Cherry Tune: A New Tune

by CherryTune

Ch 06 Nightfallin' Apart

The next day at the end of her shift Sunny gives Nightfall the daily brief and informs him that after he has completed the training with the new night and day liaisons they will be ready to start command of their shifts immediately. “Hey, Thanks again for coming in early. I had a late night caring for a friend.” Sunny Side said.

“Hey no problem at all, taking care of each other is what we’re all about.” Nightfall replied. “ Anything I can do to help you and your friend?” Nightfall continued.

“We’ll see, I think I can manage but I’ll let you know if it gets too bad.” Sunny said.

Nightfall nodded and said, “Very well. Just let me know okay? Now get some rest and take care of your friend.”

“Mhmm thanks again Night.” Sunny responded.

Nightfall relieves Sunny from her duties for the day and heads to the briefing room to talk with the new captains. The captains were also there early and Nightfall explains, “Right! So Water Lilly, after our training you’ll be good to take over back half days while Sunny will remain on front half days. Full Throttle, you will take my place on this shift and I’ll cover back half nights. Got it?”

“Yes sir!” Water Lily and Full Throttle say.

“Great let’s get started!” Nightfall said.

Nightfall takes the better part of the extra time and instructs them on how to schedule the crews, how to coordinate with each shift, and how to report major incidents to the right commanders. He dismisses Water Lily for the day and instructs Full Throttle that he is now in charge of the night shift. Full Throttle salutes and says “Yes sir!”.

Nightfall responds “Aye cut it out!” returning the salute. He then proceeds to find Moonlet.

Nightfall arrives at the gardens to find Moonlet sitting by the fountain. As he walks over she turns her head and smiles through her mane at him. The two begin to prepare the usual picnic for their break while Luna arrives just in time to discusses the recent prank Cherry and Sapphire set up. Luna also mentioned that after an exploding cake incident, Celestia had hinted at participating in the next shenanigans.

After a while, Luna had to return to the dream world while Nightfall and Moonlet continued their patrol and discussed the new schedules.

“So that means you and Cherry will have time during the weekends to hang out more! Plus Sunny will have more time to spend with her sister!” Nightfall said.

“Oh wow! I can’t believe you and Sunny got them to change the guard so quickly!” Moonlet said.

“To be perfectly honest this was mostly Celestia’s doing. She definitely took notice of working seven days a week and how badly it affected the guard.” Nightfall said.

“That’s pretty cool! Now all of us can go to Promenade’s birthday gig!” Moonlet said.

“Well…” Nightfall stalls

“What?” Moonlet asks.

“I won’t be working on this shift anymore. We need the more experienced captains on both ends of the week and the front half works well for Sunny so I took the back half. Which means I’ll be working during Promenade’s party.” Nightfall explains.

Moonlet’s mood shifted quickly “… really? That’s all you got?” Moonlet snaps. “You couldn’t find any other captain to do that? No one from the field guard? Or take leave?” She argued.

“It’s not just that there aren’t captains to fill the position, it’s…. also for other reasons. It’s better this way.” Nightfall said. “And I can’t take leave on such short notice AND with new captains.” he continued.

“Ugh, better for who?” Moonlet scoffed before stomping off to continue her patrol by herself.

Nightfall contemplates going after her but decides to return to Full Throttle. “Your new guard should be coming in tomorrow. Her name is Moon Pie and she’ll be working with Moonlet.” Nightfall said.

Full Throttle jumped. “Oh! Sir you startled me, I thought you were gone already.” He said.

“No still here, had to take…. Work something out before leaving.” Nightfall replied. “Well, if you don’t need anything from me I’ll be heading out for real this time. Remember, Moon Pie comes in tomorrow make sure she’s good to go.” he continued.

“Aye sir, I’ll fill her in with the details.” Full Throttle responded.

“Knock it off with the sir business, we're both captains.” Nightfall chuckled. “If you need anything else from me just pass it through the day liaisons and I will be able to address it at the start of my shift. Have a goodnight” Nightfall continued.

“Will do s-- Nightfall.” Full Throttle said.

Nightfall heads home and leaves the new captain in charge. Moonlet had been continuing her patrol on her own. She had been lost in thought and forgets about her next break. Luna arrives at the fountain and for a moment looks around. She flies up in the air to search for Moonlet and Nightfall. She spots Moonlet walking the wall and flies over. Luna gently drops down next to Moonlet who was oblivious to her arrival.

“Moonlet is everything alright?” Luna asked.

“Oh! Luna, I didn’t notice you there…..” Moonlet said. Luna looked on with concern. “Oh our lunch! I’m so sorry! I… I wasn’t paying attention.” Moonlet said.

“Does it have to do with Nightfall?” Luna continued.

“What? No, why would I care what he’s doing, not like we’ve been through a lot together and thought we’d… Well he’s working a different shift now doesn’t matter.” Moonlet said. Luna just looked at her and raised an eyebrow. “Yeah… it’s Nightfall. How’d you know?” Moonlet said.

“Well he’s not here Moonlet.” Luna said.

“Oh… right…” Moonlet replied.

“What was all that other stuff about?” Luna asked.

“Nothing…” Moonlet replied. “Why would he change shifts?” She continued.

“He did what he thought best for the two of you, did he not?” Luna asked.

“How can being unable to see each other be the best for us…” Moonlet responded. “And what do you mean the two of us?” She continued.

“I’ve seen the way you two look at each other, not to mention your conversations after I leave.” Luna said. “It might be obvious to me because I see you two all the time but if his commander, your commander, found out they would have separated you two long ago anyway. Or have you forgotten the code of guard?” Luna continued.

“No… I haven’t” Moonlet said lowering her head. "Why didn't you separate us?" she asked.

"Because I have seen this many times over the years. And more often than not the union was far greater for the realm then separation." Luna replied.

Moonlet sighed.

“I know it’s difficult, I have seen this many times before.” Luna said. “But if you become captain then it’s less of an issue.” She continued.

“I don’t know if I can do that.” Moonlet said.

“I am sure you can pass the captain’s test no problem. But I have some better news for you. The new recruit will complete their training soon which means Cherry could come back to this shift if you two so choose.” Luna said.

“Really! Well I don’t know about that, she and Sapphire are getting along so well and we’ll already have our weekends together with the new changes!” Moonlet replies. “I don’t know if I want to take her away from a good thing. “She continued.

“Now that’s something I never thought I hear you say.” Luna said with a smile.

“Wow, thanks for believing in me Luna.” Moonlet said in a monotone glum manner.

“Don’t take it the wrong way. I just meant that you’ve really grown from when you two were first separated.” Luna replied. “I'll let you decide to tell Cherry and the two of you could work things out.”

“I… I don’t know what to think.” Moonlet said.

“I think you’ll make the right decisions when the time comes.” Luna smiled. “I must continue to monitor the dream world. We’ll talk some more on our next break!” Luna continued as she flew off to her tower.

“But… what if I don’t know the right decision…” Moonlet whispered to herself.

The night went by without incident and Luna returned for the remaining breaks. The conversations however steered away from the earlier topics and more on future pranks and scavenger hunts. After their last break Moonlet finished her shift and prepares her pass down for Cherry and Sapphire.

Author's Note:

As Always, please let me know all of your comments! Better quality feedback, better quality chapters in the future!
Thank you for reading, I hop you enjoyed! Check in next time for Chapter 7 "Sparkling Example" - 25 April 2019
(Updated: 01012019)

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Moonlet (She is supposed to be a unicorn, it's just not reflected in this concept draft.)