Tonight was supposed to be a good night for plucky Nightguard Mothchaser. She'd finally screwed up the courage to, secretly, at night, slip a letter under the door of her crush. Sadly, as often occurs around Mothchaser, things do not go as planned.
For some time now the Bat Pony Nightguard Mothchaser has nursed an infatuation on one Idol Hooves. A sterling example of all Unicorn Stallions (as far as Mothchaser was concerned) and prominent member of the Royal Guard. Tonight she would finally take the bold move from secretly watching him from afar to secretly slipping messages to him at night.
However, as she begins her nightly delivery, Mothchaser stumbles upon a secret that is going to make her wish that she had never gone out after dark in the first place.
Set in vdrake77's "Changeling of the Guard" story, this is a short and completely non-canon snippet starring poor Mothchaser.
The curtain of night had been pulled across the sky, stars flickered in the firmament, and Luna’s moon, so recently a prison, bathed Canterlot in its soft glow. This was most definitely not the Equestria of a thousand moons ago and, thus, it would be a lie to claim that the city slept. Although most had turned in for the night, seeking traverse into the realm of dreams, Canterlot was a city which never fully slept, doctors, clubs, bars and more stayed open throughout day and night. Similarly the duty of guarding Canterlot, and enforcing its law, could not simply be stopped due to the setting of the sun.
It was for this very reason that there existed a special branch of the Equestrian Guard, an elite group of select few who braved the darkness, who laughed in the face of nightmares, who discarded that atavistic fear of the dark so common to all creatures and instead revelled in it. Or, at least, that was how they might describe it.
The Night Guard of Equestria were out in force throughout the Palace of Canterlot, leathery wings carrying aerial sentinels silently on patrols, sentries and wardens completing routes through dark and foreboding corridors, silvery armour glinted and shone with the reflection of their finally returned patron’s symbolic celestial body. Let none say the Night Guard took their duties any less seriously than the more commonly seen Day Guard.
That is all but one Night Guard. One Night Guard Mare, one young member, who was most decidedly not at her post and most decidedly not focused on her duty. For this particular Night Guard was struggling with a foe much greater than some ruffian or wild monster tonight; tonight young Mothchaser of the Night Guard wrestled with her own heart…
...and it was about to be a very, very bad night for her.
Okay focus girl, focus! In...and out...steady breathing, steady breathing, Mothchaser murmured to herself under her breath, her armoured hooves making little to no sound on the tiled floor of the Day Guard barracks. Her eyes glimmered faintly in the dark, able to easily discern the labels and numbers on the doors which lined the corridor, her wings held fast along her body, forming something of a leathery cape, as her small mouth clasped the envelope which had brought her here.
Finding the exact location of Corporal Idol Hooves chamber had not been a simple task. In all honesty it should have been as simple as “Hello there Idol, could I ask where you stay?” But Mothchaser was far too canny for that! No, instead it had taken some time of discrete and prolonged observation from afar (and not stalking as some of her peers continued to insist!) before she had worked out exactly which room the Unicorn Stallion stayed in. She was aware there were two Guards to a room but her interest here was in Idol, not his roommate, so that was irrelevant.
Getting close now...should be...right about… her heart began to hammer, her muscles tensing, as a primal part of her instinctively began to try to will her legs to simply move in reverse, to get her out of here, as soon as she could, to stop this foolish, foolish notion! Such instincts may have won out had her eyes not finally landed on the sought after goal.
There! A rush of adrenaline helped her combat the knot her stomach was trying to tie itself into, her pace quickening, she moved closer and closer, it would be quick, it would be easy, she told herself. She would simply stop by the door, lower the envelope, slip it under the opening, for Idol to find. A message from a secret admirer, to meet at a secret rendezvous! It was perfect! Nothing could ruin this! Nothing could stop her now-
The door creaked open.
Years of training and experience were put to questionable use as Mothchaser’s body tensed and moved fluidly, wings carrying her silently up to the ceiling, laying flat against it, nearly invisible in the shroud of night, gazing down at the door of her beloved Idol Hooves slowly, agonizingly, almost tauntingly, swinging open.
Let us take a moment to address what Mothchaser saw through her own eyes. Now for most any Pony it would have been difficult to have made out much detail on the figure trying, and failing, to surreptitiously exit the abode, but for a Bat Pony such as Mothchaser twas child’s play! She recognized the tall, long-limbed form which came out, the dark, midnight blue coat, the glinting regalia, the folded wings, the sense of poise and regality, the Unicorn’s horn protruding from the figure’s forehead but, above all, what caught Mothchaser’s eye was the mane. That mane! Like the night sky flowing before her, a sea of blue and black shades set with glimmering star fields what sparkled and shone, winked, in the blackness. It was a breathtaking mane, an incredible mane, an unmistakable mane. It was the mane of none other than Princess Luna herself and, as a quick check of all the aforementioned parts certified, it was still quite firmly attached to the Princess.
Mothchaser’s mind took a moment to register that what she was seeing, difficult as it was to believe, was indeed Princess Luna skulking out of Idol Hooves’ chambers like some thief in the night.
Let us turn away from poor Mothchaser, let us give her this moment alone, for it is cruel for a young maiden to have their heart so savagely wrenched and it would be cruel to dwell on her, to make entertainment of her woe. Let us turn now from poor Mothchaser and what she saw and, instead, turn to-
Moments before...
“You should at least consider it, not many are fortunate enough to be offered a position in the Night Guard by their Princess,” Luna reclined upon Idol’s cot, depriving him of it, her forelimbs crossed over each other as she regarded him imperiously, the Stallion still standing before her, practically unmoved from the moment he’d entered to find the Princess of the Night expecting him.
Idol’s calm, cool, head under fire, his impassive demeanour even when faced with dire threat, that stoic disposition of his, had oft times been praised by his superiors. Here was a Pony who could face even the most terrifying prospect, the most unexpected ambush, and not even blink. Of course in part this was simply because Idol’s reactions were not conveyed in the way a Pony might. Whilst externally he could seem like a collected model of a cool, calm, composed Stallion, internally his mind warred and whirred incessantly. Thus when he entered his shared barracks chamber with Captain Shining Armor and found none other than Princess Luna herself, Regal Sister, Princess of the Night, Protector of Dreams, Raiser of the Moon, Diarch most high, on the surface he betrayed almost no emotion, features set in the same passive expression, eyes locked on the form of the Alicorn Mare seemingly inspecting his cot but, internally, his situation was perhaps best compared to a moth repeatedly battering itself into a window.
“Be that as it may, your Majesty, I cannot at this time make such a decision upon my own initiative. I am not worthy nor capable of making such decisions myself, only Princess Celestia herself could-”
“Fi, enough, enough, you need not repeat it for the thousandth time,” Luna silenced him with a curt gesture of her hoof, giving a discontented cluck of her tongue as she did so. She slowly rose, stepping to the floor, a casual toss of her neck casting her starlight mane behind her; “Then I suppose we have nothing more to discuss tonight. Pardon my intrusion, I shall disturb thine rest no longer,” the Alicorn mare strode majestically past the Stallion, though before she reached the door his voice called her head to turn back to face him briefly;
“Captain Shining Armor?” Luna’s eyes traveled briefly to the snoring bundle in the other cot, the Unicorn Stallion, before she gave sigh; “Fear not Corporal, my sleep enchantment was simply to allow us to speak without interruption, he shall wake rested and well in the morrow,” with her final comment tossed behind her Princess Luna stepped out into the dark and back into the present.
Well...not quite the present. Poor Mothchaser took several minutes to collect herself from the puddle on the floor she’d melted into after watching the Princess of the Night herself slip out of Idol’s room and vanish into the darkness.
Could it really be true? Could she really have seen what she saw? Perhaps her nerves made her hallucinate? Or...perhaps the Princess was just meeting with a Corporal of the Day Guard for professional reasons or...or…
Every last rationalization seemed more implausible then the last, although even then they were only half as implausible as the very idea of a Princess within the chambers of Idol had been till Mothchaster had witnessed it herself scant minutes ago.
Still this doesn’t change...this doesn’t change anything! I...I need to do this! Her heart rallied, only growing stronger in the face of adversity. Mothchaser shook her head, almost dropping her envelope in the process, before she took a deep breath, her chest swelling out, before she exhaled, eyes once more set on the door, her goal, her prize. Rallied and renewed Mothchaser took the next few steps closer to the room and…
Immediately sprang back up to the roof as the door slid open, silently, but with less caution then before. Perhaps Mothchaser would have thought to herself something akin to; Not again! What now? Seriously? Twice? But any such thoughts were banished from her mind along with almost any other thoughts when she was forced to watch Princess Celestia herself stride out the door, casting a nervou look back-and-forth about herself like some naughty Filly worried she would be caught pilfering from a cookie jar. As opposed to Princess Luna before her Mothchaser needed no night vision to see the Diarch of the Sun herself in the dark. Celestia’s alabaster coat, gorgeous proportions, the blazing bright sun situated atop her generous plot, the rainbow-hued mane, glowed so radiantly in the dark that even a near-sighted mule would have been able to see her.
But alas seeing was believing, and once more Mothchaser’s heart was dealt a blow, plummeting as she plummeted. Again, for the sake of a young mare’s heart, let us give her time alone, to recollect, to regather.
Scant minutes before...
“Princess...Celestia?”
Normally the sudden crackle of a teleportation spell within his chambers, followed shortly by a burst of light and the regal form of Princess Celestia herself would have left Idol quite stunned. As it was, having already dealt with the shock of one Alicorn intrusion, he was able to handle this one with considerably more calm.
“Your Majesty!” Instinct, more than even conscious force caused him to dive down into a bow. “Ah, no need for that Corporal, I was hoping- oh, first, let us make sure we are not interrupted,” the Alicorn’s horn glowed with a brief light, a hue of it washing over the sleeping form of Shining Armor, giving Idol time enough only to say; “Actually-” before the sleeping enchantment had been cast, and Celestia turned back to Idol with a...shy smile?
“Your Majesty, you need not waste your precious time seeking me out in my humble accommodation! If you have any need you should simply summon me and I shall come immediately, to lower yourself to actually come here in person is beneath-” Idol was quick, as always, to begin with the profuse groveling and protestations, although he was silenced by Celestia’s quick shake of her head, her bright mane flicking as it swayed behind her; “No, no, there’s no need for that Corporal, I chose this, do not fret. You see I wanted to discuss...ah...that is I was hoping to recount...to discuss...converse over…” the Princess seemed, uncharacteristically, to stumble over her words, one hoof even bashfully rising to prod at the underside of her chin contemplatively;
“Hmm, oh my, this is...this is more difficult than I thought. Hmm. What words to begin with? I wished to talk to you about the...um...the event...the recent one...you know the...that one…” to see the Princess herself struggle like this, stammer, and...was that a blush? The very sight of it filled Idol with dread. What awful, terrible, news could possible provoke such a reaction from the most high, glorious and mighty Princess?
“Princess I-”
“Do you remember-”
Once more in the present!
“-stupid, stupid, stupid! Making a fool of yourself!” Mothchaser caught the tail end of something the Princess said, frustrated mumblings or groanings, as if that of a mare who’d come hoping for something only to be disappointed. She cursed her keen night vision, for the first time in her life, as it burned into her memory the images of the Alicorn Princess slinking away, tail tucked between her legs, and an unmistakable blush gracing her features. Even as distracting as Mothchaser found the Princess’ swaying plot (and it was most distracting!) she could not miss the obvious signs.
The pathetic pile that was Mothchaser gave a whimpering sigh in the dark, envelope almost forgotten. What was she to do? How could she go on? Knowing what she now knew, having seen what she had seen! She had heard stories, she had heard tales, but she had never realized that his virility, his prowess, his appetite could be...be...so grand! What was one mere Bat Pony to do?
But the heart knew what the heart knew, it wanted what it wanted. Love was a force stronger than all others in Equestria, was it not? She could not deny her love anymore then she could deny her very being! Who cared if the Sun and Moon were in her path, if they sought to block her! Love conquered all, every Filly knew this, every Mare, if love was what drove her, what motivated her, what lent her strength then she could not, would not, fail no matter the odds stacked against her!
Yes! With her head held high, after taking almost ten straight minutes just to recover, Mothchaser continued her approach, her hooves carried her with a steely look in her eye and the envelope in her teeth gripped tighter than ever. She came within inches of the door, practically touching it, ready to simply bend down, deposit her envelope, so close to being completed all she had to do was-
The door swung open with a bang, no care given this time to a pretense of subtlety, and Mothchaser managed to only narrowly avoid being struck by the opening door by flattening herself against the corridor wall till she resembled a shadow laid against it. It was from this vantage, choking back a sob, that she saw what she saw; a slim, svelte, elegant plot, pink as candyfloss, emerged on the top of elegant, slim limbs, the sort most Mares would kill to have. There was no mistaking the identity of this beauty, for upon her flank was the crystalline heart shape of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza...the Princess...of Love.
Shortly before...
Idol had been very confused by the Princess’ strange conversation. Mentioning some event that clearly never happened, mentioning details so illogical, so clearly blasphemous, that were it not the Princess herself saying it Idol would most likely have accused them of treason. Of course, luckily, it was all just a misunderstanding. Clearly. Nothing happened. Nothing had ever happened. There was nothing to think about, no thoughts locked deep within a vault buried inside a fort trapped in the earth and dropped into the void. Nothing at all!
Well...Idol supposed there was one thing; he was somewhat concerned by how Shining Armor’s constitution would handle two Alicorn-strength sleeping enchantments. But he could always deal with that issue in the morning. For now it was time to sleep, and having finally disrobed and prepared his cot to his liking, the Stallion took one moment to turn and inspect Shining, making sure he was breathing and all was normal, before he turned back to his cot…
...and came face-to-face with the familiar visage of one Emerald Glen, aka, Princess Cadance.
“Idol, we need to talk and- oh! This has to be private, Shiny can’t know, I’ll-” “Wait-” “Just cast a sleeping spell quick,” once again Idol spoke to late, the cyan aura of Cadance’s magic flowing over Shining, eliciting an even deeper snore to her displeasure, her rather crude illusion of a Pegasus mare warping and fading as she shook it off as if shedding water from her coat.
“Your Majesty, if you wished time alone with Captain Shining Armor, I would be glad to remove myself at once from these quarters and-” Cadance halted his further movements by placing her forelimbs on his shoulders, shaking her head; “No, no! It’s you I want to talk to, I need to...ask for your help. Well...I want to ask you to help Shiny, understand?”
Idol did not understand, and he made so clear; “I do not understand,” he said bluntly, earning a giggle from the pink Alicorn; “Well...I want you to...remember that conversation we had? About giving Shiny tips on how to flirt? I was thinking...would you consider doing it...for real? For me?” Cadance flutter long eyelashes seductively, her lips pursed, eyes half-lidded in a smolder.
Idol blinked.
And we're back!
“Thank you so much again, I really look forward to seeing the improvement,” Cadance’s parting words, said with a flirtatious toss of her mane, only sealed Mothchaser’s fate.
She was just one mare! One mortal mare! How could she contend with a single Alicorn, let alone three? Let alone the incarnation of love herself?!
The envelope flopped to the floor, forgotten, and Mothchaser crumpled with it in the dark.
She was discovered shortly after by one of her peers in the Night Guard, responding to complaints about a noise disturbance and teleportation magic. Assuming some ill fate had befallen her young Mothchaser was rushed to the infirmary, where she spent the next day recovering.
Mothchaser, curiously, was not the only Guard in the infirmary that day. Captain Shining Armor was, early the next morning, brought to the infirmary by Corporal Idol Hooves, where doctors were somewhat baffled to find that, somehow, the Captain had abnormally large quantities of sleep magic residing upon him.
Mothchaser sighed. It wasn't a soft, lilting, airy thing, no, it was a deep, heavy, sigh, the sort dredged up from the very depths of the pit in the bottom of her stomach. It was the sort of sigh that Ponies would describe as ‘visibly deflating’ and ‘absolutely pathetic’, with reference to the Pony in question, as her haunches slumped, and she seemed almost to shrink into herself.
'How had it come to this?' It was, of course, a rhetorical question. After all, Mothchaser was completely, intimately, brutally aware of how she’d wound up here. Here, in question, being the Canterlot Guard Barracks Infirmary, one of the smaller rooms, built for two patients at a time.
She found herself seated on an infirmary bed, blanket drawn up about halfway. Magazines and other small items intended to distract the overnight patients lay scattered about but Mothchaser could not bring herself to care. Heartbreak had led her here and so, with nothing else to do, Mothchaser simply sighed…again.
“Uh…are you alright, ma’am? Something I can help with?” Right, the second bed.
Mothchaser turned her eyes towards the Pony in the bed opposite her: Shining Armour. Although Mothchaser certainly wasn’t completely unfamiliar with Shining Armour it would also be a lie to say she was particularly familiar with him. Most of what she knew about him came from her observations (not stalking!) of Idol Hooves, who could often be found in the company of the snow-coloured Unicorn.
Unicorn, affluent, privileged, reasonably handsome, non-threatening so parents probably like him. She’d never really give Shining much thought and wasn’t keen to start doing so now. After all, he’d just been confined to sickbed because an unnaturally high level of Sleep Magic had been detected in his system, how could he possibly relate to a broken heart? And, so, Mothchaser sighed…again…again…
“No, I’m fine,” she said in a manner so unconvincing even Idol would probably have been able to detect something was amiss. Maybe. Perhaps…okay, probably not really, he’s rather oblivious like that.
Still Shining had been raised to respect other ponies' wishes, and it wasn’t as if this Night Guard was someone close to him. If she said she was fine then he’d respect it, giving her a solemn nod, a quick; “Okay, sorry to bother,” before turning back down to the spread of paper, books and dice on his lap. At least the infirmary would give him time to iron out the details of his latest Ogres and Oubliettes campaign! He was looking forward to prepping for the next game n-
Mothchaser sighed again…again…again…again, and Shining Armour realized that it was going to be a long day.
But now, it arises, whatever did become of that letter Mothchaser so passionately strove to deliver to the object of her affections, one Idol Hooves (not a Changeling), before her heart was crushed by callous and aloof Alicorns?
As it transpired Idol Hooves was anything if not meticulous. Not a speck of dirt escaped his notice and certainly not an entire envelope, folded and curiously perfumed in sweet, sugary, smells. The young (maybe middle-aged?) guard had quickly lifted it, intending to deliver it to the proper authorities, when he’d noticed his own name on it…after a good few moments of squinting. It was his name, yes, but written in some tacky, unreadable, barely legible scrawl, as if by a simpleton (Mothchaser had always been proud of her calligraphy skills, sadly the notion of pretty writing was wasted on Idol). If it was addressed to him then it was his too open and, so, Idol had opened it and read:
“Apple of my eye…torment my dreams and nights…to satiate the hunger inside…like a moth to the flame…irresistible…when the moon is at it’s highest point, meet me in the courtyard…quivering with need…” he mumbled aloud some words as he read along, eyes scanning the letter.
When he was finished there was only one, obvious, clear conclusion that could be drawn: “A Changeling is writing in code to me! They are starved of love and need me to meet them urgently to help them,” he said aloud, for some reason.
Still, confident of his conclusion as he was, he’d learned from hard experience that it was best to get a second opinion on these sorts of things. So he went where he always went for a second opinion (for some reason) he went to Topaz…who proceeded to laugh in his face.
“Hahaha! That’s what you think this is? Oh, come off it! Even you aren’t that dumb- no, wait, scratch that, you are, aren’t you? Hahaha!” The Mare was rolling on the floor of her home, forelimbs wrapped about her side, as gales of uproarious laughter buffeted his stoic countenance. Did it irk Idol? Maybe a little (or a lot), but he'd grown somewhat accustomed to Topaz's derision of his social capabilities. Bristling only ever so slightly he tersely retorted.
“I would have you know, as of late, I have become quite astute at deciphering the social minutiae and labyrinthine structure of Pony interactions, I may even have become something of an expert in it,” he sniffed in a display of as close to indignation as Idol could manage. The truth was Idol did have an ego, a sense of pride, it was just buried deep, deep, below all his many other senses (his sense of comedic timing, for example), and Topaz had managed, at last, to prick it.
“Oh, oh yeah, oh yeah this is great, this great. Okay Idol, you know what, maybe you’re right, maybe this letter is some surreptitious code from Changelings in need, maybe ‘I long to sup your sweet milk of passion’ really does just mean they want to feed on love, it isn’t the craziest thing ever, let’s run with it, eh?” Even now it was difficult for her to stifle the witch-like cackle threatening to break loose.
This, Idol realized, was sarcasm. He had become adept at detecting it, particularly from Topaz, but that lop-sided, smug, grin, that arched eyebrow, it was all clear. It wasn’t that Idol took this as a challenge, not at all, Idol Hooves would never let his ego dictate his next decision, he was just sure that in this case it was he who’d read the room (or letter as it was) correctly and Topaz was in error.
So it came to pass that Idol had an appointment that night with a desperate Changeling (according to him) and he went about his day, keeping that thought in mind. He also went about the day with Topaz Showers shadowing him, though he wasn’t aware of this, having gotten out of work for the day by explaining to the Dean she was busy with an urgent, one-of-a-kind, observation of the fabled ‘Lovebug’!
Mothchaser sighed aga-
“Hey! Sorry to bother, I just thought if we’re both gonna be stuck in here for who knows how long maybe we should get to know each other, name’s Shining Armour, put her there!” Shining's greeting dripped with so much enthusiasm it was almost painful, the Stallion moving with surprising alacrity to stand beside her bed.
Mothchaser looked up from what she’d been doing (ruefully ruminating on her ruinous fate) and regarded him with disinterested eyes. He'd raised one forelimb, a hoof stretched out in greeting. She looked to the hoof, then to his face, and then back again.
“Should you…really be walking so soon again?” She ignored the offered hoof till he lowered it, a somewhat sheepish grin covering his face when he answered her, “Well…I mean the doctor’s say the magic should all have been extracted already, Princess Luna herself handled it and she is the expert in these affairs. They just wanna keep me in a day or two in case there are side effects, you know? But a bit of standing should be fine,” as if to demonstrate exactly how in-health he was the Stallion gave a short hop on the spot, powerful haunch muscles bulging momentarily, before he cocked his head to the side.
“What about you? What you in here for…hmm…Mothchaser, isn’t it? I’ve seen you around sometimes, I’m Shining Armour, by the way,” she was surprised he actually knew her name. She’d never really spoken to him before, and unlike him she wasn’t some rising star of the guard, darling of Celestia’s eye, sibling to a national heroine. However, any gratitude she felt for him remembering her was almost immediately overwhelmed by his question.
What am in here for? Embarrassment, misery, shame, it all came rushing up like yesterday’s lunch and before she could help it, she could feel her cheeks burning. “I…” she had to think of some sort of cover, quickly! She couldn’t possibly tell him the truth, that would be mortifying, humiliating, her own peers had found her passed out already, that was bad enough, if ponies in the Day Guard learned it was because of something as silly as romance she’d be branded a laughingstock for life!
“I…” her mouth was dry, her eyes were darting, she felt dizzy and-
“Actually, don’t worry about it, there was something else I wanted to ask first anyway,” fortunately it seemed he had a short attention span. With a relieved sigh (this time it was an airy thing) Mothchaser felt her beating heart slow and the spots in front of her eyes recede.
“Oh, uh, what did you want to ask?”
Shining Armour, of course, was not possessed of a particularly shot attention span (as his family could attest too, having endured his long, long, Flugelhorn recitations). What he was possessed of was a neurotic younger sister who had long ago, through first-hoof experience, taught him what a panic attack was and that it was better to distract a young Mare when they were entering such a state then digging deeper into it. The problem, now, came in how he distracted Mothchaser. With Twily it was easy, he could say almost anything and distract her (although subjects of books, monsters and magical academia worked best), the two had that sort of bond, but Mothchaser was a veritable unknown and, so, his attempt to distract her was something of a shot in the dark:
“Have you ever played…Ogres and Oubliettes?”
“Dammit, what happened? I turned away for like two seconds,” and yet apparently that had been all the time it took for Idol to find himself in yet another predicament. Topaz had been stealthily observing him as he ate in the Guard Cafeteria with some friends of his (at least she assumed they were friends), she’d looked away for a moment, and when she’d looked back there’d been a comely female guard seemingly fainted into Idol’s lap, and an irate, and burly, Unicorn Stallion now angrily yelling at him.
Topaz would have watched longer had a voice not distracted her.
“Yo! Topaz, stalking Idol again-“ Wispy found herself yanked down the last couple of feet to the ground, Topaz pushing a hoof to her muzzle, issuing a sharp; “Shhhhhhh!” Before she checked to make sure Idol hadn’t noticed her.
“Aww, c’mon Topaz, say it don’t spray it, yuck,” Wispy slowly stood back up, shaking her head somewhat, and rolling her eyes at the other Mare’s furtive attempts to act ‘stealthy’ (Wispy knew from experience how easy it was for any Mare to seemingly not be noticed by Idol, she'd once found a gorgeous emerald-coloured Pegasus in Idol's room and he'd seemingly been totally oblivious to her!). “So…stalking Idol again, huh? Don't you think you should get a new hobby?” Wispy began, prompting a quick response from Topaz.
“It isn’t stalking, it’s observations! I’m observing him closely, I think something very entertaining will be happening today,” these words alone were all the bait necessary and Wispy jumped for it, an irrepressible gossip and mischief maker.
“Oh? Do tell!”
And so, Topaz did tell, and by the end Wispy was biting down on her own tongue to stop chuckling out loud. “Oh, sweet Celestia, Idol, Idol, Idol, that has got to be a joke, right? You think it’s part of, like, his act? His mojo? To act as if he just doesn’t get Mares? I mean he has to be doing something right?”
“Pssh, hardly,” Topas snorted, noting that, down below, it seemed now that the Unicorn stallion was sobbing into Idol’s arms, as he panted him reassuringly on the back. “Besides, don’t you have guard duty to be doing?”
“Meh, that’s not as interesting as this, I’ll just get Bold to cover for me and join you, I wanna see how this ends!” (Bold, of course, would not be aware he was covering for Wispy till the next day, when Wispy would scold him for failing to do so, and he'd just assume he'd forgotten) Thus, the company of Topaz grew by one, as Wispy decided to butt in (she did have a great butt, let it be known.
After almost two hours of Shining Armour explaining rules, providing source books, performing rolling experiments and even at times pantomiming out difficult concepts with surprising skill (thank you Sparkle family game nights), Mothchaser had come to a very clear conclusion:
Ogres and Oubliettes was far too confusing!
“But why do different stats determine proficiency in different magic styles? Wouldn’t it be easier to just make there be one statistic that determines all the magic?” She asked, genuinely curious, and unwitting of the almost physical pain the question caused Shining.
“Yes, easier, but, Mothchaser,” he had to bite down for a moment on an instinctive retort about making it too easy for magic users who, frankly, already dominated in the meta too often for his liking (who could forget about the Unicorn Railgun of Edition 4.5?), before he was able to continue: “The point of the game isn’t too necessarily makes things too easy, there’d be no fun in that,”
“The game is fun because it’s hard? Why would I want to play something that I struggle with, isn’t a game supposed to be fun?” It was clear from the sceptical expression she was giving him that Mothchaser had never exactly been introduced to games in a wider sense.
“Not hard, the point isn’t to make something hard, or unfun, it’s to make it challenging, here, let me explain,” he shifted himself closer now, not noticing the way Mothchaser’s eyes widened, as he leaned over on to her bed, his magical aura gripping a pair of dice, levitating them before her eyes in a soft glow. “Just winning, well, that’d be no fun, wouldn’t it? If you had a game where every single time you did something-” he rolled the dice, letting them land, then using another burst of kinesis to alter them both to face-up ones; “-you won regardless of your own input, that’d be pretty boring, wouldn’t it? I mean if you’re basically guaranteed to win, then you don’t really have to engage with the game, now do you?”
There was…a point there, Mothchaser had to concede, nodding slowly, one hoof rising up to stroke at her chin as she let him continue. “The point of the rules, why they’re complex, as you say, isn’t to make things unfun, it’s to provide a challenge. To make it that you need to engage, think, try to figure out ways you can use the rules to triumph, rather than having it given to you on a silver platter, you get?”
It's more worthwhile...because there's a challenge...something worth having...can't be too easy... In all honesty Mothchaser didn’t, quite, get it…but she did get the sheer passion he was expressing, and so couldn’t help but nod. Something about the way Shining said it, if not the exact words, seemed to carry meaning to her.
“That’s not to say that it’s always good to have lots of rules, I’m not trying to say that I don’t agree there are places this can be slimmed down, I mean the section on grappling is a nightmare, so don’t think I’m trying to shut you down, it’s just that-”
Mothchaser couldn’t help but stare a bit as he spoke on and on and on, clearly lost in his own world now. There was a feeling here, a familiar one, that she took a small while to put her hoof on, but when she did, she couldn’t help but say it;
“You’re…really passionate about this, aren’t you?” Her question made him abruptly cut-off, realizing he’d been rambling as a small bit of pink crept into his white coat.
“Yeah…would you believe there was a time I wanted to be a game designer? I’d stay up, looking through source books, making notes, underlining things, corrections, ideas…pretty nerdy stuff, right?” There was a certain coltish charm to how he rubbed his fetlock against his mane sheepishly, and Mothchaser was struck by the incredible openness of the Stallion. Did he always just wear his heart on his sleeves for all to see? Wasn't he worried Ponies would find that weird?
“N-no! I think it’s actually pretty cool, being passionate about something for yourself…”
“Well, we all need to do things for ourselves every once in a while, right? I’m sure you got stuff you’re passionate about too, just for you,” he didn’t pry into what it might be, to Mothchaser’s relief, because the truth was that the past few Moons...what had she been passionate about for herself? Not for someone else, but just for her?
“So…ready to make a character?” His grin was a tad infectious.
“I…believe I am, yes,” now the really hard part would begin.
It was really only a question of when Cadance would find them, not if. The pink Alicorn wasn’t the Princess of Love for nothing, after all, she could sniff out relationship-related shenanigans like a bloodhound.
“Oooh! A love letter! How romantic! And it wasn’t from either of you?” Cadance was starry-eyed, forelimbs clasped together as she let out an impassioned sigh. Neither Topaz nor Wispy seemed to share her giddiness.
“What? Me? I’d never!” Topaz said, indignantly, as Wispy just let out a “Yuck,” before moving over to give Cadance space to squeeze in between them.
“Still…the contents of that letter…hmm…when the moon is at it’s highest point, dreams…it sounds a bit familiar,” Cadance mused as the trio watched Idol standing still as a statue before some door.
“Don’t you have Princess things to attend too?” Topaz irritably asked, prompting nothing but a ‘tsk, tsk,’ and a rather condescending shake of the head from Cadance.
“Really Topaz, really? I’d say right now this is my number one priority. What’s the matter, is there something you don’t want me to see?” A playful, teasing, twinkle entered into Cadance’s eyes as she leaned in closer, svelte frame playfully bumping against Topaz’s own who quickly pushed away, avoiding eye-contact (Cadance tended to have that affect on Mares and Stallions and everything else as well).
“I’m telling you it wasn’t me! I’m just observing-” “Stalking,” Wispy and Cadance interjected as one, “-him to see what happens! You two are just airheads! Right proper pair of Pegasi cloud-for-brains!” That Wispy and Cadance only laughed at Topaz’s efforts to scold them made her cheeks burn red and she gnawed on her bottom lip until something caught her eyes.
“Um…guys…that actually is a statue…we lost him!”
“Hmm…” Shining swirled his thoughts around as he stared at the character sheet Mothchaser had laid before him. She patiently sat, upright, ears perked up now, watching intently.
“Hmm…” was, in all honesty, one of the least encouraging sounds a Pony could ever hear.
“Is it…okay? Did I make a mistake?” Again! Like I always do!
“N-no! No, it’s not a mistake, it’s all fine, I mean mechanically, it’s all good, perfectly playable,” Shining quickly waved his forelimb about before himself, to cut-off any misunderstanding, as he forced a smile.
“It’s just that, well…” how would he say this?
“Just what?”
“Well…your character she’s just…uh…” he picked up the character sheet and began reading off of it: “Race: Batpony, Name: Mothchaser, Class: Fighter, Background: Guard…you seem to just kinda have filled in yourself here? Like…this is all true,”
Mothchaser’s head cocked to the side, confused as to what Shining was alluding.
“Is that…incorrect? I have more experience with myself than anyone else, so I thought I would be the best character for myself to play,” she explained herself and, Shining had to admit, it was rather cute how seriously she approached these things.
“Yeah, yeah, that’s cool, there isn’t a problem with it but…”
“But…?”
“Haven’t you ever wanted to just…be someone or something else? Like do you ever play pretend, have fantasies? It doesn’t have to be someone you’d rather be than yourself, I had a total braincase of a friend who played a Minotaur Barbarian every time, he wasn’t unhappy with himself, he just liked trying something new out,” Shining explained, worried he was making a mess of it.
“I don’t know, I’m worried I’m making a bit of a mess of this, do you understand what I mean? You shouldn't feel restricted or restrained to playing what you're comfortable with, just...do what you wanna do,”
Mothchaser’s eyes had returned to the source book, a hoof trailing over the page: “I can be…anyone in here? Any race…or class?”
“Anything or anyone you want, within the rules, that’s why we call them roleplaying games,” he nodded, noticing the way her breathing hitched and her eyes seemed to land on one page in particular.
“See something you like?”
Mothchaser looked up at him, small, cute, fangs poking out over her bottom lip as she bit down on it and nodded; “Uh-hmm!”
“You know, that statue was older than all three of you,” Celestia’s stern tone would probably be a lot more intimidating if the absolutely statuesque Alicorn was not, at current, hunkered down, almost to the floor, to prevent Idol from noticing the four Mares now spying on him as he patrolled through the streets of Canterlot.
That did not, however, stop the numerous other Ponies all around, from dropping into bows or almost fainting as Princess Celestia, Cadance and two other Ponies no-one noticed, did a poor show of creeping through Canterlot unnoticed (except by Idol, who remained completely oblivious).
“Hardly my fault Idol has a body that looks like it’s carved from granite! I swear, it’s like he almost appears as the idealized form of a guard you only find in art, it's weirdly...artificial” Cadance pouted.
“Hey, now that you mention it…he looks awfully like mystery stud number 3 from the last issue of Playmare-” Wispy began, but was interrupted by Topaz.
“Shhhhh!” Topaz cut short the chatter as the four quickly ducked behind a wall to avoid Idol’s gaze. For a moment they remained plastered against the wall, causing a row of ponies seated outside at an eatery to almost faint, before the all clear signal from Topaz had them creeping back after him.
“You know…having thought about it…that letter sounds awfully similar to the sort of notes Luna used to use when courting prospective harem-” an eyebrow arched on Cadance’s face but Celestia caught herself first; “-suitors! Prospective suitors!”
“P-Princess Luna? Princess of the Night, Luna? Dread Nightmare Moon herself?!” There was something about watching a fully grown Alicorn try to ‘sneak’ that diminished the sense of awe, so Wispy was handling being in the presence of both Celestia and Cadance very well but Luna, who was not among them, still had a bit of that reverence about her (not to mention ingrained terror from a lifetime of Nightmare Moon fables told around campfires).
“I believe so, yes…she has been getting awfully familiar with him of late too, I suppose I should have seen this coming-”
“WHAT?! THIS CHANGES EVERY-” three pairs of hooves slammed over Cadance’s mouth, holding it shut till she’d exhausted her shouts.
“This changes everything! My shipping charts! My shipping charts!” Once, at last, freed from their grip Cadance had a near manic look in her eye. A flash of magic had a rather enormous scroll levitating before her, unfolding and unfolding and unfolding till it seemed to stretch several meters on either side.
“Buck! P-pardon the language Princess but…is that your shipping chart for everypony? It's huge!” Wispy asked, giving a low whistle at the size. Cadance merely turned a sly look Wispy’s direction, the sort that made Wispy's pulse quicken involuntarily.
“Everypony? Don’t be naïve Wispy, my full shipping charts are stored in several hundred acres of archive beneath the Palace. This is just the shipping chart for Idol Hooves,” she rather triumphantly waved the thing about, knocking over several stunned passers-by, as Topaz stared in horror at one particular name on it: Viridian Virga.
“No!”
“And lo! With the final blow from her enchanted bow did the odious Ogre come toppling down, the captive children squealing with joy to see their foul captor bested at last,” Shining made sure to put the necessary dramatic ‘oomph’ into his voice as he finished the event, a rather routine ‘save the children’ quest from a starter village which was mostly just there to give Mothchaser a taster of what it sort of was like.
It had been a bit rough at first, it was her first time, she didn’t know the rules very well, and there was a lot of second-guessing and pointless querying but…
“I…won? I won? I won! Oh! Yes! Fear not frightened children for I, Ravena Darkspear, Mage Archer, have saved you! No evil shall stand in my sight! No villainy shall endure! So, say I, Ravena Darkspear!” It was all worth it for the look on her face.
He’d rarely seen someone take so well to a roleplaying outlet since, well, Twilight herself. Mothchaser seemed besides herself with joy, cackling as she clapped her forelimbs together.
“Well, I’m glad you enjoyed that, it’s a small taster, but that should give you a general idea of what-”
“More!” She demanded at once.
“What?”
“More! Another adventure! Ravena Darkspear cannot rest till the Ogre’s master has been found and bested! We can’t leave the town endangered…can we?” The excitement ebbed a bit as she realized she was being a little presumptuous.
Luckily, Shining couldn’t help but smile. “I guess you’re right, a hero can't just end it there when there's still evil afoot…so, you loot the Ogre’s body and find-”
“Me? I am…shocked you thought I would resort to something so tacky, dear sister,” Luna shook her head, a short confrontation with Celestia and Cadance resolved, it seemed the letter had not, in fact, been the work of the returned Princess.
“Tacky? I seem to remember more than one occasion where you-” Celestia got no further before Luna had forcibly shut her muzzle, babbling quickly.
“N-now, now! T-this is not the time to reminisce! I-is it not almost time for yon Idol to have his encounter, no? W-we wouldn’t want to miss it, now would we? Hehehe!”
As Luna laughed nervously and Celestia scowled, and Cadance simply glanced confused between her two elders, Wispy and Topaz stood on the side.
“S-so…we’re just…spying on Idol now…w-w-with three Princesses…this is…uh…t-this is normal…right?” Wispy’s forehead beaded with sweat as she gave a forced laugh, hoping for some commiseration from the other non-Princess of their group. Sadly, for Wispy, Topaz was already too jaded for that.
“With Idol? Yeah, that’s pretty par for the course,” Topaz muttered, leaving Wispy to simply stare gormlessly on.
“Your curse will no longer blight these lands! This arrow holds all my righteous fury! For my one-thousand fathers! This is the end! Ragnarok ARROW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” Wispy punched a hoof into the air, shouting her war cry in defiance of the sun, of the moon, of love, of any cosmic force that felt that it could toy with regular Ponies as if they were just puppets.
“The Centaur Lich Lord reels, realizing what’s happened, his phylactery now exposed to your strike, he panics and howls: Nooooooooooooooooooo! As he watches your final attack fly through the air to crash into the enchanted stone, shattering it,” Shining was in the moment now as well, eyes shrunk to small pinpricks, tongue sticking out the corner of his mouth, as Ravena Darkspear reached the climax of her epic journey.
“But even with the phylactery destroyed he isn’t down yet. Though you’ve denied him the chance to resurrect, the Lich Lord still towers above you, eyes burning ruby red, every exhalation of breath sending a jet of steam washing over you. It speaks in a voice like crackling, dying, leaves, seemingly coming from all around you: Ingrate! Mortal mongrel! I will not be denied! I will not be stopped! I am inevitable! I am death! I am the end of all things! Who are you to defy me?”
In her head Mothchaser saw the scene clearly, Ravena stared down her foe, the Gryphon Princess of a lost Kingdom’s plumage billowing in the steam, raven-black, as she simply clicked her beak, as if speaking to a small child.
“I’m me!”
At last the day was over. The moon was climbing in the sky, and in the peace and quiet of an empty courtyard Idol found a little peace and quiet.
All-in-all the day had been rather standard, nothing out of the ordinary, just the run-of-the-mill guarding that his day-to-day life now consisted of. Indeed, he was proud of how regular the day had been! However, sadly, now came something he feared would be quite irregular. His eyes scanned through the darkness, wary for any shape or form this Changeling chose to approach him in. If the Changeling was truly as desperate for love as their letter had suggested, Idol feared they might even approach him without the strength to shapeshift, and if that was the case, he would need to act incredibly quick!
Of course, what Idol did not know was that he wasn’t the only Pony with eyes on the courtyard that night. On a balcony, not so far away, overlooking Idol and the courtyard, a rather eclectic gathering of Mares had been assembled.
There was Princess Celestia, regal Diarch of the Sun, her recently returned and rehabilitated Sister, Princess of Moon and Dreams, the youngest Alicorn, Cadance, the Princess of love, and then also two regular Ponies of less importance. But, whatever divided them (and a LOT divided them) they were here, in this moment, united in one thing.
Who was going to show up?
“I must confess I do not know young Idol Hooves’ friends as well as either of you, but I didst think if any would court him it would be Topaz Showers,” Luna mused, earning a disgusted grunt from Topaz.
“Why does everyone keep saying that?”
“Because of the chemistry between the two of you? The fact that you practically thrust yourself into his life at every occasion? The deep emotional and physical bond you've established with each other?” Cadance calmly stated, as if reading from a list (which, Topaz guessed, wasn’t necessarily untrue if that shipping chart was anything to go by).
“It’s gonna be that Batpony that’s always freaking out around him, Mothchaser, it’s just her style, trust me,” Wispy threw in her ten cents, having overcome, somewhat, her intimidation at being in the presence of three Alicorns simultaneously…that or rendered simply so stunned by it that she was behaving intoxicated now, rather subtly seeing if she could squeezer herself in tight between Celestia and Luna without either noticing.
“Well, if it isn’t Mothchaser, the only other Mare I can think of is Vi-” Cadance began before Topaz silenced her with a screech.
“DON’T SAY IT!”
Mothchaser sighed, not a deep, heavy, sound but, rather, a lilting, light, airy thing. Her bed made a creaking noise as she sunk back on to it, hooves splayed at her side, smiling. Outside night had fallen, she couldn’t even say exactly when but, right now, right then, at that moment, it didn’t really matter.
She had, had fun. She had, had fun!
“So…it was good?” Shining needled her even as he finalized sliding away the books into laminated sleeves, a cheeky grin on his face as she nodded enthusiastically.
“It…it was, it was really fun, I…I would definitely like to play again, if that is possible?” She felt a bit presumptuous saying that, after all this, was it really fair of her to ask for more?
Fortunately, for Mothchaser, Shining seemed to take it in stride. “Sure, you know, me and some of the guards have a game night regularly, I’d be happy to write you in, if you want?” Judging by the small stars twinkling in her eyes Mothchaser most definitely did want.
In a way he couldn’t help but see a little bit of Twilight in her, she seemed the socially awkward type, the type to obsess over something. Perhaps it was that familiarity that caused him to unthinkingly reach out and place a reassuring hoof on her shoulder.
“But tomorrow, okay? Doctors said they wanted me to try to get a regular night’s sleep, see what happens, and, honestly, I am feeling a bit bushed. So, we can pick this up tomorrow, cool?” Shining wasn’t an unobservant Pony but, the truth was, he wasn’t exactly an expert on Batponies, so to him subtle things like the tightening of her wings, the sharp intake of breath, or the way the ears angled forwards, they all went missed as she simply nodded.
“Uh-huh, uh-huh,” and gave a soft squeak of affirmation.
From there it wasn’t long before Shining was back in the infirmary bed, snoring away, and leaving Mothchaser to ponder her thoughts. One thought, in particular, actually.
Oh no! Oh no! Oh no! I seduced Shining Armour! I wasn’t trying too! But he so clearly wants me! He may as well have been groping me with that touch! Ah! What do I do? He’s nice and friendly and, yeah, he's hot, but I don’t want to endanger our friendship when we just began it! But if I just use him and cast him aside I'm as bad as Idol! I'll be a...a...a...scoundrel too! Ahhh! Dammit Mothchaser, why did you have to be so darn sexy? Is this how Idol feels? Is being sexy really such a curse? He totally misread all the signals you were sending out! Now who knows what he’s expecting! He invited you to his game night! His game night! There’s no way a grown Stallion still gets together with other grown stallions at the end of the day to play make-believe! It has to be some sort of hip, fresh, lingo for a date! And I just agreed to it! Ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!
Shining slept soundly that night, although not as soundly as the night before, but Mothchaser, well, she didn’t sleep so soundly.
Still, in the end, she made a new friend (once misunderstandings were cleared up...or perhaps she misunderstood her own feelings?).
No-one came. The moon climbed to its highest point (several minutes ahead of schedule, thank you very much for hurrying things along Luna) but there was no Changeling at all. Was Idol disappointed? Perhaps but, importantly, Topaz had not been right either, there was no lovestruck Pony coming to confess to him. He took some solace, at least, from the knowledge that Topaz had been wrong.
Of course, Topaz already knew this, she and her erstwhile companions had seen the whole thing.
“Poor guy, nobody came in the end,” Cadance sighed, although her disappointment at the lack of a confession probably vastly exceeded Idol’s own.
“Perhaps they simply got cold feet?” Celestia offered, receiving a general murmur of consensus from the rest.
“Well…it would not do to leave young Idol all alone there, not after this. I shall go down and help distract his mind from the heartbreak he no doubt feels,” Luna took a step forwards, nodding sagely, her wings unfurling when, suddenly, she felt a familiar weight pressing down on her haunches.
“Not so fast, sister mine, awfully eager to get some time alone with him, eh? This wasn’t perhaps because we interrupted a planned confession? Hmmm?” Celestia’s face was pushed right into Luna’s own, the younger sister scowling in indignation.
“I would never! How dare you insinuate such a thing!” Luna proclaimed, with much ruffling of feathers.
“I think, to be on the safe side, it would be best if I go down there and help Idol out, I am his direct superior after all, it’s my responsibility to take care of the Ponies,” Celestia held her head high earning a condescending roll of the eyes from Luna.
“Now who is fibbing?” Luna sneered, but any further argument was cut off when Topaz quite defiantly stepped between the two.
“Excuse me but as his oldest, dearest, friend here in Canterlot, I think it’s obvious that I’ll be the one to go comfort him when he’s feeling lonely, Princesses can’t be wasting their time on something like that, I’ll be a good friend and-”
“Good friend? Psh! Please, Topaz, you’re the most transparently infatuated with him of everyone! You can’t be trusted to handle this,” Cadance was quick to point out, trotting past Topaz. “As a neutral party, and an expert in matters of the heart, it’s only natural that I’ll be the one to talk him through this disappointment,”
“Neutral party? Don’t kid yourself, Princess! You’re about as neutral as a Gryphon in a bank heist!” Soon voices were raised, tempers flared, until the squabbling Mares got something to unite against.
“Welp, guess I’ll go down there then and help the poor fella buck up,” Wispy chortled, puffing out her chest, only to be met with a unanimous:
“NO!”
Down below, in the courtyard, Idol sneezed, and decided to head for his room. In the end, if it was all taken together, it had been a very ordinary day.
