Celestia's throne room was not one for loud noises. The spacious room made of marble echoed any kind of sound, often making it hard for guards to whisper to one another without somepony else hearing it. For instance, a rookie guard made the mistake of making a comment about how amazing Celestia looked sitting on her dais to another right as his commanding officer entered the throne room. The commander wasn't happy about it, but the brilliantly white alicorn blushed the rest of the day, even going as far as to converse with the audacious pony.
That pony eventually went on to become Captain of the Guard and married Celestia's niece.
However, the noises the room was echoing now was not praise for the alicorn. Instead, they were shouts of anger.
"I'm not going back with you!" came the shrill yells of Valyrie.
"It doesn't matter what you want!" a voice roared back, "You will come back home now!"
Standing at opposite sides of the red carpet that led to the dais, Valyrie glared wickedly at a tall gryphon with amazing gold feathers who wore a scowl just as nasty as hers. Valyrie flexed her claws menacingly on the marble, as if to warn the other gryphon of what she was capable of, but they did little to give her an edge. The gryphon easily stood two heads higher than Valyrie and had claws twice as long as hers. Their golden irises were locked onto one another, not willing to blink or even look away for a second.
Around the two of them, several ponies and a couple gryphons stood, weapons at the ready. Behind Valyrie stood Comet in his armor, along with three of his Goldencloak warriors, each wielding their halberds in a threatening way. On the other side stood two full grown gryphons, each wearing a shining set of steel armor and bending down slightly, like a lion does before he pounces.
On the far side of the room, Celestia stood silently, wishing this proceeding would not come to blows. She had known this would be a sticky situation, but she didn't anticipate the hatred that seemed to fester between Valyrie and her father. However, she had her personal guardians, the Goldencloaks, there for another reason. Pony and Gryphon relationships were notorious for going sour since the gryphons had a deep dislike of the magic ponies were able to harness, especially that of the unicorns. After many efforts to try diplomacy alone, Celestia had learned that it was most prudent to have her guards on hoof around the warrior race they called neighbors.
Not wanting to have an international incident in her throne room, Celestia cleared her throat, drawing the gathered company's attention.
Midnight woke with a start when a figure crash into his bed, followed by his wings getting damp rather quickly. He yelped and flailed as a set of claws wrapped around his belly, followed by a series of sobs and a beak nuzzling his neck. Spinning around, he found himself tightly gripped by Valyrie as she cried into his neck. Bewildered, Midnight wrapped his own hooves around the gryffon and hugged her gently as the sounds of Valyrie's crying filled the room. It took several angry shouts from the other Zodiac members for him to leave with her, but once they were away, he continued to hug her and whispered consoling words to her, trying to calm the gryffon down.
"Valyrie, it's okay," he cooed, "I'm here. What's wrong?"
She sniffled several times before looking up at the bat pony with red, wet eyes.
"I h-h-hate him!" she managed to work out before burying her head into his neck again.
Midnight's eyes widened, but he kept his calm voice.
"Who, Valyrie?" he asked.
Valyrie only cried harder, making Midnight more upset internally. He had never seen Valyrie cry, so whatever this was about must have been serious. He noticed her use of the word 'him', which made Midnight narrow his eyes. Evidently, somepony had harassed Valyrie, causing her to get upset. Whoever this pony was, the bat pony decided he was a dead stallion. Midnight had no tolerance for anypony who hurt his friends feelings, especially Valyrie's.
"Who was it?" he asked again, a hint of anger in his voice.
"M-m-my dad!" she wailed at him.
Midnight's eyes widened at that.
"Your dad? He's here?"
A teary eyes gryffon looked up at him, a mix of a scowl and sadness on her face.
"Y-yes! He's come here t-to collect me!" she wailed.
Midnight blinked a couple of times before recalling what he had wanted to tell her.
"You know," he began, "I saw a gryphon last night. It was a tall one who looked a little like you."
Comet rubbed his forehead with his hoof, dealing with the mild headache he had recently acquired. The rough revelation of who Valyrie's father only served to worsen his headache. Comet had heard about him in his time where he and Valyrie had a mild relationship going, but he never imagined he was just as bad as Valyrie had described him. Then there was the issue of his guards carrying weapons into Celestia's throne room, something that long ago had nearly started a war between the gryphons and ponies.
Despite his best efforts to concentrate on any of those things, though, his thoughts were somewhere else. Comet hadn't slept well the night before, for more than one reason. Different things tormented his mind, causing him to shift uncomfortably more than once in twenty minutes. His recollection of what transpired in his office was at the fore of his mind, as well as a craving to see Angel again. The scent of her mane, the soft embrace of her hooves and the small noises she made the night before with him were just as fresh in his mind as when they happened.
Comet shook his head, trying desperately to banish them. He would have to speak to Angel about that later, but as of right now, he couldn't afford to reflect on that. Glancing to his left, he saw another Goldencloak standing in rigid attention on the other side of the door he was guarding. Holly Stalk, the tough and serious mare who he had recruited, stared straight forward, her blue eyes glaring from under her red mane. Being a socially inept pony for most of his life, Comet stumbled upon himself as he tried to work out a sentence to her.
"Hey, uh... I mean, Holly, er, Corporal Holly Stalk," he half mumbled, half spoke.
A blue eye turned to him before she spoke.
"Sir," she replied curtly.
Comet tried to grin at her, but instead looked as if he was uncomfortable.
"You know, uh, I don't know much about... uh, you."
Holly tilted her head at that statement, but kept her hard gaze.
"What do you mean by that, sir?" she asked in her naturally forceful manner.
Comet gulped, wondering why he had even tried to talk to her. It wasn't she was mean, but she took her job just as seriously as he had when he was first recruited.
"What I mean is, uh, I don't know a lot about you, er, personally."
"What?" she asked, turning her head to him. Comet flinched a bit as she did, but kept his composure.
"Well, uh, where are you from? Got any family?"
"I hail from Coltsburg, where my father, mother and four brothers live," she deadpanned back.
"Oh, Coltsburg? I heard that's a nice--"
"It's not," she stated flatly, cutting him off.
"Oh," Comet replied sheepishly, "Uh, do you get along with them?"
"'Commander," she stated, turning to him, "I fail to see why this is relevant to what we are doing."
Comet blushed a bit and scratched the back of his head before continuing.
"Oh, you know. I want to get to know my troops and I figured I would start with you."
Holly narrowed her eyes at him and stared for a few second before turning her halberd to him, causing Comet to yelp.
"Holly, what are you--" Comet nearly shouted.
"What is our secret designation as Goldencloaks?" she asked pointedly.
Comet blinked twice before answering, "Justicars."
Holly stared at him for another second before pulling her halberd back, allowing Comet some time to breathe.
"Sorry, Commander," she stated flatly, "You were acting strange. I felt it prudent to make sure you weren't a changeling."
"Acting strangely?! How?!" Comet nearly yelled back.
"You have never asked any of us any personal questions before, Commander. Also, you never stammer when speaking to us on matters, both of which you were doing just now. Enough to make me suspicious, sir."
"Really?" Comet asked. He found it odd that he had never asked about his soldiers personal lives in the year he had lead them. A quick, suspicious glance back from Holly was all that was needed to make him stop his line of thought. Silence quickly resumed around them as they stood, guarding the doorway. It was uncomfortable for Comet, which was very unusual since he loved silence.
"My family lives back in Coltsburg. My father is a shopkeeper and my mother is a schoolteacher," Holly stated, breaking the silence. Comet turned to her and gave a questioning look when she sighed. "My four brothers are all older than me and two of them are in the Royal Guard as well. The other two help my father run his shop."
As Comet spoke with Holly, Angel was on the other side of the castle, rubbing her stomach as she dreamed. Her face was contorted into an uncomfortable look as her stomach twinged and stung, causing her to wake up. She groaned loudly and tried to stretch before her stomach twinged again, causing her to curl back up.
"That pineapple must have been bad," she mumbled to her pillow. Forcing herself up, she easily made her way out of her quarters, moving towards the restrooms. She didn't feel sick, but her stomach felt funny, like it did when she ate some rotten fruit back home. It didn't help that she was also incredibly sleepy. Last night was one of the most active nights she had ever had since the Gala one year back.
She sighed happily as she recalled what had happened. It was not ideal for any couple to have that happen, but it worked for her and Comet. After their little romp in his office, Angel had gone back to her patrols only to hear of the rumors that there was an intruder in the castle. She had put the notion to rest by stating that Princess Luna was doing some flying around the castle. The one guard who had seen the shadowy intruder, the same one who interrupted Angel and Comet's evening, claimed the shape was smaller than Luna, but Angel countered by asking how well he saw the figure. When he sheepishly admitted he didn't see it very well, the rest of the Zodiac and Lunar Guard let the issue drop.
Once in the restrooms, Angel washed her face, hoping the cold water would make her mind stop focusing on the pains her stomachache was giving her. It took a couple of tries since Angel started making funny faces to herself as she rubbed the water on herself, but she noticed the amusement had made her stomach stop twinging. Satisfied, Angel trotted back out of the restrooms, humming a song to herself. It was the same one she had hummed last night and whenever she was happy, a lullaby known only to bat ponies. She went back to her room and jumped in bed, snuggling up to her pillow. She almost fell asleep, but her stomach twinged once more. Rolling over to the other side of her bed, Angel pouted to herself.
"Stupid bad fruit," she grumbled to herself, "I knew I shouldn't have eaten that pineapple."