Shining Dawn bid his roommates farewell just after breakfast (their dinner), slipping one of his spell book into his saddlebags and trotting out the door. As he stepped out into the cold, September night air he lit up his horn and drew his coat tighter around himself. He’d always considered summer much too warm for his tastes, and was usually relieved when fall came around, but now he worked nights and he found himself missing the summer warmth.
He would, of course, be spending the night with royalty, reading whatever piece of arcane literature he fancied from the Canterlot Archives, so he supposed the job was worth missing those temperate fall days.
Speaking of the Archives, they were just coming into view now. Shining Dawn made sure his new clearance papers were tucked away safely in his saddlebags as he entered the Cleansing Light wing. He was momentarily surprised not to see the usual archivist he dealt with, Warding Glyph, working the front desk. In her place was a middle-aged mare with a dark purple coat and a greying blonde mane, looking at him skeptically over the rounded, oaken front desk of the building. He reflected dourly that, indeed, Glyph’s shift likely ended hours ago, and he’d likely be seeing very little of his favorite archivist for some time.
Still, no reason to let his bad luck affect his attitude, he greeted the archivist with a pleasant “hello.”
She raised an eyebrow over her half-moon spectacles, “May I help you?”
“Yes,” Dawn said, still smiling, “I need to check out a book, Aegis: The Greatest of Shields, I believe this is the appropriate wing, yes?” As he spoke, he levitated a scroll from his saddlebags.
“Uh-huh” she replied skeptically, taking the scroll from his magical grip, “Are you sure you’re not lost? I doubt you have clearance for those spells, young stallion, back in my day-“ She stopped speaking abruptly once she noticed Princess Celestia’s seal.
“I’ll be right back, what volumes did you need?” She said after reading the scroll in more detail.
“Oh, I’ll just take the compendium, if you don’t mind, extended checkout.” Dawn replied politely.
The archivist got to her hooves hand headed around the central shelves until she was out of site. She returned with the book in question; a large, brown hardback with a gilded, golden shield, decorated by a single piece of amethyst in the center. Lettering matching the jewl in the center read, Aegis: The Greatest of Shields, and Dawn made no effort to contain his excitement; rocking back and forth on his hooves with a comically large grin on his face.
“Here you are, sir,” the archivist said simply.
Dawn barely had the presence of mind to say “Thank you ma’am,” as he seized the impressive tome and trotted out the door
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This book
Dawn had learned all his high-level abjurations from this book. Symbol of sealing, greater dispel magic, antimagic field, sequester, break enchantment and many, many more; he’d learned all of them from this venerated manuscript. Only before he’d had to specifically request excerpts from this book, and every time the Royal Archivist Society made accessing those excerpts as difficult as possible. He didn’t have to worry about that now, though.
Best job ever.
He restrained himself from reading the book on his way to the palace strictly to avoid an accident, and instead set of at a brisk trot to get there as soon as possible. This quickly devolved into a full-tilt gallop, and he was panting by the time he reached the Night Court.
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Princess Luna was at court early, ever-present cup of coffee and legislative history books and all. She looked up as dawn entered the large double doors of her courtroom. “Good evening, princess.” Dawn said breathlessly, levitating his book out of his saddlebags and trotting to his seat.
“Good evening, young wizard,” Luna answered, eyeing him and his new book “didst thou gallop all the way here from the archives?”
“Yes,” Dawn answered simply.
That was nearly five miles, it certainly spoke well of the stallion’s physical fitness, but a potent spell caster had better ways of getting around. “Mayhap thou ought to work on dimension door after you master sequester fully, and then move on to true teleportation after that.”
Dawn grinned ruefully at the thought of doing such intensive work in his opposed school, “Maybe we can start with some… easier conjurations?”
“Such as?”
“Maybe, um… fog cloud.” Dawn said sheepishly.
Luna’s eye’s widened, “Oh my.”
Fog cloud was actually incredibly basic for a dedicated spell caster like Dawn. A lot of unicorns didn’t study spells from their opposed schools simply because they believed the extra time learning those spells required was better spent elsewhere. When she saw Shining Dawn’s spell list she’d assumed his lack of conjurations was, like so many other unicorns, simply a matter of specialization.
From the sound of things, he actually had quite a lot of trouble learning any conjurations at all. What he just said was actually a fairly candid admission of his weaknesses: something many mages were often reluctant to do.
“We can help you with that, young wizard. But court will convene shortly, and tonight we actually have some visitors; petitioners for the Night Court positions that have yet to be filled are scheduled to arrive tonight.” Luna said gently.
Dawn nodded and returned to his reading. The court convened shortly thereafter and the first petitioners arrived. A white-coated pegasus guardspony by the name of Spartan Shield arrived first, applying for “Master of the Watch”, several other ponies applied for the position that but Luna considered Shield the most qualified.
The next few visitors petitioned for the positions of Majordomo and Court Scribe. After the last of that group left Luna founder herself considering two ponies for court scribe: a professional clerk, Silver Script and a novelist by the name of Ever After. Shining Dawn interrupted her musings with a question.
“Princess, isn’t the most important facet of your work the raising of the moon?” He asked, thoughtfully.
“Yes. Thou art no doubt wondering, then, why so many earth ponies and pegasi applied for Majordomo?” Luna asked.
“Yes, your highness.” Dawn affirmed.
Luna looked toward the door, thoughtfully. “Even were we very ill, as long as we could stay conscious for a minute or so, we could still raise the moon. In contrast, staying alert and attentive for court would be quite difficult. Additionally, we need not even be in Equestria to raise the moon, but we could not truly conduct court here in Canterlot from say, Saddle Arabia. Therefore, the Majordomo is a largely mundane position, rather than a cosmically important one. He or she must run the Night Court, manage the grounds, and review legislation if we are ever unable to.” Luna explained. She then grinned wryly at Dawn, “Were something serious to happen to Celestia and ourselves, well, we expect you to retrieve the Tome of Woven Fates from the Canterlot Archives and learn nightfall yourself.”
Shining Dawn swallowed hard and returned to his reading.
Expecting no further visitors, Dawn and Luna were both surprised when two unicorn mares entered the courtroom. At the fore was an ageing purple mare dressed in noble finery, behind her was a much younger mare with a similar coat color, a bright red mane, and intelligent, golden eyes.
“Princess Luna,” the elder mare spoke as they both bowed deeply. “I am duchess Due Diligence and this is my daughter, Starry Skies. She is a potent arcanist would make an exceptional wizard for the Night Court.”
“We…” Luna and exchanged a look with Shining Dawn who, strangely, looked mildly concerned. “The position is filled. This is Shining Dawn, wizard of the Night Court.”
Shining Dawn nodded respectfully, “A pleasure, your grace.”
Fine Line spared the stallion but a glance before continuing, “By my understanding, Princess Celestia assigned a temporary stand-in for your court wizard as you had yet to select one. His position is not permanent, yes?”
Luna pursed her lips. That was technically true, this was only the third night of Shining Dawn’s tenure; she’d seen no rush to do the paperwork to make his position official. Still, the duchess and her daughter had traveled far from their estate, which was all the way in the Highlands no less if Luna knew her heraldry. They’d taken this trip largely because Luna had failed to update her paperwork, and they deserved an apology for the inconvenience.
“I am sorry, your grace; that is largely a clerical error on our part. Shining Dawn may be a temporary appointment, but there are few unicorns better qualified for the position and we fully intend to keep him here permanently.” She noticed Dawn hold his head a bit higher, and realized she hadn’t even told him he was to be her permanent Court Wizard.
“I think it would be readily apparent why my daughter is more qualified for this position.” Due Diligence insisted.
Luna resisted the roll her eyes. She had some idea were this conversation was heading. “No, it is not, please enlighten the court as to why, your grace.”
“Shining Dawn is merely the third son of a baroness, and my daughter is heir-apparent to a duchy. Not to mention she’s female besides.” Luna was less surprised at the duchesses silly prejudices, and more surprised to learn her court wizard was of noble blood at all.
Starry Skies looked very uncomfortable with the situation.
“I thought,” Shining Dawn interceded carefully “the chief concern of a princess when selecting her court wizard should be his or her spell casting ability. Maybe you believe peerage and gender could influence magical skill, though if so, won’t your daughter’s ability reflect that?”
Ah Luna observed, Now he sounds like the third son of a baroness.
Nobles third in line for their titles had a unique blend of courtly education on matters of politics and manners and they rarely had the sense of entitlement or pride their older siblings often displayed. This is generally attributed to the near-impossibility of the third-born inheriting their parent’s title or lands. It made them shrewd politicians, successful military officers, and consummate diplomats.
Due Diligence rounded on the stallion, “Don’t you think you ought to keep quiet?”
Shining Dawn went rigid at her words, a look of disbelief momentarily crossing his features. He seemed to consider something for a moment, then set his jaw, firmly focused on the duchess. He stood, and discharged a tight green beam of magic at the mare. Due Diligence flinched, but Luna knew the spell Shining Dawn just cast was completely harmless. It was a mid-level abjuration that simply prevented someone from teleporting or being teleported, plane-shifting, or otherwise conjuring themselves elsewhere.
“We are quite interested to learn,” Princess Luna said calmly, “why our court wizard decided to fetter you with a dimensional anchor, your grace.”
Due Diligence regained her composure, and stood straight again, “I’m sure I don’t know, but he will no doubt be leveling some ridiculous accusation at me momentarily.”
“Using enchantment to influence a royal decree or appointment is a felony offense, your grace,” Shining Dawn informed her.
“Ah, there it is,” the duchess remarked, sounding amused, “What is this? Some farce to prevent you from being replaced?”
Shining Dawn ignored her, and continued speaking, walking down the stone steps that led to his chair, and down to the courtroom floor, “Suppressed spell is an extremely useful piece of meta-magic that would allow somepony to cast, say, a suggestion spell on anypony else without any chance of being caught. Even if the victim preemptively cast spell resistance on himself…”
Due Diligence’s lips tightened noticeably.
“….the enchanter and the would-be victim are the only ones who’d be aware of any foul play. Therein lays the major flaw in the technique,” By this time the guards outside heard the serious accusations and made their way through the massive double doors and into Luna’s court. Shining Dawn was now nearly nose to nose with the elder mare. “Because you know what you did, and I imagine Princess Luna can play the enchantment game at least as well as you.”
Princess Luna let a slight smile come to her face in appreciation for her wizard’s cleverness, “that I can, Shining Dawn.” She stood from her chair, and lit her horn momentarily, Due Diligence scarcely had time to look horrified before the silvery blue glow if Luna’s lesser geas was upon her.
Using lesser geas to question somepony was a bit tricky; the victim was forced to comply with a command, not answer a question. Given that many of those unicorns could only cast such an advanced spell once per day often meant they didn’t get a second chance if they made that mistake. Luna, of course, was experienced enough to phrase her question as a command: “Tell us the last spell you cast on our Court Wizard.”
“Suggestion,” The older mare’s voice was strained as she fought fruitlessly against the spell. Her eyes widened, “Your majesty, I am so sorry.”
“We are certain you are sorry you were discovered, nothing more.” The princess thought back to her studies on recent Equestrian law. “We are still entitled to sentence criminals by Royal Decree, though it hasn’t been done in many years. A ‘trial by a jury of your peers’, as is done in this age, would be sufficient for most ponies, but given that your only ‘peers’ under that law are nobles themselves, we are not entirely comfortable with the notion.”
“Guards, take this felon from our sight whilst we decide her fate.” Luna then turned on a very shell-shocked looking Starry Skies. “We did not wish to cut your spell casting career short, Starry Skies, but it seems the Equestrian highlands will need a new duchess for a time.”
Luna thought for a moment, “In sooth, we just met with some very qualified Majordomos just this evening, and would be happy to make a recommendation if you wish to continue your studies.”
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After their last two “petitioners” had been escorted away and Luna and Shining Dawn had regained their seats, Luna spoke up, “So, Lord Shining Dawn, any other secrets thou wish to share with thy princess?”
Dawn bowed his head, “I’m sorry, princess. I didn’t want to tell you until my position was made official. I wanted my ability to be the only consideration for my employment, not my blood.”
Luna motioned to the courtroom floor, “Well, as you can see, it wouldn’t have been.”
“Yes, princess, I should have had more faith in you, and I am sorry, especially after tonight.” Dawn replied.
Luna waved a fore hoof dismissively, “You’ve nothing to apologize for, we understand the logic behind thy omission.” Luna thought for a moment, “Dost thou cast spell resistance on thyself every night?”
Shining Dawn grinned, “My friends from school have very unique senses of humor.”