//------------------------------//
// Celestia's hectic day 
// Story: Night Patrol 2: Awakening 
// by Foxgear 
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Night Patrol 2: Awakening Ch 22
By Foxgear



Celestia’s sun rose in the east rousing the citizens of the little town called Grimsville. Named as such because the town was only ten miles away from the entrance into Tartarus. Their founders hadn’t made smart choices. Really the tiny town just served as an outpost for the handful of royal guards stationed to feed Cerberus, the guardian of the Tartarus. Really despite living only ten miles away from hell, their town was a quaint one. 
So, when the ponies of Grimsville woke to the sight of the chimera that stalks the nearby flaming geyser swamps, hanging from a golden meat hook and chain, they were perturbed. The creature hung from the water tower the only structure tall enough to do such a thing. The creature’s body swung in the light breeze. The hook thrust through the tiger’s lower jaw, the main body torn open and gutted, it’s organs covered in flies. They covered their muzzles as the creature’s rank smell drifted towards them. It must have been killed a few hours ago. 
“What manner of monster could do this?” The lead guard, a unicorn by the name of, Feeder, asked. 
“Um, a black pony-like creature in armor?” 
“What makes you say that?” He asked as one of the town ponies pointed to the village entrance. He spotted the creature in question, his teeth chattering as the haunting sounds of chains rattling across the ground drew closer. The creature looked haggard, it’s breathing heavy and wheezing, heavy grunts fill the air as the creature dug into the earth with its claws, golden chains glittering in the morning, a hulking black shadow followed behind the creature, it was dragging something behind it. 
“My word…” Feeder gasped along with the town ponies as the massive body of a hydra peaked over the hill. The creature’s features became clearer as it crossed the town’s boundary. It was indeed pony like, it even wore armor, but it really it looked more like a small dragon has it snaps its jaws, growling as it dragged it quarry across the ground. 
They make way for the creature. Trembling at the sight of it. They didn’t recognize the armor, it was midnight blue, a very dark blue, almost black in color. There was a gold stripe on the shoulder with a unicorn skull and wings inside the stripe. A large tooth stuck out of the pony’s breastplate, pieces of its armor were missing or cracked, and he stank of blood and death. 
The black pony came to a stop. 
“Is this the way to Tartarus?” He asked, his voice rough and gravely. 
Feeder gulped, “Um, yes sir, it’s just ten miles that way.” 
The pony grunted. “Good.” And detached his bloody golden hooks from the hydra. The hooks bounced and bobbed across the road as the pony left town. Once he was gone every pony let out the breath they’d been holding. 
“Sweet Celestia! What kind of monster was that?” A mare cried. “What a dreadful beast.”
As the town began to buzz with chatter Feeder looked at the road leading to Tartarus and then to the hanging Chimera, and then to the hydra. A monster. A monster that killed other monsters. A monster that could probably even kill Cerberus! 
“Fetch me a pen and paper! Hurry! I must report the to Princess!” The requested items were quickly presented to him. After writing a brief note he sent the letter to the nearest guard outpost. Very few Unicorns could send letters to any place in Equestria like the Princess and her students could, the best they could do is send the letter through the outposts until it reached Canterlot. He hoped it arrived soon. “Chow, Bow, let’s go! We’re going to the gates!”
The pegasus and earth pony eyed their leader warily looking at the defeated monsters before them. This could only end badly. They gulped following the unicorn down the road to hell. 



Celestia sighed shaking off another group of ponies. Telling them she’d get to them at their appointed time and to talk to her scheduler. The day court has yet to resume, there was too much to do,  and she was putting all her time into the reconstruction efforts and the reorganizing of the military. She had to find a replacement for Captain Spears who tragically died in the attack. She also needed to find Shining Armor’s replacement, no his Vice Captain’s replacement. She would keep Shining Armor for now. He should be returning soon from his honeymoon. It was only her insistence that he and Cadence go, besides in his condition he wouldn’t be much help anyway. 
Rounding the corner Celestia picked up her pace as she tried to think of where she had to go next. (I need to think about what I’m going to do with the Commandos.) The loss of her most elite force was a huge blow. Even more disheartening was the fact that the last of the Bison and Stronghold mirror pool clones were wiped out with them. Then there was the loss of Bricks and Fortress, Bison, and Stronghold’s direct descendants. She quickly rounded the corner, fresh tears falling, which she quickly wiped away less somepony see her. She still needed to send word to their families. 
She wasn’t ready for today. In a lot of ways, she hadn’t been ready for yesterday or the day before. She’d gone soft. But that didn’t matter. She had to act like she was ready. The thought of waking up Luna to help ease her burdens crossed her mind, but Celestia quickly rejected it. No doubt there would be ponies tonight that would hound her sister, best Luna is rested for that. 
Another group of ponies came at her, ponies from the merchant guilds. They were clamoring about costs and labor and their outrage over the decision to use material from a nonunion source. Normally she’d let the guild unions do as they please, but she didn’t have the time to deal with their high costs and fees, so yesterday she signed a work order for the royal engineers to put a bid out to private companies and for them to handle it from there. 

“Yes, yes, I know, I know,” She told them trotting ahead of the union reps. Several pegasus guards left their posts to block them. From their armor marking, they were from Whinnyapolis. She’ll have to look more closely at that branch, they seem to be very disciplined. Maybe their commander there was worth taking a look at.

Already another herd of ponies was coming at her. Time Keeper, bless his soul, got out ahead of them telling the contractors, petitioners, and others that if they wish to speak with her, they must go through him. Which was right of course, he was the royal scheduler. However, not even a pony of his skill could deal with the workload they now found themselves piled under. 

She had tried to listen to everypony in the throne room, but they just shouted overreach other, everypony demanding her attention. When she finally had enough she tried to go to her office so she could sit down with her staff and get everything back on track, but so far, she has yet been able to get there. At this point, she should have just teleported there when no pony was looking. She couldn’t now because if she were to suddenly teleport away it could be misinterpreted as a sign of being overwhelmed. (Which she was) And then ponies would really panic! So, no teleporting for her, at least not where ponies could see her. Really though she just wanted to go down to her garden and relax. 

(I left them so unprepared.) She thought to herself as she continued to wander the halls as more ponies came to shout at her, report to her, and demand things from her. Mindlessly she replied, telling them to go to the appropriate representative. Did no pony understand what the Royal contractor was? It was a pony, a pony she assigned to handle all construction deals, he would review their proposals and then report to her, and she’d either approve, change or veto the proposal. Well, Luna would have to sign too, but the point was there was a pony whose job it was to listen to them. And that pony was not her. (I have a great amount of wisdom and knowledge, but not even I know how to rebuild a castle. I studied magic, not architecture and engineering, though I did dabble a bit, but not enough to answer their questions.)

	Really though it wasn’t just her that grew soft. Her ponies were simply put, were goo. She could not recall the last invasion or war Equestria had been in. It was a nice break for her, her entire life has been battle, war, and conflict, so when finally, finally there was some peace. She indulged in it. But her ponies, a lot of them, even the military branches didn't know how to deal with it or what do in the aftermath. The most important thing was getting things back in order, now was not the time for rash decisions. Such as rallying the rest of the EUP to track down the changelings. 

“Speaking of the EUP,” There was a list of protentional new officers on her desk, given to her by Fortress before the attack. With Spears and many others of the higher rank dead. She’d have to pick new ones to take their place and then let Luna take a look. Luna had always been better organizing the military. Celestia’s current situation a glaring reminder of that. 

“I’ll have to insist on keeping Shining Armor, it’s not his fault for what happened.” She mumbled, yet as she said those words she couldn’t help but think, why was she so insistent that Shining Armor not is removed? In her mind she thought it best to keep a familiar face around as Captain of the Royal Guard, a pony everypony could trust. Yet as she thought of it, could ponies trust Shining Armor? Or maybe the better question was, would they? Celestia sighed, “It doesn’t help his sister is my student and he’s now married to my niece.” She let out a rare silent curse. There was no winning here. 

If she kept Shining Armor it would look bad because of his connections to her, and while it wasn’t his fault for falling under the Queen’s spell, a task no pony beside her and her sister were up to. Most wouldn’t see it that way. However, to keep him as the Captain of the Guard… was that really the right choice? If they were going to reorganize the Equestrian Military maybe it would be better to have a different face. 

On the other hoof, it would be a shame to not give Shining a chance to prove himself. Yet as she thought about it, the Pegasus division still had both their Captain, Vice-Captain, and most of their officers. The earth division had no pony in the city that could take up an officer position and besides Shining Armor neither did the unicorns. 

“Maybe…” Celestia licked her lips in deep thought. “Maybe Spitfire should be Captain of the Guard?” The thought lingered in her mind for a full minute before it was quickly dismissed. “She wouldn’t take the job anyway. But still, I’ll have to talk about this with Luna.” Celestia felt a brief moment of remorse for the position Shining Armor was thrust into, depending on how things play out his career in the guard might be over. That would devastate not only him but Cadence and…

“Twilight?” Celestia said aloud, finding the lavender unicorn sneaking out of the library with saddlebags of books. “What are you doing here? I didn’t get a letter saying that you were coming today.”

“Oh, yeah, I figured you would be busy, so I decided I would just you know, come and indulge in the library a little bit. No big deal.” Twilight’s tone was nervous, which caught Celestia’s attention. As the little unicorn tried to trot away, a very out of character move by her young student who would take any chance to talk to her face to face. Celestia grabbed one of the books from Twilight’s saddlebags with her magic. The purple unicorn turned in a panic. “Wait, no!”

“Tier 8 Mage combat spells, hmm this is a bit above your grade isn’t Twilight?” She asks her student who refused to meet her gaze. “I thought we talked about this after the smarty pants issue. I don’t mind you learning more advanced magic, but for this kind of magic, it would be dangerous for you to self-study. Somepony could get hurt.”

“I know, but…”

“But?”

“I was so… unless during the invasion! Even Cadence knows how to use this kind of magic!”

Celestia grimaced, she hadn’t really taught Cadence much in the way of combat either. From the pink princess’s own account Luna’s week of combat training had been put to use in the caves below Canterlot. “Cadence is a different matter. You’re not ready.”

“I can learn these spells easy! You know I can! Give me a week!”

She shook her head, “I know you could Twilight, I meant you're not ready to kill.” Twilight flinched, her face contorting in shock and fear. “See? You could learn the most powerful attack spell known to ponies and it wouldn’t matter if you don’t have the will to use it. Even the most basic of magic blasts can be charged to lethal levels. I’m sure you ran into resistance on your way to the chapel. You used your horn then, yes?”
Twilight nods. “To knock them out, yes.”
Celestia smiles sadly, “And that’s what I mean. To be honest, I’d rather you not become a killer, Twilight. Focus on the magic that’s guided you so far, it will lead you well.”
“But that kind of magic won’t work on enemies like the Queen!”
“And a lighting spell won’t put out a fire, every magic has strengths and weaknesses. I taught you that already Twilight.” Celestia chided lightly.
Twilight looked solemnly at the floor, before looking back up with those big lavender eyes as deep as the void in curiosity. “What about the magic you used? The one that almost defeated the queen.”
“Not almost, would have,” Celestia corrected bitterly. “That magic is something I developed in the years after Luna’s banishment. It was my… trump card. Sadly, I’ve been unable to use it to its full effect.”
“Because we got in the way?”
“Among other things,” Said Celestia, clenching her teeth as she thought about the elements and how they stopped her from facing Nightmare Moon herself or taking out Discord for good. Not that she wasn’t happy with the end results, but her fondness for the magical jewels has waned. 
“Princess!” A loud bellowing voice called from down the hall. Celestia looked from Twilight to see Tinker, the royal engineer, or one of the royal engineers trotting towards her. 
“Let’s discuss this later, Twilight, but…” She took the rest of the books from Twilight’s saddlebag and quickly scrolls through the titles. Finding one she was comfortable with Twilight studying on her own. “Start with this book.”
“Magic shields: tier 5? Shields are Shining’s talent though.”
“And as his sister, it would stand to reason you may have a talent for them as well, maybe not on his level, but for a pony with magic as their cutie mark, I don’t see why you shouldn’t take a crack at it. Besides, you must first learn how to defend if you're going to learn how to attack.” Celestia half fibbed through her zen message as Tinker reached her. “We’ll get in touch later, Twilight.”

“Yeah, sure,” Twilight said dejectedly trotting away. It pained her heart to see her student like that, but alas, she had other matters to attend to. 

“Yes, Tinker?”

“You gotta stop him! He’s a mad pony! A mad pony I say!” 

She sighed, she couldn’t read minds. Well, she could, but she didn’t actively do it. It was poor manners. “Maybe I ask who you are talking about?”

“That blasted Admiral! He came into my workshop, took one look around and told us to stop building and I quote, “Cannon fodder fishing boats” Then he took all of my blueprints and burned them! Right in my face! Then after all that he has the gall to slap a bunch of blueprints down on my desk. He wants us to build iron airship! As if such a thing was possible!”

“The Nightmare is an iron Airship,” Celestia informed the engineer, much to his shock. “I know not how it is done, but it is possible.”

Tinker stuttered, “That’s impossible! Do you know how much power it would take to move that thing!” 

“212,000 Horsepower,” She answered. “it uses four massive rotating gem turbine engines, with four more for backups. As I said, I don’t know how it works, but trust me when I say I know that ship can fly. I used to command it after all.”

“What would you have me do, then?” 

Celestia took a breath, she denied the Admiral before when he wanted to build support ships for the Nightmare. She had thought the ship would be enough, despite his argument that the Nightmare while a foraminal ship was not invincible. The Nightmare was a carrier-class ship, it was meant to hold troops, equipment, and provide support for ground and air assaults. It wasn’t meant to be a battleship. 

Of course, she hadn’t understood that back then. She thought the ship was well advanced at the time and it was. No Airship of the time could compete with it, but the Admiral had reminded her that the Moon Cutter, Solar Flare, and Midnight Dusk were all head of their time and all three ships had been destroyed. McGather had said it best, each of the Airships alone was tough, but without the support of other classes of ships, such as destroyers, patrol boats, corvettes, medical ships, and battleships, the Moon Cutter and its siblings were overwhelmed by the Griffon forces. 

Even after his explanation, she had still hesitated. She did commission ships, but not the ones he wanted. She thought it would be enough at the time. Instead, she chose to open her magic school and produce Mages. Oh, how that backfired on her. 

“Princess, Princess!”

“Uh? Oh, yes, Tinker?”

The engineer looks worriedly at her, she had zoned out for too long. “What would you have me do? I can make these Iron Airships, if I have the Admiral counsel, of course, this will be a new experience for me, but…” Tinker trembled a devilish grin on his face. “Dare I say, I’m excited to do something we thought impossible before. They made that ships a thousand years ago, the skill, the genius to do such a thing! I haven’t felt this much excitement since I first got my mark!”

Seeing the engineer so excited made Celestia’s chest ache. She’s truly failed her ponies. She hasn’t prepared them for hardship, and now she’s stifled their imagination. 

“Proceed with the plans, after getting Luna’s permission of course.”

“Aye, I’ll start making the arrangements.”

“Oh, be sure to tell McGather not to go overboard, we don’t have the resources to build as many ships as he wants,” Celestia called after the engineer. Tinker gave a backward wave as he trots away. 

Another task done. Hopefully, things would begin to settle down. Celestia began to make her way towards her office again. Exhaustion beginning to set in as she slowly made her way upstairs. It was past noon, now, drawing close to evening. The halls were considerably less crowded, ponies were probably leaving for supper or to finally go home. But they’d be back to talk to Luna. She looked out a balcony, the sun now positioned below the horizon. Moving the sun has become second nature to her, only when it was time to lower it to make room for the moon did she have to focus on moving it. Sometimes she thought it was because the sun wanted her attention before it disappears. 

“Still another hour or more,” She said entering her office. There was a couch inside, maybe she’d take a nap…Celestia’s thoughts came to a stop as she found her sister waiting for her. Luna’s body a menacing black silhouette against the setting sun. “Luna.”

“Sister,” She replied hotly, catching Celestia by surprise. 

“Is there something wrong?” 

“We need to talk,” Luna said, her tone leaving no room for objections. “Don’t worry, I woke up early today, around three, to help you with your workload. I finished most of mine last night by visiting most of the ponies that wanted to see me in their dreams.”

She chuckled, “Are you sure you're allowed to use dream walking like that?” Luna shrugged, it’s not like the original Alicorn of Dreams was around to judge her anymore. “How convenient, I’m envious.” 

“I spoke with Sixes last night.” If the mood before was ominous, that sentence just made it downright chilling as her sister’s cold glare fell upon her. “Sixes seems to think himself a monster, and that you’ve committed a crime that I would not forgive. Which I assure you, my list of unforgivable crimes is short, but I doubt you have committed them.” Luna walked closer, her icy teal eyes staring deep into Celestia’s fiery pink. “Your door is chained with a spell that bars me from entering.”

“There are others that use similar magic, I am merely protecting myself,” Celestia said defensively. Luna nodded. 

“Understandable, yet Sixes' door is bound with the same spell, and unlike your door, which is pristine and strong, his is rotting. Do you know what a rotting door means Celestia?” 

“I can’t say I do, but I doubt it’s a good thing?” She may have had Luna’s powers for a thousand years, but for some reason, she never was able to dream walk. 

Luna’s face was grim, “No, it’s not good, it means the door’s owner is close to a mental break. Rotting occurs when the owner experiences constant nightmares, sleeplessness, and traumatic stress.” 

“Well, that certainly describes Sixes,” Celestia grumbled. Luna shot her a hard glare, the Princess of the Night’s expression demanding an explanation. “Look, Luna, there are lots of issues between Sixes and me.”

“Issues that the others don’t share?” Luna pointedly asked. 

Celestia hangs her head, “Yes, they're much more personal, but we settled them a long time ago.”

“Then why are you still so cross with each other? Hmm? Your argument the other day sure didn’t seem like things were… settled.”

“There’s settled and then there’s forgiven, we never made it to that stage I’m afraid.” Luna’s teal eyes narrow. Her sister backed away moving towards the desk in the room. Luna ran her hoof across the top of the cluttered white desk, but the Night Princess's eyes were on the portrait that hung on the wall. 

“I see you didn’t paint Crusader’s antlers, he almost looks normal, like a pegasus.”

“He wanted it done that way.” Celestia retorted, getting defensive. “My son has nothing to do what happened between Sixes and me.”

“He was Sixes’s son too,” Luna countered, a hint of bitterness in her voice. “I’m sure he has a part in this thousand-year-old problem.”

Celestia trembled, hot tears falling down her cheeks, it caught both her and Luna by surprise. “Sixes…” She huffed, her tone dark and foreboding. “He… he… didn’t see Crusader has his son. He rejected him, even though he was made of his blood!” 

“Stolen blood,” Luna reminded her. “Don’t forget Crusader wasn’t the result of a night of passion, he wasn’t grown in your womb, though you treated him as if he were. He was made. Made from a scared foal, bits of dragon and deer with the blood of Sixes and your feather.”

“That didn’t make him any less of my child!” Celestia bellowed, opening crying. “That didn’t mean I didn’t love him as if I had given birth to him myself! He was my son! I loved him! I just…” Her words got caught in her throat, an inaudible scream of frustration and rage escaping from the Sun Princess’s throat as she wails. “I just… I just wanted Sixes to give Crusader the time of day! To see him more than just another soldier under his command. To at least acknowledge he was our son!”

Luna smiles bitterly, “He did.”

That caught Celestia by surprise as she tried to compose herself, “What do you mean? What do you mean he did? You can’t be talking about Sixes?”

“I am,” Luna answered calmly. “Before my banishment, Sixes... Sixes told me.” Luna began to choke up with her own tears, she quickly wiped them away, looking directly at her sister. She needed to hear this and she needed to say it. “He told me he had a hard time seeing Crusader as his son because he saw who he was before. He saw a white little colt, scared and afraid, begging for help right in front of him. And he wasn’t able to help him. He said he had no right to be called his father.”

“But still, he could have…”

“No,” Luna said firmly. “Sixes for right or wrong did what he did in regards to Crusader. You can’t change that. Besides, there’s another thing you’ve failed to see in all this.”

“What’s that?” Celestia choked out, her tears subsiding. 

“Sixes doesn’t know how to be a father or a parent. Think about it, he was created from a colt or possibly several foals, his mind was wiped and he was left in a cave with the others. None of them knew how to raise children, no pony showed them how. Then you need to factor in Crusader was suddenly made into an adult. There was no bonding between parent and child like normal, it was a poof, here’s your child! It’s really no surprise Sixes didn’t bond with Crusader.”

“But I…”

“Have raised several foals before and was devastated by what happened to your descendants, you were open and willing to accept Crusader and fill the void in your heart. Sixes didn’t have that void.”

Celestia opened her mouth to speak, but closed it, looking defeated. Her expression longing as she stared at her sister with sad pink eyes. “I just miss him so much.”  Luna walked over wrapping her wing around the taller alicorn and nuzzled Celestia’s neck. 

“I know,” She whispered, “I miss him too.” Luna’s own tears begin to flow again, “I wasn’t the best aunt in the world. I said such cruel things to him and I can never take them back. I can never ask for his forgiveness or tell him he wasn’t a mistake.”

Celestia patted her sister’s back with her wing, their embrace tight as they truly open up for the first time in a long time. “He knew,” She whispered. “He knew you didn’t mean it.”

The final ray of the sun disappeared beneath the horizon as the two sisters broke their embrace, sharing matching bittersweet smiles. Celestia said goodnight to Luna, the day's events piling heavily on her back as the exhaustion of getting so worked up drained the last of her strength.  

“Goodnight Luna, we shall talk again, I promise. And I will be upfront.”

“I’ll hold you to that,” Luna replied. “Goodnight Sister.”

Celestia was about to teleport to her room, when…

“Princess!” 

(Oh, gods what now?) Didn’t they know was Luna’s shift?

“I have urgent news!” A guard pony holding a note screamed from inside her doorway, how’d they even know she was here anyway? “We’ve received multiple reports from outposts at the base of Canterlot mountain to Grimsville of a strange creature attacking monsters and leaving them to hang from golden hooks! It’s heading towards the gates of Tartarus!”

Her eyes popped open, horrible images of gutted ponies hanging from golden hooks flashed through her mind, the ringing of golden chains sharp in her ears as she remembered the bloodied teal capes and black robes of the victims and the feral rage-fueled grunts of the pony that had strung them up. 

“Sixes…” She whispered, her eyes widening as Luna’s gaze fell upon her. A very tense silence filled the room as Luna’s icy glare bore into her soul. And they just had such a heartwarming moment too. Breaking the staring contest Luna began to walk towards the balcony. “Luna, where are you going?”

Luna turned and looked sharply at her, “To Tartarus.”

“Not alone you’re not,” Celestia told her well removing the gem from her yoke. “Trust me this isn’t the first time this happened.” She cursed her loose lips as Luna’s eyes narrowed at her. 

“Do tell sister.” 

The tone of her little sister’s voice was heart-wrenching, they took two steps forward and four back. “Later.” Was Celestia response as she called the Admiral requesting transport and some Patrollers for a search and rescue. 

“It’s always later,” Luna said bitterly as they wait on the balcony. Minutes later the hum of an AH-1 chopper could be heard. The black flying machine flew alongside the sister’s balcony, Fierce Fury in full armor waiting inside with Spitfire. Both Princesses jumped in and they zoomed across the sky towards the gates of Tartarus. 

“It’s not your usual armor, but it’ll have to do,” Fury said over the roaring winds, presenting them each a set of Night Patrol armor. “There are some weapons here for you too.” 

“Thanks,” Luna said as she adjusted the straps of her armor. “Let’s go get Sixes.”