Sleep never came easy for Princess Luna. But when it did come, the alicorn was extremely difficult to wake. Or so Celestia told her. Regardless, Luna was sleeping soundly in her office at her oak desk, resting her head on her arms. A small smile had formed on her face.
A smaller figure, one of the numerous Night Guards that served the Princess of the Night, came forward from the shadows, blanket in hand, and draped the blanket over the sleeping alicorn. “Sleep well, Princess.”
************
The Next Morning
Shining Armor woke to find a pink feather in his mouth. He pulled it out of his mouth with his magic, as he found that the owner of the pink feather had, at some point during the night, decided to start clinging to him, locking his arms to his sides. He frowned. “Cadence,” he said, “It’s time to wake up.”
“I don’t want to…”
“Come on, I need to get ready to work.”
“You can just use one of your many vacation days you’ve saved up…”
Cadence had a point, Shining Armor had to admit. But, that wasn’t the point. He wanted to go to work. The Empire needed him. In fact, it needed Cadence, too. “You also need to wake up, too. You’re a princess. The citizens will worry if they don’t get to see you.”
“Will they? Will they really?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. Darn. Okay.”
A cute little yawn issued forth from the foot of the bed. Shining Armor, managing to wiggle out of Cadence’s grip, sat up. A little alicorn filly lay partially curled up at the foot of the bed, looking at her parents. “Morning.”
The greeting was soft and tired. “Come here,” Shining Armor said, “sweetie.”
The filly smiled, and crawled across the bed to her father. Shining Armor took the filly in a hug, which the filly returned. “Skyla,” Cadence inquired, seriously, “how did you get in our room?”
Skyla rubbed one of her eyes, and yawned again. “You left the door slightly open.”
Her parents exchanged a glance. “Okay. Okay. Well,” Shining Armor smiled, “let Mommy and I get dressed, okay?”
“Okay!”
Skyla got up and hurried out of the room.
Shining Armor sat up further, and looked at Cadence, shaking his head. “Make sure to close the door next time, okay?”
Cadence giggled, and rolled her eyes.
************
Luna poured over the map she had spread across her desk and a pair of tables she had found amongst the office supplies in her office. “Princess Luna,” one of the Palace Guards stationed outside her office doors spoke, having opened a door enough to allow her to lean in, “you have some visitors.”
“I am expecting them,” replied the princess, not looking up from the map, “they may enter.”
The Palace Guard nodded. She ducked back into the hall, closing the door.
The two doors opened, and Luna’s expected visitors entered the office. Shining Armor and Cadence.
Luna stood straight. She smiled, circumstances notwithstanding. “Good morning, you two.”
“Morning,” Shining Armor replied.
Cadence ran over to the larger alicorn and hugged her. Luna’s smiled widened slightly. “How’s my little filly doing?”
“Great! Skyla’s doing very well, too!”
“Good, good.”
Shining Armor cleared his throat. “Not that I don’t find this display of mother-daughter affection adorable or anything, but I think we should focus on why you called us here.”
The two mares ended their hug, and Luna nodded. Luna chuckled, slightly. “Always focused, aren’t you, Shining Armor?”
The stallion nodded. “Someone’s got to be.”
Luna gestured to the map. The three walked over to the desk, and took position at different spots around the desk, with Luna returning to her original position.
Shining Armor looked at the map and frowned. “Why are you looking at a map of the Dark Valley?”
Luna smiled. “Because inside this forsaken place is the knowledge I seek.”
“Knowledge, mother? What kind of knowledge?”
Luna’s smile dropped, and she sighed. “Twilight is… dying, Cadence.”
Cadence gasped. “Dying?! How?”
Shining Armor’s frown deepened, “It was that sword that the assassin that attacked her had, it must have been poisoned.”
“Indeed,” Luna agreed, “as it and its other eleven brethren have been for millennia.”
“There’s eleven other ones, too?”
“Yes, they are relics created by the greatest scholar of magic the world has ever seen.”
Cadence sighed, looking down at the floor. “So, what do we do?”
“You two will do nothing, this is something that I must do alone.”
Shining Armor stepped forward and asked, irritated, “My little sister is dying, and you are telling me, her older brother, to do nothing.”
Luna’s expression turned serious. “Yes, I am.”
“I refuse to just-”
“I could always just order you to do nothing.”
Shining Armor huffed in irritation. “Fine, fine,” he said, “I will do nothing.”
Cadence looked up. “You could always take someone with you. There’s things in the Dark Valley that you’ll need protection from.”
“That’s true,” Luna agreed, expression softening. “But, I still need to get my idea approved by Celestia. Anything that I decide here without getting my idea approved will mean nothing.”
“Oh,” Shining Armor said, “yeah, that’s true.”
Luna waved a hand dismissively, saying, “You two’d better be on your way. You have your duties to attend to, as well.”
The other two nodded, and as they turned to leave, Luna spoke again, “Don’t worry. I’ll do everything in my power to ensure that Twilight lives.”
Shining Armor glanced back over his shoulder at Luna, glaring intensely at his mother-in-law.
Luna did not blink, staring back at the stallion with the same intensity.
The Captain-General then returned to looking forward and left. Cadence followed close behind, closing the doors behind her.
The Night Princess shook her head, chuckling. Shining Armor loved his little sister, to the point where he’d throw out all reason. “One day, that… devotion… will get you killed, Shining Armor.”
She suddenly flicked an arm out, flinging a pen across the room to bounce off of the wall to her right. The pen bounced off of the floor, back towards Luna, who caught it, and tucked it back into her vest.
A draconequus dissolved into view, an unamused expression on his face. “How do you do that?”
“Chaos Sense,” Luna replied, glancing at him through the corner of her eye, “and I see a very big concentration of it leaning against my wall.”
Discord rolled his eyes. “Well, when do you intend to bring this idea up with Celestia?”
Luna’s response was immediate. “As soon I finish up here. In about five minutes. Go bother Tia in the meantime.”
Discord opened his mouth, but closed it and nodded. Bothering Celestia sounded like wonderful idea. He snapped his fingers, and was gone.
Only one question remained in Luna’s mind.
Would Celestia approve her idea?
************
High Princess Celestia jerked her head up and looked toward the doors to her throne room. The squirming draconequus beneath her stopped squirming and looked toward the doors, too.
A dark alicorn had entered the room. She glanced down at the pair sitting on the floor, and chuckled.
Celestia’s cloak had been thrown onto one of the guards in the room, who remained perfectly still. The others were silently chuckling at their comrade’s embarrassment.
Discord, pinned beneath the High Princess, with her crown sitting on his head, gave a wave.
Celestia snapped her fingers, and a glass of chocolate milk appeared in her hand. She took a sip from the glass, and spoke, “So, Luna, what do you have to bring to my attention?”
“Is it really that obvious?”
“Yes. You’re glancing around somewhat nervously, like that inane Earl Sapphire from earlier. Gods, I hate those kind of ponies, the ones that know that the proper term for their position in the Imperial Nobility is Earl, but insist on using the other term for their position.”
“Count?”
“That one. With my accent, that word sounds incredibly vulgar and offensive.”
Luna nodded, smirking slightly. It was a problem, she had to admit. It was also incredibly amusing, too.
“Luna,” Celestia said, irritated, and a little embarrassed, “it’s not funny.”
Celestia’s ears were flopped down, and she scrunched her face. Luna’s smirk grew larger. “Yes, it is.”
Celestia shook her head. “Anyway, out with it.”
Luna’s smirk turned into a smile. She spoke, the room falling silent as she did so. “I have a plan. A plan to save Twilight Sparkle…”