//------------------------------// // Skeletons in the Closet // Story: My number one dark knight // by Angelus Alvus //------------------------------// A week has passed after Raizel’s burial and it was still fresh in his friends and family’s memories. Although they missed him, the daily routine seemed to distract them from thinking too much about him. Spike and Bella Noche didn’t have school that day since everyling of their age had a month long recess given the fact that most of them were sent in expeditions alongside the army. It wasn’t mandatory, but about seventy percent of the changeling of that generation chose to do so. The reason behind such “vacation” was to give the changelings who chose to experiment a real mission a breather and assimilate all the things they’ve seen and did. The teachers gave some assignments for the ones that didn’t want to join the army for a mission while the ones who did go had to write a report about what they had experienced. Needless to say, neither the dragon nor his friend were eager to write, but they did it so eventually. They were gathered at a newly opened area underground, called "The Cove" to gather young changelings for relaxation, food and fun. The idea was straight up copied from a pony town a group of changelings passed through. Also, the only reason why such place was allowed to be built was because the attacks to other nations were doing very well and it greatly improved the Changeling Kingdom’s resources. In that place there was also something that resembled a food and drink counter for the kids and teenagers to buy. There was also several tables, chairs and even a device that played music However, while said device was indeed a “spoil of war”, it was studied and it played music done by changelings, and not by ponies. Spike, Bella Noche, Ixion, Ion, Dalia and Crimson Veil were together in a table drinking juice and enjoying some fried fish. The last four changelings had just gotten back from the expedition and each one was telling their own story of what had happened. Dalia and Ion were sent with a group to a gryphon settlement to secure a recently discovered iron ore mine. According to them, they were all disguised as lost gryphn travelers seeking for temporary shelter at during the night. When it arrived, everything was all done fast and painless during the night. The adults had slit the throats of every gryphon while they were sleeping. As they spoke, a larger group of changelings was draining the mine of every drop of resource as fast as they could before the gryphons suspected of what had happened. As for Ixion and Crimson Veil, they had to admit they saw no blood or action of any kind. Their expedition group had a last minute change of objective and take the a large sum of pony currency, which was gathered from every corpse and house looted, and trade them for goods, since the money was worthless inside of the Changeling Kingdom. Their commander had said that while the task of walking inside of enemy territory for shopping wasn’t glorious, it was still a vital part for their survival. They had to admit it was a good experience because they had to learn to keep their cool near those “backstabbing” ponies. “Imagine their nerve. They live in a town where they can grow crops, walk under the sun any time they want and act all high and might while we have to live here. I even bet that they only pretend to care about each other. I’ve heard tales of constant backstabbing and even plans about to dethrone their own ruler from our commander, Katana. That whole place is a mess.” Ixion said before shoving another piece of fish into his mouth. “What did you expect? They shamelessly steal from others. Why shouldn’t we treat them the same way?” Dalia added. They all continued to talk and throw insults at other races, not because they were different from them, but because of the things they’ve done. Over a thousand years ago. Wounds done to their kind are still treated as if they are fresh. “I…don’t think I want to be a soldier anymore. I don’t know what I want to do anymore…” Bella Noche said. Everyone there knew and understood her reasons for that. “Well, we are still young. I personally tink you would be a great teacher, Bella. But who knows what the future holds.” Spike said trying to cheer her up. Bella smiled weakly in response appreciating her friend’s words. “So, what about you, Spike? Are you going to become a soldier?” Crimson Veil asked. The drake nodded and replied: “Yes. I know that everyling has great expectations of me and I do want to help the best I can. Imagine this: once we defeat Celestia, the gryphons, pelicans and every race that turned their back to us, we’ll finally be able to come out of hiding and enjoy our rightful place under the Sun.” His friends were both amazed and a bit wary of Spike’s speech. They worried because they didn’t want his friend to get hurt, but it was clear for them that being a soldier meant to put the well being of those you care about more than your own. However, on the other side of the room, unknown to them, Ifrit and a few of his friends were sitting on a table eating as well. Ifrit couldn’t help but to overhear everything that Spike said and scoffed it. He had plenty of witty remarks to make about Raizel’s death and how Spike would utterly fail, but he kept quiet. He learned to keep every nasty comment about others only to himself. It was a painful lesson he had learned years ago, after the Ball incident. He wouldn’t even dare to voice it to his friends. He didn’t know if any of them could rat him out to his father. It had happened once when he commented about how it was unfair that he had to change school and insulted Bella Noche and Spike a lot to one of his new classmates expecting them to take his side. They did agree with him, but they had made the mistake of commenting this with their own parents and, eventually, the word got to Nocturne and he was even more punished. He hated it. He adored his father. He was his hero. But he was refused to participate in his debut mission alongside him, because Spike and Bella Noche would be there and Nocturne’s words were “You can’t fool me, boy. You still bear hate towards them. You act like a petulant child by hating others for rightfully defending themselves from your unfair attack.” So, in order to avoid conflicts that could endanger them all, Nocturne placed his son under Shadow Blade’s team. The mission was a success, but he loathed it because his father didn’t trust him. Yes, he hated Spike and Bella Noche, but he learned how to control his tongue. He had no idea how his dad knew about his feelings. However, he found it ironic to say that a changeling performing unfair attacks is wrong, while they do it to others. Kill other races while they sleep is hardly a noble thing to do. Necessary, but he was aware that there was no honor in that. He wouldn’t dare to call him a hypocrite, thou. Ifrit simply decided to ignore them for the time being. ‘Who cares if the prince fails or not. If he fails, great. He’s gone forever. If he succeeds, then we get a huge advantage, only at the price of having to stare at his smug face…I think I can live with that.’ After drinking some juice, not paying any attention to what his friends were talking about, he pondered: ‘But if he so much tries to screw us, I’ll personally kill him for endangering my kind.’ Shining Armor tried to rehearse many times in his head what he was supposed to say to his Princess. After a week of non-stop traveling he was finally arriving at Canterlot. The first thing he wanted was to stop b his house and make sure to tell his family he was alright, but he knew he had a duty to fulfil. The warming embrace of his parents could wait for a few more hours. Besides, he did send a letter to them as well when he had written one to Princess Celestia. He sighed heavily as he looked through the window of the train. It was raining softly. The vehicle wasn’t very crowded, so he at least the place was quiet for him to think. But no matter how much he did, nothing that had transpired at the outpost made sense. He came up with theory after theory and each one was more ludicrous than the previous one. The stallion then decided to relax a little. ‘No point being tired to the point I become a being a nervous wreck in front of the Princess, right?’ he thought as he closed his eyes and tried to focus solely on the sound of the wheels moving on the track. A few hours later he arrived at Canterlot’s station and he rushed to the Castle. At the entrance, he talked to the guards about his appointment with Celestia and after checking with their superior, they discovered that an white unicorn named Shining Armor was to be brought immediately to the Princess, but they weren’t told why, though. Shining could understand why it took so long for them to let him in. The security has to be tight and they simply couldn’t simply let anyone in just because they were wearing army armor. After he was allowed inside, he was escorted by two pegasi guards to Celestia’s throne room. One of them had grey fur and the other had an orange one. Shining couldn’t tell the color of their manes much less their cutie marks because of the armor, but, by judging from their faces, the grey one was older. “You’re that survivor from the outpost attacked recently, right? Man, I can’t wait until Princess Celestia uses your testimony to attack the gryphons.” The orange one said with a grin expression. The grey one sighed and replied: “You really shouldn’t let your anger dictate your actions.” The orange one stopped and snarled at the older soldier: “Those scum killed my sister when she was simply trading spices between the two kingdoms.” Shining Armor stopped walking and said abruptly: “Hang on a second! I’m really sorry for your sister, but didn’t the princess tell anyone here? I mean, the gryphons weren’t the ones to attack our outpost. There were some members of some strange species I’ve never seen before there. One almost got me killed. I’m not even sure if they are allied with the gryphons or not.” The orange pegasus then continued lashing out his anger: “They’ve robbed her clean and cut his head off. How do you expect me to be kind to those gryphons, plus there was enough evidence of who did it.” The unicorn cringed at hearing this. He truly felt sorry for the guy’s loss and he wished to find a way to make this mess stop. But before he could come up with anything else to say the grey Pegasus interrupted them: “This is not time for this, Magnus. Despite of the things that happened we can’t jump into war because of what some random rogues did.” Magnus scoffed and replied: “easy for you to say, Wind Breaker, you haven’t lost anyone because of the gryphons. And if their king won’t do anything to hunt them down it’s because he approves what has been happening to our people.” Wind sighed and replied doing his best to not let the younger one’s low blow affect him: “Look, just don’t forget that some ponies are pretty much doing the same to them. Let the Princess decide whether or not this is an act of war, alright?” This seemed to quiet Magnus down for the moment. Without adding words the grey Pegasus continued leadin Shining Armor to the throne room. Once they arrived the Sun Princess said: “Thank you for bringing him to me. Please leave us alone, we have plenty to discuss.” The two pegasi bowed respectfully and left. Once they were alone, Shining Armor fidgeted a little in his place. He was a bit nervous to be in her presence alone. It was like she radiated a both elegant and commanding aura. Noticing that the soldier was stiff, she quickly said with a gentle smile: “Don’t be like this, Shining Armor. May I call you Shining Armor instead of the rank? I’m your sister’s personal teacher. Just because I’m the Princess it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try feel comfortable near me. Have you visited your family yet?” This did help the unicorn to relax a bit, but he found it to be odd for the Princess to be so casual with him, a mere soldier. He wondered if it had anything to do with his sister. “Uh…yes, you can call me that…I guess…*ahem* I intend to do so as soon as our meeting is over, your majesty. I’ve only sent a letter to them when I sent you yours…” Celestia couldn’t help but to feel a bit uncomfortable herself. ‘Why does everypony act like I’m going to throw them into a dungeon if they talk to me like they would talk to everypony else…’ She also recorded how Twilight felt when she had heard the news that the outpost Shining was assigned to was destroyed. It broke her heart to see such young filly in so much pain. She even suspended the extra lessons and visited twilight daily to check how she was faring. But when she got her brother’s letter, she cried again, but this time it was of happiness. “Then let’s hurry. I don’t want to keep your family waiting for you.” She started saying with a gentle voice, but her face became more serious as she continued: “Can you give me the full details of what happened. You mentioned seeing a species you’ve never seen before, correct?” Shining Armor nodded and told her everything from that night with as much detail as he could, even about how a foal turned into a fireball and tackled him off the cliff. Celestia didn’t interrupt him not even once. She paid attention to every word. She was very concerned about the description of the creature the Second Lieutenant found. The way he described him gave Celestia a sense of déjà vu. She had seen a creature with that appearance, but she couldn’t remember where. Besides, she was mystified that it could use magic as well. ‘An illusion spell? Those are very hard to pull off.’ She wondered after Shining Armor finished speaking. “What do you think of all this, Shining Armor?” She asked. “I have a few theories myself, your majesty. Those creatures might be working with the gryphons, but it wouldn’t make sense to kill them. I mean, I doubt they were killed by the others soldiers there. I have no idea if Icarus is capable of ordering the death of his own people or not.” Celestia then interrupted him raising the left hoof: “You say ‘they’. How do you know there were more?” The unicorn replied: “Well, I have reason to believe that the foal who tackled me was one of them. Plus, I don’t remember seeing any body of civilian pony there...but it was raining and dark and I didn’t look around that much…But that foal, or whatever he was, was definitely protecting the creature.” Celestia only hummed at the implications. The Second Lineament was right about one thing: there was no definite answer yet, however she had a pretty good guess that she was being toyed with somehow. “Princess…do you know what those creatures are? I mean they look like ponies, but they have both horns and wings and had a bug face. Are…they like you? Oh…I’m sorry please…I…” he finished saying clearly in panic. He thought he had insulted Celestia somehow. She suddenly snapped from her thoughts and said: “oh..uh…Sorry, Shining Armor. Don’t worry about that. I understand what you mean. I’m fairly certain they aren’t alicorns like me. I believe they’re something else. I have to check some old diaries in order to sure. I believe I’ve documented about them somewhere.” The soldier relaxed a bit, but he reminded himself to watch his tongue in the future. “Is there anything else, I could help you with, your highness?” The alicorn mused for a second and replied with a mischievous grin; “Yes. There’s a certain filly who misses her older brother very much. Could you go there and give her a hug?” Shining Armor smiled softly and said: “With pleasure, your majesty. If you excuse me…” he said as he left the room. Celestia’s smile faltered as she reminded herself to take a look at her journals. She truly didn’t want to read some of them because they also contained some painful memories she wanted to forget, but she always kept them because she didn’t know whether or not these memories would be useful. As for Shining Armor, he did his best to hide his contempt for finally returning home after so long. Thanlfully he wasn’t stopped by curious soldiers who wanted to know about his meeting with the Princess. The unicorn trotted as fast as he could back home and when he finally arrived he used his right hoof to knock the door as he said: “Mom! Dad! Twilie! I’m hom…” Shining Armor tried to say, but he was cut by the door suddenly opening and a quick tackle from a purple furred filly. The two laid there on the floor for a few minutes. The small filly was crying softly on her brother’s fur. Shining hugged her back the whole time as well. “Don’ scare me like that…” she said with a muffled sound because her muzzle was still pressed against the older unicorn’s chest. “I’m sorry I worried you.” He spoke softly. Soon their parents showed up at the door and Night Light said: “Welcome home, son.”