Silver arrived back at the castle, but Fast did not follow them inside, "Catch you two later!" And she was off in a flash back out into the city.
Silver perked an ear towards her, "She forgot something?"
Night shook her head, "She's still in the academy you just finished leaving."
Silver gave a soft ah, "I forgot about that. Remind me to ask her how that's going. She was there when we first got there, maybe she's going to graduate soon?"
Night gave a noncommittal nod before nudging against Silver, "You forgot what I said too didn't you?"
Silver froze in place. He had no idea what Night Watch referred to.
Night rolled her eyes at his rigid form, "You're not in trouble, yet. I'm not going to lay around waiting to get all fat. I've been searching around town, and the train yard needed a night watchpony. I start two days from now. That OK?"
Silver perked an ear, "At night? Oh, well, I guess I don't even know when my new classes will be, but yeah, go ahead. This is important for you." He smiled gently, "You wouldn't stop me."
Night bared her fangs, "I might try, if I thought you'd get hurt."
Silver leaned in and kissed her on the nose, "You are my rock. Thank you."
Night snorted, "Compared to you two, maybe. Just don't do anything too rash in your new school. I'm pretty sure this is your last chance before you won't have anywhere left to turn." She extended a wing and draped it over Silver, pulling him tight with it. "I'm not sure how much pony biology you've picked up yet, but I will be needing you in about a year."
Silver snuggled up against Night. Her wing was so comfortable, and the rest of her delightful in contrast, "I don't plan on going anywhere, except to Luna's right now. I want to know where my folks ran off to."
Night let him go, trotting off towards their room after a parting kiss. Silver moved off towards Luna's quarters as Night's words sank in. About a year? "I'm going to be a father," he said to himself in a giddy tone.
One of the day guards raised a brow down at him and Silver flushed, "What? It's true..." The guard made no attempt to add to the one-sided conversation, so Silver rushed ahead, only for a hoof to snag around his withers from the side and pull him into a dark room. The door slammed shut behind him.
Silver let the magic flow, lighting the room in silvery light to reveal a night guard, a large female one with a frown. She nudged Silver lightly, "So you're the one that has Luna all lovestruck? You don't look that special."
Silver blinked softly as he took in her form. She was much larger than him, and her armor only made her more intimidating, to say nothing of her long fangs and slit eyes, no matter how much he derived a dirty thrill when his wife used them. "Hello? Have we met?"
"I should think not," spoke the guard before she nudged him again, "Stop bothering Luna. You are distracting her, and your... seed is beneath the all-mother's calibre. She can do better than you."
Silver flipped one ear back, "Isn't that up for her t--"
The guard advanced on Silver, knocking him over in his attempt to scramble away from her. "I am charged with her intimate safety. I tolerated it while she used you as a toy, but her season approaches, and I am not blind. She wishes to lay with you, and you don't have the manners to hold back your fertility."
Silver tried to scramble away from her, but her wings spread, keeping him penned in. "What do you mean, 'hold back?'" he asked, looking around for an escape route.
She snarled, fangs exposed, "How ignorant are you? Any proper consort would be gelded, and no threat to her, but you are clearly not. The gall of it sickens me, how you walk around so smugly."
Silver decided to play a dangerous card, "She has invited me to the warlocks. I'm a dangerous wizard that has to learn how to control their power. Besides, she is my consort, not the other way around."
She raised a brow high, "Is that so? I heard you did burn down part of a library. Well, go on, show me."
Silver shivered, "What do you mean, show you?"
The night guard shrugged her shoulders, "Show me. Make me get out of the way. Do whatever it takes. You have my consent, even blast me if you like."
Silver wasn't sure where this was going, but this time he would make a nice small showing that wouldn't injure half-a-dozen ponies. His horn sang the song of magic, and pain exploded through him. The heat barely had time to gather as he fell over backwards under the guard. She had her fangs in his neck, and she held him close. If it wasn't so painful, he'd almost think she was being affectionate. He wriggled under her, gasping for breath, but she clenched her jaw, driving those deadly teeth deeper, "Please..." Any magic he held was released in the shock, spell fizzling harmlessly.
The guard held him stock still with her teeth until he broke and began crying. Only then did she release him, "Pathetic." She sat up, licking the blood from her fangs, "You taste interesting, at least. Stay away from Princess Luna. She doesn't need sunny little ponies like you."
She opened the door with a wing and shoved Silver out into the hallway, falling over himself in a pile. The door closed as quickly. Silver sat up slowly, moving a hoof to feel over where he had been bitten. Two angry bumps were present under the fur. Was he really that sunny? After a moment of thought, he nodded. He was pretty sunny, at least on the exposed side. Angry night guard or not, he still had questions for Luna, and continued where he left off.
He soon arrived at her chambers and smiled at the guards stationed there, both male and similar-looking. "I'd like to speak with my consort please."
One huffed softly, "She is preparing to raise the moon."
"I can wait." Silver sat where he stood. Time passed slowly with nothing else to do, and the guards were no help, simply staring at him.
Luna emerged and was surprised to see him, "Silver. What are you doing here? Follow me, my duty calls." He did follow her as she strode out to a balcony nearby. He had never seen her perform the act in person. He had to squint against the intense magic that flowed from her form as she manipulated the heavens itself. The moon rose up into sight as stars began to shine across the sky.
Silver smiled a little, "A wonderful night."
Luna nodded, "Yes... But you don't see it often."
Silver shook his head, "You know me, everything. I've been up far into many nights."
Luna smiled gently, "That changed as you grew older, and did not revert when you became a pony. But we are not here to discuss the night. What brings you?"
Silver gestured out over Canterlot, "Can you find my parents, Rough Draft and Trixie Lulamoon? They appear to have moved out and I have no idea where to."
Luna leaned in towards Silver, "A grown stallion asks me to find his parents? Delightful."
Silver frowned, "Not funny."
Luna shrugged then, "Is it not true? I will ask around and see what can be discerned. I find it difficult to believe they would leave you without informing you. Your father in particular seemed very fond of you."
Silver huffed gently, looking out across the new night sky, "We sort of made each other. I hope he's happy with Trixie, wherever he is, and if... he doesn't want to talk to me anymore, that's fine. I just want to be sure they're both safe."
Luna rested a heavy hoof on Silver's shoulder, "We will look in-- What is that?" Silver began to ask what she was talking about when Luna's hoof moved to his bite marks and brushed the fur out of the way, "What happened to you?"
Silver glanced back into the hallway, "One of your guards does not approve of our... relationship. I think she was demonstrating she could take me out before I could blast her if need be."
Luna frowned, "You are still a diplomat." She brushed the fur, hiding the wound, "You are also a friend. You should not be assaulted in our castle. Why do you draw such violence to yourself?"
Silver shrank beneath her gaze, "I'm not doing it on purpose! They knew you were going to, uh, let me be with you while you were in heat."
Luna snorted, "We are civilized people. We do not go into 'heat' like beasts. That aside, yes, I had intended to call for you, as is my right to choose." She pointed at Silver, "You were bitten in a very specific way."
Silver looked back, but had no hope of seeing his own neck, "Back off or next time I'll aim a little to the left?"
Luna snorted, "No. There are few lunar pegasi that know the old challenges. I am fairly certain I know who did it. You will meet her soon enough."
Silver shuddered softly, "Is that... good?"
Luna shrugged, "If you want to become battle-ready, yes."
Silver held up his hooves, waving them, "I really don't!"
Luna let her head tilt a little, "Then you will not enjoy it, but you have agreed to train with the warlocks. She is an excellent one."
Silver frowned, "But she wasn't even a unicorn."
Luna spread her wings, "And you think only unicorns can use magic? It may not have the spells of unicorn magic, but magic she has, and she's very good at it. I wager you did not even see her move before she had you in her submission grip."
"It was crazy," agreed Silver, frowning at the memory.
"If she wanted," spoke Luna, walking back towards her room, "She could have killed you without a whisper escaping you. She is an earnest defender of the realm."
Silver trailed after Luna, "Alright, that's fine, but I've never seen ponies like this before. Where was she during Tirek, Discord, or even your return?"
Luna frowned, "An excellent question. Had I my way, I would let her work to protect the realm, but Celestia insists the warlocks are an emergency force, and gives responsibility to her student, and their friends."
She extended a wing, pointing out, "It's worked so far. The warlocks are dispatched, once in a while, to matters too... unseemly. Celestia protects her dear little filly and will not send her to deal with outright murders and equally vile crimes."
Silver blinked, "Tirek wasn't a joke. The changelings were also pretty serious."
Luna shrugged, "The changelings also came by surprise. Celestia herself even attempted to do battle, though your viewing of it was far shorter than the battle I recall. She lit the sky like a second sun in her fury, but there were too many changelings for her to handle alone. That... episode, as you call it was very inaccurate. It did not even show anything that I had done, as if I had simply slept through the affair."
Silver shook his head slowly as they reached Luna's quarters, "Did love really blast them all away at least?"
Luna flashed her teeth, fanged for the moment like any lunar pegasus, "It overwhelmed them. Many of them died, others were sent fleeing away from the city, their queen included. They were force fed until they could handle it no more."
Silver entered Luna's room behind her, "But what about Nicky? She has a lot of love focused on her all the time and she doesn't explode."
Luna raised a brow, "An excellent question. She is whole of body and pure of thought. My theory is that it is the theft of love that can turn it so ugly."
Silver suddenly smiled, "That reminds me! In school they, uh, Lyra, said that changelings could become ponies, if they were whole. Should we tell Nicky and her friends?"
Luna snorted softly, "So eager to remove what makes us uncomfortable? There are those that would see the lunar pegasi converted to much less-offensive solar ones, had they the choice. Nicky is comfortable and does no harm, why strip that from her?"
Silver flinched back, "I didn't mean it like that... I like Nicky. She's a nice mare, and if I could help, I wanted to. I like her, as a changeling or a pony."
Luna clopped a hoof on the ground, "Did I not decree it so? She is a pony. A pony that is just and right. Would that half the ponies in this city were half as good a pony as she."
Silver watched Luna settle on the cushions and moved up to apologize for bothering her in his own way.
As he moved to be with her, he asked, "Why even chance it? I'm still a foal, as far as movement is concerned. I want to learn more magic, and control, but I don't want to be attacked."
Luna huffed softly, "Must we discuss this now?"
Silver stopped, sitting on his haunches, "Yes. This is pretty important to me."
Luna sat up with a grunt of annoyance, "She is testing you. If you run from her, she will call you weak, and seek to have you banished from the warlocks. If you arrive on the first day despite her threats, she will respect you. As a friend, she has much to show you."
"As a friend," said Silver, "she will thrash me. She's a trained assassin! I'm a writer turned unicorn. I don't want to feel anypony's teeth but Night's."
"Not even mine?" asked Luna with a display of her pearly whites.
Silver shivered softly, "I could make exception for you, but that's beside the point. Besides, it will look awful."
Luna raised a brow, "How does thou mean?"
Silver gestured at his neck, "Anybody can see this. Some people are going to be watching if I seem to be being punished or treated poorly. A singe mark I can play off as my own fault with magic, but obvious physical injuries? Spells don't bite you in the neck."
Luna frowned delicately in thought, "We had not considered this fully. You are correct, the situation is delicate."
Silver waved a hoof, "On top of that, pretending it wasn't delicate, isn't my being uncomfortable enough, for once?"
Luna heard the pain being spoken and sagged a little, "I am doing it again." She patted a cushion with a hoof, "Come here."
Silver came to sit beside her and she began stroking across his mane and back with her hooves. "I am sorry. I will tell her to leave you alone, and the others that you are present for magic training, and that alone, until and unless you are ready for more."
Silver began to smile, leaning against the petting, "I'm sorry for whining about it, but thank you."
Luna snorted gently, "You should perhaps 'whine' more loudly. Enough, do you wish to retire, or...?"
Silver perked his ears, feeling better with the situation resolved. "When are we... you know?"
Luna smiled gently, "The chance is small now, but grows with each day. Come, let us roll the dice you are so fond of."
Silver did just that.