Alabaster Star pawed the floor of the top of the watchtower with an armored hoof. He gazed around the room, empty save the few weapons racks that housed spears and wing cross-bows for the guards that were stationed in the tower. Aside from that, he could see nothing of significance.
He gave a hollow sigh and looked out of one of the many windows of the tower. Outside Ace was steadily flapping his wings, his shadow creating quite the image on the wall in front of him. Up and down he flew by the wall, carefully inspecting it.
“Any luck, mate?” Alabaster called out from the window.
“Nada, bro.” Ace responded, his eyes still locked on the wall as he poured over it for any kind of clue. “All that’s here are the hooks that Crimson Edge and the Earth pony used to scale the wall.”
“Bloody hell…” Alabaster muttered before wiping a few beads of sweat off of his cheeks. He swayed a bit. He was starting to get tired. “I’ll meet you at the gate that was left open!” He called out to his companion. “I need to question the guard that was late to his post there.”
“Good call, bro. I wanna spend a little bit more time here. I get the feeling there’s something I’m missing.” Ace responded, turning his head to look at Alabaster.
Alabaster raised an eyebrow. “On...the wall?”
“Har har...I don’t need your condescension, tin-soldier.” He stuck out his tongue and turned back to the wall. “I’ll see you down there.”
Alabaster again questioned Ace’s eligibility for the position as head of castle security, but shrugged it off again as he used his magic to open the door and traverse the stairs back down to the courtyards, where the guard he needed to talk to was waiting.
“I swear on Celestia’s life, sir.” The guard in question shook his head as he gazed at Alabaster questioningly. “I got this letter that said it was from the head of castle security, telling me they were doing maintenance on the tower and I needed to come in an hour late.”
Alabaster sighed annoyedly, briefly gazing up at the tower he had just come down from. “And I’m telling you, Private...maintenance is important, but not important enough for a guard to be late. Plus, Ace isn’t in charge of maintenance.”
“He’s right there, buddy.” Ace’s voice sounded from above as the pegasus touched down next to Alabaster. “What I’m doing right now is my job, not sending ‘you-can-be-lazy-today’ letters.”
“Well how the hay was I supposed to know?” The guard retorted sharply. “You don’t think I’m actually in league with the assassins, do you?!”
“Easy, Stormwind.” Ace held up a hoof to calm the frustrated guard. Alabaster noticed that Ace was holding something in his hoof, but before he could get a good look at it, Ace had tucked whatever it was under his chestplate and put his hoof down. “You are free to go.”
The guard, who was shaking at this point, gave a nervous salute before galloping off to the palace to finally clock out.
Before Alabaster could complain, Ace interrupted. “He’s clean, Al. I can tell by the way he was talking to you. What he was saying is true.”
“Just because you’ve been at this cud for a long time doesn’t mean you know that for sure…” Alabaster muttered as he approached Ace.
Ace just gave a small chuckle in response. “True, but you can’t argue with my results, can you? Besides, I found a little something that may interest you.” Ace reached into his chest piece and retrieved what he was holding when he came down from his wall inspection.
“How the hay did you find a small coil of rope on the wall!?” Alabaster said, gazing at it the rope in shock.
“I found it hidden away behind one of the cement blocks.” Ace gave a cheeky smile.
“How!?”
“Well…”
“DANG it!” Ace angrily slammed an armored hoof into the wall in frustration. “There has GOT to be something here!”
The sound of gravel coming loose sounded above him. He looked up just in time to see one of the cement blocks the wall was made out of tumbling down towards him. He shouted in surprise, avoiding it at the last second.
As it crashed onto the ground below, he turned his attention upwards. He floated up to where the block came loose and smiled.
“Gravy…”
“You’re yanking my chain, mate.” Alabaster’s eyes were wide with disbelief. “So you sucker-punched the wall, and you found that rope behind a loose brick?”
“Indeed I did.” Ace nodded. “But here’s the clincher. This isn’t your average, run-of-the-mill rope.” His smile faded as he turned the rope over in his forehooves as he floated in the air. “This is-”
“From the guard armory.” Alabaster finished his sentence, gazing at a symbol that looked like Celestia’s cutie mark pressed into one side of the rope. “Somepony working in the armory is our traitor.”
“And Bingo was his name-o.” Ace said, narrowing his eyes as he tucked the rope under his chestpiece again. “Based on the amount of bits they were offering our assassins, they must be a vendor or something. Come on, Al. I do believe we have a scumbag to catch.”
“He probably knows we’re on to him, whoever he is.” Alabaster growled. “We’d better hurry.”
With that, Alabaster broke into a gallop towards the armory with Ace flying in tow.
The door to the armory burst open as Alabaster leaped in, his sword drawn and hovering in front of him with magic. Ace flew in behind him, his dual scimitars in both his forehooves. Both guards were repulsed by what they saw.
Two corpses were on the floor, blood forming small pools around their heads. Alabaster recognized them as the two day guards who were supposed to guard the armory. Clearly, they saw the culprit and tried to arrest them, but failed.
“Damn! We’re too late!” Ace sheathed his scimitars and dropped down the ground, trotting over to the two guard corpses. “This was recent. The knife wounds in their necks are fresh.”
“He could still be here…” Alabaster muttered. He had let his gaze wander around the vast room of weapons, armor, and equipment, looking for anything out of the ordinary. Suddenly, a cloaked figure leaped out from behind one of the weapons racks, lunging at him with a knife. Alabaster yelped and sidestepped out of the way, slashing downward with his sword. The figure grunted as the blade barely made contact with his face, causing a bit of blood to stain Alabaster’s sword. The figure whirled around and slammed his back hooves into Alabaster’s chest. The unicorn flew upwards and landed down on the ground hard. He groaned as he heard Ace galloping after his assailant, yelling for him to stop.
By the time Alabaster rolled over and stood up, Ace had returned, a snarl encompassing his usually happy face. “He got away. Out of the window. After bucking me-”
“I get it.” Alabaster held his chest and winced when he still felt pain. “We’re dealing with an Earth pony here.”
“Yeah. None of the the other races can buck like that.” Ace said through a wheezing lungs as more guards came galloping in. Amid all the chaos, two light blue eyes glared at them from the parapet he had landed on. In the blink of an eye, the figure was gone.
“Gargh…” Alabaster grumbled as he leaned against the wall of the armory with Ace as he gently used a forehoof to hold an ice pack to himself. “I’m so done with today.”
“I feel you, dude…” Ace was doing the same, but his ice pack was applied to a bruise on his forehead. “Listen, we know who we’re dealing with now…kinda.” Ace looked over at his companion. “We already put out a warrant for this pony’s arrest. Why don’t you head up to Luna’s chamber, see if the Princess is okay, and then clock out?”
Alabaster removed his ice pack and looked over at Ace. “With all due respect, Ace, I’d rather help you catch this motherbucker.”
Ace chuckled at his choice of words and shook his head. “You’ve got a daughter to look after, and you’ve been away for too long. Trust me, I have a son and I know how important it is to look out for your kids.” He smiled, but winced in pain, pressing the ice pack onto his head yet again. “Seriously, if I find anything else about this pony, you’ll be the first I contact.”
Alabaster was about to object yet again, but then stopped himself. Ace was right. He had been away for far too long. Moonblaze would be waking up any minute now. He had to get home. He shakily stood up and used his magic to keep the ice pack pressed to his chin. “Thanks mate...keep in touch.”
With that, Alabaster walked down the hall and back towards Luna’s tower.
Alabaster wearily pushed the door that lead into the antechamber outside Luna’s room open and yawned. Regardless of his horrible situation in his career, he was going to sleep like a rock. He had faced off against a grand total of four would-be assassins of his ward, Princess Luna, and had killed two of them and captured another. “Not bad for being on the job for under a week…” Alabaster thought to himself as he walked through the antechamber.
The blood pool from Bladeheart had been cleaned up, and now the worker ponies were repairing the stained glass window the assailants had broken through.
He pushed open the door into Luna’s chamber and was surprised to see that the chamber was repaired as if nothing had happened. Luna’s personal items that were broken during the scuffle, including the telescope Alabaster had bashed one of the assassins over the head with, were repaired and back in their rightful place.
“Surprised, Corporal?”
Alabaster turned and saw a most unusual sight. Captain Shining Armor was sitting at the bedside of Princess Luna, who was laying in bed and looking...pale. For a creature of the night she looked pale. Alabaster could tell just by the eerie feel in the room that something was wrong.
“I was just…” Alabaster paused and trotted over next to Shining Armor, removing his helmet and placing it on the floor with magic. “Going to check on Ni-the princess, before I clocked out and headed home.”
Shining Armor just nodded and turned his attention back to Luna. Without looking at Alabaster, Shining spoke in a low, quiet tone. “You catch him?”
Alabaster gave a heavy sigh and sat down next to his Captain. “I’m afraid not, sir. He gave Ace and I a good go before escaping.”
“Shame…”
There was an awkward silence between the two of them before Alabaster cleared his throat and spoke. “So, I guess I’ll leave the princess in your able hooves and-”
“You can’t go home yet.” Shining said with sudden sharpness. “You have one more thing to do.”
“But, w-with all due respect, Shining…” Alabaster stammered. “My daughter is-”
“Safe. She’s being looked after by Octavia, our finest assassin.” Shining turned his head to look at him.
Alabaster slammed a hoof onto his face. “The bloody mare was telling the truth…”
“What was that?” Shining cocked an eye.
“Nothing.” Alabaster lowered his hoof and gave a heavy sigh. “So… what more must I do?”
Shining stood up from his seat on the ground and turned to face Alabaster, who looked up at Shining. “As you can see, Luna is not well.”
Alabaster was silent. He was right. There was something wrong. “Wh… what’s wrong with her?”
“This happens every time she exerts too much of her magical reserve. Contrary to popular belief, Luna actually has a bigger workload that Celestia.” Shining stepped around to the other side of Luna’s bed, who fidgeted and coughed in her sleep before rolling over. “In addition to rising and lowering a celestial body each and every night, she must also regulate the dreams of all the ponies in Equestria, occasionally going into them and fixing them. I take it you’ve witnessed this, yeah?”
Alabaster nodded slowly. He had seen her enter that disembodied state with the glowing eyes where she left her body to go into dreams. “Yes. I… I didn’t know that took so much out of her?”
“Did she… look tired tonight? Prior to the attempt on her life?” Shining looked towards him with a stern glance.
Alabaster hesitated. “She said that she wasn’t going to do dreams last night, and that she was going to sleep...she was in bed when they attacked.” He looked down at the floor, ashamed to look at his CO as he recalled his almost traitorous murder of the Princess.
“I was afraid of that.” Shining narrowed his eyes at Alabaster and sniffed, looking around the room cautiously, before returning his gaze to Alabaster. “What I am about to tell you is the highest level of classified information, so if you ever utter this to anypony except the royalty, myself, or Bladeheart when he recovers, you will rot in prison for the rest of your life. Do you understand?”
Alabaster recoiled slightly at this statement. Upon thinking about it briefly, he decided his life had been thrown into enough of a tailspin, that nothing would surprise him anymore. “I understand, Captain.”
Shining looked down at Luna, who again fidgeted in her sleep, and then back to Alabaster, his gaze still stone-cold. “There… there is still a piece of the dark magic that possessed her; transformed her… into Nightmare Moon… deep inside her, being kept in check by Luna’s immense magical power and fragments of the Elements of Harmony that turned her back to normal.”
A frigid chill ran up Alabaster’s spine and his pupils shrank as Shining continued.
“When she exerts this much magical energy, which she has recently done assisting in your fight with her assassins, and apparently for whatever reason she lost her sleep yesterday, this dark magic has enough power to potentially overpower the good within her...transforming her again into Nightmare Moon.”
“I… I…” Alabaster couldn’t even breathe. His world had already been turned upside down by his new post, but now this new revelation that Nightmare Moon was still inside Luna? Part of him started accepting the widely spread truth that she was good now, and this just made him get an instant, massive headache just thinking about it.
“Alabaster, the sleep she is in now lets us know that the dark part of her is again resurfacing. The only way to wake her up from this sleep is to send someone into her subconscious and beat back that part of Nightmare Moon…” Shining stepped around the bed towards the heavily sweating Alabaster. “Someone who is a great warrior and has been with her close proximity and has witnessed her magic first-hoof.” He pointed. “That’s the ulterior motive for you and Bladeheart being her personal bodyguards at night, in case this happened. Since Bladeheart currently has a massive hole in his chest in the castle infirmary, the duty falls to you.”
Alabaster took a few steps back, his eyes locked on the twitching face of Luna. “Captain… I… I can’t… I… I can’t do this! I’m sorry! I just CAN’T!” He shook his head violently.
“You swore an oath, Alabaster!” Shining suddenly barked.
Before Alabaster could respond, Luna gasped and her eyes opened. The candles in the room blew out in an instant. A bone-chilling evil laughter filled the room...the evil laughter of a mare. Alabaster and Shining Armor’s helmets were blown off and clattered to the floor. Manes blowing in the faces, they whipped their heads in the direction of the laughter.
Luna’s eyes were serpentine, and her mouth was wide open. More laughter erupted from it. Her mouth did not move, and the laughter sounded distant and ghostly.
It all flooded back to Alabaster in an instant. His wife dead. His daughter crying.
His hate.
Blinded by his refound rage, he used his magic to draw his sword and leap forward towards Luna.
“NOOOOOO!!!!” Shining Armor drew his sword with his magic and countered Alabaster’s attack, slamming his sword into Alabaster’s, sending the tired night guard reeling back, hitting the floor hard. Before he could get up and counterattack, he gasped in pain as Shining stepped on his forehoof and stared down at him as the wind died down, and so did the laughter.
The room was silent. Shining just stared down at Alabaster, unblinking. Alabaster panted heavily, taking in deep breaths to regain his composure. Finally, Shining sighed, blinked, and leaned down. “You swore an oath, Corporal. Now, are you going to keep your oath?”
Alabaster gritted his teeth as Shining’s hoof kept his whole body in place on the floor.He gazed at Luna on her bed. Her covers had been blown off in the torrent and she lay on her back, fidgeting even harder than before, grunting in her sleep.
He returned his gaze to Shining, who was frowning. “We don’t have much time. That little spasm she just had indicates we are running out of time. Fast. So what’ll it be?”
Shining gasped, however, when he saw tears sliding down the cheeks of the hardened night guard. Shining slowly removed his hoof and stared down at Alabaster with concern. Alabaster sniffed. “Captain…” He slowly returned to his hooves. “I hate her. I hate her so much. Ever since you put me in this… Celestia-forsaken post, I’ve yearned for the moment I could kill her myself.”
“Alabaster…” Shining took a step back as Alabaster turned and retrieved his blown-off helmet with his magic, placing it on his head, and then retrieving his sword the same way, sheathing it.
“But now...I understand.” Alabaster sobbed slightly, blinking away more tears. “I understand now that the mare I hate...isn’t her.” He pointed at Luna. “The mare I hate is inside her. And I’m not just going to beat it back into submission…”
He stepped towards Shining and looked into his Captain’s shocked eyes.
“I’m going to bucking kill it.”
Moonblaze groaned and rolled out of her bed, her mane sticking up all over the place. The first thing she did was look into the mirror that was in her room. She groaned when she saw her mane.
“Dad! Is breakfast ready yet?” She half-yelled. No response.
“Dad? Did you hear me?” Moonblaze opened her door and peered down the hallway towards the kitchen and living room area. “Dad?”
“Your Dad is still at work.”
Moonblaze gasped and whirled around to see a pony in a white and red robe standing in the hallway. Her hood was down, however, and she recognized her as…
“Octavia! You really are an-”
“Assassin, yes. I tried to tell you.” She gave a warm smile. Octavia reached a forehoof up and pulled up her hood. “Your father had an… incident… at work, and won’t be home until later. But trust me…” She rose a forehoof and patted Moonblaze on the shoulder. “He’s okay. Just do what you must do. I will watch over you.”
Moonblaze was about to ask all kinds of questions about what kind of manure her dad had gotten into now, but decided she would save those questions for him.
“Do we have an accord?” Octavia cocked her hooded head at her young filly ward.
Moonblaze nodded. “Yes. And can I-?”
“No, you cannot tell anypony about me.”
“Cud.”