//------------------------------//
// Welcome to the Lunar Guard 
// Story: The Veins Run Deep 
// by Thunderblast 
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Many more weeks later, the warm sun once again slowly ascended into the skies over Equestria, raised by none other than Celestia herself. The city of Canterlot quickly came to life as ponies scampered around town trying to get to their workplace, or wherever they needed to be. At the castle, of course, it never fully shut down. Guards kept watch over every inch of the palace, watching over it's royalty residents and other ponies who worked late at the castle. Every twelve hours however, the guard branches swapped places to be aligned with the times. Sometimes, one or two of the day guard branch were on duty to fill in for sick guards.

That morning, Night Shadow slowly rose from his bed in the barrack he still occupied to himself, and another newbie who arrived that week, but was almost never around to talk. He didn't pay much attention to the pony's absence, and was more focused on that day, for today he would be taking a new step in his career, and quite possibly his life. As always, Night followed his new morning routine; get out of bed, run a few laps on the track, polish his armor, then shower and get ready. 

After he showered, Night slowly put his silver armor set on his body, still shining brightly in any light from being polished. He trotted over to a mirror, looking himself over to make sure nothing was put on wrong, or that there was anything wrong with the armor, which there wasn't from what he could see. He had finally finished looking himself over---five minutes ago---but was still staring at himself in the mirror, thinking to himself before finally talking. "You can do this Night Shadow. All these weeks, you're finally ready," then turned around, trotting to the front door and stepping outside onto the training grounds. 

The temperature was unsure of itself, and Night felt it as half cold, half warm. It almost felt like he couldn't feel it, it was so perfect. Then, Night also noticed the gleam of his armor in the sun. In fact, the sun today seemed brighter than ever before. Nopony seemed to bat an eye to it, allowing Night Shadow to ease his muscles. The day seemed absolutely perfect, but that only aroused some suspicion. He felt something was bound to go wrong then, and tensed up once more as he made his way to the castle. 

There was still plenty of time before he was to meet with Princess Celestia and Shining Armor, though he didn't know of a way to make it go faster without getting carried away with that activity, and missing a very important meeting that would decide his fate in Canterlot. Patiently, Night sat on a bench in the castle gardens, an extremely peaceful place, where the only sounds were tree leaves lightly brushing through the weak breeze, and birds singing from around the gardens, with the faint trickle of water from a nearby pond.

Less than an hour later, Night found it wasn't easy to wait any longer, but knew he should stay put for another hour to avoid forgetting, which was easy for him, something he desperately needed to change if he is to be a guard. Night tapped his hooves on the wooden bench, peering around at his surroundings, which was mostly trees, bushes, and flowers of all kinds. He sat back against the bench, shutting his eyes just enough to relax, but not fall asleep...hopefully.

Suddenly, Night felt the earth shake, quickly jumping to his hooves and looking around for the source.

"Night Shadow!" A guard yelled from close proximity. Night whipped around, seeing it was the guard who shook him. 

"So I did fall asleep." "What is it? What happened?!"

"Someone stole the princess' diamond necklace, and they're getting away!"

Night gasped at the guard's words, quickly looking to his side and seeing the pony dart away in a flash. "Oh no you don't!" Night took quick pursuit, chasing the pony out of the gardens and onto the streets of Canterlot, which were surprisingly packed with ponies, making it hard to navigate. Thinking fast, he opened his wings and flew above the crowd, searching over it for the crook, which took time to find. Once the crowd ended two blocks down, the pony, a grey unicorn, took off galloping down the street again, turning a corner. "HEY!" Night yelled, flying as fast as his wings could take him from above, keeping up with the unicorn. Soon, Night found himself at a perfect position, and dove down, tackling the pony to the cobble street, both making loud grunts as they did. "I got you now!"

The pony quickly turned over, attempting to kick Night off. Night managed to hold him down, then finally getting a glimpse of the pony. His eyes widened greatly. "Sh...Sharp?"

Before Night could do anything else, the unicorn bucked Night Shadow directly in the gut, before standing back up with the necklace in his hoof, and taking off down the street. Night yelped, holding his gut in pain and coughing some, having the wind knocked out of him. Moments after taking the hit, he resumed his pursuit of the pony, who resembled his late friend. He couldn't believe he was chasing Sharpblade, and even more that he couldn't believe he stole from the princess. Night panted as he galloped after. "Sharp...stop! You won't get away!"

Ahead, Sharp was still galloping quickly, zigzagging between ponies as he made his way towards the gate. He looked behind, grinning when he didn't see Night Shadow following anymore. Suddenly, he was tackled from the side, the necklace being knocked out of his hoof and sliding across the cobble. He grunted loudly at the hit, squirming once more out of Night's grasp, until he grabbed a hold of his tail, yanking Sharp back with a tug. "Let go of me!" Sharp yelled, trying to pull his tail away.

"Not until you hand that necklace back!" Night kept a good grip on Sharp's tail, before it slipped free. Sharp then ran up to the necklace, about to grab it, before being knocked back down by the soon-to-be Lunar guard. "I won't...let you...get away with this Sharp!"

The two fought over the necklace, each throwing a few punches at each other. Night took most of the damage, being smaller than Sharpblade. Ponies watched as the two fought, shocked when it appeared the two ponies knew each other. As Night lay on the ground, groaning in more pain other than his gut, he slowly glanced up, seeing Sharp once more walking up to the necklace. In a final attempt, Night stood slowly. "Not...TODAY!" He tackled Sharp again, this time managing to pin him down. Both of their hooves were pressed forward, and the necklace slipped away, towards the cliff. The two ponies watched in surprise, before Sharp tried to kick Night off again, instead managing to roll him off, then chasing after the runaway necklace.

"No...no no no no!" Sharp yelled, lunging at the necklace to grab it, but found to be too late as it fell off the mountainside. Sharp slid onto the cliff, screaming out in anger. "NOOOOO! YOU IDIOT!" He quickly turned around, glaring at Night. Just then, more guards arrived, and almost instantly, Sharp was gone with the wind, running away to avoid captivity.

Night slowly stood, rubbing his sore arm and staring at the cliff with his ears pinned back. They soon perked back up once he heard the yell of a familiar stallion, then lowering them once more as he turned around. Standing before him was none other than Captain Shining Armor, who was glaring at Night deeply.

"What did you do?!" Shining Armor yelled in anger.

"I'm...I'm sorry sir, I tried to stop him and get the necklace, I swear! It slipped away!" Night recoiled back, shrinking in size.

"That necklace is irreplaceable, do you know how old it was?!"

"N-no sir..."

"Two--thousand--years old!" Shining glared harder. Night wasn't sure if he could glare any harder than he already was. "Screw your promotion, you're in deep trouble for letting the princess' necklace fall off a mountain!"

"But sir I-"

"No buts, you're NOT one of my guards." Shining lit up his horn in a pink aura. Instantly, the armor Night Shadow wore disappeared in a poof of smoke. Night gasped, his pupils shrunk to pinpricks, moments later collapsing onto the grass and screaming out.

"NOOOOOO!"





Night Shadow quickly sat up, pupils shrunk still and panting hard. He gradually calmed, seeing he was still in the gardens with the silver armor still on. "Wh...what?" He slowly looked around, shocked to find it was dark outside. Night quickly looked up at the sky, glancing around the pitch-black sky, then seeing the full moon at it's peak. "No...no no, I missed it!" He stood up on the bench, opening his wings and flapping hard, taking flight and searching for the entrance to the castle. He eventually found the door he came out of when he first entered the gardens, attempting to pull it open, but it was locked. "Come on...open up!" He continued to pull on the handles, hearing the rustle of chains on the other side of the door as he did. Suddenly, the lights inside the castle completely shut off, as did the street lights, and the rest of the buildings around Canterlot. Night jumped at the sudden power outage, now softly trembling in his armor. "Wh-who's doing this?" He slowly looked around, finding it somewhat hard to see, despite normally being able to in any darkness. 

Night slowly backed away from the door, into a corner where the building split off into another small wing, a stairway leading to a bridge which led to more of the castle, a couple of small towers. He panted in fear, beginning to hyperventilate as a black fog appeared around him, slowly closing on his position and blacking out most of the area. Night opened his wings to take off into the sky, but found he couldn't flap them, nor could he move his hooves. He was paralyzed in position. He slowly looked back up at the approaching fog. "Please...whoever is doing this...you got me good! Tell me someone, this is a joke?!"

No one replied, and the fog soon engulfed Night altogether. It was hard to breathe in, and he choked hard, gasping for clean air, which wasn't there to support him. It felt like he was under water, except there was no water, just thick, black fog that took his breath away.





"AAAAAH!" Night sat up again, holding his hooves to his chest as he panted. He quickly looked around again, it was day time. He was unsure if it were another dream, if he was dreaming at all. The next thing he remembered, was he needed to find Princess Celestia and Shining Armor. He stood up, leaping off of the bench and galloping over to the northern garden entrance, pulling the door open and galloping inside. Everything seemed normal at that point, but he remained alert in case something else was to happen. Night navigated the halls, running as fast as his hooves could take him to the throne room, where he was set to meet up with Shining Armor and the princess. Minutes later, he burst into the throne room, spotting Celestia and Shining Armor with shrunk pupils.

"Your highness, captain!" Night panted. "I-I'm so sorry I'm late!"

"What are you talking about, Night Shadow?" Shining Armor raised an eyebrow, staring at the distraught recruit.

"I-I fell asleep while waiting, I'm so sorry!"

"What ever are you talking about? You aren't late. In fact, you're quite early," Princess Celestia spoke in a calm tone.

"I..." Night panted, then catching his breath. "What?"

"You're early to the meeting," Celestia smiled.

"But I...I fell asleep."

"You couldn't have slept too long, it's only ten-thirty," Shining chuckled slightly.

"Ten...thirty?" Night's eyes widened. "I-I fell asleep somewhere around ten twenty-eight! How is this...am I dreaming again?"

"Again?" Both the princess and Shining Armor raised an eyebrow.

"I had some crazy dreams while I slept. I'd...rather not talk about them." Night shuddered slightly.

"That is okay," Shining waved a hoof. "Now, are you ready?"

Night stood motionless, gaining his posture and inhaling. "Yes sir, I am."

"Very well. Princess, what do you think?"

"Captain, I admire this stallion as much as I admire his honesty he just showed to us," Celestia smiled. "I believe he will make a great guard under Luna's branch, maybe even more."

Night smiled at the princess' words. "Thank you, your highness."

Shining Armor then turned, staring at Night Shadow with a serious look. "I admire his honesty as well, your highness. He has done his part in training, and I think it is time we grant him permission to the Royal Guard Armor Crafter," He also smiled at Night Shadow. "Welcome to the guard, Private Night Shadow," Shining then stood up, saluting to the pegasus, who saluted back, trying to hold back tears.

"Thank you...so much your highness, Captain," Night dropped the salute after a moment, as did Shining Armor.

"You are to go to the armor fitter tomorrow, as he will have a nice set of armor ready for you to try on." Shining spoke once more.

"Yes sir. Is that all?" 

"Affirmative. Now, you are dismissed, private."

Night Shadow nodded once, once again saying thank-you to the two ponies, before exiting the throne room, where he squealed of joy in front of two of the throne room's guards, who stared at the pegasus and forcing him to quiet down. Embarrassed, Night galloped off, returning to his barrack.