat there with my mouth held open in shock as to what just happened.

“If you’ll excuse me Cronus.” Luna stood from her chair. “ I must go catch up on some sleep now. The nobles should be easy to deal with as most of them are petty squabbles. Very few serious issues actually arise during the night that need my intervention. I’ll be sure to raise the moon first before I do so, so don’t worry about that.”

And with that said, she exited the room and headed to her own quarters. While I still sat at my seat with my mouth open.

“Wha….”

(10 minutes later)

Unable to argue against a now sleeping Luna, I resigned to my fate as a stand in royal and was now sitting on the throne waiting for the first person to come with their problems. While I simply sat and waited, I noticed something strange. Instead of the usual white coated and gold armored guards that I saw during the day. Each and every single guard had a dark blue or gray coat of fur and their armor was silver in color while also seeming to be much more extravagant in comparison to the day guards sparse appearance. What stood out the most though was the strange tufts of fur that were at the tips of their ears and their wings were bat-like instead of bird-like, like a regular pegasus. Curious, I gained the attention of one of the nearby guards.

“Yes your majesty?” Majesty? I know my Kamen Rider form had a crown but I wasn’t royalty.

“Why did you say your majesty?” The strange pegasus looked at me funny before answering.

“Because Princess Luna’s letter stated that we treat you as we would treat her while you are in charge of the Night court.” I didn’t say anything at his answer before deciding to simply let the matter drop.

“Okay. Anyways, what I wanted to ask was why you have bat wings.” The bat pegasus looked to his own wings before looking back.

“I’m a Thestral.” Thestral? Isn’t that the weird horse from Harry Potter in the fifth book? Doesn’t matter I guess, might as well just go with it and not make a big deal about it.

“I see, where i’m from a lot of the ponies’ here species don’t exist back home just myths and legends. I didn’t recognize your species since you looked so different in comparison.”

“Different? How so?” The guard must have realized he had spoken before quickly trying to correct himself. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t ask.”

“No, it’s alright. I’m not really royalty so you don’t have to act like i’m a king or anything. To answer your question, your species aren’t put in a very good light as you look like living skeleton creature that have something to do with death. I never really looked it up much just in passing really” I noticed that the guard looked down and I could tell that something I said had caused it. “But that’s all myths and legends where I come from, made hundreds of years ago during the dark ages. I’m sure that your species isn’t as bad as the legends say you are.” it didn’t seem to work as the guard simply nodded before going back to his previous position of standing at attention.

I tried to say something else to fix my mistake but a trumpet going off gained my attention as another thestral guard was now standing at the door with the instrument in question to his lips. When he finished, the horn was put into his arm as he now stood on three legs.

“NOW PRESENTING, THE PRINCESS OF THE CRYSTAL EMPIRE: PRINCESS CADANCE MI AMOR.” I swear, someone was trying to make me deaf as every time someone shouted now, it sounded like an air horn of steroids.

With Mr. yells -a-lot now done with his introduction, a smaller, pink alicorn walked into the room flanked by four guards that looked to be ponies made of crystals. Seeing me, the apparent princess’ eyes narrowed as she stared at me.

‘This isn’t going to end well, I just know it.”