//------------------------------// // 27. Clean up Duties // Story: The Unbroken Spear // by Jamis //------------------------------// The paperwork had piled up again. As it turns out that some of the more remote communities in Equestria which were barley on any maps had had the rough of it during the "Chaos effect" as some were calling it. And as it turned out, initial reports hadn't considered the most minor communities when it came to damages and injuries. Homes crushed from the strain of seemly random effects and occurrences. "Chaos effect" was not the only title floating around for it, "The discord" was also popular for simple reasons, "Entropy field" was another good choice. Some even resurrected an old name for Discord's rule, the "Blight'd". Regardless of the name everypony had a small story to share, you don't just have the laws of physics take a vacation for every resident of a country and expect there to be no lasting impact. Books were being written, interviews, media and even the entertainment industry tapped into the "Chaos craze" as it had been coined by the news. The entirety of the country had been effected and thus in some form given a commonality to the ponies of Equestria. Everypony was effected. Atreus was not needed to help Luna or her sister with the relief aid to those small communities. Not that he not not work. He did keep an eye on the guard, yes the guard, as in he made sure that both halves were assigned to their proper missions. The newest recruits were given tutelage where they struggled, the reports from the spies were read, and the solar guard was assisted, much to Captain Shining's relief. His was still the larger of the two guard cores and thus needed more orders. "Shadow Wing," Pantheon walked through the training yard and noted his friend stood overlooking her lower ranked subordinates "are you alright? You seem tired." She sighed and nodded, her eyes a shade of red with bags beneath them. "I am, being part of the relief efforts the Lunar guard has been busy, and I have had my sleep schedule thrown about." she answered honestly and began to walk with the man. "How long have you been awake?" the thestral paused and considered her time for a moment before she answered in a semi mumble. "Probably 18 hours at this point, a couple more and I'll go to bed though." a hand placed itself on her shoulder and she stopped. The mare turned her head to the warrior and shot him a questioning gaze. "You are going to bed now, I'll take care of your remaining duties for today." the minor accent was still present after all this time and the firmness of his words was equally as present. "I didn't realize I took orders from you Atreus." her tone was light almost joking, but a another look of expectation from the man made her sigh "Fine, but don't complain when it makes you tired." A smile and yawn was the only things the Targonian saw before she stretched and left towards he quarters near the barracks. 'Good, now I just have to find out what her duties were today.' a small smile met his lips at his own oversight. ... The sisters sat in the dinning hall and ate in silence before Celestia spoke, "I'm done with the majority of the paperwork, I can begin the day court in full again. I would suggest you open at least a few hours tonight as well, I feel you will get a lot of overflow petitioners." Luna nodded and ate another bite of the her pasta, she found that there was a bit too much cheese in tonight's dish. "I am in much the same situation, so I will follow your advice." a pause of silence, "I asked my guards to find what Atreus was doing since he is not here. Apparently he is covering for Captain Shadow Wing so she can rest." Celestia nodded, "I admit I am not used to the lack of his company but, we do have to keep our ponies healthy, we are not the only ones working overtime after." the sisters shared a small nod between them before the meal resumed. The side dishes were rather interesting to say the least, lots of tomato and herbs in a fresh baked bread, all this pasta and bread was heavy on the carbs. 'Thank Faust there is a salad.' Luna's thoughts were interrupted by the realization that both of them had finished their plates, 'Back to work.' ... "That would solve the route issues with getting such large amounts of supplies to the settlement no?" The man’s word spoke about coordinating one of the few relief efforts that the night guard would do directly as a way to engage positively with the populace. Atreus had skipped the usual meal with the sisters, in favour of a quicker alternative before resuming the work load Shadow Wing had assigned herself, 'Thank all that is good that I took the reigns from her when I did, or she may not have made it through today without burning out.' Needless to say the next few hours were still hard even with healthful food. "Yes Pantheon," the awkwardness of the 'title' had worn off after he had shown his self to be capable to those under his command. "Good, now what about our concerns about the locals being superstitious towards our threstral troops?" it went without saying that was almost certainly the case but Atreus felt the need to confirm. "They have decent contact with other villages but they are still small, I would reckon they'll be open to us, once we show we are there to help." one of the most vocal officers had been of great help when it came to distributing orders. "See to it then, I'll be turning my attention elsewhere. Your captain will need to be briefed tomorrow on the decisions made here." as he left the room the majority saluted, others too preoccupied to notice. As the man walked through the castle halls the light from Luna's moon shone on his breast plate, and the weapons on his back. The walk was rather quiet, though he could hear distance guard activity. Several minutes later he found himself stood in front of the guards to the sides of the door to the hall. This hall had his room and Luna's own chambers. A small salute from the guards stationed there and he was through to the cross roads as it were. He noted that light came from under the door to Luna's chambers and knocked. After a moment he slowly opened the door and walked in. Had he been anyone else he might have waited to be let in, or allow to enter. "Atreus," Luna greeted him and smiled she stood up from her chair, it seemed she was still working, "I just got back from night court, a few petitioners brought paperwork for their claims, I am reviewing the ones I approved before I sign off on them." The alicorn walked over to him as he further entered her office. "You've started up court again?" the question was asked as the two moved into a small living room before the pair sat on a couch together. Pantheon was to the Lunar princess' right side, "I assume it was a busy affair?" the man removed his helmet and laid his weapons on the table in front of them. "Yes, so was my sister's court apparently. We missed you at dinner." she leaned over to rest her head on his left shoulder, her horn pointed out forward as the side of her head found its roost. Her eyes were partially closed as she breathed out a relaxed sigh. "I take it that you did eat sometime, even if it was just before coming here?" A smile crept to his lips at her worry, "Yes don't worry." She let out a seemingly annoyed huff as she straighten her neck and turned to looked him in the eye, "I'll worry if I want to, it is not you place to order a princess around." the playfully sarcastic tone was enough to earn a hum from Atreus as he smiled further. He put his arm around her left shoulder. As he did, she put her hand onto his left, her expression from faking annoyance to a small smirk, "If anypony saw us right now." "Even if they did we are not doing anything wrong. It doesn't mean anything if our relationship is seen, we just wanted to develop it before then no?" she nodded and closed her eyes after resuming her rest on his shoulder. "This might be the first time we've done this, relaxing together I mean. It has always been working together or just being in the same room as we do our own work." her left hand dropped as her other searched and found his right hand. They lightly squeezed each other's fingers as the silence. "Hmmm," the tone was one of agreement with her last statment, "we did not get to have time together today, so some time for just us is our choice." the man leaned his head on her's, the intimate moment lasted some minutes before it passed. As they both wordlessly withdrew themselves from each other to stand he spoke again. "But we do need to get some sleep, I feel tomorrow will be quite similar to today.” The two of them kissed, after a moment Luna spoke, “Don’t forget to grab your things when you leave, ponies might wonder why you left them here.” a small giggle Lead to her touching his face with her hand and then turning to leave for her bed, “Goodnight Atreus.” “Good night Luna.” Pantheon picked up his belongs before he made his way out of her chambers to enter his own. He removed his arms and armor before he sat down to give each of them a quick bit of maintenance. He then crawled to his bed and began to relax his thoughts. ... Celestia yawned as she brought her hands to the loose strands of her mane that fell into her eyes as she sat up in her bed. She walked to her bathroom and began to prepare her self for the day ahead. Brush her hair, then her teeth, make sure she doesn't use the same brush to do, remind her self of the one time in her life she did, wash her face, wash her hands, dry both, change her clothes, dawn her regalia, have it dawn on her to meet Luna outside their towers to lower her sister's moon, then bring the dawn, the list went on. Escorted by a pair of guards she made her way to the dinning hall to eat breakfast. As she arrived the guards departed to elsewhere, other guards of her own already present in the room, along side some of Luna's. She sat down and her punctual companions entered the room. Luna's mane moved like her own, and seemed to wink in the sunlight as if it was fighting to shine brighter. Atreus had his weapons on his back, the star on his breastplate a brilliant red, the blue tint of the rest of the metal contrasted with the gold of the rest of his armor, but that was the point she reminded herself. That he may be a part of the night guard but he was still apart from them, if you would forgive the homonym. 'You could even interpret that he wears gold coloured armour like my guards. A sort of fusion, which is not. Atreus, and Pantheon will always be different than a sum of either Luna or I.' Her thoughts were interrupted by a servant placing her breakfast in front of her, she shot a smile to the pair as two more servants came to do the same for them. As they ate she spoke, "We missed you last night Atreus. I presume that everything you need to do was handled?" The man had of course taken off his helmet to eat, his eyes met hers, "Yes, I will meet Shadow Wing today to ensure her officers are able to give her a full briefing and that she is well." he gave her a small smile before he turned his close shaven head back to his plate. "Do you not trust them to do an adequate job?" the solar princess' tone was teasing but she was curious to the reasoning behind his words. "I was the only one there the whole time she missed, I am the best suited to informing her on what most of her offices might have missed, that I know." the man did not look up as he spoke, it was the most simple of reasons, he knew, they may not. Best to take some time from his own duties, to speak with her in order to save her some trouble. "Hmmm." Luna for her part was only listening slightly, she was no doubt more focused on either her food or thought of her own work. Breakfast concluded, it was not as fast as it had been in their previously busy days, but still not as relaxed as it had been. Once Celestia had made it to her desk she saw an envelope that was labeled urgent on the top of her work pile, "Hmm?" she let out a hum of her own as she saw it, "What is this?" The princess sat down and began tear the paper open. Princess Celestia, I have received reports from some guards of a series of northern villages which seem to share a new and slowly growing, well for the lack of a better word, cult. They call themselves "The followers of Discord", though other branches of this cult go by the name "The Children of Entropy". The guards in these towns report that the cults have set up in various locations and that while they have yet to do anything illegal. My closest officers and I find the idea of ponies worshiping or at the very least idolizing Discord to be troubling. I would suggest you bring this to your sister for possible reconnaissance or imitate action on the Solar guards part. Since Discord is an enemy of Equestria, we could in a pinch deem their behavior as possible treason or at the very least dangerous to the populous. -Captain Shining Armor of the Solar guard The princess thought for a moment after reading the report, 'I suppose putting that new spy network to use would not be a bad idea after all, though why my...our little ponies are doing this is beyond me.'