The day before I was due to leave Canterlot for the south, Luna requested I meet with her. Of course, a request from royalty is basically an order when they feel like being polite. It was a little after sunset when she sent for me, and I was led to one of the castles many, many sitting rooms. She glanced up when I entered, then dismissed the servant that had led me.
“I assume you know why you are here, correct?” Luna asked.
“Either the favour I promised you before the griffon thing, or it’s about my passenger,” I said, tapping my head towards the end. “Or both.”
Luna nodded. “But we shall start with the most important. Tell me of your… passenger.”
I told her everything I could remember about Cameron, which honestly wasn’t much. We didn’t talk about ourselves. We mostly talk about things we care about.
So, a few minutes later, I’d told Luna everything I knew about the voice in my head. Of course, she had questions. A lot of questions. She wanted detailed lists of everything I’d told him, of everything he told me, when he seemed to pop up, when he didn’t, if he’s ever been anything but a voice.
I had just answered that last one when the voice in question spoke up.
Dude, what? How the hell could we have seen each other?
I blinked, and opened my mouth to answer before remembering who I was talking to. It was a dream. You appeared in the dream, we talked, I woke and you left.
You must have imagined that, because it didn’t happen.
Luna was giving me a concerned look. “He denies ever having seen me,” I explained. “Though it happened twice.”
Nope. Never happened.
Maybe you just don’t remember?
I could almost feel the sigh he made there. Alright, what do I look like?
Dark hair, dark eyes, pale skin.
Wow. First person you see in over a decade, and that’s all you remember? I mean, it’s wrong, but still. I was expecting more details.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. Alright then. “I seem to have been mistaken about having seen him.”
Luna looked at me, frowned, and then suddenly smiled. Her smile would have looked less out of place in water and full of sharp teeth. “Hold still. Do not move.” She walked over to me and touched the tip of her horn between my eyes, giving me a much better look of how sharp it was than I liked. “Converse with each other.”
Cameron spoke first. About anything in particular?
Luna hmm’d. “Continue.”
I cut of a sigh before it could start. So, what do you look like?
Blonde, green eyes, fairly skinny. I wouldn’t say I’m pale, but I’m not tan either. Around five foot seven tall. Why?
I did my best to mentally shrug. Just curious. We needed something to talk about.
I got back a much better mental shrug. Fair ‘nough. Hey, what was that you were telling me about cloud houses?
I filled him in on the little I knew about cloud as a building material, being unable to touch it and all. He was surprisingly unsurprised you could get metal doors and the like in cloud homes, though just how strong the clouds used were still made is head hurt.
It’s cloud! Condensed water! How can you build out of water vapour and dust!
All I could say was ‘magic’, which was about as helpful as a blunt arrow, so I let him rant, though I wish he wouldn’t do it in my head. Then again, him stopping would probably mess up whatever Luna was doing, and judging by her frown and her mumbling, its fairly complicated. A few phrases I caught I remembered hearing Twilight mutter about.
After far, far too many minutes, Luna went wide eyed and took a step back. “That is genius!” she cried, pointing a hoof at me. She gave me a creepily happy smile and continued, “There is a second presence in thy mind, within and under the band of energy that connects thee to thy fellow. ‘Tis kept hidden by the presence of the first, and would be impossible to notice if not for the small delay between the two filling with power. It is also fiendishly complex; I could not discern the reasoning behind the weave of energy. We would find it difficult to place a working of such complexity of a mind as foreign as thine.” She was bouncing in place by the end, like a foal with a new toy. I gave her a flat look, and she caught herself mid-bounce and let out a cough.
“And that tells us what, exactly?”
She seemed to deflate slightly. “We, I mean, I am not sure. It would take time to discern the purpose of the second weave, and longer still to learn how it interacts with the first. But now we are aware of it, we can take steps to ensure you are not fooled so again.”
Her horn lit with a gentle, wavering light and I seemed to fall into it, and fall and fall and fall… right back into myself. I seemed to crash back into my mind, confused and worried and hungry. I was blinking rapidly and trying to remember where I was. I glanced outside and saw it was the middle of the night, if not moving towards tomorrow.
Luna was looking at me with her head to one side, like a bird inspecting a new colour of insect and wondering if it’s safe to eat. “That was not the result I was hoping for,” she muttered.
“What wasn’t?” I said. My voice was hoarse, and I suddenly realised my throat was sore, like I’d been screaming.
“It was supposed to change the second, smaller weave in your mind, making it harder for you to be deceived by increasing the difference between the two and helping your mind discern between them. Instead, it seemed to meld them, which resulted in, well, you are aware of the result.”
I shook my head. “No, I am not. Now tell me what happened.” I took a seat and massaged at my throat. As the adrenaline rush wore off, my body suddenly remember it was in pain and decided to tell me about it.
“You may have screamed in pain, before jumping from the window.” I looked around the room. The only windows were set high in the walls, well above my head. “We are in a different room. The other one is full of glass. I managed to heal you, mostly. The throat and the general pain, I can do nothing about, other than this.”
Her horn flashed quickly, and the pain faded. It was still there, and I could sort of feel it, but it was much easier to ignore now.
Aren’t you the lucky one.
You don’t sound that good, I thought. I wonder if I could think smugly. I probably could.
Yeah, well, when Princess Goth over there started playing around with you skull, I felt it. Tell her not to do that again, by the way. It hurt me and you don’t have the sanity to spare.
I leaned back in the chair, staring at the ceiling. “Diamond Dogs?”
Luna cleared her throat. “Gem Hounds. Of the six main clans, only Diamond, Ruby and Malachite have declared war on Equestria. The other three seem content to stay out for now, no doubt waiting for one side to gain an advantage. As for the branch clans, the only ones of any consequence are offshoots of Diamond - Yellow, Red and Brown. Only the last is likely to waver. It is the largest, and if it declared independence it would be the fifth largest clan, as the numbers stand now.”
She talked for a few more hours on Diamond Dogs. Gem Hounds. Whatever. Most of it was stuff I probably would never need, like that Dogs of a given clan can sense their clan gem very well, but clanless Dogs can sense all gems faintly. Some of it was more useful, like that the Yellow and Red Diamond clans are both jealous of Brown Diamond, which in turn hates the original Diamond clan. And then there was things like the rough size of various clans, what lands they claim, what powers the Alpha has, what the Beta can do, and a lot of over stuff. I’m pretty sure that, if it weren’t for all the cram sessions I’d helped Twilight with over the years, I’d have remembered maybe one word out of a hundred, pretty as it was, I managed to recite back the important parts to Luna. Only took me half an hour as well. Luna really likes the sound of her own voice.
Eventually, she was happy that I remembered and understood what she had told me. I stood up, wincing slightly. The pain had faded slightly, but the spell masking it was gone, and I was a little stiff from sitting still for too long. Cameron gave a bit of help, supplying bits I’d forgotten. He seems to actually enjoy this sort of stuff, giving me questions to ask.
Glancing outside the window, I check where the sun is. I’ve either got a couple hours before I need to leave, or I’m really late. Either way, time to go. Luna stops me before I can leave. “One more thing, Michael.”
Michael, huh? She’s being using your rank exclusively up ‘till now.
Ignoring the voice in my head, I turn to face Luna. She didn’t say anything right away.
“You did not want to be my captain, at first.” She paused, like I was supposed to deny it or something, but when I didn’t, she continued, “Now that you have had a chance to test yourself in your position, how do you feel about it?”
I shrugged. “Someone has to do it. Might as well be me.” I don’t think that was the answer she was looking for, but eh.
“I apologise for my sister forcing the position on you. She was worried I would shut myself away after my return, and tried to force some interaction on me. I had expected this, to some degree, but I expected her to start small and limit herself to ponies, but my sister is not one to do things by halves.” She glanced away and muttered, “At least that is still the same.” She gives a short, sad sigh before looking back at me. “We are not so old a millennium apart will not make us near strangers. Little remains of the Celestia I knew. You know my sister well, do you not? After a little short of a decade spent by her side, surely you must. How is she?”
I frowned, thinking it through. Surely she had to know Celestia better than me. But if it helps her, it helps her. Not like it costs me anything. I take a few minutes, going through what I know of Celestia, what I’ve heard and what I’ve seen over the years. “She’s sad. The cold, quiet sadness you get when you’re alone for a very long time and don’t expect that to change.”
Luna nods. “As I expected. But she is not as lonesome as she would have been had I returned a decade earlier, I think. She always enjoyed raising her students, seeing them grow, gloating when they succeed, crying when they fail.” There was a silence, while Luna stood, lost in memories, and I just stood. I was about to leave her to her thoughts when she spoke again. “She does care for you. My sister, I mean. She has always preferred to take fillies as students, but recently she has been considering a colt, the first in many years. You have had some small part in that, I think.” Finally, she glanced out the window and saw the time. “You must depart soon, and I must lower the moon to make way for the sun.” She stood, and stared imperiously at me. “Dismissed, Captain.”
I saluted and left, glad to be out of there.
A few hours later, I teleported south with a shipment of supplies. It was mostly food and bandages, but with some other stuff as well. The first pieces of armour made from the new alloy I’d discovered with Cameron’s help were still a while away, but I did talk Luna into letting me take some things with me. Just had to agree not to let anyone else know how to make them, which I was never going to do anyway. Well, not while I was alive anyway. In my will I left Twilight, among other things, a notebook with everything I had tried or was planning on trying to make in it. Not like they can do anything to me if I’m dead.
The trip south was much more pleasant than the one east. No one ended up inside a tree, for one thing. That lack of trees, and other people, probably had more to do with that though. The carefully marked off arrival area may have also contributed.
Shining Armour was waiting for me when I arrived. I was sitting atop a crate marked with various symbols that meant anyone stupid enough to open it deserved what happened to them. Dropping down, I made sure I had all my personal items with me, and left the arrival area. A small shield rippled as I walked through it, and the heat of the desert hit me like two hooves to the chest. Really should have had my stuff enchanted while I was in Canterlot.
“Captain,” Shining Armour said, nodding at me as I crossed the barrier. I nodded back, looking around. We were in what had, until recently, been an abandoned fort on Equestria’s southern border. They were re-fortifying the walls and doing other repair work just now, patching the dark grey stone and laying down new paving.
Shining Armour mumbled under his breath as he looked at me. “How many weapons did you bring?” he asked.
“On me, or with me?”
He glanced down at the crates behind me, then back at me. “Both.”
On me I had my work of art that doubled as a crossbow, two dozen bolts, my spear, the hand-axe, a few daggers in strategic locations and a butter knife I’d packed away in a hurry. In the crates behind me I had a dozen other, lesser crossbows, a few thousand training bolts - basically sharpened sticks weighted to fly like real bolts over short distances, assorted weapons to suit almost any unicorn, pegasus, earth pony or griffon and a few things that weren't strictly weapons, but could be used in a pinch. And some surprises, courtesy of Cameron and something he called ‘the internet’, a sort of giant library.
When I told him, leaving out the last part, he nodded. “Sounds good. Bit higher than I was expecting, to be honest. Those crossbows for your griffons?”
“Depends on how many are good with them. Might have some left for the unicorns.”
Shining Armour smiled a little at that. I nodded towards a tent and we started walking. “I think we unicorns can do without your toys.”
I snorted. “Maybe you can, but you’re damn near a magic talent when it comes to strength. These aren’t for you. I was thinking some of the new recruits could use teamwork drills, and the bows work well for that. Less destructive than magic, and you put a mark on the bolt for each recruit you can see who hit where.”
“Not a bad idea. Bring it up at the next meeting. When are the rest of the Night Guard getting here?”
“They’re already here.”
“What?”
I stopped and looked down at him. He stopped a second later. “You haven’t heard?”
“Heard what?”
I glanced up at the sun and muttered, “What the hell, Celestia?” Looking back at Shining Armour, I decided not to beat around the bush, not that there was a chance of it happening anyway. “We lost a good seventy, seventy five percent to the griffons. What’s left is staying in Canterlot for a few months rest. More, if I can get them it.”
Shining Armour sighed and muttered a something I didn’t understand. It was something to do with a pole of some sort, Celestia and a donkey, and a certain way of combining the three. Stupid Equestrian and its stupid way of combining sounds to make words, and then words to make sentences. It’s like they were trying to make it hard to become fluent.
When he stopped muttering, Shining Armour looked back at the gear that had traveled with me. “That explains the extra supplies.”
“How bad is it?”
“It’s actually not as bad as I’m making seem. It’s just, the troops have been down here for months, away from their families. I was hoping to set up a rotation now that you’d finished up in Valgryph.” He looked back at me. “Nice work there, by the way. Princess Luna told me about it. I’m not quite sure how you managed to make it work, or even what your plan really was, but it worked. Mostly.”
I nodded. “Mostly.”
We had reached the tent now, and I followed him inside. It was noticeably cooler under the fabric ceiling, much cooler than it should have been. Shining Armour let out a quiet, content sigh. “Y’know, I don’t think we’d be doing half as well if we didn’t have a couple unicorns with a talent for fire and ice. We’d be too busy trying to not melt. This is not armour weather.”
“How does a fire talent help?”
He shrugged. “Both deal with heat. Just moving it in opposite directions.” He lay down on the floor of the tent, looking up at me. “You had some plans for drills, right.”
“Some. Don’t really know how unicorn or pegasi drills work. Why?”
He sighed. “Because for the past few weeks drills are basically all we’ve done. The Dogs are dug in - literally - somewhere to the south, we think, and we’re having some trouble finding them. They seem to be happy to wait us out. Some new drills would be good. Everyp- everyone is getting bored and on edge.”
“I’ll get some plans to you later. Anything I need to know?”
“Standard set up, mostly. Had to mix it up a little with the Night Guard here too. You’re troops are on the east side, making a circle around your tent. There should be a copy of the schedule in there, along with recent reports.” A few of the Day Guard entered. I nodded to Shining Armour and left.
Ten minutes later, I was sitting in my tent with Markus, who was giving me his impression of things in camp.
“Very little combat,” the griffin said, pacing in front of me and flexing his wings. “Mostly just drills, drills and more drills. There has been maybe two instances of contact in the past week and a half. We barely even see the Dogs anymore; they have fled underground, too cowardly to face us.”
I stared at him for a few minutes before asking, “Which accent is fake?”
He glanced at me and gave a squawk. “Vhat, you though that ve griffons talked like this? Please. I was born in Equestria. But no pony expects griffons to talk normally, so I don’t.”
“Fair enough. Most ponies didn’t expect me to talk at all, at first. A few even offered to buy me.”
“I bet they regretted that.”
I didn’t say anything, but I couldn’t stop a small smile. They sure had.
“But we’re getting off topic. Captain Armour seems content to dig in and fortify our position.”
I leaned forward, elbows on my knees. “And you disagree?”
He looked at the way I was sitting and tilted his head to one side. “Diamond Dogs dig very well. It would not be hard for them to weaken our foundations.”
I nodded. “I’ll bring it up. Now, about your promotion.” He blinked, surprised. “You're in charge of the Night Guards fliers. Congratulations, Lieutenant.”
He let out a few short, sharp chirps that I think might have been laughter, then saluted, talon against chest. “I won’t let you down, sir.”
I waved that away. “Good. Go spread the word. Anyone gives you trouble, tell them to take it up with me. I want you to go over the flight paths you were given by the Day Guard, make whatever improvements you think you should. Have the rest of the griffons meet me in the training yard in twenty minutes.”
Markus walked over to the entrance, but stopped there. Looking back over his shoulder, he said, “It’s good to have you back, sir. Maybe we’ll actually finish this now.”
With that, he left the tent. I just tried not to sigh too loudly and went back to the reports. Some were from the Day Guard, about Diamond Dog sightings. Others were from the Night Guard, to bring me up to speed on what’s been going on, and the last few were from Luna, which was odd given I saw her last night. Looking through the last group, they were basically the same as what she told me that night as well. Did she think I was stupid or something? I mean, I’m not Twilight smart, but thats like saying the moon is small because it’s not the same size as the sun. It’s just not a fair comparison. I went from not knowing the language to graduating from the best school in the country in six and a half years. Thats damn impressive, even with the amount of extra help I had.
I kept a hold of it, though. It’d be useful to show my officers. Now I thought about it, thats probably why she sent it.
Nineteen minutes later, I was in the courtyard with the griffons and around eighteen crossbows. As soon as everyone was settled down, I started talking.
“Alright, here is what’s going to happen. You’re going to learn to shoot these crossbows, and you’re going to do it well. You will take care of your crossbow. You will make sure the string is not worn. You will keep the mechanism clean of dirt and well oiled. After a battle, you will take care of the wounded, then your crossbow, then yourself. Am I understood?” A chorus of ‘yessirs’. “Any questions?”
One talon went up.
“Yes, Corporal Aquilinus?”
“Why, sir?”
“Because it will help keep you alive. Because it will make you better soldiers. And because I bloody said so. Understood?”
Another chorus of ‘yessirs’, and not very enthusiastic ones.
I started pacing in front of them. “The crossbow is a simple weapon. Pull back the string, load a bolt, aim, fire. Sounds simple, right?” I got one nod, from a new recruit, I think. The rest knew not to answer that. I pointed at the one that nodded. “Alright, if it’s so simple, lets have a little test. You and I, first one to get a bolt in the dummy’s head wins. I’ll let you take three shots to my one. Deal?”
The griffon had gone wide eyed at being singled out, and started to slowly shake his head. I gave him a good impression of a drill sergeant’s stare. I used to be on the other side of those, and when the griffon froze, saluted and came forward I knew why. Much quicker than just ordering him down here.
I let the griffon, Corporal Veraleam, load his crossbow and aim. He wasn’t stupid; he took his time, lined it up fairly well. The bolt only missed by a foot or so. He frowned, reloaded and aimed again. Did better with his second shot, only missing by half a foot in the other direction. His third shot almost hit the target, hitting the ground in front of the post the dummy was tied to. I put a hand out for his bow. I quickly reloaded without even looking down, dropped to one knee, and fired. The bolt took the dummy between the buttons where its eyes should be.
“That,” I said, handing the Corporal his crossbow back, “would be a very dead Diamond Dog, yes?” I got a chorus of ‘yessirs’, fairly enthusiastic ones this time. I looked at the griffon next to me. “Go get your bolts back, Corporal.” He ran down range to collect them. While he was doing that, I walked through the ranks, showing them the correct way to hold a crossbow. For them, it was a little different than the way I held it, but not much. Only took me an hour or so to get everyone sorted. After that I started them with basic aiming drills, doing a bit of corrective maintenance on any crossbow that was actually aiming badly.
I had to go after another hour, leaving some to do more practice while the rest went to get ready for patrols and scouting. I had a meeting with Shining Armour and his lieutenants at sundown which, looking at the sky, was about five minutes away. I made it with seconds to spare. I was also the first one there. So much for military punctuality.
When they all showed up, it took a few more minutes for us to actually start. There were traditions that had to be observed first. Boring, time wasting traditions. Though I guess when they aren’t yours, all traditions can seem like that. Finally, we got down to business. Shining Armour started by bringing me up to speed on things I already knew.
“We’ve been holding out here, trying to pinpoint where out in the Badlands the Dogs are based. We’ve not been having much luck, they hide their tracks well. Only three minor skirmishes in the past week and a half, no casualties, a couple minor injuries. I’m assuming you’ll be taking over night-time patrols?” I nodded. “You’re griffons should have copies of the patrol routes for you to look over and make changes to.”
“How are you tracking the Dogs?” I asked.
“A combination of searching for actual tracks and magical tracking. Normally we’d use heat, but that doesn’t work as well out here. We’ve tried pinpointing sound from underground, but it’s no use. Smell doesn’t work either, too much wind.”
“What about water? Is there a spell to find that?”
“Probably, but I don’t know it myself, and I doubt anyone under me does. Why? They aren’t very powerful spells, you’d need to be pretty close.”
One of his lieutenants spoke up. I knew him, but I just could not remember his name, not for love nor money. Oddly enough it was the earth pony and not the unicorn. “No, no, he might be onto something, sir. If there are as many Dogs out there as we think there are, they’ll need a lot of water near by. And with as little as there is in this Suncursed place, I doubt we’ll be getting any false positives.” The unicorn frowned and glanced at the pegasus. I didn’t recognise either of them.
You know, I’m not actually sure why Shining Armour insisted on bringing his lieutenants with him to the meeting. It could have been done easier with just the two of us.
Shining Armour started speaking again, nodding as he did. “Okay, it’s worth a shot. I’ll ask the Princess to send someone down here that knows those spells, or at least some spell books. Maybe we’ll find some other water sources nearby as well. I don’t like having just the one, even if pegasi can keep it topped off.” He glanced down at the minutes, then back up at me. “Hows the crossbow training going?”
I shrugged. He knew what that meant, thankfully. “Give me two weeks or so, and I’ll have them hitting their target more often than not. But to get them good, I’ll need a couple months. Got a couple leftover bows for unicorns to practice with, if you want them.”
He nodded. “Some of the new recruits could use the target practice as well, plus more training never hurts anypony.”
We spent some more time talking about possible tactics we could use against the Dogs, but it was mostly a moot point until we actually found them. After that, we went split duties, separated what the Night Guard would be doing from the Day Guard so there was no unnecessary duplication of effort. It didn’t take that long, really. We would do repairs on our side of camp at night, and everything was pretty much the same. Inventory checks, patrols, sentries, equipment repairs and drills. Shining Armour quickly penned the letter to Celestia asking about the water-seeker for me to give to Spike, and the three lieutenants excused themselves. Only the earth pony one actually contributed, the other two didn’t make a sound. And I still can’t remember his name, it’s going to bug me all night now.
Shining Armour started to leave, but stopped. “Did you make plans for the drills yet?”
“I did, but I had one of my unicorns look over them. He said I basically recreated the drills you already use, only slightly worse. I can take another go at it, if you want, but I don’t know if anything will come of it.”
He sighed. “Not gonna lie, I’m getting sick of doing those drills myself. I’ll see if I can come up with something myself.” He was frowning as he said it, but brightened suddenly before asking, “Spike can get us mail, right? When can we expect it?”
“He can, yeah. Around midnight is when we used to get it, so you’ll have it in the morning.”
He nodded, a smile on his face as he left the tent. I got started on paperwork. One upside to having both of us here is he seems to enjoy the stuff. Definitely Twilight’s brother.