Midnight Silver was not a happy pony, a fact that the two guards standing before him were painfully aware of.
“What do you mean you lost the package?”
“Well, you see, we were on our way back from the smithy, and there was this mare who wanted our help.”
“Yeah, she said there was some sort of brawl going on at Cider’s Crescent.”
“So naturally we had to go see what was what.”
“And when we got there the brawl had already sorted itself out, but the mare you see, she wanted to pay us for our time.”
“Now we knew we had to get the package back to the palace quickly, but we couldn’t just say no, we had to keep up the public image of the guard and all.”
“Right, and since she didn’t have any spare bits she offered us a small drink, seeing as she was the owner of the establishment.”
“Not even a drink really, more of a sip.”
“A small sip.”
“Out of a large flask.”
“That was repeatedly filled.”
“From a large barrel.“
Midnight decided to stop the train of mindless babbling before it could get any farther.
“I get it, now what happened to my package?”
The two shuffled nervously and glanced at each other before continuing.
“Well, you see,”
“We had the package when we went into the Crescent,”
“And we know we didn’t lose it there,”
“But the trip back to the palace was a bit more tiring than we had remembered,”
“So we decided to stop and rest on the way,”
“And next thing we knew we were at the gates to the palace with splitting headaches,”
“And then the day guard found us,”
“And now we’re here.”
Midnight continued to glare at the two ponies for several minutes after they had stopped talking. To the casual observer it might have seemed like the captain of the lunar guard was simply letting the guards in his office stew in their own guilt. The truth, however, was that he was floored by their utter stupidity. The only thing keeping Midnight’s face straight was years of dealing with the inane ramblings of Canterlot’s more entitled nobles.
Finally Midnight got his thoughts together and spoke. “So what you’re telling me is that you picked up the package, got sidetracked by a request from a pretty face, got roaring drunk, and then proceeded to lose twenty-five kilograms of moonsilver while attempting to crawl back here?” The two guardsponies flinched as Midnight’s voice rose. “That moonsilver is worth ten times its weight in bits, and you two lost it because you can’t be trusted to complete a simple errand without attempting to drown yourself in liquor!” The two ponies backed up, their eyes widening in fear as Midnight rose up from behind his desk, his face a mask of rage. “If you two have any hope of keeping your jobs past tonight, I suggest you go out and find that metal and get it back here before the changing of the watch!”
“Y-yes sir!” the two managed to stammer out in unison.
“I SAID GO!”
As the two ponies scurried out of the office, Midnight lowered himself back into his seat and raised his hooves to his temples.
“It’s been four years and I still can’t get competent help. Why did I even agree to take this job in the first place?” Midnight’s vision flashed back to that night four years ago when Princess Luna asked him to become captain of her guard. Midnight could barely believe that the princess was actually talking to him, let alone offering him a position he could only have dreamt of obtaining. Midnight snorted. ”Some dream this turned out to be. More of a nightmare than anything else.”
Midnight’s reverie was interrupted by a crystal on his desk that suddenly began to flash and vibrate. Midnight cursed under his breath before he tapped the crystal with his horn, opening the communication link. “This is Silver, go ahead.”
“Captain, this is lieutenant Night Breeze. I’m calling to report an intruder making his way towards your current location.”
Midnight suddenly sat bolt upright. ”An intruder? What pony in their right minds would try and sneak into the castle proper?”
“Why has he not been stopped, lieutenant?”
“It’s Blueblood sir.”
Midnight let loose a string of epithets that could have scorched the ears off of a griffon before replying. “Thank you for the warning lieutenant, carry on with your shift.”
Midnight silently composed himself against the coming ordeal. The lieutenant had been correct in labeling Blueblood as an intruder since the castle was closed off after moonrise, but since he was a noble, Blueblood was technically allowed to demand entry at any time.
Didn’t mean that Midnight had to like it.
Midnight settled himself into his chair while he watched the door. ”I almost wish that it had been a real intruder. At least then I wouldn’t have to put up with the prince.”
Finally the silence was broken by a knock on the door. Midnight took one more deep breath before speaking in a tone of voice carefully devoid of emotion.
“Enter.”
For a moment nothing happened, and Midnight dared to hope that perhaps Blueblood had decided that it wasn’t worth his time to come bother him this late and turned around. His hopes were dashed, however, as Blueblood’s voice called through the wood of the door, “Aren’t you going to open the door for me?”
Midnight ground his teeth together in frustration before he replied to the noble. “I’m a bit busy, you’ll have to let yourself in.”
Midnight could hear Blueblood’s sigh through the door, an impressive feat considering the door was made of solid oak six inches thick. Nothing happened for another moment, and then the door clicked and swung open, admitting prince Blueblood in all his self-servicing glory.
Blueblood raised an eyebrow when he saw that Midnight was simply sitting at his desk, but decided not to comment.
“Good evening captain Silver. I hope that I haven’t caught you at an inopportune moment?”
Midnight narrowed his eyes at Blueblood. “Not as such, no, but I’ll admit that I am curious as to why you saw fit to come see me at this late hour.”
Blueblood lifted a hoof to his chest in mock surprise. “You wound me, captain. Is it really too much to assume that I merely wanted to visit one of the stallions responsible for keeping the peace during these tumultuous times?”
Midnight merely glared at Blueblood.
Blueblood lowered his hoof and sighed. “Really captain, you should be honored that I even considered coming here. The least you could do is to try and be civil.”
Midnight snorted. “Fine then, let me try again.”
“O prince Blueblood, what an honor it is to be visited by your divine presence. Tell me what you wish of me and I will drop everything to satisfy you. Would you like me to clean your hoof? Or maybe you would prefer a back rub? Or perhaps your eminence would prefer that I wipe the feces from all of your plot-kissing off of your face?” Sarcasm practically dripped off of every word Midnight spoke.
Blueblood grit his teeth, if it had been anyone else who had spoken to him like that he would have had them arrested at the very least, but unfortunately as one of the two captains of the guard Midnight was assigned the same stature in the eyes of the law as any noble.
Blueblood sneered at Midnight. “It seems that you’re as barbaric as ever, captain. I’m really beginning to worry about you, perhaps I should try and get those trips you’re so fond of cancelled. After all, interacting with all those changelings”-Blueblood said the word as if it tasted particularly foul-“can’t possibly be good for your social skills.”
Midnight's glare deepened, “You wouldn’t dare.”
A look of triumph entered Blueblood’s eyes. “Oh, but I would, dear captain. However, I am a reasonable pony, so how about a wager?”
"Why would I care, even if you did, the princesses aren't simply going to stop trying to make peace because of a few nobles."
Blueblood shot Midnight a smug smirk, "True, but there are plenty of better options for an ambassador other than a guardspony, aren't there?"
Midnight looked at Blueblood suspiciously. “Fine, what kind of wager?”
“Oh, a simple one, really. As you know, the Summer Sun Festival is next week, and this means that the exhibition tourney will be held. I want you to announce a challenge against me during the matches.”
“And what happens if you win?”
“If I win, you have to give up on your idiotic goodwill missions to the changeling hive and allow someone better suited to take your place.”
Midnight almost threw Blueblood out then and there. Blueblood knew that Midnight held the few chances he could get to act as an ambassador to the changelings more dear than any material good that Blueblood could have offered. However, Midnight saw a chance to knock the pretentious noble down a peg.
“Fine, but if I win, you have to join me on my next trip.” Midnight grinned and Blueblood involuntarily backed away. “Unless you’re frightened, that is.”
Blueblood snorted at the accusation. “I’ll agree to those terms, but trust me when I say that I have no plans on leaving Canterlot any time soon.” With that Blueblood turned and stormed from the office, whatever complaint that had originally brought him there totally forgotten.
Midnight frowned to himself as he turned to the ever-present paperwork on his desk. It was true that the Princess' decision to allow one of the Captains of the guard to act as an ambassador wasn't a popular one, but it was also true that Midnight was essentially only a captain in name at this point as he'd been slowly giving more and more duties over to the pony he had picked to replace him so that he could start devoting more time to the work with the changelings, which he considered far more important than sitting behind a desk all night.
Midnight spent the next several hours working on the paperwork before him. As the captain he was required to read every report from the previous night made by his guards, condense them, and then present them to the Princess before the end of the night. Midnight was only interrupted once more, by the two guardsmen from earlier as they returned the moonsilver that they had lost.
Eventually Midnight was alerted to the coming of dawn by a small clock on his desk, and with a sigh he gathered up the reports on his desk with his magic and left his office.
===================================================================================================================
Princess Luna barely managed to stifle her impulse to yawn as the small earth pony in front of her throne continued to complain to her. Every night Luna held court so that the ponies of Equestria, and Canterlot in particular, could come and petition her for aid, justice, or for some sort of favor. The one thing all these ponies shared in common, however, was their inability to state their point without giving at least a fifteen minute speech first.
“One would think that over a millennium the language of court would have gotten simpler, but unfortunately for me, it seems to be just the opposite. I wonder if Sister ever thought about doing something to fix that, maybe a royal decree that all proposals must be under three thousand words, or a mandate that no one pony may stand before the throne for more than ten minutes, or-“.
“Um, Princess?”
Princess Luna jerked out of her reverie and looked down on the pony shuffling nervously before her. Apparently he had finished his speech while she had been lost in thought. “Ah, yes. I’m afraid that I cannot grant your guild any exclusive rights to…ah-“
“Griffonian silk worms, your Highness.”
“Right. I’m afraid that I can’t grant your guild exclusive access without more information, so if you would like to have this further considered, please have all your relevant files delivered to the palace, and I’m sure we can figure out a solution.”
The earth pony bowed and left the throne room, allowing the doors to close behind him with a resounding thud.
Luna sighed and stared at the doors. She had done so much to connect with the modern age, she had even managed to master modern grammar after years of studying, but she still missed the old days. When the matters brought before the Court of the Two Sisters had been matters of life and death, when the most complicated worry the kingdom faced was whether or not the Timberwolves would attack again.
Luna shook her head and snorted. Thinking about the past would only drag up painful memories. Instead she got off of her throne and stretched before nodding to the secretary who was stationed beside her throne. “Organize the notes from tonight and have them put in the records before the night is out, afterwards you are free to go.” As the secretary ran to do as she was told, Luna began to walk towards the stairwell behind her throne.
As she walked she considered the events of the night. In addition to the petition from the tailors guild, Luna had been required to listen to the usual requests and ramblings of the ponies who thought that they could get a more favorable solution from royalty than they could from their local magistrates. Every now and then, however, Luna would get a complaint or a request that would sit in her mind for weeks. Unfortunately for her, the nobles of Canterlot had been coming to her with just that sort of complaint every night for the past month.
Luna frowned as she remembered the particularly unsavory stallion who had been selected to speak to her on the behalf of the nobles tonight. He had been a Pegasus with a coat the color of old plums and a mane to match, the pony’s voice had sounded as if it had been designed to put entire classrooms to sleep, and Luna couldn’t shake the feeling that he had somehow thought himself better than anypony else in the room, herself included.
Impressions aside, the stallion had once again stated what the entirety of the nobility was whispering behind their hooves: that the peace talks with the Changeling Hive were going nowhere, and that the ambassador’s position was becoming increasingly irrelevant. There was some dissention among the nobles on this issue; some believed that talks should continue with a different ambassador, some thought that the changelings weren’t worth the effort of making an alliance, and others were of the opinion that Equestria should treat them as a parasitic menace and eradicate them. On the issue of Midnight Silver, however, they were all united.
Luna entered her room and went to the small bar on the wall to pour herself some wine before she laid down on the cushions in front of her fireplace. “Speaking of Midnight Silver, he should be here soon to give me the nightly report.”
As if heralded by her thoughts, Luna heard the tell-tale click of hooves on the marble floors of the hall outside of her door. Without a thought she grasped the handle of her door in her magical aura and pulled it open, revealing her captain of the guard with his hoof raised to knock. To his credit, Midnight didn’t take long to recover to the surprise of the door opening before he could knock, and turned the motion of his hoof into an exaggerated step forwards into the room.
Luna took a moment to look over the captain of her personal guard. Unlike the other night guards there was no armor covering his dark blue coat, black mane, or his cutie mark of a sword wreathed in black flames. His horn caught and reflected the light from her fireplace, the sharp tip of his horn seeming to glow with the reflected light.
“Good evening, Captain. I see you have the night’s reports.”- Luna gestured to the stack of
papers hovering beside Midnight-“I trust that everything went relatively smoothly.”
Midnight gave a curt nod to the princess. “You would be correct in that assumption. There was a small issue with two guards who had managed to lose a package of moonsilver, but it was recovered. Other than that there were no abnormal issues.”
“Is there any news from our outposts?”
Midnight brought the papers in front of himself and began to look through them. “Our units stationed in the Whitetail woods report an increase in manticore activity, but the increase is in line with previous seasonal patterns, so there’s no need to worry there. The reports from the major cities are all fairly tame, low crime rates, general contentment, the usual.”-Midnight flipped to the next page before continuing-“The soldiers on the border report no unusual activity from our neighbors, and all that the units on the coast have to report is that the relations with the Quilinese are going smoothly. The only report of interest is from Ponyville. Apparently several ponies reported hearing strange sounds in the dark last night, and one pony visiting the town graveyard reported seeing something strange moving between the gravestones. Investigation revealed nothing of note, and it was concluded that local fauna was responsible for the disturbances.”
Luna raised an eyebrow, Midnight was rarely this curt with his reports. “Is there anything else?”
Midnight cleared his throat before placing the papers on a nearby table. “There is one thing. I was visited by Blueblood a few hours before I came here.”
Luna frowned. Very few ponies liked Blueblood, but due to his status he was given a sort of grudging respect by the majority of the citizenry, a respect that Midnight refused to give the prideful noble. “Tell me you didn’t hit him again.”
Midnight shook his head. “No, in fact he came to me with a challenge. He wishes to face me during the exhibition matches of the Summer Sun Festival next week. I accepted.”
Luna narrowed her eyes. Midnight had stopped participating in exhibition matches after he became captain, so it didn’t make any sense for him to accept this challenge. Unless Blueblood was holding something over him that was.
“And why exactly did you accept this challenge?”
Midnight sighed before speaking. “He threatened to force the issue of my missions to the Hive.”
Luna hissed as she drew in a breath through her teeth. She had been able to ignore the majority of complaints from the nobles, but if Blueblood were to officially put his weight behind the complaints then Luna would have no choice but to act on them or risk alienating the nobility.
“However”-Midnight bared his teeth in a predatory grin-”If I win, he has to join me on my next trip.”
Luna blinked. “Are you trying to start a war?”
Midnight laughed, a low chuckle that was more suited to a pony plotting world domination than a guard captain. “Not at all. I actually think that dealing with Blueblood will make Chrysalis more willing to enter into an official agreement with Equestria.”
Luna raised an eyebrow at Midnight’s claim. “And how, exactly, did you reach that conclusion?”
“Simple really. I figure that Blueblood’s presence will help foster a sort of camaraderie built by mutual suffering.”
“In other words, you think that she’ll do almost anything to keep from having to deal with him a second time.”
Midnight’s grin widened. “Essentially, yes. Though I must admit, I also feel that Chrysalis will have a fair bit of fun playing around with him.”
A grin formed on Luna’s face to match Midnight’s. “So we buck two trees with one kick. Chrysalis becomes more open to negotiations, and Blueblood gets knocked down a peg. I like it.”
Luna turned and gazed into the fire, her grin slipping away. “However, I still want you to be careful. Your personal relations with the changelings may be strong, but we need to strengthen our nation's relationship with them. Do not forget that.”
Midnight bowed his head to Luna, the informal mood that had grown between them disappearing as quickly as it had formed. “Of course.”
Luna nodded. “In that case, you are dismissed.”
Midnight bowed again, then turned and left the room. As the door clicked behind her Luna couldn’t help but shake her head. “I hope you know what you’re doing Midnight Silver. I have felt the night stirring, and though I can’t tell what it heralds, I fear that it may be more than we can handle alone.”