Ch. 2 - Royal Command
Child of Nightmares and Everfree
Royal Command
The onset of Fall meant the wind at cruising altitude was a chill knife to his chest, but Sergeant Sunshine Symphony could barely feel the way the cold air froze a thin rime of ice crystals to his armor and congealed the tree sap across most of his legs into a sluggish mess. The tug of the harness connecting him to Princess Luna’s chariot was almost unnoticed when compared to the dull weight in his chest or the imagined glare of his sovereign from her position behind him.
Princess Luna said absolutely nothing during their trip from Ponyville back to Canterlot, not even when they swept down to the Royal Sisters’ private landing. The only noise was the faint clicks of the Royal Guards’ hooves as they touched down in near-silence, the chariot landing just a moment behind them and without even a turn of the wheels on the cold marble tiles. She stepped out while the two drivers remained at attention in their harness, but instead of dismissing them to go return the chariot while transferring the responsibility for her protection to the two other guards waiting at parade rest for her return, she stopped.
“Sergeant Sunshine Symphony. Unhitch yourself and stand there.” One silver-clad hoof pointed at where the ready guardspony was standing, and she continued, “Specialist Interregnum, hitch yourself up in his place and see to the returning of our transport to the hangar. Corporal Floribunda, you shall accompany me from here.”
Sunshine changed places with Interregnum, placing himself in the proper guard position as the chariot was being prepared. With an approving nod, Princess Luna began to stride into the castle, but she stopped abruptly as Sunshine turned to follow.
“Sergeant Symphony. Did I tell you to accompany me?”
“No, Ma’am.” Sunshine exchanged a quick glance with the two stallions in harness at the chariot before returning to his statue-like pose.
“You are to remain here until we return. Remain silent upon of the events of this evening,” said the Princess of the Moon before turning on her heel and striding away, followed closely by Corporal Floribunda. In moments, the landing pad was empty except for the two chariot drivers and Sunshine, who was feeling a little out of place.
“What’s going on, Sunny?” asked Specialist Interregnum, who was still strapping himself into the harness and seemingly a little hesitant about letting his fellow guard stand alone in the darkness.
Lieutenant Light Breeze interrupted before Sunshine could talk. “You heard the Princess, Specialist. Get those straps situated so we can fly the chariot back to the barn.”
“But that’s breaking protocol,” said Interregnum, trying to point in the direction the departing Princess had gone while fumbling with the last strap on the harness. “She’s supposed to have two guards with her at all times.”
“Specialist. Shut. Up.” Lieutenant Light Breeze exchanged a quick glance with his friend, who was standing perfectly immobile and awaiting Luna’s return with a certain sense of mortality. “Let’s go. And don’t talk about what happened.”
With a gust of the chill mountain air, the chariot vanished off into the night and Sunshine remained, alone at his post, with only the stars for company.
~^^~
Hours later, as the faint glow of false dawn pinked the horizon, the solid clicking of heavy horseshoes cut through the pre-dawn chill. Commander Swift Wings, an elderly but still quite spry pegasus, came striding out onto the landing pad with two snow-white Royal Guard pegasi close behind. He nodded at Sunshine as the other two pegasi moved to their guard positions.
“Good morning, Sergeant Symphony. Go ahead and hit the showers. Princess Celestia has an early morning trip south to Sãn Horsé scheduled for about an hour from now, so I’m getting the team all set up now. How did Princess Luna’s trip to Ponyville go last night?”
“Sir, the mission was completed, sir!” said Sunshine with a sharp salute, made even sharper by having spent several hours mentally reviewing the penalties associated with a Royal Guard abandoning his post, no matter what personal reason he might try to use in order to excuse his actions.
The elderly pegasus bestowed a rather benevolent look on Sunshine, much as one would look at a small foal who was being exceptionally nice in order to get a cookie. His eyes wandered over Sunshine’s armor, lingering for a moment on the long scratches across his breastplate and the green goop which had set up like dried paint all across his knees, and finished with a long, critical look at Sunshine’s bare foreleg.
“Sergeant, you’re out of uniform. Care to enlighten your commanding officer as to exactly what happened last night?”
“Sir, no sir!”
Commander Swift Wings paused with his lips drawing together in a disapproving expression normally used by officers determining just what unpleasant duties needing a volunteer existed within his jurisdiction.
“Well, I suppose I can get the report from Commander Buttercup this afternoon,” he admitted. “Go on, Sergeant. I need to brief the guards for Princess Celestia’s trip. Dismissed.”
Sergeant Sunshine bit his bottom lip briefly after considering just what Princess Luna might do if she returned and did not find him standing here. “Sir, no sir,” he repeated.
Both grey eyebrows shot up on the old pegasus. He gave Sunshine a sharp look of his own before drawing himself up to his full height and snapping off a perfect salute.
“Well, if that’s the way you want to play it, Sergeant. Watch Guard!” announced Swift Wings in a parade-ground bellow. “We are here to relieve you.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” responded Sunshine. “I have been assigned this post personally by Princess Luna.”
The sun took that moment to peek above the horizon, spreading a brilliant light across the castle and washing Sunshine Symphony’s normally glossy coat into a dull grey. Commander Swift Wings shook his head in the bright light and gave Sunshine a stern look. “Luna’s watch is over. Celestia’s watch has begun. Go on, hit the showers.”
“I’m sorry, sir,” repeated Sunshine. “I have been assigned this post personally by Princess Luna.”
The Commander paused, looking somewhat suspicious. “You mean to tell me Princess Luna ordered you to stand right here? Until when?”
“Until she returns, sir.”
A sense of enlightenment mixed with dread seemed to sweep over the old pegasus, and he leaned closer, addressing Sunshine in a low whisper. “Don’t tell me you went haring off after somepony you thought was your wife while you were supposed to be guarding Luna in Ponyville, Sunny.”
Sunshine did not respond, but he tightened his jaw and tried to keep his eyes forward.
“Oh, you poor suffering bastard.” Commander Swift Wings sighed. “You are so bucked in the head. Buttercup stuck his neck way out there to get you a post as Luna’s driver last night, and you mucked it up. Why? Why would you do that? Abandoning your post to chase ghosts?”
“She’s not a ghost. Sir.” Sunshine trembled in his armored shoes and swallowed what felt like a lump the size of the mess hall’s famous ironbread biscuits. It went directly against the order his Dread Sovereign, Princess Luna, had personally given him a few hours ago, but the knowledge trapped in his head demanded to be told to at least one pony, and a Commander of the Royal Guard was just one step away from the Princess. He took a short breath, and the Words He Was Forbidden To Say slipped out.
“I saw my daughter last night. Spark Gap had to have been nearby.”
“And you went straight off like a rocket after her, didn’t you?” The Day Commander pressed his hoof against his forehead for a moment, then gestured to the two guards who had accompanied him. “You two. Go over there and go deaf for a few minutes. I’ve got something private to talk with Sergeant Sunny about.”
Swift Wings waited until the two guards were a sufficient distance away and guarding a specifically empty section of castle wall before turning back to Sunshine and speaking in a low hiss. “You have exactly thirty seconds to convince me not to have Tweedledee and Tweedledum over there drag you off to a nice, quiet court-martial, and then kick you off Canterlot with an anvil tied around your scrawny neck!”
“I can’t tell you, sir,” hissed Sunshine in a near whisper. “She ordered me.”
The old pegasus commander had an impressive poker face, but Sunshine could see little flickers of emotion play tag across his face as he gave the rigid guard a good, long visual examination, from the missing vambrace across one foreleg to the scratches across his armor, much as if he were playing the events of the evening back in his head. At the end, the commander was breathing more evenly, and he had quit chewing on his bottom lip.
“Question,” said Commander Swift Wings. “You’re positive the little filly you were chasing through the Everfree Forest was your daughter? And I mean positive, not like the time in downtown Canterlot where you thought you saw your wife and went storming into a dress store and nearly caused a riot. Swear by your clan and on your word of honor.”
Sunshine swallowed and firmed his stance. “Yes, sir. I do so swear, upon Clan Hope and my word as a Royal Guard.”
The pensive expression which had settled onto Commander Swift Wing’s face grew only deeper as he spoke two words. “Describe her.”
He hesitated before bursting into a series of rapid words. “It had to be my daughter, I think. The more I think about it, the more I can’t think. It could have been another young nocturne with the same color eyes, but I’m fairly sure there aren’t any families in the Ponyville area, and if there are, I just chased one of their little fillies into the Everfree Forest and I’m so bucked—”
Sunshine came to an abrupt stop as Commander Swift Wings lifted a hoof. The old pegasus nodded, even though he was frowning. “Describe her.”
“Um.” Sunshine lifted his membranous wings and shrugged, showing the same grey coat and dark mane all of the nocturnal pegasi sported. “She was practically as thin as a rail, but wiry and fast, as if she were flying every night. Maneuverable too, with the sharpest cornering I’ve seen since the Wonderbolts. Green eyes, but you knew that. And a cutie mark of a pair of bat wings. Um, spread wide, I think. One on each flank. And her mane looked… strange. Long and snarled in places and raggedy short in others like Spark Gap had never trimmed it or even brushed it.”
“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” muttered the guard commander. “That should narrow things down for the Missing Ponies report. Now, most importantly, you chased this little filly who might be your daughter into the freaking Everfree Forest?” Commander Swift Wings lowered his voice to a hiss. “What were you thinking?”
“I didn’t chase her there, sir!” hissed Sunshine in return. The early morning sunlight was giving him a fierce headache, even with one membranous wing lifted up to provide some shade. “I tried to cut her off and force her away from there, but every time, she would cut back on me and speed up.” Sunshine shuddered and blinked away tears in the bright sunlight. “She was afraid of me. My own daughter. She flew off into the hideous forest rather than let me catch her. Still, I almost had her when a tree tried to eat me.” He shuddered again. “So many teeth.”
Commander Swift Wings scowled and ruffled his feathered wings. “It’s possible your mysterious little filly is just a homeless pony, perhaps with a family around the edge of the woods. I’ll send a note to Ponyville’s Mayor Mare to see if she knows of any transients in the vicinity, and notify Foal Protective Services to see if they know of any batponies in the area, or if any with a matching cutie mark have gone missing recently. If you did chase some poor homeless pony into the forest, you’ll wish I had just tied an anvil to your neck and dropped you off the Canterhorn.” Swift Wings took a deep breath. “The Royal Guard looks after its own, Sergeant. We’ll courier the notes to Ponyville inside an hour. If whoever you saw is out there, we’ll find her.”
“An excellent decision, Commander Swift Wings.” It was patently impossible for an alicorn the size of Princess Luna to simply step out of the thin shadow of a nearby pillar in broad daylight, but one moment she was not there, and the next she was looming right over the commander. Luna’s colors looked somewhat muted in the morning sunlight, but her jaw was set in a firm line and her eyes flashed as if the stars inside were determined to break through into the day. “Thank you, Commander. Go craft your letters, and we shall provide you with a courier, forthwith.”
The elderly pegasus bowed and made his retreat. As soon as Princess Luna was certain he had gone, she turned to the cringing Night Guard. “Sergeant Sunshine Symphony, we are given to believe that one of Our young subjects may possibly be lost on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest.”
“Yes, Your Highness.” Sunshine lowered his head. “I’m sorry, Your Highness.”
“We see no reason an apology is needed,” said the Princess of the Night as she turned on her heel and began to stride away. “Attend us, Sergeant Symphony.”
It took a quick sprint to catch up with Luna, who indicated with a pointed wing that his position was to be directly at her side instead of following behind as he was trained to do. She strode in silence for a while until their path took them away from any curious ears. Only then did she begin to talk, in a low, guarded tone.
“Before you even start, We think it only appropriate to inform you of the acuity of alicorn senses. Extremely few things happen within our vision without us officially noticing. For example, upon our visit to Ponyville last evening, your Princess of the Night noticed a small lost foal who had pillaged the sacrifice to Nightmare Moon. It is Our desire to see to the welfare of this little one, who we believe to be descended from my Nocturne.”
“Oh,” said Sunshine, still trotting along at a good clip to keep up with his princess and her much longer and brisk stride. “What about when I—”
“You will also find,” said Luna in a clipped tone, “when an alicorn states something did not happen, it did not. Do you understand?”
He had to trot for a short distance before responding. “No?”
“Good,” declared Luna. “Sergeant Sunshine Symphony, once you have made yourself presentable and delivered Our courier packet, you are hereby granted two weeks of administrative leave, during which it is… suggested you spend your time in Ponyville, assisting in the search for this lost foal. Should you require any resources in your search, any at all, send a request by way of Twilight Sparkle’s assistant Spike, and your requests will be granted.”
“I-I don’t understand, Princess.” Sunshine slowed to a halt as Luna turned to look him in the eye.
“Of all ponies, I know what it is like to have lost a child, only to find them again. Go. Bring back your family.”
Less than an hour later as the train carried him onward towards Ponyville, he reflected on Luna’s words. They were unsettling to his mind, and made it difficult to fall asleep on the short trip. As far as history claimed, Princess Luna had no children of her own, but he considered the membranous stretch of his own wings and the darkness of his coat, as all of his kind had possessed since the first emergence of Nightmare Moon…
His dreamless sleep was uneasy.
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And after a year (most of which was admittedly not spent writing on this, but some was), Georg updates.
The story is now complete at ten total chapters including a lot of polishing on Chapter 1, and will begin to be published one chapter per day starting on October 14 (Today, yea!) and ending when I’ve torn the living hearts out of my readers with a flood of tears or I hit Chapter 10, whichever comes first.
Mama says be careful. The bats are out tonight. And they’re hungry.
~^^~
Ah, yes. I do love your portrayal of the Guard, both their internal interactions and how they handle the Princesses. And vice versa. Definitely looking forward to the search for Emerald, and what other discoveries the search party might make.
"Luna’s trip to Ponyville go last night."
"night?"?
"mission was complete, sir"
"completed"?
"to enlighten your commanding officer exactly what happened"
"to tell your" or "officer regarding exactly"?
"vision without us officially noticing"
"unofficially"? If not, I'm afraid that I'm not sure what she means there.
"who we believe to be descended from my Nocturne"
"We" and "Our"?
"when an alicorn states"
"that when"?
Yes!!! I've been waiting FOREVER for this to start back up. I eagerly await your horse words of nocturn goodness, good sir Georg.
I do need to go back and reread the other stuff. But I had limited time today and my curiousity did not allow me to wait until I had time to do so. I still very much enjoyed the chapter and am looking forward to tomorrows.
7641677 Remember how I always say a story's complexity grows as the cube of the number of characters involved? I kept this one fairly simple. And sweet.
7641759 Good catch, fixed two of those. The 'officially notice' is a way for Luna to not-say "I was there. I saw you go barreling into the Everfree Forest without my permission, but I'm going to say it didn't happen because I got the whole story out of your fellow guard, therefore any confession you make to the contrary is wrong. Shut up and do what I say, because I want you to be reunited with your daughter and wife too." Ain't she a stinker? And the last one is an 'optional that' so I left it out. I over-that too much of my stuff as is.
7641825 Not *forever* just a year. And about a dozen other stories. This darned 'Real Life' keeps getting in the way. And World of Warcraft.
7641857 I try to make all of my readers happy by providing the most enjoyable stories available. I may make them cry first, but I hope to see them happy in the end. (Yes, you'll know the section when you get to it. Or them.)
7642170
You're welcome. :)
"The 'officially notice' is a way for Luna to not-say "I was there. I saw you go barreling into the Everfree Forest without my permission, but I'm going to say it didn't happen because I got the whole story out of your fellow guard, therefore any confession you make to the contrary is wrong. Shut up and do what I say, because I want you to be reunited with your daughter and wife too." Ain't she a stinker?"
Okay, I was right about what you meant, but I still don't think that what you have there says-- Oh! Okay, just got it; I was thinking she was talking about officially noticing his actions. With her referring to the filly's actions... the wording sounds odd to me, but it's parsing now.
Oh! Oh, wait, looking at what you say in your reply, did she actually not see it at all? If that's the case, the wording makes sense, I think.
"And the last one is an 'optional that' so I left it out. I over-that too much of my stuff as is."
Hm, I suppose it can be left out, yes. I tend to use many "that"s too, though. :)
7642988 Maybe it's better to break this down and translate.
Luna: Extremely few things happen within our vision without us officially noticing. For example, upon our visit to Ponyville last evening, your Princess of the Night noticed a small lost foal who had pillaged the sacrifice to Nightmare Moon.
Translation: I'm lying to save your neck. I'm willing to say I saw Emerald Dreams when I actually came along later and got the story from Light Breeze. Implied in this is your little trip into the Everfree Forest is not dereliction of duty, which is a court martial offense and will get you thrown forcefully out of the Royal Guard. Instead, I'm willing to give you a little ex post facto permission for your late-night pursuit, provided you shut up.
Luna: It is Our desire to see to the welfare of this little one, who we believe to be descended from my Nocturne.
Translation: I've got a stake in finding and recovering your lost daughter too. She's a little filly in the dangerous woods, and there are not very many of my beloved bat-winged ponies remaining anyway.
Luna: You will also find, when an alicorn states something did not happen, it did not.
Translation: I'm going to lie my plot off if it will save your daughter, so you better be appreciative and not screw this one up.
How's that?
7643065
Ah, that does indeed clarify it; thanks. :)