Joining the Night

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I’d have to be crazy to not be nervous about being formally inducted into the Lunar Guard. It was only one of the biggest things that had happened so far in my short career. Getting into one of the royal guard units was supposed to be the fast track to moving up the ranks, since only the best of the best got in, plus it at least theoretically meant facetime with royalty. Of course, that had been the conventional wisdom back when there was only one royal guard unit; now that there were four of them, who knew? Equestria’s best and brightest had to be getting spread pretty thin if they’d given Skunky a command post.

Okay, kidding. Storm’s actually really good at her job. I’d pretty much known she was going to end up in one of the royal guard units sooner or later. After all, she managed to survive being miss prim-and-proper with a stick up her plot in the Long Patrol, and that definitely made her snooty enough to be royal guard material.

What was more confusing for me was how I’d gotten in. Not that I was a slouch, but I’d only lost my butterbars with my latest assignment. I’d done pretty good with the Equestrian Patrol And Rescue Service, but everyone knows that a newbie 2nd Lieutenant is really just there to be ‘advised’ by a veteran sergeant. It wasn’t like I’d just been a puppet officer who didn’t do anything without checking with my sergeant first, but I hadn’t exactly accomplished the sort of amazing things that get you noticed by royalty. Sure, my spell talents were just about perfect for my line of work, but overall I’d just been a reasonably competent young officer at the start of a perfectly adequate career in EPARS. Good performance reviews, but nothing like the personal commendations from royalty that Storm had.

And yet, here I was. About to join the Lunar Guard. Of course, as the newest officer in the Lunar Guard I’d probably end up doing whatever jobs all the other officers passed on. That said, even the least glamorous officer posting in the Lunar Guard was still in the Lunar Guard. Considering Luna was supposed to be the more martial-minded of the two royal sisters, a lot of ponies suspected that the Lunar Guard offered even more advancement than Celestia’s. Of course, that was offset by the hard-to-ignore (however remote) possibility that our princess might go crazy and try to plunge the world into eternal darkness again.

Maybe that was part of why I was so nervous about joining? Nah, that couldn’t be it. Maybe if it was right after the whole Nightmare Moon thing, but that was years ago. Once she’d gone several years without trying to wipe out all life in Equestria, ponies had more or less stopped worrying about Luna.

No, I think what was worrying me was a bit more internal. One of the frustrating things about having Mom be a head-doc, I’d picked up just enough through osmosis to be way too good at looking into my own head. It wasn’t as fun as it sounds, and nobody thinks introspection is all that fun to start with. I probably had some sort of inferiority issues or something—I wasn’t sure what I’d done to get into the Lunar Guard, and thus I was worried I wasn’t really good enough to deserve my place here.

Having issues doesn’t get any less frustrating just because I know enough to understand them. I suppose I could try talking my parents about them, but Mom would either be unconditionally supportive or ask me to lie down on the couch and talk about my feelings for an hour, and neither of those was what I needed. Maybe I could try praying with Dad later…?

One of the senior Lunar Guard soldiers stepped out into the hallway, tearing me away from my latest round of navel-gazing. “Her Highness is ready for you, Lieutenant Kicker.”

“Right.” I quickly checked my reflection in one of the windows. My coat had been brushed out, my mane was perfectly arranged, and my armor had been carefully polished, then dulled just a bit so it wouldn’t be too shiny. For the moment I was in Kicker red, since jumping into the midnight purple of the Lunar Guard would have to wait until I’d officially been inducted. At least I wouldn’t need to worry about a uniform enchantment changing my coat; apparently dark grey dapple was reminiscent enough of the night sky to get a pass. Good thing I wasn’t a pegasus, because having bat-wings would’ve taken a lot of getting used to.

I wonder what Storm would end up doing for her new Guard command? They didn’t have any uniform decided on yet, or even a fancy official name. Obviously I needed to help her fine-tune the Skunk Guard. I could see them now, trotting around in black uniforms with a big white stripe right down the middle. It was the only reasonable way to go.

As I started walking into Princess Luna’s throne room, I gave my tracking gems a quick ping. Sparks, Mom, Dad, Uncle Tor, and my cousin Alula were all waiting in one of the banquet halls for the post-induction celebration, and Skunky’s tracker was still muffled under the monstrously powerful magic of her princess. I had no idea what spell Princess Sparkle was using on my trackers this time, but it kept me from getting any information from it other than the fact that my big sis was okay.

I was a little surprised that Cloud’s tracker was under the same spell as Skunky’s, though on second thought I guess it shouldn’t have been a total shock, considering she got on well with Princess Sparkle. While nopony had said anything, I was willing to bet that her being friends with Cloud was part of why Princess Sparkle had Storm running her guards.

Note to self: tease Skunky about how she got her job through nepotism.

Princess Luna stood in front of her throne, positioned so the moonlight streamed through one of the windows to illuminate her in a perfect circle. Well, maybe it was more that the moon was positioned relative to her. Royalty has its perks.

The way to Luna’s throne room was lined with the rest of the Lunar Guard, forming a narrow corridor of eyes and bodies. All of the watching me, and judging whether I was good enough to be the newest member of their order.

I pinged my trackers again. Some ponies squeeze a stress ball or do a breathing exercise to steady their nerves; I plant tracking devices on all my friends and family. There’s lots of healthy ways to deal with stress. If I was crazy, Mom would’ve done something about it.

I slowly strode up the column of eyes, doing my best to look like a proud, noble young mare who totally belonged here. Maybe I’d get used to it if I pretended hard enough? You know what they say: fake it until you make it.

Luna’s majordomo, a white-maned pegasus named High Quarters, began the proceedings. “Who art thou, who seeks an audience with Princess Luna Selene, Monarch of Equestria, Princess of the Night, Bearer of the Mantle of the Moon, and Mistress of Dreams?”

I pinged my trackers one last time, then took a deep breath and tried to sound confident and appropriately ceremonial. “I am Star of the clan Kicker.”

“Why dost thou seek audience with our sovereign?” the majordomo demanded.

I managed to sound a bit more confident this time, starting to get into the sort of old-school formality of the proceedings. I had a bit of practice at this kind of thing from services at the Cult. “I wish to offer her my services as a member of the Lunar Guard.”

High Quarters turned to face Princess Luna, pitching his voice so that it echoed nearly as much as if he was using the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice. “Star of the Clan Kicker seeks audience with Princess Luna, requesting the honor of service as a member of Her Highness' personal guard. May she approach?”

Princess Luna nodded gravely. “She may approach her princess.”

I slowly walked across the room, approaching the throne itself. I paused at the steps, trying to remember where I was supposed to stop and bow. Normally it was right in front of the steps, but I knew that members of a princess’ personal guard had different rules. Rules I’d gone over three times to prepare for this ceremony, but now that I was standing in front of Luna herself I couldn’t remember any of the relevant parts. Dangit, the one time the huge stick up Skunky’s plot and all her rules-stickling would’ve actually been kind of useful...

I bowed at what I desperately hoped was the right time, nervously waiting to see whether I’d made a mess of things and started my career in the Lunar Guard with a huge faux pas. Princess Luna gazed down at me, her carefully neutral expression revealing nothing. At least if I had made a mess of things, it wasn’t so bad that she was going to throw me out of the room and strip me of my rank.

Finally, she spoke. “Rise. What brings thee before us this night?”

I swallowed nervously, suppressing the urge to ping my trackers again. No nervous tics in front of the princess. “I wish to pledge my service to the Princess of the Night, for this night and all nights to come, until Her Highness releases me from her service, or death takes me.”

Luna nodded. “And so thou wouldst swear this sacred vow to the moon and stars, before thy ancestors and those gathered, and to thy Princess of the Night?”

“I would so swear,” I responded, trying to match her tone.

Luna rose to her full height, towering over me even more than she already was thanks to the dais her throne sat upon. She drew forth a black blade that seemed to drink in the moonlight. “Then kneel, Star of Clan Kicker.”

I sank down to my knees, and a second later I felt the flat of the blade lightly touching my shoulder. “We accept thee into our service and bind thee to us, with all the rights and duties that entails.” The sword shifted from my right shoulder to my left. “We bind thee and accept thee into the holy order that does protect and serve us. Rise, Star of Clan Kicker. Rise and accept thy place in our guard.”

I rose to my hooves. “Thank you, my princess.”

I must’ve gotten that part of the ceremony right, because Luna nodded to two of her guards who stepped forward bearing a new breastplate and helmet. Luna’s moon was displayed prominently on the breastplate, right over where my heart would be. “Accept thine arms, armor, and badge of office, and let all know of thy station and vows.”

I stretched out my magic, picking up the armor with a bit of telekinesis. For a second it refused to move, until the enchantments worked into it recognized my magic and gave way. I was no magus, but I knew enough about enchantment to recognize that this armor had been enchanted by someone much stronger and more experienced than me. Rumor had it that the princesses personally inspected each royal guard’s armor, and would sometimes even contribute a bit of their own magic to it.

I was a bit surprised to see several empty sockets in the armor, a feature none of the other Lunar Guards had. A quick magical probe revealed something that really surprised me: the sockets were designed to accept magically enhanced gems, like the ones I liked to make. This armor had to have been custom-forged and enchanted, just for me. That ... was a bit scary, if I was being honest. It meant Princess Luna knew about my personal talents, and had gone to the extra trouble of modifying my armor to accommodate them. And a royal going to extra trouble to help one of their guards was a big deal.

So ... no pressure.

A ghost of a smile played across Luna’s face, and I briefly wondered if she could tell what I was thinking. It’s not as crazy and paranoid as it sounds; after all, she did go into ponies’ dreams all the time as part of her job, and you’d think she would want to inspect the dreams of any of her bodyguards as a matter of course.

I barely managed to keep myself from blushing as I remembered several dreams I definitely didn’t want anyone but Sparks to ever know about. Especially not a member of the royal family, my new boss.

Then again, if she’d ever been in Cloud’s dreams, mine wouldn’t be all that bad by comparison.

The direction my thoughts had been wandering in made what happened next even more awkward than it would’ve been otherwise. In all my panic over getting something wrong, I’d forgotten exactly how the old-fashioned ceremony Luna picked ended. I remembered very quickly when I felt Luna’s lips lightly brush my cheek. It was a very quick and chaste kiss, but still a kiss. From a princess. “Now thou art bound to us, and to the sisterhood of our Lunar Guard.”

There was no keeping the blush off my cheeks now. “Uh, thanks.” I realized that I’d mumbled my answer, and I’d been way too informal for such an occasion. “Thank you very much, Your Highness. It is my honor to serve.”

Princess Luna smiled at me, though I wasn’t sure if it was her being nice, or if she’d caught me blushing at the kiss and it amused her. Whichever it was, she turned and faced the rest of her guards. “And now the ceremony is ended. Shall we cast aside ritual and formality and properly welcome our Star Kicker into our ranks? I have procured several barrels of cider to mark this fine occasion, and ‘twould be difficult to drink all of it by myself.”

The guardsponies broke out into a round of enthusiastic cheering. Probably more for the booze than for me, all things considered.

Princess Luna turned to me with a grin. “I believe that would be a yes. I trust you will join me as the guest of honor, Lieutenant?”

I smiled back at my princess. “I’d love to.”

The first couple hours of the celebration had mostly been a blur of introductions. Just about every single member of the Lunar Guard had stopped by the table to both pay their respects to Princess Luna and introduce themselves to me. I was going to need to plant gems on most of them just to keep all their names and faces straight, assuming I could get away with that. So far I’d tried to keep my weird nervous habit restricted to my personal life.

Not that I needed my tracking gems at the moment, considering pretty much all my close friends and family were right in front of me. I’d been seated next to Luna as the guest of honor, and Sparks had insisted on taking my other side. My parents sat with us as well for most of the evening, but right now they were over at Uncle Tor’s table catching up with a couple old Guard buddies. Storm was still at the table with me, partly out of family loyalty and partly because Princess Twilight was sitting with us.

Princess Luna was playing hostess, signalling some of the palace staff to deliver a large and very delicious-looking chocolate and raspberry cake. “I hope you are enjoying the festivities, Lieutenant.”

I smiled gratefully. “Very much so. Thank you, Your Highness.”

“It is my pleasure to be a good host to my newest guard officer,” Luna answered with a smile. “I would hardly want to seem ungracious to a mare who might one day be the only thing standing between me and mortal peril.”

“Not to mention everypony loves an excuse to get together for a good party.” Everyone turned in our chairs as Princess Celestia strode into the room. She smiled and waved away the ponies who started to bow. “No need for formalities. I’m technically party-crashing, after all.” She settled into the unoccupied seat next to her sister. “Though since it is my palace as much as Luna’s, I think I’m allowed to.” She turned to me with a mischievous grin. “Besides, one of the perks of being a princess is that nopony would dare to kick me out.”

“Do not tempt me, dear sister...” One of the servants quickly trotted over and provided Princess Celestia with an especially large slice of cake. Luna rolled her eyes. “As always your timing is impeccable. You somehow managed to free yourself from your many royal duties precisely when the cake was being served.”

“Efficiently managing one’s time is one of many skills a princess should develop,” Celestia answered primly, though her eyes drifted down to the large slice of cake waiting on her plate. She turned to me, smiling. “Congratulations on your promotion, Star.”

Even if I suspected that she was only here for the cake, I wasn’t going to say anything about it. “Thank you, Your Highness.” I turned to Princess Luna, and my smile became a bit more genuine. “I appreciate you going to all this trouble for me.”

Sparkler leaned over to add in her two bits. “This has been really great! Thanks, Princess.”

Luna nodded to both of us. “It is hardly anything. Truly, it is my pleasure to welcome my newest guards in such a manner.”

Sparkler smiled at me and gave my hoof a quick squeeze. “You’ve earned it, luv. You’re gonna do great.” She leaned in a bit closer and whispered to me. “You look great too, by the way. The color scheme on your armor really works with your coat.”

I grinned and squeezed back. “Thanks, Sparks.”

Skunky cleared her throat. “It was quite an impressive ceremony.”

Luna smiled, a hint of pride clear on her lips. “I am quite happy with how it has come together. Bringing back some of the older traditions adds a certain level of gravitas to it all.”

“No kidding,” Sparkler agreed. “You really pulled out all the stops for this, Your Highness.”

Luna dipped her head slightly, acknowledging the compliment. I saw the perfect chance to satisfy my curiosity and put Skunky on the spot for a bit. “So what was it like when you joined Twilight’s guards, Storm?”

Storm coughed, her eyes flicking towards her own princess. “It was ... different.”

“Um ... yeah.” Princess Sparkle grinned sheepishly, a hint of a blush working its way onto her cheeks. “We just signed some paperwork to make everything official.”

“The circumstances were different,” Storm pointed out in her royal’s defense.

The barest hint of a frown worked its way onto Luna’s face. “Mmm, you should seriously consider adding some ceremony to the process of adding ponies joining your guard. A bit of pomp enhances both your own majesty and the prestige of your guard.”

“There was only so much I could do with the library,” Twilight murmured. “Especially since I didn’t have a lot of time to prepare for Storm’s arrival.”

As a good bodyguard should, Skunky rose to her princess’s defense. “I was the first bodyguard Her Highness ever had. She could hardly have a string of long-running traditions surrounding something she had never done before.”

“That’s true,” I conceded. I decided to try and put a more positive spin on things—not that I had any issues with going after Skunky, but doing it too much in the middle of my own party kind of mean-spirited. Just because it was my duty as a younger sister to annoy and embarrass Skunky at every opportunity didn’t give me an excuse to be a jerk about it. Especially not in front of royalty. I smiled at both of them. “So if you don’t have old stuff to draw on, that means you two can come up with your own traditions.”

Princess Celestia picked up on the conversational thread I’d started. “We can help Twilight with that later. Even if she does want to make something that’s uniquely her own, it wouldn’t hurt to have something more than a blank slate to start from.”

Twilight smiled back at her mentor, although it looked a bit strained. “I’ll add that to the list of things to get done later.” I initially thought she meant that a bit more metaphorically, but a second later she teleported a huge scroll into the room, jotted down some notes, and then teleported it away.

Sparkler snickered and leaned closer, whispering into my ear. “Maybe we can invent a tradition where the new recruits prank your sister?”

“Pranks are a pretty common part of initiation rituals,” I agreed, already mulling over some ideas. Perfume water balloons were one of my old classics, and it had been far too long since I’d used them. “I’ll pitch a few ideas at Storm later.”

Ever since getting out of West Hoof and joining EPARS, I’d had far too little time to mess with my sister, especially since she’d been running all over the place in the Long Patrol. Now that we were both royal guards it would be a lot easier to go after her, and I did have several years of missed pranks to make up for. Come to think of it, I did have some leave scheduled to visit Sparks in Ponyville. And really, it would be rude not to drop in on Storm as long as I was in town. And if I pranked her a few times ... well that was just my way of showing her I cared.

Skunky decided to shift the conversation away from herself. “Now that she is one of your personal guards, Princess, what will Star's duties entail?”

Princess Luna wasted no time answering. “I have need of Star’s special talents. I often wish to find specific individuals, objects, places, and other such things. Having a pony who is skilled in tracking and seeking will be of no small help in such endeavours.”

“That makes sense.” Twilight nodded along thoughtfully. “I know I’ve been compiling a list of useful skills I’d like potential members of my guard unit to have.”

I grinned at my princess. “I’m your mare if you need something or someone found, Your Highness.”

“Even if they do not wish to be found,” Storm mumbled under her breath.

Princess Luna either didn’t hear Skunky’s remark or chose to ignore it. “Excellent, I doubt it will be too long before your talents will come into play.”

Sparkler wrapped a foreleg over my shoulders and beamed at me. “You couldn’t have picked a better pony for the job.”

“I think that perhaps you are a bit biased.” Celestia shot a faintly teasing grin my girlfriend’s way. “In any case, I expect you will be quite busy, Star. My sister is always searching for any excuses to get out of the palace whenever she can, and often assigns herself quests when the opportunity presents itself.”

“Pity events so often get in the way,” Luna groused. “Why must so many crises with the potential to end life as we know it in Equestria happen the day before I go on vacation? And not even a true vacation, as the quests I seek to undertake would still fall within my royal duties. I merely seek to do something more useful with my time than fill out endless paperwork, meet with dull bureaucrats, or force myself to endure yet another mindless social function.”

“What kind of quests are you talking about?” I asked, understandably intrigued.

“All manner of tasks to suit an adventurous soul,” Luna answered with a gin. “Seeking out and seeing to monsters harassing my ponies, searching for lost artifacts, finding particularly infamous criminals and ne’er-do-wells—whichever task most catches my interest. A princess chooses her own assignments.”

“Huh. Sounds interesting.” It certainly sounded like a step up from EPARS work. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t regret my time with the search and rescue team at all. It’s just that the work was a lot less glamorous and heroic than it sounded. For every legitimate emergency where we actually needed to save someone, there were a dozen false alarms caused by ponies who thought their minor problems were a state emergency. If I had five bits for all the times when we got called by parents because their kids were a few minutes late getting home from school...

Princess Luna’s smile widened. “I plan to keep you very busy, and I daresay you will find being in my service to be quite interesting.”

Celestia smirked at her sister. “The way you say that reminds me of several old sayings about just how hazardous ‘interesting’ can be.”

“Could we maybe keep the levels of busy and interesting under control?” Sparkler cleared her throat and shot a slightly sheepish look Luna’s way. “I’d like to have her back once in a while and with all her limbs intact, Your Highness.”

Luna looked both of us over, a hint of a smirk playing at the corner of her mouth. “I will do my best to see that she returns to you intact. As for how often that is ... that depends on how quickly she can complete her assignments.”

I chuckled softly. “Well, that gives me plenty of motivation to work fast.”

“So long as you do not sacrifice thoroughness,” Luna cautioned.

I nodded along dutifully. “Right, if it’s not done properly, it doesn’t matter how quickly I do it.”

“Just so,” Princess Luna agreed. “I trust your judgment well enough to have made you one of my personal guards, so I expect you will be able to balance speed and effectiveness.”

Princess Celestia grinned and nudged her sister in the ribs. “And whenever she’s not sending you off on some mad errand, your most important duty will be to keep my dear little sister safe.”

Luna rolled her eyes. “I have no shortage of protectors, sister. Not to mention that I am quite capable of taking care of myself. Surely you remember that I was trained by the greatest weaponmasters of Old Pegasopolis?”

“I’m well aware, sister,” Celestia answered levelly. “I would also remind you that your training was long ago, and a great deal has changed since then. You’ve been doing very well, but you still haven’t caught up to all the modern developments.” She coughed, then shot her sister a fond smile. “Forgive me, I just want my little sister to be safe.”

Sparkler nodded, one foreleg wrapping around me in a protective half-hug. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”

“I am sure Star will protect your sister to the best of her abilities,” Storm assured Princess Celestia.

Luna nodded gravely, then shot an approving smile my way. “I do not doubt that Lieutenant Star will take her responsibilities seriously.”

“I wasn’t planning to spend all my time in the Lunar Guard goofing off,” I answered dryly. “Speaking of which, might I ask what my duties will be going forward? It sounds like you want to have my talents on-hoof, and want me to be at your disposal and doing general bodyguard work whenever I don’t have a specific task to carry out.”

“Essentially,” Luna agreed. “Your talents are useful enough that I would like to have you available at a moment’s notice, and your record indicates that you are a quite capable officer who should be more than capable of carrying out the duties of an officer in my Lunar Guard whenever I do not need your other skills.”

“Sounds simple enough.” I gave her my best confident grin. “I won't let you down.”

“I never thought you would.” Luna paused, thoughtfully tapping her chin. “Though now that I think about it, I do have an assignment for you.”

My ears perked up. “Whatever you need, Princess.”

She smiled approvingly. “Since my return, I have been unable to find an old necklace I fancied—one of silver with sapphires laid into it.” Her horn lit up, and an illusion sprang into being for me to study. “I wish for you to retrieve it.”

Oh. Not exactly the chance for glory and honor I’d been hoping for. Still, I had my duties. Besides, this could just be a simple test to prove that I could actually do what I said. “I'll get right on it, Your Highness.”

“It can wait for tomorrow,” Luna assured me. “I would hardly wish to drag you away from your own celebration.”

Princess Sparkle looked quite intrigued. “Isn’t the castle basement full of stuff you and Celestia have collected over the centuries?”

Princess Celestia smiled and nodded. “Yes. Unfortunately, our servants have a hard time finding anything down there.”

Sparkler let out a low whistle. “That sounds like a heckuva mess. You sure you want Star down there looking for just the one thing? It’d probably be a lot more efficient to have Twilight go down there and organize everything.”

Princess Sparkle’s eyes lit up, and an eager smile grew on her face. “Actually, I would love to have the chance to organize everything.”

Princess Celestia smiled coyly. “Well, if you really want to...”

Twilight was practically quivering in her seat. “Oh, yes! Now, what would be the best way to organize something like this?” She teleported in a piece of paper and a quill, and began jotting down notes. “Perhaps by date? Or by type of object? I should probably double-check how museums normally organize their artifacts. Oh, I bet there are so many fascinating artifacts down there! Who knows how much history there is to find? There might even be something of serious historical significance! Maybe we could set up a system of full-time curation once everything’s organized!”

Luna grinned and chuckled softly. “She seems quite eager. Though I do worry that we might lose her down there...”

Sparkler grinned and patted my shoulder. “Well, if she does get lost, I know a great mare to help find her.”

Princess Sparkle seemed to be practically bouncing up and down in her seat. “This is going to be so much fun! Would you mind helping me get everything set up, Storm?”

“It would be my pleasure, Highness.” I knew my sister well enough to catch the very carefully hidden bit of dry sarcasm in her tone. “Will you just want a cot, or should I bring down a bed and set up a full camp in the palace’s basement?”

“Let’s wait and see how big the job is before we decide on anything,” Princess Sparkle said, evidently missing Skunky’s snark. “We should probably pack for at least a week just to be safe. I’m sure we can pick up what we need locally if we end up staying longer.”

“Of course, Highness,” Storm answered with an impressively professional tone.

Sparkler leaned in and whispered, “And suddenly, just having to find a single necklace doesn’t sound so bad, does it?”

“Every princess has their quirks,” I whispered back.

I managed to find that necklace after looking for about an hour. Two weeks later, Skunky was still busy helping her princess. I think I picked the right royal.

Then again, she and Princess Twilight did end up winning the minor prank war I’d picked back up on my last visit to Ponyville. And not long after that came the whole Tirek thing. While I was sitting around useless with my magic drained like all the other guards in Canterlot, Storm had gone and gotten Shadow’s Armor out of the family vault, then taken the fight to Big Red Ugly all by herself. She hadn’t won, but from everything I’d heard she gave a pretty good account of herself. Way better than when I’d tried to get it and just got a lecture about how I wasn’t worthy.

Ugh. Who cares about what Skunky’s been doing? Not me.

So far I’d been settling in pretty well at my new job. I was still getting a feel for my new platoon, but thankfully one of the senior officers had loaned me his staff sergeant for a few weeks to help me settle in and learn all the fun unique quirks of the Lunar Guard. So far I was handling the adjustment fairly well, though it probably helped that I’d always been a bit of a night owl. Now I just had my guard shift late at night instead of being up messing around with some new gem project or working on what Skunky called my ‘ongoing efforts to violate the privacy rights of everypony in Equestria.’ She’s weird that way.

Just when I was starting to think I had a good handle on things, I came in to start my shift and found a huge, chaotic mess on my hooves. Usually the first hour or so of my shift was pretty quiet, since Her Highness was usually still getting started with her day. Between that and her usual duties shepherding everypony’s dreams, the Lunar Guard tended to be a fairly sedate posting. We certainly weren’t running around to a dozen public appearances every day the way the Solar Guard had to do.

Today was clearly an exception to the norm. Luna was wide awake and hard at work, ordering several Lunar Guards and palace servants around the palace courtyard. From the authoritative way she was ordering everypony around and how they were all scrambling to do her bidding, this clearly wasn’t just a case of her getting a bit of an early start to the day. Something big was going on.

I quickened my pace and trotted straight up to her, saluting smartly. “Is there anything I can do to help, Your Highness?”

Princess Luna smiled and wrapped a wing around me, shepherding me away from the controlled chaos going on in the courtyard. “Lieutenant, just the mare I was hoping to see. Fortune has finally favored me with enough free time to go on a little excursion I have been trying to arrange for the last several months, and I will have need of your talents.”

That got my attention. “What’s going on?”

“I wish to find something that was stolen during...” She grimaced and tried to find a polite way to allude to what had happened. “During the time in which I was indisposed. Tell me, how much do you know about Southmarch and its history, specifically the region around the town now known as Somnambula?”

I frowned and tried to remember my ancient history. “Somnambula was capital of Selerika, one of the border kingdoms that eventually swore fealty to the crown. They had a bit of a death and necromancy thing.” Back in Luna’s day they would’ve been skirmishing with the diamond dogs and Zebrican Empire, but the diamond dogs stopped being a major power after the Morning Wars, and these days the zebras were far too busy with internal politics to do much outside their own borders.

Luna nodded approvingly. “Yes, it was one of the old post-Great Migration kingdoms. Ruled by a long line of pharaohs that passed into history ages ago, though I remember them well.”

“Yeah, I guess you would.” It was strange to remember that Luna had been there for all the things I considered ancient history. If I was more of a history nerd, I’d probably bug her with all sorts of questions. Then again, I’d done my military history term paper on the Lunar Rebellion, and that would be a pretty thorny issue to discuss with my new boss. That conversation could only start and end well: ‘So Princess Luna, how much do you remember about the times you fought against one of my ancestors, whom I just so happen to venerate?’

Princess Luna continued on, oblivious to my private thoughts. “As to the nature of our quest, what I seek is the companion to this sword.” She drew out the black, light-drinking blade she’d used during my initiation ceremony. “How much do you know of Nightfall’s history?”

“Not as much as I should,” I admitted. I’d never really thought I needed to learn the history of Princess Luna’s favorite sword.

“A wise answer.” Luna cleared her throat, then launched into the history lesson. “When the pharaohs of Selerika chose to abandon the practice of necromancy, they naturally destroyed a great many items of necromantic power. The remains of those items were melted down and used to forge two blades. One of them is my Nightfall, while the other remained in the care of Pharaoh Silver Ankh.”

I nodded along, half-remembered school lessons from years ago coming back into focus. “Right, didn’t that happen after a crazy necromancer tried to take over from the legitimate heir, and you helped him deal with that in exchange for swearing fealty?”

“Essentially, though my aid was not quite so ... transactional.” Luna frowned faintly, then shook her head and got back to the matter at hoof. “But yes, Grand Vizier Faded Mirror was quite the villain of his day, and no trifle to defeat when he summoned a great host of the undead. Since this was the third succession crisis we had dealt with in as many generations, my sister and I thought it time to shift our relations with the kingdom from permanent alliance to something that allowed us a greater degree of oversight.”

“Yeah, dealing with regular necromancer uprisings is a pretty big problem.” I grimaced and shrugged. “Though I guess that’s kind of inevitable when you have a culture that tolerates necromancy as much as they did.”

“It was not so much a matter of tolerance as a very different perspective on the nature of life, death, and undeath,” Luna corrected. “In point of fact, they did not call it undeath at all, but the second life. The necromancy of the Selerikans operated under rules and cultural norms that put it quite at odds with the sort of necromancy used by warlocks: Never animate those who did not consent to it in life. Never extend one’s lifespan unnaturally. The dead may never hold power over the living. There were many more, but I hardly need recount them all.”

“Right.” I hesitated a bit to point out the obvious. “But they still had a lot of problems with necromancers building up huge armies of zombies and trying to take over the kingdom.”

Luna inclined her head, conceding the point. “The decision to abandon such practices was made for good reasons. Regardless, my sister and I sought to unite all of ponykind, and we saw a chance to both solve the problem they faced and help advance our own goals. History aside, I have learned that Pharaoh Silver Ankh’s tomb was broken into some centuries ago and the treasures within stolen. Including the twin to my sword.”

I nodded along, already having a pretty good idea where things were heading considering what my talents were. “So you want some help finding everything they took?”

“Just so,” She confirmed. “I have had some success in mine own endeavors to find some of the stolen items, but others yet elude me—most notably, Pharoah Silver Ankh’s blade.” She frowned to herself. “Leaving aside the matter of punishing the one responsible for stealing from a friend’s tomb, the sword itself could be quite dangerous. I put no small effort into my gift, and you would be hard pressed to find a sharper blade. More importantly, considering its origins ‘tis possible it might be in the hooves of a warlock.”

“Yeah, I can see how a necromancer might want a sword made out of a bunch of necromantic objects.” I had a pretty good idea of where to start too. “If your sword is the twin of the one we’re looking for, I could probably use yours to find the other one. There’d have to be some sort of magical link between them.”

“That was my own hope as well.” She presented the blade to me, hilt-first. “I have attempted to follow it with my own talents, but I have only been returned to Equestria for a few years, and while my studies proceed well there are certain aspects of the magical arts I have not yet fully ... caught up with.”

“Right.” It seemed a bit strange to think I might be better at tracking spells than a princess, though I guess it did make sense. Catching up on a thousand years of research and development would be hard, even for an alicorn. Not to mention catching up on the latest tracking spells probably weren’t her number one priority.

I tried a few spells to see what I could come up with. It wasn’t as much as I’d hoped for, but if there’d been an obvious link Luna would’ve found it without me. The connection had been strong back when the weapons had been made, but that was over a thousand years ago. “I think I’ve got something, but it’s a long way away.”

Luna grinned, showing her teeth. “Excellent work, Lieutenant. It seems I chose well in adding you to my guard. I hope you are ready to go on a trip.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” I grinned and saluted. “I’ll get my platoon ready as fast as possible.”

“No need for that,” Luna waved my offer away. “This is an adventure, not a royal visit with a full entourage. It will just be the two of us. Otherwise it wouldn’t be as much fun.”

“Right ... fun.” Why did I have a feeling Her Highness’ idea of fun involved a bit too much dangerous mortal peril chasing down a powerful necromantic artifact sword? Oh well, this was what I signed up for when I joined the Lunar Guard. “When do we leave?”

What Once Was Lost

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The next couple of days passed in a whirlwind of frantic preparations as I got ready to go running halfway across Equestria, and possibly further beyond. Our first destination was the tomb itself to check for anything that might point us in the right direction. My tracking spell was a start, but all it did was point us to somewhere more-of-less east of our current location. If a little more research could help us get some idea of where to start, it could potentially save us months of searching as I slowly narrowed down where the sword might be hidden.

Of course, there were downside to this plan. Like going on a long walk through the desert, just so we could explore Silver Ankh’s tomb and search it for any clues. I was already developing an intense hatred for deserts—every time the wind started blowing I got sand in my eyes, and just about everywhere else. At least Luna’s magic kept the desert sun from melting us both into huge sweat puddles. It probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise that the princess of the night had a few tricks for resisting the sun. Pity she couldn’t stop the sand.

A part of me wished we’d brought along the whole royal retinue, since that would’ve substantially bumped up the comfort level of our traveling arrangements. So far Luna had mostly been going around incognito, using some illusion spells to hide her identity and her horn so she could pass as an ordinary pegasus. She’d only dropped the disguise once since we’d started, and only because she’d needed to assert a bit of royal authority.

I groaned as one of my hooves hit a loose patch of sand, and I sank in up to my ankle before I could pull it out for the next step. “I hope that explorer you had to send home won’t be too mad at us.” I still wasn’t sure if we’d actually run into the real Daring Do or just a really obsessive fan who was taking the whole thing way too far. Either way, Luna had to send them packing since they planned to check out Silver Ankh’s tomb. Apparently, she wasn’t comfortable bringing anyone other than me into mortal peril. So, yay for me.

Princess Luna shrugged. “It is a pity to interfere with another explorer’s work, but I am sure it will be fine. It is not as though this tomb is a new find.”

“Point.” I grimaced and shook the sand off my hooves. It was probably a futile effort, but I could at least try to keep it from building up too much. “Though I would guess that the grave-robber probably ruined most of the tomb’s historical value.”

Luna scowled, and I realized I might’ve sounded a bit insensitive about her friend’s grave. After several seconds she sighed and shook her head. “True. I doubt the thieves would have left anything valuable behind. Pity, considering the lengths Silver and his predecessors went to hiding their burial places specifically to avoid such thieves.”

I nodded along, mostly because the whole reason we had to make this long unpleasant trek through the desert was because of that. Evidently hiding his tomb in the deep desert two days walk away from the nearest town hadn’t been enough to keep Silver’s tomb safe. It was, however, more than enough time to make me learn to hate the desert. “At least this will give us a lead on recovering the artifacts they stole.”

“Hopefully.” Luna sighed, one of her ears flicking. “Your spell telling us that Nightfall’s twin lies somewhere far to the east is helpful, but I cannot spare the time to fly about on an airship taking dozens of readings to slowly narrow our search area. Much as I wish to see this matter concluded and the blade recovered, I have many other duties and precious little time to spare. Gone are the days when I could go on adventures and not return to the palace for months. My sister would be most cross with me if I spent so much time away from Canterlot, and doubtless the press would spread all manner of vicious rumors about my activities.”

I felt like I should say something to cheer her up, but I wasn’t sure what I could do. Canterlot’s press was notoriously fond of gossip, especially when it came to the royals. Some of Luna’s difficulties adjusting to the thousand year gap had made the tabloids. Though all things considered, everyone chuckling over her struggling to grasp how movies worked was probably a step up from all the articles I’d seen back when she’d first returned. At least nobody was speculating about when she’d turn back into Nightmare Moon and try to overthrow Celestia.

Luna lead the way over another massive sand dune, then paused at the crest. “We have arrived.” Her horn lit up, and the sands slowly parted. After several minutes a structure slowly revealed itself from beneath the sands. It didn’t look like much, just a squat structure of white limestone slowly worn away by over a thousand years of erosion. Luna nodded gravely. “Silver Ankh did not believe in constructing a grand edifice in the manner of his ancestors. He felt there were better uses for his subjects’ time and labor, and hoped that a smaller tomb would be harder to find and rob.” Her eyes narrowed, and her teeth clenched. “With any luck, the thief left behind something that will help us find them, or their descendants.”

Normally I wouldn’t have been too optimistic about finding evidence of a crime that happened centuries ago, but the tomb had been thoroughly buried and the door was still sealed. With any luck, nobody had been in there since the thieves. “Hard to rob a tomb without leaving any evidence behind. Do you know if anyone’s been in there since the robbery? Obviously someone had to have discovered what happened.”

“I learned of it through magical means,” Luna answered. “Silver Ankh was a friend, and it seemed proper to lend my magic to his tomb. My absence from Equestria might well have weakened those defenses to the point that his tomb could be broken into. Upon my return, I learned of the violation. So far as I know, it has not been entered since, though the thieves made several efforts ere they finally succeeded. Though ‘tis possible my wards were so compromised that others entered after them, I hope that the crime scene is still relatively intact, though I worry that most evidence will have been worn away by time.”

Considering the place had been broken into centuries ago, we would be missing a lot. Any of the usual organic evidence like hair would’ve rotted away, and things like hoofprints probably would’ve faded. Still... “Between the two us, if there’s any evidence left, we’ll find it.”

Luna smiled at me approvingly. “Well said, Lieutenant.” She walked up to the tomb entrance, then held up a warning hoof. “It seems the defenses are not entirely gone. Move carefully, and do not step beyond me. These traps will be dangerous.”

“How dangerous?” I asked as the princess opened the heavy stone doors.

Luna shrugged. “I am afraid I do not recall the precise details of every single trap and ward in a tomb I helped make over a thousand years ago. And even if I did, the builders likely would have made some I knew nothing of. It was standard practice to ensure that no living pony knew of every single defense within a tomb, lest the builders be tempted to return and plunder it.”

I took a deep breath, then stepped through the threshold. The whole tomb smelled old and musty, though I would’ve been surprised if it smelled like anything else. There was still a fair bit of sand in the entryway, though not nearly as much as I would’ve expected. Whatever magical defenses might be in place were also clearly keeping the tomb in good condition, though the hieroglyphics and paintings on the walls were starting to show their age. The path further into the tomb led to a spiraling ramp that descended far into the darkness. Luna’s horn lit up, and an ethereal moonlight glow spread across the entire room.

I started to step forward, but Luna put up a foreleg to block my path. “Hold.” She brought up a loose stone and sent it rolling down the ramp. A few seconds later there was a loud click, and several darts shot through the air. “It seems that whoever engineered this place did a fine job of it. The traps still work.”

I whistled. “This place was built over a thousand years ago, and the traps still work? That’s pretty impressive.”

“So it is,” Luna acknowledged. “Though of course it does add some complications to our quest.”

I put on my best adventurous grin. “Well, you did say it wouldn’t be any fun without some danger...”

Luna matched my smile, though hers looked a lot more genuine. “So I did. Let me proceed first. I have experience with traps such as these, and while I do not recall every detail of the tomb’s construction, neither have I forgotten everything.”

It felt a little bit wrong for the bodyguard to stay back while the princess went head-first into danger, but I knew better than to argue with royalty. Especially when she was right. I might’ve taken the oath to get killed in her defense, but I wasn’t going to complain if I live long enough to retire with all my limbs intact. “Sure thing, Your Highness. I’ll watch your back.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant.” She took a deep breath, then cast a spell that I understood just enough to realize it was miles beyond anything I could ever hope to pull off. Her body halfway shifted to a cloudy, star-filled mass that still held a vaguely equine shape. She confidently strode down the hallway, making a point of stepping on every single tile as she went. It wasn’t long before she hit another of the traps, but when the darts shot out they passed straight through her translucent body, bouncing off off the wall on the other end of the corridor.

I don’t consider myself easily impressed, but seeing a princess transform her entire body that way did it. “Wow, that’s awesome.”

Princess Luna shifted back to a fully solid form, shooting me a proud smile with just a hint of smugness to it. “It is one of my talents.”

I sighed just a little bit enviously. “I don’t suppose there's any way I could learn that spell?”

Luna gave me a quick once-over, then slowly shook her head. “It is one of the more difficult and taxing of the spells in my arsenal, I am afraid. Just teaching you the foundational principles needed to even attempt learning it would take months or even years of dedicated study, let alone the spell itself. Self-transfiguration is an incredibly dangerous art, for the slightest error in your spellcasting could have dire consequences.”

“Oh. Right.” I probably should’ve guessed as much. If I ever tried turning myself into a shadowy cloud the way Luna had, I’d probably end up leaving one of my legs behind or coming back with half my blood vessels misaligned. Back when I’d been a kid, I’d dreamed of being a great battle magus who could throw around the sort of earth-shattering spells I read about in stories. Too bad reality hadn’t accommodated that dream by giving me great magical power. Stuff like what Luna had just done would always be beyond me. “I’m not a slouch when it comes to spellcasting, but I'm not even good enough to be a magus, let alone someone that can cast huge spells like that.”

“We all have our talents,” Luna agreed, inclining her head towards me. “And I do have the advantage of a lifespan best counted in centuries instead of years. I have had many more chances to learn and develop my skills. I like to think that I have put both my natural talents and the skills I have learned to good use.”

“I’d say you've done a pretty good job so far.” The two of us walked along in silence, Luna still in the lead and focusing most of her attention on our surroundings. I would’ve liked to keep up the conversation, but distracting her probably wasn’t the best of ideas. Besides, what could I ask her about? ‘So, what was it like to go crazy and try to plunge Equestria into eternal darkness?’ isn’t the sort of question you can ask a princess. No matter how much you want to.

After a few minutes the downward spiralling ramp transformed into a long horizontal corridor, and a quick look at the walls confirmed that they looked different. “We have reached the bottom,” Luna announced. “The Pharaohs of old dug deep into the earth so their dead would be protected from the ravages of time as much as possible. From here, we shall proceed into the tomb proper.” She continued down the hallway, stopping every once in a while to look over some of the hieroglyphics.

I finally thought of something reasonably safe to ask her when she’d stopped to look over a pair of dog-headed statues. “So, um ... what was this place like, back in the day?”

“This tomb?” Luna frowned, then shook her head. “No, doubtlessly you meant the Kingdom of the Pharaohs.” Her expression turned distant, almost contemplative. “Quite different in many ways. There was a ... ‘stagnancy’ is not the word for it. Perpetual stability, perhaps. Much like how the local river flooded and receded each year, so they believed that society ebbed and flowed, and continued on a perpetual cycle. Pharaohs would rise, pass, and another would rise to rule in perpetuity. Crops would be planted, harvested, and then the time of flood would come and end just as it always had. So it was for many hundred of years.”

“Sounds like a really laid-back place,” I commented.

“In some ways, yes,” Luna agreed. “It was a land in no rush to go anywhere. It was wealthy, stable, and relatively well defended thanks to its borders. The desert was a much stronger barrier in the time before not only railroads, but roads of any sort. Not so impenetrable as to leave them entirely isolated from the rest of Equestria and the world, but moving an entire army across such vast and inhospitable distances was far more difficult than a trade caravan. And in those days, their Eternal Wardens saw to what few intruders made the attempt.”

“Eternal Wardens.” I quickly tried to remember who they were from my quick cram session about the region and its history. “Those were the undead soldiers who patrolled the deep deserts, right?”

“Indeed,” Luna confirmed. “The greatest soldiers of Selerika would volunteer to continue serving their homeland in their second life, tirelessly patrolling the most inhospitable areas where no living soldier could long remain. They were formally disbanded after the kingdom abandoned necromancy, but there have long been rumors that a few remain unfound, still maintaining their endless vigil over the land and its inhabitants.”

“Yeah, that’s not creepy at all.” I shivered and instinctively looked over my shoulder. “So, they had their peaceful, stable, unchanging kingdom watched over by a bunch of creepy undead. How could that have possibly gone wrong?”

“Just because they remained unchanged throughout the years did not mean the rest of the world followed suit,” Luna explained, ignoring my mild sarcasm. “As time passed and technology developed, the desert became less and less of a barrier. The trickle of trade that once brought in foreign luxuries gained pace and soon money left the country faster than it entered. Meanwhile, the foreign threats that had once been held at bay by the desert looked to a land that had gone unplundered for centuries with envious eyes.”

“Not to mention the necromancy issue getting worse and worse,” I pointed out.

Luna nodded gravely. “The matters were ultimately connected. A split developed within the mortuary cult charged with the responsibility of seeing to their dead. Several radical members began advocating for expanding the privilege of second life. More Eternal Wardens were needed to secure Selerika’s borders, and undead laborers were both tireless and required far less resources to care for. Naturally, the more traditional elements disagreed, feeling that such a huge expansion of the mortuary cult would undermine the very fabric of their society and do far greater damage than any economic downturn or hostile enemy.”

I grimaced. “Normally I’m not too wild about the old guard who say that any form of change could threaten traditional values and destroy their way of life, but when it comes to necromancy they might have a point.”

“I would be hard-pressed to say they were wrong in this case,” Luna agreed. “Slowly but surely what began as reasoned debate devolved into political power struggle, and finally a series of bloody civil wars when each faction began supporting different claimants to the throne. The way we describe it now makes it seem like a sudden or inevitable thing, but the decline of their once great nation took centuries, and might have been prevented had other ponies made wiser choices. Now the world has lost a unique nation, and we shall not see its like again. Much that once was is no more, with only a few beings and the tomes of history left to remember it.”

It was hard to figure out what I was supposed to say about that. Sure, I’d known that Luna had memories of those ancient nations I’d only ever heard about in history classes, but it was one thing to know intellectually, and quite another to personally watch her mourning a nation that had fallen over a thousand years ago. “Must be strange to see the world change so much.”

She nodded, sighing glumly as she looked over the ancient tomb walls. “It can be jarring some days. Though at least the dramatic break from the more recent past has allowed me to more easily catch my bearings. There are some mornings where Celestia needs a few moments to think over what century it actually is.”

“Wow.” I tried to wrap my head around just how long Celestia and Luna had been around, and how they would look at the world. “That’s ... I guess when you’re that old, it must make ordinary ponies like me seem really ... small. Just fleeting little things that are gone in the blink of an eye. Like mayflies.”

Luna frowned and shook her head. “I do not like to think of the lives of my ponies as such, for each of them has its own intrinsic worth. You hardly need to live for centuries to have a full and fulfilling life, Star Kicker.”

“Good point.” Until I’d started talking to her, I’d never really felt like my life was short or anything. Sure, I knew objectively that I was still young, but so much had already happened, and it was strange to think about how much more I had left to deal with. But I doubt Princess Luna wanted to hear about any of that, especially when we were already talking about her. “It’s gotta be weird, for you, coming back after a thousand years.”

“Immensely so,” she admitted with a grimace. “So much has changed that it almost boggles the mind. Though often I find that it is the smaller changes that baffle me moreso than the great ones. The railroad or airships are such strange new things that I have little difficulty adapting, for I have no previous notions that must be cast aside. Not to mention such innovations seem simple enough to grasp once the mechanics of them are adequately explained. Neigh, what truly vexes me are the less tangible things. If not for Twilight Sparkle’s help, I might never have grasped how a princess’ role has changed, and other aspects of modern society yet elude me.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t sure what to make of all that. I guess it was a relief to know she wasn’t going to freak out at every new invention, but ... well, socializing with other ponies was complicated enough without having a bunch of ideas that were a thousand years behind the times. Still, I’d be a bad guard if I didn’t aid my princess. “Anything I can help with?”

“Mayhaps,” Luna answered, absently blasting away a massive axe-bladed pendulum before it could slice us both in half. “Near as I can tell ponies are much more in flux than they used to be. Things used to be structured; there were unicorn nobles, earth pony magnates, and elite pegasi warriors, free ponies with land and property, and then those without the land and distinction of their betters. Now 'tis very different. ‘Twas much simpler when I could be certain of a pony’s importance and station simply by how they dressed and behaved.”

“Oh.” Maybe I should’ve seen that one coming. The Equestria she’d grown up in did have a ton of class and social status issues that had kind of dropped off the radar in the last thousand years. Back in Honored Shadow’s time there was this whole structure throughout every level of society, and everypony knew exactly what their place in it was. Now ... I shrugged helplessly and tried to explain it as best I could. “Ponies are just ... ponies. They can do whatever they want.”

Luna nodded along. “Aye, so I have learned. To give but one example, Pinkie Pie’s family have long managed a rock farm, yet she chose a completely different line of work. It seems to please her and those around her, but part of me cannot help but think that the complete absence of structure invites chaos. Without a clear place in the world, it is up to every individual to make their own choice. If nopony chooses to clean the gutters or sweep the floors...” She left the rest of that unsaid, trailing off with a shrug. “Not to mention the end of duelling and breakdown of the higher levels of society has eroded many traditional values. Nopony respects one another like they used to.”

Well, this conversation was getting just a bit awkward. I couldn’t help but remember this one document I’d read in history class back when my professor wanted to make a point: the author of that document had gone at great length about how the youth of his generation were all crass, disrespectful, and would ruin the world when they grew up. Then my professor revealed that it had been about two thousand years ago. I guess old ponies complaining about the kids these days must be one of those ancient traditions that everyone respected.

I felt a bit obligated to speak up in defense of the last millenium of changes. “Yeah, but when you have all that hierarchy and rules everything is incredibly restrictive. Sure, sometimes that means a farmer’s children might not stay on the farm, but what if they don’t want to be farmers? They shouldn’t be locked into something just because their parents did it.” A particularly pointed example sprang to mind. “I mean, look at me: a unicorn born into a pegasus family. Back in the old days of Pegasopolis when everypony with wings lived in the sky, they would’ve shuffled me down to the ground as soon as I was born. I’d have never even know my own mother and father, or any of the rest of my family. That sounds pretty sad to me.” Well, maybe I could’ve lived without Skunky, but saying that wouldn’t help my case.

Luna grimaced and reluctantly nodded. “I cannot disagree with that. Even if some changes are unsettling, not all of them are bad. The divide between the three pony races was something my sister and I hoped to end, and I am glad to see it done. Though I would have preferred if the circumstances surrounding it were ... different.”

I wasn’t sure which part of it specifically she was referring to. It could be that she wasn’t happy about the rebel clans being forcibly disbanded, or she might be referring to the role the Avatar of Nightmare Moon played in the conflict. Maybe a little bit of both. Either way, if it potentially involved Nightmare Moon I didn’t want to bring it up. That had to be a pretty sore point for Luna to discuss with anyone, let alone one her newer guards.

The Princess was evidently of the same mind, judging by the change of subject. “My sister always argued for caution, and doing things slow and steady. If we changed too much too quickly, then our subjects would be provoked. The nobility did not wish to share their rights and distinction with anypony, the warriors did not wish to be weakened by those they saw as inferior in the combat arts, the farmers were fiercely defensive of their land, whether it be a mere few acres of a sprawling domain, and so forth.” She sighed and shook her head. “But between a few upheavals and a thousand years of more gradual changes, the world I knew is gone and this one has taken its place.” Her wings wilted, and despite her best efforts she couldn’t hide the pain in her tone. “I should have been by my sister’s side through all of that.”

Well, apparently Nightmare Moon was the awkward topic that refused to die. It was kind of hard to talk about her past regrets without that coming up at some point. Since going into all the messy specifics of that probably wasn’t a good idea, I settled on a vague generality. “We can't change the past.”

“No, we cannot.” She took a deep breath, which seemed to help her shake off the weight on her shoulders. “All we can do is do better in the future. Something I try to remind myself of every day. Mayhaps in time, I will even come to accept it.”

I made an effort to focus on the positive and ignore the dour remark she’d ended on. “Exactly, the only way to go is forward. Besides, it's not like you have to do it all by yourself.”

“Indeed so,” Luna conceded. “My sister does what she can to aid me, and thanks to Twilight Sparkle and her friends I have begun to adjust to this new world.” She paused, then smiled down at me. “And of course, there are the valiant ponies of the Lunar Guard standing at my side.”

It was hard not to feel a little self-conscious after being so conspicuously praised. It’s not every day a princess does that. I tried to ignore my nerves and focus on the matter at hoof. “So what should we—” I cut myself off as I saw Luna’s hoof drop onto a tile that was just slightly raised compared to the rest of them. “Princess, look out!”

The warning came a moment too late, and the raised floor tile slowly sank down as Luna’s weight settled onto it. The stonework around us groaned, and a deep bone-rattling rumble echoed through the halls. The sound rapidly grew closer to us, and finally a spotted the source as I saw a massive sphere of solid stone rolling down the spiraling ramp we’d used to get down here. By the time it reached our level and hallway evened out it was going more than fast enough to pulp us if we didn’t stop it.

Luna quickly stepped past me. “Stand back, Lieutenant!” Her horn lit up and several walls of ice sprang up along the ramp. I was a bit surprised when the boulder smashed through all of them without any trouble, but Luna just grimaced and planted her hooves. “I suppose I should have known mine own trap would not be so easily foiled.”

“Your trap?”

Luna grinned. “I did make a contribution to my friend’s tomb, and I would be a poor friend if I did not make it some of my best work. However...” She lowered her shoulder and grunted when it slammed into her. Somehow, she managed to hold the boulder back, though I could see her hooves slowly sliding back. “I made this ... over a thousand years ... ago.” She tapped her horn against the stone, and a small trickle of magic passed into the boulder. After several seconds the massive stone slowly crumbled into nothingness. Luna smirked down at the powder, nodding to herself. “I would be a poor spellcaster if I had not improved in over a thousand years. My, that was bracing.”

“That’s one word for it.” I frowned as a couple thoughts sprang to mind. “Wait, if that was your trap, wouldn’t you have known how to avoid it?”

“Of course,” she agreed. “Though I did not recall precisely where the trapped tile was until I laid eyes upon it. In either case, it seemed far wiser to trigger and disarm the trap than to leave it waiting to catch us unawares should we need to make a hasty exit.”

“Good point.” That boulder would’ve cut off our only exit from the tomb, which would have been very bad if we were desperately running for it. Though a massive falling boulder trap did raise another question. “Shouldn’t that huge rock have already been at the bottom of the ramp thanks to whoever robbed the place? For that matter, how are all the traps still working when this place was built more than a thousand years ago?”

Luna chuckled softly. “Surely you do not think my trap was naught but a lever and a piece of rock? There is no small amount of magic behind this tomb’s defenses. The Selerikans were masters of preservation magic, and this tomb has intricate spells intended to maintain and reset every trap within it. They were quite adamant that the dead should be allowed their rest unless they asked for the second life, and as their necromancers grew less principled they took great pains to protect their dead.”

I nodded along. “Not the strangest thing that's ever been done with magic. Can’t exactly blame the pharaoh who banned necromancy for being a bit worried about necromancers messing with his tomb.” I shot a wary look at the depressed trap tile. “Do you have any idea how fast the traps reset? Not much sense in disarming them if they’ll be right back up in a couple seconds.”

“It varies,” Luna answered. “In no small part, it depends on the number of traps activated, and whether there is anything more to worry about. The destruction of my trap boulder will doubtless delay the restoration spells considerably.”

“Makes sense.” I took a look around the tomb. “So, any idea how the thieves got in? Because that boulder seems like it would have crushed anyone who wasn’t ready for it.”

Luna shot me a surprisingly cold smile. “You have noted the dust within this tomb, yes? We are far from the entrance, so it is not sand slipping through cracks in the doors.”

“What are you—” I went silent as I slowly figured it out. “Oh. Well, that’s going to make walking through the dust on the floors way more awkward.”

Luna inclined her head to me. “Indeed so. So the same spells that reset the traps see to any fallen thieves, so that those who follow after them will not be forewarned of any traps.”

“I suppose a couple dozen crushed corpses would give away where the traps were,” I said in my best attempt at gallows humor.

“Quite,” she agreed dryly. “Given how thick the dust lies in this tomb, I think it most likely our thief simply solved the traps through brute force. The tomb’s defenses can only strike down so many ere they are temporarily exhausted.”

“So someone who’s got dozens of minions who are totally okay with dying just to help him reach his goal?” I frowned as a slightly more likely explanation sprang to mind. “Or a necromancer who could just send in a bunch of zombies to get crushed, sliced, and skewered.”

“Necromancy does provide a theoretically endless supply of expendable followers,” Luna agreed with a scowl. “Though I did set at least my own trap with the intent of catching the caster along with his thralls. A necromancer would be wary of letting his thralls pass too far beyond eyesight, lest they clumsily break the very treasure he sought for himself.”

“Zombies aren’t exactly known for their intelligence and fine motor control.” I warily looked ahead. “Guess it’s a good thing I’ve got you to guide me through all the traps. No way I could manage this without your help.”

Princess Luna twitched when I said that, and for a moment I wondered if I’d unintentionally said something offensive. Whatever it was I said, she let it pass without comment. “Do not rely solely upon me, Lieutenant. There is one more trap that lies between us and our goal. By tradition, the last trap within a tomb is designed and built by the tomb’s occupant, and he tells none of its nature. For this we have no foreknowledge, only our own wits and skills.”

“Well that’s just great.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane, a bit disturbed when some of the tomb’s dust fell out. I never would have thought dust could be creepy and horrifying, but once I knew the dust was ground-up decayed zombie...

Luna smiled at me, though it didn’t seem quite as eager and adventurous as she’d been when we first started this. “I did say that an element of risk makes things exciting. And do not worry, I will not allow any harm to befall you.”

I internally groaned at being little better than a tagalong while Princess Luna did everything, including protecting me when I was supposed to be guarding her. Still, I knew better than to let it show. “Thank you, Your Highness.” To my vague existential horror, I realized I sounded a lot like Skunky whenever she was dealing with her Princess’ eccentricities.

Princess Luna led the way as the narrow corridor slowly widened into a large chamber. She frowned when she spotted the large gold-inlaid sarcophagus. “Curious. Either the last trap was not properly set, or...” She frowned suspiciously. “Touch nothing, and head for the door slowly and carefully, lieutenant. This room is not safe.”

I was tempted to point out that if the room wasn’t safe I should be staying in it to protect her, not getting out. But that would mean arguing with a princess after she gave me a direct order. Not to mention she’d probably say something about how she’d be much safer if she didn’t have to waste attention and spellpower keeping me protected.

I turned around and started trudging towards the exit. Or at least, where the exit should have been. All I saw was smooth, unbroken stone wall. “Uh, Princess, I think we have a problem.”

Luna’s head snapped up, her eyes narrowing when she saw our exit had been cut off. “Ah, so that is the way of it.” A second later the sarcophagus groaned open, and an eerie yellow mist began spilling out of it. Her horn lit up, and a magical bubble sprang up around the mist, sealing it up. “Though I confess myself disappointed. I would have hoped for better than a bit of poison gas and a trap door.”

The universe opted to display its usual twisted sense of humor by having Luna’s spell fizzle out a second later.

“Most perturbatory.” Luna tried the spell again, but this time the sphere collapsed before she could even finish forming it. “Not poison mist at all, but a magic suppressant. Which means that the real threat—”

Princess Luna let out a startled yelp as her hooves sank into the floor. She tried to spread her wings and take off into the air, but didn’t seem to make any progress from getting out of the entrapping sand. Even with the tomb’s low ceiling taken into account, there should’ve been enough space for her to escape and stay hovering over the sand ... unless whatever force had nullified her magic was keeping her groundbound as well.

“I got you, Princess!” I tried a quick analysis spell, and was a bit surprised when my spell actually worked. A quick study of the wards around the room revealed exactly why: they needed a moment to identify the magical signature before they activated.

“Oh horseapples,” I groaned right before the wards detected my spell and locked down my magic. I made a token effort to cast another spell, but wasn’t at all surprised that I got nowhere against wards that were capable of blocking Luna’s far more powerful spellcasting.

The floor collapsed beneath my hooves, turning into loose sand I couldn’t find solid footing on. As I felt myself starting to sink down into it I started to panic, but a second later my training kicked in. One thing they hammered in over and over at West Hoof, panicking is the best way to get yourself killed. A soldier who panics and breaks ranks is worse than useless, since they’re putting the rest of their squad in danger. Or in my case, putting one of Equestria’s princesses in mortal peril.

Oh, who was I kidding? Luna would probably figure out a way to beat this trap any minute now. However, I couldn’t afford to assume that, so I put my mind to the problem. The wards hadn’t shut either of our magic down right away. It needed a couple seconds to attune to us first. So anything with a different magical signature from me or Luna should still work.

I pulled one of my gems out of its socket on my armor. There were usually a few subtle difference in magical signature between an item and the pony who created it. Not much, but hopefully it would be enough to fool the wards. I put my theory to the test, activating my magesight gem.

Sure enough the world took on a faint blue hue as the gem’s magic washed over me, revealing the currents of magical energy flowing into the room. I followed those currents to the point where they all met, beneath a single glowing eye. Then the wards adjusted to the new spell, snuffing out my enchantment and reducing me to normal pony vision again.

“Nice work,” I grudgingly congratulated whoever had come up with the trap. “But not quite good enough.” I struggled against the sand and managed to free one of my hooves, then dug into my saddlebag. Normally I would just retrieve one of my throwing spikes with telekinesis, but that still wasn’t an option. However, once I had the spike in my hooves, it was just a matter of activating it and telling it where to go. The spike flew out of my hooves and slammed into the wall, right where the giant magic eye had been watching us.

I felt a weird sort of snap as my magic returned, but before I could do anything Luna’s indigo magic enveloped me and pulled me out of the sand. With her own far greater power free of any restraint, Luna made quick work of the rest of the traps. I quickly made my way to my princess’ side, checking her over for any injury. “You okay, Princess?”

She scowled and shook some sand out of her armor. “I believe so.” She glowered at the walls, her eyes misting over slightly as she used one of her own spells to thoroughly inspect the wards. “Devious creatures. It seems they set a trap specifically for someone like me.”

That came as a surprise. “How do you mean?”

She tapped the wall near my spike. “See this here? It was set only to trigger when exposed to a caster of considerable magical power. It likely would not have even reacted to your presence if I had not first awoken it. All of this was intended to disable whoever triggered it and then drown them in sand, at the very least entrapping them forever and possibly even adding the body to the rest of the tomb’s defenses.”

“Huh. Well I guess it makes sense to calibrate the trap to catch a high-level caster. You and the necromancers were able to brute force your way past all the traps that came before, so they were made specifically to catch you.”

“Aye.” Luna nodded gravely. “It might even be that they specifically considered me when crafting that particular trap. It is tradition to ensure that that the last trap could capture any of those who contributed to the building of the previous ones, should avarice claim their hearts and they return to rob the very tomb they helped build.”

“Shame there’s no way to let the tomb’s defenses know we’re trying to catch the thieves.” I sighed. “Though I suppose an off switch like that would be too easy for the bad guys to exploit.” I frowned and idly tapped the walls. “Does make me wonder how they beat the trap.”

“A very good question.” She slowly ran a hoof over the wards. “Numbers, I think would hold the key. Each spellcaster has a few moments to operate unimpeded ere their magic is denied. Deadly for the lone magus, but a dozen could easily coordinate their efforts.”

“Yeah, but a dozen magi isn’t a small force,” I pointed out as we trotted into the next chamber. “At that point we’re not so much looking for a thief as we are—”

“A coven.”

“Exactly, Prin...” I trailed off as I realized that Luna’s voice had sounded surprisingly male and not like her at all.

Luna waved for me to be silent, not that she needed to. “Who’s there? Show yourself.”

A ghostly figure rose from the broken remnants of a sarcophagus. It was hard to make out most of the personal details, but I could tell he was dressed in classic Selerikan style. “You disturb my rest and violate my tomb, yet ask that I identify myself to you?” He paused, his empty eyes looking us over. “Though I would think an old friend would know me.”

Luna inspected the ghost, then gasped softly. “Silver Ankh? Is it truly you?”

“You expected to find someone else’s spirit bound within my tomb?” the ghost asked dryly.

“I see time has not dulled your wit, old friend.” Luna smiled and approached him. “I had not thought to see you again.”

“I had expected to enjoy my long rest,” the spirit answered. “Alas, it seems my wishes were not adhered to. My rest was disturbed long before you entered my tomb, and I have known no peace for many centuries. My treasures have been stolen by ponies of low character, and I cannot help but wonder what evil is being done with them e’en now.”

Luna scowled and nodded. “It is that very matter that brings us here now. I hoped to discover who looted your tomb and stole your dynasty’s sword. I would recover the blade, and if you wish I could restore it to your tomb where it belongs.”

“It would be enough to know it is no longer in evil hooves,” Silver Ankh glowered at the walls. “As I said, it was taken by a coven of warlocks. I do not know all their names, but the two who lead it were known to me. Hidden Facts and Ushabti. The two of them eventually fell out with one another, doubtless bickering over my stolen goods as their degenerate kind are wont to do. Ushabti took the blade, and even had the gall to summon my spirit to his side for advice. He claimed to respect the old ways and kings of Selerika, yet he would dare to treat me so!”

So like Luna suspected, the thief had been a necromancer. Something about the name sounded familiar, but I couldn’t quite put my hoof on it. “So he summoned you after he left the tomb? Where was the last place you saw him?”

Silver scoffed. “The land of degenerates called Freeport.”

“Freeport.” Luna grimaced. “A very long way away from here.”

“It seemed that Ushabti was a stallion who needed to run a very long ways away.” Ankh shrugged. “I think it had to do with the falling out between him and his partner. Evidently Hidden Facts emerged stronger of the two, but Ushabti was able to retain my possessions.”

“So he went running from his old partners in crime?” Not that rare of a story. One guy trying to keep all the spoils from a heist was pretty classic. “Freeport might be further than they could follow him, but we’ve got a lot more reach.” Plus, I was rather pleased to note that Freeport was in more-or-less the direction my tracking spell pointed. With any luck, once we got to the islands I’d get a much better fix on where the sword was.

“Pity the thief is beyond mortal punishments,” Ankh grunted.

“Is that so?” Luna asked. “I would have thought as a necromancer...”

Ankh shook his head. “Ushabti was of the old blood of Selerika, supposedly descended from Somnambula herself. He might have corrupted himself with the black arts, but he had not fallen so far as to make a mockery of his own life. Small credit to him, he is no lich, vampire, or other abomination.”

“Even if he was, that would not stop us,” Luna assured him.

“But I won’t complain about not having to fight an ancient undead necromancer,” I agreed.

“Regardless of who holds the blade, it will be recovered,” Luna answered firmly. “I will not allow my friend’s legacy to lie in evil hooves.”

Ankh nodded gravely. “I could ask for nothing more, old friend.”

She placed a hoof on his ghostly shoulder. “Rest in peace, my friend. I will take up your burden, and I will not stop until the sword lies in your tomb once more. I will not allow one of my oldest and dearest friends to sleep uneasy this night, or in any night to come.” She turned about, heading back towards the exit. “Come, Star. Let us go to Freeport.”

Now Is Found

View Online

I wasn’t sure what I’d expected to find when I started following my tracking spell after our arrival in Freeport. Maybe for it to lead us to a hidden necromancer or warlock coven, or the private collection of some crime lord. Or why not both? Warlocks weren’t exactly known for their respect for other laws after they flagrantly broke the laws of magic. Certainly finding Luna’s sword in the hooves of a criminal monster would’ve made everything much easier.

Instead, the tracking spell lead me to just about the last place I ever would’ve expected: a big building calling itself the Freeport Liberation Museum. “Huh.” I stared dumbfounded at the structure as a class of schoolchildren trotted in. “So the ancient sword is actually ... huh. For something that really kinda belongs in a museum, I never thought I’d actually find it in one.”

Luna scowled suspiciously at the building. “Why would it be here? And why wasn’t I able to find out it was here? A museum is no place of secrets.”

I shrugged. “Maybe it's a decoy? Or ... something?” I could come up with half a dozen different explanations with enough time, but why speculate when we could just go in and find out? “If there’s a museum, there’re curators. If we want the full story about how the sword wound up here, I’m sure they’d know it.”

Luna nodded. “Mayhaps it rests here under a different name. However, the details do not interest me at this time, and I would prefer not to inform them of our interest in it. Can you find the sword without their help?”

“Pretty sure I can find it, yeah,” I assured my princess as I headed for the front door. It was slightly awkward to wait while the princess bought two tickets to get us into the museum itself. It was just the kind of mundane thing that I hadn’t really planned on doing in the middle of our grand quest to recover a lost artifact. At least Luna’s magical disguise seemed to be holding up. She wasn’t exactly afraid of being identified or anything, but we didn’t want to deal with huge crowds of curious ponies wondering what an Equestrian princess was doing here, and bogging us down with a bunch of pointless questions. We were here on business, after all.

Once the tickets were taken care of I led us further in. I was a little bit tempted to have a look at the rest of the museum, if only because I didn’t know all that much about the history involved. Not that we’d completely ignored foreign history in school, but that had been so long ago that the details were fuzzy. Cloud had always been the military history buff in the family. I liked it just fine, but I hadn’t really had time to go into that while also learning everything I needed to be a good tracker, gemcrafter, and military officer as well as picking up as much magic as I had.

Oh well. Maybe there’d be time to play tourist after we finished up the work part of our trip. It would probably take a day or two to get our travel arrangements settled if we wanted to keep our visit on the down-low.

Most of the museum seemed to be dedicated to the Council/Necrocrat War some four hundred years ago. I tried to dredge up some memories of the conflict from school, but the only thing that sprang to mind was that Equestria had been kind of indirectly supporting the Council. Well, more that we’d been having a bunch of naval skirmishes with the Necrocrats over our own beefs with them, mostly related to the Battle of Two Magnuses and Freeport’s eternal status as a haven of pirates and slavers. Officially our navy had just been doing anti-piracy patrols, but we’d effectively treated any Freeport-flagged ship as a suspected pirate. Which, to be fair, they had been more often than not. Seeing Freeport’s take on the history would be interesting.

Eventually the tracking spell led us to a large circular chamber at the center of the museum. The room was dominated by a huge sculpture showing a mix of ponies, zebras, gryphons, and changelings standing on an improvised barricade of furniture. I also noticed we were right next to a cafe and gift shop, and couldn’t help briefly wondering if the sword we’d come all this way to find would be for sale as a cheap keepsake.

However, the spell led me to a large display case holding a bunch of the personal possessions of somepony named Torch Charger. Most of it didn’t look like anything special—even the set of armor looked like it had been assembled out of cast-offs from a dozen different blacksmiths—but the sword...

Luna grinned as her eyes locked onto it. “Ah, there it is. The blade and hilt might be somewhat altered from the classic style of Selerika, likely in hopes of throwing us off, but I would know my work anywhere.” Her smile shifted to a scowl as she looked the case over. “And it seems they have the gall to display my friend’s sword as some sort of ... trophy.”

I had a look at the display card, reading the words under my breath. “‘The sword known as Chainbreaker was forged by Ushabti the Great, who used it during the War of Zebrican Liberation. After his death it passed to his friend Mors Charger, remaining within the family until Torch The Last Charger used it during the liberation war against the Necrocrats. Upon Torch's death the sword passed into the custody of the museum, though occasionally falling into other hooves such as when Magus Sunset Shimmer used it to—’” I turned back to my princess. “It doesn’t sound like they even know it belonged to Silver Ankh. They just assumed Ushabti made it himself and went from there.”

Luna grunted, glowering at the case. “Regardless of what they might know now, it does not sit well with me that pirates would possess this weapon.”

“I bet not.” I knew it wasn’t exactly the same, but the idea of Shadow’s Armor being in a museum in some other country instead of in our family vault where it belonged would’ve made me livid. Of course, it was with Skunky for now instead of being in the vault, but ... whatever. “So, what's the plan?”

Luna scanned the room, then leaned a bit closer and dropped her voice to a careful whisper. “That is the question. I do not wish to leave the sword here, but we are very far from home. And we are but two ponies. I suppose we could always seek help from the embassy, but at that point it becomes a matter of state to be debated ‘tween diplomats. I have not come this far to merely put the matter into another’s hooves. I said that I would take back Silver Ankh’s sword, and that has not changed simply because it is on public display.”

Oh boy. Well, orders were orders. “If that’s what we’re gonna do, I have an idea.”

Luna regarded me with a raised eyebrow. “Do tell.”

I took a moment to mentally line everything up—you don’t present a princess with a half-baked plan. “Let’s go through the museum like tourists. I’ve got enough trackers on hoof to pick up movement in this exhibit and a few of the closest ones, then track a path to and from the entrance. Once night falls, I can passively track anyone who comes near them. That would let us get in, avoid any patrolling security, then get the sword and get out.”

Luna frowned. “And the wards that might be over this place?”

“We can scan them while we go through the museum today.” I shrugged. “I doubt it'll be much. The place is just a museum. Even if they’re heavy-duty, I doubt it’ll measure up to the traps in Silver Ankh’s tomb, so...” I left the obvious unspoken. An alicorn princess could handle whatever magical security the museum had. “It’s your call of course, Princess. I’m just trying to offer some advice on how we could do this if you want to.”

Luna tapped her chin, nodding slowly. “We should at least do some preliminary reconnaissance. That will tell us much more about the viability of the rest of your suggestion.”

I was about to answer when something went crunch right behind me. I whirled around, prepared to defend my princess against incoming assassins ... only to find myself face to face with a mint-green pegasus who had one hoof buried in a bag of potato chips. “Aw, c’mon,” she grumbled. “Was that really the last crisp? I could’ve sworn...” She looked up from her bag, seeming to notice me there for the first time. “‘Sup?”

Princess Luna regarded the stranger with a raised eyebrow. “‘‘Sup?’”

“Short for ‘What’s up?’” the pegasus answered. “Means hello, along with an invitation to share any relevant information about recent events.”

I made sure I was standing in between this new pony and the Princess, though I tried not to be too obvious about it. “Can I help you?”

“I’m sure you can,” she answered. “I mean, obviously if I sat around thinking about it all day I’m sure I could come up with some way a modestly talented unicorn could help me out. Especially one who’s in the royal guards. That’s gotta come with a lot of useful skills.” She shrugged. “But then, if I dragged you around trying to find some way for you to help me, that’d mean taking you away from your principal.” She snorted out an off-putting giggle. “Oh ... you don’t even know why that’s funny. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah. Anyway, I was kinda curious about why you two’re here. Or actually, I wasn’t curious, but my boss kinda is. Or at least, she will be once she finds out about it. Or I assume she would—which technically makes asses outta both of us, so sorry about that. Though really, there’s nothing wrong with being a donkey. Not unless you’re some kinda racist. You’re not, are you?”

While I struggled to figure out what the hay she was talking about, Luna seemed to have followed her well enough to be reasonably confident answering her. “No, we are not. And who is your master?”

“I don’t really have a master,” she answered. “’Cause I don’t do slavery. Didn’t you know that’s been illegal in Freeport for hundreds of years? S’kinda the whole point of the big liberation museum we’re standing in the middle of, you know? So yeah, no masters. But I do have a cool bacon-haired boss-mare.”

Princess Luna’s eyes narrowed. “What is your purpose here?”

The mare groaned and rolled her eyes. “Sheesh, I already said that. My boss wants to know—would want to know, whatever. The question is what a princess of Equestria is doing coming to one of our museums incognito. Makes a gal just a little bit curious about the what the deal is.”

Luna scoffed and shook her head. “So you know me? Well, I do not answer to some minion. If your leader wishes to know anything, she should show herself.”

“‘Minion’? Ouch. That's hurtful.” She sighed and he wings slumped overdramatically. “Why you gotta be so hurtful? Just ‘cause I’m not at the top of the food chain doesn’t mean I’m not a pony with feelings and emotions and a name and all that horseapples. Oh, and thanks for confirming you’re a princess. Was pretty sure when a pony our intel files say is a royal guard showed up along with a mare under a high level disguise spell, but ... well, we’re already all donkeys here, so no need to repeat what they say about assuming. Anyway, my boss is busy Archon-ing it up.”

Luna scoffed. “You play at words and give me nothing of substance. I have no use for this.” She stepped past me and started going around the strange mare, giving her a wide berth.

The odd green pegasus shrugged and stepped out of the way. “Just saying, a princess showing up incognito in a museum has me wondering all kinds of stuff. Be nice to know why. I mean, it's kinda rude to not even stop by the Archon's tower for a howdee-doo. Could lead to all kinds of crazy stories about some grand conspiracy or something. Does it have to do with the mole people living in the planet core who secretly control the world? That’s always a fun one. But yeah, if we could just know the truth, that’d stop any mole people stories.” She paused, then frowned suspiciously at us. “Unless you are working for the molemen.”

I’d had enough of this weirdo. “I’m sorry, who are you and what makes you think we owe you answers? For all we know, you're a lying panhandler or a con artist.”

“Didn’t I tell you my name? I could’ve sworn I ... weird. Must be getting old, mind’s playing tricks on me.” She cleared her throat and struck a bit of a pose. “Strumming Heartstrings, unofficial asker of unofficial questions and annoyer of royals for Her High Archon-ness Sunset Shimmer. Basically, the big boss of the place. Well, actually she kinda co-rules with the Council, but ... meh, boring internal politics, you don’t care about that. Or if you do, I probably shouldn’t tell you anything about it. Actually, forget I said anything. But just that last bit, don’t forget the rest of it, or else we’ll have to start the entire conversation back from the beginning, and that would just be awkward.”

Once more, Luna managed to follow her random babble a lot better than I could. “Then mayhaps I should speak with your archon.”

I wasn’t quite sure what to make of that decision considering I still wasn’t sure this Strumming wasn’t just some random lunatic who wandered in off the street, but she was princess. “Right behind you, Your Highness.”

Strumming shrugged. “Yeah, that’s an option too. To the boss-mare!” She started to lead the way out of the museum, but paused to shoot a sullen look over her shoulder. “Though really, I’m still hurting over the whole ‘minion’ thing.”

Luna regarded her levelly. “But that is what you are, is it not? You are an underling, a servant of the Archon.”

“She is my boss, but I prefer to think of myself as a friend and companion. ‘Minion’ kinda conjures the whole image of a weird hunchback with a lisp or those things from that one movie that everyone liked, until they got annoying and everyone hated them.” She paused at a garbage can to throw away her empty bag of potato chips. “Don’t suppose either of you have any crisps on you? I'm super-snacky, and I probably can’t afford to slow things down to restock. Since—you know, state business and all that rot.”

Luna scowled at her, her sharp tone making it clear she was just about out of patience with Strumming’s eccentricities. I sympathized. “Show us to the Archon, and then you may have your snacks. Do the people of Freeport know nothing of duty?”

“That’s kinda rude and judgmental. Anyway, I know all about duty.” Strumming shrugged as we stepped out into the street. “Besides, I’m technically not a native. Born and raised in Equestria. Used to work for your sister, actually.” She tossed an annoyed frown over her shoulder at Luna. “Celestia always had crisps for me whenever I asked her for some. See, things like this are why everypony likes her more than you.”

Princess Luna tensed up, then unleashed a glare that would’ve made most guards start quivering in their boots. “My sister is kinder than I, and willing to put up with the flippant behavior of minions who know not how to show deference to a princess.”

Strumming didn’t seem to care at all that a super-powerful immortal alicorn was glaring at her. “Again with the minion talk. Why you gotta be so hurtful?”

I did my best to glare at her as well, though if Luna’s didn’t work I doubted I would make any difference. However, maybe it was a good idea not to let her know that was getting under our skin. About the only reason I could think of for a pony to both bring up the whole Nightmare Moon thing and imply that Luna was still less popular than Celestia was to deliberately try to provoke her. I got a bit closer to her and murmured under my breath. “Best not to let her know she’s getting a rise out of you, Princess. Probably why she’s needling in the first place.”

Luna whispered back tightly. “So I should let her barbs pass unremarked? Sometimes a pony needs to be rebuked for their uncouth behavior. I cannot imagine my sister tolerated such antics while this mare was in her service.”

I knew I was stepping into hazardous territory, but I slightly contradicted my princess. “I don’t think she cares if you disapprove of her behavior, Highness.” In fact, she was probably going out of her way to get on our nerves.

“Then I shall have words with this Archon once we meet her,” Luna answered tersely. “And ensure that she knows how her servants treat distinguished guests.”

I was pretty sure the Archon had some idea of what Strumming was like already, but I really didn’t want to push things to the point of outright disagreeing with or questioning my princess. So I instead kept my mouth shut as Strumming led us through Freeport’s street and up to a large black tower surrounded by a couple squads of soldiers, a pair of unicorns in what looked like an imitation of Equestrian magus robes, and several golems. Strumming just waved to all the security and walked right through it, so I guess that did at least prove that she worked for this Archon after all.

Strumming continued into the tower, passing by several administrators and other civil servants. Eventually she got up to an office with two huge golems manning the front door, along with a desk occupied by a changeling wearing more of those knock-off magus robes. It was hard not to stare at the huge constructs. Each of the bipedal monstrosities was easily three meters tall, and considering they were made of metal probably weighed several tons. One carried a massive sword that could doubtless slice a pony in half with a single blow, while the other had a halberd that looked equally deadly. The bipedal design was a bit odd, but the arms did make it much easier for them to swing their large melee weapons.

Strumming trotted right past the massive guardians, grinning and waving to the magus. “Hey Facon, crisp me up!”

The changeling barely even glanced up from whatever project she was working on, levitating a bag of potato chips over to Strumming. “You really need to knock first. This one’s practicing its runework, and one interruption coul...” She trailed off as she looked back up at us again, her eyes narrowing as she realized Strumming wasn’t alone. “Oh.”

Strumming snatched the bag of chips, smirking at the changeling’s gobsmacked expression. “Got guests for the boss. Keep an eye on them and make sure they don’t steal the silverware or try to unleash eternal night or anything while I’m letting the boss know what’s up.” She tore open the bag and started noisily munching on her chips.

The bug stared at both of us. “Unleash eternal... Heartstrings-mare, who are these ponies?”

Strumming shrugged. “Nobody important. Just Princess Luna and...” She paused, looking me over. “I didn’t catch your name, so I’m just gonna go with Minion.” She turned back to Luna. “See? It’s hurtful when you’re on the receiving end.”

I was briefly tempted to try out that silence spell Sparkler knew and see if it would work on the world’s most annoying pegasus. Yes, Strumming was actually managing to top Skunky. That takes a lot of hard work.

The changeling’s jaw dropped as she stared at Princess Luna, then dropped even further when Her Highness dropped her magical disguise. Not like there was much point in keeping it up after Strumming had outed her. After several seconds the bug managed to stammer out, “Th-The Dark Pony?! Here?”

“Yup,” Strumming answered with an annoying grin. Then she turned back to Luna. “This is Magus Kukri Doo, the Archon’s personal assistant. No calling her ‘minion’. Or Facon, that’s my name for her, you can’t use it.” Having gotten the last word, she trotted through the secure door.

The changeling—Kukri, stared at us for several seconds, then cleared her throat. “Um, may this one offer you refreshment?”

“We are fine,” Luna answered tersely.

After a couple minutes of awkward silence Strumming trotted back out. “The Archon will see you now. You can feel free to to judge your importance on the basis of how long she kept you waiting. She wanted to do a couple magic projects and teach herself to play the ukelele before getting around to you, but I convinced her to be a bit more diplomatic.”

Luna calmly stepped past her, ignoring the blather leaving Strumming’s mouth and stepping into the Archon’s office. Archon Shimmer’s desk certainly looked big and impressive, and the raised platform it sat on ensured that she could look a pony Princess Luna’s size in the eye. The massive bookshelves behind her lent the place a scholarly air, which was a bit offset by the armor the Archon had on underneath her especially elaborate magus robes. The Archon pointedly set aside a stack of paperwork as we entered. “Princess Luna. This is an unexpected pleasure.”

“Likewise,” Luna answered neutrally. “My sister has told me quite a bit about you.”

“I’m sure she has.” Sunset waved a hoof towards Strumming. “Send Kukri in, and see that we aren’t disturbed.” I silently thanked her as the irritating mare trotted out, still noisily munching her crisps. “I’ve heard quite a bit already, but what brings you by?”

Luna got straight to the point. “I am here to retrieve something that belongs to a friend of mine. The blade you know as Chainbreaker, which is in truth the sword of Silver Ankh, stolen from its rightful owner by a warlock known as Ushabti.”

“That’s Torch Charger’s sword!” the changeling magus blurted out. “It’s a relic of Freeport.”

The Archon was a bit calmer about it, restraining herself to a single raised eyebrow. “One of our most important national treasures.”

“The most important,” Kukri insisted. “It’s especially important to this one’s family and the Strikers as one of the last remnants of the Charger clan.”

Luna scowled both of them. “It was stolen from the tomb of my friend, its rightful owner, late Pharaoh of Selerika.”

“That’s news to me,” the Archon answered calmly. “When did this happen?”

“Near nine hundred years ago,” Luna answered. “The necromancer Ushabti stole it from Pharaoh Ankh's tomb for nefarious ends.”

“Alongside the warlock Hidden Facts,” I added, assuming more details would back up our case. “Apparently they fought over the sword, and Ushabti came here. And apparently became known as Ushabti the Great after that.”

“He played an important part in freeing the islands from occupation by the Zebrican Empire during the Morning Wars,” the Archon answered levelly. “Regardless of any past sins, I think that’s an accomplishment worth celebrating.”

Kukri nodded emphatically. “This one doesn’t care about what one of Chainbreaker’s wielder’s did in the past. The sword’s history is beyond such things. In addition to the war with Zebrica, there is the blade’s involvement in liberating the islands from necromancer rule and ending slavery in Freeport. It’s called ‘Chainbreaker’ for a reason.”

“And that’s just a sampling of the sword’s history and what it means to us,” the Archon concluded. “I’m sorry if it might have belonged to someone else nine hundred years ago, but it’s been ours ever since then. Presuming you can actually prove your claims, I might be willing to look into the possibility of some form of reparations to Silver Ankh’s descendants. Of course, as long as we’re digging up ancient history, Freeport does have several outstanding claims from Equestria’s enthusiastic naval patrols a few centuries ago. Regardless, the sword itself belongs to Freeport, and will not be leaving.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed, and I heard her teeth clench. “So you claim it by conquest? It is Freeport’s trophy to be displayed before all?”

“It’s been a symbol of our nation and part of our history for generations,” the Archon answered without missing a beat. “Whatever history the sword might have had before it came into our possession, it’s now tied to Freeport.”

“Then it is not something you would readily part with?” Luna demanded. “Even after knowing what I have told you about the illegitimacy of Freeport’s claim?”

“Yes,” Archon Shimmer shot back. “Something that happened almost a thousand years ago isn’t enough to invalidate everything that’s happened since then. Especially when, so far as I’m aware, Selerika doesn’t have a royal family left to put through any claim on the sword.”

“As the Selerikan crown was absorbed by Equestria, their properties and legal claims naturally fall to myself and my sister,” Luna countered. “Freeport is in possession of stolen Equestrian property.”

“So far as I’m aware, the statute of limitations on theft is much shorter than nine hundred years.” The Archon crossed her forelegs over her chest. “Not to mention that you’ve yet to actually prove that Chainbreaker is, in fact, stolen.”

Luna scowled at her. “It seems we are at an impasse. Very well, there are means by which we can resolve this matter.”

“Chainbreaker is not for sale,” Kukri cut in. “Or trade, exchange or anything else you might suggest. It’s right where it belongs.”

“I was not about to suggest your pride could be sold like some mere trinket,” Luna answered, drawing herself up to her full height. “I suggest a contest of martial skill to settle the matter and put an end to this dispute.”

The Archon sighed and shook her head. “I’m not interested in starting a competition over something I already have, and already have a legal right to.”

Luna grimaced. “So that is the way of it? I cannot deny that Silver Ankh’s sword has been in Freeport’s possession for a long time, thus I will not demand that blade be the lone wager in this contest.” She closed her eyes and concentrated, then drew Nightfall out of thin air. The Archon and her assistant stiffened at the presence of a weapon, but with deliberate slowness she placed the sword on Archon Shimmer’s desk. “Nightfall, my blade and the twin of the sword you know as Chainbreaker. Equal stakes, would you not agree?”

I wasn’t sure what I’d been expecting the princess to suggest but it certainly wasn’t that. Putting her own sword on the line was... I stepped up to her side and carefully whispered, “Princess, are you sure you want to…?”

“Yes,” she answered simply.

Oh. Well. That kind of settled that. Not like I could debate the merits of a royal decision, especially when we were in the middle of a meeting with a foreign leader.

The Archon frowned down at the sword. “Princess Luna, that’s a very unexpected and fair offer, but I’m really not interested in having your sword. It’s yours. Chainbreaker is ours.” She sighed and slumped back in her chair. “Look, the sword is in good hooves, if you were worried about some evil necromancer having it. What good would it do in Equestria, as part of some royal collection? In Freeport, it’s a symbol of hope and freedom for thousands of ponies.”

Luna scowled and took her blade back, sheathing it in whatever pocket dimension she’d been keeping it in before. “A symbol of hope and freedom, you say? I have trouble believing that in a place such as Freeport.”

Archon Shimmer frowned at her. “What precisely do you mean, Your Highness?” Her assistant was much more direct, scowling in a way that prominently displayed her changeling fangs. I made a point of placing myself in position to intercept the bug if it tried anything.

Luna drew herself up as regally as possible. “Freeport has never been a nation representing freedom or hope. It is naught but a hive of scum and villainy, where the worst elements of society were rejected from every other nation congregate. When I learned that one of my sister’s students had assumed leadership of the nation I dared to hope that I might find someone more accomodating of Equestria’s needs, as with Cadance in the Crystal Empire.”

“I’m not Cadenza,” the Archon answered tersely. “While I have immense love and respect for Celestia, Freeport is not a vassal or subject nation of Equestria. And we don’t give up our national treasures just because a foreign princess demands them. I would also suggest you not judge a nation on the basis of the reputation it had a thousand years ago. A great deal can change in that time.” The Princess started to open her mouth to respond, but Archon Shimmer cut her off. “I think we’re done here, princess. Kukri will show you out.”

The changeling dutifully stepped forward. “If you would please follow this one.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed, but she didn’t press the issue. “Very well then. Lead on.”

I followed my princess and the bug out, in silence even more awkward than the one from when we’d been waiting to meet the Archon. As we left the central office Strumming grinned and fired off a cheeky salute at us. When Luna reapplied her disguise spell the pegasus idly called out, “Oooh, do black coat with red and black mane. Never seen that before.”

Once we were outside, Kukri finally broke the silence. “This one hopes you enjoy your trip home. It can suggest several captains who could take you as soon as the tide turns.” Then she slammed the doors shut with rather more force than strictly necessary.

Neither of us said anything until we were well clear of the Archon’s tower and out of earshot of her guards. Then I tentatively broke the ice. “So... that happened.”

“In truth, I am surprised,” Luna murmured. “The populace of Freeport have always been a greedy and craven lot. I did not expect them to place so much worth on a blade, no matter how magnificent. Likely something lies under the surface here. Mayhaps this Archon has some greater purpose in mind for the sword.”

I grunted and didn’t contradict my princess. Personally, I could believe that she just didn’t want to give the sword up if it really was that much of a cultural treasure. I certainly wasn’t an expert on Freeport’s internal politics, but giving away one of the nation’s big cultural artifacts to a foreign power would probably cause her all kinds of internal problems. She’d made a big point of how Freeport wasn’t an Equestrian puppet, which made me think that if she had given us the sword that would be the story every single one of political opponents would start spinning.

That said ... no arguing with the princess. “What’s the plan now, Your Highness? Do you still want to make a try for the sword, or...?”

“Or what, Lieutenant?” Luna demanded. “Go home empty-hooved, leaving this treasure in the hands of pirates and an ungrateful whelp? I think not. I believe this Archon Sunset does not wish to appear weak by giving up the sword, thus her reluctance to budge over the matter. However, if she thinks to make a fool of me...” The princess turned to me with a savage grin. “While the Archon and her minions will no doubt expect it now, I intend to take the blade regardless. Let them try to stop me.”

Her eagerness was infectious, and I found myself smiling as well. “Good thing I already left a few trackers next to the sword. Should we go back to put a few more, or just wait for nightfall and make our move? I know they might suspect we’ll try, but if they see us casing the joint...”

“I would prefer not to remove any doubt as to our intentions,” Luna agreed. “And of course, we will need to make our move well after the facilities close to the public. There were children touring the museum when last we visited. Even if the delay might make things more difficult for us, there are certain standards that must be upheld.”

I nodded along. “Yeah, obviously. And maybe if you change up your disguise and put one on me we could throw them off and do a bit more recon. At the very least, waiting a few hours will give us a bit more time to make arrangements.” We certainly wanted to be out of Freeport ASAP after taking back the sword—even if they didn’t suspect we might make a try for it, they’d certainly have us as their prime suspects when it turned up missing one day after Luna tried to negotiate for it. It would be a very good idea to be long gone before then.

It would probably cause a bit of a diplomatic mess, but Luna wouldn’t be doing this if she didn’t think she could weather the storm. As the Freeporters had pointed out when we asked for it back, possession was nine-tenths of the law. As for them trying to steal it back from Luna’s personal collection in Canterlot Palace ... that was gonna be a lot harder than robbing a museum, and they didn’t have any immortal millenia-old alicorns to help them do the job.

“Indeed so,” Luna murmured, seeming to have guessed what was on my mind. “In the meantime, let us plan...”

We made our move in the dead of the night. The moon was particularly dim, which I had to think wasn’t a coincidence considering who my partner in crime was. Part of me thought we should get some help from someone with actual experience in breaking and entering, but when I’d tried to carefully broach the topic Luna said she didn’t want to involve anyone else.

She was probably right about that, considering the way she used her magic to make the shadows wrap around both of us as we snuck in. That royal princess magic would be more than enough to make up for any little things that went wrong. When we ran across one of the night security guards she put him into a deep dream-filled sleep without any visible effort. I quickly picked the guy up and made him comfortable on one of the benches, so it would look like he’d fallen asleep on his own instead of being hit by a spell.

Then we were back in the large central chamber. The huge sculpture in the middle of the room looked downright creepy now that most of the lights were off. It was hard not to feel like all the statues were watching us. Judging us. Gotta admit, having Torch Charger looming over us while we tried to steal his sword was...

No. It wasn’t Torch’s sword, it was Luna’s. We weren’t doing anything wrong, we were just taking back what belonged to her. There was no reason for me to feel guilty. I took a deep breath, shook off any lingering doubts, and did my duty to my princess. “Looks clear.”

“So it does.” Luna nodded to herself, then stepped up to the display case. “Let us be done with this and away quickly. Watch for any guards.” Her horn lit up as she scanned the case, and after a few seconds a hint of a smile pulled at her lips. “How rudimentary. I would have expected better out of one of my sister’s students.” Her horn flashed a few more times, and I felt the magical defenses fall away.

Luna’s smile grew into a satisfied smirk. “All too easy.” She carefully opened up the display case, moving as slowly as possible so the hinges wouldn’t squeak. Then she reached out to claim the sword for herself.

Her hooves passed right through it. Luna’s eyes shot wide open as she realized she’d been duped.

With a flash of bright light Archon Shimmer appeared in the room, accompanied by Kukri and Strumming. The real Chainbreaker was sheathed in her side. She strode up to us, shooting an unreadable look Luna’s way. “I was hoping you wouldn’t show up.”

Luna slowly turned to face her, keeping her expression carefully blank. “I have found that life has a way of causing a great many disappointments.”

“I’ve noticed,” the Archon answered dryly. “Now then, I’d suggest you leave right now, and for your sister’s sake I’ll forget about this.”

“I am not leaving without that sword,” Luna shot back.

“You know that’s not happening,” the Archon scowled at her. “Last chance. Walk away.”

I bit my lip, and tried to think of what we should do. The only way Luna and I could get the sword at this point would be to attack the Archon herself. That ... was way too far. It was the kind of thing that could start a war, assuming Celestia didn’t insist we immediately return the sword along with profuse apologies and a bunch of diplomatic concessions. I took a deep breath, then whispered. “Princess, maybe we should...” Luna waved me down before I could even finish the sentence. Oh well. I tried.

Princess Luna turned to the Archon with a fierce grin. “Do you really think I will leave without taking what is mine? Whatever the cost?”

Kukri stepped up, glaring at my princess. “This one did some research after the Dark Pony left. You mentioned that Hidden Facts and Ushabti collaborated to steal the sword, correct?”

Luna nodded regally. “It is as I said.”

Kukri smirked in a way that prominently displayed her fangs. “This would be Hidden Facts, the notorious cultist of Nightmare Moon?” She gave that a second to sink in. “This one wonders how he knew where to find the tomb where the sword lay, and how to bypass the traps within. A tomb whose location only the Dark Pony knew...”

I flinched. My own early research had turned up the same connection. Or at least, it had started to before I hastily cut off that line of inquiry.

Luna’s reaction was pretty much exactly why I hadn’t dug deeper. “I AM NOT NIGHTMARE MOON!” she roared, her voice echoing within the room enough to make loose furniture rattle and knock dust off the ceiling. “I WOULD NEVER BETRAY MY FRIEND!” A raw, unfocused blast of power accompanied her Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice, blowing Kukri back.

“Oh horseapples.” I realized a second later Strumming and I had spoken almost simultaneously.

The Archon went to her fallen assistant’s side, making sure she wasn’t anything worse than stunned. Then her eyes snapped over to Luna. “Okay then.” She shot a fireball Luna’s way, while with a huge crash the two massive golems I’d seen outside her office earlier came charging into the room.

Luna shifted in an inky black cloud of stars and slipped away from the attack. When she reformed she was beyond furious, glaring at at the Archon. “You dare attack a princess of Equestria?! Insolent wretch!” She unleashed a blast of pure darkness at Archon Shimmer.

I was expecting that to be the end of it, but the Archon held up a single hoof. A foot short of her the beam stopped short as if it had hit a solid wall, breaking into half a dozen smaller blasts that wrapped around a spherical barrier protecting her. Once the attack faded, Archon Shimmer smirked at my princess, thought I noticed her outstretched hoof was shaking a bit. “What’s the matter? Is that all you got?”

“Not even close!” Luna snarled and unleashed another attack, but this time the Archon met her blast with one of her own. Then came a fireball, followed a fraction of a second later by a wave of razor sharp ice shards. Luna countered each one, spells blurring out of her horn as they exchanged attacks.

While the two of them exchanged non-stop spellfire, the Archon’s golems closed in. Luna’s eyes widened as she spotted one of them winding up to cleave her in half. She drew Nightfall from its pocket dimension, easily catching the golem’s blade on her own sword despite the fact that Nightfall was a fraction of the other sword’s size. The other golem closed in on her back, swinging low with its halberd. Luna easily hopped over the attack, then shifted the angle of her blade to go on the offensive.

However, the Archon smirked, and I saw a thin beam of energy shoot between her horn and the golem. A second later a fireball emerged from a ruby set in the golem’s forehead, almost point-blank to Princess Luna.

Luna’s eyes widened in shock, and she threw up a shield with barely a moment to spare. The sheer force of the attack sent her flying back, and although she managed to land on her hooves, they cut grooves into the tile floors. I also noticed a few wisps of smoke coming up from her mane and tail.

If the attack actually bothered her, she didn’t let it show. In fact, she was smiling. “If thou dost wish to play hard, then play hard we shall!”

I noticed several smaller bipedal golems that looked sort of like insectoid oversized chickens come scampering up behind Luna, intent on flanking her. Before I could call out a warning Luna stabbed her sword backwards, perfectly skewering the golem right before it could chomp at her with jutting tusked maw. A spell accompanied by a dramatic wave of her hoof brought down a wave of indigo energy that speared a second golem to the floor, and she followed up by freeing Nightfall from her first victim and easily cleaving another of the golems in half.

Kukri the changeling magus groaned, staring at the remnants of what were presumably her own golems. She started to take a step forward, until the Archon held up a hoof warning her off. Kukri grimaced, but slowly nodded.

Kukri’s abortive attempt to get involved in the fight reminded me of a rather salient fact. “I should help Luna.”

Strumming scoffed. “You really wanna jump straight into the middle of that?” She pointed to Luna and the Archon as they began exchanging another flurry of spells. “You saw how that went for Kukri, and you don’t have a bunch of golems to take the hits for you.”

Much as I hated to admit it, she had a point. Princess Luna and Archon Shimmer were throwing spells at each other so fast I could barely follow the action, and every single one of them was way stronger than anything I could ever try. Odds were if I tried to help Luna, I’d barely make any difference, and probably make things harder for her when she had to protect me from whatever the Archon did in response. That was doubtless why Archon Shimmer had warned off her own backup from getting involved in the fight.

This was what they called a Code Gold in the Guard. Something where the best thing we could do was just stay out of the princess’s way and let her handle things. They tried to word the official regulations to sound a bit nicer, with talk about dealing with secondary theaters and stuff like that, but the bottom line was that I was way out of my depth. By simple virtue of lasting more than five seconds in a fight with Luna, Archon Shimmer had to be a heavy hitter. Hay, from what Luna said she’d studied under Celestia herself.

Luna snarled as she used Nightfall to swiftly block attacks from both of Shimmer’s golems, then threw up a wall of ice to cut them off from their master. The two massive brutes immediately got to work smashing it down, but they wouldn’t be getting through anywhere near fast enough. Luna took advantage of the opening to charge Archon Shimmer with a fierce battle cry, countering her spells as she closed to blade range.

The Archon drew Chainbreaker and tried to match her blade for blade, but it quickly became apparent that she was grossly outclassed by the princess. Before long she had to start mixing in shield and teleportation spells to avoid getting sliced in half.

Luna grinned as she pressed her advantage “Surrender thy blade and I will grant clemency!” She slammed her blade against Sunset’s, forcing it back until Nightfall was inches away from the Archon’s eyes. “Is this the limit of thy strength?”

Archon Shimmer managed to force the blade to the side, though it left a nasty gash over her brow. As soon as the blade was clear she teleported away, unleashing a fire blast that reduced the ice wall blocking off her golems to rubble. She was breathing heavily and her mane was matted down around her face and neck by a combination of blood and sweat. Despite that, she tossed her mane out of her eyes and smirked defiantly. “I can do this all night long.”

The two golems charged in, making the entire room shake with the force of their footfalls. Luna neatly sidestepped as the halberd came crashing down where she’d been standing a fraction of a second ago, but she had to bring Nightfall up to catch the sword-golem’s blade. Then the ruby in the golem’s forehead flashed once more.

Luna snapped a shield into place with a moment’s thought. “Surely you didn’t think the same trick would work twice?”

Archon Shimmer appeared almost directly beneath her with a flash of light, well within her shield spell. “I didn’t.”

A flash of twinned black and white energy slammed into Luna at point-blank range, sending my princess flying. Luna crashed into the massive sculpture in center of room, sending several of the statues toppling and making a noticeable dent in the recreated barricade. The impact kicked up enough dust and debris that I lost sight of her for a few seconds, and almost started wondering if maybe she’d been...

Luna slowly climbed out of the remains of the statue, seemingly none the worse for the wear other than a few mussed patches on her coat. She grinned down at Sunset, stretching her wings. “Ah, that was a bracing warm-up. Just what I needed to get the blood flowing. Now then, shall we begin in earnest?”

I tried to follow her what she did next, but Luna moved so fast my eyes just couldn’t keep up with her. One second she was in the ruins of the statue, and the next she was behind Archon Shimmer. The Archon managed to just barely get a shield up in time, but Luna’s kick still sent her flying.

While the Archon recovered, the golems closed in on Luna. As the first golem took a swing at her with its halberd she met the attack with Nightfall, the blade crackling as she channeled her power into it. The first strike knocked the polearm wide, and the followup clove through the haft, turning it into nothing more than a damaged hatchet.

She followed up with a series of vicious blows at the sword golem. Archon Shimmer tried to hit her with several more energy blasts, but every single one of them was blocked by either a shield spell or Nightfall itself. After several attacks forced the golem’s blade high Luna made her real move, and bucked the golem in the knee. The golem collapsed as its leg went out from underneath it, she reversed Nightfall in her grap and brought the blade’s hilt down on the golem’s chestplate in the murder-stroke. That put a noticeable dent in the chest armor, and she followed up with a vicious thrust at the new weak point. Nightfall bit deep into the golem with a shriek of tortured metal as the blade penetrated into the golem’s core.

The golem didn’t go completely down from the hit, but after Luna withdrew her blade it staggered about like a drunken cadet. It took a swing at Luna that she slapped aside with contemptuous ease before locking its blade and forcing it out of the golem’s grip.

Archon Shimmer snarled as Luna disarmed her second golem. “Buck it, I don’t need my golems! I can take you all by myself!” She lashed out with a blast of raw fire, followed up immediately by a spear of solid ice, then a beam of light followed by several daggers of pure darkness, and then a couple other things I’d only ever read about in books.

Luna countered or blocked everything the Archon threw at her, using chunks of the wrecked sculpture to block whatever her shield spells or Nightfall couldn’t catch. There was no was way the Archon could keep up her offensive for long; nopony could possibly throw that many heavy-hitting spells that fast without getting worn out. With both golems down it was a forgone conclusion; Luna was gonna win.

Strumming seemed to have reached the same conclusion, sighing heavily. “Oh well, it was always a longshot for the Boss to win this one.” At Kukri’s reproachful glare she shrugged helplessly. “Oh come on, Facon. The boss is good, but she’s fighting Luna.”

“It’s a bit of a mismatch,” I agreed.

“Exactly.” Strumming reluctantly nodded along with me. “Only way she was ever gonna win is if she got lucky or pulled off a really sneaky trick. Or if her royal mooniness screwed up in a big way.”

Kukri smirked knowingly. “Or if the Hearstrings-mare tips the scales in her favor.”

I was about to ask what she meant by that when I felt the suppression ring slip over my horn, cutting off my magic. Strumming’s wing blurred, and suddenly there was a knife at my throat.

Oh.

Oh horseapples! Why hadn’t I seen that coming?

Kukri looked Strumming and me over with a dry smirk. “This one’s spent too much time around you, Heartstrings-mare.”

“Am I getting predictable?” Strumming asked, affecting wounded pride. “Damn, I really gotta up my game.” She shifted her attention back to the fight though the knife at my throat never wavered. “Hey! Cease-fire, I need a word with Princess Moonbutt!” She waited until both of them had stopped slinging spells at each other, and Luna’s eyes widened when she saw my predicament. “Good, got your attention. Anyway, we both know it’s probably a bluff, but please just surrender and don’t make things awkward by calling it.”

No way I was letting that happen. “Don’t worry about me, Princess! Kick their plots!”

Strumming groaned and muttered under her breath. “You are a horrible hostage. Stop trying to be all noble and martyr-y. Or actually, maybe don’t. I bet that’s the kinda thing that makes Luna more inclined to save you.”

Luna glared at Strumming, her lips curling up in a snarl. “Thou wouldst slay a prisoner? Hast thou no honor?”

Strumming shrugged. “According to just about everypony who knows me ... nope. I mean, I did kinda more-or-less defect to Freeport. Well, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but I’ll spare you details. Bottom line, used to work for your sister, and look what I’m doing now.” She smirked. “I’ve come a long way. Hope the family’s proud.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “Then why should I believe thou wouldst honor my surrender? Thou couldst try and cut both our throats the moment we were helpless.”

The Archon stepped forward. “You have my word, as Princess Celestia’s student.”

Luna frowned and was silent for several seconds, then said. “Release the lieutenant, and I swear that I shall sheath my blade and withdraw in peace.” I growl entered her voice as she added, “And by the stars in the sky and the moon itself, you have my word as a princess of Equestria. For if thou dost harm her, my vengeance shall be swift and terrible, and thou wilt wish that I only desired Chainbreaker.”

Strumming shrugged uncaringly. “Yeah, but she’ll still be dead. So yield already.”

No. No bucking way. I wasn’t gonna let my very first real mission as a royal guard end with Luna surrendering to another nation because I was an idiot who let myself get caught. “Don’t do it, Princess! You’re more important than me!”

Luna ignored me. “Does your word mean anything, Archon Sunset Shimmer?”

“Yes, it does,” the Archon answered tersely. “I swear on all the love I bear for your sister, no harm will come to either of you. I just want this fight over with, and you out of Freeport.”

“And do you believe my word bears equal weight?” Luna demanded.

The Archon scowled at her. “Considering you came into my realm on false pretenses, tried to steal one of our national treasures when I wouldn't give it to you, and then attacked one of my oldest and closest friends, not to mention the fact that you apparently helped get the sword stolen in the first place and once tried to murder your own sister ... not really.”

I could hear the princess’ teeth grinding against each other, but she didn’t try to argue the point. “I swear to abide by the terms of our agreement and leave Freeport at once—without the sword that is rightfully mine, but with my lieutenant unharmed. You have my word as Princess of Equestria, and as sister to the mare who you claim to love.”

The Archon stared at her for several seconds, then grunted and nodded. “Fine. I’ll have you escorted to the docks. I’m sure you’ll understand I want to make sure you’re gone for good. And you can be certain Celestia's hearing all about this.”

Luna glared at her. “Agreed. I already intended to tell my sister of your actions as soon as I returned to Equestria.”

“Then we have a deal.” The Archon nodded to Strumming, and the knife left my throat. A second later the suppression ring came off as well.

Luna gave me a quick once-over to ensure I hadn’t been hurt. “Come, Lieutenant. We are leaving Freeport at once. Despite what some parties might think, I am a mare of my word.”

“Can’t leave soon enough,” I grumbled in agreement, trotting after my princess as she began marching as regally as she could towards the docks.

Eclipsed

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The return to Equestria hadn’t quite gone the way I’d imagined. Princess Celestia had been waiting for us when we got back to the royal palace in Canterlot, and she’d immediately taken Luna back to her chambers for a private conversation. I had no idea what they were saying, but I’d caught one or two muffled bits of raised voices. Maybe it was just Luna accidently slipping into the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice, and not the two of them arguing. Yeah, that was probably it.

The two Solar Guards who normally sat outside Celestia’s quarters exchanged a look, then pointedly moved a bit further down the hall, out of earshot of the doors. I probably should’ve joined them, but I felt like I ought to stay close at hoof just in case Luna needed me. Besides ... this was kind of my mess too. I couldn’t just walk away because things were a bit awkward.

While I was waiting, I spotted a familiar face walking down the corridor towards me. The armor was new (or rather, extremely old), but the skunk-striped mane was never gonna change. I waved listlessly to my sister. “Hey Storm. What’s up?”

“Hello.” She settled down next to me. “We were in the area, and Her Highness heard you encountered some difficulty on your last mission. I thought you might like to see a friendly face in light of that.”

“Right.” I shot a weak smirk her way. “So who were you planning on sending by to be the friendly face?”

I caught a brief flicker of annoyance passing through her eyes, which helped my mood a bit. Messing with Skunky was always good for that.

Storm sighed in that way she always did when she thought I was being stupid or unreasonable, and put a hoof on my shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Do you wish to talk about what happened?”

I mentally groaned at her stupidly formal way of talking. Anypony else would’ve said something like ‘You wanna talk about it?’, but that sort of speech was just too common for Lady Skunk. Shadow, she got on my nerves sometimes. “What’s there to talk about? We failed.”

“Failed?” Storm prompted.

I grimaced and tried to come up with a good way to explain. Stupid Skunky getting all nosy and bugging me about stuff I really didn’t wanna talk about. “It’s nothing major. Princess Luna just didn’t get what we set out to get.”

Skunky frowned at me, which made her look even more like a stinky rodent. “Nothing major, yet you are clearly out of sorts. How can I help?”

“I don’t know.” I shot a look at the armor she was wearing. Shadow’s Armor. “I don’t suppose I could borrow that for a bit?”

Skunky hesitated, then slowly shook her head. “When last you attempted to claim it, Shadow judged you unworthy.”

I scoffed and rolled my eyes. “Yeah, well, from what I heard about it you only got to use it by exploiting a loophole. And didn’t your Princess Twilight change how the Armor decides who’s allowed to wear it since then?”

The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. Things would’ve gone differently in Freeport if I’d had Shadow’s Armor. Hay, I could’ve made a difference, instead of just being stuck on the sidelines and then getting turned into a Shadow-damned hostage that Luna had to end up surrendering to keep safe. Sure, Skunky might’ve needed it once or twice, but while I’d been off fighting in Freeport she’d been sitting around helping her princess organize a basement. “You’re not the only one who needs it. What makes you so worthy all the time?”

Instead of actually answering me, Storm just let out another one of those ‘My sister is being stupid’ sighs. “Star, can we not do this?”

“Fine, fine,” I snapped. A second later I realized I was starting to sound way too pissed off at her, which just justified her treating me like I was being stupid and unreasonable. “Sorry. Things ... we had it. I had it. I had her back through the whole trip, but at the end of it she came back empty-hooved because of me. I let her down.” I groaned and told her the story. “We had to throw down with a group of Freeporters to get her relic back: a damn bug, a pegasus who says she used to be EIS, and one of the strongest unicorns I’ve ever seen. Like, she went hoof-to-hoof with Princess Luna and held her own for a few minutes. Luna was gonna win it, but then the bug and the spook took me hostage.” I grimaced, my head hanging at the memory. “Princess Luna stopped fighting, and we were pretty much kicked out of Freeport.”

“How did you get captured?” Storm asked, wrapping a wing around me.

I grunted, mostly annoyed at myself as I remembered it. “I was watching the fight. It was so stupid, but I mean, who could blame me? It’s not every day you see a princess throwing down with someone who’s almost in their weight class. I was so busy watching I let unknowns get close in an active combat zone, and...” I mimicked holding a knife to my own throat. “That was it. So much for making a good impression on my first big mission with the Princess.”

Storm listened carefully, then asked another one of her probing questions. “And what prompted the Princess to go to Freeport and start a fight with these individuals over a relic?”

“Because it belongs to her,” I answered simply. “Well, indirectly. It was looted from her friend’s tomb a few centuries ago by Nightmare cultists and then bounced around until a few Freeporters laid their own claim to it. Since the royal family Her Highness was friends with died out, the sword reverted to her.”

Skunky focused in on the most awkward part of the story. “This blade was stolen by servants of Nightmare Moon? That ... does rather complicate the entire matter. Especially if she had any direct involvement in the matter.”

I grimaced and reluctantly nodded. “She never said for sure one way or the other, but it sure sounded like they had help from her directly. They knew stuff that only she could’ve told them, unless it’s just an implausibly big coincidence.” I sighed and ran a hoof through my mane. “If I had to guess, it sounds like Princess Luna wanted to reclaim it to set things right as much as making sure they didn’t get to hold onto a really nice sword.”

“Ah,” Storm said as if that explained everything. “So it was a matter of redemption.”

“In part, yeah,” I agreed, my shoulders slumping as the full implications sank in. “So now I not only dropped the ball in the fight, I derailed her attempt to redeem herself.”

Storm shook her head. “No, that is not the problem. I think you forgot one of the most important rules: it is a royal guard’s duty to protect her princess from any possible threat. Sometimes that includes protecting the princess from herself.”

I frowned at her. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I thought my remark clear enough,” Storm answered levelly. “From your description, your princess had her judgment compromised. There are few things that can undermine a pony’s judgement as much as guilt, and Princess Luna has no shortage of that.”

I groaned and buried my face in my hooves. “Shadow, you sound like Dad. Look, even if you're right—and you’re not—that sword’s still a powerful relic that belongs to Princess Luna. She doesn’t need to be emotionally compromised or anything to want to take back something that belongs to her.”

“True,” Skunky conceded. “However, it is equally possible that she was blinded by guilt over her actions as Nightmare Moon.”

“She was fine,” I growled. “I’m the one who screwed up.”

“I do not agree,” Skunky insisted.

I’d had just about enough of her and her stupid opinions. “What would you know? You weren’t there! This is a little different than planning for a panic attack because the library’s books are all alphabetized instead of being sorted by the Royal Canterlot Library system! I know what I was doing, Storm, and I know what I saw!”

Skunky crossed her forelegs over her chest. “Do not bring Princess Twilight into this. I was simply pointing out a number of relevant facts.”

“No you’re not!” I snapped. “It’s just your opinion on a mission you weren’t there for with a princess you barely know! It’s not like I asked you for your stupid opinion anyway!”

Storm groaned and ran a hoof down her face. “I did not come here to argue with you.”

“No, just tell me how to do my job!”

“Star, I was just trying to—”

“I DON’T CARE!” I roared at her. “I don’t care what you’re trying to do, you’re not helping! You’re just being a big stupid skunk like always, so just take your armchair assessment and your skunk smell and your Chosen One armor and get the buck out of here already!”

Skunky flinched back. “Very well.” She took a deep breath, then slowly got up and walked away.

As Strom trotted out of the room, I noticed a midnight blue glow closing the doors behind her. I winced as I realized whose magic that had to be. Sure enough, when I turned around Princess Luna was standing in the doorway, looking me over with a faint frown. “Trouble with your sister, Lieutenant?”

Oh horseapples. Had I really just yelled at Storm right in front of Princess Luna? Way to work on my already damaged reputation. “Oh. Um ... so you heard that?”

The Princess sighed and took a seat next to me. “One of the issues with having spectacular hearing is that you often overhear conversations without even meaning to.”

I slumped down on the bench, wishing there was some way to sink down through the floor so I could go back to my room and hide for a few years. Out of all the embarrassing things I could’ve done, getting into a fight with my sister right in front of Princess Luna was pretty close to the top of the list. “Oh. Um, sorry about that, Your Highness.”

She leaned back against the wall, her eyes turning upwards. “It is quite alright. It was a private family matter between the two of you. I owe you an apology if anything, and for more than merely overhearing a conversation between siblings.”

I wasn’t sure what to make of that. “What do you mean, Your Highness?”

Princess Luna sighed heavily. “I must apologize for the events of the last few weeks. I dragged you into a situation that put you in no small amount of danger.”

I shook my head. “You did what you thought was right, Princess.”

“Perhaps, but evidently what I thought was right was not.” She scowled and grumbled under her breath. “As my sister was so ready to tell me.”

I flinched at the confirmation of my fears. “Yeah, it uh ... well I wasn’t trying to listen in, but it sounded like there was a bit of a disagreement.”

“That is one way to put it.” Luna let out an annoyed huff. “She took me to task for my actions in Freeport. She is ... most displeased with me.” She ran a hoof through her ethereal mane. “I will be losing my adventuring funds for some time to pay restitutions to Freeport for my actions. What is more, the Crowns are giving up any current or future claims to the blade of Silver Ankh—neigh, I fear it must be Chainbreaker now. We will save a bit of face on that front by getting Freeport to drop a few of their old claims regarding the actions of our pirate hunters centuries ago, but ‘tis far from an equal exchange.” She grimaced as her ears drooped. “Finally, my sister expects me to make an apology to Archon Sunset. In person. And it is to be sincere.”

“Oh.” From the sound of things, Celestia had come down on her really hard. Sure, technically they were supposed to be equal rulers, but Celestia was still the older sister. Not to mention that the whole Nightmare Moon thing was still fresh enough in everypony’s memory that they felt better with Celestia having at least some authority over her sister.. “Um ... sorry, princess.”

Luna sighed and shook her head. “No, she ... has a point. I let myself become too enthusiastic in my efforts to retrieve Chainbreaker. As loath as I am to admit it, I went too far. Breaking into a museum was not one of my wiser decisions.”

I felt obligated to speak up in her defense. “You were just trying to recover something that belonged to you.”

“So I told myself,” Luna murmured. “But look at what it caused me to do: attempted theft, lies, and assaulting a mare who is both the leader of a nation we seek to build ties with and whom my sister views as something of a surrogate daughter. As my sister put it, at some point in that chain of events I should have stopped to question whether I was truly making the right decision.”

I bit my lip, wondering about a few of the messier details about our mission. “Um, about what that changeling magus said...”

The Princess’s teeth clenched, and she let out a frustrated sigh. “There ... that is probably the truth.” She slowly rubbed the side of her head. “My memory of my time as Nightmare Moon is not always clear, especially when it comes to events so long ago. However, the facts align in such as a way as to suggest that it is likely I played some role in the theft. Indeed, for me to somehow be uninvolved raises far more questions than if I am the guilty party.”

Damn. That’s what I’d been afraid of. Maybe Storm was right that I should’ve said something about it to her. Sure, I didn’t know that she’d been involved, but I’d had enough facts to at least ask the question. Shutting down that line of thought out of loyalty to my Princess had seemed like the right move at the time, but maybe if I had pushed her on it I would’ve kept this whole mess from happening. “Um ... I’m sorry, Princess.”

“The fault does not lie with you, Lieutenant. I feared as much as soon as I learned of Hidden Facts’ involvement, and in hindsight I wonder if I subconsciously recalled my guilt from the very beginning. Regardless, it seems my attempts at atonement have only created a bigger mess.” She ran a hoof down her face. “The Archon is not the only one to whom I owe an apology; Silver Ankh’s spirit deserves to know the truth. I can only hope that hearing his sword became such a powerful symbol to an entire nation will grant him a measure of peace. If nothing else, he should be reassured to learn that his blade has not fallen into evil hooves.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.” I was no expert on ghosts, but if the guy’s spirit was restless because his sword had been stolen, letting him know it was in good hooves should be enough to let him move on. From what little I knew about the topic ghosts were usually supposed to be hanging around because they had unfinished business, and once that business was taken care of they moved on to ... well, wherever it is ghosts go.

Neither of us said anything for a while after that. When Luna finally broke the silence, it came with a slight shift in topic. “It is never easy to face one’s own mistakes. Many ponies would sooner die than admit that they were in the wrong. And the matter is not helped by my sister being the one pointing such things out. Even if she—no, especially when she is right. Though I believe you know that all too well.”

Oh goodie, looks like the conversation was coming back around to me and Skunky. This would be fun. That said, when it came to dealing with big sisters... “Yeah, I get that.”

Luna nodded gravely. “I was certain you would understand my feelings. If you will forgive me for making suggestions regarding your private life, I think you should make an effort to seek harmony with your sister.”

I ran a hoof down my face. “Yeah, well, easier said than done.”

“Something I know all too well,” Luna murmured. “My sister and I often do not see eye to eye. We love each other deeply, but we also have a way of irritating one another to the point of arguing over even the smallest of things. Though we are family, we are also very different ponies with very different worldviews. Normally that is but a minor inconvenience, but...”

“Yeah, I know how that goes.” Skunky and I had always been very different. Hay, there’d been one or two times when I’d gone out of my way to be different from her. When Skunky got big into opera and classical music, I deliberately started playing rock and pop as much as I could just because it was the most un-opera music I could think of. When she started acting more and more polite and formal, I responded by getting super-casual. Not that I was deliberately changing myself just to be different from her, but ... I dunno. Mom would probably say it was just one of those weird sibling things.

Luna cleared her throat. “Still, do not let your discord simmer. Such things can poison the relationship between the two of you if the minor quibbles grow too harsh or happen too often. It is normal for siblings to disagree with one another, but...”

I groaned and rubbed the back of my neck. “Yeah, I don’t—I mean, Storm’s a big stupid ugly stinky skunk of a pony, but ... she’s still my sister.”

Luna smiled and nodded. “Indeed so, and that last fact is far more important than all the previous ones. Family is one of the most precious things in the world. And ... sometimes we must do things we do not enjoy to maintain our families.” She fixed me with a rather pointed look. “Like apologize for things we have done.”

I grunted, thinking back to how my last chat with my sister had gone. In hindsight, maybe I’d been a bit too hard on her. After all, she was trying to help in her own stiff judgement skunky way. And I’d been pretty nasty to her, mostly just because I was in a bad mood after how rotten the last few weeks had been. Which meant... “Dammit, I’m gonna have to apologize to Storm.”

A faintly amused smile pulled at her lips. “In my experience, it is better to see the matter through than to let it linger, however unpleasant it might be in the short term. Like ripping off a bandage, as the modern phrase goes. There are worse fates than apologizing to one’s elder sister, even if it is a damnable one.”

I grinned weakly. “I dunno about that. Apologizing to my big sister is pretty much a textbook case of a fate worse than death.”

“Mmm, quite,” Luna murmured. “But do you want to answer to your parents for why you are not getting along with your big sister?”

I groaned and flopped back on the bench. “I’m not ... It’s not like I’m not getting along with her. We just butt heads every once in a while. It’s not a big deal.”

“Like me and my sister often do?” Luna prompted.

“Exactly,” I agreed. Then I thought about it for a moment, and remembered exactly whose sibling dynamic I was comparing myself to. Especially when I was the younger sister who sometimes resented and felt overshadowed by her stupid popular overachiever of a big sister. “Oh. Um, that’s...”

Luna regarded me with a knowing smile tinged with just a tiny bit of old pain. “As I said, discord between siblings can be a poison. Let too much of it seep in and fester and the results can be catastrophic. A few words spoken in anger might matter far more than you realize. Do not let one failed mission be what destroys the bond between the two of you.”

Considering the terms she’d just put everything in, there was really only one answer I could give. “Will do, Princess.”

Luna nodded, seemingly satisfied with my answer. “I hope my words have helped you in resolving your current troubles. That is one of a princess’s duties to their subjects.”

“It’s been a big help, Your Highness.” I was about to go take care of that when I realized there was still one bit of unfinished business. “Sorry about messing up back in Freeport, Highness.”

“Do not concern yourself with it.” Luna waved my words away. “Even if I had succeeded in taking Chainbreaker from the Archon, my sister doubtless would have insisted I return the sword at once in addition to the other conditions imposed upon me. And besides, the sword is naught but a construct of metal and magic, and far less valuable than the life of a single loyal guardpony.”

“Thanks, princess.” I took a deep breath and squared my shoulders. “I won't let you down again.”

“You did nothing of the sort,” Luna assured me. “It is I who failed you by placing you in the situation to begin with. It was a battle that never should have been fought, and as such there was no true way it could end in victory. And do not forget your contributions in other fields. Without your help I might never have found the sword to begin with, and you played no small part in helping me escape from that fiendish trap within Ankh’s tomb.”

“I guess.” I grimaced and shook my head. “Still, I feel like I should’ve done more in the fight against those Freeporters.”

“We all wish that we could do more than what we are capable of.” She placed a hoof on my shoulder. “I realize it can be difficult for my guards to stand aside when I battle a dangerous foe, but you were wise to stay out of the way. You lacked the strength to challenge the Archon directly, and in all honesty all you could have accomplished would be to burden me with the task of protecting you or limiting my options for attacking her.”

“Yeah, that’s what they always say about Code Gold situations.” I slumped back down in my seat. “Still, feels wrong to sit it out. I mean, that Archon was just a normal unicorn and she kept pace with you.”

A hint of a smirk played at Luna’s lips. “Though my pride compels me to point out that I was firmly winning our battle, her performance was ... respectable. That said, I do not think the Archon of Freeport and the former student of my sister qualifies as normal by the standards of unicorns. Judging by what my sister has told me of her she is a most unique mare indeed. And, if you will forgive me for saying so, one who is far more capable in battle than you.”

I grimaced, but it’s not like I could argue the point. I knew when I was massively outclassed. “So I guess that means you’re not going to fire me or have me reassigned for failing this mission?”

Luna snorted and shook her head. “I never once considered replacing you. Even if you insist upon taking a measure of the blame for our failure in Freeport, I am the last pony who should judge another harshly for a single failure. None of us are perfect. You have served me loyally throughout this affair, and I would be most pleased to have you continue in my service.” She shot me a rather pointed look. “I do hope you do not intend to request another assignment.”

“The thought never crossed my mind,” I assured her. Luna was my princess now. Maybe she wasn’t a perfect one, but she was one I’d sworn to serve. I wasn’t going to step away from that lightly. Or at all.

Well, not unless she turned into Nightmare Moon again. That would be kind of a dealbreaker.

I cleared my throat, and tried to get back into being a proper royal guard. I might not be Storm, but I still had standards. “So ... was there anything you needed, Your Highness?”

“Yes, could you retrieve some paper and my writing instruments.” She grimaced and confessed. “It seems I need to write a letter of apology to Archon Shimmer so that I can have the opportunity to apologize in person when she arrives in Canterlot. My sister invited her for an official state visit to smooth over any ... wrinkles my activities might have caused.”

“Goodie.” I might have accepted that we weren’t one hundred percent in the right on our trip to Freeport, but that didn’t mean I had to like seeing the Freeporters again. Especially if I had another run-in with Strumming Heartstrings. Once had been bad enough, and I had a feeling she was kind of the pony who’d make a point of seeking me out while she was in the area. “Anything else, or is that it?”

Luna frowned in thought for a moment, then shook her head. “Once you see to that, you are free for the rest of the day. I have been demanding quite a bit of your service lately. And, more importantly, I believe you need to have a talk with your sister.”

“Right. That.” I sighed. “I don’t suppose you could send me off to do something less painful than apologize to Storm? Maybe send me to the dimension of torture demons?”

“If you would prefer visiting their dimension to apologizing to your sister, proper torture demons would simply compel you to make the apology,” Luna pointed out dryly.

“Hadn’t thought of that, but you’re probably right.” I sighed and mentally girded myself for the unpleasant awkwardness of admitting that for once Skunky had been right, and I’d been wrong. I suppose it wasn’t the worst thing I’d have to deal with. At least I knew I had a good princess backing me up if I ran into any trouble.

A thought occurred to me. “I guess you had to apologize to Celestia, right?”

Luna was silent for a long moment. “I can hardly ask one of my guards to do something that I am not willing to do myself.” She paused a moment, then added under her breath, “Eventually.”

I tried to keep a straight face, but I’m nowhere near as stoic as Skunky. Then Luna snickered, and I lost it completely. That set her off as well, and soon the two of us were laughing like a pair of lunatics.

Journey of the Lesser Lights

by Chengar Qordath

Joining the Night

What Once Was Lost

Now Is Found

Eclipsed