Day Dreaming about Nightfall

by technicscratch

2 Meetings

I marched with my head slightly lower than usual, heading down to my commander’s quarters. I was nervous to say the least, and my earlier encounter with my close friend did nothing to help that. Loli had approached me this morning with a concerned look “Commander Shining want’s to have a word with you…” her words sung out inside my head as I thought about them, her usual beautiful soft voice carrying the majority of my anxiety this morning to the next level. “I suggest preparing yourself Dust... I wasn’t told what you have done, but Shining seems extremely unnerved about it.” Almost there, his door was now in sight… His, closed door… What a plothole.. Should I knock? Should I enter? He was expecting me after all… I decided to knock, giving the commander no chance to satisfy his apparent passion for verbally ripping his squad apart. The door was opened and shining looked down on me, he was out of uniform.

“I was expecting you, why the hay did you think you had to knock?” He glared, his nostrils flaring slightly as his eyes burned into mine. Unfortunately Commander Shining was bigger than myself, which forced me to look up at him, as if I were a child. Plothol-…

“Sir, I was unsure if you were prepared, so I gave you the courtesy of knocking.” He snorted and turned, receding into his quarters, mumbling for me to come in. I followed and he slammed the door behind me with his magic, very nearly giving me a heart attack. The extra blood flow from my pumping heart will probably end up helping me stay sharp anyway. He instructed me to take my helmet off, and explained that the use of proper royal etiquette would not be required for this, simply for time’s sake.

“Please explain to me how you opened the sanctuary door.” He was turned away from me, looking at the map of Equestria that hung on the back wall. I took off my helmet, thinking how cliché it was for him to have his back turned to me in this matter. With my helmet on the floor I cleared my throat.

“I’m unsure cap-…” I stopped myself. Informal, I thought “I’m unsure, I simply realized one day that I had the ability to.” Shining snorted again, turning around

“And you came to this realization how?” His tone was very ‘checkmate’ esk , and I could tell he was putting on his best poker face. There was no way of knowing what he was thinking, no tells, no clues. A bead of sweat rolled down my face as I stared into his eyes, there was no point in lying at this point.

“I was on duty one day and decided to try... That’s all” While not completely true it was far from a lie, and there was no way he could prove me wrong “I first tried after I had decided to help Loli clean up the place.”. Shining thought for a few moments, letting out a ‘hmm’ as he continued to stare at me

“What I don’t understand is why you’d even try.. Were you not instructed that what lies behind that door is not of a guards business? Even if you had already seen inside?” His tone was a little calmer, and it helped to lower my fast pulse. However, I hung my head slightly at this, it was true that the princess herself gave the orientation to new recruits, and she said it was nothing important and that Guards should not worry themselves about what’s inside sanctuary. “Well?” I had realized a little too late that I had been standing there looking half at the floor as Shining Armor stared at me, awaiting an answer.

“I.. Yes, her highness did.” Shining continued to stare at me.. He wanted more... He wanted to know why I was looking inside, he wanted to know why I even tried… His horn glowed and I felt a tremendous pressure inside my head as I clenched my eyes shut “AH!” Shining smirked, continuing to cast whatever spell he was assaulting me with“F-Faust, STOP!” I shouted at him, the pain becoming immense as my front hooves nearly collapsed from under me. The pain subsided quickly after that as Shining let out a chuckle and the glow from his horn faded “What do you think you’re doing!?!” I angrily spat at him “Attacking your own Squad?!”

“Only with the princess’ orders” He smirked, seemingly content with his work as he looked at my downed form. “And besides, killing two birds with one stone is always satisfying.” I looked at him, extremely confused, but before I could speak about a dozen other guards revealed themselves inside the room, each hidden by some form of magic. I looked around at the heavily armored, stallions and mares, weapons ready to be drawn “Everypony can get out of here, I think Dust here is safe.” Some nodded and others simply left, either way it was a long couple of minutes before we were truly alone, or at least I was led to believe we were alone. There could very well be another 20 soldiers hidden around the rather large room. “Celestia herself instructed me to use that, it’s a little painful I know, but it shatters illusionary magic.” He continued to grin.

“Why the hay would I be able to cast illusionary magic?” I scowled, “I’m an earth pony.” Shining chuckled to himself, gesturing for me to put my helmet back on as I realised why he had told me to take it off. Our helmets offer some protection from unicorn magic after all.

“We had to assume all possibilities Dust, including the possibility that you could be a changeling spy with malicious intent.” I looked down once again as he told me. Had I really aroused that much concern with just opening the door? I stuttered before clearing my throat for a second time

“And the second bird?” I asked, genuinely curious about his other reasoning to using magic on me.

“To try and force an answer, now I really want to know, why did you even try to open the sanctuary door Dust?” He narrowed his eyes, telling me that it was time to get serious again. I panicked, I didn’t know what to tell him.. From what he had told me so far am I to believe that he has the authorization to torture me? I gulped slightly, the idea of being tortured mercilessly by my commander was not something that pleased me.

“I… Sir…” I sighed, I had one chance to hopefully make commander Shining feel sorry for me, and it was now. “I have an infatuation with our Princess Luna..” A few awkward moments passed as he simply stared at me “I looked inside to catch a view of our beautiful ruler of the night..” Shining didn’t respond, he simply walked out of the room, and I knew from past experiences that I should stay rooted where I was. A few minutes later he came back with that same familiar poker face, not allowing me any information of who he went to talk with, if that’s what he had even done… Knowing my commander he would probably revel in the idea of making me sit there with a butterfly swarm in my stomach.

“Princess Celestia requests a meeting with you Dust, you are to continue your usual door guarding shifts as usual until 18 hundred hours and are expected to be inside the throne room at 19 hundred hours. Dismissed.” He pointed a hoof out his door. I managed to take one last glace at my commander before shyly slipping out of his door. I noticed Loli standing outside of the room, and she looked at me with a worried expression. I waved, and tried to put on the best fake smile I could muster, but it fell through, and she slowly shook her head, looking down.

Author's Note:

Another chapter out ^_^. Again feel free to leave comments on how I can improve the story, or if you have any questions. It's looking like there will probably be weekly Monday releases for chapters but that is susceptible to change at any point. Either way, enjoy your week everypony!