Double-Edged Mirror
Canterlot Garden was quiet in the night as the wind blew through the luxurious branches of the bushes and trees that filled it. They had long since been due for a trimming, but the efforts on the war had left nopony to care for the foliage, so they took on a more natural look. The statues, once standing glorious as reminders of virtue, now crumbled at the slightest touch, the weather worn marble becoming brittle as the years passed. Only Discord's statue remained pristine, having been put back into stone a month before it all began.
But that was neither here nor there. What was there was a stallion of a light tan coat, with chocolate brown hair that slightly covered knowing emerald green eyes, the same eyes that would be blind without a pair of square wire-framed glasses. Other than this crucial piece of eyewear, the stallion was clothed in a small cape of the purest white, with golden trimming, and a sun with four stars emblazoned inside of it on its flank, covering up his cutie mark, which was a set of three interlocked gears. This stallion's name was Tinker Tock; inventor by trade, and a General of the Solar Army.
He had worked under Celestia's Royal Army for nearly ten years now, and in that time, he had earned the trust and respect of the God-Princess. As well as a little more. Which was precisely the reason why he was waiting in an abandoned section of the Canterlot Gardens.
Well, part of the reason, anyway.
The second reason was currently landing as silently as possible in front of him, which, after years of practice, the showboat Pegasus had finally managed to do. The flying pony wore a black ninja suit, a stark contrast to the sky blue of her wings.The mare shook off her hood, revealing cyan eyes and a mane as prismatic as ever.
"It's been quite some time, hasn't it, Fleet Admiral Dash?" said Tinker with a small, formal smile.
The blue Pegasus brushed off the comment with her hoof, merely saying, "We're not here for small talk between friends, Tinker. But yeah, it's been, what, six years since your last debrief? You certainly moved up in ranks..." She said, craning her neck to get a better view of the star dotted sun on the flank of his cloak.
"Indeed. Celestia has been quite kind to me, the 'reformed Lunar Soldier'," he chuckled, though it was somewhat hollow, but Rainbow didn't seem to notice. Tinker quickly saved face, reining himself into a formal, business-like tone.
"Alright, we'll have to make this brief. Sun Butt's supposed to meet me here soon, and I know her to be punctual to a fault, so here's the deal. I've got a copy of the map of all the Solar strongholds from Hoofington to Las Pegasus, as well as guard shifts for about half of them. I've seen a pattern in the way the door guards are placed, so, and this is just my own intuition speaking, they could all be placed similarly. I've also gathered intel that a shipment of slendarium is supposed to be on a train from here to the Manehattan stronghold in about a week. Stopping that could really hamper the Empire's funding and mech input." Rainbow listened with rapt attention, jotting down a note every now and then. All the while, the shadows around them twisted in the wind, as if they were separate entities from the shrubbery that surrounded them. When Tinker finished his tale, the shadows condensed to a single point, and from them emerged the princess of the night herself. Luna looked to Tinker with a curiously blank face.
She seemed to snap from her stupor and spoke, "You hath done well, Tinker Tock. We could not be more pleased with thine progress."
"Danke, Your Majesty," said the inventor, bowing low in acceptance of her praise. He rose at her beck and looked into her eyes, subdued emerald gazing into deep indigo.
She merely nodded, and bowed down to reach his ear as she whispered menacingly, "Forget not your loyalties, Tinker Tock. They will serve you well." Tinker stood stock still. The Lunar Princess then melted back into the shadows, said shadows returning to their rightful place underneath the bushes. Rainbow shrugged, then waved goodbye before she pulled up her hood and flew into the night.
This was, and likely would be for quite some time longer, life for Tinker Tock. He felt like a two way mirror, a deep cover agent with ties on both ends of the spectrum. On the one hoof, he had been a fiercely loyal Lunar Republican for years, alongside his closest friends. And yet, they could not hold a candle to the amount of power The Solar Empire had given him over the land and its ponies. The biggest advantage, however, was the closeness he shared with the Empress of the sun herself.
Speaking of which, his current partner happened to teleport in front of him as these thoughts raced through his mind. He hardly flinched, having been subjected to such a surprise one too many times before. The alabaster alicorn stood regally, a look of serenity plastered onto her muzzle. As the spell wore off though, the façade slipped, allowing the real Celestia to show; vulnerable, hurting, and in need of comfort.
The years of war had taken their toll on the Princess, both physically and psychologically. That's how their relationship started in the first place. She needed somepony she could nuzzle up to in her times of weakness. Someone who would show her a type of love even Twilight could not offer. She looked at him with puppy-dog eyes, and, without a word spoken, he trotted up to her and took her lips in his. She tasted of warmth, of sweetness and sunshine, alongside that ever-lingering flavor of pastries, her one guilty pleasure.
She and she alone was the one main reason he felt so torn. It was also why he was so frightened by something Rainbow Dash had told him before he left all those years ago...
"You do know how this is gonna end, right?"
"No, I'm afraid I don't..."
"The only way it can: with one of the Princesses dead."
That was almost a decade ago, and it still scared him as much as it had on his first day in the Solar Empire. As he locked lips with the sun incarnate once more, he thought back to that day. The day it all began.
And the day his entire reality twisted into something unrecognizable.