//------------------------------//
// 11. In which Oscuridad justifies Dastardliness 
// Story: Longma 
// by JeckParadox 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight loaded up her bag and watched as the six Longma line up outside the door. "I don't need all of you to go with me..." Twilight said. She didn't feel like she ever needed a bodyguard, especially not in Ponyville, and especially now that she was immortal. 
"It is our Honor, Princess, and our Duty, to protect you so that you can go about your business unhaltered." Jaeger announced.
Twilight rolled her eyes and levitated her black raincoat over. Tying it close and checking that her saddlebags were closed shut. "It's not that important."
"It's official business of the Night Empire."
"No... it's my business." 
"Not to contradict you Princess, but the library's business is your business, which makes it Empire Business."
Twilight sighed. "Fine, do you all have raincoats ready?" All six of her guards produced black rain coats of their own and nodded to their Princess that they were ready to proceed. Twilight chuckled at their dead-serious expressions. "Well, here we go."
She led the way out of the library, waiting for the rain to start falling, but she noticed once again the strange transparency the Castle had. It was like rain on a window, but the water flowed down the massive tower like millions of veins, giving a solid outline, and letting her see how massive the tower was from the inside for the first time. She stared upward for a few seconds before walking the short distance to the Tower's massive doors, opening them with her magic before ducking as Crescent and Crow flew out into the storm, surveying the area before landing again, their natural instincts telling them not to fly in this kind of weather. 
The seven walked down the empty streets, the Longma keeping watch on each window and door they passed, all closed to the weather. "Not very busy today." Jaeger said quietly. 
"It's a day off for most ponies, this storm's been planned for a few weeks, and I'm just happy that it wasn't suddenly rescheduled to the day before at the last minute. The weather team's rather notorious for surprise storms here." 
Crow sighed. "Don't tell Oscuridad that, he'll try to get his hooves all over the weather too."
Jaeger gave him the required warning glare that came with insulting a superior, but he didn't put much malice into it. It was their second week here in Ponyville, and surprisingly, Oscuridad seemed to be accepting it the most, well, behind Crescent, but nothing seemed to ever surprise her or make her uncomfortable. Their Captain had taken to spending most time at the town hall, taking control immediately and made 'suggestions' on how laws should be made and edited in order to deal with the fact that the Princess of the Night Empire, and her Tower, was now sitting in the middle of Ponyville. 
Twilight had already spoken with him about it several times, and Oscuridad continuously replied that he was only trying to make the process of hosting a Princess as smooth as possible for the Ponyville government. 
Twilight accepted the excuse, but 'suggested' that Oscuridad find other things to do and be careful not to make any changes too severe. After a pony got temporarily arrested for laughing when Twilight slipped on a rolling pin she had to give Oscuridad a long lecture and started spending her free time going over the law changes Oscuridad had made and deciding which ones she needed to have removed. 
She was beginning to suspect that the Shadhavar had only started doing this so that Twilight would study law.
But now was not the time to think about such things, she had her federal duty to do, this dark and stormy day.



The door bell rang once, and then again. "Who'd be at the door today?" Derpy asked herself as she walked up to the door. She opened it, and lightning flashed, revealing the silhouettes of an alicorn in a black hood, flanked on both sides by demonic ponies. Derpy slammed the door shut again before they even herd the thunder. She galloped into the dining room and dragged the table to the door as fast as possible, building a barricade out of her entryway. 
"You're not coming for us Grim Reaper!!" Derpy shouted, placing a bucket over her head and readying her rolling pin. 
"What?!" Came the sound of the reaper. It sounded suspiciously like Twilight.
"Begone!" Derpy called, tossing the rolling pin at the door. 
"Hey- no, don't you dare! Jaeger, you are not-  Cro- Everypony stop!"
"But she's obviously attacking-"
"I don't want to hear it! Ugh... It's me Twilight. Dinky has a book overdue at the library, I've come to stamp it!"
Somehow Derpy managed to clear away the barricade in a matter of seconds, smiling warmly at the alicorn holding back four Longma. "Oh! Well in that case, come on in! Dinky, miss Twilight's here from the library!" Derpy called upstairs. 
"Shoot! I forgot!" came the unicorn filly's reply. 



Twilight frowned as she came back to the door, holding the book. Dinky had simply forgotten to return it. 
It was lucky that Dinky had returned the book after all. Twilight sighed as she looked back at the small sign a distance from her house, just barely inside the Tower, that said 'Golden Oak Public Library'. Tomorrow, it would be Twilight's personal library. 
As an archivist, a mage, and a dedicated student, Twilight had a deep love for knowledge. 
It was true that few ponies actually went to the library since she moved in, beside her and her friends, and occasionally some students when they had to do the rare research assignment. It wouldn't really be that bad of a loss for the town, especially since Celestia already agreed to personally fund the building of a new library across town. But she couldn't help feeling selfish over it anyway. She never had a problem living on government property before, but then again, she had grown up in Celestia's castle.
"Princess, is there something the matter?" Oscuridad asked, stepping down the stairway on the wall. 
"...ownership of the library is transferring to me tomorrow." 
Oscuridad nodded. "That's good. I'm glad to know that you're following my advice, despite my... rudeness, when I first gave you it."
Twilight sighed again. "Maybe it's just the rain, but I feel really down today." 
Oscuridad gave a small smile. "Is that so? Anything I could do to help, Princess?"
"No, I'll be fine... I think I'm just going to read for a little while." She nodded to Crescent, who followed Twilight into the library.
The other six stood outside, in the center of the Tower, as they all listened to the sounds of hoofsteps walking up the tree to Twilight's room. Content that their Princess was occupied, Oscuridad turned to face the five Longma. "Report."
"A minor incident occurred where the townspony Derpy Hooves panicked at the sight of the Princess and closed the door on us. But it was clearly made out to be a misunderstanding, the Pegasus was shocked at the Princess's and our silhouette when it was lit up by a thunder bolt. She apologized afterward, we were returned the book, for a research project involving marine life, and returned without further incident."
Oscuridad nodded. "Well, that's disapointing. We had clear evidence to the-"
"Captain, Sir."
"...what is it, Jaeger?"
"Permission to speak freely, sir?"
"Yes?"
"This collection of 'insults' you're building. What purpose is it supposed to serve?"
Oscuridad frowned deeply. "Jaeger, you're only her bodyguard, you're also my subordinate. Your first duty is to protect her, your second to follow her, and your third to follow me." He leaned in closer, his mane rising and billowing like smoke, the whites of his eyes turning a shade of green. "My work will benefit the Princess in the long run. And you will not question me, simply follow my orders." his breath became visible as the air slowly got colder and colder around the Shadhavar.
"Sir."
"What is it, Jaeger?!" he hissed. "Are you still wishing to question the Captain of the Royal Guard?".
"I believe we should speak to this about the Princess. You've had us spying on every pony in this town, and the closest thing I've heard to treason or threat is them occasionally talking about how the Princess seemed 'creepy' and used to be rather 'kooky'." Jaeger said emotionlessly. "The only threats or mistrust of the Night Empire or us, is that we're 'mysterious' and 'spooky'. Which is completely justified, given the context..."
The Shadhavar narrowed his eyes. 
"...So, considering we've spent over two weeks here, and the most tribulation we've had is some fear and grumbling, I think the spying is no longer necessary. And frankly, us quoting anything resembling an insult to the Princess is beginning to get tiring and eerie. I don't understand what possible reason there could be for this, or why we're hiding it from Princess Twilight. You say it'll benefit her later on... but there's nothing I see to this that would do more than depress her and undermine her."
Oscuridad seemed to calm, his mane solidifying and his eyes slowly dulling their glow. "Jaeger... she loves this town."
"...It's where she's lived for several years."
"She loves the ponies in it."
Jaeger nodded.
"And she still doesn't seem comfortable with being a Princess yet, she's been ignoring the prospect of training and putting off possible social classes for several days. I've contacted the Sun-Princess and asked if she was going to offer some kind of professional Princess training, but the Solar hag blew me off, saying Twilight is 'more than ready' for the responsibility." He shook his head slightly. "We have only six months to prepare the Princess for taking direct control of the Empire, and she spends a day grieving the fact that she now owns the house she's lived in for three years!" 
"...Sir, I still don't see the connection."
Oscuridad frowned. "It's simple, somewhere deep inside Princess Sparkle there's a deep desire not to leave Ponyville. That she doesn't want to lead. She basically said as much when she was appointed Heir by Luna. Her friends here seem very supportive of her, no matter her decision, but that's just what they're supposed to say. It's obvious that as the move to the Castle of Darkness looms closer they're going to pressure her to back out, and she can't be an effective leader if she goes in unwilling or tries to get out of the position entirely." He stomped a hoof. "We are gathering insults, because this is what the Princess will need to eventually see, if we need to convince her to leave Ponyville."
"...you want to drive a wedge between the Princess and her friends?"
"..." The shadhavar frowned slightly. "If the Princess heard of this she would put a stop to it immediately, and then promptly have me, and possibly all of you, punished. With a word she could send us all back to the Castle as failures. And then she'd have more doubts about the Night Empire than ever."
"Then it's simple. We stop, destroy it all, don't tell her about it, and forget what happened." Crow threw in. 
"Who gave you permission to speak?" Jaeger replied back casually. "Captain, do you really think that it'll be necessary?"
"Will you be the one to apologize to a mourning Empire if it turns out to be?"
Jaeger looked down for a few seconds. "I'm not going to tell the Princess about this. She doesn't need to have what little faith in us she might have shattered right now." Oscuridad winced. "But the Royal Bodyguards are not going to help you with this. It has nothing to do with protecting Princess Twilight, and I don't think it's enough to protect the Empire if she really has those doubts. Do you think Princess Twilight Sparkle will be a more effective leader if she thinks her friends have betrayed her?"
"She will not be an effective leader if she's dependent on them."
"I'm glad we had this talk... sir."
"I hope you know your insolence will be punished once we get back to Castle." Oscuridad said calmly as he walked back up the stairs. Jaeger merely nodded, a sick feeling growing in his stomach. "That is, if she even decides to go." He said before shutting the high-up door behind him. 
The five Longma looked from the door to each other in turn. 
Den was the first to let out a sigh. "That... that was more than I thought I would have to handle. What nutcase was it who told me that being a bodyguard was stress free?!" Kalt smacked him on the head. 
"He wasn't even yelling at you!"
Crow smiled. "That went better than expected, I think. At least we can stop spying now, I was getting tired of hiding during all that freetime." 
"He's not going to stop you know, I can tell. It just means that we can't act as censors any more." Sanguine said with a frown. 
Jaeger nodded. "I know. We'll just have to hope he doesn't do anything drastic."



Crescent watched Owlicious as he hopped from place to place. Spike following the bird in a quiet game of tag. It didn't seem to be working out well for the Dragon though, the bird was faster and tended to knock objects over for Spike to almost trip over. She had seen them playing this game often enough to know that they would clean everything up by the time they were over. She fluttered silently back up to the top of the stairway and turned her sapphire eyes toward Twilight on her bed, a book levitating in front of her. It was a pose she had seen many times, though never with this sad an expression.
She got a little closer and waited another few minutes. 
Twilight turned to the next page, and Crescent got a little closer, nudging Twilight slightly. "Hm?" Twilight asked, turning away from her book. 
"Are you alright Princess? You seem sad." Crescent said in her normal quiet tone. 
"I'm fine... It's just... well... I guess I just realized how much things have changed." Twilight gave a quiet laugh. "It's strange, but knowing tomorrow I won't be living in a public library is more shocking for me than living with seven Night Ponies in a giant Tower made of magic and an Empire waiting for me..."
"It's always the strangest things." Crescent agreed. "Do you need anything?"
Twilight thought about it for a few seconds. "No, I don't think so, thank you though. I just need some time to think."
Crescent nodded and fluttered back down. Saying it out loud seemed to lessen the pain at least a little bit, so Crescent was satisfied she had done her part. Twilight would sleep it off and probably spend a few hours designing a new schedule without a library to attend to in the morning. That would help Twilight deal with the whole situation. 
She stopped by a calendar and noted the word 'picnic' scribbled on the square of the day after the next. Crescent smiled. That would be good for Twilight. Her ears pointed upward suddenly as she heard the door open, and the other five Longma marched in. 
"Crescent, could we speak to you outside for a few minutes?"
Crescent nodded and glanced at Kalt taking her place inside the library. 
"What is it?" Crescent asked in her normal quiet tone. 
"....I got our Captain to explain why we've been doing that spywork... he wants information so he can get PrincessTwilight to feel betrayed by her friends or the town should the need arise."
Crescent's eyes narrowed. "I assume we are no longer spying then?"
"Yes."
"Then we should report it to the Princess."
Jaeger frowned. "Not now, hopefully not ever. I hate hiding this from her as much as you do, but we can't afford to allow Princess Twilight to lose trust in us."
Crescent frowned. "Oscuridad has made a grave overstep in his authority. He must be punished by the only higher power." For some reason, the quietness of her voice only made the threat sound graver. "I'm going to tell the Princess."
Jaeger frowned. "No. You aren't. None of us are."
"We are supposed to be protecting her."
"That is our first duty, and hiding this knowledge doesn't interfere with that. Our other duties include our service to our Captain, and more importantly, our Empire. If Empress Twilight finds out about this spying at the wrong moment, she'll lose trust in us, and that could be detrimental for the Empire." Den said, entering the conversation. 
"We are expendable."
"We are the only connection the Princess currently has to the Night Empire." Den said, frowning. "If she decides that she can't trust us, it'll reflect negatively on every single Longma in the world." He sighed. "Because of our and our Honorable Captain's actions, we could end up dissuading the Princess from going to the Night Empire. She's the heir to Nightmare Moon, but she could abdicate, and there would be anarchy, just like that, until either Luna takes us back or Celestia takes over."
"Or whoever ruling the Crystal Empire right now." Crow said happily. "That'll turn out fun." 
Crescent glared at each of her fellow bodyguards in turn. "....I don't like this."
"It doesn't matter what you like. This is for the good of the Empire." Jaeger said sadly. "Now forget about it, and just be glad we don't have to waste time spying any more."
Each of them went in in turn, leaving Sanguine and Crescent outside last. Sanguine turned to the younger mare and gave a small smile. "I don't like it either... just give me the word when you think the time is right... I'll back you up." Sanguine whispered. Crescent nodded slightly, and the two mares entered the library as well. 
Rain poured down the Tower walls.