Once back in Ponyville, Pinkie Pie had put together a grand ‘congratulations on getting hitched’ party. It would not have been Ponyville if she had not. Thankfully, she had waited until the next night, as everypony was quite exhausted from the Grand Galloping Gala.
Rescue and Ailan had a lot of ponies come up and speak with them. Quite a few brought out gifts for them, even when they said they had all they needed. A lot of them were simple things; a basket of apples from Sweet Apple Acres, the office of the Mayor had arranged to have tree planted in the park in their name, and Pinkie and the Cakes were hoofing the bill for the whole party.
One pair of stallions came over to talk to the newlyweds that bore a bit of a surprise gift. Filthy Rich and Sterling Spoon both gave a soft smile. Rich informed them that the contract for the loan they took to build Pip’s room was now null and void. Having ripped it up right in front of them both, Sterling had waived the fee for the work he did to make the anklet. Rescue and Ailan had both given them a tight, long hug in thanks.
Lyra and Bon Bon had gone in with Rarity, Twilight, Rainbow, and Fluttershy and purchased them a full eight-pony Japonyse dinner set. It was really quite a shock, because this was not cheap stuff and had to be imported from a land far from Equestria.
By the end of the day, everypony was worn out. Pip again fell asleep next to Diamond, and with this, many pictures were taken. Scootaloo fell asleep, pressed up to Rumbles side. Rainbow had burned through three rolls of film on that one. All the respective parents and family collected their little ones and all headed out once the cleanup was done.
Rarity had agreed to take Pipsqueak to give the two stallions a bit of alone time. Once they got home, they had taken full advantage of some private space without having to worry about a paint colt hearing things or asking questions he wasn’t quite ready for yet.
---
Why did Celestia have to raise the sun? It streamed in through the open window, shining across the two sleeping stallions. Rescue lifted his head some and huffed, then laid it back down once more across Ailan’s neck, nuzzling in and muttering.
“We should get up and shower, Pip will be home soon.”
Ailan gave a little snort. “You know, he is going to ask some day.”
The big draft stallion rolled his eyes and nipped the slightly smaller pony on the neck lightly. “Yeah, but I don’t want him to learn like this,” shaking his head at his partner's silly comment.
Once they were both up and showered, something that took a bit longer than normal, Rescue headed out into the living room. He started breakfast, and cleaning up some around the kitchen. He frowned a bit as he did, damn pegasi tended to be a lot messier than he was. He did, however, find himself brushing the feather hanging from his mane, and shook his head. He would have Ailan no other way.
Hearing the front door open, he heard, “Dad, I'm home!” yelled by a little colt, sighing softly to himself.
“Pip, how many times have I told you not to yell like that when you come home?” Rescue scolded, stepping out of the kitchen as Ailan came from the bedroom, glancing at Rarity who was standing in the doorway, the big draft stallion smiled a bit.
“Thank you for taking him for the night, Rarity, I hope he wasn’t a hoofful.”
The snow unicorn mare shook her head and laughed a light laugh. “Not at all, Rescue, he was a perfect gentlecolt like always. I trust you and your husband had a quiet night in.”
Blushing a touch, he nodded. “Again, thank you, Rarity, it means a lot to us,” glancing at the colt who was coming back out of his room after putting away his overnight bag.
“Say thank you to Miss Rarity for letting you stay over,” he heard Ailan say to the paint colt.
Pip trotted over and lifted up, hugging the mare around the neck. “Thank you again, Miss Rarity, and thank you for breakfast, it was really good! Oh, and thank you for all of the advice.”
Rescue glanced at Ailan, both of them lifted an eyebrow and returned their focus to the white unicorn. She just mouthed at them from behind the boys hug. “I will tell you later.”
---
Rescue sat in the little cubbyhole of an office, stacks of folders and paperwork around him. He had been sitting here reading through invoices, name lists, and incident reports. Truth of it was, he was eight hours in, just like the previous four days. They had less than fourteen days left before the arsonist would strike.
Rescue gave a little frustrated grumble to himself, as he had gone over all the incident reports that Wildfire and her small team up in Canterlot could find. He had them in three stacks now, the smallest were the three in Ponyville. Next to that stack sat another pile of thirty-two folders from Manehattan, and next to that was a stack of thirty-two more folders from Las Pegasus. In front of him now was one folder open with stacks of papers in it, lists and invoices that Princess Twilight had found for him, every single invoice for the remaining sales of Funtimeco’s balloon sales.
With a frustrated nicker, he slammed his hoof into the desk and wiped his arm across it. Sending folders and papers flying off, shouting. “Why can’t I find the connection?!” at the top of his lungs.
There was a soft knock at the door and he snapped his head up. “What?!” before it opened some, and he saw Ice standing there with a worried look.
“Chief, go home, you have been at this all day. I will clean up, you go home to your husband.”
He opened his mouth to chew her out, then stopped himself and glanced at the mess. Exhaling slowly, he shook his head. “You're righ, Ice, I'm sorry. I just, we have to catch this son of a gun before he hurts someone else. I owe that to Archer’s parents.”
She shook her head and put her hoof up on his shoulder, looking into his eyes. “Chief, you sitting here yelling and getting angry, it isn’t going to help them, or you. Go sleep, relax, eat something. Come back at this with a fresh outlook in the morning.”
She paused then added in. “Don’t make me get a few of the flock in here to drag you home.”
He snorted, just four days being married to a pegasus had taught him a few things. The biggest was, it seemed since Ailan had weaved that feather into his mane, every winged pony he met treated him like family. Sure, he had seen it growing up, how the pegasi seemed to stick together far more than the unicorns or earth ponies did. It was only now he was starting to understand just how serious they took this flock thing.
“Yeah, yeah, okay, okay, but you ain’t my mother, Ice."
He watched her smirk a bit. “No, but I am just enough of a mare to tell your husband you are skipping meals,” she said, glaring at him now.
Rescue held up a hoof. “Whoa, hold up. Okay, okay, you win. I will go home.”
She smirked. “Darn right, I won.”
Once the chief had left, she set about cleaning up the papers and folders, trying to just get them neat but in no particular order at all. She found a few loose papers she picked them up and gathered them, tucking them all in the random top folder in the stack and then heading out to start dinner for the on-duty team.
---
In a darkened room at the top of her tower, Princess Luna sat in the anteroom, looking out at the moon and stars in the sky. She tilted her head a bit and spoke out.
“You are sure, Captain?”
The captain of her guard slid out of the shadows as he bowed his head a bit. “Very much so, my princess. It seems the council is very unhappy about the bits being diverted from their pet projects to the Fire Department and Police Departments. There is to a vote held in a hour. From what I can gather, they hope to vote while your sister sleeps, and you are watching the dreamscape, so you cannot override it.”
The dark blue alicorn frowned and gave a nod. “Very well. Alert the Second Wing, I want them all there. We will go and remind the nobles just who rules the night court and why.”
He bowed. “As you command, my princess.”
---
Gilded Cage loved his job. The blue unicorn had it very good. A seat on the counsel, bits flowed like water around him, the power to make anypony do what he wanted and when. Of course, then that pesky pony of a princess had to stick her nose into things.
He snorted and looked up at the gathering of fifty representatives of the noble houses.
“So, the reading of the new bill is now on record. I call for a vote. I remind you all a neigh vote means the bill does not pass, and of course a yes vote means it carries. Now, we are to vote on CC-A551, known as the tax budget adjustment bill.”
He took a breath. “How many—”
The door swung open, and all of the representatives spun around, eyes growing wide as they watched twelve Lunar guards march in, armed to the withers. However, even that sight wasn’t the thing that made ponies catch their breath.
No, that was held by the alicorn that walked in. Head up high, eyes narrowed, in her full night regalia, wearing armor no pony had seen her wear in over a thousand years. It gleamed almost as if the night itself was polished bright. Hung across her back was a scythe of pure black, its edge so sharp, so perfectly polished that it caught the light like a thousand stars, causing micro reflections to dance along it. The heavy armored alicorn moved with a grace and ease only the war-master herself could do.
“P-Princess, we did not expect you to—”
She cut the blue unicorn off with a stomp of her armored hoof. “Thou will close thy mouth Gilded Cage, or we will do it for you!”
It was easy to see why history painted the Lunar Princess as the very model soldier and leader during times of war. She walked up to the podium, forcing Guilded to back up a few steps. Looking down at the paperwork, she lifted a hoof and flipped a few pages.
In a quiet voice, not yelling or using the Royal Canterlot voice, she said. “I see you have all decided to go behind my back and try and defund the very pony who risk their lives for us all.”
Her eyes narrowed a bit as Gilded spoke up, no other pony dared make a sound. “My princess, the people demand this of us. Projects go unfunded. Street improvements, new shops, overtime pay…”
“Enough!” she bellowed in the Royal voice. Gilded let out a yelp and jumped back, the rest of the crowd gasped, a few whimpered, one poor young stallion near the front smelled of urine suddenly, all caused by Luna in her anger. At the same moment, that scythe came out held in her magic and swung down with a speed and power unheard of. A thunderous crash of wood and paper as it met blade, the podium split in two and crashed down off the stage to left and right.
Scythe still stuck into the floor, gripped in alicorn magic, Luna glared out at the gathered nobles. Once more, her tone was low, one might have to strain to hear it in the back of the room, but there was no question as to her words.
“We call a vote for this bill, what say thou all, all opposed?”
Every single hoof came up, save one. Gilded hoof stayed down. She took note of this.
“Very well, and for?”
His hoof did not lift, she glanced at him with a deep frown and turned back to the room. Yanking the weapon from the floor, it floated back to its place across her armor.
“If we hear of any attempt at deceit like this again, we will put every last one of thou in the dungeons. Be very glad our sister has outlawed executions.”
Not a sound was heard other than her heavy hoofsteps as she spun and trotted out, her guards falling in behind her. A tiny whimper came from a young noble pony up front, the stallion just realizing he had wet himself in the presence of royalty.
---
Luna huffed a bit as she marched down the hallway. “We will hear about this from my sister, we are sure.”
The captain at her side gave a nod. “Yes, Princess.”