//------------------------------//
// Chapter Thirteen 
// Story: A Squire's Tail 
// by BBkat 
//------------------------------//

	Sky Fire it seemed was a talented story teller-he said it sounded far politer than talented liar. When he ran back he got one of the older guards and spun him some story about how Wish had gone to the shed to get a punching bag to train on and while they were helping her in getting it out, as those things were quite heavy and awkward to move by one’s lonesome, they discovered the heap of missing items. He told they guard he’d come to find him because they weren’t sure what to do with the stuff now that they’d found it since they didn’t know who all it belonged to.
He never brought up the boggart, Chase and Wish having shooed it away while he was gone, with Wish extracting a promise from it never to come back in the process. 
The older guard, relieved to have found the missing items, said he would make sure they were all returned to their respective owners by morning and thanked them for finding everything and suggested that they all go back to bed, save Wish who was more than welcome to finish practicing.
With everything settled Chase made his way back to his room, he was tired and his head hurt from the magical exertion and all he wanted was to lie down and sleep till morning. He didn’t care what his roommates wanted to do he just wanted to sleep. Rest was the only real cure for magical exhaustion, allowing the unicorn a period of time to recover both their magic and their strength. And the darkness and silence of the room would help with his headache. Writing about everything would have to wait till morning.
“Chase wait!” called Wish, trotting after him. 
“You forget something?” asked Chase.
She shook her head, “No, I just wanted to wish you a goodnight, you really look like you could use some sleep. I had fun tonight, and your friends are kinda cool, tell’em if they want to hang out again I wouldn’t mind. I don’t think the twins would mind either.”
He nodded slowly, “I can do that, but in the morning though, I think they have other plans, maybe.”
She looked over her shoulder at the pegasi and snickered, “Yeah, sleep. They look pretty tired too. I mean, that stakeout lasted a good few hours; you just napped through most of it. Anyways I have to get going or I’m going to be late, so, see you another time.” She gave his cheek a quick nuzzle before taking off down the hall with a giggle.
As the pegasi approached Chase they looked from him to Wish and back again. “She’s totally in to you,” said Sky Fire.
“N-no she’s not,” said Chase quickly, a rosy colour painting his cheeks in stark contrast to his white coat.
The white pegasus just laughed, “She so is, I saw that nuzzle, she likes you dude, I’m sure of it.”
“I think you’re just seeing things,” said Chase, making his way back to their room. There was now ay that Wish could have a thing for him, could she?
He shook his head, now was not the time to start thinking about such complicated things, now was the time for sleep. He tossed his book into his bag and crawled into bed without another word, falling asleep only minutes later.



Chase had a surprisingly restful night’s sleep, undisturbed by boggarts, gremlins or his roommates. So much so infact that it wasn’t until around 10 the next morning that he finally woke up. The room was empty, devoid of pegasus life, or any life really save for Chase.
He went about his morning routine, neatening up his bed-head of a mane which was sticking out at odd angles from the way he’d slept on it. Once he was more or less presentable he headed to the dining hall to grab breakfast, even as late as it might have been.
After that he just, walked. He didn’t have much of a plan in mind for the day so he just walked around the palace, at least the places he was allowed to go and where he wouldn’t be in the way. It was through this absent-minded walking that he found himself in a very empty hallway, empty only in that there were no other ponies around. The walls were decorated with plaques, many names etched into each one, filling them from top to bottom. There were also what looked like awards, in cases, each with their own plaques and lists of names. Despite that the air held a very solemn feeling to it and it made him shiver a bit.
Chase approached the first one on the wall and stopped to read it, his curiosity finally winning out. Across the top it read:


	Dedicated to the 72nd Regiment


And under that was a list of names, a list that continued onto the next several plaques on the wall. Chase skimmed over the names, he didn’t recognize any of them until he came to one name, Lieutenant Silver Sword. He paused, he was sure he’d heard that name somewhere before, but for the life of him he couldn’t think of where. He committed the name and rank to memory along with the regiment number, perhaps Trail Blazer would know what that was about. Now he regretted not paying attention to his history classes, they’d just been so dull.
Deciding not to linger any longer he slipped out of the hallway and went about his day, as un interesting as it was.
He wrote about the recent happenings in his journal that evening, including about the hallway and the plaque and the name he still couldn’t place. He didn’t want to wait till the end of the weekend to ask Trail Blazer, it bothered him too much, so he decided that he would seek out the older stallion the next day, hopefully before his shift started, to ask him about it.
The rest of the day and evening was pretty dull, especially compared to the previous night, which was more than all right with Chase as it allowed him another night of peaceful sleep.



He woke early the next morning, or earlier than he had the previous day and before his roommates woke up, bounded out to search for Trail Blazer.
He trotted through the halls, narrowly avoiding crashing into ponies as he rounded the corners a bit to quickly. His eyes lit up as he spotted the brown stallion, his helm carried under one foreleg as he walked down the hall. 
“Mr. Trail Blazer!” he called out, hoping to catch his attention.
The large earth pony looked up at the sound of his name being called, a bit surprised that someone was looking for him. “Oh, Sun Chaser, what brings you down here this morning?” he asked. 
“I had a question I wanted to ask you,” he said, slowing to a stop. “If you have the time that is.”
“Ahh, well I was just about to go on duty, I get to help with the day court this morning by controlling how many ponies go in at any one time.” Chase wilted, he was too late and now he was going to have to wait till after his shift was over. “How would you like some on the job training to see what I have to do here?” asked Trail Blazer after a moment.
“Really?” asked Chase.
He nodded, “Yes, I think there’s more than enough time to find you some training armour so they don’t mistake you for a civilian.”
“Training armour?”
Trail Blazer nodded, “Yes, it’s un adorned and quite simple but they have armour that the trainees wear during practice and to help them get used to the feel of armour.” He looked up at the clock, “We’ve got 10 minutes till the day court starts and I have to be there, if you sit in with me today I’ll see what I can do about answering your question.”
“Are you allowed to do that?” asked Chase.
“Of course, you are more or less apprenticing under me so what better way to teach you than to have you observe me on the job. It may not be a regular day for you, but then again schedules change all the time.” He smiled and ruffled Chase’s mane with his hoof. “Come on, let’s get you ready.”
The training armour was really just glorified leather padding with a sun emblazoned on the sides. Unlike metal armour which needed to be specially made to fit the one wearing it, the leather armour was adjustable to fit any number of body sizes. It didn’t come with boots or a helmet though, just body padding.
With Chase fitted up, Trail Blazer led him to his post, the throne room doors, explaining what it was he had to do once they got there. While he wasn’t stationed inside the throne room to keep an eye on the petitioners and whoever else showed up, he had to keep the ones waiting outside the throne room under control and make sure they waited their turn. It wasn’t uncommon for them to get pushy and impatient, everyone thinking their issue was more important than that of whoever was ahead of them. 
“I’ve never been to the day court before,” said Chase as they came to the doors, another guard already waiting there. 
“It’s interesting I’ll say that. There’s a short break around noon so the Princess, and everyone else, can eat, but we’re back to work after that. So if you think you can hold on till then, we can talk at lunch.”
Chase nodded, “I can live with that, besides this sounds kind of interesting.”
“Well I can guarantee you’ll come away with at least one interesting story.”
A large group had already started to form outside the doors and they were already getting antsy, trying to push past one another to get in. Trail Blazer and the other guard, a stern looking pegasus, held their ground, pushing everyone back and ordering them to wait where they were till the doors were ready to open.
Soon enough the large doors opened and the first of the petitioners were let inside. Chase strained to try and hear what was happening on the other side of the door, what they were talking about or asking, but the large doors muffled the sounds. He could hear the voices but he couldn’t make out what was being said. 
They were let in either one at a time or in groups, depending on how they showed up and everyone had to wait their turn. If there were those that came in separate but all came for the same reason they would be ushered in as a group or as several groups depending on the size.
Chase looked over the group; there were ponies off all three types and of all classes there, young families and older couples, those that came alone or as representatives. Many new couples came just to get the Princess Celestia’s blessing either for them or for a new foal. Some came with business problems, some with things they wanted changed. How all of these ponies were going to be dealt with in one day he wasn’t sure, at least till he asked Trail Blazer.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a day where we got through everypony that came,” he laughed. “Often they come back the next day, or more recently they’ll come to the night courts if they’re really impatient. So don’t worry if not everypony gets through, they’ll just keep coming back till they get through.”
“And this happens everyday?” he asked.
Trail Blazer nodded, “Just about there’s only ever a few times when the day court has been shut down, usually when the Princess is entertaining dignitaries or has business abroad. And of course during the Summer Sun Celebration.”
“She must be really busy,” said Chase, “How does she ever do anything else?”
“Well sometimes she has someone else stand in for her, I actually saw Princess Luna doing day court a few times.” He grimaced, “That was almost a disaster.” He shook his head, “Other times she just won’t hold court or only holds it for half the day. She finds a way.”
As the most recent group left the throne room there was a noise like a loud chiming and Trail Blazer smiled, “And that would be the sign for lunch,” he said. “We have about 30 minutes.” He removed his helmet, tucking it under a foreleg as he wiped his brow, “So, what was it you wanted to ask me?”
“What’s the 72nd Regiment?”
Trail Blazer came to a very sudden stop, a strange look crossing his face. “The 72nd? What brings that up?”
“Yesterday I was going for a walk and I came to this, hall and it had a bunch of plaques and one of them mentioned the 72nd,” explained Chase. “Who were they?”
He sighed heavily, “That’s a bit of a story, and not exactly a pretty one. The 72nd was one of the worst casualties on Equestrian soil since the Nightmare incident. They were a small regiment of young soldiers that had been stationed near the borders for training exercises. That’s all they were doing, training.” He looked at Chase sadly, “You have to understand, things weren’t as peaceful then as they were now, relations with the griffons were shaky at best. It was supposed to be a regular training exercise, but they were attacked by griffon raiders and the entire regiment was slaughtered. It was only by chance that some guards from a nearby battalion heard the commotion and drove the griffons off, but they were too late. I was still a colt at the time, but I think most everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news. Several hundred lives cut short just like that.” He took a deep breath to compose himself, his voice having gone quiet while speaking and it looked like he’d been on the verge of tears. “What you found Sun Chaser was the Hall of Heroes. It’s a memorial to all those that gave their lives fighting for Equestria.”
Chase didn’t know what to say, an entire regiment wiped out just like that, he couldn’t even fathom something like that. Even the recent Changeling incident had produced no casualties. Wounded, yes, but there had been no deaths. It was a sobering reminder that not every fight was that lucky.
“That’s awful,” he said, finally finding his voice. 
“It was, and still is. Is that all you wanted to ask?”
“I had one more thing. There was a name on the plaque that stuck out, a Lieutenant Silver Sword. I don’t know why but the name seems somehow familiar, do you know anything about him?”
He shook his head, “I’m afraid not just that he was along the casualties. From what I remember everyone had said that he had promise and they were expecting that in time he could even make captain.”
“Alright, well, thank you for answering my questions, I hope it wasn’t to much of a problem.”
Trail Blazer gave him a small smile and shook his head, “It’s alright, you were curious and there’s no harm in that. Now, how about we get lunch before we forget.”
They ate in the dining hall in silence, Chase thinking about what he’d just learned. Nowadays relations with the griffons were steady; they were a large trading partner in many goods, especially rare metals and certain foods, while Equestria in turn sent them plenty of meats, fish especially, and fabrics in return. There were even griffons that lived within Equestria and ponies living in the Griffon Lands. But to think that there had been a time so recently when that hadn’t been the case was frightening. Perhaps that had been why his father was so against him becoming a guard, he was more than old enough to remember the incident, perhaps he just didn’t want Chase to risk his life. 
But, that didn’t make much sense to Chase, this was the most peaceful Equestria had been in ages, there was very little he needed to worry about. While rogue individuals would never really be gone, they certainly weren’t the majority. Chase shook his head, he didn’t know, maybe it was just parental worry on his father’s part.
And then there was Silver Sword, a faceless stallion whose name he still couldn’t place. There were probably records around about him; though Chase doubted very much they would available to the public. 
He turned his attention back to his lunch, a simple daisy and alfalfa sandwich that he’d picked up while they’d been talking and walking; he could deal with finding out more about Silver Sword later.
“Have you ever been inside the throne room during day court?” he asked, looking up at Trail Blazer who sat across the table from him. 
“Once or twice, it’s lot more demanding though. Not to mention you don’t really get to socialize with your coworkers. You have be to stoic and quiet and never interrupt the princess. You escort everyone in and out, sometimes by force if they refuse to leave or if they’re making too much of a scene.”
“How often does that sort of thing happen?” asked Chase.
“More than it should, some ponies get upset if the Princess can’t give them what they want, even their request is utterly outrageous. Some get upset just because they’re in the same room as a different kind of pony. I once had one try to get the Princess to have me removed from the room simply because they didn’t want to be in the same room as an earth pony. She told him if that was the case then he needed to remove himself from the room.” He chuckled and shook his head, “Needless to say he wasn’t happy and tried to charge me, so we dragged him out by his back legs and tossed him out.”
Chase did his best not to laugh as Trail Blazer recounted the tale. “Oh wow, that guy sounds like a piece of work.”
“Not much we can do about them though other than remove them from the room and hope they don’t try to come back.” He stood up, picking up his empty plate, “Time’s almost up, would you like to come back to day court with me? You don’t have to since this is your weekend.”
“I’ll come, I don’t really have anything else planned. Plus it’s kinda interesting, you hear all sorts of things from the ponies waiting outside the doors.”
“Just don’t let anyone know you’re eavesdropping,” chuckled Trail Blazer. 
Chase polished off his sandwich and the pair quickly returned to the doors to the throne room, Trail Blazer putting his helmet back on as they walked. With how heavy the helmet was, Chase was amazed at how easily he could put it on and take it off, and while walking to boot. He could barely lift it, something he knew he was going to have to fix if he ever wanted to become a guard, he couldn’t be a proper guard if he couldn’t lift the equipment. He didn’t even want to think about how heavy the chest armour must have been.
The crowd around the doors had thinned out a bit by the time lunch had ended and the noontime courts were ready to begin, though where they’d all gone Chase wasn’t sure. That didn’t mean that the crowd wasn’t big, it still was, but they weren’t nearly as noisy now and seemed a lot calmer. Perhaps getting lunch had helped in calming them down. Chase chuckled at the thought.
At the sound of a ringing bell the doors opened again, letting the first petitioners through and signalling the start of the afternoon section of the day courts.