As Luna and the rest of the Royal family were making their way to the Dining Hall to meet with Twilight, they swapped stories as to how funny Thunderhoof would look if and when they ordered his arrest. Just as they were halfway inbetween, they saw Shining Armor galloping towards them. "Shining Armor, what appears to be the trouble? Are we getting threats from Queen Chrysalis again?" Blueblood half joked.
"I only wish it were that simple Blueblood. I'm actually here to speak with Princess Luna. Could I trouble you to speak privately your highness?" Shining Armor insisted.
Luna looked at the rest of the royal family, and Celestia gestured, "Go ahead sister, we can entertain Night Mist til you can join us in the dining hall. And I'm sure Twilight can stay distracted with a barrage of questions she is sure to ask about Night Mist."
Luna nodded in thanks and soon, the two trotted into a private conference room, not too far from where they had been. Once the door was shut, Luna made sure to put a sound barrier up to keep unwanted ears from listening in. "Now, what was so important you had to talk to me about Shining Armor?" Luna inquired.
"It's about Night Mist. I had heard that colt's name before. At first I wasn't sure where from, so then, I did a bit of search in through the records we keep here in Canterlot, and when I saw who one of the parents were, I bolted to the Royal Guards' Headquarters, and looked through the files of ponies who were in the guard, past and present. And I found it. Night Mist's mother. Her name was Silver Star. She was a bat pony just like her son. Single mother. Husband had passed away a little time after their son had been born due to an unforeseen illness that could not be treated in time. And Silver Star was Appointed by me as Head of the Lunar Guard's special forces unit," Shining put out.
Luna interrupted, "Pardon my rudeness. But you said "was".... a past tense word. Why is she not the Head of the Special Forces Unit anymore?"
Shining hung his head in sorrow, "About a month ago, she and a squad of the special forces she was leading into the Southern Kingdom of Griffonia to rescue a small group of ponies from captivity were killed by the Griffons of that kingdom. We're still trying to find the traitor, be it one of our own, or someone from the Northern Griffon Kingdom. Their bodies were sent back out of spite, and the Southern Kingdom is not happy about this."
"They are still holding ponies captive as slaves. I thought we made it clear that all slave ponies be sent back to us," Luna pointed out.
"A large bulk of the ponies enslaved by the kingdom were sent back to us, and were claimed to be all the ponies they had enslaved and released. But about six months ago, North Griffonia intelligence informed us there was still a small group of ponies still enslaved in their kingdom," Shining added.
"So the kingdom lied to us to get a peace treaty signed, so that we would not take military action towards them in the future. Well, if they want to declare we violated the peace treaty with our actions, we can tell them that they had violated it from the time it began," Luna spat.
"Indeed they did violate it. We had sent in the squad to try to get the ponies out, but as I said, the operation failed. The only reason we know that this happened, and that there was a traitor, was because, only one squad member made it back. He revealed the whole ordeal, and the North Griffonian king is pledging his forces to us, should we decide to invade. But we have gotten off subject, and I am sure that you will bring this atrocity to Celestia at a later time, but to get back on subject, Silver Star was a very decorated officer of my forces, and her rank also had brought her to a noble status. She was given the rank of duchess before her death at the military rank she held. That means that if any nobles had a dispute of Night Mist not having nobility, they can rest easy knowing he was to be the next Duke of his family's lands and entitlements when he came of age. However, seeing as you are adopting him, those lands and titles will of course be under the crowns' supervision til further notice," Shining Armor stated.
Luna sat there. Night Mist's blood mother had been a hero. She had given her life in the line of duty. Night Mist had told her his parents had gone to the stars, but he was just a little toddler, so he wasn't able to remember much, so she couldn't blame him for misinformation. Not only had things become personal with one, or maybe a few nobles who were unhappy that Luna was adopting Night Mist. Now things had become personal between the crowns, and the Southern Kingdom of Griffonia. They had violated a pact to no longer enslave ponies in their kingdom.
She knew that this kingdom was no doubt trying to conceive some sort of plan to gain more leniency from the crown to get what they wanted, and no doubt they were going to use the Special forces unit to do so. But Luna knew in her head that these Griffons were unaware of the one member who made it back, so they were unaware that Equestria's leaders knew about their treachery. But the question remained how this would be approached. Of course she would talk with her sister, before making rash decisions, and knew that rash decisions would more than likely convince the Southern Griffon kingdom that Luna was still under Nightmare Moon's influence if she did make them. Not that she didn't want to give the griffons of that kingdom a good scare by disguising herself as Nightmare Moon, but she felt that should wait til after logical decisions were made.
"Thank you very much for providing this information Shining Armor. When did you learn of all of this, if you could sate my curiosity?" Luna pleaded.
"I only learned of this about 4 days ago. The bodies arrived only a couple days ago, but the information came in ahead of them. When I learned Silver Star was one among the fallen, I did feel a slight sting since she was a close friend, but when I learned of Night Mist, the sting was even harder. The fact that you hadn't learned of this before hoof, to me, it all the more showed how you did this as a genuine maternal love for the colt, and not to gain publicity cause of his mother's death. I would suggest, that in a couple years, you let Night Mist know his original mother was a hero. She and her squad will be given all the proper funeral arrangements. If you and Celestia wish to not attend, I won't hold it against you," Shining stated.
"No, I feel I will. I may not have known much of Silver Star's personal life, or military life, but in the few instances I was able to speak with her, she was one pony I knew was of noble personality. Had I gotten to know her more. I am sure the two of us would have been great friends. But at least her soul is at piece in the Elysian Fields. For now though, let us put these troubling matters off to the side, and make our way to the dining hall," Luna suggested.
"I concur that would be best, Princess Luna," Shining agreed.
Soon the sound barrier was lifted and the two trotted out of the conference room, and towards the dining hall.