Morning Star trudged down the corridor to the guard’s barracks. This day weighed heavily on the night guard’s mind and seemed to slow the world around him. The normal brisk efficiency of the guards around him was gone; it was like they were moving through molasses.
Anypony outside of the royal alicorns and the night guard would say that Discord had been put back in his place before he could cause any harm. Nopony else had seen what he did to the Night Princess.
He had changed her physical appearance but under normal circumstances everypony would have considered it something of an improvement. Her renewed body had not been seen outside of her chambers. Her meals came and went uneaten and the only sounds to make it out of her chambers were either enraged screams or heart wrenching sobs.
Celestia alone understood what he had done to the Night Princess. “She needs time,” she said, but how much time? It had been nearly a full year since her return and her body had still been recovering. Through Morning Star’s mortal eyes everything she did was on a time scale beyond his reckoning. An alicorn “needing time” could take days or decades.
The door eased open under Morning star’s magic, its well-greased hinges not making a sound. He made his way to his bed and stowed his armor in his hooflocker. He was tempted to crawl into the warm bed and not leave ever again. It seemed many of his fellow guardsponies had already decided to do just that.
Nearly every bed had a pony on it; none were asleep. Everypony had a vacant stare. They were all trying to absorb and to cope with what had happened. Every one of them felt frustrated, helpless, and fearful.
Morning Star was not surprised that the night ponies were more affected than the unicorns but he was surprised how much more effected they were. The unicorns were concerned and afraid but the night ponies seemed completely lost, as if in the snap of a draconequus’s claw the ground had disappeared beneath them.
Reluctantly he tore himself away from the inviting bed and made his way back to the barracks common room. Maybe there he would find somepony with life in them. He opened the door to find a trail of armor discarded haphazardly across the floor and on the sofa her.
When Moon Shadow looked up at him her eyes held none of their usual venom. Normally the slitted pupils narrowed and flashed angrily at him but now they were so wide that they were almost round. She tried to glare at him but the tears coming from her puffy red rimmed eyes and the sobs wracking her body made it impossible.
Morning Star didn’t know why he sat down beside her. At a feast he had sat beside her and through some drunken slip of the tongue that he didn’t remember he had angered her enough to knock them both out. She had hated him ever since and being assigned dual command of the night guard’s first mixed squad did nothing to calm their tempers.
“Go ahead and say it,” she spat angrily, “say I’m just a useless bat pony.”
At those words a flood of memories struck Morning Star: a lost fight and far too much wine, a careless comparison that was less than flattering and, as he had seen, held enough truth to be deeply insulting.
“I won’t” he said, looking into her eyes, “ever again.”
A blush rose in her ashen cheeks as she turned her head.
“Then just go away.” She said.
“No,” the word escaped Morning Star’s lips before he even had time to think.
She tried pushing him away with a hoof but her overwrought emotions had sapped all of her strength and she only succeeded in collapsing onto him. Morning Star caught her in his forelegs before she could fall to the ground.
“I hate you,” She said as tears flowed.
His only response was to hold her tighter as she sobbed into his fur.