//------------------------------// // Walking around (Edited) // Story: A Man and an Army // by Saffron //------------------------------//     Celestia continued to walk down the corridor. I was a safe distance behind her so she wouldn’t notice me. After a few moments of planning I decided I was just going to do what people usually do in this situation. Give the unsuspecting victim a metaphorical heart attack. I started to catch up to her as silently as possibly. I was about three feet behind her, preparing to startle her when I myself, had not been paying attention to my surroundings and got tackled by a guard. The loud thump I made hitting the floor did not at all surprise Celestia. That fact alone made the slight pain not worth it.     “Hello, Commander.” Celestia said with a slight smirk.     “Greetings, o holy sun goddess.” I replied.     “Guard, you may release him.” Celestia said.     “Yes ma’am.” The guard replied as he got off of me.     “You are dismissed.” Celestia said to the guard.     The guard saluted her a trotted off down the castle hall. Celestia, with a quick use of her magic straightened out my uniform.     “Thank you.” I said.     “It was no issue, so tell me. Why were you following me?” Celestia asked.     “Well, I was just wondering about the castle looking at things. I happened to spot you and just decided to see where you were going.” I replied.     “Was there any other reason?” Celestia asked.     “Well, at first I was just following Midnight around thinking she was taking me somewhere, but during the walk I lost track of her.” I said.     “Midnight, you mean the Captain?” Celestia asked.     “The captain?” I was surprised.     “Yes, the captain of the night guard. Midnight Blossom is her name. Do you know where she was taking you?” Celestia asked.     “No, we were just walking. If she was taking me somewhere I have no idea where it would be.” I said.     “Hmm. Well, if you are not too busy you could walk with me for a while. I wouldn’t mind the company.” Celestia said. ---------------------------------- Luna’s Room ----------------------------------     Luna was lying in her bed, just thinking about all she needed to accomplish tonight, but the moment she heard a knock on her bedroom door all but a single thought remained. Is that Midnight? Luna swiftly got on her hooves and trotted over to the door and opened it. It was not Midnight but just another guard.     “I hope I am not disturbing you princess.” The guard said bowing slightly.     “You are not, what brings you here?” Luna asked.     “I was given a letter from general Avian Flame to give you.” The guard said.     “Thank you for bringing this to me.” Luna said as she telekinetically picked up the letter. “Is there anything else?” Luna asked.     “No ma'am, that was it.” The guard replied. He bowed once more and left.     Luna opened the letter and read it.          Dear Princess Luna, I demand some action to be taken. First I and my soldiers were detained forcefully, secondly that creature that goes by the title ‘commander’ physically assaulted myself as well as my party. If action is not taken I will take action into my own hands and detain the creature, which is my right under article 5 subsection A of the diplomatic rights and standards and I quote ‘Any aggressors that physically harms a diplomatic official, foreign political figure, and or foreign military official, will be subject to arrest. Any and or all aggressors have a right to a trail under the host nation to plead their case before deportation, and if enough evidence is present to show it was an act of self defense the charges will be immediately dropped until further investigation. However if the host nation does not detain the aggressor within a forty eight hour time period they forfeit all rights to give the aggressor a trail and will be mandated to give the aggressor over to the offended party and the aggressor will be subject to that nation's law.’ If this commander is not detained within the next thirty nine hours I will personally detain him.     “Well, this is interesting.” Luna said to herself. “I’ll worry about that tomorrow.”     Luna knew that Avian Flame had no real grounds to arrest the commander. It was technically a duel not to mention Flame was the aggressor in this case. The next few days were going to be interesting. As Luna trotted back over to her bed she heard the door open. She turned around to see Midnight closing the door. Luna felt excited, which was odd. Normally matters such as this would be unexciting, but for some reason this was different.     “Midnight.” Luna said.     “Luna.” Midnight replied.     “How did it go?” Luna asked.    Midnight told her everything. At first Luna was a little pissed off that the commander attacked her, until Midnight explained further. Midnight continued on in great detail. She told Luna everything. Except the part where she had the jerky. What really surprised her was the way she talked about him. It almost seemed if she had some feelings besides friendship for him. She had conflicting opinions about that. For one he was technically a diplomat and Midnight was the Captain of the Night guard. This relationship, if it did go down that path, could have some serious ramifications. The other is that she knew Midnight, she was mostly quiet and hardly had any friends, not to mention a non existent love life. She almost never opened up to anyone outside of the Night guard in anyway. Not to mention that Luna felt a little jealous, she didn’t know why, the feeling was just there. So Luna did the only thing she could think off.     “Midnight do you have any feelings for the commander?”     “I feel as if we have become friends.” Midnight said.     “I mean, do you feel something more than friendship?” Luna asked.     “I don’t know.” Midnight said.     “I think you know that you cannot pursue a relationship like that with him.” Luna said.     “I… Know.” Midnight said, Luna could see the sadness in her eye’s, but Midnight held firm.     The look in Midnights eye’s tore a hole in Luna’s heart, but she knew it was for the best. Midnight left after that. Luna began to realise that even if Midnight did not pursue the commander, the commander might go after Midnight. It was just a thought, but she had to know how the commander felt. ---------------------------------- Somewhere else in the castle ----------------------------------   Celestia and myself talked quite a bit during the walk. At first it was just some small talk which lead to us discussing political matters that we needed to hash out, which then somehow lead to a philosophical debate about the Sun and Moon. It was very interesting to say the least. Then I remembered what I was originally going to ask her.     “Well, I do have one more thing to ask you Celestia.” I said.     “Yes, what is it?” Celestia asked.     “Why did you stop me from knocking that griffon out?” I asked.     “What?” Celestia asked confused. “I did not interfere with your fight.” Celestia said.     “Yes you did, when I was getting ready to take that griffon to the cleaners my arm was held back by a golden aura.” I said.     “A golden aura? It was not mine, actually I did not even see this ‘aura’ all I remember seeing is you stopping mid swing.” Celestia said.     I stopped to think. If Celestia did not do it than who did? More importantly why? There was also the possibility that Celestia was lying, but she seemed genuine about what she said. Of course she was over a thousand years old, and a political figure. Politicians constantly lie and being one for as long as she has probably made her an expert.     “Well if it wasn’t you then who, and why?” I asked.     “I do not know.” Celestia replied.     “Commander, you are awake.” Jane said.     “Yes, and where have you been?” I asked.     “I was connected to the ship, so while you were unconscious I decided to look after things and get some work done.” Jane said.     “Ah, so why check in with me now?” I asked.     I heard a faint explosion that came from the direction of my ship.     “Well, let's just say there is a situation that you need to tend to.” Jane said.