//------------------------------//
// Chapter 28 - The Heist 
// Story: Further Tales From Day Court 
// by Blade Star 
//------------------------------//

If you ask me, the Royal Guard gets a raw deal when it comes to criticism. Bones himself has often lamented over their supposed failings; how they didn’t protect Celestia when Nightmare Moon returned, or how they couldn’t do anything to stop Discord, their failures at the Royal Wedding, and when Tirek attacked, never mind the princesses being kidnapped from the castle twice now, and then there’s the whole Storm King incident and Sombra’s attack.  

But if you ask me, it’s pretty unfair to say that the Royal Guard did a poor job. A few points of order, if I may.  

First of all, the Royal Guard is made up of ordinary pegasi, unicorns and earth ponies. They aren’t all super powerful alicorns or Element wielding heroes. They are just normal ponies armed with normal magic, swords and spears. I would never expect them to stand up to the likes of Discord, Tirek or the Pony of Shadows. The threats they faced over the years have often been way out of their league, requiring powerful magic to defeat.

Secondly, they are quite a small outfit, numbering around five hundred. They’re a guard, not a standing army, and more like a police force than anything else. Judging them alongside the Changeling Army or the Storm creatures is an unfair appraisal.  

And thirdly, it has often not been a fair fight. The wedding and Friendship Festival saw the Royal Guard either infiltrated, or stood down against their better judgement, undermining their ability. And more often than not, the threats they face are far more powerful. How do you expect them to deal with a magic sucking centaur or mad unicorn who can control the minds of others?  

Still, despite that logical argument, ponies had begun to complain and whinge, as they so often do, to Celestia about the supposed ineffectiveness of her guard, particularly since the departure of Shining Armor from their ranks. And as a result, Celestia had decided to do a spot of housekeeping. As I said before, there was nothing wrong with the guard per se. The problem was they weren’t equipped to handle the threats they often faced. After all, they had no problem keeping order in the city, even after that near riot after Canterlot lost the buckball match to Whinnyappolis. So, some beefing up of defences was in order. If the Guard was going to go with the likes of Sombra, never mind this Grogar twit, they needed more firepower and better defences. If there’d been AA batteries on the rooftops, and a dedicated radar network during the friendship festival, those airships wouldn’t have lasted five seconds.  

The question now was who to get to help revise things and devise these new security arrangements. That, as it turned out, was a bit of a sticking point between the two sisters.





“No, absolutely not!” Luna boomed angrily from her own throne to her sister. “We are perfectly capable of dealing with our own guards. There’s no need to have that lackadaisical prince come all the way down here to reteach them all challenge phrases.”  

“Luna,” Celestia replied gently, looking to calm her fiery younger sibling .”Shining Armor was the best Captain of the Royal Guard I’ve ever had. You need only look at the way he’s transformed the Imperial Crystal Guard to see that.” Luna snorted.

“As I recall, they were just as ineffective against the likes of Sombra. And he too was of little use. The foal didn’t even think to check on his own daughter until Cadence brought it up! And may I remind you he surrendered to that infernal upstart rather than stand and fight.”

I now waded in, again playing the peacemaker between the two.

“Luna, Shining couldn’t have won against Sombra,” I pointed out. “That madman was too powerful for him to take on alone. It was sensible to live to fight another day, rather than put himself at undue risk that could have gotten him killed.” Luna however was unmoved.

“Those who want to, let them fight,” she said. “And those who will not fight in this world of eternal struggle, do not deserve to live.” I scowled.

“Quoting Hitler never won an argument,” I replied crossly.  

“I still say that Celestia and I would be better suited to devising the new security arrangements,” she persisted. “We are more aware of the powerful magic that would be in play and are better suited to devising ways to counter it. Shining Armor, while he may be a fine guardspony, is not a mage or wizard.”

“It’s not just magic though, Luna,” I replied. “We need to look for ways to defend against all threats, both conventional and unconventional. The Guard needs to be able to prevent infiltration, as well as direct attack. After all, two of the most serious incidents in the past few years involved kidnapping from under their noses.”

“Look, Luna,” Celestia tried. “Why don’t you just listen to what Shining Armor has to say? I’m sure the two of you could potentially work together.” Luna pondered that for a moment.  

“Fine,” she said at last. “But I still say you and I should be doing this ourselves sister. As princesses of Equestria, we should have no need of outside help.”

And so, Shining Armor was summoned and put on the books once more as a security consultant. He spent the next week going over things, inspecting the Guard as it was under Flash Magnus, looking at gaps in their defences, and where improvement and change was needed. Our paths crossed when he came to pay me a visit in my office, in quite the unusual way too.  

I was busy going over the documents on a legal dispute regarding the border between the city of Manhattan and the smaller townships surrounding it. The city was looking to start a new construction project to expand its suburban areas, and was now apparently crossing into land already claimed by other towns. And in true Manehattan fashion, they’d thrown a right hissy fit over it, and at some point, somepony had threatened to cram a copy of the Equestria Daily up somepony else’s rear end. So muggins here was stuck with neutral arbitration.  

It was as I was reviewing this fascinating case that I became aware of an odd sound outside. I keep the window to my office slightly open as a rule to keep the air from getting too musty; all those books, you see. Normally, I can hear the sounds of the city far below, but at the moment, I could hear something much closer at hand. It sounded like somepony struggling with something, and it was steadily growing louder.  

Perplexed, I went over to the open window and was just about to look out when, to my amazement, Shining Armor appeared. The sounds I heard were of him climbing his way up the side of the castle, using the creeping vines for leverage. He was joined a moment later by a pegasi holding a notepad and quill.  

“Here,” the unicorn said, clearly a little exhausted. “Enemies could potentially climb up here and use open windows to gain access to the castle, bypass the checkpoints that are already in place. These creeping vines need to be taken down, as does anything on the roof that might act as a land anchor.”

“Got it, sir,” the pegasus guard replied, jotting down some notes.

“Hey there, Roger,” Shining said with a wave. “Mind if I come in?” I couldn’t help but be stunned for a moment by the surreal sight before me. Eventually though, common manners reasserted themselves.  

“Er...yeah, sure, Shining. Come on it.”  

I stepped back from the window, and the stallion hauled himself through the window and landed quite gracefully on the marble floor.  

“Sorry to drop in, but I’m just going over the new security arrangements,” he explained.

“I figured,” I replied. “Something told me you weren’t climbing up here to confess your undying love to me.” Shining Armor laughed, but quickly fired back.

“No, I wouldn’t want to take you away from Princess Celestia,” he replied, referring to that stupid article in the paper that suggested I might be going out with Tia. Smiling, I gestured for him to take a seat and rest.

“So how are things coming anyway?” I asked.  

“I’ve got a few good ideas,” he said as he eased himself into a seat and did his best to get his breath back. I think he hasn’t quite admitted to himself that he’s not a young buck any more. “That way I see it, there are two kinds of threats that the castle needs to be protected against; direct assault and infiltration.”

“Makes sense,” I agreed. “Particularly with that whack job Chrysalis still out there. She could either try and sneak in, or, with her powerful magic, she might try and do what Sombra did. The pair of them have similar abilities after all.”   

“Right, so I first looked at how to prevent infiltration. And for starters, that means getting the Royal Guard trained up when it comes to telling friend from foe. I’ve been working with Flash to rearrange the duty rosters so that guards will constantly stand watch in the same locations, getting to know ponies in their section very well. That way, any infiltration will be easier to see, compared to how things are now, where guards are regularly moving around the castle. I plan on doing something similar with other castle staff.

“In addition, I’m also looking at implementing this idea from the Crystal Guard. Each pony will have a small crystal on their armour, tuned to a certain magical frequency. Each door in the castle will have a lock that only opens if it detects the right frequency, so only ponies who have that key can get in.”

“Sounds like RFID cards back on Earth,” I replied. “Similar technology; if you don’t have a key, you can’t go somewhere you don’t belong. So even if somepony looked like a guard, they couldn’t bluff their way past a locked and guarded door. Anything else?”

“Yeah, I’m installing a new alarm system in the area around the throne room and the princesses’ chambers.”  

“Nice,” I replied, imagining some intricate security system. “What is it, lasers, motion sensors, biometric recognition?” Shining shook his head.

“Geese,” he replied with a smile.

“Geese?” I parroted in confusion. Shining nodded.

“They’re highly territorial and hostile towards creatures they don’t know. And when they do get alarmed, they make enough noise to wake the whole city. Plus, in addition to sounding the alarm, they can pretty dangerous in large numbers; enough to at least delay an opponent until the guards arrive.”

I wanted to take him seriously, I really did. But the idea just sounded so damn ridiculous. I mean, geese, really? Sure they’re annoying nasty little buggers who can peck a chunk out of your hand, but they were hardly an effective security system. I mean, for one thing ,they have to sleep.

“That’s ridiculous!” I exclaimed, unable to think of a way to sugar coat my opinion. “Geese aren’t a security system. They’re the jackass that Canadians created as a way of removing and storing all their anger so they’re nice to everyone else. They’ll just fall asleep or shut up if you chuck them some bread.”

“Eh, you say that now, Roger,” Shining countered. “But I’ve been running some field tests with the geese from the Royal Garden and they’ve been pretty encouraging.” I was still unconvinced.  

“You can say what you like, Shining,” I replied, but geese will never come into my head when I think of security systems.” Now Shining smiled.

“Oh really?” he said. “How about a live demonstration then? We’ve got the first group set up in the throne room right now for testing. If you can sneak in there without them catching you, I’ll but you lunch.”

“Done,” I replied extending a hand to shake on it, and seal the bet as a gentlemen’s agreement.

I mean really, how bad could geese be? I’ve been an officer in the UVF and once sneaked past a whole mess of Garda officers on a job south of the border. I’m pretty sure I can overcome some angry birds.  





Okay, so I was wrong. It’s been known to happen. There were, as it turned out, a few things that I didn’t count on. Firstly, Equestrian geese are noticeably larger than their Terran counterparts, and look more like flamingoes than anything else.  Two, they are a whole lot more aggressive and territorial. They not only don’t tolerate you coming near them, they don’t tolerate you being in the same room as them either. And finally, and perhaps most crucial of all, the featherless, honking bastards have teeth. Yes, you read that right; teeth. They can bite as well as peck. If these things don’t work out, I’m tempted to put forth a motion in court to have all geese in Equestria exterminated.  

Anyway, so I tried my luck sneaking into the throne room. Shining gave me a simple task. Go and sit in Celestia’s throne undetected. The alicorn was currently in her chambers while Shining was testing his new security features, so I doubted she’d mind too much, certainly less than when she catches Discord lounging there.  

I have one key advantage over ponies when it comes to sneaking. I don’t have hooves and can move pretty much silently if needed. Arriving at the double doors of the throne room, I undid the laces, and took of my shoes to give me that added bit of stealth and crouched down low, balancing myself on the balls of my feet.  

Gently pulling down on the door handle, I hesitated for a moment, lest the sound wake up any of the geese. Then, with equally great care and caution, I eased the one door open and peeked inside. The geese were all stationed on pedestal like perches, some ten feet off the ground, and were all seemingly asleep, their heads curled up along their bodies. None of them seemed to be stirring, so I pressed on. Crossing the threshold, I carefully began to creep my way towards the throne. The floors were all solid crystal and marble, so I wasn’t worried about squeaky floorboards. I moved without a sound, like a god damn ninja towards the throne, and I would have got there if I hadn’t forgotten one thing; scent.  

Despite being asleep, these geese apparently had a razor sharp sense of smell. About halfway to my target, one of them began to stir. I went stock still and hoped it would pass, but it made no difference. One by one, the evil beasts began to wake, and as soon as they opened their eyes, they clocked me.  

And that’s when the honking started. The noise was deafening as the birds screeched at me, flapping their wings in agitation. Seeing my cause was lost, I prepared to beat a hasty retreat, as the birds were now starting the fly down from their perches and chase me, teeth bared.  

I just about made it to the door, though I still had no idea how I was to avoid being eaten alive, when help arrived in the form of a very angry Luna. The Night Princess had had a busy night previously, and was now somewhat sleep deprived. Being woken by geese, for what was, as I later learned, the third time, had not put her in the best of tempers. Still, I’ll take angry alicorn over angry geese any day. Dashing behind her, I got to see the fireworks.  

“Shut up dammit!” she howled in the Royal Canterlot Voice. A moment later, a spell fired from her horn, and all the geese fell fast asleep.  

My reprieve was short lived however, as she quickly rounded on me. She didn’t look too good, with deep bags under her bloodshot eyes. I grimaced at the sight of the typically graceful and composed Luna in such a state.  

“Give me coffee if you want to live,” she said plainly.  





Luckily, I wasn’t murdered by one of my princesses, and instead found myself  a little while later taking lunch with Shining Armor at a restaurant close to the castle. I wasn’t having much, since I was footing the bill, but Shining was more than content to order the most expensive thing on the menu.  

“Believe me now, do you, Roger?” he asked, with just the tiniest hint of smugness.

“Okay, I admit it,” I caved. “Geese can be a security system. Assuming you can train them to recognise certain ponies.”

“I’m working on it,” he replied. “Just count yourself lucky you didn’t actually get to the throne.”

“Why?” I asked, pausing in my meal.  

“I also had a trap door installed at the foot of the throne. Anypony except Celestia or Luna try to get up there, and the floor opens up to drop them into a pit.”

“Very Daring Do of you,” I replied. “So what else do you have planned apart from geese and trap doors?”

Shining pulled out a set of blueprints from his saddlebags.

“Well, first of all, I figured that a lot of threats to Canterlot come from the air. So I plan on installing these huge fans around the castle. They’ll set up impassable wind currents, making it imposable for anypony to fly near the castle unless they know the exact route to take. And to help fight attacks by magic users, Starswirl has helped out by reconfiguring those shards of Chrysalis’ old throne to block unauthorised magic throughout the castle. If Sombra tried the trick again, he’d find his mind control magic blocked. After all, the throne was strong enough to block even chaos magic. And finally, I had all the entrances to the tunnels under the castle sealed up and guarded.”

That last one certainly made sense, particularly now that we know about all those old crystal mine shafts and caverns underneath the city.  

“Nice,” I admitted. “Anything else?” Shining nodded.

“I’ve also had Flash Magnus do another recruitment drive to help bolster the Guard’s numbers. In another few months, we should have over seven hundred guards protecting the castle and Canterlot.”

It certainly all seemed like a good idea. You had intrusion detection by the geese, magic dampening to stop powerful spells being used by an attacker, the huge wind turbines to make attack from the air difficult, and those enchanted gems to guard against infiltration. All in all, it looked pretty solid to me. But as a wise man once said, no battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy. To be considered truly effective, the whole system would need to be tested, and Shining had quite the plan for that, involving his little sister.   

He told me about this little toy crown they’d had for years, since they were little foals. While the pair don’t have that much of a sibling rivalry, given their relatively equal positions in life, they did have a serious competition going over this little trinket, and Shining planned to use that in a test to see just how effective his new arrangements were.  

His plan was simple. If Twilight could somehow get into the castle and bypass the defences, breach the throne room and get her hooves on the crown, she’d win, and Shining would use that as a way to plug any holes in his new system. And if she didn’t make it...well, Twilight was without a doubt one of the smartest and most powerful ponies in all Equestria. If she couldn’t beat it, nopony could. So he’d invited her up to Canterlot with her friends. If nothing else, it would be nice for the siblings to reunite, considering the last time they met, Sombra was on the loose in the Crystal Empire. And, of course, Shining was rather keen on getting one over on his little sister. After all, she has saved his hide...what...six times now? Never mind that his little sister was soon to become ruler of all Equestria, and, much more alarmingly from his point of view, was steadily growing taller, to the point that she wasn’t that far behind her big brother.  

But that was by the by. The point of the exercise was to test the new arrangements. If this all worked out, then the only way I can see of getting into the castle without authorisation would be to have access to magic on par with Discord. They’d already wargamed their way through the attack by the storm creatures, and between the restored airship fleet, and the new defences for the castle, had the Friendship Festival happened today, the Storm King would have met his end long before he did.  

The only downside was the annoyance caused by all these new security measures. It certainly made getting around the castle a whole lot more difficult. Every few yards you came across a guard checkpoint and had to show some ID and go through a magic scanner and have a chunk of that throne run over you to break any disguise or illusion spell.  

The little RFID crystals weren’t too bad. In fact I was quite used to that. The Magistrates Court back home had had a similar system that let you into the CPS offices, the duty solicitors offices, as well as the cafeteria where they had the nice toilets that the clients couldn’t destroy. Some of the guards though, particularly the earth ponies, had a bit of time manipulating them with their hooves, instead opting to affix them to the chest piece of their armour. Of course, that meant, to get through any secured door, they had to bodily press themselves up against it to release the lock.  

And then there was the geese. Shining had them set up not only in the throne room, but in several sensitive areas of the castle, such as the archives. They were very good at detecting movement. The only problem is that they didn’t care if it was friend or foe. They didn’t like anypony coming within a mile of them. False alarms became an annoyingly common occurrence, as did an angry Luna doing her best to calm the birds down.  

And speaking of Luna, I have to say, she wasn’t taking any of this well. I think I’ve said it before that, in contrast to Celestia, who likes to guide ponies towards their goals, Luna likes to just solve the problem for them, and regularly lobbies for the two of them to take a more active role in Equestrian affairs. And she was rather keen on the two of them reviewing the security of their own castle. As she’d said earlier when Celestia first pitched the idea, she figured that as alicorns, they were more able to see the powerful magic that could be employed to overcome defences.  

And while she had begrudgingly accepted Shining’s temporary role as security consultant, she still wasn’t happy about it. I think a lot of ponies forget that, if nothing else, Celestia and Luna are sisters. And like all sisters, from time to time, they fight. And this was proving to be a real wedge issue for the two sisters. For the moment though, Luna was content to merely grumble and angrily cast sleep spells to shut the geese up whenever they started their infernal honking.  

To be honest, it was kind of annoying to me too. My work takes a lot of time, energy and concentration. And now, without fail, every time a guard patrol went past my office and passed the corridor to the throne room, our wonderful new security system went off. There would be a good thirty seconds of honking, followed by some colourful language from a certain midnight blue alicorn, then a burst of magic, and silence. Forty five minutes later, the same thing would happen again.  

The geese were all well and good, but if you were going to end up with this many false positives, you were going to end up with a cry wolf effect before too long.  

And then there were the fans. Back home, from time to time, a little bird would mistake the windows in my kitchen for an open path and fly into them with a resounding thunk. Now imagine that, only increase the bird to have the size and weight of a pony. The first time a pegasus slammed into my window, it scared the living daylights out of me. By the fourth, it was just annoying. The new fans were making it damn near impossible for the guards to do their new patrol patterns.  

But these little problems were minor compared to the one thing the redoubtable Shining Armor had overlooked. That one thing that can render any security system, no matter how advanced, utterly useless; a man on the inside.





So, the competition began to see whether it would be Twilight or Shining who would be crowned Sibling Supreme. Of course, as much as I wanted to, I didn’t have the luxury of spectating. Time and tide and buttered eggs wait for no man, as they say, and nor did legal paperwork. Still, my office gave me a good overview of the castle courtyard, so I would be able to see Twilight and her friends from there, at least until they got inside the castle.  

After lunch with Shining I headed back to my office. As I said before, I now had to pass through several checkpoints to get there. It was honestly almost as bad as Belfast back in the day; all that was missing was the ironically named ‘Peace Walls’. And it was as I was making my way through yet another one of these checkpoints that I came across a face that was vaguely familiar.  

He sort of reminded me of Dewdrop. Like my daughter’s boyfriend, he was a pegasus with an aqua coat and a blonde mane and tail. That though, was where the similarities ended. This stallion was somewhat taller and lankier compared to Dewdrop, his mane was more of a rat’s nest and he was badly in need of a proper shave, with a faint five o’clock shadow around his muzzle. I knew this chinless wonder; this was Zephyr Breeze, Fluttershy’s older brother. Last I heard he’d gone off to barber college. What the smeg was he doing here? More to the point, what was he doing in the armour of the Royal Guard?

“Zephyr Breeze?” I asked in surprise. The stallion turned to me with a look of surprise. Not being from round Canterlot way, he probably wasn’t used to seeing a human casually wandering around.  

“Oh! Erm...yes?” he replied nervously, before regaining his confidence and adding. “That’s my name; don’t wear it out!”  

His voice was effeminate; painfully so. Despite the fact that I’ve heard from Fluttershy, via Discord, that he hits on Rainbow Dash every time they meet, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that he is completely and utterly bent. The only way he could make it more obvious is if he bought a sports jacket with the words ‘The Other Team’ emblazoned on it. Still, I guess, despite that, and his occupation as a stylist, he wasn’t quite ready to admit that.

Still, on the other hand, it was good to see the Royal Guard was so accepting of ponies from the LGBT community. Maybe that’s how he’d gotten in; positive discrimination. Either that or Flash Magnus was really getting desperate for ponies.  

“Since when are you in the Royal Guard?” The stallion drew himself to attention and saluted poorly.

“Well I figured that having a bit more disposable income couldn’t hurt,” he explained. “And when the princesses announced the new recruitment drive, I leapt at the chance.”

I wasn’t mean enough to straight up ask him how he got through selection, never mind the academy. But there was no way in hell Zephyr met the basic fitness requirements, and I can only imagine what his psyche test came back as.  

“So you’re guarding the entrance to the tunnels then?” Zephyr nodded.

“Yes, siree,” he replied excitedly. “I’m on the front lines, protecting Equestria from any foe that might seek to do it harm.”  

Well, at least he was enthusiastic.  

God help Equestria and the flaming Royal Guard!





After that, I returned to my office, and I only caught the odd glimpse of something afoot. I saw Pinkie’s balloon go down when it tried to land near the castle, I caught sight of what I think was Rarity disguised as a guard trying to bluff her way past the sentry post, and I was continually interrupted by that infernal honking from the throne room. Each of that particular incident was quickly followed by Luna shouting in the Royal Canterlot Voice, her language becoming more colourful as the day went on.  

In all honesty, I wasn’t sure which horse to put my money on, if you’ll excuse the expression. Shining had developed a very clever interlocking system of security, drawing on the mistakes of the past. He’d made approach from the air difficult, approach from below impossible, and entirely ruled out the effects of magic. Then again, Twilight Sparkle is a genius, and had she taken a less honourable path, I think she would have made a fine criminal mastermind, to the point that she probably would never have need of my services, since she’d never get caught.  

It wasn’t until I heard the sounds of hooves coming from the ceiling that I finally decided to put off work and go and watch the display. Twilight was evidently going for a multi pronged attack, going after all the defences. And knowing her, some of them at least, were just ploys to draw attention away. I once made the mistake of having a game of chess with her when she came to visit Tia. She mated me in twenty three moves. Still doesn’t beat Celestia’s record of seven though.  

I figured, in reality, if I thought for a minute that there was an intruder in the castle, I’d be doing all in my power to track them down. After all, I might need to do it all for real some day. I may not be magical, or have wings, or super strength, but I’m human; a natural predator, trained in combat, and I’ve held my own in the past. When the Storm King attacked, I was the one who broke Bones and me out of our cells, and had Twilight’s friends not launched their own attack when they did, I would have made a play against the Storm King. So if this was going to be a fair test of security, I would need to go and see who it was that was skulking about on the roof. Presumably, somepony was trying to get in by the skylights that lit up the throne room in both day and night.  

Leaving my office, I made my way to the throne room. Unfortunately, the various checkpoints held me up, to the point that, by the time I’d got there, it was all over, and the puppet master, hiding in the shadows, had stepped forth for all to see. I came to the side entrance to the throne room, where the princesses typically entered from. From there I saw it all unfold.  

You see, Spike had decided to play double agent. While ostensibly helping Twilight get the crown, he was actually planning to grab it for himself. After all, he’s just as much Twilight’s sibling as Shining. And he’d found an ally in Luna, who was more than happy to see Shining’s new improvements bested. Together, the two of them had schemed and, through clever misdirection, managed to win the day.  

You should have seen the look on poor Tia’s face. Twilight and Shining took it well. But Celestia was cheesed off about Luna going over her head, and making her look just a bit stupid. Of course, they couldn’t descend into quarrelling in front of their subjects, and the pair carefully retreated out of the room, and ran right into me, the plastic smiles still on their faces.

“Well, that went well,” I said to the pair of them. “Luna, Machiavelli would be impressed. Tia, your brilliant new security system was beaten by a baby dragon.”

“A baby dragon and a scheming princess,” she replied, shooting a cross look at Luna.  

“I warned you that Shining Armour wouldn’t be up to it,” she replied smugly. “If we’d arranged the new defences, this would never have happened.” All three of us started to walk to Celestia’s chambers, with me carefully inserting myself between the two siblings.  

“True,” Celestia replied, still annoyed. “Because if we’d done it, you wouldn’t have deliberately undermined the whole thing!”

“Sister,” Luna replied. “Our most dangerous enemies are more than capable of dealing with our guards. At the end of the day, they are ordinary ponies. We should not be expecting them to deal with foes that threaten even us, and no amount of bells and whistles is going to change that. I’ve said it a thousand times; we must take a more active role in the defence of the realm.”

“We do, Luna,” Celestia replied, as we walked into the dining room and some much needed privacy. “But we can’t take care of every little thing in Equestria. A wise leader delegates.”

“Indeed they do,” Luna countered, now muzzle to muzzle with her sister. “But a wise leader does not delegate everything, which is what you seem to be fond of doing!”

“Why you…!”

This was getting ridiculous.  

“Alright, enough!” I called over the two of them. The sisters stopped arguing and both turned to look at me.  

“You’re not going to accomplish anything by screaming at each other,” I went on. “I thought we all learned our lesson about failing to communicate after that whole mess when Starlight came to the castle. Instead of yelling at each other, just talk. Like adults.”  

Both sisters looked away from each other, evidently embarrassed that, despite the both of them being at least a thousand years old, they still squabbled like little kids sometimes. Eventually, Luna broke the silence.  

“I just have a hard time trusting other ponies with my protection,” she admitted. “I’ve always felt safer when I know that I’ve done all in my power to make it that way. Having no say in all this just made me feel even more vulnerable. Particularly considering all that’s happened.”

“And I suppose, given my own recent failings,” Celestia admitted. “I didn’t really trust myself to organise the security. I’ve been almost sidelined so many times now, and saved by Twilight and her friends just as much, that I sometimes don’t trust myself.” Luna looked up in surprise.

“That isn’t why you suggested we abdicate is it?” she asked with some alarm. I’ll admit, this sudden loss of confidence from Celestia surprised even me. Celestia shook her head.

“No,” she replied reassuringly. “I had the idea in my mind for a few years now. I do not doubt either of our abilities to be good rulers. I just know that, of all my skills, security isn’t one of them. I’m sorry I didn’t take your own feelings into account, sister.”

The two alicorns lovingly nuzzled each other in an adorable display of affection.  

“You know, maybe we’ve been looking at this the wrong way,” I suggested. “You’ve both settled with one option or the other; Shining does the security, or you do. Why not both? Twilight and her friends all worked together to achieve their goal, as did Spike and Luna here. Why don’t we take what we’ve learned from the test today, and all four of us work with Shining to make some additional improvements?”

“You would join us, Roger?” Celestia asked. I shrugged my shoulders.  

“Well, you know what they say; send a thief to catch a thief.”

And so, the four of us sat down later that evening to go over what we had learned and make a few changes here and there, as well as adding some new ideas into the mix. By the time Luna raised the moon, we had quite the set of improvements in the works. All in all, I was quite pleased. The only problem was that all defences have a breaking point; they can only take so much punishment. And our enemies would soon have the ability, not to go around all these protective measures, but to tear straight through them.