Under the Lone Moon

by Facsimile

Poor Portents

“Duty, for us, is not to the crown, to the Princess, to the city, or to the Guard;

our duty is to Equestria, and all who reside within it.”

- The Royal Guardspony Handbook, Chapter 1, Paragraph 3

Try as she might, Luna could scarcely keep her thoughts from straying to her sister.

There was no escalation of worry or steady spiral into worst-case what-ifs; Luna had settled on the most important question regarding Celestia’s well-being: Was this the end?

The Moon Princess had always been somewhat more pessimistic than her older sister, and it wasn’t uncommon for her mind to stray to thoughts of the worst finally happening. She and her sister had seen a great deal of time pass in their reign, and even before; Celestia seemed inclined to call the pair immortal, but realistically Luna wondered just how far that went. It was one thing to simply not age, but another thing entirely to be ‘immortal’.

Few creatures could claim such impunity to the rigors of time and trial, and Luna did not count herself or her sister to be among those. The current state of the Sun Princess acted as proof, in her mind, of that fact.

She didn’t know what, precisely, had caused her sister to fall into the state she was in, but the best guess so far was that it was magical in some way; what else could bring low somepony as powerful as her big sister?

But then again, she could be overestimating her sibling. She hoped not. Luna had found herself bested in a few cases, as had Celestia; working together or seeking the aid of something or someone was how they usually dealt with such scenarios.

She would have to learn more, and determine if she or others were under similar threat. Perhaps, more optimistically, this was a case where there was no threat at all, and it was some new, formerly unknown aspect of being what they were. She both hoped this were the case, and hoped not; after all, if it were something to do with being an alicorn, well… Luna herself could be susceptible.

There was so much she didn't know yet. No word or explanation, just an unconscious monarch and the almost communal notion that the castle could well be in danger.

What a mess. Celestia would already be trying to solve this, she knew, and yet Luna was having to rely on her subjects just to find out what this even was. Luna had never had to deal with any major emergencies on her own, having Celestia there to think on her hooves. But it was her duty to see it dealt with.

She realized that she'd left her crown on the nightstand in her room. Yet here she was out and about the castle without so much as her shoes, much less her symbol of authority.

She'd just have to go get it.

No. That would be ridiculous. She was the Princess of the Night, she didn't need her crown to show that.

But how prepared for this upset could she portray herself without so much as her crown? She had taken off everything as soon as she'd retired to her chambers, even letting drop the spell that kept her mane and tail shifting and illuminated with sparks. Turning her head, Luna could see her mane up close, a slightly more pale blue than the deep color of her coat, but as ordinary as any other pony's without a spell.

Luna was torn between ignoring her lack of decorum in favor of just focusing on the task at hoof, or going back to her chambers so that she could look the part she'd have to play. There were ponies counting on her, either way.

The princess' ears perked as she heard voices approaching the room, bringing her back to the present place and situation. Here, in the oldest of the castle's meeting rooms, there was no carpet or decor on the walls; voices and hoofsteps carried a long distance into the room from the adjoining two halls. For a moment, torn from deep thought, Luna seemed to feel disoriented at her current location; in her mind she had been far away.

"...the guy was panicking, so I assumed we'd need help," said one voice.

"The whole garrison?!" Luna identified this as Sergeant Shale; his voice was distinct, and sounded upset. "We have every guard in the city up in arms now, and nopony's getting any sleep until this is over."

"I didn't want to make the mistake of not getting enough ponies..."

"Well you'd best be damn glad it was an emergency."

The two stallions speaking were approaching from the left passageway, from the stairs that led down to the main entry chamber of the castle. Curious as to how many would be coming, Luna circled the long wooden table in the middle of the room to peer into the side passage.

Sergeant Shale was indeed there, in full armor as he tended to stay, speaking to another pony that was a lighter grey than he. Luna recognized him again as the Corporal that had been at post near her chambers, this time in proper dress with his helm.

They were both wearing swords, scabbards resting at their sides against their armor with a thick pad between to prevent clanking. Luna had a momentary feeling of deja vu; the last she had seen her own Nightguard kitted in non-ceremonial swords was a very, very long time ago. There had been more ponies like Shale around... and much more strife.

Luna hoped that it wasn't a prelude of things to come.

"S-sorry, Novu... I got carried away," the Corporal said; it was the first Luna had heard Sergeant Shale's given name used.

They seemed to have not noticed her, and stopped several meters down the hall. Shale bumped a forehoof against the cuirass of his earth pony subordinate. "Look, you thought you were doing good, and you did good. In the end that's all the Commander will notice."

"Do we even know what happened?"

"Bucked if I know," Shale snorted, taking a much lower tone. "Blue isn't saying anything, and he keeps asking where the Dayguard commander is. Celestia is in the new vault until the city sweep is done. So once Blue knows, we'll know."

"...well maybe Lu-" as the Corporal turned to look down the hall, he caught sight of Luna, watching. "P-Princess! Y-your highness!"

The two guards immediately took a knee, Shale himself spreading his leathery wings slightly in the motion. "Your highness, I apologize. If we had known you were present we would have announced ourselves," he offered, trying to explain. Luna was used to this sort of thing. "I apologize for my language, ma'am, it was improper."

"But it was, yet, very enlightening," Luna said. The two took this as their cue to return to standing and approach, closing the remaining distance. "Sergeant, we asked that you bring the Commander. Yet we see neither the commander of the Day nor Night branches. You are also frustrated..." Luna habitually kept closer to the traditional methods of speaking when it concerned formal address of her guard. For a moment, however, she dropped this. "Sergeant, do I have to hear more bad news?"

"Princess, I..." Shale began, then paused. He turned to the earth pony corporal next to him. "Star, get back to the barracks, I need to speak with Her Highness."

The corporal almost seemed about to protest, but then nodded. He made one last bow towards Luna. "Your grace."

When the other guard had left, Shale continued. "Princess, I delivered your message as asked. Commander Blue Moon and both Lieutenants Sails and Halm are currently searching the Princess Celestia’s chamber for any possible leads, and the Commander is refusing to leave until he is sure his task is complete."

"Refusing?" Luna echoed. She was caught between wanting to find and retrieve the Commander herself, forcibly, and wanting to commend his diligence to the tasks at hoof. "And what of the Dayguard?"

"Split into teams, searching the Castle and grounds as per protocol when called To Arms... and guarding Princess Celestia."

"How many are guarding my sister?"

"I last heard the number twenty-eight being said," Shale responded. Luna knew that it likely hadn't been said to him, as his breed were...infamous...for eavesdropping. "I was sent by the Commander in his stead."

Luna had been trying to stay aware of the details inside her portion of the Guard, but time had never been on her side. Even so, she knew that the few batponies in her guard were highly trusting of one another, and it made sense that Blue Moon, a batpony himself, would send Shale.

She didn't really mind this; it was no secret that this nocturnal offshoot of pegasai were her favored guards, as they were just as night-adoring as she.

“I should hope that if the Commander is...refusing...my summons, he’ll have something to show for it,” Luna said, though less to the Sergeant and more to herself. “So very much for a proper briefing.”

Luna let out a frustrated sigh, turning from the Nightguard and returning to the meeting chamber instead, starting a nervous pace around the table. Shale tried to keep up in his armor. It had been her intention to pull aside higher members of the Castle’s security forces and have them brief her on the situation, which was a millennia ago an absolute given.

“I’m afraid, your highness, royal briefings are abnormally rare,” the smaller pony said, as though privy to her thoughts. Luna thought it sounded more like an attempted excuse. “Prince Shining Armor has conducted briefings during emergencies for some years now, as Princess Celestia has always… made separate arrangements.”

"Meaning, of course, her dealings with young Twilight Sparkle," Luna said, trying to make sure. The guard nodded. "And it was assumed I might do similar?"

"The Dayguard assumed as much, which was my initial excuse as to why the officers haven't been around. But... uh..."

Luna stopped in her pacing and turned to look back at the following guard; he didn't lose his voice often. Him doing it now was concerning. "Continue, you have my attention."

Shale nodded and did so, adopting his straight-legged, chin-raised posture as was the norm when he presented a report. "The changing of the Guard at six in the morning was performed, and the reports are now final. Dayguard is short by four stallions, unaccounted for… as well as the Dayguard Commander."

Luna was, for a moment, almost stunned. When was this information learned? "We're missing a Commander? And what of the guards, were they at post?"

Sergeant Shale shook his head. "No, ma'am, they were supposed to be asleep in the barracks. They never reported for shift change. I found out by listening in to the Dayguard troops; they're understandably... antsy."

Luna was decidedly miffed, and realized her expression must have shown it when Shale took a slight step backwards. Her sister was incapacitated and being examined by apothecaries, her own guard wasn’t responding to summons directly, there were guards completely unaccounted for, the Dayguard was running around as though missing their head, and now she found that yes, they were indeed missing their head, as it were.

What a mess.

“The Dayguard Commander must be located,” Luna finally settled on saying. “What of the head magister, has he been summoned yet?”

“Still no sign of him in his usual places. But he’s old enough that he wouldn’t be far from the castle,” Shale said hopefully. “I’ve dispatched a tyro to try and find him.”

“A what?” Luna interjected; she didn’t know the word.

“Sorry, ma’am, foreign word,” the Sergeant explained. ”Tyro means ‘novice’. Sometimes we call the new, rankless recruits that. The Dayguard has plenty of trained soldiers at their disposal but us… well, we have recruits. Half of our number and then some is nothing but tyros, so we’re having to utilize them half-trained.”

He seemed apologetic.

Luna eventually, after not answering the pony for some time, motioned for him to follow her; she was restless. Through the other doorway, opposite the one the guard had entered through, was a short passage leading to a long hall, with doorways to the left leading to other rooms and passages, stairs leading upwards at the end, and vastly-tall windows to the right. At over one-hundred meters in length it was one of the longest straight stretches of corridor in the castle.

Luna had a liking for this hall. It was one of the oldest portions of the castle and had remained relatively unchanged, the white stone underneath her more worn from countless hooves but still about what she remembered. Few windows of this size in the castle were clear glass rather than stained, which Celestia preferred; Luna preferred a clear view from which she could see the stars.

“Lulu’s favorite tapestry,” Celestia would sometimes say. In the dark of the night the passageway was a cool grey, lit only by starlight that would shine in through the windows.

As Luna looked out towards the windows now, however, she found that the view of the night sky was more disconcerting; it was supposed to be morning, but yet the sky was that of deep night. And it was a further reminder of just how serious this incident was: were it Luna who was incapacitated, life would go on without much in the way of interruption, but the whole world seemed to stop when her older sister was unable to raise the sun.

Luna quieted, with an anxious huff of breath, a small pang of jealousy.

Shale seemed to notice his ruler’s discontent. “Your highness, at this point we’re doing all we can.”

“You seek to reassure us without progress?” Luna retorted. She bit her tongue, huffed again, and then continued. “I apologize. The fault is not your own. I feel like I should be doing something more, but there is nothing I can do at the moment beyond letting the Royal Guard do its work. But is it too much to ask that somepony be where they are supposed to be in an emergency?”

“Your highness, might I suggest contacting Princess Celestia’s student?”

Luna snorted, grimly amused. “And tell her that her mentor is unconscious and that we are uncertain of the cause? The little unicorn would be here with all six Elements by noon if she is not on her way already.”

“Meaning no disrespect, your grace, but couldn’t the Elements hold the key to waking Princess Celestia?” Shale seemed hopeful.

“I’ll tell you this… if the situation has not changed by the end of the day, I will personally see to contacting Twilight Sparkle and her friends, and we shall resort to the use of the artifacts. If she has not come here of her own volition, trying to determine why the sun hasn’t risen or sent a letter asking. Though I’ll require the magister; I never learned the requisite spell for sending a letter by dragonfire.”

“By…. by what, your highness?”

Luna realized that other than herself and her sister, most ponies were likely not even aware that Twilight Sparkle had a dragon, nor aware of the magical nature of said companion. “Twilight’s infant dragon is the destination of Princess Celestia’s letters. As a potent creature of magic, certain spells can utilize their natural attunement to magic for remarkable feats… in this case, sending a message securely. I… am afraid I never had much use for ‘sending’ spells. My sister knows most of those, as does the magister.”

Why is my sister the one who knows everything? Luna wondered. So much for our awe-inspiring wisdom and power, Tia. Though if Luna were honest with herself, she would be sure to note that there were a great many things that Celestia didn’t know or was capable of. Though Luna’s magic was not nearly as potent, certainly not enough to move the sun, Celestia had never shown any affinity for the abstract magic relating to the ethereal world. Illusion was something Luna had a great deal of pride in her capabilities with, and the area of magic concerning the dreaming world was utterly her own domain and shared by no other so far as she knew.

But neither of these were helpful. What Luna needed was knowledge that could only be gained by observation, and as she had only ever been the watcher of the nighttime hours, she had little experience with many ponies who were only awake in the day.

Pausing in her slow trek down the hall, Luna turned to look back at the guard that had been obediently following her, looking him over. In the wash of faint white from starlight from the window his armor gleamed; he looked clean and prepared, ready for any eventuality… but in his yellow eyes she saw exhaustion. She realized that he’d been awake likely for some time, working through the night as usual, and now working even harder in trying to help deal with this entire ordeal.

Shale noticed Luna looking him over. “Ma’am?” he said, wondering if he was about to be addressed with something.

“Should you not be allowing a member of the Dayguard to take over for you?”

Shale almost looked offended. “Your highness, I couldn’t bear to leave you to one of Gleam’s hooligans. Commander Gleam, sorry ma’am.” Shale had a tendency to drop mention of rank when speaking casually to another guard, though almost never around Luna. It seemed he must, indeed, be tired.

“While I appreciate the company of someone nocturnal like myself, Sergeant, you do not have the fortitude of an alicorn,” Luna felt obligated to remind him. She was exhausted herself, and dearly wished she could have that rest she’d been wanting in the first place last night, but at least she had the endurance to carry on being awake for far longer than most ponies.

“Your grace, if you would like to order me back to the barracks, I shall go… but I shall not leave you otherwise.” It was as close to refusal as a subordinate could possibly come without meaning offense. It was one of the reasons the Moon Princess liked this particular member of the Royal Guard; Shale was utterly dedicated to his duties, even when faced with exhaustion.

In fact, it had been Novu Shale that was the very first of the Nightguard to greet her on her return to Canterlot, following the incident of her arrival as Nightmare Moon. Decked in full arms, the batpony was the one leading four other members of the Nightguard just before the arrival of Commander Blue Moon; most of the others were asleep, as it was midday at the time. He’d said nothing, only saluted.

When the Commander had finally arrived and formally placed the Guard at Luna’s disposal, Luna had been feeling remarkably ceremonial. “Thank you, Commander of the Nightguard. We will trust the watchers in the night to look over us.”

Only two responded, with the end of the oath that was unique to their division. “Until the night takes us, and we return to darkness.”

That had been only the Commander and Sergeant Shale, the only batponies present at the time Luna had returned. Luna had found that, sadly, her own division of the Royal Guard was much reduced and much changed since she had last seen them. Most not to her liking. For example, the grim final portion of the Nightguard oath had become almost optional to intone, as per request of the previous Commander of the division.

Luna liked the grim part, though. A row of new recruits in gleaming black and silver armor, wearing the thin blue line of a Private for the first time, chanting in unison… was an intimidating and exquisite sight. For the longest time she had presided over such ceremonies herself, but in her absence it had been conducted alternately by either the Royal Guard Captain or the division Commander.

Luna missed how things were a thousand years previous, when ponies like Sergeant Shale were all that could be found in the Nightguard. Now such dedication and adherence to tradition was reserved for the uniquely-enthusiastic and the nocturnal batponies, which were far declined in Canterlot since Luna had resided there. In fact, that she knew of the only ponies of the kind in Canterlot or anywhere near this region of Equestria were already in her Nightguard.

But despite all of this, Luna could see that Shale was getting to the point where he was not likely to perform well at all in his duties. “Sergeant, while your adamantine bearing is applauded, I would rather have you prepared for duty during your regular hours. Return to the barracks, I’ll go and see the Commander myself.”

Sergeant Shale looked reluctant, but knew better than to protest against direct orders from the Princess of the Night. “As you will, ma’am,” he said, relenting and bowing. “Best of luck to you, I suppose.”

Luna followed the guard with her gaze after he turned and returned the way he had come, until he rounded the corner back to the meeting chamber and disappeared; she wished somewhat that she could have followed and retired to bed as well, but there was yet more work to do.

What should I do next, Tia? Luna asked her sister in her mind.

Celestia would most likely not simply jump to the next step; she’d start from the top. “Your first duty, as Princess, would be to ensure the safety of everyone in the castle,” she would have said. It’s what she had said the first time that Canterlot Castle had been called ‘to arms’.

Luna had scowled at her sister then. “What do you mean, duty?”

“Well we cannot simply run off and do combat with Evil, and met out Justice.” Celestia had gone on to explain, sounding far too much like a mother-figure for Luna’s liking at the time. “Every pony in the town looks up to us now. They want to know everything is alright.”

“But everything isn’t alright, sis!”

“I know that…” Celestia had given that annoying, knowing smile of hers.

In the present, though, Luna took her words to heart and finished Celestia’s statement: “...but even if everything isn’t alright, ponies need to know we’re making it right.”

Luna’s memory was much like her older sister’s; fragmented and half-dreamed. She’d been able to keep track of so many things at first, but as the years ticked by, one after the other, she found that she just couldn’t keep track of everything. Even a pony that was only a century old had trouble remembering everything, even in peak mental capacity… and so even an alicorn found that things started to slip away over time.

The Moon Princess didn’t even remember what the first emergency in the new city of Canterlot had been. There’d barely even been a guard, if she remembered correctly, and certainly not two divisions. Certainly not as large of a town named Canterlot, nor an entire country under the Equestrian banner.

“So what’s the next step?” Luna asked herself, though almost as though hoping her absent sister would answer. She remembered what Celestia had said, but… not what she’d done.

Luna decided to start from the top, and began pacing as she thought. The first thing done was to secure Celestia as best as she could. Next was to begin searching the castle and the town, with the goal of finding anything out of the ordinary that could hint at the cause of this ordeal in the first place… and offer a possibility of a solution.

This was being done.

The next step would be to… wait for the results of the search? Luna had no willingness to simply wait. Waiting, in her mind, was lazy or perhaps even cowardly. And how could she hope to wait with her own sister in apparent danger?

Lost as she was in deep thought, the alicorn princess almost lept at the sound of a gigantic brass clang in the distance; the automated sounding of the Canterlot clocktower in Palace Square. The brass of the bell rang almost hollowly, and then again, and then again.

It was seven in the morning, and ponies were waking with a field of stars above them in the sky rather than the rising of the sun, and a castle on alert.

---

The royal chambers of Princess Celestia were more extravagant than those of Princess Luna, but when Luna entered them it was all she could do to not cringe as the disarray they’d been put in.

Furniture had been pulled away from each wall and her sister’s bed unsheeted and the mattress leaning up against the headboard on its end. The curtains were off of each of her three windows and every painting on the wall removed and being carefully searched behind.

Even as the familiar form of Commander Blue Moon approached, Luna had a sense of what was going to be said. There was a sensation of dismay or desperation here, mixed with half-hearted relief.

“Your Royal Highness,” said the black-coated batpony that commanded her own Nightguard division. “Report, your Highness?”

“Immediately, yes,” Luna impatiently prompted.

Blue Moon was known for his quietness, his calmness… but his voice trembled. “I am afraid that I m-..must report that… as of yet nothing has been found as to what may have happened to Her Highness Princess Celestia.”

“Nothing?”

Commander Blue Moon had no opportunity to repeat himself, being interrupted instead by another; a unicorn stepped to his side. Clad in only the lightest leather armorings still used by the guard with a hooded blue garment beneath, Luna recognized very quickly the arguably least-popular of the Nightguard officers.

“Princess,” he said, speaking directly to her.

The restraint on the Commander’s face was barely noticeable. “Lieutenant Halm, your-”

“I believe,” interrupted the deeply-green unicorn. The restraint on the Commander’s face tightened. “That the Princess should be the judge of my-”

The Commander was often said to be called Blue Moon for how often he raised his voice without intending it to be an audible command, and even though Luna could almost feel the anger brewing in the batpony he kept his voice remarkably level. “Your Highness, I must apologize on the behalf of my subordinate-”

“Princess,” started Halm again, raising his voice. “Princess Celestia received a letter shortly after her removal to the siege vault.”

Hearing this, Luna raised one hoof, indicating that the Commander should let his subordinate continue. She’d likely have to talk with him later about it, no doubt. “A letter? A sending?”

“Not a sending, or through the Court’s postal services,” the unicorn clarified, his stature straightening as he understood he’d been given permission to continue. It was a victory for him, Luna suspected. “By an independent courier service. The Dayguard didn’t stop the courier, but the letter is here still.”

“Your Highness,” pressed the Commander. “The Lieutenant is under the impression this letter may be of value to the investigation under way, but I have previously informed him… that such is likely not the case.”

Princess Celestia often wrote to a multitude of distant ponies or otherwise. She was more social than her younger sibling, and there was a section of the castle’s internal postal service dedicated to handling her frequent letters.

A letter sent outside of this system would normally mean one sent by dragonfire, but by a private courier was much more odd. Perhaps from Shining Armor in the north?

“We would like to see it,” responded Luna somewhat officially. She wasn’t willing to let any possible lead slip through her hooves, no matter how unlikely, and she could deal with the issue of chain of command and power struggles after this mess was settled and her sister sound and safe.

“Of course, Princess,” the Lieutenant said, taking an equally-official tone. Luna noted the swell of pride in the pony. His horn flickered pale blue, drawing out an envelope from his flank-strapped pouch, offering it to Luna’s own igniting magical grasp.

It was a rather standard envelope, pale and creamy paper waxed to allow travel through clouds by pegasus at high altitudes. A fast-traveling letter, likely with a dedicated courier and not one on rounds. It was the sort that might be sent officially, and a honey-colored wax seal held it closed.

The seal bore no stamp for the sender, nor was there a return address. Instead it bore only a written name for the intended recipient.
To Dearest Princess of the Sun
Most Heartfelt Greetings and Salutations

It did not seem to be the sort of clue that would actually be a clue. Still, curious, Luna peeled open the seal and from the envelope withdrew a thrice-folded paper. The indentations of a pen were hard-pressed and clear on the page in blue ink and a flowing script:

‘It is with my most extreme condolences that I must greet you from the Pinnacle, condolences only in that I wish that you could also be here to enjoy what wonderful sights and sounds it has to offer. Great misfortune it is that you must be in Canterlot while I am away on such adventures. The journey is fraught with peril, but the reward is greater all the more because of it.’

The letter continued in this vein for several paragraphs, detailing travel arrangements and the poor quality of food on a journey to distant places she had scarcely heard of. Whoever wrote it did so almost as archaically as Luna herself had once spoken not all that long ago. It was not signed.

But it was no clue, and Luna’s brow furrowed.

“Your Highness,” started Commander Blue Moon, peering behind Princess Luna, only to be interrupted by a bright flash of white light. Dazzled by the flare from behind her, the batpony shook his head, squinting his eyes.

What?

“Hey!” shouted a Nightguard, drawing Luna’s attention behind her where the flash had come from, in time to see a pony with a magically-lofted camera ducking away from the doorway. The guard who had shouted made to pursue, but instead ran headlong into another pony, stumbling and then backing up.

“As you were, Nightguard,” grumbled the sizable armored unicorn entering the room, clad in the gold of the Dayguard. Where his rank lines would be was instead a embossed silvery sun, marking the white unicorn as the commander of the daylight division of the Royal Guard.

“Commander Golden Gleam, I was beginning to worry,” said Blue Moon as Luna turned, having recovered his sight from the bright flash of a camera. “Did you sleep late?”

Luna felt, welling within her, a great anger; when first she found her sister prone on the balcony she’d practically thundered that the Dayguard Commander should be brought at once, but here he was tremendously long after that point in time and with very little look of hurry about him.

“It is hard to say, with the sun not having risen,” Commander Gleam said a little acidly. “Princess Luna, a sweep of the rest of the Castle has been completed. The grounds and corridors are secure of suspicious sorts.”

“Commander,” Luna said, finding her voice and telling her building anger to sit down. “If I may ask where you have been?”

The Commander didn’t seem taken aback at the question, standing straight with a somewhat level expression. “I am often awake rather early, Princess. I’ve been in the gardens.”

“And the camerapony?” questioned the nearby Lieutenant.

“The paparazzi and press are near impossible to contain, Halm,” responded the Commander, not looking towards him but instead keeping his attention on Luna. “Which, on the same note, the city is waking and I must say there are a lot of questions. The last ‘To Arms’ was called during an invasion, after all.”

“We suspect that Prince Shining Armor would be best-suited to-”

“I apologize,” said the Commander, nodding his head. Princess Luna felt her voice caught, miffed at being interrupted; she hushed her anger once more. “But the Captain remains in the Crystal Empire. I believe there was a fair bit of talk about his retirement from the Guard? Were you not aware?”

Retirement?

Luna had met the Captain routinely; he was a compassionate and charming sort, well-suited to leading and taking a personal responsibility in the well-being of those in his command. Ever since his marriage to Mi Amore Cadenza and the return of the Crystal Empire, however… things were rather complicated. The leaderless Empire had taken on Cadence as its ruler, and as her husband it made sense for Shining Armor to stay.

But now? In this critical situation?

“... is the magister available?” Luna then asked, intending to send a letter magically as soon as she could. “We would like to see him immediately.”

“I’d rather like to know as well. Where is the coot?” Golden Gleam looked around the room with a frown as though expecting to see the court’s highest magic-user.

“As of yet,” responded Commander Blue Moon. “...he is not. I have sent some recruits to locate him and I expect him to be present shortly. Is it too much to ask that ponies of the castle remain in their quarters and postings?”

“You are well aware that this castle is home to hundreds, Moon,” responded the Dayguard. “And the city home to thousands. We have not instituted a curfew in centuries, you might recall, and the only one who might remember all the protocol and patrol-procedures is likely Sergeant Wilt.”

In her mind, Luna could hear in calm tones repeated the words of her older sibling, a conversation a millennia old but still rather clear to her now. “...even if everything isn’t right, ponies need to know that we are making it right.”

Okay, Tia. I’ll see what I can do. Luna promised to a mere phantom. “We cannot panic the town, or the kingdom. Based on the evidence we have,” she then began. “...it may be safe to assume whatever occurred was magical. Once the apothecaries are finished we will know more.”

“Doctors.”

Luna blinked, straightening up as the Dayguard interjected. “Excuse me?”

“They are called doctors now, Princess,” the unicorn clarified. Subconsciously, Luna could almost feel a faint tinge of some smug satisfaction.

Luna could not hold herself in check any longer. “You presume to correct us?” she called out, her voice raising in volume with the rise of her anger at the guard. He stiffened visibly, and she heard the faint murmur of distant activity become silence as her voice carried.

“P-Princess, I apologize,” he stammered, shaking his head. “No, I wanted only to be sure you… had not…” he struggled to try not to sound insulting. “...been misinformed.”

Princess Luna wanted to continue, wanted to rail at the guard for all sorts of things, but couldn’t find the words she needed or wanted. Her voice caught, the faint echoing quieted as her anger took a step back.

It seemed that she would not have a chance to regardless, as her ears heard the sound of fast-approaching hoofbeats. Jangling armor, panting breath; lately all she could imagine was that only more ill news was coming.

It was a Nightguard who skidded to a halt short of the door, thumping against the frame as he tried to make a sharp turn and found his footing almost lost. His armor bore no symbols of rank, nor even the blue circle of his division, but the dark armor was marking enough.

This, then, must be one of the ‘tyros’, one of the recruits, with panic on his face.

“The magister is dead!”

Comments

[Jedimk Pony]

I am liking where this story is heading. Keep up the good work!

[Squeaky Toy]

Yep, starting off very nicely, looking forward to where you take us.

[Sparynk]

Looks interesting! I'd love to read more