Melody wanted to vent about her recent heartbreak with Aether to somepony. She thought talking to an older pony like Sapphire would do the trick. Mostly because she wanted to get some advice from her about what to do next. So she asked for an audience with Sapphire and found out that her regular office hours were from 11am- 4pm.
As Melody rounded the corner to Sapphire's office she ran into Tumble, Sapphire's assistant.
"Oh, Melody, how are you doing?" Tumble asked.
"I'm doing fine," Melody said. "Is Head Guardian Sapphire around? I need to talk to her about something."
Tumble nodded. "Yes she's in her office but she's dealing with a little problem at the moment. Once she's done with that, she'll be able to see you."
Before Melody could say anything she heard Sapphire roar, "I don't care! How many times do I have to say no before you get it through your thick skull I. DON'T. WANT TO MARRY YOU! NOW, SINCE YOU DON'T LISTEN TO ME HERE'S A RESTRAINING ORDER!"
"You can't do this to me!" A familiar voice shrieked.
"Oh I can and I just did!" Sapphire shouted, "You've been served and if you violate this restraining order you will spend the rest of your days in a dungeon! Are we clear?"
There was a brief silence when Sapphire shouted, "ARE. WE. CLEAR?"
The stallion's voice answered with a small squeak, "Yes ma'am!"
"GOOD! NOW GET OUT OF MY OFFICE AND OUT OF MY SIGHT! AND DON'T EVER COME NEAR ME AGAIN AND DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON THE WAY OUT!" Sapphire roared.
Tumble giggled when she heard Sapphire shouting. "Yup! That's Sapphire for you! She doesn't take crap from anybody! She didn't get to be Head Guardian by bowing down to idiots like Prince Blueblood! I swear that pony acts like a three year old who just so happens to have a Royal Pedigree!"
As soon Tumble said that, Prince Blueblood came storming out of Sapphire's office and his face red with anger. When Prince Blueblood stomped past Tumble and Melody. Tumble covered her mouth with her hoof to herself from bursting out in a fit of laughter. Melody didn't need to have her eyesight to know how angry Prince Blueblood was as he walked away. She also tried to keep herself from laughing at the spectacle that just happened in front of her.
"Well looks like Sapphire's done dealing with her little problem. You can go in now," Tumble said.
Melody nodded and when she got near the door she knocked and heard Sapphire shout, "Come in!"
Melody entered the room and Sapphire smiled when she saw her. "Oh Melody! It's so nice to see a friendly face after what I just dealt with."
Sapphire went up to Melody and hugged her. She then went and sat down on a nearby chair and told Melody to have a seat next to her. "So what brings you here today?"
"Well I wanted to talk to you about Aether," Melody answered.
Sapphire tilted her head. "What about him?"
She sighed, "You know how I said that Aether rejected me so I decided to go out with Fancy Mark?"
Sapphire nodded. "Yes, why?"
"Well, I did go on a date with Fancy but I ran into Aether and he was with another mare…" Melody said.
"Have you ever thought that Aether rejected you because he had feelings for another mare?" Sapphire asked.
Melody sighed, "No I didn't think about it. Seeing that happened just hurt me."
"Are you guys still friends by chance?" Sapphire asked.
"Yes we are."
"Why don't you talk to Aether about how you feel. Aether seems like a reasonable stallion, he just might understand how you feel," Sapphire said.
"Well the other thing is that Aether kind of made it sound like I was the one who dumped him and not the other way around when he was talking to his marefriend," Melody growled.
Sapphire raised an eyebrow. "Seriously? Now that doesn't seem like the type of behavior that I would expect from Aether. But still I think you should give him the benefit of the doubt and talk to him."
"Yeah I guess so," Melody said. "I just don't know how to even bring it up."
Melody sighed because she almost wanted to tell Sapphire the real reason she was going out with Fancy but she couldn't. She just thought that Aether would support the plan and wait for her until the plan was finished.
"Well is that all you wanted to talk to me about?" Sapphire asked.
"That was part of it but I also came by to see how you were doing," Melody said.
Sapphire nodded and she and Melody spent at least an hour talking about random things and then Sapphire had her next appointment and Melody went home.
***
After the next training session Melody decided it would be a good idea to pull Aether off to the side and talk to him about how she felt about what happened the last time she ran into him.
"Aether, can I talk to you for a moment?" Melody asked.
Aether nodded. "Yeah, sure there's something that I'd like to talk to you about as well."
"Oh um, okay so that mare I saw you with the other day was your girlfriend?" Melody said.
Aether shook his head and he was going to say something but he paused. "Can I talk to you about this someplace else?"
"Sure, why?"
"Because this isn't something that should be out in the open. Silme wants to eat her carrot in private."
"Oh. Okay…"
Aether pulled Melody over by the stall where his wendigo was.
"Okay so what do you want to talk to me about?" Aether asked.
Melody rubbed the back of her neck. "Well, that mare that I saw you with when I was on my date with Fancy, is she your marefriend?"
Aether shook his head. "No she's not, she's my cousin."
"Oh, I thought she was your marefriend because of what she said about me being the one who dumped you. What was that about anyway?" Melody asked.
"Silme doesn't want carrots anymore, she wants apples!" Aether declared. He was trying to tell her in a way that was encrypted enough for her to understand. It was mostly because he was afraid that somepony might overhear what he and Melody were talking about.
Melody tilted her head. "What?"
"Silme told me that she wants apples now and she wants to share them because it's all part of the plan," Aether said.
Melody frowned and gave Aether a confused look. She knew "Silme wants a carrot" is their codewords for something's up with their plan to out Fancy as a soon to be traitor. But Silme wants apples? She had no idea what that meant.
"What I mean is, Silme likes carrots but she-" Aether started.
"Could you please explain to me what you're trying to say without being so cryptic about it?" Melody asked with annoyance.
Aether leaned over and whispered into her ear. "I was trying to help make things more believable. I didn't mean to make you upset. So Silme wants an apple to share with you. She's doing her part just like you are."
Melody's eyes went wide when she understood what Aether was talking about. "Oh… Oh! Sorry I was an idiot! I just assumed-"
"Oh don't worry about it. But I will do whatever I can to help," Aether said.
"Actually, let's just stop this," Melody said.
Aether paused. "Huh?"
"Yeah let's stop the secrecy," Melody said, "because I don't want to lose you as a friend. And to be honest I don't like Fancy like that. If anything, I like you like that."
Aether blinked. He had no idea what to say about this confession of love from Melody. He was in love with Melody and he had planned on confessing his love to her sometime in the future he thought maybe he would do it after the plan with Fancy was over with. He smiled. "I like you like that too. I just wanted to help and I made a misunderstanding between us. I'm sorry."
"It's okay now that I know what's going on. I'll talk to Fancy as soon as I can and break up with him," Melody said.
Aether grimaced. "Yeah, that's not going to be a pleasant reaction to the break up. I hope he doesn't take it too hard."
Melody sighed, "Yeah I agree. I hope he doesn't take it too hard."
With that, Melody and Aether parted ways, both of them feeling much better about clearing up their misunderstanding.
***
Prince Purple walked down the hallway towards Sapphire's office because he had been summoned there yet again. At this point he was starting to get used to being summoned because it gave him an excuse to talk to Sapphire even though they're not dating. When Prince Purple rounded the corner and got near Sapphire's office he stopped short. He heard Sapphire arguing with a couple of ponies and he recognized their voices. The voices belonged to the three Elder's who are Sapphire's Bosses. Their names are Elder Facade, Elder Dazzleflash, and Elder Firefly.
Prince Purple could tell by the sound of the argument that it was about him.
"Listen here Sapphire, he pulled a gun out on Master Shi! How on earth can you let that slide?" Elder Dazzleflash said.
"And not only that he used his buddy in the military to go after you for treason just for doing your job!" Elder Firefly said.
"Not to mention he's a Prince who probably thinks he can get away with anything! This is exactly why we had our reservations about adding any pony who's from the military into being a Gate Guardian!" Elder Facade said.
"I know but-" Sapphire started.
"And another thing, we think you've been getting too soft when it comes down to handing out discipline," Elder Facade said.
"Soft? Me? I've followed your orders down to a T! I even put the Gate Guardians on house arrest under your orders!" Sapphire said.
"Yes you did, but under our orders," Elder Facade said. "You didn't do it because you knew it was the right thing to do within the power we were able to give you from the Royal Court. The Royal Court gave you the power to fire some pony from their job if need be. It's funny because you have no problem threatening somepony with the loss of their job because they're acting like an idiot. But when it comes down to actually following through you let it slide."
"But Prince Purple's a good worker, he just does things different-" Sapphire said.
"He does things differently?" Elder Facade snarled, "Oh he does things different from us alright! He pulled a gun out on Master Shi and you just let it slide! If it were me I would've fired him as soon as I heard about it. There wouldn't have been any threats, just straight up fire him. You have the power to fire someone because the Royal Court gave that power to you.
"Not to mention you sent the Prince to infiltrate an enemy camp and he killed everyone in it just because he didn't like something someone said. His job was to infiltrate and spy on the enemy, not kill them just because they looked at him sideways. So hand Prince Purple his pink slip and fire him and then you have another very important meeting to get to today. Am I clear?"
Sapphire sighed, "Crystal clear sir."
"Good and don't worry about the Prince's military buddies coming after you for treason. We took care of all of the legal issues concerning that," Elder Facade said. "Not to mention the Prince is probably already standing outside listening to us."
Prince Purple took that as his cue to enter the room. When he entered he saw three elderly ponies sitting across from Sapphire's desk and Sapphire was sitting at her desk glaring at the ponies. After she looked up at Prince Purple her gaze darkened even more.
She motioned for him to take a seat next to Elder Facade in an empty chair. Sapphire sighed, "Prince Purple I'm pretty sure that you heard most of that conversation?"
Prince Purple nodded. "Yes ma'am." He looked at Elder Facade. "To be fair, Head Guardian Sapphire has been doing her job to the best of her abilities. But the military problems aren't my fault and I didn't use that to try and intimidate her."
Elder Facade rolled his eyes. "Oh please give me a break, Your Highness! You're just like every other Royal who waltzes in and oversteps their boundaries just because they think too highly of themselves."
"Really?" Prince Purple snapped. "You think that low of me after everything I've done for Equestria? After all the wars I've been in to make sure Equestria stays safe? I'm not like all of the other Royal's because-"
Elder Facade got off his chair and got right up in Prince Purple's face. "Listen to me Your Highness, I don't like your tone so you'd better watch it! I've been in plenty of wars myself before I got to this position. I worked my flank off to get to where I am today. If I messed up at my job I'd be in trouble too. You're not above the law just because you're a person of Royalty. As a matter of fact, I think it's time we give you a lesson about how you're not above the law."
He turned his attention to Sapphire. "Ms. Sapphire, please hand him his letter."
Sapphire did as she was told. Prince Purple took the letter and frowned. "You know you're going to regret this right?"
Elder Facade laughed, "Oh we won't regret this because we don't need a suicidal maniac like you working as a Guardain. But hey look on the bright side! You still have your other job in the military. So you can do what you do best over there. You're not cut out to be a Gate Guardian period."
Prince Purple looked over at Sapphire who at this point was looking everywhere else but at him. "Head Guardian Sapphire?"
She looked at him. "Yes, Prince Purple?"
"You don't think low of me do you?" He asked.
She shook her head. "No I don't. This is out of my hooves please don't make this harder than what it has to be…"
Elder Facade laughed a wicked laugh, "Aww isn't that cute! It's a shame you two aren't dating. You'd make a cute couple!"
Sapphire looked like she wanted to say something but she chose to keep her mouth shut. Prince Purple didn't like the way Elder Facade practically taunted Sapphire about not dating him. He had a feeling that if he defended himself further it would make things worse.
"Is there anything else you need from me?" Prince Purple asked.
"Nope, you can go," Elder Facade said.
"Elder Facade!" Sapphire said, "This is my office!"
Elder Facade sneered at her, "And?"
"Shouldn't you at least show me some respect by letting me dismiss the Prince?" Sapphire said.
Elder Facade scoffed, "Last time I checked I'm your Boss. So you can't tell me what to do!"
"Facade please calm down!" Elder Dazzleflash said, "You're gonna give yourself a heart attack if you keep going this way."
Elder Facade scoffed again, "I'm perfectly fine thank you very much." He glared at Prince Purple. "Now Your Highness, you're dismissed!"
“For one I didn’t want to be a Prince in the first place, Elder Facade! And get your facts straight because I didn’t want to be a Prince!” said Purple, “I just became one to make Princess Twilight happy! I just wanted a normal life, not one filled with politics! The life I wanted was a quiet settled down life with a girlfriend or a wife and a few foals! But excuse me for relying on my elite specialized military training to survive in a civilian world! What I did as a special forces soldier would make you cry like a foal or run away like a foal! To me you’re the type who would sit behind a desk and give orders and not be with his soldiers through the mud and the blood! By the look of it you never seen your friends who were more brotherly and more sisterly to you die in ways you can’t forget and you never thought could happen or in never imagined ways! For two get out of my face or something bad will happen to you and if you want to fight well everything in Ms. Sapphire’s office is a weapon even the other two Elders, Sapphire herself and even you’re a weapon I can use to fight you.”
“Also your vibe strikes me as ‘The superior officer is always right and never wrong’ yeah I thought that too until my superior officer told my unit to open fire at a enemy combat group but it was actually a friendly unit who was under radio silence and two ponies in the other group were more of a brother and sister to me than my own brother and sister. You’re the type that gets mileage out of everything and thinks that commanding officers aren’t wrong. And how you sound you never had to sit and watch your friends get gassed to death, asphyx to death, get shot, get torn to shreds or burn to death. Also I highly doubt on your twentieth birthday you got hot under the collar which got your two best friends since kindergarten who were more of brothers to you than your own brother died because you got hot under the collar, I have and I have to live with it while you don’t.
"I have to live with the decisions I had to make. What would you have done? I have to live with the conscience of ninety thousand soldiers’ deaths. I have to live with the tough decisions I had to make. What would any of you four have done instead? Out of the four of you only one I can see who would be a frontline officer would be Head Guardian Sapphire Rose while you three would be hundreds if not thousands of miles behind friendly lines sitting in an office. I didn’t become Lieutenant General in the Equestrian Army and Equestrian Special Forces by going to Officer Candidate School. I did it by being brutal and savage in war. I did it because I had the guts by not playing by the books. If you don’t like how I was trained then go cry to Brigadier General Ruby Velvet or Major General Flavor Wings. Go cry to my parents about it… Oh wait, my biological parents have been dead for almost forty one years, my adoptive mother has been dead for nineteen years, and my adoptive father has been dead for seventeen years, the mares in my family will ‘listen’ to you three Elders. Also, have any of you had to deal with super weapons, wonder weapons, killing high ranking officers, destroying prototypes in heavily defended bases or whatnot? I’m the one that the military calls when they don’t have no one else qualified for it.”
"Also two and a half hours ago I put in my resignation papers so I'm no longer a Prince. And Elder Facade get off of your high horse and stop acting like you're better than everypony else. Get your head out of your butt ya moron. You're acting like half of my sexist, misogynistic family members and half of my family that act like their foals and to me you're acting like a foal. If it wasn't for me then eleven years ago all of you would be skeletons or soaked with fatal levels of radiation with the rest of Canterlot."
"Also when you said 'Aww isn't that cute! It's a shame you two aren't dating. You'd make a cute couple' well I did have a crush on Sapphire but I'm not going to push my luck by asking her out on a date because I already know that her answer is no even though Princess Twilight set us up on an unwanted date. Also Fa-idiot, it’s Lieutenant General Purple not Prince Purple. Have a good day Elder Dazzleflash, Elder Firefly, and Head Guardian Sapphire. Elder Fa-moron? I'll see you in Hell! Also all of you just locked yourselves out of new intel from my spies in Phantasia’s army and my specialist can anticipate Phantasia’s movements and tap into their communications and my spies give me what Phantasia is planning. I’m sure his ex will give you intel that’s older than mold on bread and sing any tune you want her to sing or is it whistle any tune y’all want her too. Also I didn’t sic Lieutenant-Colonel Vigorous Orchestria on her and she won’t take any of y’all to court, her court is bullets and special made munitions that can penetrate magical shields that no matter how strong the shield is the special munitions can penetrate the shield and either seriously harm or kill the ones in the shield. I’ve also been through hell on Equss that would make you three run like foals! Have any of you been told to defend a spot but at night it’s so dark you can’t see your snout? And the enemy will slip up on you and slit your throat before you can scream? And your buddies who are more family to you than your own family sleeping next to you and if the enemy is right in front of you then they’ll kill you or capture you before you can warn them. No? Then don’t act like you know what going through hell is like! Fa-Idiot you’re lucky that I didn’t shove you out of my face and if you want a war Facade then you’ll need a closed coffin funeral! Good day Ms. Sapphire, the rest I’ll see in Hell."
He got up from his seat and left the room.
***
Once Prince Purple left, Sapphire took a deep breath and let it out, "I think you've made a mistake Elder Facade."
Elder Facade groaned, "You see this is exactly what I'm talking about. And don't give me this BS about we're burning bridges and stuff like that. Don't worry, I got friends in high places so we'll be fine on intel and besides we can always send in another pony who can do a better job of spying on ponies. And I'm pretty sure the Prince's replacement won't go killing ponies just because they looked at him sideways. Do you know how many ponies would be dead if I did that?"
When Sapphire didn't respond Elder Facade said, "A LOT OF PONIES! Actually, just about every other pony I meet would be dead! The cashier at the grocery store would be dead, the pony who mows my lawn every other weekend would be dead, my dog sitter would be dead. That was exactly why I don't interact with those ponies much because they have very conflicting viewpoints on just about everything!
"I've had to do jobs that I didn't like when I was serving as a soldier underneath someone and I didn't go killing people just because I thought I knew best. Nobody knows better than their superiors."
At this point Elder Dazzleflash and Elder Firefly went silent and they just sat there listening to Elder Facade ramble on and lecture Sapphire about things.
"But what if the superior is actually wrong and makes a mistake?" Sapphire questioned.
Elder Facade's left eye twitched in annoyance. "Did you hear a word that I just said?"
"But nopony's perfect on things and I'm sure you might've made a mistake or two when handing down orders to somepony," Sapphire said.
"Let me tell you again, nobody knows better than their superiors! Just like the Prince doesn't know better than you and you don't know better than I do!" Elder Facade said, "Do you understand me?"
Sapphire gave a defeated sigh, "Yes sir. I understand."
Elder Facade nodded. "Good. Now remember how I said you have another important meeting today?"
Sapphire nodded. "Yes."
"Follow me, she's in a dungeon right now," Elder Facade said.
He got off his chair and Elder Dazzleflash and Elder Firefly along with Sapphire got off their chairs and followed suit. They walked downstairs to the front of the castle and got a carriage ride to the other side of town where the dungeon's were located. Once they got out of the carriage they walked into the building and after checking to let the officers on duty know they were there they headed downstairs to the dungeon.
They walked down another hallway that was very dimly lit so bad that Sapphire could barely see the back of her hoof. Elder Facade finally came to a halt in front of a dungeon. He smiled when he took out a set of keys that he had gotten from the jailer and unlocked the dungeon's door.
When the door opened it revealed a young earth pony mare who had to be at least in her early twenties. Her fur was light blue and her mane was white. She had a cutie mark that was a lightning bolt coming out of a dark gray cloud. The mare looked like she hadn't slept in days.
Elder Facade smiled at the mare as if she was a long lost friend. "Ah! Rapid Chaser! It's so nice to see you again. It's good to know you've kept your word about staying in this hellhole to show us that you don't have ill-intentions."
Rapid blinked. "I only agreed to work with you guys to break the dark magic on Little Snack. And in return, I will give you information on my ex-boyfriend Phantasia."
Elder Facade nodded. "Mhm and you know what happens once the deal has been fulfilled right?"
Rapid shook her head. "No, I don't."
"You'll be put on trial for treason and more than likely because you gave vital information on how to bring Phantasia down, you'll be sitting in a dungeon for the rest of your life," Elder Facade said.
Rapid sighed, "I should've known I wouldn't have been allowed to go free even after I helped."
Elder Facade shrugged. "Eh, that's too bad because that's the way the cookie crumbles. Think of this as a reward. We can't banish you from Equestria because the information that you have could fall into the wrong hooves. And I don't think the Royal Court will want to execute you after helping them out. So you'll be able to live. Granted it won't be a nice cozy life from here on out but at least you'll be able to live and the same thing goes for your friend Little Snack."
At this point Sapphire was starting to feel a little uneasy about things and she didn't know why. She hated Elder Facade because of his choice of words to Rapid and to Prince Purple. She hated the way he talked down to Prince Purple as if he was just the dirt beneath his hooves. She made a resolve to write Prince Purple an apology note about what happened.
Elder Facade cleared his throat, "Oh Ms. Sapphire, could you please snap out of la la land? Overthinking things isn't going to get you anywhere at the moment. Let's focus on what Rapid has to tell us."
Sapphire nodded and tried her best to pay attention to the information Rapid relayed to them. Rapid gave them a lot of details about what Phantasia planned to do for Equestria a lot of which Sapphire casted a recording spell just to record Rapid's voice to go over the information later. Sapphire kept to the other end of the bargain by breaking the very complex magic the Phantasia put Little Snack under. Even though Little Snack was confused and disoriented after the spell was broken she slowly started to turn back into her old self again.
Once everything was said and done Sapphire and the Elder's parted ways and Sapphire went home to get started on writing that apology note to Purple.
***
Three days after Prince Purple was fired from being a Gate Guardian he received a note that had the Head Guardian Sapphire's seal on it. Curious as to what the letter would say, Prince Purple opened it. The letter read like this:
Dear Prince Purple,
I hope this letter finds you alive and well. I'm writing this to apologize to you about how everything went down three days ago. While I can't get you your job back as a Gate Guardian even though you were on the reserve team I'm very sorry for Elder Facade's condescending attitude towards you. He doesn't seem to understand that not all ponies within the Royal Family act like Prince Blueblood.
I still extend my hoof in friendship with you. That is if you still want to be my friend? If not, then I totally understand. Again I'm sorry about how everything went down and I think things could've been handled better.
Sincerely,
Head Guardian Sapphire Rose
Prince Purple smiled as he read the letter. He'd love to stay friends with Sapphire and that was the most heartfelt note he'd gotten in a while from somepony. So he decided to pay Sapphire a visit at her office to clear the air so to speak.
He talked to her about the note and accepted her apology. They continued being friends even though they weren't coworkers anymore.
***
Elder Facade sat in his living room. He was restless so he got up and went to the balcony of his bedroom to get some fresh air. He went upstairs to the balcony because he didn't want anyone to find out what he was talking to himself about.
Actually he was talking into his recorder about his future plans for Equestria once Phantasia was dealt with.
He sighed and pressed the record button on his recorder, "Journal entry #999…. Phase one of taking over Equestria is complete. I have all if not most of the information that Phantasia's ex-girlfriend Rapid Chaser gave me. And thanks to the connections that I have in high places within the government it shouldn't be too hard to stage a coup once Phantasia is dealt with. Honestly, I think gender shouldn't matter when it comes down to ruling a country.
"I think it should all come down to bloodline and bloodline only. I think I have the perfect bloodline and I'm the perfect ruler for Equestria! Not to mention I already have a child who can be the heir to the throne. But it'll have to wait until Phantasia is dealt with and once he is dealt with Equestria will be mine for the taking!"
He laughed a sinister laugh and after he was done laughing he put his recorder away in what he thought was a safe hiding spot. After he did that he went to bed.