Like a shadow
Twilight could not believe the sheer amount of paperwork required for the The Protectorate of Ponyville to be legally accepted as a country. But in the end, she finished them. All seven hundred and thirty two forms, all filled in triplicate, and all of them all legalised.
All that was left was for her to personally deliver them to their new destination, the Royal Archives, say goodbye to the princesses and head home.
By the time the bureaucrats at the Royal Archives got done with the papers the sun had long since set, and Princess Celestia had probably went to sleep a while ago. Still, Twilight went to the palace, where she could sayher goodbyes to Princess Luna at least.
To her surprise, as she walked through the hallways, she could see them filled with members of the Nightwatch, the personal guards of Luna, and all of them were injured to some degree. When Princess Twilight passed by, those who could stand stood in attention and saluted her, while the ones that couldn't only saluted her.
When she heard screams coming from the throne room Twilight ran there and bursted in.
The red carpet that lead to the royal throne was rolled away, and in the middle of the room stood Princess Luna surrounded by two dozens Nightwatch soldiers, unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies alike, all in full body armor and with their weapons drawn.
At a moment's notice, all of them attacked the princess.
Arrows flew, spears and javelins were thrown, and bolts of magic were shot towards the alicorn.
The spears and javelins were dodges, the arrows were deflected by a quickly erected magical barrier, and the magic bolts were countered by her own. She let the barrier fall, and then the princess returned fire, striking down all the Nightwatch ponies.
“Next!” Luna ordered without turning around.
“Princess?!” Twilight said as the group of soldiers went to join the rest of the injured in the hallway. “What’s going on?”
“Ah, hello there Twilight Sparkle,” Luna greeted her with a smile on her face. “I am just picking out my new guards.”
“What?” Twilight asked surprised by the answer she received.
“Yes,” Luna casually replied. “And this generation is proving to be more than impressive.”
Twilight only stared at the princess, her mouth held open, and her eyes wide with surprise.
“Look,” Luna said, proudly pointing towards her left. “I already found three. At this rate I may have to even let a few of them go.”
Luna was pointing towards three Nightwatch ponies, two pegasi and an unicorn, that were leaning against the throne room walls. Unlike the ones that she passed by, these three not only had the grey coat and and yellow eyes that the armor enchantments gave them, but had their mane also was turned dark blue, their irises dagger shaped and the pegasi had their wings changed into the bat like ones that everypony wrongfully thought that all Nightwatch pegasus possesed.
“How does the selection process go anyway?” Twilight asked as another group entered the room and took similar positions around Luna. It ended just like before, Luna was untouched and they were all down.
“That’s enough for tonight! Trials will resume tomorrow after I raise the moon! Take the injuries to the infirmary, and the rest of you leave us!” Luna ordered before turning to Twilight and resuming the explanations.
“The process is quite simple actually. First they attack me, and if any of them manage to touch me, be it with magic, conventional weapons, or by any other means they are selected.”
“And if they fail?” Twilight asked, having a good idea of what the princess was about to say.
“Then I attack them. And if any one of them manages to dodge, block or deflect my attack they are selected. Like I said, a simple process.”
“Don’t you think this is a little to... violent?”
“Twilight you never fail to surprise me,” the princess said before turning to the three Nightwatch ponies that passed her test. “You three should also head to the infirmary and get yourselves a full checkout.”
“Yes your Highness!” they replied and headed for the door.
“On your way there the kitchen staff I want some brownies.”
“Yes your Highness!” The door closed behind them, leaving Twilight and Luna alone in the throne room.
“You were saying something about my methods?” Luna asked as she levitated a quill and some parchments towards her, and went to take her place on the throne.
“It is just that I think that there are less violent, and more efficient ways of choosing a guard.”
“While there may be ways that are less violent, I highly doubt that they are more efficient. Using my method I can judge two dozen guards in a matter of seconds." Luna climbed the marble stairs, sat on the throne, and unrolled the red carpet towards the door. "Now tell me Twilight, are your methods more efficient than that?”
“No, Princess they are not. But I still believe that there is a better way to do this, a way that does not involve injuring ponies.”
“Twilight,” Luna spoke in a calm and soothing, almost motherly voice. “They are guards, my guards. It is their duty to fight and uphold the laws, and protect the nation and its citizens. And weather we want to admit it or not, theirs is a violent job. Twilight why do you think my sister and I require guards?”
“To...” she paused and thought about it a bit. “I don’t know. The obvious answer would have been to protect yourselves, but that would have been wrong, seeing how both of you are more than able to fend off any would be assailant.”
“That is true.”
“Then why?”
“You see Twilight, the alicorns are...” she paused and corrected herself. “The alicorns were a powerful race. Rivaled in power only by the greatest of dragons and the by those of the draconicus race...”
“Those? You mean to tell me that there are more creatures like Discord out there?!”
“No, as far as we know Discord is the last of his kind, and by far the strongest. But that is not the point of this conversation. As I was saying, an alicorns is powerful, and except for Discord himself there is nothing that can match us in shere magical strength...”
“But Chrysalis defeated Celestia!”
“A valid question, but I would appreciate it if you would stop interrupting me,” Luna said, more than a little ticked off by Twilight constant interference.
“Sorry,” Twilight apologised offering an embarrassed smile.
“About my sister, let’s just say that for the last thousand years, except for raising and lowering the sun and the moon, all she used her magic for was eating cake,” Luna tried to act serious but ended up laughing a few seconds later.
“I take it you read that old article.”
“I did, and I commissioned a life size painting of the picture for her next birthday,” Luna laughed a little more before calming down and resuming her talk with Twilight.
“The original reason the Royal Guard was founded was to defend Equestria. To protect our little ponies when my sister and I couldn’t...”
“Couldn't?” Twilight said before realising that she interrupted the princess again. “Sorry.”
“Yes Twilight, couldn’t. There were only two of us, and many threats to the country. Try as we must, there was no way we could have dealt with all of them on our own. So we picked the strongest soldiers of the all the three tribes armies, and formed the Royal Guard, under the leadership of Commander Hurricane himself. But you probably already knew that...”
“Actually Princess, I didn’t.”
“Huh, I guess they stopped teaching Equestrian military history while I was away.” Her ears twitched.
“You're late!” she suddenly said looking at the ceiling, squinting her eyes.
“Princess, who are you talking to?”
“Get down from there and introduce yourself.”
“Yes, mistress,” a voice said from above.
“And stop calling me that!”
“Yes, mis... Yes, Princess.”
Twilight kept scanning the ceiling for the owner of the voice but she could not see anything.
She looked at Luna, more exactly at her eyes, and Twilight could see as the princess's gaze was following something Twilight was unable to see. Slowly, the princess's eyes and head turned to the right, were lowered and then moved to the right until she was looking straight at Twilight.
“Twilight, meet your new guard, Specialist Dewdrop.”
“Greetings, little mistress,” a voice whispered in Twilight’s ear, scaring her. She jumped, flaped her wings a few times, and fell on her rear a few feet away.
“Oh my, looks like I scared you, sorry about that, little mistress," the pony that suddenly appeared behind Twilight told her.
“As Princess Luna said my name is Dewdrop, my rank is Specialist, and as you can see by my armor I am a member of the Nightwatch. ”
Twilight took a closer look at the pony standing in front of her.
She was a young looking unicorn mare, judging by her appearance alone she seemed about Twilight’s age, probably younger. Her eyes were yellow, her irises shaped like daggers, and despite wearing the enchanter armor of the Nightwatch her coat was an earthy brown, not gray like one would expect, while her main and tail were a mixt of silver and blue. In the middle of her chest, the magical gem that provided power to the armor enchantments was shaped like a stylised cyan spider.
“Hello, miss Dewdrop,” Twilight said as her heart calmed down after the scare she had.
“Princes,” Twilight turned towards Luna, “I don’t think I require a guard.”
“Nonsense, Twilight. Every princess has to have at least one guard protecting her at all times.”
“But Princess, you have no guards here with you.”
Luna chuckled. “Come out you two.”
From behind the throne two Nightwatch stallions appeared, while two more dropped from down from above, all of them had the same spider gem in the middle of their armor’s chestpiece, all of them were part of the Nightwatch.
“These are my personal guards. They, and many like them constantly watch over me and my sister.”
“All the time?” Twilight asked, a little unsettled by the fact that the princesses were never alone. “Even when you sleep?”
“Especially when we sleep.”
“Even when you...”
“All the time,” Luna told Twilight before her question became too personal. She waved her hoof and the four stallions vanished.
“Are they gone?” Twilight asked looking around.
“No,” Luna replied. “Just hidden. Just like your guard.”
“My guard?” Again Twilight looked around, but still could not see any signs of anypony being in the room, besides Luna and herself.
“So how can I make her show herself?” Twilight asked, still looking around.
“Well it depends, I for one just tell them to show themselves, Celestia calls them out by name, while Cadence...”
“Cadence has them too?!” Twilight said before realising how stupid her question was, and that she interrupted Luna again. “Sorry.”
“As I was saying, Cadence uses a code word, I think the word is corn dog, but for the life of me I can’t figure out why she choose such an odd word. You make her appear whenever you want, using any command you chose...”
“Dewdrop?” she said and looked around to see if the pony would appear.
“If you want her to show herself when you call out her name, you must first tell her so first.”
“Umm... Here goes. Dewdrop when I call out your name you will show yourself, do you understand?”
“She cannot answer you,” Luna told her.
“Why not?”
“Because she is hidden.”
Twilight face hoofed.
“Of course she is. Dewdrop.”
After saying the pony’s name, Dewdrop appeared behind her and whispered “yes, mistress,” in her ear.
“Aaa!” Twilight screamed as again, the pony’s appearance scared her. “Would you stop doing that!?”
“Yes, mistress.”
“And stop calling me mistress!”
“Yes Princess.”
“Uhh...”
“By the way Twilight, why did you come here in the first place?” Luna asked.
“Oh right. I came here to say that I am finished with the paperwork, and I will be heading for Ponyville on the midnight train.”
“I am impressed, Twilight. You finished all that in just a day! It took me almost a month to get all... Wait, did you say the midnight train?”
“Yes, I did. Why?”
“Guards!”
The doors to the throne room slammed open as two Nightwatch guards burst into the room. “Princess, what is wrong?!”
“Send word to the train station immediately and tell them to delay the midnight train until Princess Twilight gets on it!”
“Right away,” they said as they ran away, slamming the door behind them.
“You should also be going Twilight. Midnight is almost here, and we wouldn’t want to keep them waiting for too long.”
“Yes, right! Dewdrop come on, we will talk on the train.”
“Yes, Princess.”
“Goodnight Luna,” Twilight said as they exited through the door and ran towards the train station.
No sooner as Dewdrop and Twilight exited the castle and reached the city street did the clocktower chime twelve times, and Twilight understood why the Princess sent the guards ahead to stop the train.
Not wanting to make the ponies any more late than they already were, the two ran as fast as they could through the city streets. Eventually, they reached the station, and the midnight train departed, with only a few minutes delay. Time that was quickly made up by the conductor.
In their train car Twilight and Dewdrop stood alone, and the young alicorn thought that this would have been as good a time as any for the two of them to spend some time together, so that she could get to know her new guard a little better. There was very little else she could have done during the three hours long train ride from Canterlot to Ponyville.
“So...” Twilight started the interrogation. “What exactly do you do?”
“I am train to accomplish all manner of tasks, such as bodyguarding, investigations, tracking and capturing fugitives, interrogating them, as well as assassinations and body disposal.”
“What?!”
“I am also skilled in the art of illusion crafting and puppeteering, as well as invisibility, poison making, identification, and neutralising, as well as espionage and counterespionage. Oh, and of course I have competed advance combat training at the NIghtwatch Facility and I am considered a decent fighter.”
“That’s... That’s quite an interesting set of skills you posses,” Twilight said while wishing she could just forget what she asked. But then curiosity got the better of her, and she chosed to ask just one more question.
“Did you ever kill somepony?”
“Do you really want to know?” Dewdrop said, emphasising the word “really.”
“I don't know... I don’t think I want to, but I think I need to know.”
“No, I haven’t killed anypony...”
Twilight let out a sigh of relief.
“Most of my missions were abroad anyway, and the very few of my targets that were ponies, were surveillance missions only.”
The rest of the ride was spent in a dead silence, Twilight not wanting to know anything more about her new guard, and Dewdrop not wanting to share anything with her.
When they reached Ponyville, they said their goodbyes and as soon as Twilight turned her back she turned herself invisible, and for all intensive purposes, she was gone. Days passed, and Twilight never saw any trace of the pony. From time to time she would call out her name at odd hours, just to see if she was still with her. Whenever she did that, whether she was in the bathroom, in her lab, in Canterlot on an official visit, or in the Crystal Empire visiting Cadence and Shining, no matter the place, or the time, Dewdrop would appear in front, or more often behind Twilight, and ask if there was anything she needed taken care of, to which Twilight would just say that she was just making sure that she was still around, before dismissing her.
Twilight kept that up for almost a month, before finally giving in, and finally accepting that no matter where she would be, no matter what she would do, that pony would be next to her, watching her every move, violating her privacy, all without saying a word to her or about her, or her actions.
All that would change one night.
It was a night like any other, the wind was blowing, the air was cool, only a few clouds were left in the sky, and Twilight had been up early with paperwork.
The cuckoo clock would chime three time before she realised how late it had gotten.
“I guess it is time to call it a night,” Twilight said letting out a loud yawn.
After a short trip to the bathroom, Twilight went up the stairs, entered the bedroom, passed Spike’s bed, careful not to wake the little dragon up, and got into bed.
“Goodnight Spike. Goodnight Dewdrop,” she whispered before pulling the blanket over her head, and making herself more comfortable.
“Finally a bit of privacy,” Twilight said to herself, enjoying the hours she was spared by the ever watchful gaze of Dewdrop.
Twilight twisted and turned in the bed, not managing to fall asleep for a long time. Then, as soon as she finally was starting to fall asleep, she felt the weight of a heavy object fell onto her.
“Whoopsie,” a voice said, and the weight vanishes, but not before Twilight could feel a hoof stepping on one of her wings.
She threw the blanket of her and lighting up her horn she illuminated the whole room.
“Who’s there?!” Twilight asked, her voice waking up Spike. “Show yourself!”
“Twilight!” Spike yelled as he squinting and placed his hand in front of his eyes, shielding them from the bright light of Twilight’s horn. “Twilight, what happened?”
“There is somepony in the room with us!” Twilight said as she looked around the room for any sign of the intruder.
“Dewdrop I need you!” she called out to her guard, but the pony did not respond. “Dewdrop!”
Still no answer.
“Okay, let’s try this.” Twilight’s closed her eyes, her horn glowing brighter, and a sudden flash of blinding light filled the room.
“Aaa...” Twilight could hear the intruder yell, followed by the sound of something hitting the floor.
“I have you now!” Twilight turned off the blinding spell and cast a telekinetic bubble around the area where the noise came from.
“You should have warned me!” Spike said rubbing his eyes, still recovering.
Inside the alicorns telekinetic prison now stood a pony, she made the bubble smaller and pinned him against the floor.
“Talk!” Twilight yelled at him. “Who are you?! Who sent you?! Why are you in my room?! And where is Dewdrop?!”
“I am Private Orbweaver. I have come to replace Specialist Dewdrop while she is on a special mission. My transfer paper should have arrived here by now.”
“One last question,” Twilight said walking closer to the stallion. “Were the orders sent by mail?”
“Huh?” Orbweaver said, surprised by question. “Of course they were. How else do you send mail?”
Twilight let out a weak laugh, dispelled the magical prison, and reached out to him.
“Sorry about that. Things tend to get lost in the mail around here. I am sure they will appear in a few days.”
Orbweaver grabbed her hoof, and Twilight helped him get up.
“But that still doesn’t explain what you were doing on top of me.”
“Sorry about that, I kind of fell.”
“You fell? From where?” Spike asked him, as he took a closer look at the stallion.
“The ceiling,” he promptly replied.
“What were you doing on the ceiling?”
“Watching Princess Twilight sleep.”
“Dude, that creepy.”
“Not really,” the guard told Spike. “It’s my job after all.”
“Watching Twilight sleep?” Spike asked, skeptical of the whole thing.
“Guarding her,” the guard replied. “Now if you would excuse me I have to get back to work.”
The guards horn glew as he cast his invisibility spell and started becoming transparent, before vanishing before their eyes. Hoofsteps could be heard as the pony walked past Spike, up the wall, and then across the ceiling until stopping above Twilight’s bed.
Despite being invisible both Twilight and Spike, were staring at him.
“What was that all about?” Spike asked rubbing the back of his head, still staring at the same spot.
“It’s complicated,” Twilight replied as she turned out the light from her horn and went back to bed. “I will tell you tomorrow. Goodnight Spike.”
“What?! You are just going to go to sleep knowing there is some weird pony in the same room as us, watching you sleep?!”
“I try not to think about it. Now go to sleep Spike. It’s late.”
“Really Twilight? Just like that?”
“Spike! Go to bed!”
“Fine.”
The following morning Twilight would follow her normal morning routine, not even thinking that there was now a stallion that was following her wherever she went.
She just exited the shower when she heard Spike call out for her from the kitchen.
“How Twilight, I get it that you were hungry, but next time could you at least use a knife.”
“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked as she tied a towel around her wet mane and headed for the kitchen.
“What do you mean what am I talking about? I am talking about this...”
From the fridge Spike pulled out a chocolate cake with a large bite mark on it.
“Everything in the fridge is like this. And I know I didn’t do it...”
“Orbweaver show yourself!” Twilight yelled as loud as she could.
“Yes, Princess,” Orbweaver said as he made himself visible next to Twilight.
“What is the meaning of this?” Twilight pointed towards the cake.
“It is safe to eat, if that is what you were wondering about. I’ve checked it myself.”
“By eating it?!”
Orbweaver’s ears dropped and he hung his head downwards, looking at the floor.
“Sorry, but it is my job to make sure nothing ever happens to you Princess. Is there anything else you wish to talk to me about?”
Twilight sighed. “No, just try to be more discreet next time.”
“Yes, your Highness. You won’t never know I was even there. I will be just like a shadow,” he turned transparent and knocked a chair down as he left the room.
“Yeah, like a true shadow,” Spike said as he cut the bit off part and threw it away.
Over the course of the next week “the shadow,” would make itself known everytime he could. When he was not knocking into ponies or pieces of furniture, he would make everypony look at him by coughing, sneezing, or generally making noise. There was even times when he would get himself covered in mud or flower, scaring the ponies around Twilight, and generally causing the Princess a headache whenever he could.
“Uh,” Twilight grunted as she came home tired after a long day dealing, made even longer by her constant unwanted companion. “What am I going to do with him.”
Spike entered the room, a cup of tea in his grasp. “Why don’t you get rid of him?”
“Get rid of him? How?” Twilight asked, taking the cup from Spike and greedily drinking from it.
“Umm... fire him?”
“Fire him? Spike it can’t be that simple.”
“Why not?”
“Luna said that every princess must have at least one guard, it’s the law.”
“So make a new law, saying that Princess Twilight Sparkle is not to have a guard.”
“Just like that?”
“I don’t know. You’re the princess, not I.”
“I think...” Twilight was interrupted by the sound of something breaking upstairs. “Spike take a note: I, Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Protectorate of Ponyville, hereby decree that I, Princess Twilight Sparkle of the Protectorate of Ponyville do not seek or require the services of a Guard for my own personal protection...”
Twilight continued dictation the royal decree to Spike and when it was finished, she sent Spike to the notary to have it legalised that very same night.
“Orbweaver!” Twilight yelled when when Spike returned with the notarised document.
“Orbweaver show yourself!” he did not reply.
“I have a royal decree that says your services are no longer needed! Please return to Canterlot and ask to be reassigned. Do you understand me?”
“Yes, Princess. Right away,” a feminine voice said before Twilight thought she heard the upstairs window being open.
“Dewdrop?” she asked, before a knock could be heard on the door.
“I'll get it,” Spike said before rushing to the front door.
He returned a little later with a few envelopes, one of them was sealed and had the markings of the Nightwatch. Twilight took set envelop from Spike, opened it, and read the letter within.
“Spike,” she asked her eyes still fixed on the lettering. “How long has he been with us?”
“About a week,” Spike replied. “Why?”
“I think I might have fired Dewdrop.”
“Who?”
“Dewdrop, my previous guard.”
“I never saw her.”
“Exactly.”
“Oh,”
“Yeah. Well then off to bed we go, tomorrow is another day.”