We awoke, as usual, in the early evening. It was still an hour before we would switch with our sister, and that was on purpose. Leaving our room behind us, we turned not towards the throne room, but to the guestrooms.
Markus had arrived earlier in the day, when we were still awake. We greeted him at the station and brought him to the Guard Base here in Canterlot. Unfortunately, our duties commanded us to go to rest before we could see him inspect his company, but we have a feeling, we will soon get a chance to see them in action.
We wandered down the halls, taking a stairway downwards and turning towards the room Markus had been given. We knocked as we reached it and almost immediately heard Markus’s voice call out.
“Come in!”
We slowly opened the door and found Markus inside, seated before his desk and scribbling away at a piece of parchment.
“Oh, hello Luna.” He greeted with a glance over his shoulder, before turning to his scribblings again.
We paced closer to him, our curiosity peaking, as we tried to sneak a peek at the parchment. However, Markus noticed our efforts and quickly covered the sheet with his hands.
“Ah ah ah, Luna. You will have to wait until it’s done, before you may see it.” He said as we backed up and he gave his work some last, finishing touches before stowing it away into a drawer. “So, what brings you here, this evening?”
Markus gave us a warm smile, which we gladly returned. “I just wanted to see how you are doing, now that you are in Canterlot.” We replied.
Markus’s smile shifted over to one side and he playfully shook his head. “Well, as you can see, I’m doing just fine. Actually, this all went more smoothly than I had expected.”
“I am certainly glad to hear that.” We said with a smile, however it faded, as a sense of realization washed over us. “But that also means that you haven’t come any further in your… other endeavor, doesn’t it?”
Markus’s smile faded as well, as he now looked at me with a slightly more serious expression. “Well, I never said that it would be a fast process. Things like these need their time and with me being currently occupied with other projects…” He tapped the drawer, into which he had put his parchment, to emphasize his point. “… I don’t really get to actively search either. That’s why I got you into our boat, Luna. You can traverse the Palace freely without erecting any suspicion and thus will likely be more successful in finding what we are searching for. All I can do is try to get their attention and hope that they contact either of us.”
A short, uncomfortable silence ensued, our mood slightly soured by that last bit of uncertainty that Markus had mentioned. He himself, however, let a smirk play over his lips.
“But enough with these unpleasant thoughts. I suppose it is time for you to take over, is it not?”
We looked at the clock on the far wall to see that it was indeed time for us to start heading towards the throne room.
“Indeed it is.” We said, as we looked back at Markus. Thoughts of the night to come washed through our mind… not necessarily pleasant ones, we might add. For you see: contrary to what it may seem like, being a princess is actually less of a luxurious life, than it is one of constantly being on duty without any chance to relax most of the time, the recent activation of Markus and thus resulting uproar from the nobles only adding to our inappetence.
Our being still for quite a long time seemed to alert Markus a little, as he started waving his hand before our face.
“Hello, Luna? Are you still alive?”
Sliding back into reality, we noticed Markus’s concerned look, which dissipated as soon as we moved again.
“Yes. I’m sorry, I just thought about the rather unpleasant night that lay ahead.” We said with a forced smile, which we didn’t bother facading.
Markus chuckled before, with a clap, he spoke up: “Well then, since I am done working for today, how about I accompany you for a bit?”
Slightly taken aback by Markus’s suggestion, it took us a while to answer – with a yes, of course. He lifted himself off his chair, which was obviously too small for him, and gestured us outside. However, as we were about to exit the room, we noticed Markus’s gear, including his weapon, leaning openly against the wall.
“Say, Markus, considering your suspicions concerning the guards, do you really find it a good idea to leave your gear just lying around like that?”
Markus just shrugged at this.
“No, I don’t, actually. Albeit that is not because I trust your guards, but because Twilight had helped me train my magic abilities, with which I can make my room completely secure.”
We gave him a skeptical look, as we knew not even our magic could completely shield a room from any malicious acts. Seeing my look, he smirked and offered me to demonstrate. We both exited the room and he closed the door, followed by a short swipe up and down before it.
“Now, how about you try to open the door, princess?”
We nodded and charged our magic, expecting a strong resistance from the door. However, we found that there was no resistance at all, which almost resulted in us ripping the door from its hinges. Now it was our turn to smirk.
“It does seem like your spell didn’t work, Markus.”
The answer came in the form of a look that just so screamed ‘Are you sure about that?’.
“If that’s the case, then how about you take a look inside?” He said.
We did just that, sticking our head out from behind the open door and looking into his room. Well, if there would have been a room to look at, that is, as instead we found ourselves looking into a wall.
“You- Wha- How?!” We stammered as Markus let a victorious smile cross his lips.
“That, dear princess, shall stay my secret for now. And apropos now: we really should get going, don’t you think?”
Reminded of our duties, we quickly slammed the door shut and made haste to get to the throne room, Markus quickly trailing behind. However, as we reached it, Celestia seemed to still be inside, judging by the voices coming from within.
“… and not to mention that you have trained a whole company just to give it to him! With all due respect Princess, but that is too much!”
We immediately recognized the voice as that of Sharp Beak, the Gryphon Ambassador in Canterlot.
“I can understand that you have taken a foreign veteran into your ranks, considering the state your military is in. But giving him command over an actual fighting force, as well as having him train them to his standards and liking is clearly a violation of the treaty of New Hoofington!”
We heard him approach the doors with a strong pace, so we quickly put a cloaking spell over us, while Markus hastily hid himself around a corner, just in time for the doors to open.
“I warn you, Princess! If we ever came to know about one of your units fighting even just close to our border, we will see this as an act of aggression!” The ambassador hissed, as he exited the throne room, with Celestia trailing closely behind him. Celestia stopped directly in front of us, while the Gryphon quickly made his way out of the Palace.
“You can uncloak yourself now, sister. I can feel you presence.” She said after a long, heavy sigh of relief.
We did as she asked, showing ourselves before her, albeit seeing Markus slightly took her by surprise.
“Oh, good evening, Markus.” She quickly greeted.
“Good evening, princess.” Markus answered with a bow, before looking to where the Gryphon went and back at Celestia.
Seemingly understanding his question, our sister quickly came to answer. “That was ‘Sharp Beak’, the Ambassador of the Gryphon Empire, to the north-east.”
Markus made a long, exaggerated nod. “Ah, I see. So, what is this ‘treaty of New Hoofington’ all about?”
Celestia looked at us, but we could only shake our head, considering that this whole ordeal went down only after our banishment.
With another sigh, she prepared for the tale she was about to start. “Alright, I suppose it would be of use for you to know… You see, Equestria has not always been a country as peaceful as it is now. In all honesty, the centuries shortly after Nightmare Moon`s Banishment were, If you would excuse the language, a mess. With our country heavily militarized due to the recent civil war, or as it is called now: ‘The war of the eternal night’, and the rising tensions to our Gryphon neighbors, it wasn’t long until war broke out. Sadly, I can’t deny being at least partially at fault for that.”
Celestia took a brief pause, eyeing Markus’s reaction, before continuing.
“The war was long, stretching over more than two centuries, with neither me, nor the many Gryphon kings ruling over the years, willing to end it. That is, until a very young king was crowned. Untainted by the merciless Gryphon traditions, he was the first one to finally pursue peace and – as I have to admit – bring me to my senses again. Only a year into his rule, we met up at the border-town of New Hoofington, which lay in ruin from the heavy fighting there. We both signed a treaty, which was meant to avoid any future conflict and essentially make war a complete impossibility. In it, we agreed to completely strip ourselves of any major military forces, only leaving what was necessary to defend ourselves, as well as ensure that there shall never be something as horrible as this war anywhere ever again.”
Celestia shifted her view from Markus to where the entrance to the palace lay.
“He has been visiting me regularly since your appointment, almost always pointing at this old agreement and, considering the past, I am willing to uphold the treaty as much as possible – even if it means to dissolve your company again, Markus.”
This had us slightly taken aback. We wanted to argue about the obvious inadequacy of her decision, however Markus waved it off.
“Don’t bother.” He said to Celestia. “First off, it would be strategically unwise, considering the threats we have met, regarding Luna’s almost-kidnapping. Secondly, if he really has been hammering on this one treaty for a while now, you can be sure that his side of it has already been broken long ago.”
Celestia gasped in shock, as he said this. However, we weren’t really surprised, which might be due to part of our mindset still being that from a thousand years ago, where times were a lot darker than they are now. Our sister had actively lived through the last millennium, likely changing together with the general mindset.
Markus gestured her to calm down, which our sister slowly managed to do. She couldn’t help but yawn, as she calmed herself, which wasn’t all too odd, considering she probably had been bickering with that ambassador for quite some time now.
“Sister, I think it would be better if you head to your chambers now. It is time to lower the sun, anyways.”
Celestia looked outside, where her sun was sitting low over the horizon, waiting for her to give the final command. She turned her head towards us and gave a tired smile.
“You are right Luna.” She said, as her horn glowed in her golden hue and the sun sunk below the horizon, while I rose the moon with my magic.
Stifling yet another yawn, Celestia then gave a quick farewell and slowly paced towards her chambers.
Markus and us went into the Throne Room and we started our nightly duties of holding night court. Just as most of the times, however, nopony came and thus we spent the first two hours talking with Markus, gladly indulging in his company. Then, sadly, the time came when he too retreated himself to his room.
It ought to be a quiet night and a quiet night, it was.