A yawn burst forth from Liam's mouth, breaking him away from his reading. He looked up from his book to check what time it was. There was no clock in the royal library, so he had to estimate how much time had passed by the amount of light coming in through the window. Considering that it was now dark out, roughly two or three hours had gone by since he had sat down in his favorite reading nook with a good book. He stretched until a satisfying pop loosened his stiff joints, then he stood and made his way to the entrance of the library. He had been through the maze of bookshelves enough times to know the shortest path to his destination.
On his way out he waved at the pony sitting behind the library's front desk. She smiled and waved back. He lifted the book he was carrying so she could see it and pointed to the door in a questioning manner. The old mare gave an affirmative nod and went back to placing books on a cart to be returned to their proper shelves. He left with the book tucked firmly under his arm to be finished later.
As he walked the halls between the library and his room for what may have been the millionth time he began to wonder if Celestia was still awake. Talking with her was always a pleasant experience, but her schedule was always so full that finding the time to talk was difficult. They might say hi to each other if they crossed paths while she was walking from one meeting to the next, but whenever she had a moment of free time it was usually taken up by some complaining noble or another. Liam usually just tried to just stay out of her way. He would hate to screw up the busy schedule of someone that ran a country.
Supposedly, it had been even worse before Luna had returned and taken some of the burden off her sister's shoulders. He saw Luna around the castle more than her older sister, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. In fact, Liam tried to avoid the dark alicorn when he could, but his tendency to stay up late meant his chances of running into her increased dramatically. They'd barely spoken a word to each other since his arrival to Equestria, but every time she saw him he got a cold glare or a snort of annoyance. He'd been asked by some of the castle staff what he did to earn such ire and he could only tell them that he truly didn't know.
The sound of clanking armor brought Liam out of his thoughts. A pair of patrolling night guards were heading down the hallway in the opposite direction he was.
"Excuse me, guys," he said as they neared. They stopped and gave him their full attention.
"Is there something we can do for you, sir?" one of them asked stiffly. The night guard had a reputation for seeming colder and less friendly than their solar counterpart, but Liam rationalized it as them getting the proverbial short end of the stick. While the lunar guard had to deal with all the late night drunks, the day guards got to be seen saving kittens from trees and the like. Not to mention the Solar Guard just naturally had more exposure to the public. Even with the more professional demeanor, night guards were certainly friendlier than their charge.
"Sorry to bother you guys while you're on patrol, but do either of you happen know if Princess Celestia is still awake?"
"It's okay sir, we're here to serve. And no, she's not up. Between the griffin ambassador a few days ago and the negotiations with the changeling hive, she hasn't gotten much sleep. She even closed day court an hour early so she could retire early today." The human nodded in understanding.
"Alright, that's all I needed to know. Thank you. You guys have a good night."
"You as well, sir," the guard said before the pair were on their way again.
He had nearly forgotten about the peace negotiations going on between Equestria and the changeling hive. He wasn't involved in them and they were surprisingly low profile, considering the Hive had invaded Equestria's capitol several months ago. He was there for the wedding, and it wasn't a pleasant experience. Okay, ‘there for the wedding’ might be the wrong way to put it. He wasn’t invited to the wedding, but he had still been living in the castle at that time. He hadn't gotten a look at the queen, but he had been closer to some of her cronies than he'd have liked.
Luckily, the invasion failed in the end, and even more surprisingly, there had been no deaths on either side. Sure, there were a few injuries that required hospital visits, but the fact nobody had died on either side still baffled Liam. He knew that Queen Chrysalis was currently staying in the castle for the duration of the peace talks, but fortunately for him he hadn't run into her in the halls yet. He'd heard from some of the maids that she was quite unpleasant to look at.
It wasn't long after that thought that he arrived at the door to the room he'd been residing in since his arrival in Equestria. There wasn't much in there other than the stuff the room had originally come with. He wasn't allowed outside the castle grounds, so he couldn't really get his hands on anything to decorate the room with. Occasionally a small pile of books would take up some desk or floor space when he found a good series to read, but other than that it was pretty bare-bones. As bare-bones as a guest room in a royal castle can be, anyway.
He turned the handle and pushed the door inward to reveal his room. He immediately noticed the mare laying on the bed. Apparently she noticed him too, as she gave him a sultry look and a sly smile before she spoke in a sing-song voice. "Hello."
Liam just stared for a second before responding. "Hi. Sorry... I must have the wrong room. I didn't mean to bother you." He slowly backed out and closed the door. He knew for a fact that it was the right room, but he supposed that it didn't really matter. It was practically indistinguishable from any other guest room in the castle. He didn't feel like causing a scene just because someone happened to pick the room he usually stayed in. Besides, the one next to it would work just fine for his purposes.
He walked to the next room over and stepped inside. He flipped the magical light switch and sat at the desk to continue the novel he had started back in the library. He had just flipped to the page he'd left off on when someone knocked at the door. That was strange. Who could be knocking at this hour? And how would they know to find him in this room instead of his usual one? Liam stood back up and approached the door. He opened it to find the mare that had been on his bed standing outside. She was frowning and looked a little ticked off.
"Can I help you?"
"What was that?" she asked.
"I'm sorry, what?"
"What was that?"
"What was what?" Liam asked confusedly.
"In the other room. What stallion walks in on that and just walks away?"
"I'm... sorry? Was I supposed to do something else?"
"Yes! You were supposed to show some kind of interest, ravish me, anything but... that!"
Liam stood there for a second and absorbed the fact that some random pony he didn't know had just said that he should 'ravish' them.
"I'm sorry ma'am. You seem nice, but I'm not like that and I'm not really into ponies. I'm sure there are plenty of cool guys looking for someone like you around Canterlot. Maybe try your luck with one of them. Have a good night," he said as he slowly closed the door again.
That was definitely strange. He wondered if she was drunk. That might explain the way she was acting. He certainly hoped she didn't make a habit of asking strangers to 'ravish' her. Liam turned to go back to the desk and his book, but he didn't make it two steps before another, harsher knock rang through the door. He cracked it open just enough for his face to show through and addressed the now pissed looking mare.
"Look ma'am. Like I said earlier, I'm not interes-"
"It appears," she interrupted, "that I need to be more direct." The sing-song quality of her voice disappeared and a slight buzzing replaced it. A wall of green fire raced along her body as she transformed before the human's eyes. The changeling before him was much taller than the ones he'd run into at the royal wedding all those months ago and had a chitinous crown atop her head. "You are mine. The treaty has been finalized and you have been given to me as tribute," the changeling queen said in a menacing voice.
The door slowly closed for a third time, and the click of the lock quickly followed the click of the latch. Liam sat at the desk again and tried to get back to reading, but he noticed that his hands were trembling a bit. He tried to calm himself, but after what had just happened he wasn't sure he could. He looked back at the door just in time to see a green aura undo the lock and the door slammed inward.
"Human, you belong to m-"
She was cut off as Liam reflexively chucked the book at her face. It was a solid hit too. She crumpled to the floor like a ragdoll.
Liam sat there in stunned silence, just staring at the changeling lying on the floor. She appeared to be unconscious. Now that she wasn't yelling at him, she didn't actually look all that intimidating. He started to feel kind of bad. Sure she had scared him and busted in the door, but he hadn't meant to hurt her. Oh well, what was done was done. He walked over and picked up the book. A couple pages were wrinkled from either its meeting with the queen's face or its meeting with the floor. He smoothed them out as best he could before closing the book and placing it back on the desk. There was no sense in ruining a perfectly good book.
He went back over to Chrysalis on the floor and gave her a gentle nudge with his foot. Yep, definitely out cold.
But what to do with her, he thought.
When no other ideas struck him, he did the first thing that came to mind. He went over to the bed and pulled back the comforter. He quickly scooped her up and laid her out on the bed and adjusted her to a position that he thought looked comfortable before pulling the comforter back over her. He grabbed the book off the desk and flipped the light switch before closing the door and heading back to his usual room. Making sure the door was locked and the desk was pushed in front of the entrance for good measure, Liam once again placed the book on the desk and climbed into bed himself. He figured he'd done enough reading for one day.