//------------------------------// // Chapter VI // Story: The Royal Guard // by Jacob562 //------------------------------// The night dragged on and on. Patrols of guardponies continued searching out pockets of changelings left in the city. While the wedding reception was underway in the castle small skirmishes popped up all over the city. Thunder Clop had his hooves full trying to organize the fighting and keep the party revelers unaware of the danger just outside of the palace walls. Finally just after midnight, as the reception was winding down, the patrols came back reporting that no changelings remained in Canterlot. A weight was lifted from Thunder Clop, his mission was a success and the party goers were none the wiser. With the Changeling menace taken care of T.C. began to turn his attention to other matters. He had heard from one of the Guard Ponies that Princess Celestia had given stewardship the newly discovered Chrystal Empire to Princess Cadance and Shining Armor as their wedding present. After Shining Armor left Thunder Clop would be the ranking captain of the guard. A position he did not relish. He now understood why he was promoted so quickly, it was not because Luna needed a captain for her watch, it was to spite Celestia. As T.C. pondered this development he became somewhat embittered, he was not a game piece to be used by Luna against her sister. Friends he thought she isn't really my friend... Yet the more T.C. thought on his circumstance the less angry he became and the more sad. It was true that he was angry with Luna, but it was more than that. She had used him for her own gain, though she had not lied to him she withheld the whole truth. T.C. had never been wounded like this before, he thought the princess and he had a genuine friendship, and the thought of that friendship as nothing but a facade saddened him deeply. Thunder Clop sat in his office for several hours, pretending to work whenever a guard came in with a report or question, but mostly pondering his relationship with Luna. Finally he decided he would no longer spend time with the princess as a friend, but only when ordered to report. Besides, now that he would be the ranking captain he would be far to busy for personal matters, so avoiding princess Luna would be easy. The next few nights passed uneventfully. Shining armor and Princess Cadence left for the north and T.C. began working with the day guard. Their new captain was also a relatively young pony and also a pegasus like T.C. named Flash Sentry, they got along fairly well at first but it became grossly apparent after only a few meetings that Thunder Clop was not being taken seriously by the day guard, though this was not Flash's fault. He decided to take matters into his own hooves, and reform the guard (something he had been planning to do anyway, just not as soon.) Thunder Clop first divided all the guards evenly, so that half the night watch and half the day watch were always on duty. He further divided the watches into quarters corresponding with the weeks in a month. Each of the eight shifts would switch off between day and night watch every four weeks. This way all the palace would always have the same amount of protection all the time, and only a quarter of the guard would be fatigued from a shift in their duty. T.C. even extended this schedule shift to himself and Flash Sentry. As for Celestia's "theme" it was fairly easy to convince her of the security reforms after the Changeling indecent. An unforeseen benefit to changing his own schedule was that T.C. could now attend his graduation ceremony next month. Something he had been looking forward to for some time. The night before the ceremony he laid out his old cadet uniform and dusted off his barrette. It felt strange looking at his old academy cloths, it had only been about six months since he left, but to T.C it felt like a life time ago. He could only imagine what Commandant Spatz would have to say to him. Then for only the third time in months T.C. closed his eyes and fell asleep as the moon began rising over the distant mountains. "You have been avoiding me." The voice rang like a bell through the night "why have you become so adverse to my company?" Thunder Clop looked around, he was in a valley near his home village, one of his favorite spots to camp as a young colt. The sky was filled with stars and a cooling breeze swept through the aspen trees. The grass was moist with sweet dew and the whole of the dreamscape seemed to shimmer and sway with the breeze. The moon hung low in the sky just above the distant hills of the valley. "I have not" replied Thunder Clop to the night air around him. "I have merely been busy with my duties." Another breeze whipped through the trees, stronger than before. "I know that is not true." the voice rang out again "I ask again, why?" the voice was forceful but not angry, in fact it sounded hurt. "Don't use that tone with me Princess!" yelled T.C. back into the night. "I will not be your puppet for a sibling squabble!" Luna emerged from the trees a halo of moonlight illuminating each step. "Is that what you think this is about?" asked Luna. "Isn't it!" replied T.C. sarcastically "You were only pretending to be my friend, you only promoted me knowing that whoever became night captain would become the new ranking guard captain in only a few short months. I was just the first pony to come along who was eligible..." "How Dare You!" snorted Luna. "To accuse me of such heartless political maneuvering! Have you forgotten all of our talks? Our dinners? Our walks through the gardens? And now you stand before and claim that I thought of you as nothing but a political tool!" "Well didn't you?" replied T.C. "what better patsy than one who thinks they're your friend? Who easier to manipulate than somepony who thinks they're close to you?" "I would never betray somepony like that!" Said Luna. "You did it to your sister" said T.C. offhoofedly. Luna was clearly taken aback, it looked as if she was going to cry. She was just beginning to fade from the dreamscape when Thunder Clop mumbled softly "And I thought you really were my friend." Luna paused. "Heck I was beginning to think of you as my best friend, no, more than that." Had T.C. been awake he would have never said something so candid, but in his dreams he could not separate what he thought from what he said. "I thought we had a special connection y'know, that we were really bonding, but now I just feel like I've been used..." Luna turned back towards him. She slowly walked up to T.C. and pulled him into a tight embrace and held him there for several moments. "Had I known how you felt earlier I would have told you how I felt." whispered Luna. "I thought I was a fool, you hide your feelings so well T.C." She starred into his eyes, and began moving in close to his muzzle, their lips were just about to touch... Then Thunder Clop woke with a start, his alarm clock ringing on the night stand and the first rays of the morning sun shining through the blinds.