> Other Duties As Required
>  by Hiver
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sounds drifted up from the village below. Laughs, singing, music, the sound of talking and some ponies arguing as the bright full moon shone across the village, having just climbed over the horizon, leaving shimmering streaks of silver and shadow, broken by the light of torches and glow crystals.

The scent of spices and smoke, of cooking meat and meals. The sound of foals playing. Ponies talking and laughing

I couldn't help but smile at the pair of statues in the main square, decorated so thickly with flowers they were barely visible. The Night of the Twins was starting to become one of our largest holidays and ponies were having fun with it.

I even saw some ponies, mostly sisters, having coloured their coats and manes to look more alike, wearing the same things.

But it was only expected that this would become one of the larger, more important ones. This was the day of the year that the shield had first gone up. Only one larger actually was Founding Day.

It had actually overtaken Hearts Warming, but I didn't expect that to last. In another couple of years, the newness of it would likely fade enough.

"You're really enjoying this, aren't you?" Sparks asked as she walked up next to me.

I smiled at her as I put a hoof on the railing, "I am," I told her, "And you look especially pretty tonight."

Twilight had braided her long mane down over one shoulder and she had several red and yellow flowers braided into it. What more, she had something I had only seen her wear once before. Fake silver feathers had been threaded through her wings to sit among her natural ones, making her wings shimmer in the lights. She also wore a circlet and a horn ring, both also of silver.

She smiled at me, "It's a bit much, but Rarity insisted. And she brought it all here an-"

"You look amazing," I told her honestly and leaned in to touch my horn gently against hers.

Her cheeks turned slightly red, "Thank you. She's finishing up with Sunset now, it's almost your turn."

I sighed softly but nodded and turned to walk inside, heading towards the bedroom, only to stop in the door at the sight.

Sunset also had her mane braided, over her other shoulder compared to Twilight, and with flowers of Twilight's colors. She wore a circlet of silver and an identical horn ring. Her tail seemed to have been threaded with silver.

"Oh wow."

She smiled at me, "Like it, wing boy?" she asked and moved in a circle.

"Me like, yes."

"Well, if he fell back to grassland pony speech, it must look good," Sunset teased and looked at Rarity, "Amazing work. I expected dresses when Twilight said you offered to come down."

Rarity brushed her mane back a bit, "Know your audience, darling. Wearing clothes at all is completely out of fashion in Nocturnis. Besides, it has been so much fun to branch out into jewelry!" she said before turning to me, giving me a slight bow, "And we're ready for you, Prince Page."

I cautiously entered the room, "...What's the plan here exactly?" I asked.

"Not too much," Rarity reassured me, "You work much better when understated."

"I prefer it too," I admitted and walked up to where she wanted me.

A second pony I didn't know entered, the very pale yellow earth pony with the blue mane was carrying a box on one hoof, "Here we go, Rarity," she said and gave me a small bow, "Your highness."

"Prince Page, let me introduce my assistant, Coco Pommel. She has quite an eye for jewelry actually and has been quite helpful."

"Miss Pommel," I greeted her with a nod, "So I take it this is your doing?" I asked with a smile.

"Not at all, your highness," she said, sounding a bit shy, "I simply helped."

"Oh, it's at least as much your credit, darling," Rarity told her as she floated the box over, "Now, we're going simple. You're already going to wear your circlet and we want to accent that, not take away from it, nor from those feathers in your mane. Oh, my, such a romantic tradition!"

I reached up to touch the thin braid holding the feathers and a thin lock of Sunsets mane with a smile, "I wish I could take credit for it, but that's fully Twilight's idea."

"And I had no idea she was such a romantic," Rarity said with a smile, "As I said, we want to accent, not take away from it. Let's try something new, please extend your wings. I had the idea just a few weeks ago, but no bat to try it on. Rainbow Dash stood model and it worked... kinda. Let's see if this works better on the real deal."

I did as she said, curious of what she was up to.

What she was up to, was wide silver C shapes that fitted across the forward edge of my wing around the bone and muscle there. The result ended up with me wearing four of them on each wing.

I shifted a wing curiously, folding and unfolding it as I watched.

"Well, how does it feel?"

"...Strange," I admitted, "Never even thought about something like it before. It's not uncomfortable, but feels really odd. I'm not entirely sure I could fly like this actually, pulling my wing balance way off."

"Neither can a pegasus wearing fake feathers," Miss Pommel pointed out.

"Fair," I admitted, "I'll try them for today, see how it goes."

"Excellent, I'm so pleased that it worked out!" Rarity said with a smile, "I was so worried!”

She started to unpack the next box, making me worried in turn. What more did she have in mind for me? But I had promised Sparks I'd go along with it. And to be honest, I had not been disappointed in anything Rarity has done yet. I trusted her, which was why I always bought things from her.

What came next was a simple silver necklace. It actually reminded me a bit about the ones Celestia and Luna wore, but... thinner and smaller. The design was very different too, made from silver and incorporating...

"...Are those fangs?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"They are," Rarity confirmed, watching it float in her magic with a critical eye, "From those ghastly lizard monsters you have here. I swear, they cost more to import from here than the silver for the rest of it. They were quite an experience working with, I had to seek out a griffon for advice!"

It was a silver band with engravings along it, flowing lines. At the front was the engraving of a full moon and along each side of the band was two sets of three fangs, spread out along it, each extending downwards past the bottom of the necklace and standing out.

"It's a bit much, isn't it?" I asked carefully.

"Your highness, I would love to have gone with gold," Rarity admitted, "It would have worked even better, maybe a golden headdress as well. It would have been magnificent. But this works much better for your personality, I think."

I shrugged my wings a bit, "Let's try it on, I guess," I admitted and she floated it to my neck.

It fit perfectly, as expected. Rarity had my measurements, had had them for years even as well as got updated every year.

"Now," she said, "For the last part," and pulled out the last box and showed me the content."

I eyed it hesitantly, "Shoes?" I asked, "That's a bit mareish, isn't it?"

Rarity may or may not have hidden an eyeroll, "No, it's not. I'll have you know most stallions in Ponyville wear shoes."

"That's work shoes. Not silver."

"Yes, and these are not shoes," she said and floated one up to show me, "They are top hoof covers. Your silent hoof steps are part of your image and grip is too important up here to wear silver shoes. But these bring the elegance needed for your ensemble."

"Okay, we can try them," I admitted and flicked one ear.

Rarity has not guided me wrong yet and I had promised Sparks.

They clicked into place and I looked into the mirror, carefully raising one hoof and shifting my wings, "...I guess it looks good," I admitted, carefully moving in a circle.

"You look like royalty," Rarity reassured me with a smile, "Now, let's get it off and get your coat, mane and tail ready."

I thought I already was.

But no, it turned out to take another forty minutes.
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I'm not entirely sure what Rarity and Coco did to me, it involved some kind of oil I think, but my coat almost seemed to catch the light as I moved and every gust of wind caught my mane and tail, making every strand seem to float through the air.

I suppose there are still some kinds of magic I have no idea about.

Or it was just a lot of effort, it took two ponies brushing me for forty minutes to get the effect, so I'm not sure it's actually worth the effort, but... then again, the way both Sparks and Sunny's ears perked up when they saw me felt nice.

Maybe I'll look into doing it more often, especially for special occasions.

There had of course been a speech expected of me today. But of course ponies also were here to have fun and not listen to me waffle on, so my speech in total had been 'Welcome everypony! Now go have fun!'

I think that got me the most applause yet, so I guess it worked?

Now we made our way slowly across the main square, stopping what seemed every couple of hooves to talk to or greet other ponies when I finally spotted Midnight and Tempest, "You two look quite good tonight," I said with a smile.

"Thank you, your majesty," Tempest said, shifting slightly with a small bow.

She was not one for dressing up, but she was wearing a pair of horn rings, one close to the tip and one by the base, connected via silver filigree following the grooves of her horn. She also had her mane brushed back in a style similar to Midnights.

Midnight smiled, "Thank you," she said, "You look very nice too. All of you."

She was dressed identically to Tempest, wearing the same kind of horn jewelry.

"Have you seen Rarity yet?" Twilight asked her and shifted a wing to show off the silver feathers, "Look at these!"

"Very pretty,"Midnight agreed with a smile, "And no, not yet."

"She should be somewhere at the other side of the square," Sunset supplied, "Last time I saw her anyway. Rainbow was assisting Applejack with their food stand around there."

Twilight nodded, "Have you seen Fluttershy?"

Midnight nodded with a grin, "Yeah, they're over by the old tree. See you later," she said and continued past, Tempest quickly trotting along.

The old tree was a bit of a misnomer, but it was the largest tree that poked up through the large platform from the forest below, so it had caught the name. We started in that direction and it didn't take long before I spotted a flash of yellow through the crowd.

Not long after, Discord came into view.

He kind of stood out in a crowd, but honestly... I might not like the chaos spirit, but I no longer felt like punching him anytime I saw him. He may still be chaos incarnate, but getting together with Fluttershy had mellowed him out by a lot.

Fluttershy looked up and got to her hooves when we got close, "Wow, you all look so amazing!"

She was one to talk, her pink mane had been turned into what seems to be a hundred narrow braids, each one incorporating what seems to be dozens of shiny things, glowing and flaring brighter as she moved and she was wearing a green dress that almost seemed to be hovering around her rather than be worn..

Fluttershy had always been one of the most beautiful mares I knew and that was without even trying.

Today she had put effort into it and ponies were having trouble keeping their eyes off her.

Not me, of course.

"You're the one that looks amazing," Sunset said with a grin, "What are those things in your mane?"

Fluttershy flicked one ear a bit shyly, "..Stars," she admitted, "Discord got them for me," she said before she looked up at him fondly, "But he even asked Princess Luna first and will put them back by the morning."

Discord smiled and ran his claws through her mane, "You should have seen her face," he said, his familiar smirk on his face, "Last thing she expected."

Even the dracogenus seemed to have put some effort in, wearing a neon orange tuxedo and what looked like neon chemical lights hanging from his horns.

"Besides," Twilight said and glanced around, "I bet you have enough chaos in your life right now anyway."

Discord actually laughed, "If I knew how much, I would have tried years ago."

Fluttershy smiled up at him, "Oh really?" she asked innocently.

His cheeks flushed but didn't answer, instead looking around anywhere but at her.

Fluttershy actually smirked slightly, showing a bit of sharp fang before the batpony looked around, "Where did she go though?" she asked, "Eris! Eris, come to mommy!"

There was a second before the universe seemed to turn inside out in a small patch next to her and a young batpony filly jumped out. She had the pale yellow coat of her mother, but the yellow eyes and black mane of her father.

Fluttershy quickly scooped her up with a smile and a wing, depositing the little filly on her back, "There you are!"

I raised an eyebrow, "...How much chaos magic does she have exactly?" I asked, looking up at Discord, "Last I knew, she could barely knock her playing blocks over."

He smiled and reached to brush her mane, "Only slightly more than Pinkie Pie," he said, "About as much as a pony can have."

"It's like a unicorn," Fluttershy explained, "She's in her magic boost phase right now, if a little later than usual. It'll settle down. I doubt she'll be able to go into the 'underneath' as Discord describes it when she gets older.

Sparks looked like she had a million questions, but finally shook her head, "She may have to go to magic school."

"Wouldn't help," Discord said, "She's not a unicorn, Purple Smart."

I nodded, "Maybe we should leave this to Discord," I told her, "He is the expert in being him."

"I am!" Discord agreed, "Very good suggestion, Batman. Now, bat off to somewhere else," he said before scooping Eris up, "It's time for snacks!"

"Snacks!'' The little filly cheered and both of them disappeared in a flash of light.

Fluttershy rolled her eyes, "Discord!"

She disappeared in a flash of light as well.

Sunset sighed, "This is going to be trouble," she commented.

"Eh," I said and shrugged my wings a bit, "We've dealt with worse. At least they're happy and Discord isn't actively causing problems. I'll take the wins where I can."

"He'll likely be busy for the next decade at least," Twilight agreed with a small smile.

Sunset smirked, "You saw how Fluttershy looked at him, right? I suspect significantly more than a decade myself."

Twilight smiled wider, "True. I'm so glad for her, she always did want a big family."

Sunset moved around us to next to Twilight again with a smirk, whispering something into her ear. They both then looked at me.

"...Am I missing something?" I asked, one hoof a bit nervously off the floor.

Sunny smiled, "Oh, just commenting how somepony looks good today."

Sparks looked me over, "And maybe thinking about some more private celebrations later."

Yay.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I lounged on my throne, the last of the sunlight filtered in from outside through the branches of the taller trees. It was very early night and with a holiday having been the night before the village was dead quiet, ponies sleeping in or trying to sleep off their hangovers.

I usually enjoyed these nights.

Usually.

Taking a deep breath, I looked at the three ponies standing at attention before me. A pair of earth ponies and a unicorn.

“You know,” I said as I studied them, “I usually enjoy the night after a holiday as much as the holiday. It’s usually a very light night for me. To spend time with my family. Usually. ”

“Instead, I’m here,” I said, “With you bunch,” I added and floated a parchment up to read it, “Drunk and disorderly. Destruction of public property. Making a disturbance.”

None of them moved.

“I recognise you three,” I continued, putting the parchment down, “You have been before me once before. I remember it being similar charges as well. I seem to remember the fine then being a hundred bits each as well.”

All three stayed at attention, eyes forward.

“Private Starswell, what do you have to say for yourself?” I asked the unicorn.

“Sir, I apologize, I had too much to drink, sir!”

I regarded him for several long moments. He stared straight ahead but I could see him swallow.

I switched my gaze to the other two, “Private Deep Well?”

The first earth pony stood even straighter if that was even possible, “Sir, I made a mistake, sir!”

“Private Steady?”

“Sir, I bucked up, sir.”

“Yes, yes you did,” I said and shifted my wings slightly as I regarded them, relaxing against my throne, crossing my forelegs on the throne before me as I relaxed, letting them sweat for a bit.

They were each from the Equestria training base up the track from here. And they did as soldiers always did when given money and getting time away from base.

They got drunk and got into trouble.

The ponies of Nocturnis did not like it. They didn’t like it at all. What they did like was the thousands of bits flowing into the local economy.

Which meant they had to put up with the tomfoolery in turn, but there was a limit they would put up with.

“I am well aware that each of you have had dealings with the guard before you ever came to my attention the first time,” I continued after some fifteen seconds.

None of them moved.

“And fining you does not seem to have worked,” I continued, “So instead, let’s try something else and see if that works better, shall we?” 

I looked to Iron Shine, “Iron Shine, return these fine gentlemen to their cell if you please and send a messenger to their commanding officer that he needs to come get them in person.”

“Oh buck, Sergeant Steel Shoes is going to kill us,” one of them muttered.

I turned my head to Private Steady, “Sergeant Steel Shoes?” I asked and the inside of his ears turned a bit red at being caught, “Sergeant Steel Shoes is not your commanding officer, is he? That would be Captain Stormwind unless I’m mistaken.”

That had an effect. They turned white beneath their coats and each of them looked like I had announced a firing squad.

No, that’s not true, it’s like they would have volunteered for a firing squad if that was an alternative.

Captain Stormwind was the garrison commander of the entire Equestrian base. He would be displeased about getting that messenger I think.

I let things sink in for them for a couple of moments before I looked at Iron Shine again, “You have your orders, Lieutenant.”

The large earth pony saluted smartly, “Yes, your majesty,” she said before she turned to them, “Attention! Move out!”

All of them straightened up even more if possible before turning and being marched out with her following.

The door closed behind them before I sighed, “Well, they’re not the first and they’re not the last,” I said, “But I think this lesson may take a bit better than any fine. What do you think?”

“I would think so, your majesty,” Moon Glow agreed, “I think we may know when the messenger arrives as well, even we non-bats will likely hear it from here.”

I chuckled at that, “I wouldn’t be surprised. But don’t let me keep you, you have more important things to deal with.”

She was in charge of my personal guard after all.

Moon Glow nodded and saluted with her wing, “Any excursions planned today, sir?”

“No, I’m actually planning to stick around until lunch and then skive off I think,” I admitted with a smile, “Day after holidays are always really quiet.”

Moon Glow smiled a bit wryly, “More for some than others. Excuse me, sir,” she said and headed towards the balcony to do whatever it was she did night to nighty.

I turned my eyes to the last visible pony in the throneroom, “On that note, I seem to remember giving you the day off for sure, Flower.”

Flower Rain smiled at me from her small desk towards one side, “Just preparing some items for tonight, sir,” the petite bat pony answered, looking up from her papers, “We do have the griffon delegation arriving then if the train keeps to the schedule.”

“Oh yeah,” I admitted, “Almost forgot about that. Whatever would I do without you, Flower?”

She grinned, fangs on full display, “Do a lot more paperwork, sir?”

“More like being completely lost and not even knowing my own schedule,” I told her with a smile of my own, “Now, off with you. I can’t do without you, so I have to make sure you take care of yourself.”

“I’m almost done,” she said and returned to her papers, “Just double checking the planned accommodations.”

I really had no idea what I would do without Flower Rain as my assistant. I was absolutely terrified at the thought that she would get old and have to retire at some point, leaving me without her managing things.

Civilization would collapse.

I really have to ask Celestia at some point what I was to do, she had gone through that many hundreds of times by now.
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The forest was dark, clouds covering the moon and stars, leaving it in full darkness.

The wind wind rustled the trees above, making them creak and rustle and rain was in the air. Not quite falling yet, but it was a late autumn day and the air was chilly.

I slowly moved between the trees, ears slowly turning as I listened, letting out small squeaks of echolocation to help..

There were predators out in the forest. Wolves, timber wolves… or worse. A howl pierced the air in the distance.

A glimpse of white ahead drew my eyes and I slowly approached. I felt the dream around me and then tapped my hoof against the ground, solidifying and changing to match it.

The white shape shifted slightly and pink appeared.

“H-hello?”

“Hey…” I said quietly and slowly moved out of the brush, approaching the base of the fallen tree where she had taken shelter.

Celestia blinked out into the darkness, “...Page?” she asked.

“It’s me,” I confirmed and moved closer, “You were having a nightmare, Sunshine.”

She nodded and her wings shifted. She was an absolutely adorable little filly, maybe seven years old at most.

“I can’t see you.”

“Here,” I said and stepped on a leaf on purpose as I slipped into the small shelter with her. She blinked into the darkness, reaching out with a hoof and I held my head out until she bumped against me.

Celestia felt across me before she smiled in the darkness, “Batpony colt?”

“Well, it felt like it fit,” I admitted and moved to curl up with my side right next against hers.

“You have to do that sometime when I can actually see it,” she said and pressed close in turn and I settled my wing across her back, “I bet you look absolutely adorable.”

“You do,” I told her with a smile, leaning a bit against her, “...This is a mean dream. Memory?”

Celestia nodded against me, “A couple of times,” she said, “You already saw one dream of mine like this I think.”

“Yes, but I didn’t realize it happened that often.”

“Was like that at that time,” she said quietly, one ear twitching  and she pressed closer as there was a howl in the distance, “Got surprised by something when out foraging. Having to hide and then get stuck for the night. Trying to fly during a night like this is a good way to get seriously hurt.”

“Fire?” I suggested quietly.

Celestia quickly shook her head, “No! It keeps the wolves away, but may attract others, worse,” she said and pressed her muzzle against my ear and kept her voice at a whisper, “griffon raiders. Even other ponies. You never put up a fire as a small group unless you’re in a safe place.”

“Other ponies too?” I whispered softly, “Like earth ponies?”

“Or maybe those scary vamponies,” she whispered.

I nodded, “It was a scary time, wasn’t it?” I asked and shivered a bit as a cold wind cut straight through our improvised shelter.

Celestia nodded and her wing slipped across my back against the cold, “Yeah.”

I pressed against her warm side, “Maybe… I could lead us out of here and back to your camp?” I asked quietly, keeping my voice down.

She sighed and shook her head, “I’m afraid your welcoming wouldn’t be very nice,” she admitted, “The tribe would chase you away.”

“Not a pegasus,” I agreed and buried my nose into her mane, “Scary batpony.”

“Was like that at the time,” she agreed quietly, “You cold?”

“I’m playing along with the dream, so… yeah,” I admitted quietly, keeping my voice down, “Bats never were very good with cold weather.”

Celestia nodded and shifted around, “Let's change, put you furthest in, away from the wind.”

“Sounds like a plan,” I agreed and we shifted around until we changed places. It helped a little, not a lot, but with her wing across my back and warm feathers along with her side against mine and tail resting across me, it helped a bit more.

“Besides,” Celestia said and this time I could hear a smile in her voice, “Even at this age I knew that colts had to be protected. So if we get jumped, you run, got it? I’ll hold them off.”

I smiled and buried my nose into her mane again, “Not on your life, Sunshine.”

Celestia rested her nose against my ear, “That’s what is missing in the modern day. Stallions no longer doing what they’re told,” she teased.

I laughed quietly, “And who’s fault is that, Sunshine?”

“Modern Equestria is preferable. And ponies in general are happier, safer and more equal. Harmonious,” she agreed and gave my ear a small nip, “But it does have its frustrations.”

“I suppose,” I admitted and leaned against her warmth, “...Think we can risk a fire?”

“I don’t know, maybe. I haven’t heard anything about any griffons in the area, it’s why the tribe set up here for the winter,” she admitted, “...Let’s risk it, I can feel you shivering,” she said and shifted around, “Nopony should be out in this anyway.” I could feel her feel around for her little bag and I reached to slide it into her grasp.

“Thanks,” Celestia said and looked in my direction, “I’ll go get some wood.”

I frowned, “Sunshine, you can’t see. I have echolocation and can mostly see.”

“And I’m the mare, you stay here when it’s safe,” she said and bumped her nose against my cheek, “You kept this dream like it is, you live with it,” she said before slipping away from my side.

I shuddered at the sudden cold and curled up a bit, scooting further beneath the roots of the fallen tree.

Luckily she returned a couple of minutes later, not having to go far. Less than a minute later there was a flash of light followed by a small flickering fire. That wasn’t even the dream helping, Celestia really did remember how to do it.

Then again, she must have lit fires like this for thousands of years, so I suppose you don’t get out of practice then.

She turned to look towards me and gasped, her wings raising, “You’re adorable!”

I couldn’t help but blush as I scooted a bit out of the shadow, flicking my oversized and slightly fluffy ears, “...Thanks,” I admitted.

She quickly moved around and herded me closer to the fire and I settled down against her warm side.

“...This is much nicer,” I admitted, leaning my head against her neck.

“It is,” Celestia agreed and rested her head against mine, nuzzling softly, “I was right, you are adorable.”

There wasn’t a lesson that night. We just stayed like that talking, pretending to live in the world she grew up in until she had to wake up. Made me miss a meeting, but I didn’t care.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked out over the jungle from high in the tree, lounging on my stomach on the thick branch, one foreleg dangling down beneath it.

The sun was rising somewhere behind me, casting its lights across the jungle stretching out towards the horizon, the river glittering in the increasing light below.

One day a week, Sunset and Twilight were staying up and out during the day. As inconvenient as it was, it was just good for Dayponies to be beneath Celestias Sun.

It did wonders for energy levels we found and most ponies had taken to doing something similar. Including some bat ponies actually.

I suspected it had something to do with vitamins, but in any case it was healthy. In the case of bats, it usually just involved sleeping outside a day or two a week instead of staying up.

Sunset used the time to inspect the guards serving during the day.

Twilight used it as a day off.

“You should try to get some sleep,” Twilight said from next to me, a book resting on the branch before her, “It’s getting late and you do know you have an early meeting tonight with the griffon ambassador..”

I sighed, “I know, Sparks. I know,” I said and shifted slightly to admire her for a moment, “Anything planned for today?”

She smiled, “Going to the lab later to join Midnight. Have some work to do and a potion batch to finish that needs sunlight,” she said and leaned in to give my nose tip a small kiss, “Now go sleep, bat. You can barely keep your eyes open.”

“Mmm,” I admitted and slowly stretched, raising my wings and pushing myself up to sit, blinking a bit and suppressing a yawn.

Sunny and Sparks could sleep in tonight.

I couldn’t.

So I leaned in and gave Sparks a kiss on the cheek, touching my horn to hers before I slipped off the branch, my wings spreading as I caught the air and flew back towards the village.

It wasn’t far, we had stayed well inside the shield and I flew off towards the so-called castle. It was still funny to me that ponies called it that, there were non-noble houses in canterlot larger than it. Buck, night to night we lived in two rooms!

We didn’t use a kitchen and had one living room and one bedroom and the rest was made up of the ‘throneroom’ and administrative spaces.

That was the realm of Flower and Starlight and I was not allowed.

Literally, last time I went exploring, Flower very politely but firmly chased me out. I had not even seen the kitchen, the head chef was a large earth pony and I had only tried once.

I didn’t dare try again.

He scared me a bit.

Glancing back, I spotted the very familiar shapes of Leaf Shade and Shade Leaf flying around behind me in formation.

Sparks had her own two guards along with her which made me feel a bit better about the entire thing. I’m used to being followed by now, barely even thinking about it by now.

Swooping in above the balcony, I landed on the railing easily before jumping down and stretching a bit. Then I looked up and flapped my wings once, bouncing off the railing again and hooking my wing across one of the rafters in the bedroom.

There was plenty of sunlight filtering inside and I got myself comfortable, pulling my legs to myself as I wrapped my wings around my body, still swinging slowly back and forth.

Suppressing another yawn, I let my eyes drift closed and it was not long until I opened them again, looking out over the sparkling expanse of the dream realm.

“Good morning, My Page.”

I smiled and turned around, stretching a bit, “Good morning, My Sky,” I said and stepped closer, looking into her eyes as her star filled mane flowed around us, “You looked exceptionally beautiful this morning.”

Luna smiled and brushed her lips against mine, “How are things in Nocturnis?”

“Well enough,” I said and shifted a bit closer, “It’s a Sun day.”

She nodded, “I’ll look in on Sunset and Twilight later when they go to bed,” she said and shifted around, her wing brushing across my back.

I shifted a bit against her, smiling up at her.

“And speaking of Sunny and Sparks,” I said and smiled, “I have an idea.”

Luna smiled and looked down at me, “Just one? I can think of several.”

I smirked, showing her a bit of fang, “Oh, well I have those as well. About you as well, My Sky.”

She leaned in to kiss me and I kissed back before she smiled, breaking it, “We can explore those later, my Page. Now what was your idea?”

“Vacation.”

“That would be very nice,” Luna admitted and sighed, “But I’m not sure it’s possible at the moment.

I nodded, “I know. And I wasn’t thinking of us. I’m thinking of Sunny and Sparks. They haven’t taken real time off for years. They even covered for me when your plan with Celestia went into effect. They deserve it and more.”

Luna smiled, “I think that’s an excellent idea, Page,” she said and nuzzled at the base of my horn, “Do you have any plans for a location?”

“Well,” I admitted, “I thought somewhere warm and sunny, but we live somewhere warm and sunny. I want it to be somewhere nice, somewhere Sparks will find interesting and where Sunny can get the treatment she deserves.”

Luna smirked, “Somewhere with room service then?”

“Roomservice, massages, the lot,” I confirmed, “So I was actually thinking of a suite at one of the nicer hotels of Manehattan?”

Luna made a thoughtful sound, “Plenty of museums, shows and other things to keep Twilight engaged there,” she agreed.

“I considered just a nice mountain cabin somewhere,” I admitted, “And I think they would enjoy that for a couple of days but then get bored.”

“Possibly,” Luna admitted as she nodded, “I think your idea has merit. Are you sure you would not like to go with them?”

I nodded, “I’m sure I do want to go with them,” I admitted, “But they also deserve time to just be together as well. And they definitely deserve to relax and just disconnect for a while away from Nocturnis and somepony needs to keep an eye on things..”

Luna nodded, “If you’d like, I could make some inquiries, My Page, easier to do so from Canterlot than Nocturnis,” she said with a smile, “I believe we can find something very nice. But it will be up to you to convince them.”

I smirked and shook my mane back, “Oh, I think I can handle that part.”

“Could you now? Perhaps we should discuss some of those other ideas you had then?” Luna asked and pulled me closer.
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I rested on my throne as the door opened and I looked up.

"Envoy Silverstreak and escort," Iron Shine announced and stepped to the side, allowing the three griffons past her.

The lead griffon was of an owl type, brown feathers starting to gain streaks of grey at places, the other two more taking after different kinds of eagles if I'm any judge.

"Prince Page," Silverstreak said and bowed, "Please, accept my gratitude at receiving us and the well wishes from our king."

I smiled and nodded to him, "You are most welcome. And give my own well wishes in return to King Darkfeathers. It has been too long since we talked."

He straightened again, wings shifting slightly as he smiled, "Nocturnis is a beautiful city."

I nodded, "It is," I agreed, "I hope you find your accommodations satisfactory?" I then asked, completely ignoring that calling somewhere with just over five thousand inhabitants a city a bit of an exaggeration.

It was a town at best.

"Absolutely, your highness," he agreed, "Most comfortable. We have been quite enjoying trying the local food, quite different from what we have run into in our previous journeys to Equestria."

"More to the griffon taste?" I asked.

"Much more," he said with a smile.

I nodded, "So what can the ponies of Nocturnis do for you, Silverstreak?" I asked, "I doubt you traveled all the way to our remote corner of Equestria to sample our local cuisine?"

That got a smile from him, "To business," he agreed, "And as a matter of fact, that is part of why I'm here. King Darkfeathers would like to open official channels between Nocturnis and the Griffon people."

I flicked one ear, "Such as?"

"We would like to establish an embassy as well as an official trading station at Nocturnis," He said with a smile, "To facilitate communications between us and set up direct trade."

Considering that for a moment I then slowly nodded, "While Equestria already has an embassy from the Griffon Kingdom, we could certainly use a consulate," I agreed, "As for a trade station, are you considering shipping along the river directly to your lands across the ocean?"

Silverstreak smiled, "In fact, that is exactly what we are hoping for. It would cut weeks off the journey instead of having it travel to harbors in Equestria by train first. It may even make shipments of perishables possible, such as fruit."

I slowly nodded, "That may be more difficult than you think," I said and looked to Flower, "Flower, do you have the report of the survey we did of the river?"

"Yes, your majesty," she said, "Would you like a summary or the full report?"

"A summary would be sufficient, but I think we can give a copy of the full report to the envoys delegation if they wish."

She nodded, "In short, while the river does flow all the way to the ocean, at places there are significant sandbars and other obstructions beneath the surface. It was decided that the effort to map and clear the ones necessary was not economical. Then there is the significant danger of the local wildlife to long travels along the river to take into account."

I nodded and motioned towards Silverstreak with my hoof, "You will be given the full report of course, but I don't think it will be possible."

He looked thoughtful, "Perhaps, perhaps not. We have quite skilled dredgers and craftsgriffs. Perhaps we may accomplish something."

"If you manage to get a ship or even a boat here," I told him seriously, "We'll build a port matching it. That's an agreement you can have from me right now."

Silverstreak nodded confidently, "Our people will study the findings and see what can be done. As for the consulate?"

I smiled, "I have no problem with that, closer ties with the griffon people is only a good thing in my mind. However, whomever is assigned here should likely be warned that there is a rain period. Our weather is not always this pleasant," I said and motioned towards the clear sky and Luna's moon in the sky outside.

He smiled, "Considering I am hoping for that posting myself, I'll take it under advisement, your highness."

"In which case, I suppose it's a good thing you enjoy our food," I said with a smile, "And on that note, perhaps you would like to join my family and myself for dinner this morning?"

"I would be delighted, your highness."

"Excellent," I said with a nod and motioned to Flower, "Flower will arrange it with your people."

Silverstreak bowed, "In that case, by your leave, Prince Page."

"I will see you at dinner," I agreed and the griffons filtered out of the throne room, the doors closing behind them.

I stretched and then jumped off the throne, walking over to look out the open side of the throne room and towards Lunas moon for several long moments. Their suggestion sure was an interesting one.

If they could get ships here, or even large enough boats to be worth it, it would significantly increase our possible trade throughput. Wouldn't make the Equestrian traders happy as the competition would drive prices up, but that would make my ponies very happy, especially as it would also drive prices of what we imported down in turn.

Assuming of course that it could be done.

We did discard it as an option before for a very good reason, even after the railroad went down and we gave it a second and much harder look. The river was fine for good parts of it, but parts were impassable for anything larger than a rowboat, especially as it got close to the sea and entered what could only be described as mangrove territory.

Even with magic it did not seem like a valid option.

But if they could pull it off...

I turned to glance back, "What do you think, Flower? Think they can pull it off?"

She looked doubtful, a quill held in her muzzle between a pair of fangs and she considered it before answering, "...I don't know," she finally said, "The griffons are very good builders and craftsponies. It's possible."

"I hope they are as good as they think they are," I said as I nodded, "That's an amazing opportunity if we are able to open up that trade route."

"Especially if they cover the cost of it," Flower said with a grin.

"Really?" I asked innocently, "I had not even considered that."

Seriously, we could also clear a way through that river. Of course we could, it was just a matter of the number of ponies and the amount of bits to do it. That was a multi million bit project and made running the railway look outright affordable.

But if the griffons were willing to hoof the bill for it...

It could even be used for Equestrian shipping. That would be win-win-win, at least for Nocturnis. Holding up our part of the bargain and building a port matching whatever they managed to get here was the cheap part of it.

Buck, if they pulled it off, we'd have to increase production of everything they were interested in just to keep up with demand.

We might need more pylons as well, to expand the shield. But that was far in the future, even if they cleared the river and the first ship arrived tomorrow, we were good for decades with the area we had now.

Nodding to myself, I returned to the throne, "What's next, Flower?"

"Next is a meeting in twenty minutes with Tight Bit, discussing our next month's budget and possible repayments of our loans to Equestria," she said without even looking at her papers.

Oh, joy.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sunset walked into the living room and as soon as the door closed behind her, she stretched with a groan.

Sparks looked up from the paper she had been reading at the desk, "Long night?"

"You can say that," Sunset agreed and crossed over, kissing her cheek before moving to collapse onto the couch, "I think I’ve been on my hooves all night. Never thought I ‘d wish my job involved more paperwork."

I looked up from my own papers I had been sorting through from my place on the armchair, "Nopony to blame but yourself for that one, Sunny," I teased her.

"Oh bite me."

"Maybe later," I said with a smirk before I flicked one ear in thought, "Actually, there is something I want to talk to you two about."

"Oh?" Twilight asked, "What's on your mind?"

I motioned for her and she jumped off her chair, crossing over to jump onto the couch next to Sunset, "I have been discussing things with Luna," I said, "And I have a surprise for you two."

Sunset pushed herself up to sit, "Surprise, What sort of surprise?"

"An all paid month long vacation to the finest hotel at Manehattan," I said with a smile, "Top floor suite."

Twilight's jaw dropped. Whatever she had been expecting, it was not that, "What?"

"You two deserve time off," I said, "And other than short trips for holidays to Canterlot or the Crystal Empire, you two haven't had a real break since we founded Nocturnis."

"Wait," Sunset asked, "You're not coming with?"

I shook my head with a smile, "I have had plenty of breaks. You two haven't and in addition to that, you two deserve more time together."

They exchanged a glance before Sunset spoke up again, "Page, we can't just leave you running this place on your own."

"I have Flower, Spicy Pepper, Starlight, Midnight, Fluttershy, Tempest and dozens and dozens of ponies helping me," I said a bit dryly, "I think I'll manage a month and a half."

"A month and a half? I thought you said a month?"

I nodded, "Month and a half including travel time," before I smirked, "Actually, keep arguing and I'll increase it another week."

They were quiet for a moment before Twilight sighed, "...It would actually be nice with a bit of a break," she admitted, "Could visit my parents on the way there."

Sunset quickly looked at her before she nodded, "...So... room service?"

I nodded, "Most definitely. I'm told they have the best masseurs in the city too. Minotaurs, I think."

Twilight hesitated, "Not arguing, but how much will this cost?"

"No worries, got it well in hoof," I said before I flicked an ear a bit hesitantly, "...Actually, I said I'd pay but Luna wouldn't have it. She's using her bits for it."

"Alright," Sunset agreed, "We'll go. After the next rain period everything should start calm down a bit and we might be abl-"

I smiled, "The train leaves in two days. Same one Rarity, Rainbow, Pinkie and AJ is going back on."

Twilight gasped, "Two days! I can't leave in two days! I have potions for the guard that won't be read-"

"Which I have already discussed with Midnight, she has agreed to finish them," I interrupted her, "And before any of you ask, Yes, I have thought of that too. I asked Flower to check your schedules three months out and we have talked to everypony that needed talking to."

Sunset frowned at me, "Do we have a choice here?"

I frowned at her in turn, "You absolutely do. You can choose to go on a vacation you very much deserve and will enjoy or you can stay here being bored for the next month and a half. And make me sad."

Sunset shook her head, "That's pretty manipulative of you, wing boy."

Smiling I nodded, "Says the mare that was in on the plan to set me up with Celestia," I teased, "Besides, how else would I be able to get you two to take some time off?"

"I need to pack! I need to make lists!" Twilight exclaimed.

"Nope," I said with a smile, "Only thing you need, Sparks, is to be on that train in two days. Everything will be provided for you, it's all been arranged already."

"But what ab-"

"Including a list of interesting things to see in the city, a list of all interesting lectures on the university you may wish to sit in on as well as the programs for each major and minor museum or play open in the city," I reassured her.

Twilight glared at me, "You have thought about everything, haven't you?"

I smirked, "I can be pretty smart when I want to," I agreed, "So?"

She sighed, her wings relaxing before she looked at Sunset. Sunset nodded, "We'll go."

"I would have appreciated a bit more warning," Twilight agreed, "...But that does sound very nice."

"Excellent!"

"Are you sure you're not coming with?" Sunset asked, one ear flicking back.

I nodded, "Somepony needs to stay and mind the fort," I said, "And like I said, you two deserve time for just you two. You were together before I got involved in things."

Twilight jumped off the couch and crossed over to me, giving me a kiss on the cheek, "Thank you."

Smiling, I gave her a small nuzzle in turn, "You deserve it and so much more. I just wish I could do more."

She blushed slightly, "I...I do kinda need to go talk to Midnight," she admitted.

I nodded and touched my horn gently to hers, "No yelling because she didn't tell you."

Sparks shook her head, "Just need to fill her in on some stuff she needs to know to do while we're away," she said before she smiled, "This will be so much fun!" she exclaimed before heading for the door.

Sunset slipped off the couch and rounded around, jumping onto the chair next to me and leaned against me.

I smiled and slipped my wing around her, "I did good?"

"You did very good," she admitted and then whispered into my ear.

Oh my.

I apparently did very good indeed.
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Life went on in the village below.

I looked out over it from the throne room, some papers laying on my throne behind me from before and for once, I was alone. The last audience had already come and gone. Flower had left for admin land, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Somewhere I didn't particularly want to be right now.

Sunny and Sparks were leaving for their vacation in six hours or so, so I had taken a short night to spend some time with them, but the papers I got from Tight Bit after our meeting a couple of nights ago was...

...We were doing worse than I had thought.

We weren't out of money and the fact that we now grew a lot of food to complement what we could harvest and import helped a lot, but we were still bleeding heavily from other imports and the wood, fruit and other goods we did export didn't cover it. Especially with the payment to the throne on our loans.

That was before we even talked about taxes! Sure, my ponies paid taxes to Nocturnis but none of it went on to the rest of Equestria. As a new colony, we had fifteen years before they would start collecting to help us build up.

That time was coming, not fast, but it was coming. If our economy still looked like this when it did, it'd kill the town.

I knew none of my ponies were rich.

Buck, as far as I knew I only had a thousand bits to my name and that was still more than 99% of ponies living in Nocturnis. The income from the royal guard training outpost helped a lot, they brought bits straight into ponies pockets and boosted local businesses, but they also caused a lot of headaches and friction.

Maybe this entire thing had been a bad idea from the start.

Sure, all I would need to do was ask and Luna and Celestia could prop the village up forever, but that felt wrong.

Did I really buck up that badly with this place? Should I just have made a village closer to Canterlot?

Would ponies have been better off if I just left things as is?

They wouldn't be happy, but at least they wouldn't be stuck in a jungle, slowly getting poorer. What more, I wouldn't be able to get a straight answer from any of them!

If I asked if it was worth it, it would just be 'of course it is, your majesty!'

Because I was a bucking alicorn. I didn't ask to be an alicorn, I didn't ask to be a bucking prince and I definitely didn't ask to be up in charge of anything!

I could barely take care of myself! That’s why I relied on Flower so much.

Maybe a survey?

No, that won't work, it'll be official. They’ll just say everything’s great.

I sighed, leaning against the pillar. I tried to take walks around the village, meet ponies, talk to them. But they all treated me like...

Royalty. 

Like ponies treating Celestia or Luna.

What I needed was to find out what the regular bat thought and felt, what their concerns, worries and hopes were. If I knew that, maybe I could come up with a way for us out of this. Normally I would talk to Sparks and Sunny, they're both smarter than me, but they're going on vacation.

I'm not putting this on their backs just before they are set to leave.

I'll talk to Celestia, she'll know better than anypony what to do. And Midnight, she's as smart as Sparks for obvious reasons.

But bucking damn it, things would be a lot easier if ponies would just talk to me like I was a regular po-

A thought struck me and my ears went straight up.

A regular pony.

I needed to talk to Midnight. Spreading my wings, I jumped off the balcony and banked, turning and flying down across to her and Sparks lab. Landing on the balcony, I looked at the signal on the wall.

It was not turned to red, so it should be safe to enter. I knocked anyway, "Midnight?"

The door opened and she blinked at me in surprise, "Page? I would have thought for sure you'd spend the rest of the night with Twi and Sunset."

"I am, but I want to run something by you real quick. I have an idea, I need you to tell me I'm being dumb."

I told her.

She blinked at me, "...A necklace that make you look like a regular batpony so you can pretend to be a new arrival and see first hoof the difficulties of the normal ponies?"

I nodded, "Correct. We'll come up with some excuse why I'm missing. Like... I'll spend a week doing special alicorn meditation or something in seclusion. You can run court while I'm away."

Midnight looked hesitant, "I don't know if this is a good idea, Page."

"Why?"

"Well, for one thing Twi will staple my ears to the floor if you get hurt and don't have your guards along," Midnight pointed out, tapping a hoof against the floor.

"It'll be fine, Amber and Thorax can keep an eye on me without being spotted," I reassured her, "And I don't want Sparks or Sunny worried, I want them to focus on their vacation. Besides, I’m not going to do anything dangerous. After coming back from the train, I’m not going to leave the village or shield."

Midnight hesitated, "Maybe."

"Can you make the necklace?" I asked, "I can't hold an illusion for that long, especially while asleep. And I need it quick, I want to be able to pretend to have gotten off the train when it leaves this morning."

"Don't want much, do you?" she asked with a frown.

I shrugged, "...So? What do you think? Dumb or not?"

Midnight sighed, "I can see the value," she admitted reluctantly, "I don't like it, but I can see the value. Alright, I'll help. Go spend time with Twi and Sunset, I'll do some research and meet you by the train when they leave."

I gave her a quick hug, "Thanks Midnight, you're the best."

She shook her head but hugged back, "You're a good pony, Page," she said and then let go, "Now get going, I have a lot of work to do."

I left.
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I smiled at Sparks, "Now, remember to try to actually get some relaxing done as well. No need for a full schedule of events."

That earned me a look from Sparks, but Sunset smiled, "Don't worry, I won't let her," she said before her ears perked up, "And they are finishing the loading. We should get going."

I nodded and gave them each a soft kiss, "And remember, have fun."

Twilight kissed back, "We will," she agreed, "Miss you."

"Miss you too, Sparks," I said and then winked, "But we can always meet you know where."

"See you there," Sunset said and then pulled Twilight alone, "They're waiting for us!"

"And I need to get going too," I said and waved before I wrapped myself in a teleport and suddenly I was in one of the underground shelters at the train station.

Midnight, Amber, Thorax, Spike and Talon were already there.

"Okay," I said, "We need to move quickly. Everypony knows the plan?"

"Got it, sir," Amber agreed and green fire flowed across her and suddenly there was a second Blank Page facing me. I blinked at her and looked her up and down. Do I really look like that?

"And this is for you," Midnight said as she approached, "This is still a bad idea, mind you."

I smiled, "But it's going to work, right?"

"Yes," she grumbled, "Most likely," and floated a small metal stud from a box, "This will transform you to look like a batpony fully. It will be a physical transformation, but you'll still be an alicorn beneath so you'll have your magic. Don't want to risk this on an illusion."

I eyed the metal stud, "...I thought we talked about illusion and necklace. I know how you Sparkles are about transfiguration magic..."

That earned me a glare, "You asked me, remember? I can pick where I put this, it can be ear, tongue or somewhere else. So feel free to keep talking."

I shut up.

Somepony woke up on the wrong side of bed this evening. Midnight is as scary as Sparks when angry.

"Anyway, it's not quite the same as transfiguration," she explained and it floated out of my field of view and there was a sharp pain through my right ear.

I managed to keep quiet, but that stung!

A cold sensation flowed through and across me and suddenly I was looking up at her. I must have shrunk at least a hoof in height!

She took a sponge and dripped some sort of potion at it before dabbing it at my ear, "There," she said, "Should stop hurting in ten minutes or so. A necklace could have gotten snagged somewhere and revealed the entire thing."

"Here's the bags," Spike said, carrying a pair of worn looking saddle bags over to me, "Your name is Night Wind, goes by Night. You're from a small village on the other side of the Everfree forest named 'Waterdeep'. We haven't gotten any ponies moving in here from there yet or even from the general area."

I slipped the bags over my back and looked at myself.

Batpony stallion of average height, grey coat, black mane, amber slitted eyes. An open book cutiemark.

"...How in the world did you fake my cutiemark, I thought that was impossible," I asked.

"Complicated, and it's not faked. Just a lensing effect of intent. Now get going, thirty seconds!"

I nodded firmly, "Thank you!"

I focused on my magic to wrap myself in a teleport field. Time to see if I was still an alicorn!

Sure enough, the air before my forehead took on a familiar golden glow and I reappeared in the bathroom of one of the last passenger carts.

I took a deep breath, wanted ten seconds listening hard before I exited and jumped off the train, just as it started to move again. I landed easily on the train station, ears turning as I looked around.

"Welcome to Nocturnis!" somepony said and I looked over towards an approaching earth pony guard wearing the unicorn of the Nocturnis guard. For an earth pony, he wasn't especially big, about the size of Applejack actually.

"H-hi..." I said, taking a hesitant step back.

He stopped and smiled at me, "Relax. I'm Mashed Potato. Call me Pot. New arrival?"

I nodded, "Night Wind. Go by Night," I answered and blinked at him, "...Feels strange."

Potato nodded understandingly, "Got decursed by the Princess?"

"Yes, sir."

"You're walking after a couple of minutes, that's better than most. Must have gotten one of the weaker curses. You'll do fine," he said with a smile, "Come on, let's get you to the office and get you registered."

I paused, "...Registered?"

Potato nodded, "Just procedure. Need to know who moves to the village and all. It'll set you up with a place at the loft and a small starting stipend."

"Oh."

"Do you have any family in town already?" he asked as I started to follow him towards the small building at one side of the train station.

I shook my head, "No family. Just me."

He nodded, "Not uncommon," he admitted, "Here we go," he said with a smile and pulled the door open for me, "I'll wait outside."

"Thank you," I said and walked inside. It was late, the first rays of the sun starting to filter in through the high window and the mare by the desk looked sleepy. That quickly went away when she saw me however,

"Oh! A new arrival!" she said, her bat wings rising as she smiled.

I paused and stared at her. I had seen enough new arrivals to know that was the right reaction. Many bats that arrived had never seen another bat that wasn't a parent before. Seeing another of their kind, especially of the other sex had to be an experience.

She didn't seem to mind at all, just smiling at me, "I'm Cherry Blossom," she said and brushed her mane back with a hoof, "And you?"

"Oh, sorry!" I quickly said and glanced away, "I'm Night Wind. I-I'm new."

Blossom nodded, "Welcome to Nocturnis. You're the only one this time?"

I nodded, "Yeah," I said and moved to sit down on the chair she directed me towards.

She smiled, "Let's get you registered then. Possibly tonight, you might get to meet Prince Page. He likes meeting all the new arrivals if possible."

I slowly nodded, "I see."

She got some papers together, "Alright Night Wind... previous place of living?"

"Waterdeep."

"Family?"

I shook my head, "...No."

Blossom's smile turned a bit sad, "I understand. Occupation?"

"I was a technical writer. I'm not sure that works out here," I admitted.

Blossom shrugged, "You never know," she said and put it down, "And that's pretty much what we need!"

I looked at her in surprise, "What, really?"

"Yes," she said, "This is mostly a census so we know how many and which ponies we have in town and to get you registered for a place to stay. There is a waiting time for somewhere private unless you build it yourself, but there is plenty of space on the loft to hang your tail. The guard will bring you to the village and show you where you can stay. Tomorrow somepony from the welcoming office will come and meet you and show you around, get you signed up with the employment office. See if we can't find something that fits you."

Slowly nodding, I met her eyes, "Thank you."

Blossom smiled at me and jumped off her chair to round her desk. She gently put her hoof against my shoulder as she looked into my eyes, "Welcome to Nocturnis. You're free now."
> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I blinked awake, looking across the small room at the wooden wall. The small glassless window revealed the final rays of the sun as they cast across the room.

I was at the loft, the temporary living place for ponies that arrived with nowhere else to stay. It wasn't much, but it did give every pony or every family that arrived a private room and a choice of cot or perch.

It was very bare bones. Mostly a wooden box, some simple furnishing. The only real decoration was a map of the village on the wall, pointing out the important places.

There was a knock on the door and I blinked sleepily before letting go with my tail, spreading my wings and landing on my hooves on the floor before moving to open it, finding a rather cute batpony outside.

"Night Wind?" Fluttershy asked with a smile, "Good evening. My name is Fluttershy, I'm going to be your guide today."

I blinked at her. I didn't expect Fluttershy! I knew she was in the pool of guide ponies, but there were like twenty ponies there!

"L-Lady Fluttershy!"

She smiled at me, "No need for that, I’m just Fluttershy," she said, "Are you hungry?"

"A bit," I admitted, "I don't have many bits..."

"Don't worry about it," she said, "Come along."

I followed, walking next to her, "Where are we going?"

"Feeding hall," she explained, "Anypony that's hungry can go there for food if they have nothing else. It's nothing fancy, mostly they provide local fruits and sometimes a bit of meat if there has been a recent hunt. If you are a day pony, they also provide you with grain as they need it to stay healthy."

"We don't need grain?" I asked as I slowly nodded, "And we eat meat?"

Fluttershy nodded with a smile, "We don't need grain. But we do actually need a bit of meat in our diet to stay healthy. I know it might sound like a lot to get used to, but it's actually easier than you think."

"Oh."

"Don't worry, most eat mostly fruit, meats expensive. When you start to earn bits, there is the market with different foods, both imported and home grown such as rice."

Looking around as we walked along one of the bridges between trees, lights came on around in places around the village as my eyes quickly adapted to the gathering darkness as she led me to the feeding hall.

It was a different converted bunkhouse at the next tree over. She led me inside, "Here we are," she said before waving at an earth pony unloading a cart of fruit onto a large table, "Hey Steady. What do we have today?"

Steadfast smiled at her, "Sky Melons, Fluttershy. All you can eat. Newcomer?" she asked, looking at me.

Fluttershy nodded, "This is Night Wind. Night Wind, this is Steadfast, she is usually the pony running this place. She goes around to the harvesters and merchants to gather what they can spare."

Steady smiled at me, "And today, Sky Melons. Ever had one?"

I shook my head, "I heard about them... I think they sell them in Canterlot? Expensive."

"Expensive in Canterlot. Here they grow commonly," she said and shrugged slightly, "Think a giant blueberry and you're not far off. Anyway, I need to go see what else I can scare up. Enjoy!"

Steady left and I slowly approached the table, picking one up with a hoof.

Fluttershy walked up next to me and did the same before slamming one side of it against the edge of the table, cracking it before she pulled it apart to get to the insides, "Like this?"

I copied her.

Soon we were both eating. I really should eat more skymelon, they were really good. Wonder why we don't get them much at the castle?

"Many eat here?" I ask her as more ponies start to file in.

Fluttershy nodded, "Most ponies eat here at least a couple of meals a week. Nopony in Nocturnis is very rich and food can be expensive, especially if you're a daypony and need imported goods. If you're saving money for something like new tools or something like it, you get really familiar with this place."

I looked down at my half eaten skymelon. These were the ponies that had pooled bits to commission me a silver crown.

"I see," I said as I got my emotions back under control, "Speaking of jobs, where can I find one? Could I start applying to places?"

Fluttershy smiled, "We're actually more organized than that. Once we eaten, we'll go to the employment office. There you'll get your starting stipend and we'll see what jobs are available. When somepony need a pony to work, they register it with the employment office who finds ponies that can do the job."

"And there might be one for me?"

She nodded, "We're always looking for ponies, there are always more jobs that need doing than there are ponies, so don't worry. There's going to be some way for you to earn bits."

"What about a place to stay? The loft is comfortable and all, but..."

Fluttershy nodded, "A place of your own is always nicer," she agreed, "That may take a while I'm afraid, especially as a single pony. We're building as fast as we can, but new places are first come first serve and families have priority."

"Makes sense," I agreed.

Fluttershy smiled at me and actually shot me a wink, "On the other hoof, you're a single stallion. I don't expect that to last for long around here."

Was Fluttershy flirting with me?

Wow, she really has changed since she moved here. Old Fluttershy even five years ago would have spontaneously combusted at the very idea.

I felt the inside of my ears turn a bit red and I focused on my meal.


########


"And here we are," Fluttershy said and led the way into a building and over to an unicorn, "Lights Dawn, this is Night Wind. He's a new arrival. We're looking to register for the stipend and for employment."

Lights Dawn nodded to me. She was an older unicorn with grey mane and almost but not quite white coat. I remember when she arrived in Nocturnis, apparently to support her bat pony granddaughter.

"Welcome to Nocturnis," she said and shuffled some papers around, "Ah, where we go. Night Wind, origin of Waterdeep. Trade, technical writer?"

I nodded and moved to sit down on the chair as she motioned for me, "Correct, ma'am."

She lit her horn and pulled out a drawer, picked out a small pouch and put it on the desk, "Your new arrival stipends fifty bits. You have food and board at the loft and feedhall, this is for essential items you may be missing."

"Understood, ma'am."

Lights Dawn studied me for several moments, "Technical writer?" she finally asked.

"Yes, ma'am. I understand that might not be in demand here, but I have done other things growing up. I helped out on the farms around home, some for extra bits."

She made a thoughtful sound, "What do you think about working in a shop?" she asked, "How are you with numbers?"

"I know several of them."

Apparently, she had left her sense of humor behind when she moved to Nocturnis, so she simply nodded, "The alternative would be harvesting or woodcutting, those are most in demand right now and I do not think you have the physique for those. Perhaps fruit harvesting."

"I would like to try the shop work, ma'am," I suggested, “I’ve done so once or twice before”. That would be perfect anyway, allowing me to talk with so many ponies.

She pushed her glasses a bit further onto her nose, "Very well, we'll give it a try," she said and moved to get a paper, "Take this," she said and handed it over to me, "Present this to Iron Brand, he runs the general store."

I took it and the little bag of bits, putting both into my bag, "Yes, ma'am."

Lights Dawn finally cracked a small smile, "And welcome to Nocturnis. Don't worry, this is just to get you back onto your hooves. You're not forced to work anywhere, if it does not work out, just come back here and I'll see if I can find you something else. Or find it on your own."

I nodded, "I will, ma'am. Thank you."
> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So what do you think so far?" Fluttershy asked with a smile as she led the way along one of the main bridges in the rough direction of the so-called castle.

I moved to the side to be out of the way of a pair of earth ponies carrying planks. I  waited until they were out of the way before I answered, "It seems... nice. It's different from where I used to live, a lot more different."

"Any family there?"

"No," I said and shook my head.

Fluttershy nodded a bit, "You're not the only one here. A lot of ponies come here alone. We have even some non-bats arriving looking for somewhere they can build something new."

"Oh. That's the lower town I saw?"

She shook her head, "No, even if a lot of them do prefer to live there. The lower town is mostly made up of ponies without wings; they find it much more comfortable to have their hooves on the ground."

I glanced over the railing of the bridge and the deep drop below, "I guess I can see why," I admitted.

Without wings, working here had to be a bit nerve wracking before you got used to it.

Fluttershy smiled and looked down, "Not all have moved down. Some still prefer to live up here. And some with wings live down on the ground, even some of us bats."

"Is the entire town nocturnal? Even the... non bats?"

She shook her head and started walking again, "No, but the great majority are, especially among us bats. We can be awake during the day, but it takes effort and makes a lot of us feel sleepy."

"I always did have trouble staying awake at school," I agreed, "So what do you do when not guiding new ponies around?"

Fluttershy smiled, "I'm on one of the hunting teams and I help take care of the livestock. I also have some duties to the Prince."

"Oh really?" I asked, "Like what?"

She shrugged her wings a bit, "Mostly organizational for holidays and such."

"What about the other parts? Livestock and hunting?" I asked as we approached the commercial district.

Fluttershy shook her head, "It's not as horrible as it may sound. Most things around here is really dumb and trying to eat us first anyway... and we do need meat in our diet."

"Oh."

She shrugged, "I wouldn't be mad at a cat for hunting a squirrel, she's just trying to eat. We're creatures too. We need to eat as much as the cat does... we're fine on mostly fruit, but we do need some meat after the decursing."

I slowly nodded, flicking one ear.

That had been the biggest thing for most batponies. They had lived with the usual equestrian view of such things all their lives. It was actually remarkable how quickly they adapted. Then again, I suppose it helped that it tasted good.

"Here we are," she said as we reached the general store before leading the way inside. The store wasn't big. Really, none of the buildings in the upper city were what you would call big, even the palace. The lower city was a different matter, especially the bath house which I was actually looking forward to trying. Anytime I went before I was just taken to my own private pool.

Kinda defeated the point in my opinion.

But my ponies had insisted on building the damn thing which meant I had to keep using it.

I followed her into the store where we almost ran into the owner. From the name Iron Brand, you would have expected an earth pony. But no, he was an older bat with a dark grey coat and almost white mane and tail, his mark being that of a golden bit.

"Miss Fluttershy," he said with a smile and a small bow, "How may I help you today? I'm afraid your shipment has not arrived yet."

She smiled, "Oh, that's not why I'm here," she said and motioned to me, "Brand, this is Night Wind. He's a new arrival and employment suggested he try here."

Iron Brand gave me an appraising look, "Night Wind," he said, "Ever worked in a store before?"

"Actually, yes," I said with a smile, "A book store when I was younger."

He nodded, "Might as well try you out," he admitted, "The last two were a complete loss, maybe you'll do better."

Well, I convinced you and everybody else to move to a monster infested jungle, how much more difficult could it be to sell... whatever is sold in a general store. Generals?

Damn, I have not really gone shopping for myself in… quite a few years now.

I suddenly felt rather out of touch.

I nodded firmly, "I'm going to give it my best."

"I'll be back to get him at the end of the night, "Fluttershy said and then looked at me, "Continue our tour then?"

"Yes please, Lady Fluttershy."

She nodded and left, the door closing behind her and I turned to Iron Brand,

"What's first, boss?" I asked with a smile.

He flicked one ear, "First, put your bag in the back. Then I'll show you the register. Then we get to work."

I quickly did as he told me before returning. The register wasn't the same as the one I used way back, but really there was a limited amount of change that could be done to one. It was simple enough.

"And you finish the ringing up by closing the drawer," I said with a nod, sliding it shut.

"Good," he said, "Then I have your first task. Go down the stairs in the back to the lower level, I have sacks of potatoes stored. I need then split up into smaller bags for easy purchase. Not everypony need forty pounds of potatoes at once, nor can afford it, nor the cooling spells to store them."

I nodded, "Potatoes are imported, right? Do we sell a lot of them?"

"Not to other bats," he said, "Some, but the majority goes to undertowners. For being imported goods, it's not that expensive. It's cheaper than grain in any case as we don't import it from as far away either."

"Can do, boss," I agreed with a nod, "How much a bag? One or two pounds?"

"Do two," he said, "Hundred of them should be enough."

Nodding, I trotted into the back of the store and then down the narrow staircase. The place wasn't lit, but the gloom wasn't enough to hinder my vision and small chirps of sonar made it easy enough to navigate.

Opening the door, I slipped inside and instantly shivered.

The room wasn't a freezer, but it couldn't have been more than five or so degrees above freezing. Coming from the thirty plus outside and into here felt like walking into a snowstorm.

The inside was almost pitch black and I looked around, finding the pressure pad I gave it a tap and a small little single glow crystal came to life, giving just enough illumination for me to see by.

Yep, that's a bunch of sacks of potatoes and other goods that liked the chill.

And a stack of much smaller empty sacks.

Might as well get to it.
> Chapter 12
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I checked the prices on the list and entered it into the register, "And fifteen for the potatoes puts us at a total of fifty three bits," I said with a smile.

She smiled back, her bat wings shifting slightly on her back, "Oh, any chance I could have some of those raisins as well?" she asked, pointing high on the shelf behind me.

"These?" I asked and reared up, grabbing one of the small bags with my other hoof put onto the lower shelf, "One or more?" I asked, glancing back at her.

"One should be enough, thank you," she said with a smile, "How much is that?"

"An even fifty five," I said after entering it, "Anything else I can do for you?"

She brushed a hoof through her mane, "Oh, no, I think that's all I can afford for now. You're new here? Haven't seen you before.

"Arrived this morning," I said, "Names Night Wind. Iron Brand was kind enough to give me a chance."

"Silver Arrow," she introduced herself and held out her hoof.

I reached across the counter and touched it with mine, "A pleasure."

She smiled and then started to count out the bits on the counter, "Come alone or with family?"

"Oh, just me," I said and scooped the bits into the register, "No family."

"I'm sorry."

I shook my head, "It's alright," I said with a small smile.

She nodded and started to pack her things away into her bag, "Well, welcome to Nocturnis. I'm sure things will go much better for you here. It can be difficult, but we like our town."

"Seems nice so far," I agreed.

"Oh, I should get going. Thank you so much for your help," she said before she left, giving me a final smile before leaving.

Well, at least everypony was so friendly. That's always nice to see, especially to a newcomer.

Iron Brand exited from the back, carrying a basket to restock the shelves behind the counter, "Was that Silver Arrow I heard?"

"Yep, seemed nice," I said and looked at the shelves, "That's the sixth bag of raisins I sold so far. Are they very popular?"

"I usually sell that many a week," he commented with a smirk, "Local fillies checking out the new colt, making you stretch for them."

Oh.

I felt the inside of my ears turn a bit red.

"And on that note," he said and started to remove the raisins from the shelf, replacing them with what looked to be more expensive sewing thread spools.

Well, merchant is going to merchant I guess.

Also, do we really have that much of a lack of stallions around? Or is it just that I'm new? Sure, the form Midnight gave the transformation was on the nice looking side of average, but I wasn't that pretty.

The door opened and a unicorn wearing solar guard armor entered.

I turned to him with a smile, "Welcome, sir, how can I help you?" I asked.

"Pipe tobacco, please," he said, stopping by the counter, "Seventy bits worth."

"Of course," I agreed and looked at Iron Brand. He barely glanced at me before nodding towards the back.

Heading around into the back room, it didn't take me too long to find what I was looking for. Finding the weight and pricing chart on the wall next to it, I weighed out and packaged the right amount before returning.

"Sorry for the wait," I said and put the pack on the counter, "I'm brand new, still learning."

"Eh, it's alright," the guard said and counted out the bits, "Thanks."

I nodded, "Welcome back," I said and took the bits as he floated the pack into his bag on his way out.

The door closed behind him and Iron Brand scowled at the door, "Damn sunners think they own the place," he grumbled before going back to stocking the shelf.

I raised an eyebrow, "Sunners?"

He nodded, "Sun ponies. The Equestrians. Everything has gone downhill since they put up that damn base to keep an eye on us. They do nothing but cause trouble. Not enough they made us hide for thousands of years."

"...He seemed nice enough. And he did buy seventy bits of tobacco."

Iron snorted, "Nice now. Then something will happen, ponies will panic and they'll blame us for it. Tried to kill our Prince, they did. Couldn't stand us bats getting anything."

"I thought that was a random madpony."

Iron shook his head, "So they say. Don't buy it, more were involved. I know how things work."

"I'm not sure Princess Celestia woul-"

He looked at me, "I don't want to imply the Princesses know something about it," he said and sighed, "...Never done anything for me until Prince Page arrived. Used to hate the stupid bint. But Prince Page loves them, so I guess they have to be decent enough sorts so I likely was wrong about that. Don't mean other ponies weren't involved. You know how we'd been treated."

"...Yeah," I admitted, glancing down, "But there are a lot of ponies here that's not bats."

Iron shook his head, putting his hoof on my shoulder, "It's not the same. The ponies here may be bats or they may not be. They're our friends and neighbors. It's not about tribes, it's about some ponies not being able to stand anypony that's not like them."

"He seemed alright though."

Iron nodded, "But what is he really here for? Training? Or because the Equestrians don't trust us and put a base of sunnies close enough to do something about it if necessary? The Princesses might not even know about that plan."

I frowned but the door opened and Fluttershy poked her head inside,

"Hi, I'm back!" she said with a smile, "How have things been going?"

"Well enough," Iron Brand told her with a nod, "He'll do for now," he said and opened the register, counting out thirty bits onto the counter, "For your work today," he told me, "Come back tonight at dusk."

"Yes boss," I agreed with a nod, getting my bag before scooping the bits into it before I looked at Fluttershy, "Where next?"

She smiled at me, "Now, I'll show you around the usual landmarks."
> Chapter 13
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked out over the water as the sun in the distance slowly set over the valley.

The moons of Sanctuary were already poking up above the opposite horizon and the glow fish flittered back and forth above the surface of the water, catching insects, leaving glowing trails in the air from their magic.

"Page?" 

My ear twitched and I glanced back, forcing a small smile, "Hey Sunshine."

Celestia moved to lay down next to me, looking out over the water, "Twilight and Sunset have left?"

I nodded, "Last morning," I agreed.

She looked at me thoughtfully, "Miss them?"

"...Yes," I admitted.

Celestia nodded as she regarded me before leaning in and planting a small kiss by the base of my horn, "But that's not what has you upset."

"No," I sighed, "While they're away, I'm taking the opportunity to run a small project. Just before they left, I talked with Tight Bit and went through the current future economic projections of the town. It's... not good."

Celestia sighed, "Page, if it's bits you are worried about, you know that you don't need to be, we ca-"

"No, Sunshine," I said and shifted slightly to look up at her, meeting her eyes, "If Nocturnis can't stand on its own hooves, what are we even doing here? If we're just going to be reliant on crown money, we might as well pack up and leave. Go back."

I sighed, "...Being reliant on charity from Equestria would be almost as disastrous as failing my bats completely. Especially now."

Celestia's wing brushed across mine, "How do you mean?"

I shook my head, "I started a project when Sparks and Sunny left. Figured it was a good time for it. I want to find out how to improve things, what we need to focus on and what we can cut."

She nodded, so I continued.

"Well, everypony I ask just tells me they are doing good. So I figured I'd see for myself. I conscripted Midnight, she made me some sort of transfiguration trinket and made me look like a newly arrived batpony. Amber is covering for me at the palace."

Celestia frowned at me in displeasure, but I just met her eyes. She didn't have a wing to fly on, I knew for a fact that she had done the same sort of thing multiple times and for similar reasons.

Buck, that's how she went on vacation last!

Finally she nodded, "And what have you found out that have you upset?"

I sighed and shifted to lean my side gently against hers and her wing lifted to settle across my back, "Well, first of all, we need to change our advertisement. Apparently arriving as a single stallion makes some of the inhabitants really friendly."

Celestia looked amused, "What did you expect?"

"Well, I didn't expect even Fluttershy to be mildly flirty," I admitted, "The transfiguration isn't even that handsome, we went with 'average looking'. Just some dude, I wanted to blend in."

Celestia smirked at me, "What else have you discovered, my pretty bat?"

I rested my head against her neck, "...The anti-equestrian current is a lot deeper and stronger than I thought. I talked with maybe a dozen ponies so far. They are extremely unhappy to have any of the Solar or Night guards around. They're happily taking their bits, and at a steep markup most of the time, but I get the feeling that they would happily forgo those bits if they could toss everypony in that training base in the river."

"Page, that's not wholly unexpected."

"I know," I admitted, "But I didn't think it would be that strong. I thought soldiers getting into the normal kind of trouble was most of it."

Her nose brushed my ear, "Page, most bats in Nocturnis have lived their entire lives fearing discovery. Disliking me and to a lesser extent  when she returned, my sister. We're a symbol of what they used to live beneath. And our guards represent us. I'm not surprised that there is some hostility."

"...It's not just the guards," I mumbled quietly against her neck, "It's Equestria. All of it. They want nothing to do with anything or anypony from there. We're still in Equestria, we're a town! A small town at that!"

"Our silly Page," Celestia said gently and placed a soft kiss at the base of my ear, "It's not unexpected."

"...Some of them hate you..."

I felt her lips smile against my ear, "Also, not unexpected."

"I don't know what to do," I said against her soft coat, "Celestia, everything we do is reliant on the rest of Equestria! We don't produce enough goods to make up for our imports, we need some way to bring in additional bits. The training base helps, but it stirs up..."

I sighed and pulled back to look up at her, "If it's not the guards, if they really dislike even normal equestrians, even tourism wouldn't work. I didn't want this, I didn't want any of it! I just wanted everypony to be able to be safe, feel like they didn't need to hide!"

Celestia placed a gentle kiss on the tip of my nose, her wing shifting and she brushed tears I had not even noticed from my eyes, "Calm, my stallion. We'll figure it out," she reassured me.

"How? How can we possibly solve this?" I asked and shook my head, pushing her wing away with mine, "Either my ponies fall into poverty, or... there is no or because anything we can do to try to fix it, just makes things worse! I'm not exaggerating when I think there is just a matter of time before somebody gets shoved out of a tree! Oh, did I say poverty? Because I meant even more poverty! Everypony is already poor!"

Celestia's wing settled across my back as she met my eyes again, "Page. Deep slow breaths."

"But-"

"Blank Page," Celestia said in a tone I only heard her take a couple of times, "Slow. Deep. Breaths."

I did as she told me as I looked up into her eyes.

"Now, listen to me," Celestia said gently but firmly. Who spoke now was the Princess that had ruled for thousands of years, not my Sunshine, "My sister and myself have dealt with worse," she said, "I can think of several ways to navigate this already. Do you think that bringing all three tribes of ponies together was painless?"

"...No..." I admitted quietly.

"Exactly," she said before she sighed sadly, "It won't be easy, but we will help where we can. Continue as you have planned, I will discuss matters with my sister and investigate some things."

"Bu-"

This time she didn't say anything as I squeaked as she bit my ear tip firmly before letting go, "What did I say?"

I went back to taking slow deep breaths as I flicked my ear, trying to make it stop aching.

"Now," Celestia continued, "How long did you plan on investigating?"

"A week or so," I mumbled and reached up to rub my ear, "Why do you and Luna keep doing that?"

"Because that's how stupid colts got taught not to be stupid back in our day," Celestia said firmly, "So stop being stupid and it won't happen."

"...Did you have to teach it to Twilight at least?" I grumbled and put my hoof back down, flicking my ear twice more..

That got a small soft laugh from her, "I did no such thing. You may have to blame that one on Luna or her own parents."

I sighed and flicked my ear again before I looked up into her eyes, "...You really think we can fix this?" I asked her.

"I do think we can fix this," Celestia said and touched her horn gently to mine, "We just need to find the best way to do so. Just continue your investigation while Luna and I discuss some options on our end. Then we'll talk things through and find the one we think will work best."

"Alright," I agreed and her wings shifted, brushing across my eyes again, "...Don't tell Sparks and Sunny when they visit on the way," I told her, "They deserve this vacation, I don't want them worrying about it."

Celestia frowned a bit, "They'll be quite cross with you when they find out."

"I know," I admitted, "But that's on me. They deserve some time away."

"You're a good stallion," Celestia said and her lips pressed against mine.

I kissed back, feeling a lot better than before.
> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, Steady had been right.

The ale was crap in the Chimera and Bucket. I'm not even sure it should strictly be called ale, it was made from some local plant that had been discovered while the railway was down. It was way cheaper than importing and almost made a sort of ale, which I guess is why it was still in use.

Luckily, they also had a local sky-melon wine which I thought was excellent.

This is where my alicorn resilience came into play. It allowed me to keep up with everypony else and not stand out without getting completely sloshed in the process.

The place was also packed and the later in the morning it got, the more ponies showed up. It was busy and the ponies were laughing, talking. Somepony was using a guitar in the corner.

Not sure I should call it playing, but she sure was using it.

Ponies seemed happy at least. I would have expected more bats to be honest, but this was the lower town. It made sense that dayponies outnumbered bats in this place.

I lifted my cup and sipped my wine. I'm usually not a big fan of wine, but this was alright.

"Hi, haven't seen you here before."

I blinked at the voice and looked, spotting a bat slip into the chair next to mine, "Oh, Hi," I said.

She was... well, beautiful. Dark mane, dark tail, coat a pale grey and cutiemark of an orange split in two.

"I'm Sweet Slice," she said with a smile, "New in town?"

"Night Wind," I introduced myself, "Ah... yeah, a few nights ago. Just finding myself around."

She smiled, flicking one ear, "That's a lot easier with help. Mind some company?"

I hesitated and then shook my head, "Not at all," I said with a smile. We really need to include this in the advertisement for Nocturnis. Very friendly locals.

A stallion could get into so much trouble.

"So what do you think of Nocturnis so far?" she asked, shifting one wing a bit.

"It's interesting," I admitted, "Very different. But it seems... nice."

She nodded, "It can be," she said, "Sometimes is, sometimes not."

"Sometimes not?" I asked, "When is it not?"

Sweet flashed me a fang as she smiled, "You haven't been here for the rain period yet. You're basically stuck inside for a month if you're lucky."

"If you're lucky?"

She nodded, "I make a lot of bits during that time, doing deliveries. To each other, from stores... nopony wants to go out. I make more during the rain period than any other three months combined."

"Oh," I agreed, "That makes sense."

"So a tip, unless you want to brave dashes between rainstorms, save up bits for when that starts," she advised me before she eyed me, "...I might give you a discount. You are new after all."

"...Thank you..." I admitted and finished my wine.

Sweet smiled and finished her own, "Can I get you another?"

"Oh... yeah, sure," I said and shifted my wings slightly as I looked around the bar, "Lots of ponies this morning."

"Oh, this place is usually busy, but especially so tomorning. It's when they're having a band playing."

I eyed the mare using the guitar, "So I see..."

That got a laugh from Sweet, "No, that's Honey. She's usually here every morning. No, the music should start in twenty minutes or so," she said before slipping off through the crowd.

Damn, if I really were Night Wind, I would be in so much trouble right now. I did not look after her as she walked off.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

...Don't look at me like that, I'm married, not blind.

She returned with a pair of tankards of wine held on one hoof before slipping back into her seat and putting them on the table. I took one and gave it a sip. Yep, same stuff as I had before, "So... been here long?"

"Couple of years," she said and shrugged her wings, sipping her own wine, "Some ponies came here and built the place with Prince Page, but I'm a fairly late arrival. My sister and I moved here when it looked like the place wasn't some sort of trap."

"Trap?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

Sweet shrugged, "Never know with sunnies. I never really thought it was something like that, not with Prince Page. But my sister was worried so we held off until we were sure. What about you, any family come with?"

I shook my head and sipped my wine, "No."

She nodded a bit sadly and then did the same.

"So... Sunnies cause any trouble now?" I then asked with a frown.

Sweet shook her head, "We usually only get guards from the so called training base. There is the occasional drunken brawl, but stallions, you know."

I raised an eyebrow at her.

She shrugged and sipped her drink, "Anyway, nothing really serious. The town guard puts a stop to it and nothing really serious would ever gain wing. The Prince would step on that hard, like whatever horseapple come out of Canterlot at the moment."

"Like?"

"Eh, mostly just heard about it secondhoof," she said, "Some of the merchants trying to play hardball with the prices."

I sipped my wine, "Sounds like any other merchant to me."

She just shrugged, "Just what I hear," she said and then grinned, "Hey look, that's my sister," she said.

I turned just as some ponies entered the small stage, carrying instruments. The mare with the guitar did look almost identical to Sweet, just with a cherry cutiemark.

"Older?" I asked Sweet.

She nodded, "Cherry Slice is a year older than me," she confirmed and sipped her wine, "And the one in family with some musical talent."

She was quickly proven correct as they started to play.

They were actually pretty good.

Sweet smiled at me, "Come on, let's dance!"

I grinned, "In this mob?"

"Yeah, It’ll be fun!"

I eyed my wine before I nodded, "Yeah, alright."
> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

My head hit the not-ground and I sighed, letting my wings relax against it.

Starstuff and lights shimmered around me in the ethereal not-air of the dream realm. I didn't see any of it as I kept my eyes closed, but I had seen it more than enough.

I just stayed still. Didn't want to move, didn't want to think.

A soft wing settled across my back, a warm side against mine and a muzzle touched my ear, "What troubles you, My Page?" Luna asked gently, "How does your investigation go?"

I raised my head, leaning it against her neck, "...I don't know what to do," I admitted quietly.

"What have you uncovered?"

I smiled wryly, "Oh, only that almost everypony I talk to trusts the rest of Equestria as far as they can throw them and like them even less. It's not even contained to just bats, it has spread to some of the dayponies too. Buck, some of them are even worse!"

Luna sighed softly, "Page, some distrust is to be expected."

"I guess," I admitted, "But it's not what I wanted at all."

"I know, My Page," she said gently and nosed at my ear, "My sister and I have discussed matters, but no plan has formed yet."

I nodded, "I'm trying to come up with one too," I said before rolling onto my back to look up at her with a small smirk, "Starting to think I should have asked Midnight for a disguise that made me look like a mare instead."

Luna looked amused, "Getting some attention?" she teased.

"Like you wouldn't believe," I admitted, raising a hoof to brush her mane, "Seriously, I think every single mare I meet tries to flirt with me and I'm average looking at best."

"Let me see?"

I nodded and changed, allowing the dream image of myself to match my current one in reality before I opened my eyes again to look up at her, "Well?"

Luna looked me over before she smiled, "...Pretty average," she admitted, "If on the cute side of it. Keep in mind that there are less stallions in Nocturnis than the average in Equestria."

I shivered, changing back, "Last census had us at... four point seven to one, I think," I agreed, "But I guess an unattached stallion gains attention everywhere."

"That is true. Even in this time."

I smirked up at her, "So... best behave. Because I clearly have options."

Luna smiled down at me, "Is that so?" she asked, her wings shifting before she took on a thoughtful look, "Hmmm."

"...What?"

"Perhaps that isn't a bad idea," she mused, "We're married and you are romantically involved with my sister, Twilight and Sunset. Adding a batpony to that would send a very good message."

"H-hey now, none of that," I protested, "That's not how things are done in modern Equestria."

Luna flicked one ear, "Worth considering in any case," she said, "Perhaps Lady Flutt-"

That's how far she got before I rolled onto my hooves and pounced.

She laughed and rolled onto her back, allowing me to pin her down.

"Behave, wench," I told her with a grin, "Are you trying to kill me? I barely have time to keep you four happy and you want to find me somepony new too?"

Luna smiled up at me, "It's a time honored tradition,"she said with a small sigh, "And say what you want about it, it did work very well for a long time."

"...I guess it did," I admitted and rested my head against her chest, "Not sure how it would be relevant in this case though. My bats already know I stand for them, there are no noble houses to ally with."

"...Unless you do marry one of the daughters of one of the noble houses in Canterlot?"

I lifted my head, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.

"It's how things worked in past times," Luna said with a smile, "Of course, rarely nowadays."

I shook my head, "Wouldn't work."

"No, wouldn't work." Luna admitted, putting her forelegs around me and nosed at my ear, "So what have you uncovered?"

I shrugged my wings slightly, "...Most ponies seem to be doing alright," I admitted, "They're poor, but... everypony has food to eat and a roof over their heads. if it wasn't for our non-bat population, we could survive on local foods, but we still have to import something such as metals and other non-local goods."

"That's better than some ponies."

"I guess," I admitted, "But I wanted... I wanted them to do better. But I suppose I have only visited the cheapest bar so far. I know there are richer ponies even in Nocturnis, but it's often at the bottom where the real problems are found."

Luna regarded me for a moment before she sighed softly and gave me a small kiss on the forehead, "My Page, that is not what bothers you the most. You are bothered because you live better than they do."

"They work hard every night for what they have," I said quietly, "And what do I do? I sit on a fancy chair, get the best food and decide over their lives. And why? Because I have wings and a horn."

Luna sighed softly, hooves stroking my back, "What would happen if you tried to step down? Live like any other pony?"

"...They wouldn't let me..." I admitted against her coat, "But that doesn't make it feel right. I know I'm an alicorn. Ponies will always see me as different, somepony to look up to. But that does not make me a good ruler, a good Prince."

Luna's lips brushed against mine as I met her eyes, "No. It does not. Being you is what makes you a good Prince."

"Luna, everything I do just seems to have bucked things up worse than before."

The look she gave me was one I recognized and I quickly pressed my ears back against my head and ducked out of easy biting range.

She eyed me, "So I suppose it's somepony else that lifted the fear of discovery from thousands of ponies, allowing them to live their lives without hiding who they are?"

"Yes, but hauling everpony out to build a village in the middle of a jungle?" I asked, "Brilliant idea!"

"Somewhere bats can feel comfortable, in a climate they enjoy," she pointed out.

I scowled at her, "That does not stop the fact that there is problem after problem and each is the result of a previo-"

Luna scowled right back at me, "Oh grow up!"

I blinked in surprise, "Excuse me!?"

She rolled onto her hooves and pushed herself up to sit, wings flaring,  "Page, you're their Prince. They look up to you, that does not mean that every single issue that ever happens to them or even the village is your fault. The universe does not revolve around you!"

I blinked again, "Bu-"

"But nothing. Alicorn or not, Prince or not, you are still one pony," Luna said and crossed over to me, "Things happen. Ponies have opinions and thoughts and make mistakes. You, me, my sister, the average pony. Everypony bucks up. If you want to play the blame game, why not blame me and my sister for allowing them to be forced to hide in the first place?"

"I-"

"Or why not blame that ancient alicorn that turned them into blood drinkers all those years ago? Or the unicorns causing the curse? Or the bats that originally accepted that alicorn?" she asked, interrupting me, "Not everything is your fault, Page."

I looked down at my hooves.

Her muzzle nosed at my ear, "You take too much responsibility on yourself, My Page," she said gently, "You have some, yes. But ponies have minds of their own, things, feelings, dreams and expectations. History and the future. They make their own choices. Their mistakes are not yours."

I sighed and nodded, "I-I'll try."

"Trying is all anypony can ever expect of you," My Page," Luna said softly and lifted my chin with a hoof to give me a small kiss, "Give it time. We'll figure out a way to help."
> Chapter 16
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I slowly blinked awake, but didn't move.

Light still filtered in through the small high window from the setting sun so I just pulled my wings tighter around myself, slowly blinking against the light before closing my eyes again.

It was my night off anyway, I could stay on the perch a bit longer. Tonight I'll check out the market and look in at Midnight and then visit one of the other bars. Maybe that guard one.

We'll see.

That was all I had planned for tonight, but right now I needed to think.

Luna was right. Of course she was. They may be my ponies, I can't control their every thought or action. I could only do my best to provide the kind of environment that was needed. At best, I could advise and guide.

So everything wasn't my fault directly.

If my ponies did something dumb, it wasn't my responsibility... not entirely my responsibility. All I could do is to try to guide them.

Reminded me of that old saying of horses and water. In a way, that made things a lot harder. I could only set things up so they did things I wanted them too by their own free will.

The ponies here would never trust the ones in Equestria, that much was certain. The majority of bats lived their lives in fear of being discovered.

That sort of thing leaves a mental mark. Buck, I have canceled more nightmares about that very subject than I can count.

That Nocturnis had just been a dream and they wake up, finding themselves back where they used to live.

So, experience causes this. What could counter it would be more experience, good experience with ponies from Equestria. Which means... tourists.

We need to attract tourists, set up nice hotels. Maybe even safaris where they can view the local wildlife.

Everypony loved Jurassic Park after all. Well, until they all got eaten anyway.

It would even help the local economy. Come see the wilds of Nocturnis, now give us all your bits.

...Slogan may need some work.

I didn't like the idea of ponies coming to gawk at my bats, but maybe this could actually work. It'll be expensive, and we'll need a more comfortable way to get ponies from the train station and to town than our current cargo barge.

We'd need hotels. Real ones, not just a converted bunkhouse.

If we weren't going to dig ourselves even deeper into debt for this, we would need investors. Rich ones. Which meant Canterlot most likely.

...But that wasn't a bad thing really in this case. Yes, I didn't trust most of the nobility any further than I could buck them, but there were other rich ponies there. And rich ponies liked the return on their investments.

Anypony that invested in this would be incentivised to talk well of Nocturnis and bats in general.

Getting somepony to invest would be a pretty hard sell... normally. Maybe using my status as an alicorn for something useful for once would be a good idea.

I need to run this past Tight Bit as soon as I'm back to myself. He'd have the numbers to tell me why exactly this was an awful idea.

Whatever, I'll think about it more later.

Unfurling my wings, I stretched with a wide yawn before letting go with my tail. A flap with my wings and I landed neatly on the floor.

Man, I really have to sleep by my tail more often.

Beds were nice and all, the cuddlefactor with Sparks was much higher. Sunny didn't really cuddle during the day, it got too warm for her. But Sparks latched on to whatever was close enough in her sleep and that was usually me.

Even so, I really should try to hang from my tail from time to time.

Yawning, I pushed the door open after slipping my bags on and headed out of the loft.

Ponies were everywhere. Going to work, to the market or wherever they were off too in the early night. I waited for several moments for a chance to launch myself into the air, but it seemed like the entire population of Nocturnis had decided to walk past this door at this time. I shouldn't be surprised, the loft was actually fairly central. It was one of the oldest buildings in Nocturnis after all.

Giving up waiting for a window, I just joined the crowd instead and started to make my way in the general direction of the market.

Basic food may be free at the feeding hall, but I wanted to check what the market had.

Every time I visited from the palace, it looked good. Plenty of ponies buying goods, even food. Or maybe I should say, especially food. Food seemed to be the majority of things sold at the market.

Not a lot of clothes.

No real demand in Nocturnis, even light clothing quickly got way too hot even for a bat to wear. And when it wasn't hot, it was raining and coats dried way faster than clothes.

It didn't take long for me to get to the market and things quickly calmed down as ponies exited into the larger space.

Sniffing the air, I picked up a scent of something roasting and headed to find breakfast.

It didn't take long for me to find a source of it.

Lizard on a stick, ten bits.

Never tried one, and slightly pricey but not too bad for meat, but I had seen them before and seen other bats eat them. So I bought one and moved to the side to figure out how to eat the thing.

Turns out, is what they say. Tastes a bit like chicken.

Okay, other than breakfast, I wasn't really here for shopping even if seeing what was for sale was a good idea. What I really wanted to visit the market for was listening in to conversations.

Fine, fine, not the most ethical way to find out what people are thinking, but it does give you an honest opinion.

So finishing my lizard on a stick, I discarded my stick in a trash box before starting to browse through the stalls, keeping my ears on a swivel.

"...kidding me, way too expensive. I wouldn't give more than..."

"...orry about her. Her grade..."

"...saybe after the next rainy period. They're a..."

"...ucking useless. The Prince would never allo..."

My ears perked up slightly and I drifted in that direction, trying to pick it up again. A couple of mare bats were talking next to an apple cart.

"I don't know what you want from me, Light," the left one said, "I'm just saying that it would be nice with some more options here. I haven't seen cinnamon in over a month."

The other one shook her head, "We're not canterlot. I used to live in a small town, it's not much better there. Most we had were seasonal stuff then too, spices we had to buy when they were for sale. Pouring bits into a hole to import more spices... Prince Page wouldn't allow that sort of waste."

"Oh, but a massive bath house was fine? I don't even want to think of how much that costs."

The second mare rolled her eyes, "So I don't see you and your daughter there every couple of nights? Not like those bits were thrown into the river, a lot went to the builders. Citizens of the town."

"Okay fine, but still, I thin..."

I continued on, tuning out the conversation. That did remind me though, I have to remember to visit the bath house at some point.
> Chapter 17
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I glanced around before pushing the door open and glancing around inside before slipping in, closing the door behind me before locking it.

"Excuse me, what do you thi-oh," Midnight said before she smiled, "Didn't recognize you for a second, Night Wind."

I winked at her, "Princess," I said, giving a practiced bow, spreading my wings.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh cut it out," she said, shifting her wings and getting up from the desk she had been studying some sort of blueprints by, "How's it going?"

I flicked one ear, "Well enough... I think. We definitely have problems however."

Midnight frowned, "Spill."

I told her.

She was quiet for several long moments, looking out over the jungle through the open balcony doors of her lab before she sighed, "That's definitely a friendship problem," she admitted.

"You could say that," I agreed, "Want it?"

Midnight smiled a bit, "I likely should, I'm the princess of friendship. Or one of them anyway. But I'm not sure where to start with this one. Any ideas so far?"

I nodded, "I do, but I want to run it past you, Sparks, Sunny and everypony else first. And check with Celestia and Luna and see what they think. Look, the root cause of this entire thing is fear, right?"

"Basically, yes," she agreed with a nod.

"Alright," I agreed, "My plan is tourists."

That earned a raised eyebrow, "Tourists?"

"Yes," I said with a nod, "We build hotels, set up tours for them to look at our majestic landscapes, observe our fascinating animals in their natural habitats, that sort of thing. They come here, wander around. Each being exposed to our bats, our bats get exposed to tourists who don't act badly to them while spending lots of bits into the local economy."

Midnight looked thoughtful, ears slowly shifting as she thought. Funny, Sparks ears do the exact same thing.

...Okay, maybe not too strange, they are the same pony, just from different worlds.

"Maybe," she finally said, "I think that could work, but the problem would be getting them out here. It's a long trip, Page, especially since slowing down the train through the jungle added days to the trip."

I nodded, "I'm thinking airship in addition to the train for the richer tourists, play up the exoticness of the destination? Or maybe even make the trip part of the experience."

She slowly ran her hoof along her wooden floor in thought, "...Maybe. I'm not an economical expert, you have to check with Tight Bit if it makes sense. But it might work, especially if the travel time isn't 'wasted', I could see that being something somepony like my parents would do."

The Sparkle family were... okay, they were technically nobles now, but more specifically they were upper middle class in Canterlot. Somewhat rich from some ponies perspective, but not drowning in bits either.

"So you think it could help?"

"I think it could help," Midnight agreed and shrugged a bit, "But I'm not sure there's an easy solution to any of this, Page."

I smiled at her, "I know. But that does not mean we shouldn't try."

Midnight shook her head, "You're a good stallion, Page," she said and stood up, "There are times I understand what Twi sees in you."

I smiled and shook my mane back a bit, "And other times?"

Midnight smiled, "You do something so boneheaded it reminds me why I'm mostly into mares."

"Hey! I resemble that remark!" I said cheerfully, "And speaking of resembling, how's Amber doing?"

"Oh, she's doing just fine. Blank Page is spending the week in 'alicorn meditation' and asked me to make an opaque spell for him to sit in. Flower is a bit annoyed, but I think she thinks it's a good thing you take some time to actually relax. I'm filling in when necessary."

I nodded, "...Amber isn't really in that thing is she?"

"No, sir," Amber said cheerfully, poking her head out from behind a desk, "Princess Midnight teleported me out of it. Plan is to teleport you into it when we end this."

"Good plan and great job," I told her with a smile.

Amber grinned and then ducked back out of sight.

"So what's your plan for today?" Midnight asked.

"Actually, I planned to just walk around the village," I said with a smile, "Maybe visit the bathhouse. It's actually really freeing seeing the village from this perspective. You should try it at some point."

Midnight hesitated, "I don't know. You're doing it for a good reason, but just pretending to be somepony else just for fun seems kinda dishonest."

"You don't need to trick anypony," I said, "But... honestly, I kinda missed being able to just walk around without ponies looking up to me just because I grew wings. Just being some random dude."

"I guess I can see that," she admitted and slowly nodded, "But I always was the Princesses Student. Ponies in Canterlot always knew that, I spent more time at the castle than anywhere else. I'm not sure I ever was a 'normal' pony."

"Oh, right."

Midnight smiled, "You may want to talk too Cadance, she grew up in a small village before she earned her horn."

"You know what, I think you're right," I admitted thoughtfully, "She is in a very similar position to me actually."

Midnight nodded, "She is. She does have the advantage that the Crystal Empire came fully self-sufficient from the start, but... yes."

I slowly nodded, "I'll see if I can talk to her. Maybe she has more ideas. Crystal ponies aren't the same as bats, but maybe she has some insights."

Midnight got up, "I bet she can help."

I headed for the balcony, "Anything I need to know about?" I asked her as I paused halfway.

She shook her head, "Nothing has come up I couldn't deal with," she said, "Now get going before somepony flies past, spots you and gets suspicious."

Nodding, I then smiled at her, "Actually, mind giving me a lift? Safer than somepony seeing me fly out of here."

Midnight rolled her eyes a bit, "Fine. Where to?"

"Forest, half a kilometer away, should be safe?" I suggested.

Midnight nodded, her horn starting to glow, "Good lu-"

There was a flash and I found myself standing on a wide tree branch out in the jungle. I looked towards the light of the town before taking wing.

Time to check out the bathhouse.
> Chapter 18
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The bathhouse had been nice. Also very affordable which was the point, why have it if everypony couldn't afford to use it often?

We certainly didn't want to have anypony having to resort to bathing in the river, something would eat them.

It did make me think a bit as I don't remember ever having paid for when I visited in the past. Going to have to fix that as a policy, if a normal pony would pay for something, then so shall I.

As an image thing if nothing else. A way to put my hoof down as well, they may want to treat me like royalty, but there is a limit, especially when not doing it may be taking actual food from their mouths.

I checked my bag again as I left the market.

Market had also been nice and I could have spent another couple of hours browsing it, but I had somepony to talk to so I had just picked up some snacks and a lizard on a stick.

I need to introduce lizard on a stick at the palace, that had been great! I'm fairly sure Sunny and Sparks would not appreciate it however.

Kisses were still banned for hours after I ate meat, damn it.

Smiling a bit to myself, I entered the Loft and headed for my little room, kicking the door closed behind me before I put the bag down on the floor. That done I took a leap, pushing off the desk and flipping over backwards, catching the rafter with my tail on the way.

I swung wildly, using my wings to quickly slow the pendulum down before I pulled my legs against my body and wrapped my wings around myself.

Yes.

I definitely need to sleep like this more often. Low in cuddle factor, but more comfortable than even a cloud.

Closing my eyes, I yawned before using a bit of magic to slip off into sleep.

My eyes opened again, this time taking in the sparkles of the seemingly infinite dream realm. Stretching, I allowed my dream self to revert to my real alicorn form before I got to business, checking on everyponies dreams.

I had not done that for a few nights, kinda difficult to do while working at a store, but Luna was gone for a thousand years and things didn't burst into flames.

As expected, things were not too bad.

I canceled some dreams, redirected others, checked on two that might have been but weren't Nightterrors.

Luna exited a dream to my left, "My Page," she said.

"My Sky," I answered, stealing a quick kiss as we crossed paths and then we continued on our errands. She onto more dreams and me seeking a specific one.

It didn't take long to find Candances dream and I was in luck. Usually it was tinged pink which means I wasn't touching it with a bargepole, but today it was a steady calm silvery blue. But I also knew that I should hurry and get in there before it changed.

Let's just say that even with the seeming difficulties alicorns seem to have to get foals, I'm surprised Flurry Heart does not have a dozen brothers and sisters by now.

I touched my horn to the silvery surface and slipped through, the dream formed around me and revealed soft grass, blue skies and trees. I blinked and looked around before I smiled, recognizing the place.

Finding Cadance was not difficult either, she was sitting with a canvas and paint, Shining Armor on a blanket on the grass, reading a book as she painted him.

I smiled, remembering a very similar scene with Luna and myself in the past before I sighed.

Damn, I miss that time.

Moving up, I checked the painting. Hmm. She's pretty good, actually. Assuming the dream isn't filling in blanks anyway.

Then I quickly backed off before tapping my hoof against the grass as I started to get closer again. Cadance stopped mid brushstroke before she blinked and looked around, "Wha- oh, Hi Page!"

I gave her a bow, arching my wing, "Princess Cadance," I said before standing up again and giving the dream projection of Shining a wave with my hoof, "Hey dude."

He waved back before going back to his book.

Cadance put her brush down, "So... dream?" she asked.

I nodded, "Indeed. I'm sorry to bother you, but I wondered if you would mind talking for a bit? I might need some advice."

Cadance quickly nodded and turned fully to me, "Of course, Page. About what?"

Sighing, I settled down facing her before pulling some tea out of nothing, setting down a pair of cups, "How do you handle the Crystal Empire? And the crystal ponies?" I asked and then filled her in on everything I had discovered.

Candance just listened, picking her cup up and sipped the tea as I explained.

When I finished, she frowned before she sighed, "I wish I could help, Page, but I never run into that sort of issue here. We have valuable exports and nobody fears Crystal ponies. And they see Equestria as having saved them from Sombra."

I sighed and nodded, "Alright, it was worth a shot."

"What does Twilight think?"

"...Haven't told her," I said, "I sent her and Sunny on a vacation before I started my investigation, before I had the idea to start one even. If I ask, she and Sunny will worry about it or even cut it short and return early and they deserve this break."

Cadance flicked one ear, "They won't be happy with you about that."

"Bucking tough. They haven't had a real vacation for years, so they're taking one."

Cadance smiled, "You're a good stallion, Page. I'm glad Twilight and you found each other."

"She seems to think it would have happened eventually even if we didn't get together by proxy first from our relationship with Sunny," I said and sipped my own tea.

Cadance looked thoughtful, "Possibly," she admitted, "You did move in a lot of the same circles. And considering the lifespans of alicorns, it's even likely. But considering Twilight is leaning quite a lot in the direction of mares, and you being you, it would likely have taken quite a lot longer."

"Hey," I protested, "That's..." I said before I frowned, "...uncomfortably accurate."

She grinned at me, "Learned to listen to me yet?"

"Absolutely not and you keep your nose out of things," I told her, sipping my own tea.

Cadance smirked, "Blank Page, alicorn of stubbornness. I do have an idea for your problem. You mentioned your idea of tourists?"

"I did," I agreed, "You have thoughts?"

"The Crystal Empire is not strictly Equestria. Also, my ponies look a bit different from regular Earth ponies. Our trade of crystals have made my people a fair bit of bits and I can assure you that quite a bit of them would find Nocturnis very exotic and exciting."

I slowly nodded, "That's a very long trip however."

"It is," Cadance admitted, "But it's a long trip from everywhere. And your thought of making the train trip part of the experience is a good one."

"It is, but we would need to buy a train," I pointed out.

Cadance nodded, "I may be convinced to invest," she said, "Buck, I'll drag Shining and Sunburst along on the first trip. I have been looking for an excuse to visit Twi and you guys again anyway."

I smiled at her, "Cadance, you're amazing."

"Thank you," she said with a small smirk, sipping her tea, "Don't you worry, we'll figure this out. I think it's a good idea actually."

"Speaking of good ideas, have anypony told you about Sanctuary yet?" I asked.

She looked at me with curiosity, "What's Sanctuary?"

"A shared dream realm of my own creation," I explained, "If you while you fall asleep think of the word 'sanctuary' you will end up there instead of a normal dream. And if they did the same, so would Shining and Sunburst."

Her jaw dropped a bit, "Oh!"

I smiled, "Time together, away from the palace, expectations, ponies..."

"...That sounds very nice," she admitted, "We'll be sure to try it tonight."

"Use a sleep spell, it makes it easier for a beginner to hold the word in their mind as they fall asleep," I advised her before getting to my hooves, "...And on that note, I have work to do."
> Chapter 19
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't know what he was talking about, the Silver Shield was perfectly fine.

Sipping my pretty decent mead, I looked across the bar. A couple of groups of dayponies were at other tables, mostly playing cards. A bunch of bats at other tables. A mare was playing a stringed instrument in the corner.

It was mid morning, but my earlier nap helped a lot with keeping me awake. Besides, I had a lot of thinking to do.

The tourism thing could work.

Say it turned into a cooperative endeavor between us and the Crystal Empire. Cadance hooves the bill for the train, those bits earned from it goes to her people. While that would cut into our profits, it would also mean we didn't need to buy a bucking luxury train which would mean not having to loan to buy a bucking luxury train.

I'm sure we can hammer out a good arrangement there, maybe I'll ask Sparks when she gets back. Out of all of us, she's on the best terms with Cadance.

But what would they do when they got here? Safari I guess, look at the exotic wildlife and try not to get eaten?

Hmmm.

Maybe I should send an invitation to Pinkie Pie, involve her in the project. She is the hospitality expert after all. Maybe Rarity too, she should have some insight into what ponies that think themselves fancy want. Not that I would word it like that to her.

Also, Fluttershy, she's just good with creatures in general.

But before any of that, as soon as I get back I need to discuss matters with Tight Bit, see his projections. Whatever we do, it will likely involve at the very least constructing a hotel and a better way to get ponies from the train station to the village than a barge. None of which will be exactly cheap.

Flying carriages maybe?

I'm sure many ponies would enjo-

My thoughts were interrupted by a bottle flying across the room and braining me across the ear, sending me out of my seat and onto the floor as the bar erupted into a brawl. Ponies yelling, furniture flipping.

I blinked, shaking my head quickly as I pushed myself up to sit.

Bucking ow!

I felt my ear with my hoof. No blood. A glance at my cutiemark revealed that my transformation was intact as we-

I barely had time for form that thought before a pegasus stumbled into me, driving us both onto the floor again. He rolled to his hooves, untangling himself before punching a bat straight in the snout.

Okay... time to get the buck out of here before the onduty guards show and break it up.

Getting to my hooves, I headed for the exit, trying to avoi-duck!

I ducked to the side, barely avoiding the hoof of a large earth pony and I struck back before he could recover, my hoof catching him across the jaw and he went down, crushing a table on the way.

Yep, now I get why I was advised to stay away from this place. At least I didn’t use anything more than bat strength in that.

Mostly.

A bat bumped into me, glanced in my direction before she flashed me a grin, "Nice hoof!"

"Than-duck!"

We ducked, a chair flying past above us to smash against the wall.

"ALRIGHT!" the barkeep announced, smashing a club down on the bar, the large pegasus looking pissed, "Everypony get the buck out of my-"

A flying chair caught her in the chest and she fell behind the bar.

If anything, that made things worse. The locals, bats or day ponies did not like that one bit and the yelling intensified.

But that was as far as things got as the door smashed open and guards ponies stormed inside, shields held before them, clubs in their mouths.

"Alright!" Lieutenant Moon Spear yelled as she walked inside, "Everybody calm the buck down right now or we'll start cracking heads!"

She was actually not a bat. She was a unicorn, wearing the Nocturnis guard armor, her coat a pure white and with bright yellow mane.

The bat before me scowled but she took half a step back from the closest pegasus.

Nopony seemed really interested in going up against armed and armoured guards. Ponies were just kinda milling about, nursing their injuries.

"You alright there, Shield?" Moon Spear asked the barkeep.

"I'm fine," the large pegasus grumbled, brushing a hoof down her chest and then picking her club back up, putting it on the bar with a heavy thunk.

"See who started this mess?"

Shield snorted and motioned with her hoof, "I don't know, didn't see this time."

Moon Spear scowled at the bar in general, "Alright, this is how it's going to go! One at a time, you will each go to the bar. No talking! You will pay your tab and twenty bits extra for the damages! Then you will be taken outside and asked for a statement!"

Nopony said anything.

She pointed at somepony seemingly at random, "You. Start."

The unicorn didn't look happy, one hoof at a cut above his eye he limped over to the bar. He paid and then a guard herded him outside.

There was a minute wait before she pointed at the next pony, a bat this time, "You."

Twenty minutes later, she pointed at me.

I walked over to the bar and counted out thirty bits on the bar, "Sorry about this," I said.

Shield just snorted and motioned towards the exit with her muzzle. I nodded and headed over to the waiting guard and she guided me outside and to the side before pulling a notebook from her armor, putting a pen in her muzzle, "Name," she asked.

"Night Wind."

"What happened?"

I shrugged my wings, "Don't know. Was sitting by the far wall enjoying my mead. Next thing I know I was on the floor and ponies were fighting. I made for the exit, but didn't get there before somepony took a swing at my head. He missed and I punched back. That's just before your group arrived."

"See how it started?"

I shook my head, "No, sorry. First thing I knew was yelling and then a bottle bounced off my head."

"See who took a swing at you?"

"Uhm," I said, "...Don't know him. Earth pony, dark coat I think."

She nodded, "Feel alright? Any injuries? Do you need to see a medic?"

"No, I'm fine," I said and rubbed the side of my head, "Think I just got glanced."

She nodded again before putting her pen and notepad away, "Haven't seen you around, new arrival?"

I nodded, "A few days ago," I admitted, "staying at the loft."

The bat smiled at me, "Welcome to Nocturnis. A tip, stay out of the Silver Shield. Place can get a bit rowdy."

"So I noticed," I admitted, "So what now?"

"It's late, go home and get some sleep. If we have more questions, we'll find you."

"Yes, ma'am."
> Chapter 20
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Boss, have a minute?" I asked as I stopped by the counter and the end of the day.

Iron Brand looked at me, "Yes, Night?"

I hesitated before I sighed, "I'm afraid... sorry, but I'm going to have to quit."

He looked surprised, "What, what's wrong?"

I shook my head, "Nothing's wrong, I just realized last morning that I need to go back home. I miss the ponies back there."

Iron frowned and shook his head, "I'm not sure that's a good idea, Night. Sunnies will never accept us."

"So buck them," I said and flicked my tail, stretching my wings, "As I understand it, The Prince is dating one of their princesses and married to the other. Besides, I'm done letting ignorant ponies tell me what I can and can't do. I'm going back home, hiding in the jungle won't help."

Iron sighed before he nodded, "Well, I'm sad to see you go. Though I finally found an assistant better than the rest of the dolts I'm usually sent, but if you have to head off, you have to head off."

"Sorry boss."

He smiled a bit, "Don't worry about it. I survived before. I hope things will go well for you."

"...So do I," I said and smiled a bit, "Thanks boss."

Iron Brand sighed and then moved to take some bits out of the register, sliding them over to me, "Here, it's what I owe you and a small bonus."

"Boss, I can't-"

"Oh, don't worry about it. You made me more than enough to make up for it," he said with a smile, "Take it and take care, Night."

I smiled, "Thanks boss," I said and slid the bits into my bag while resolving to make sure they found their way back to him somehow.

"Come say hello when you return," he said with a nod, "As things are looking, your position will still be open by then."

I just gave him a wave and left into the early morning.

Then I took a deep breath and threw myself into the air with a beat of my wings before diving down beneath the upper village and heading towards the east, seemingly going for a flight. A kilometer or so from the village, I banked in behind the thick trunk of a tree before landing on a wide branch. Nopony around this far out this late. Some harvesters would likely head out soon, but the great majority of those that worked during the day were ground bound so me getting spotted would be greatly unlikely.

I still quickly glanced around before using my magic to remove the stupid piercing Midnight put through my ear. As soon as it was out, I felt my body shiver and shift as I grew a bit and returned my real form-

The second shudder had nothing to do with the spell. Damn that's unpleasant.

Then I glanced up. Yep, horn is back. Man, it had been so odd not having it there before. Then I turned around, "Ready, Thorax?" I asked as I spotted the changeling standing behind me.

He nodded firmly once before green fire rippled across him, leaving Night Wind to smile at me, "All ready. I'll make some appearances from time to time around town until the next train arrives," he said as I handed the bag over and he slipped it on.

"Good, thank you. That'll help separate Night Wind from Blank Page."

"Got it, sir," Thorax said before smiling at me, "You'd have been a pretty good infiltrator, sir."

I smiled back with a nod, "Thank you."

Coming from a Changeling, that was a pretty big compliment. Thorax gave a wave and then flew off.

I let out a breath and then reached up to rub my ear. Damn it, it better heal like Midnight said it would. Luckily, it was a very small hole, but still. Flicking my ear one last time, I then wrapped myself into an invisibility spell and took to the air, flying back towards the so called palace.

I didn't bother with anything fancy, I just flew straight into the bedroom. When I landed, I dropped the illusion only to find Amber already there waiting for me.

She was sitting on the bed, a small box sitting on it next to her, "Welcome back, sir!" she said with a grin.

I smiled back and stretched a bit, "Thank you, Amber. It's good to be back."

Amber reached and picked the box up before opening for me, revealing the contents of feathers and a single red lock of braided mane.

Amber is the best.

Moving in, I hugged her quickly before I picked it all up in my magic and moved to the mirror where I did a thin braid on the left side of my mane, weaving the red lock of Sunsets mane into it and making sure that the feathers were nicely attached.

I gave my head a shake.

Nothing fell out. Oh yeah, this was what I had been missing the most actually. In fact, I had actually started to see some of the same thing in the ponies in town. Those that didn't have feathers had done braided locks of mane.

I didn't mind ponies copying us, I actually find it a nice tradition.

Then I turned back to Amber, "How do I look?"

Amber studied me before she nodded, "Very good."

"Excellent, thank you," I said before heading out of the bedroom to the living room. For once, no Flower waiting to ambush me with paperworks or a schedule.

I felt a disturbance in the force... like a weeks worth of paperwork lining up to ambush me.

Opening the door, I poked my head out and then headed for the throneroom.

I found Midnight on my throne, Flower at her desk to the side and a pair of Nocturnis guards by the door. I smiled as I slipped in through the door, "How's the pillow?" I asked Midnight.

She pushed herself up to sit, "Honestly, not very comfortable," she admitted, "It somehow manages to be both too hard and too soft."

"Welcome back, your majesty!" Flower said cheerfully before she frowned, "Even if I had appreciated some more warning."

I smiled at her, "Glad to be back, Flower. Sorry, it was an emergency, I had to deal with some dreamy stuff. Nothing dangerous or even risky, but had to be dealt with. Did I miss anything?"

Flower shook her head, "Nothing big. Princess Midnight has dealt with what came up, but there were some meetings I had to push."

"Awesome," I said and looked to Midnight, "Thank you as well. How was it?"

"I have filled in before, but that was always with Twi," she admitted, "But if you don't mind, I prefer just being the Princess of Friendship and doing my research."

I smiled, "Oh, just wait until you find some Kelpies. Any progress on those by the way?"

Midnight sighed and jumped off the throne, "Nothing concrete, just rumors and myths so far. I may, and this is a big may, have a lead on the Kirin. I'm going to check it out with Tempest when the train returns."

"Oh?"

Midnight nodded, "It's weak. If I had anything else, it wouldn't even be worth the trip, but... maybe it may get me another clue."

I nodded, "Hope you find something."
> Chapter 21
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Celestia stretched her wings wide and high, drawing my attention at once.

Her wings were magnificent.

Wide, long, strong and shining white. The edges of her feathers almost glittered in the midday sunshine. Her wings folded again and I looked to her, finding her regarding me in turn, a small smile on her muzzle.

She knew exactly my reaction to that and I knew very well that she did it to take my thoughts off things.

Of course, that didn’t mean it didn’t work.

“Well?” I asked, shifting my own and very nice, if less impressive wings.

Celestia sighed softly, “It’s very difficult, Page,” she said and continued walking along next to me, “I have discussed the matter with my sister, but before we say anything, we need to do more research.”

I frowned up at her, “Buck that. It’s about time you stop treating me like a little colt, Sunshine. Tell me what’s going on.”

She stopped walking, her ears drooping slightly, “...I’m sorry, Page. I did not mean to make you feel like we were, but it’s a complicated matter and you have so much to think of already.”

I stopped as well, turning to face her, raising my head to look up at her, “Let me worry about that. I love you, Celestia. I will marry you. You need to tell me things.”

Celestia lowered her head, her horn touching mine softly before her nose bumped mine gently, her eyes meeting mine, “I love you as well, my beautiful bat,” she said softly, “I am so used to not having somepony to talk to. I am sorry.”

Giving her a soft kiss, I then brushed my horn against hers, “Sunshine, you are not alone anymore. We’re all here for you and none of us are going anywhere.”

Sitting down, her forelegs and wings both slipped around me, pulling me close and I leaned against her sunwarm coat.

Her soft warm muzzle brushed my ear and I sighed softly against her.

“It has been years,” she admitted quietly, “But I am still unused to it. I am still relearning, Page. I was alone for a long time.”

I glanced up at her and her lips brushed mine before she continued,

“I don’t know if Luna has discussed it with you,” she said and nuzzled softly, “But after our long talk, once you left Canterlot we started to work out a better way for us to share our rule. The way we were, it was almost the same as we had before my sisters… no, before I banished my sister,” she said quietly but firmly, “I was wrong. We fell into that pattern again and I will never do that again.”

“Celestia,” I said and frowned slightly, “That won’t happen again.”

“It won’t,” she agreed, “I’m making sure of it. We’re still working out details,” she then admitted and brushed a hoof along my back, “We’re trying to divide things equally. Court, public appearances. The castle is going to be a lot more of a 24 hour thing, with just as much activity during the day as the night. Instead of my sister holding court a few times a week and otherwise mostly working on paperwork.”

I couldn’t help but smile, “I think my wife would like that. But that’s going to be a real change for you both. A lot to get used to.”

Celestia smiled a bit, “It very much is,” she admitted, “For us both.”

I nodded and touched my nose to hers, “I think that’s good for both of you,” I admitted, “You had too much resting on your back and my wife deserves more attention than she was getting.”

“She does,” Celestia agreed with a smile, “She very much does. But we’re going slow with it, I think it may be a bit much as well.”

“It would be,” I admitted, “Luna is not used to that sort of attention. I wish she had told me, I could have come visit an-”

“Which is why we didn’t,” Celestia said and rubbed her cheek against the top of my head, “Because you would have wanted to help and you have so much on your mind already.”

I shifted to meet her eyes again, “I think we’re back to ‘I’m neither made of glass or a little colt’ again. Talk to me, Sunshine. And I’ll have this talk with my wife later as well.”

She sighed softly and touched her horn to mine, “I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Day of what?” I asked, raising an eyebrow.

“The day when I agreed with the ponies that were against the reforms my sister and I were pushing for during the formation of Equestria,” she said, “They said letting stallions talk back or have opinions would be trouble, but did I list-eep!”

I pounced, pushing her onto her back on the grass and she landed on her back, laughing as I pinned her down, my hooves on her chest, “Wench!”

Celestia laughed and smiled up at me, laying back, wings stretching out to the side on the soft green grass, “All in all,” she said, “I think I’m pretty happy with the result.”

I shifted to lay down against her, resting my chin on her chest, “I bet you do. Is this before or after you made sure to put your harem into law?”

“Oh, after. Less important after all.”

I grinned, “I bet it was,” I said and scooted up a bit to bump my nose against hers, “And I’m sure surrounding yourself with an all stallion guard was all about promoting equal rights.”

Her cheeks actually turned slightly red.

I smirked, “Thought so, naughty filly.”

She rolled us easily, pinning me beneath her as her wings raised high, one hoof on my chest, “Is that anyway to talk to your Princess?”

“My apologies, your highness,” I said and stretched out a bit beneath her, “How may I apologize for my actions, my princess?”

Celestia smiled, nosing down along my neck, making my hooves curl slightly, “I may have some ideas, my beautiful bat…”

It wasn’t until well after I woke up that I realized she had not actually answered my question.
> Chapter 22
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I read the report before I sighed and dropped it on her desk, "Alright, enough is enough. I'm done dealing with this pile of horseapples. Flower, if you would be so kind as to send a letter to Canterlot and request a judge."

Flower looked up from the papers she had been sorting, "Your majesty?" she asked in surprise.

I shook my head, "Two more arrests. This time a local and a guard that got into a screaming match in the middle of the market that escalated to physical violence. Nopony got hurt, they're in separate holding cells. Seems to be some kind of relationship that broke down. The point is that I have enough on my plate without dealing with this as well. Which means that we need a more formal justice system set up. Which means we're starting with an experienced judge."

Flower Rain looked uncertain as she hesitated, one hoof of the floor, "I would think somepony local would be a better pick, sir," she finally said.

"Possibly, or possibly not," I said and shook my head, "But in the end it's rather moot as we don't have anypony with the experience for it. We have a couple of advocates that so far have been doing other jobs, they'll likely be happy to be able to do their thing at least part time. But none with what experience we need."

"What if they're not fair?"

I smiled at her, "Flower, do you think I would let something like that stand?"

Her eyes went wide and she shook her head, "Of course not, your majesty!"

"They'd be out on their tail so fast they think they'd learned to teleport," I said, "But I don't see Princess Celestia sending anypony she was not certain of. I would just ask her in a dream, but I want this to be nice and official."

Besides, I was a bit annoyed with her at the moment.

Flower perked up a bit, "You are of course right, sir."

"Just because somepony isn't from here does not mean they're against bats, Flower," I told her gently, "The majority of ponies either do not care or are at least mildly supportive. Don't fall into the trap that makes you think everypony from Equestria is against us. They're not."

"I know, sir."

I regarded her and she shifted slightly, ears folding to the side, 

"It's... it's just every day we have reports of some daypony causing trouble."

"And how many guards from that outpost visit Nocturnis every week?" I asked with a smile, "It's called survivorship bias, Flower."

"Survivorship bias?" she asked with a small frown.

I nodded, "Yes. Let me give you an example. Say there is a war and ponies come back hurt. You look at the number and notice that the majority of ponies that return with head injuries have been wearing helmets. What's the conclusion here?"

Flower slowly nodded, one hoof lifted off the floor, "That wearing a helmet in a fight makes you more likely to get a head injury. But that doesn't make any sense."

I smiled, "So what's the real conclusion?"

Her ears drooped slightly more after a moment of thought, "Those without helmets and get hit aren't on the injury list because they don't come back at all."

"Correct," I said with a nod, "And the moral of the story?"

"We have to be careful to make sure we know all the facts before making a decision. There may be things you don't see," she said and then nodded, "And just because it's in the data doesn't mean it's the entire picture."

"Also, wear a helmet."

That got a small laugh from the small bat pony, "That too, sir. Alright, I see your point. Dozens of ponies arrive and we hear of one or two."

I nodded and then sighed, "What's next on the agenda?"

"There is an appointment with Tight Bit in fifteen minutes, sir," Flower said and gathered up some papers from the signed pile, "I'll alert the kitchen for some tea."

"Maybe a snack as well?"

"Of course, sir," she said with a smile as she trotted out.

Slipping down from my chair at the desk, I stretched before folding my wings again, slowly blinking. I was already sleepy and it was barely three. After Tight Bit leaves, I'll take a bit of a nap. I had not visited Sunny and Sparks yet and they should have arrived at their hotel by now.

I likely need that visit anyway, talking to him always made me depressed.

Not his fault, he's a perfectly nice pony. It's the subjects and the joke is always the same, the punchline being 'this is how much we owe' and that number always grows.

Walking onto the balcony, I looked out over the town, the lights glowing among the trees, scents drifting up from the market.

I... actually kind of missed the week I spent as Night Wind. Just the life of a normal pony arriving with nothing. It hadn't been easy exactly, but I got a job, somewhere to stay.

It Could have been the first time they felt they could walk around without hiding they were a bat. They leave where they had lived for this.

Be it to life without fear, without feeling the need to hide or just because they wanted their foals to grow up with other bats. No matter the reason, they left all they knew behind. Maybe alone, maybe with their families.

...And moved here.

Those ponies put their trust in us. In this village.

In me. 

We owed them to live up to that trust. Which meant that we had to make this work. And it did work! Just needed to figure out how to make the bits balance a bit better than they currently are.

Because I wanted ponies to have that experience.

To step off that train and then feel safe. Feel like they have a home.

"Your majesty?"

I glanced back, seeing Tight Bit poke his head in through the open door and I smiled, "Bit, welcome. Come here."

He held his bag of papers beneath one wing as he walked up next to me. The thin bat was almost as tall as I was. He had lived up to his name when he arrived. A dour and somewhat uptight pony.

He was a good example of why we needed Nocturnis. I had seen the change since he arrived in the first wave.

Happier. More confident.

"What do you see?" I asked, nodding out over the town.

Tight Bit carefully put his bag down before looking out, ears slowly shifting, "The town of Nocturnis, sir. The market is in full swing. Ponies moving about their business. A school class going somewhere. A guard patrol on the way to the barrier shield."

I nodded, "It is all of that. Want to know what I see?"

He nodded.

"I see ponies. Ponies that feel safe, not needing to hide. Ponies that do their best with what little they have. Ponies that with even as little as they have, pooled bits to buy me this, because they wanted their prince to have a crown," I said and touched the silver circlet on my head, "Ponies that deserve better."

"Your majesty, I-" Tight Bit started to say and I smiled, shaking my head,

"Just putting some things into perspective for myself," I told him, "Did you review the idea I sent you and the offer from the Crystal Empire?"

"I did, sir," he said with a nod, "We'll go through the numbers, but I think it will work. If it works, it's not a solution, but it will at the very least help."

I smiled, "Now that is great news. Let's look at those numbers."
> Chapter 23
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I hit the ground hard, rolling twice before coming to a stop.

There was a crashing out, the sound of something heavy hitting a tree and I coughed, trying to get breath back into my lungs.

Ow.

There was a nuffling sound and something large moved in the dark forest, hot breath ruffled my mane before bumping against me. A big wet leaf of a tongue ran straight across my face and I laughed, pushing the muzzle away, "I'm fine, Fern! No need to bathe me!"

The large timber wolf made a wruffing sound and laid down next to me, giving me a poke with his nose.

I smiled and rolled onto my hooves, reaching out with a forehoof to rub firmly ontop of his head.

Ferm was gigantic now, even laying down, I had to rear up to reach his back with my forehooves. The last year he had stopped growing too, he was now a fully adult houseplant.

He shifted, leaning into the attention and I had to brace, putting some strength into it.

"Okay, riding you was not the best idea," I admitted and rubbed firmer, "But it sure was fun."

Fern made a huffing sound, eyes glowing a green in the darkness of the jungle and I settled down next to him.

He lived free in the jungle, outside the shield.

I trusted Fern, I had raised the nature spirit. But while I trusted him, I also knew he was not a domesticated animal, he may be tame and see me as a member of the pack, and while I don't think he would ever attack a pony... I didn't want to find out I was wrong either.

Besides, he was perfectly fine outside the shield.

Nothing here knew what to make of him. He was made of wood, he didn't register as food for any of them so the dangerous ones left him alone.

Reaching into my bag, I pulled a pair of shears out with my magic.

Fern made a whining sound.

"Don't give me that," I chided him, "It's been way too long already," I said as I also pulled out a block of sandpaper.

Wruff. Whine. Grumble.

"You're such a primadonna," I said as I clambered onto his back and started to look for green shoots to snip off. That was the real cause of timberwolf smell, I had discovered. The rotting wood smell was rarely from their actual body unless they were sick, but by stuff that got stuck in their shoots and rotted. What’s more, it seemed to kill off the shoots anyway when the timber wolf got big enough.

Which means that it was much better to trim them off before it got to that stage.

Fern made a sound of annoyance as I snipped off one at his neck and I rubbed the spot with my hoof, "Oh don't be such a big baby. I have literally seen you lose a branch from your tail without complaint."

Wruff.

"Besides, it's for your own good," I said and continued down the back and sides.

With the shoots removed, I jumped down and moved around to put the sheers away before picking up a file, "Alright, open up."

Whine.

I raised a hoof to tap at his jaw, "I know it sucks, but you know it'll be so much better after. Come on then."

Whine. Wruff. Growl.

He opened his muzzle and I peered inside.

"Actually, this isn't that bad," I said and ran a sheath of sandpaper along the wooden fangs to remove any residue, "I'll just give your fangs a sharpening and we're good I think," and then got to work with the file.

Only took something like ten seconds followed by a quick once over with the sandpaper, "There, all done."

Sneeze.

...And now I'm covered with sawdust. Luckily I saw it coming a mile away and took cover behind my wing as I laughed.

I shook the worst of it off myself and put the tools away, "There we go, all done. Wasn't that bad, was it?"

Wruff.

A big green leaf tongue ran from my nose and up between my eyes and I laughed, taking a step back, "I love you too, you weed," I chuckled before I sighed, "I'm sorry I can't come visit more often."

I tried for at least two or three visits a week. I could usually get away with at least that much.

Fern deserved better, but he didn't seem to mind either. He just seemed happy to see me whenever I arrived.

He put his head down and I moved to lay down next to him, leaning against the thick barch on his side.

"You know," I said, "I have thought about trying to find more timber wolves to move here. But that would likely be a bad idea, introducing brand new apex predators to an environment have never worked out well."

Snort.

"Yeah, I know. I just think you deserve more attention than I can give," I told him.

Wruff.

"I know you're happy as is. That's not the poi-"

There was a rustle in the undergrowth and a large predator appeared. A raptoroid, the pattern of its skin blending into the jungle in the bright moon light so well even I might not have seen it if it had not been moving.

It stopped, watching us, tail slowly shifting.

I looked straight at it, but didn't bother getting up.

Fern on the other hand moved. He growled, sounding like a pair of heavy logs rubbing together as he bared his fangs, facing the thing as he moved between me and it.

I shifted a bit so I could still see the predator facing us, "Mate, think this one through," I told it, "Make good life choices."

It looked between us for several long seconds before taking a step back, turning and disappearing into the dense forest.

Fern stopped growling, made a sneezing sound before returning and dropping down to lay next to me again.

"Good housepl-omph!"

His big head laid down to rest across my back, pinning me to the ground.

"H-hey," I protested as I started to wiggle free, "You're way too big for that! You're not a little sprout anymore!"

Fern made a huffing sound before lifting his head. I could have sworn he was laughing at me before he turned his head and nosed at my bag.

I smiled and pulled it over with my magic, pulling out a neon pink ball, "This what you want?" I asked.

Wruff!

He was back on his paws in an instance, big tail of branches wagging.

"Well, go get it then," I said and shot it off into the forest with my magic.

His claws ripped up the dirt on the forest floor as he tore after it.

I laughed. There was a slight sound of wings and I glanced up. A messenger had arrived from the town and landed on one of the thick branches above,

"Your majesty, message fro-" she said as she landed on one of the thick branches above with the rest of the guards and that was as far as he got before Moon Glow rounded on her in what sounded like harsh whispers I couldn't make out even with my ears.

I blinked in surprise as the messenger spoke up again after a couple of seconds, "N-never mind, sir, it's not urgent."

Then I was too busy to think about it as Fern came barreling back to me, pink ball held carefully between his fangs.

I grinned and gripped it with my magic, "Loose!"

Fern is a very good houseplant and after only a minute of tug of war, let go.

I threw it again.
> Chapter 24
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As I entered Sanctuary, I instantly threw a shield above myself.

Sadly, instantly was nowhere fast enough apparently because before the shield had even formed, I was soaked. It was so dark it was almost like a night and it was raining hard.

Well, that's what I get for insisting on realistic weather systems I guess. I shook my head to get the worst  of the rain out of my mane before starting towards the flickering light I could see over by the edge of the clearing where the shelter had been put up. Just against days or nights like this.

My ears flicked as I picked up familiar voices and I smiled before starting to step on twigs and kick small rocks as not to startle anypony. I moved quietly naturally, but with the rain going, no way they would hear me.

"Hey you two," I said with a smile as I reached the leaning wooden shelter and its flickering fire, "How's Manehattan?"

"Page!" Sunset said with a grin and scooted a bit closer to Twilight to give me room, "Get in here!"

I slipped in only for Twilight's magic to run all over me, gathering the water into a ball and throwing it back outside.

"You know, you have to teach me how to do that," I told her with a smile as I sank down next to Sunny, "That's so practical in Nocturnis."

Sparks smiled and leaned in across Sunset to kiss my cheek, "You already know how."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Do I now, Miss Sparks?"

"Yes, and I'm not telling you."

I looked to Sunset.

She grinned, "If Twi isn't, neither am I."

I glowered at them both before I shook my head with a sigh, "I'll give it some thought," I said and slipped my wing across Sunsets back, "How's Manehattan? You should have arrived a day or so ago?"

"Last night," Sunset said and shifted position slightly to lean against my side, her head against the side of my neck, "It's so great. You should see our room. Or maybe I should call it a suite. It has two floors!"

Sparks nodded, "It's pretty extravagant," she admitted with a small smile, "But it's nice in a way. I lived at the Canterlot castle before, but this is different."

"Well, you both deserve it a thousand times over," I said and nosed at Sunny's closest ear, "Do anything fun yet?"

"We went to the theater!" Sparks said happily and scooted close to Sunset, trapping the unicorn between us so she could kiss my cheek.

We were both a head taller than Sunset now and Sparks had caught up with me last we checked and was on the verge to overtake me. My own growth had slowed down lately, so I kinda doubted I would even reach Cadanced size at the moment. Then again, alicorn growth seemed to be more or less random so who knows.

I kinda wished I would stop growing actually, the closer to the size of a regular pony I was, the less of the next possible eternity I would spend banging my horn against things.

That bucking hurt. Being the smallest alicorn was well worth not doing that.

"Anything good?" I asked as Sparks wing settled across mine on Sunny's back.

"Was alright," Sunset answered, "A story about a pegasus that wanted to fly to the sun."

I nodded and pulled her a bit tighter, "That sounds interesting."

"It was a bit more complicated than that," Sparks interjected, "It's a metaphor for being unable to reach the pony she loved."

"Which I assume was Celestia?" I suggested with a smile.

"That was pretty much left up to the viewer, it was never clear," Sparks admitted, "But... considering the symbolism..."

I smirked, "Well, can't blame them. She is worth it."

Sunset rolled her eyes before looking up at me, "After all the time you two specifically didn't get together and you make comments like that?"

"Hush kitten," Sparks said and gave her a small kiss just above the horn, "It's not their fault they're more stubborn than smart."

"Hey," I protested and tickled her side with my wing, "We had perfectly logical and reasonable reasons for it."

"More stubborn than smart is right," Sunset agreed, ignoring my comment, "We just wanted you two to be happy, wing boy," she said and nuzzled beneath my chin.

"And we are," I sighed, "But enough of that, now is about you two."

Sparks eyed me for a second before she nodded, "It was a pretty long trip," she admitted, "but comfortable. We visited my parents on the way, it was nice seeing them again."

"Oh, I just remembered," Sunset said, "Could you pass a message from them to Midnight? They would like her to visit as well."

I shrugged a bit, "You can tell her yourself next time she visits Sanctuary. She's not in Nocturnis at the moment."

"What, she's not?" Twilight asked in surprise, "Where is she?"

"No clue," I said with another shrug, "She got a track on where there is a possibility to find some Kirin and she took Tempest along. They left a couple of days ago."

Sparks shifted a bit uncertainty, "We really should keep one of us at Nocturnis just in ca-"

"Hey," Sunset told her, "Stop that. Vacation. Plenty of guards in Nocturnis and that's part of why we got that shield, remember?"

Twilight hesitated before she sighed and nodded, "You're right," she said before looking at me, "How is Nocturnis?"

I smiled at her, "Pretty much same old," I said, "Nothing particularly special going on. Most exciting thing the last couple of days was Starlight delivering some stuff for Flower and discovering my sorting system."

Sparks eyed me, "A pile on your desk with the oldest at the bottom is not a sorting system."

"Starlight also had strong opinions about it," I admitted, "I suspect she's going to do random inspections from now on to make sure I follow the system she implemented."

Sunny giggled, "You are her prince, you could just tell her to buck off."

I shifted a bit uncomfortably, "...But it was so important to her."

Besides, not like she was wrong exactly. I just hated dealing with paperwork.

"Good colt," Sunset said and raised her head to kiss my cheek.

We fell silent after that, just looking out over the grass as the rain fell and the small warming fire crackled.
> Chapter 25
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The door opened and I quickly swallowed the last mango cube, teleporting the small bowl behind my throne.

A trio of ponies entered. One I recognized by name and look, two I had met before, Nocturnis was still small enough that I could meet all new arrivals.

It was a trio of bat ponies, all mares. All had the common grey coat, but only the lead mare had black mane, the other two were pink and dark green respectively.

The lead was Gold Lining.

The representative for what very loosely could be called the local merchants guild. It wasn't anything near as formal, more like a way for the local traders, shopkeepers and similar to meet and bring up grievances and different items for discussion.

They bowed and I regarded them for a second before I spoke up, "Miss Lining," I said, giving them a nod, "What can I do for the merchant association today?"

She stood up, looking up at me, "Your Majesty, we would like to submit a complaint and request the crown take action."

I nodded to her, "Of course. Please, what is the problem?"

"The prices on imported goods have been going up every year for the past three years. It's becoming completely uneconomical to import some goods used every day by ponies, they can't afford them anymore."

I frowned slightly, "On things such as what?"

"Grains, potatoes, salt... iron goods... basically everything," she said and shook her head, "Some of those goods are absolutely critical, such as salt. Salt has increased on average twenty percent per kilo every year for the last three years!"

I shook my head, "So buy them from somewhere else."

"We tried, your majesty. Everypony else we checked with that can provide the bulk necessary quote us even higher prices, even after negotiations."

"Are you sure prices are not just going up?"

Gold Lining shook her head, "I went to Canterlot. Prices in the stores are like they were before. Everypony says the high prices are because of 'risky transport and uncertainty of return'."

"So this is on credit?"

She hesitated and then sighed, "We can't afford to buy those amounts with bits up front, your majesty. None of the banks will loan us the money either, we're considered a risky investment."

I nodded, "I understand, Golden Lining. I can't promise anything, but I'll see what can be done. Please make sure Starlight gets all the relevant paperwork."

"Of course, your majesty," she said and all three bowed again before filing out.

The door closed behind them and I rubbed my eyes with a hoof.

Bucking damn it. I had talked with Gold Lining three times. One time when she first arrived.

Every time since then it always came with a headache.

"Sir?"

I opened an eye to see Flower standing before the throne, holding a cup of tea in one hoof, offering it to me.

"Flower, remind me to get you something extra nice for your birthday," I told her seriously as I took it with my hoof.

She smiled at me, "You already always do, sir," she said before she glanced towards the door.

I sighed, "Yeah, didn't like the sound of that either."

"...You don't think..."

"Not in this case, no," I sighed and sipped my tea, "I think it's just merchants doing merchant things. Transporting anything through the jungle is a risk and if they're doing it on credit..."

I sighed once more and laid down on the throne, taking my tea in my magic instead and sipped it again, "I can't even really blame them. If even a single cargo was lost they would be out many thousands of bits."

"I suppose," Flower said, one ear flicking twice, "So what do we do?"

I shifted my wings, "I'll discuss things with Princess Celestia," I said, "I'm sure we can figure something out, maybe put some of the money into a fund that can be used to take loans against instead of needing to purchase on credit. Maybe even on a small interest to let it grow. But I want Starlight to go through the documents first, see how bad things are. She's good at that sort of thing."

Flower nodded and then pulled a clipboard from beneath her wing "That was the last audience for the night as well."

"Anything else scheduled?"

"Not today, your majesty. I need to go talk to Starlight."

"Thank you, Flower."

She left, leaving me alone with Shade and Leaf who were standing by the doors. I sipped my tea as I studied my hooves.

I hated asking Luna and Celestia for more money. Cadence’s offer was already more than generous when it came to the tourist proposal. I certainly didn't have enough liquid bits to put anything like that up on my own.

Buck, Nocturnis didn't have that big a pile of bits!

We had bits flowing, but no big pile of it somewhere I could Scrooge McDuck it.

Bits, bits, it's always bucking bits. I never wanted to be a prince, I don't care about money.

So when the buck did I end up a prince that has to spend most of his time worrying about money!? I felt like screaming.

Instead I calmly sipped my tea again. My ponies relied on me. Seeing me screaming while running around in little circles would do nopony any good, in fact it would most definitely make things worse.

Well, nothing to do about it now anyway. I wanted Starlight's analysis for anything else, she was great at that sort of thing.

Putting my cup to the side, I stretched before jumping off the throne and smiled and Shade and Leaf, "I think going on a flight would be nice. What do you two think?"

"It'll rain in an hour or so, sir," Leaf reminded me, "The scouts have detected wild clouds heading this way."

"Ah, good point," I agreed, "A short one then?"

They both nodded and I headed for the balcony. I likely had more paperwork to do as well, there was a constant stream of it. But if I were to do that, I wanted to fly some first.
> Chapter 26
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The spell slashed through the air, the dirt exploding next to me and I threw myself to the side, for a second bringing a shield up to deflect the following spell as I rolled back onto my hooves.

I ducked, returning fire with a slashing force spell at the same time as my chakram went flying out.

Shining Armor took both of them on a pink shield that flashed up in a half dome before him before it dropped and his horn shone.

Then a spell of force lashed out at me in turn.

I knew better than to try to take one of those on my shield head on. Shining Armor hit like a bucking truck. Instead I angled the shield to deflect the blow down into the earth before me.

I can definitely tell he and Sparks are brother and sister, he hit almost as hard as she does.

The spell hit my shield and deflected into the dirt, the impact forcing me to take a step back. As the spray of dirt and dust rained through the air and obscured me from view, I wrapped myself in an invisibility spell and left an illusion of myself in place.

I ran to the side, moving around to flank.

Shining sent another spell through the air, this time a spear of ice. My illusion dodged to the side before returning fire.

He brought a shield up.

I snatched my chakram from the ground, spinning it in my magic as I charged, my horn shimmering.

My horn hit his shield from the side, the anti-shield spell I had been channeling popped it like a mirror in a shattering sound and I slashed at him with the spinning chakram.

He reacted quickly, taking it on the shoulder of his armor.

I flicked a pair of knives at him and his horn exploded out a shockwave of force. It hit me before I could react, taking me off my hooves and sending me rolling on the ground.

"Ow," I said, looking up against the blue skies.

"Ow is right," Shining said and looked down at the knife buried in his foreleg. The armor was mostly on the outside, one of them had managed to slip through, "That one is yours I think."

I shook my head and picked myself off the ground, "No, it's yours," I said and stomped my hoof on the ground, making my harness and cloak along with weapons fade away. His armour did the same, along with the wound, knife and all the damage we made to the meadow, "You were still able to cast and move, I took that blast right to the muzzle. If it was real, your next spell would have caught me before I could recover."

I then walked over to him and bumped my hoof against his, "You're better than last time," I accused him.

Shining grinned, "That was years ago. Besides, I'm Cadance’s Captain, I have to keep in practice."

"I find it difficult to find the time," I admitted, "I really should too. Never know when the next crisis appears."

"Perhaps Twilight would enjoy the same thing?" Celestia suggested as she, Cadance and Sunburst approached from where they had been watching.

Shining grinned, "The magic maybe, the physical activity, not so much."

"That, and the fact that I'm not sure I'd survive trying to take blasts from her at a regular basis," I agreed, "Even when holding back, it's like being hit by a log when she cast a spell."

"Are you really okay?" Sunburst asked Shining with a small frown.

Shining smiled at him, "I'm all good. Dream, remember," he said and moved his foreleg that I hit, "Can't even tell I took a hit. My own fault I even got hit, I didn't expect him to hit me from the side, nor be able to break my shield."

Celestia smiled and nosed at my ear, "Page can be quite sneaky when he bothers trying."

"You would know," I said and glanced up at her, my nose brushing hers.

Cadance looked smug and moved up between Shining and Sunburst, slipping a wing around each of them but didn't say anything. She just met my eyes for a second before turning her head to whisper something into Shinings ear.

Shining smiled and then looked to Celestia and myself, "We still have another couple of hours before we need to wake up, we're going to go explore I think."

"We are?" Sunburst asked and looked at him before he nodded, "Oh. We are!" he then agreed quickly.

"Have fun," I said, "We'll be... on a completely different part of the planet I think," before I looked at Celestia, "I just finished a new region, want to see it?"

"I would love to."

I smiled at her and tapped a hoof against the ground, moving us several hundred kilometers to the south from the starting valley. The grass beneath our hooves was replaced by drifting sand as we found ourselves in a desert just next to a rocky outcropping.

"A desert?" Celestia asked as she raised her head and looked around, "Why a desert?"

"I wanted to try something different. Besides, deserts can be nice."

She nodded, "I suppose," she agreed and walked a bit forward before turning to me with a smile, "It certainly far enough to give them some privacy."

"Yeah, I may have to create some sort of private areas," I admitted.

"Or not," Celestia said and gave me a small kiss, "Even that valley is more than big for the few ponies that know this place exists."

I nodded, "True," I admitted and looked around, "Come on," I said and jumped onto the rock outcropping and started walking.

Celestia followed, "Where are we going?" she asked as she moved up next to me.

"Nowhere really, just should get off the sand. When in the deep desert, stick to rocky terrain," I told her with a smile, "Besides, there was something I needed to discuss with you."

"What about?" Celestia asked, fluffing her wings a bit before lifting a wing to hold over me, giving me shade against the burning sun.

I smiled in thanks at her, "Trouble, what else?" I said before I sighed and moved a bit closer, my side touching hers as we walked, "I wish I never just had troubles."

She gave my ear a nuzzle, "What is it, Page?"

"Merchants in Canterlot are raising prices on my ponies. They have to buy on credit because there isn't enough liquid bits to buy outright yet and because of the risk of losing the cargo, the prices quoted are... high."

Celestia nodded, "I see. Do you have a solution?"

"I do," I said and sighed again, looking up at her, "But you know how much I hate asking for more bits."

She smiled a bit sadly but nodded, "I do know, Page."

"In this case however, it won't be a loan," I said, meeting her eyes, "An investment fund."

She smiled, "Oh?"

"I talked it through with Tight Bit and Starlight Glimmer. If we set up a fund the merchants in Nocturnis can borrow from to make their purchases at a five percent interest, it will not only lower the costs but also easily absorb the potentially lost cargo. They'll still be expected to pay it back in case of a loss, but could be added to the interest on further loans instead of bankrupting the pony or ponies in question. In time, it will even provide returns to the crown for the initial investment."

Celestia looked amused, "You wish to start a bank?"

"Well, not exactly," I admitted, "We'll likely need a couple of ponies managing it, but it's more of a pile of bits to improve the process."

Celestia looked thoughtful, "How much are we talking about?"

I flicked my ears a bit to the side before I sighed, "...Twenty thousand."

"Done."

I frowned up at her, "Sunshine..."

"None of that," Celestia said and brushed her lips against mine, "Even from my private accounts, it is a small amount. Is that twenty thousand with an emergency amount calculated in?"

I hesitated.

"In which case, make it an even fifty," she said with a smile, "Page, stop being silly."

"...I hate owing money, especially to ponies I know," I said and leaned against her.

"I know you do. But like you said, this isn't a loan. This is me setting up an investment for private business loans specifically for Equestrian colonies. One I expect to produce a profit in the future," Celestia told me and slipped a wing across me, pulling me against her side .

"...Thank you, Sunshine," I said and then smiled up at her, "Anything I can do to thank you?"

Celestia smirked, "A couple of things spring to mind."

"Well, a goddess does deserve to be wo-" Was as far as I got before I was interrupted. A rustling sound and something enormous moved beneath the sand. A dune collapsed in its wake before the sand became still once more.

Celestia stared at it before she turned to me, "Page, what exactly did you make in this desert?"

I just looked at her innocently.
> Chapter 27
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I came in for landing, hooves touching down quietly on the wooden floor just outside the market.

I didn't go to the market very often normally just because of what is happening now. Ponies noticed me almost at once.

Ponies parting before me, bowing. Smiling.

Treating me like I had all the answers. Like just because I had a horn and wings I deserve special treatment.

Like I had all the answers.

I hated it. I enjoyed going here much more when I pretended to be Night Wind, just another pony.

But if my ponies found out how I felt, they would be dismayed.

So I smiled back and answered the bows with nods of my own. At least it wasn't that uncommon for me to come down to the town that I drew a crowd. Shade and Leaf followed behind me as I walked through the crowd.

I took in the scents, the sounds. The sights of the market are all around me.

There was a buzzing of wings and Amber landed to walk beside me.

I smiled at her, "Good morning, Amber."

"Good morning, sir," she said as she scanned the crowds, not even glancing in my direction.

After getting shot, you would think I would be nervous in crowds. Didn't happen, but apparently it applied to Amber instead. Anytime I did something like this, she came out of hiding to walk right next to me.

A scent caught my nose and my hooves turned, heading towards a market stall mared by a batpony mare. Pretty young, maybe in her early twenties at most and in the classic grey and black colours, a cutiemark of a bee on her flank.

"Good morning," I said with a smile and she did a double take away from working the grill.

"G-Good morning your majesty!" she quickly said with a bow.

I nodded in turn, "What do you have here…" I asked, a small bit of dream magic fishing her name out for me, "Honeydew?" I asked with a smile, "Smells good."

She blushed to the tips of her ears, "Oh.. Uhm... I sell grilled treats, your majesty. N-nothing fancy mind you! Just grilled and candied fruit and meat."

"I think it smells good," I said and studied the list written behind her, "May I have a spicy lizard on a stick, please?"

"Of course, your majesty!" she said and quickly started to prepare one that was on the grill already before holding it out for me a minute later, "On the house!"

I smiled and took it, "Nothing of the sort," I said as I shook my head and used my magic to count out the price and a bit extra before floating it over, "Here you go."

"T-thank you, sir! Uhm… Your Majesty!"

"Have a good morning, Honeydew," I told her with a smile and moved off again, holding my lizard on a stick in my hoof instead of magic as I continued through the early morning crowds, shopping for dinner or whatever they were looking for after work.

Nibbling on the lizard which really tasted as good as it smelled, all sweet and spicy along with charcoal grill taste, I made my way across the market towards the merchant stories.

Not seeing a good place to dispose of the stick and skeleton, I charged a teleport spell and tossed it as far into the forest as I could.

"Where to now, sir?" Amber asked.

"Not sure actually," I said with a smile, "Just walking. We're not too far from the guard training compound, maybe go there."

"Yes, sir," Amber agreed.

So my hooves headed in that direction. It was nice just taking a walk actually, it gave me time to think. Not that it helped exactly, by the time I reached the training platform, I still had not solved the problems facing Nocturnis.

Would have been really nice if I had.

The ponies on the field seemed to be practicing with spears. The majority were mares, but it actually seemed to be close to the population ratio from what I could see, close to a four to one mare to stallions.

Most of them bats with the next category being pegasi and then some unicorns and earth ponies mixed in. But all of them are running the same drill with the same sort of spear.

A medium length one, long enough to fend something dangerous off without being too long to move it in the forest.

"Your majesty!" a batpony lieutenant said in greeting as he trotted up to bow for me, wearing the Nocturnis pattern armour, "We were not informed of an inspection!" he said as he bowed, wings spreading.

I smiled, "No inspection, Silent Wing," I told him, "I'm just taking a walk and got curious."

"Of course, sir," he said and stood up.

The ponies kept training. Either they had not noticed me or they were good enough to ignore me.

Kinda hoped for both to be honest.

I watched for a couple of more seconds before I looked at Silent Wing, "Could you show me that form from the start?"

"Of course, sir," he said and quickly trotted off to get one of the practice spears before returning.

As I watched, he went through it. Low guard, stab upwards, retreat, feint stab, mid stab followed by two steps forward and two high stabs.

I could see how it would work. 

Low guard to protect against a charge, make the enemy wary with a high thrust towards their muzzle, then back up and feint in case they try to counter. If they then move in because of the faint you force them back and stab them in the face.

"May I try it?" I asked with a smile.

Silent Wing hesitated but hooved over the spear, "Of course, your majesty," he said and retreated a couple of steps.

I adjusted the spear with my right foreleg, shifting the weight into the guard position, shifting the rest of my three hooves into a balanced stance.

Stab upwards, two steps back, feint with tip, back slightly, stab forward, two fast steps forward, stab up, stab up.

"How did I do?" I asked as I raised the spear, leaning it against my shoulder as I looked at him again.

"It was actually very good, your majesty," he said, almost sounding surprised, "Have you used a spear before?"

I smiled at the obvious exaggeration, "A bit, but it's not my best weapon, especially when not using my magic," I said and hooved it back to him, "And I'm quite out of practice. Thanks for showing me Lieutenant."

"It was my pleasure, sir! If I may ask, what weapon do you prefer?"

I considered that for a second, "If I had to pick, I'd say the chakram."

"I don’t think I have ever heard of that one, sir."

I smiled and shook my head, "It's an old unicorn weapon. You can't really use one effectively without a horn, it's barely used anymore. Much easier to just use a spear, sword or crossbow. But it was a gift from my wife and one of the first ones I learned."

Silent Wind smiled and nodded, "I understand, your majesty."

"I'll get out of your mane now," I said and gave him a nod, "And let you actually get back to doing something useful. Have a good morning, Lieutenant."

"You as well, your majesty," he said with another bow.

I turned and left.

I should head back home, I had my own duties to attend to before it was time for bed.
> Chapter 28
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I swept through the night air on silent wings before landing on equally silent hooves on a tree branch as I studied my target.

She was by the edge of a stream on the soft grass, laying down on her stomach as she looked up towards the skies. Her mane was mostly visible as shimmers of light in the darkness as it flowed.

Taking to the air again, I swept down towards the ground a dozen meters away before starting to silently sneak closer, careful steps in the grass before I pu-

Luna smiled and turned her head, "Are you joining me?"

I pounced on her, pinning her to the ground as I gnawed playfully at her ear, "Got you!"

She laughed and rolled over, "Silly Page," she said with a grin, forelegs pulling me tight, "I can always feel you in the dream realm."

"I kinda hoped I fixed that in this place," I admitted and bumped my nose to hers, "Wife."

"Husband," she answered and bumped right back, "It has nothing to do with this place and all to do with you. Not noticing you in here is like not noticing my sister walking into a room."

I relaxed against her, "I guess," I admitted, "How are things in Canterlot?"

Luna smiled and shook her head slightly, "As you might expect. There are a lot of complaints about half of the appointment times being shifted to after midnight."

"I can see why," I admitted, "But they just have to bucking deal."

"As you say," Luna agreed, "And Nocturnis?"

I sighed, "Like usual. Sadly. There is just a constant of putting out fires. Most metaphorically, thankfully, but it's stressful."

Luna smiled slightly, "You should have seen how things were during the formation of Equestria. We had a lot of non-metaphorical fires."

"Sunshine has shown me some in our lessons," I agreed and then frowned at her, pushing myself up to sit, "And speaking of which, what the buck are the two of you cooking up? She keep twisting out of having to answer by distracting me-"

"Does she?" Luna asked with a small smirk, her hoof running up along my foreleg.

I blinked, suddenly losing my train of thought before I shook my head and glared at her, "Stop that!"

"Or what, My Page?" Luna asked and stretched out slightly on the grass, stars shimmering in her eyes.

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath before letting it back out, "You two are definitely sisters," I grumbled before I laid back down, resting my head on her chest, "Just tell me, alright. I'm a big colt, I can take it."

Luna sighed, forelegs slipping around me, "We were debating options. One of which was splitting Nocturnis and surrounding area off to a protectorate, similar to the Crystal Empire."

I frowned and glanced up at her, "...Alright, I'll bite. How exactly would that help anything?"

"Because, my silly bat," Luna explained, "Then the loans would be a stimulus to a protectorate nation and would not need to be repaid. In addition, when the taxes kick in, or if they do at all would be up to you, they would go only to Nocturnis, not a bunch to Equestria. Anything else would be up to the protectorate agreement."

I spent several long moments considering that, "Protectorates usually provide something to their superior nation."

Luna nodded, "Took a while to get it going, but the Crystal Empire pays twenty five percent of their taxes as well as several hundred tons of magic crystals a year to Equestria," she agreed.

"And Nocturnis?"

Luna smirked, "I'm sure we could come to some sort of agreement. After some though negotiations."

I studied her, "I'm sure we could," I said a bit dryly and then thought about it for several long seconds before I sighed, "While I can see it having some pros," I admitted, "It has one massive problem. It's likely to isolate my bats even further. I already have a bit of a xenophobia problem growing that I need to stomp out."

"Or perhaps give them the reassurance they need."

"Or come with an entire different can of snakes," I sighed, "What other ideas did you have?"

Luna touched her nose to mine, "Wedding."

I blinked in surprise, "Wedding? Who's wedding?"

She smiled, "Celestias and yours. You said you plan to marry her, correct?"

I nodded with a smile, "I have said that. And I will."

"Hold it in Nocturnis. Make all the visitors come to you. Show what an amazing place it is."

Marry Celestia in Nocturnis. Celestia's wedding, buck all of Equestria would want to go to it. Buuuck, forget the actually invited ponies, it would likely be an event open to everypony. Luna and I were a big deal.

But Celestia?

"It's a nice idea, and if it was literally anypony else I think it may work," I admitted, "But I'm not sure the population of Equestria fits in Nocturnis. It'd be a bit crowded."

"What of Twilight then?" Luna suggested.

"Sparks and Sunny will marry first," I said, "We have discussed it, but no date or anything planned yet. And in no way would I have them have it in Nocturnis for political gain if they wished for anything else."

Luna smiled and gave my nosetip a small kiss, "Good colt."

I flicked one ear, "Not like I could even if I wanted to. Either could break me in half if they wanted to."

Luna smirked, "You have a type it seems?" she teased.

"Yeah, apparently it's scary mares," I grumbled and cuddled closer, "Any further ideas?"

"You could just stop being dumb about it," Luna suggested, "And just stop worrying. Nocturnis isn't a drain on Equestrian finances. My Page, either Celestia or myself could pay for it all from our own accounts without suffering any hardship at all."

I pushed myself up to glare down at her, "I will no-"

Her hoof touched my lips, "I know, my silly bat."

"I am not a silly bat," I explained, my wings spreading, "It's not about me! I don't like being in debt and I don't like having to take charity, but it's not about me. If it was just me, I would smile and nod and say thank you! It's the ponies in Nocturnis. Having to take the money from Equestria as is with it being a loan is unpopular enough. Outright charity would be highly unpopular to say the least, they’d be furious!"

Luna sighed softly, "I know," she said quietly, "It's not an easy problem to solve."

"Well, I have a solution," I suggested, "I can set up elections, let them pick a leader by popular vote and then go retire in a forest cabin somewhere far away from politics. Then it wouldn't be my problem!"

Luna smiled gently up at me, "Page, you already know you would just be voted to lead them."

"Ah, but I could set up term limits! A maximum of four years!"

"And you think changing leaders and vision every four years would improve stability?" Luna asked with a small smile as she regarded me.

"...No..." I admitted with a sigh, feeling my ears droop.

"Page, ponies like us don't get to walk away or hide."

"No, but somehow Sparks and Midnight ended up without needing to rule anything."

Luna smiled, "Well, they are the smartest of us."

"Ain’t that the truth," I sighed with a small smile before getting up and stretching, "Let's stop talking about this, all it does is ruin our limited time."

"I still have a bit until I have court," Luna said and rolled onto her hooves, getting up as she nosed at my ear, "How about a bath?" she asked and led the way towards the stream.

I smiled and followed.
> Chapter 29
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I looked out the open side of the throne room at the curtain of rain outside, mostly blanking out the lights from the village below.

Not being rain season, didn't mean no rain. It just meant rain was maybe half an hour a day versus half an hour not rain a day. This place also didn't really seem to do half measures. It almost never drizzled down. Either it was on and you might as well stand beneath a waterfall, or it was off and clear skies. We did have a small weather team now, but these were wild weather clouds. Not the tame balls of fluff manufactured in Cloudsdale.

Their duties were more finding and reporting on incoming weather than trying to wrangle it.

"You know," I mused and turned to look towards Flower, "I think we should try to get some nightly exercise penned into my schedule. All this sitting around is bad for me."

Flower glanced up from the report she had been reviewing before she smiled, "Of course, your majesty. We can do that. Flying?"

"No," I said and pushed myself up to sit, "I enjoyed it when I tried that spear thing. And I have been missing the training I did with my wife in learning how to defend myself. Besides, doing martial arts is much more interesting than just flying."

"...I see," Flower answered, now sounding much more hesitant, "I suppose I could get together with Captain Moon Glow to hammer out the details."

I studied her for a moment, "I could talk to her myself, Flower. I just need to know a good spot in my schedule. You work too much as is, you need to learn how to relax."

Flower flicked her ears, "I know how to relax!" she protested, "My coltfriend and I are going to the theater after work!"

I smiled, "Excellent. Anything new?"

"It is!" she said happily, "It's a comedy play and it's supposed to be hilarious. It's about this pottery crafter that-"

There was a knock on the door and we both looked over just in time to see a guard poke his head inside, "Your Majesty," he said, "Lady Fluttershy wishes to see you."

I nodded, "Of course, show her in."

The door opened after he disappeared only to allow Fluttershy inside, Eris riding on her back. The little foal smiled at everyone and everything as she clung to her mother.

"Fluttershy," I said and then smiled, "And Eris. How can I help you today?"

Fluttershy smiled back and did a careful bow, wings only half spreading to be able to catch the little filly if she tumbled off, but like all batpony foals, she seemed to be able to have a really good grip and a good sense of balance, "Your majesty, I'm sorry to bother you, but I need to discuss the hunting teams."

I felt an eyebrow raise a bit at that, "In which manner?"

She shifted slightly, "We're overhunting the area. We're mainly focused on the large herbivores and they are getting scarcer and scarcer. There's just too many bats for this area to keep up."

I was feeling a headache coming on.

"That is an issue," I admitted, "But surely we can't be going through them that quickly. I know most of our diet is fruit."

Fluttershy nodded, "It is, but there are thousands of us. And they are learning to avoid this area."

Right.

There was a reason why hunter gatherer groups very rarely got over like a hundred humans.

I slowly nodded and then frowned, "How's the farming going? I know we had some griffs that were giving it a go with those big turtle things."

"Going well," Fluttershy said with a smile, "Sadly, they grow a bit slowly and need quite a lot of food. The first calf is only half grown and they need a lot of room."

"I see."

All of this meant that if we ended up with too much of a shortfall, we would need to import meat. And who the buck sells meat? Not Equestria, that's for sure. We'd need to import it from the Griffins!

"Thank you, Fluttershy," I said, giving her a smile, "For bringing this to my attention. How urgent is this issue?"

She shook her head, "We likely have years before we need to start ranging too far for it to be practical to transport. The things we hunt are not the smartest, there's still plenty that wander into our area."

"Understood, we still have time to think about it. Please, if you or anypony else on the teams come up with any suggestions, feel free to pass them on. You're the ponies in the field, you know the situation better than anypony."

Fluttershy nodded, "Of course your majesty," she agreed, Eris copying the nod behind her head with a serious expression.

I tried not to grin at the sight, "We'll figure it out, there is always a solution."

"Yes, my prince," Fluttershy agreed and then bowed again, "Good morning."

"Good morning, Fluttershy, Eris," I said and she left with her foal. The door closed behind her and I closed my eyes in turn, taking a deep breath before letting it out.

A scent tickled my nose and I opened them again with a small smile, looking down at Flower as she held out a bowl of mango and strawberry cubes to me, "You don't need to appease me, Flower," I said as I took the bowl, "I'm not a pony to yell and rave when problems happen."

She smiled a bit back, the petite batpony shifting her wings, "No, but it is getting to lunchtime, your majesty. If I tried to appease you, it would have been tea."

"Ah, good point," I agreed with a smile and picked out a strawberry with my magic before chewing on it. Then I frowned and glanced down at the bowl, "Since when do we have strawberries?"

Flower smiled, "Since the first harvest yesterday. There is a good slope on the western mountain outside the shield. It's too steep for any large predators and has small plateaus on it. A family claimed them, cleared out what was growing there that was in the way and started to grow things such as strawberries, cucumbers and such. Things that don’t import well."

Western mountain was technically a very large hill as it only rose about half a kilometer out of the jungle. But the sides were steep so it looked like a mountain. Due to how steep that side of it was, it was fairly safe even if it was outside the shield. It had actually been one of the site we considered for Nocturnis before we decided on the trees instead. Mostly because it was so far from the river.

"That's some good news at least," I agreed and chewed on another one, "All food that doesn't transport well long distance. I'm sure the ponies of Nocturnis will appreciate the variety."

Flower nodded, "And I understand it, their stand at the market was sold out in thirty minutes."

"Makes sense," I agreed before I raised an eyebrow, "If they were sold out that quickly, how come we have some? Was chef at the market at the time?"

Flower shook her head, "Ten kilos was gifted to the crown from the first harvest."

I eyed her, "Did you have any?"

Flower blushed slightly, "...I may have sneaked one, my prince," she admitted.

I smiled and used my magic to gather the strawberries out from between mango cubes, splitting the ten or so strawberries into roughly equal portions before dividing them up between Flower, Leaf and Shade where they were standing by the door.

"Your majesty!" Flower protested but sat down as she caught her berries with her hooves.

"Just enjoy," I told them and chewed on a mango cube.

Leaf and Shade knew better than to say anything and just enjoyed their strawberries.
> Chapter 30
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The doors of the throneroom opened, allowing a unicorn inside. She had a white coat, her grey mane was pulled into a thick braid. She looked about sixty or so and had a pair of scales cutiemark.

As she stopped, she gave me a small bow, "Prince Page."

"Judge Even Weight," I said with a smile, "Welcome to Nocturnis. I hope the trip was not too bad."

She stood back up and shook her head, "Not at all, your highness. In truth, I spent most of it working, reviewing everything that was delivered to Canterlot along with the petition for a judge to be assigned."

We delivered anything other than a petition?

"Good," I said with a smile, "What do you think of Nocturnis so far?"

Even smiled a bit, "I have always been a bit of a night owl, which will likely help. As for the town itself, it's beautiful."

I nodded as I regarded her, "If I may ask, why did you choose to accept the position? We're pretty far from everywhere. I don't expect you to be very busy."

She nodded for a second before answering, "I was a lawyer for fifteen years. I spent another thirty as a judge in Manehattan and later Canterlot. I plan to retire in ten years or so and Nocturnis seems like just the right place to spend those ten years," she explained before she smiled again, "Besides, I greatly approve of what you're trying to do here, your highness. I'm not sure it will work, but I want it to."

"With your help, the odds increase I think," I told her seriously, "Anything you need from our side?"

She looked up, meeting my eyes, "In all honesty, your highness, what I need the most is for you to keep your nose out of it. I have reviewed your rulings in the cases supplied to me to study, and while I do find them fair, if it was not for being a royal alicorn making the judgment some would break Equestrian law."

I smiled in agreement, "You are referring to the two mares that got inducted into the guard?"

"Among others, but yes."

"As we don't have a prison," I said, "And can't afford ponies just sitting around in one. It was either that or banishment. And before you ask, I'm not about to ship ponies across country to some prison."

"In which case, you need to build one," she told me seriously, "And if you can't afford to put ponies in it, then you might as well pack this entire thing up. Sooner or later, somepony will do something serious enough to warrant a stint behind bars. Banishment is all well and good, but all that does is make them somepony else's problem."

I took a deep breath before letting it out, "Judge Even Weight," I told her just as seriously, "Just locking ponies away helps nopony."

"Which is why it's only used in the worst cases," she said firmly, stomping one hoof, "But we still need one! Especially in a place as potentially dangerous as this. Quite frankly, while I do understand it worked out well with those two mares, you were lucky, your highness. Somepony could easily have died. Been killed."

I glared down at her, "Even Weight," I said, baring my fangs slightly, "You think you can talk to me in such a manner?"

She glared right back, "With all due respect, Prince Page, if you can't deal with me telling you the truth, I think I will do more good back in Canterlot."

I let my glare shift into a grin and I relaxed, "Good. I think you're exactly the pony we need."

Even blinked at me, "...You were testing me?"

"My apologies, judge," I said with a smile, "No offense intended. But you will face quite a bit of resistance I think, especially at first. I need somepony fair but firm. Somepony that won't bend to pressure."

She regarded me for several moments, "While I do understand, I do not appreciate it."

"Noted," I agreed and flicked one ear, "If you believe we need a prison, we will construct a small one. For now, make do with the jail."

"Thank you, Prince Page."

"One more thing," I said with a smile, "Off duty guards are civilians. And should be treated the same as anypony else, if not firmer because the trust invested in them. On duty as well. Agreed?"

She nodded firmly, "Agreed."

"Excellent. I'll let you go get settled in, it must have been a long night."

"Thank you," she said and then bowed slightly, "Good morning, your highness."

"Good morning, judge Even Weight."

She left and I relaxed on the throne, watching the closing door behind her for several long moments before the scent of tea reached my nose. I sniffed and then turned my head, watching a maid pour a cup before presenting it to me. I smiled at her, "Thank you, Moon," I said as I took it, sniffing at it, "This is a new blend I think?"

"Yes, your majesty," the slender batpony said, "Just arrived from Canterlot on the train. It's made from a smoked black tea. A gift from the Silver Tea company as I understand it."

I nodded and took a small sip, "...Oh, that's different," I said before studying it, "You can taste the smokeyness."

I took another small sip, "...I think I like it. This is most definitely a morning or midnight kind of tea. But not strong for waking up in the morning."

Moon Pie nodded, "Agreed, sir," she said with a smile, "Would you like something to eat?"

"Not right now I think, thanks. I'm good until dinner."

She bowed and then retreated, leaving me to sip my tea as I looked out over the lights of the village, shining in the light of my Luna's moon high above.

"I like her," Flower commented after a second.

"Me too," I agreed as I nodded, "I see why Celestia recommended her. I hope she'll work out," I said before I turned my head to look at her, "Could you please schedule a meeting with Solid Slab tonight?"

Flower nodded, "Of course, sir. Regarding the prison?"

I let out a sigh, "Preliminary regarding the prison so they can start to pick a site for it. In Fact we should likely have somepony from the guard invited as well as they will be the ones to keep it secured."

"Of course, sir."

"Anypony else scheduled for today?"

Flower shook her head, "Not until after lunch when you have a meeting with Lady Fluttershy and Tight Bit."

And wouldn't that be a fun bucking meeting. My newest headache teaming up with my biggest headache.

"In which case, I'm going to stretch my wings for a bit," I said and slipped off my throne. Leaf and Shade quickly moved away from the door to join me,

"There may be some rain later, sir," Shade pointed out.

"Not planning to take long," I told her with a smile, "But all I did all night was sit around. I need to move around for a bit."

"Anything especially in mind, sir?" Leaf asked.

I considered it and then shook my head, "Not really," I flicked one ear in thought, "How about a couple of laps around the village and then down to the bathhouse."

"Sounds good, sir."
> Chapter 31
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The door to the throne room opened and Commander Stormwind entered, flanked by a pair of Solar guards.

He was a dark coated pegasus with slicked back white mane. I couldn't see his cutiemark because of his armor. Only reason I could tell his mane and natural coat was because he wasn't wearing his helmet, leaving the uniform enchantment of the armour off.

His two companions, a pegasus and unicorn respectively both looked like guards usually do. White coat, blonde mane. They stopped inside the doors and he continued on.

Coming to a stop, he bowed, "Prince Page."

"Captain Stormwind," I said with a smile, "Welcome back to Nocturnis. To what do we owe the pleasure?"

He stood back up, "I have several guards ponies that have not reported back from leave. I understand they are in the Nocturnis jail?"

"To my understanding that is correct," I agreed, "That is usually what happens when you get arrested."

"Your highness, surely you can understand that it is important to get them back to the base to continue their training. Surely everything can be cleared up. I looked at the reports, nopony got hurt."

"That's up to the judge to decide," I said, "I don't know the specifics of their cases."

Captain Stormwind frowned, "Prince Page, in the past-"

"What happened in the past clearly was not working, Captain," I told him seriously, "Because it and similar things kept happening. It's not the same ponies either, so it's clearly a structural and cultural problem."

He scowled, "Your highness, soldiers can get a bit unruly on leave. It happens, especially when stuck on base for most of the time. Surely they can just pay for the damages done?"

"As I said, not up to me. And as I don't know the charges the judge will apply, I can't comment. But I would expect guards ponies to get in a bit of trouble, that is true. But there is a difference between getting drunk in public, and hitting somepony or wrecking a market stall. I'm sure the judge will be fair in her rulings. If the charges aren't serious, I'm sure it's just a fine or some community service instead of prison time."

Stormwind lived up to his name, his ears flicking back for a second as his feathers puffed up, "Prison!? If anything serious enough to warrant prison, it should be handled by the solar guard. Your highness, if the safety and safe return of my guard ponies can't be guaranteed, I won't have any choice but to cancel all leave to Nocturnis."

I smiled at him, "Excellent, saved me the trouble."

He blinked at me in surprise, "Prince Page?"

"Well, I was thinking that if this didn't work and incidents kept popping up, I may have to ban any and all members from your command from entering Nocturnis. Sure, the few bits your ponies bring in is nice and all, but they have necessitated that we start construction of an actual prison, if a small one. It'll be decades before the bits your ponies bring in even start to break even on the construction costs alone. So I would be more than happy to send you all out on your tails if things don't improve."

"You can't do that, it is against Equestrian law," he said firmly, "No town, city, province or village can exclude, hinder or prevent the movement or actions of the royal guard."

"Correct," I said and smiled, "But I can. It's within my personal authority."

"Prince Page, surely you see that this is a severe-"

"Keep talking and you'll find yourself a private assigned to the Staliongrad garrison latrines."

His muzzle snapped closed with a click of teeth.

I regarded him for several long moments before I let a sigh out, "Captain Stormwind. You want your guard ponies out of trouble, finishing their advanced training and then sent back. I want your guard ponies out of trouble and couldn't give a toss about the rest. There is no reason for us to be opponents on this. Keep your ponies under control and it won't be a problem. I don't care how you do it, but if you won't, we will."

He glared at me for a moment before he nodded curtly. Then he turned around and marched out, his two guards following alone.

The throne room was quiet for several moments before I smiled, "That went well," I commented, drawing a small smile from Leaf and Wind.

Flower sighed softly from her desk, "It'll be trouble, sir."

"It's already a problem, Flower," I said with a small sigh, "Let's see if this helps. Well, that was a nice thing to have to deal with first thing in the evening. What's next on the schedule?"

Flower pulled her calendar closer, "Next is-"


######


I slipped into Sanctuary, the dream realm being replaced for a moonlit forest clearing.

Tonight had been a really long night and I just needed to get away for a bit. Luna would likely join me in a while, I had gone to bed early. Or rather, perch. With Sunny and Sparks away, it was really no reason for me to use the bed. So I was hanging from my tail in the rafters instead.

Make as well take what positives I can out of this.

The air was cool without being cold and there was a slight wind from the west. It didn't look like it was going to rain either anytime soon, the sky was clear and stars shimmered on the bla-

There was a rustle of leaves behind me and I turned around, finding myself staring at a little filly.

She stared at me with wide eyes and I stared right back.

She was a earthpony, looking about ten years old with pink coat and darker pink mane, a piece of amber as her cutiemark.

"...Hello there," I said in surprise, "I'm Blank Page. Who are you?"

"Tree Sap," she said, taking a small step back, "A-are you really Prince Page? Where are we?"

I smiled, "We're in a dream realm. What's the last thing you remember?" I asked, trying to figure out how the buck she ended up in Sanctuary.

"I-I was in the hospital, my dad was reading to me and I was-" she started to say before she blinked, "I fell asleep!"

"What was he reading? Anything good?"

"Kinda, it was a book about knights and battles and stuff."

Oooh. Sanctuary is a word that might come up there. If it happened just as she fell asleep... that would explain how she ended up here! 

Huh, and I thought I picked a codeword that wouldn't come up when trying to sleep. Damn it, I should have gone with something more difficult and obscure.

"Sounds interesting," I said with a smile before I frowned, "You're injured?"

"Sick," she sighed, "Been for ages. Miss my friends."

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said with a small smile. I had planned to just make her wake up, but... this is likely the first time she's been out and about for a bit. It wouldn't really hurt to let her stay until she woke up naturally would it. Not like she'd be able to figure out how to get back anyhow.

I smiled and glanced around, "Want to know a secret?"

"What?" she asked and shifted a bit closer.

"This place has chocolate bushes," I whispered to her.

"...No, that's not a real thing."

I smiled, "Totally is," before I turned slightly, "See that biggest tree in the forest? At the base there are a bunch of them."

"...But it's dark and scary."

"Nothing to be afraid of, Sap," I told her, "This is my realm. No pony eating monsters allowed. Besides... I'll let you in on another little secret. Do you know how to whistle?"

She nodded.

"Alright, whistle three tones, pause and then three more," I said with a grin, "Go on," I added as she hesitated.

Six tones rang through the meadow and a light appeared among the trees. It fluttered closer, resolving to look like a ball of blue light, lighting up the area like a streetlight as it fluttered up to hover before her.

"Go on," I said, "Tell the sprite where you want to go. She'll guide you."

"I-I want to go to the chocolate bushes by the large tree, please."

The sprite bobbed in the air and started to flutter off.

"Go on Sap, have fun," I told her with a smile, "If you get lost, just whistle and a sprite will join you."

"Thank you, your highness!"

I watched her quickly galop after the glowing mote of light and smiled. She might have arrived here by accident, but it was a happy one at least.
> Chapter 32
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The sun was slowly setting across Sanctuary. I had actually managed to get to bed early for once and I found Midnight by the stream. She was laying by the edge, forehooves in the water as tiny little glowing flish fluttered back and forth around them, but in and out of the water.

"Hey," I said and moved to drop down onto the grass next to her, "How's your search doing?"

I thought her search for the Kirin and Kelpies was a bit of a wild goose chase to be honest. It was a bit world and even if any remained, it was so unlik-

"I found them," she said with a smile.

I did a double take, "Come again? You've been gone for two weeks!"

Midnight got exactly the same smug look on her face as Twilight did when she managed to surprise me with something, "My tip paid off. They lived in a small valley less than a day's walk from a train station."

I rubbed my forehead next to my horn, "...Bloody hell," I grumbled, "So why don't ponies know about them? Isolationists, curse, what?"

Midnight shrugged her wings, "Dwindling numbers and they're not much for travel in general. And nopony go to where they are, it is kinda isolated. Train station was a bit of an exaggeration, it's a stop in the middle of nowhere to take on water."

"Dwindling numbers?" I asked with a small frown.

Midnight nodded sadly, "They don't know if there are other Kirin somewhere else. But there are barely a thousand of them in the valley."

Barely a thousand. Buck.

"What are they like?"

Midnight looked thoughtful, "Imagine a unicorn. Now give them a mane, like a lion not a pony, their horn is more vertical and curved, splitting into a V about halfway up. Along their backs they have scales instead of a coat. On, and they have split hooves, like deer."

"Huh."

"Their magic is different as well," she continued, "While most can pull off telekinesis, their magic is much more elemental than a unicorns. Gouts of flame, gusts of wind, that sort of thing. They're so strongly bound to the elements that certain emotions can manifest them."

I slowly nodded, "So if they get really angry..."

"They burst into flames," Midnight said, nodding, "They had been having trouble with that a while ago and went through some pretty extreme measures to stop it.  I helped them fix the problem."

"I see," I said and flicked one ear.

That would be a real problem.

"Just a thousand left," I said, letting out a sigh.

Midnight nodded, "Just a thousand. Their leader and a couple of others are coming with me back to Nocturnis. They want to see it for themselves before they decide if they want to move or not."

I blinked before my head snapped in her direction, "What!?"

Midnight smiled, "I talked with Rain Shine, their leader. She agreed that where they lived now was not working. She's hesitant to try to join pony society and I understand why, they look even more different than bats."

"Midnight," I said, "We live in wooden houses. In trees."

She frowned at me, "And that's not a problem, so do they."

"Why Nocturnis, why not Canterlot or Manehattan or anywhere else?" I asked.

"Because they don't trust ponies," Midnight said softly, "They're not isolationists as such, but they stayed where they are because the ponies they have sent out in the past has been treated with suspicion and in one case, run out of the village she was trying to trade with."

"So you want to bring them to Nocturnis?"

Midnight nodded, "Because to be frank, after hearing the stories of every bat me and Twi decursed I don't trust ponies not to buck it up with the Kirin... and there are so few of them left. I'll keep looking for other clues, but those thousand may be all that remains, Page. We have to help them."

"...We do," I agreed with a small sigh, my ears folding to the side, "You're right, Midnight."

"I’m sorry for making things more difficult, Page."

I shook my head, "Not your fault, Midnight. I would like to meet this Rain Shine as well."

Midnight nodded and got back to her hooves, "Getting time to wake up, we'll leave on the train today. Good morning."

"Good morning, Midnight."

She disappeared in a whirl of blue sparks and I was alone.

I looked out over the stream, slowly moving a hoof through the water, the flish fluttering and swarming around it, sending blue light through the air as the sun finished setting in the distance.

A thousand Kirin.

A thousand Kirin left. Coming to Nocturnis. A thousand more ponies, another endangered tribe.

I squeezed my eyes closed shut for a second, my hoof trembling.

Another, even more endangered tribe of ponies on the cusp of going extinct and even worse, they were elementals. They could burn the entire thing down.

Pushing myself to my hooves, I looked across the valley before I took a step forward.

Suddenly I was in bright sunshine on the other side of Sanctuary, in a valley filled with trees, streams, meadows and woodland critters, surrounded by tall snow capped mountains.

I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath.

Calm.

Another tribe of ponies. More, why is it always more responsibility, more difficulties, more, more, more...

I screamed and everything around me turned to ash in an instant.

Rearing up, I slammed my forehooves back down hard as my wings flared. Bedrock cracked, trees flashing into ash as the valley exploded, the mountains glowed red and the snow on their caps just disappeared into steam as they started to deform and melt.

I slammed my hooves down again and again, sending cracks exploding through the valley and lava exploded out of them as I screamed.
> Chapter 33
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Soft hoovesteps crunched glass covered ground but I didn't move.

What did surprise me however was when a pair of wings settled across my, one from each side.

A soft muzzle touched my ash covered mane, "Talk to us, love," Celestia said gently.

I slowly blinked and raised my head to look at her, "...How did you get here?"

"I brought her here," Luna said from my other side, "What has happened?"

I sighed and looked over at the mountaintop. It was kinda droopy, "Nothing bad, not really," I said quietly and looked at her, "Midnight succeeded in her quest, she found Kirin."

Both her and Celestia's ears perked up,

"She did?" Celestia asked in surprise, "I thought they were all gone!"

"A thousand of them left," I confirmed and flicked one ear before I sighed, "...She's bringing them to Nocturnis."

"Oh Page," Celestia sighed softly and pulled me closer with her wing. I shifted with the motion to lean against her side.

Luna sighed in turn and shifted, resting her head against the side of my shoulder, leaning against me in turn.

...They got it. 

Both of them got it at once.

"Kirin are elementals, they apparently burst into flames when angry," I said quietly, resting my head against the side of Celestia's neck, "We live in treehouses. In the trees. Made of wood."

"I'll talk to her," Celestia reassured me.

I closed my eyes before I sighed and shook my head slightly, "No."

"No?" she asked.

"No," I said again, "I'll talk to her when she and the Kirin leaders arrive. We'll figure it out. It was just... everything was just so much for a bit there."

Luna frowned slightly before lifting her head and looking to Celestia, "We have not been very fair to him," she said.

"No, sister," Celestia sighed and her muzzle touched my ear, "We have not. You never asked for any of this, love. We ask too much of you."

I smiled a bit wryly and sighed, glancing up at her, "Sunshine, if that's what it was, I would have told you. But I think the worst thing is that every single thing that happened is my own damn fault."

"Page," Luna said, "That's not-"

"Oh, it's very true," I said and gave her a small smile, "I have been thinking. If I had the ability to go back in time, the ability to change any of the decisions that got me where I am, would I make a different choice knowing what I know now?"

Luna nodded, "Would you?"

"...I tried to think of one," I admitted, "and I couldn't think of a single one. Well, only one I could think of would maybe be avoiding that way in the Everfree Forest to leave Fern with his family. Would have been better for him. Everything else, Chrysalis, Tirek... I'm not sure I could do anything different. I couldn't just stand by and do nothing when it came to any of them. I couldn't just leave my bats to live in fear. Even the creation of Nocturnis, with all its faults I think was the only thing I could have done. Could have picked a different position maybe, closer to the ocean, but... this is where the railway was. So... no, My Sky. Everything is my own damn fault and I wouldn't change any of it if I could."

Luna's ears drooped slightly and she leaned in to give me a small kiss before resting her forehead against mine, horns crossed at the base, "You're a good pony."

"I try to be," I admitted and sighed before I smiled, "...Well, there is one thing I do regret with what I know now."

Luna lifted her head, "What is it?"

I shifted to glance up at Celestia, "That I didn't ask you to marry me at the same time as I asked Luna."

Celestia's ears turned a bit red on the inside, "...I'm not sure I would have accepted at that point," she admitted, "I already liked you," she added, "But it would have been a bad ti-"

"You mean you were still wrapped up in too much guilt about my banishment," Luna told her with a small smile, "And I would have told you so at the time. Maybe we could have had that talk earlier if he had."

Celestia sighed softly, holding me closer with her wing, "...Maybe we would have… but I’m not sure either of us would have been ready," she admitted quietly.

I smiled up at her, "Well?"

She blinked at me, "Well, what, Page?"

"Celestia, will you marry me?"

She gasped softly, ears now turning fully red, "Y-you're asking for real? As in officially asking?"

"I'm asking for real. Best time to ask would have been years ago. Second best time is right now," I told her seriously, "I love you."

Celestia smiled and touched her nose to mine, "Ask me again when we meet in person."

I raised an eyebrow, "Why, think you will change your mind before then?"

"No."

"Think I will?"

"No?"

"So why?" I asked.

Celestia sighed softly and touched her horn to mine, "Because, love, while you do mean it, right now you're trying to distract us from our stallion hurting. And it’s not going to work."

Sighing, I shifted to lean against her side, resting my head against her neck.

Luna leaned against my side in turn, kissing my cheek, "Nopony but yourself to blame, My Page. You're the one that likes smart mares."

Celestia laughed softly and nosed at my mane, hugging me closer with her wing.

"Suppose you are right about that," I admitted before I sighed, "I'm sorry."

"You are right to be upset, love," Celestia told me, "You're under a lot of pressure right now. And my sister is also correct, we have not treated you well."

"...I don't know about that," I admitted, feeling a small smile tug at my lips, "Fairly sure being in an alicorn sandwich is a fantasy of a fair few ponies."

Celestia smiled, "Oh, it is. You should see some of the artwork through the ages. Luna, do you remember the one gifted to you from… oh what was her name?"

Luna actually blushed.

Like, all the way to the tips of her ears. I never even seen her do that before!

"I burned that, sister," Luna told her firmly, "And how do you remember, that was thousands of years ago!"

Celestia smirked, "Because I... may have discretely commissioned the artist for it. Well worth it for your reaction when it was presented."

Luna's eyes went wide, "You!" she exclaimed and pounced across my back to tackle her sister.

Celestia laughed.

I grinned at the sight and touched my hoof against the broken ground beneath me. Grass and plants started to flow across the landscape, trees visibly growing as the mountains cooled above.

They finally stopped, laughing as they laid side by side. I got to my hooves and walked over to them, "Now I'm curious," I admitted.

Luna grinned and then pulled me down next to her on the now grass covered ground, "Be a good colt and I might even demonstrate later."

Oh. 

Yay.

Celestia smiled and got up onto her hooves, moving around to lay on my other side, "As for now, we really should discuss what to do next," she said before looking at Luna more seriously, "Because we're not making our stallion shoulder this alone."

"Agreed," Luna said with a firm nod.
> Chapter 34
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Slipping back into wakefulness, I slowly blinked my eyes open. The sounds of the village drifted up from outside and it was well after sunset.

Not sure if it was my little tantrum or getting to spend some time with ponies I loved and talk things over that did it, but I felt more relaxed than I had in months.

Stuff is still bad, but we'll deal with it as it comes. Somewhere during… talks… today I even had some ideas. Vague unformed ideas, but ideas.

Pulling my wings a bit tighter around myself, I yawned before slowly relaxing and stretching before letting go with my tail. A flap of my wings put me down on the floor and I stretched again.

Fooood.

Leaving the bedroom for the living room, I find breakfast already laid out. Multiple kinds of fruits, diced mango, even a bowl of strawberries.

And a glass of ice tea.

Smiling, I moved to sit down, pulling the bowl of mango over and picking a cube up in my magic to eat.

Love mango. Luckily, they were really common in the jungle here, we were unlikely to ever run out of those at least.

There was a short knock on the door and I glanced up, "Enter."

Flower Rain slipped inside, "Good evening, your majesty," she said with a smile.

"Good evening, Flower," I answered, "Had breakfast yet?"

"Yes sir," she agreed with a nod, "Sleep well?"

I smiled a bit, "Actually yes. I did. And before I forget, Midnight is bringing some visitors back. They're Kirin and their entire village might be moving in if they like what they see."

Flowers eyed widened slightly, "Kirin? What's a Kirin? And how many?"

I flicked one ear, "Kirin are..." I started before I considered how to explain it, "They are to unicorns as bats are to pegasi. They have horns and magic, but it's more elemental. They apparently have scales on their backs like a dragon and manes that are more like that of a lion," I said before I frowned, "I never actually seen one myself."

Flower slowly nodded with a frown of her own, "They're coming here?"

I sighed and nodded, "Midnight found them on her expedition. I'm not sure we can handle that sort of influx easily, but they're barely a thousand of them left that we know of. Midnight thinks it may help moving them to a new environment."

"..Just a thousand," Flower said softly, her ears drooping, "But sir, at those population numbers..."

We had done a lot of research on sustainable population numbers during the setup of Nocturnis. The five thousand bats or so remaining was a safe number as long as we weren't dumb about it.

A thousand however...

That was on the lower limit of what was even possible.

I sighed and nodded, "I know. But nothing says they have to keep to themselves, all ponies are cross compatible. If we weren't, bats would have died out long ago."

Flower nodded in agreement before taking a deep breath, "A thousand, I'm not sure we had a single intake that big since forever."

"Yes," I agreed, "We're going to need to check with their representatives when they arrive, but I suspect they prefer to keep their hooves on the ground. That would make things easier."

"It would," she agreed thoughtfully, "But I know we don't have enough ground structures for them, even temporarily. But at least they’re cheaper and faster to build."

I smiled, "Flower, they're not all arriving tomorrow. We have a couple of weeks until their representatives arrive and nothing says their entire village will pile onto a train at once even if they decide they like it and want to move here. We'll have plenty of time, they might even like to build their own housing. We don't know yet."

She slowly nodded, "That makes it better."

"It does," I agreed, "When they arrive, we'll find out more. If they eat like dayponies or what. In honesty, it would likely not be a bad thing to get more ponies that prefer being awake during the day, especially if they have magic. As I understand, lack of ponies with magic is one of the bottlenecks we have in several of our endeavors."

Flower now looked thoughtful, "That's also true, sir. It may be a problem if they need a lot of grains we can't grow here, but we could always expand our ricefields more to offset it a bit."

"We likely should anyway," I mused, "And on different spots in the river for redundancy. Our goal is for our population to grow after all and having a buffer for failed fields would be good."

She nodded, "We do have some of that, but we don't have enough ponies for many more of them. At least ponies that know how to farm."

"Don't have to be an earth pony to pull a plow."

Do you even plow for rice? I have no idea. I should likely know that.

"No, but it certainly helps," Flower said and sighed, "And bats as well as most pegasi are pretty useless at it. Not only are we too light to get a good enough grip, but our wings get in the way of harnesses. That along with the strength difference mean that earth ponies are something like five times faster in finishing a field. Maybe Kirin are farmers? They have to be, right?"

"Well, they had to eat something in that valley they lived in," I mused, "Another thing to check I suppose. But this might actually be a self solving issue as long as they don't just all jump on the train and arrive at once."

"Sounds like it," Flower said with a thoughtful frown, "I'll pull Solid and Fluttershy into it, see what they think. See if we can't have some preliminary site surveys so we have somewhere to show when the representatives arrive as an example on where housing can be built."

I nodded and chewed a piece of mango, "Good plan. We have a couple of weeks before their leaders even get here with Midnight. What's on the schedule for today?"

"Well, there is a meeting with the merchants council at midnight and then a guard inspection just after," Flower said, not even checking her clipboard, "After which there is an open four for three hours. And I have some new papers for you to look at after that and I'm sure Starlight has the same."

"Likely," I agreed and sipped my tea.

Starlight had really thrown herself into the administrative stuff. She seemed to like the structure of it, she was like some sort of bureaucratomancer.

She was actually really helpful.

Chewing on a strawberry, I then nodded, "Alright, anything for this evening until midnight?"

"Nothing scheduled, sir," Flower said with a smile, "So I guess you have a free evening. Any plans?"

I thought about going flying or something but then shook my head, "You know, I think I might just read a book."

"That sounds like a good plan."
> Chapter 35
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The moon shone high above and I gazed up at it as we waited. Torches and light crystals had been set up all around the train station.

The moon was full and shone brightly, stars sparkling above and to my eyes it seemed like the entire station was lit like mid noon. But I had checked through a set of day goggles and apparently it was just barely lit to day ponies.

That's why lighting for this sort of thing only involves day ponies, no bats.

We just can't tell how bright something really is to somepony that's night blind. I mean, I can guess, but to be sure, it was just better to let somepony that didn't see right do it.

A bright light lit up the edge of my vision, drawing my attention. Moon Glow yelled out an order and all the guards went to full attention as the train passed through the shield.

It puffed steam, metal wheels screamed against metal tracks as it engaged its breaks and started to slow.

Finally it stopped with a huff of steam, smoke and water vapor drifting around us.

Good machine. Got everypony safely here.

The door opened and Midnight walked down the steps with a smile, "Page."

"Midnight," I said with a smile of my own, giving her a nod, "Welcome home."

She moved out of the way and a pair of... I assume Kirin followed her out. One was larger and taller than Luna, almost Celestia's size, the other seemed more similar to the size of a pony.

She had a pale beige coat with a green lion like mane that ran all the way down the back of her long neck and around the front of her chest. Her tail was long and narrow, ending in a puff of green and her horn was red, long and curved, about halfway up it split into a Y shape. She was not wearing a crown, but a gold diadem of sorts.

Her companion looked similar, but orange instead of green and pony sized. As they stepped down the steps, I saw that their hooves were split, like a deer instead of a pony.

The tops of their backs were covered in scales instead of a normal coat.

"Prince Page," Midnight said, "May I introduce Rain Shine, leader of the Kirin. And Autumn Blaze, a friend. Rain Shine, Blaze, Prince Page of Equestria, Ruler of Nocturnis."

I nodded to them, "Welcome to Nocturnis," I said with a smile before Midnight got the idea to continue listing stupid titles.

"We thank you, Prince Page," Rain Shine said with a nod of her own, "I have heard much of this place from Princess Midnight, I look forward to seeing it in person."

She had a nice voice.

I smiled at her, "I hope we can live up to it," I said and motioned towards the small docks, "This way."

"Is it true that there are few thestrals?" Rain Shine asked as she walked next to me, looking around.

I nodded with a small sigh, "Five thousand or so," I agreed, "It's part of why we built Nocturnis. To give bats a home, somewhere we belong. It's the first step to reversing that trend."

"...There are even fewer of us," Rain Shine said softly, "And we were all in one place."

"May I ask what went wrong?"

Her ears drooped slightly, "There never were a lot of us, I know as much. While we live long lives, we rarely have children. In time, it has taken its toll."

"I hope there is something we can do to help."

Midnight and Blaze were whispering about something and for some reason Midnight was glaring at her. I glanced back at them, "Midnight? Anything wrong?"

She blushed for some reason and shook her head, "Nothing wrong."

Rain Shine for some reason glared at Blaze for a second before turning back again and looking at the barge waiting for us. We have two of them now, one for cargo and the other like this one, set up to move people. It even had a canopy against rain and seats!

"This will bring us to the town?" she asked as she walked onboard with me.

"It's forty minutes or so away," I agreed, "When we built it, we considered building right by the railway, but the trees in this area are too small. At the time, the safest course was to build in the trees to avoid the large predators. This was before we had the shield."

"Is it that dangerous here?" Autumn Blaze asked as she jumped onto the barge.

I smiled at her, "Here? No," I said before motioning towards the shimmering edge of the shield, "Out there? Absolutely. We're safe on the river and inside the domes, but I would not recommend walking around on the ground out in the jungle outside the domes. Big things with big teeth can be found there."

Rain Shine looked out towards the jungle at the other side of the river before she looked towards Midnight, "This is where you wish for us to move?"

"Yes," she said, meeting her eyes, "I think it's better than the valley where you live. And you'll do better here than somewhere like Canterlot."

Rain Shine looked dubious but turned back to me, "Why settle here if it's so dangerous?"

I flicked one ear as the barge started to move and I walked over to the railing, "Several reasons," I said and sighed softly, "Historically bats have been discriminated against. Feared. Driven out. I would like to say modern Equestria is better, and it is... but better does not mean perfect. I wanted to build somewhere bats could feel safe to show who they are, live as they like. Safe from glares, stares and whispers. Why here exactly? It's where bats are from. The climate suits us perfectly, we don't do well with cold."

She frowned slightly in thought, slowly nodding.

We stood in silence for a long while before she spoke up again, "You think my Kirin may be treated like your bats."

I shook my head, "No. There is way too little history, my bats used to be cursed, bound by spells and blood magic.- It's a long story, but once in the far past, bats earned the fear they got by turning to blood magic in a war against the unicorns and became vamponies. That fear and history never went away, even after the bloodthirst and power was bound by a curse. There is no such history that I know of with the Kirin. They may fear you as different, but it would not take long for you to gain some acceptance at least locally."

Rain Shine frowned, looking down at the dark waters of the river, "According to the legends, my people came from the foals of unicorns and dragons. I do not know if it is true or not."

"Well, it fits the scales," I admitted, "And stranger things have happened."

"We did visit Canterlot on the way, I met Princess Celestia and Princess Luna," Rain Shine continued, "and toured the city."

"What did you think?"

"...The buildings were inspiring. Ponies stare a lot," she said with a small frown, "We have heard of the Princess of the Sun and Princess of the Moon of course. Meeting them was... special."

"They are very special ponies."

"They're your... marefriend is the term?"

I smiled and touched the feathers at the small braid in my mane, "Wife and marefriend. I'm currently only married to Luna."

"You are also involved with Midnight's sister and a unicorn named Sunset Shimmer?" she asked as she studied me.

I smiled and nodded, "I am. How do things work among your people?"

"Differently," she admitted and flicked one ear, "We're not like ponies. We have a roughly equal number of stallions and mares. It is very rare for a romantic relationship to involve more than two Kirin."

"Huh," I said, slowly nodding, "That certainly is different. Not unheard of among ponies either mind you."

"Only about half of households are made up of larger families," Midnight chimed in, "The rest are majority mare and mare however."

As we rounded a bend in the river, the lights of Nocturnis came into view and Rain Shine gasped softly.

I smiled as I looked towards the Town, it looked like a thousand fireflies lighting up the canopy of the trees ahead, "Welcome to Nocturnis."
> Chapter 36
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rain Shine was quiet for several long moments, looking out over the town and its many lights.

"It is an interesting proposal," she finally said and turned her head to look at me once more.

"It has a lot of advantages, for bats and Kirin," I said with a nod, "And let you stay somewhere you find more comfortable, with great opportunities for trade."

Rain Shine nodded, "And leave us in your domain."

I smiled, "If you're worried about micromanaging, don't. I don't have enough hours in a night to handle everything I need to do, yet alone bother somepony else."

She shook her head, "That's not quite my point, Prince Page. We're not used to... Equestria. Nor being under another's power."

"Ah," I agreed and let out a sigh, "Well, there's some good news. You'd be beneath the same colony laws as Nocturnis and there would be some decades before taxes are expected. We would supply the shield pylons required, we have enough spare. Large predators don't really leave the jungle propper, but better safe than sorry. If you wished, you would be provided with a guard contingent. Be it Nocturnis or Solar. Or if you rather, we'd assist in training your own Kirin."

She was quiet for a couple of moments before she shook her head, "Moving from one small village in the middle of nowhere to a small village in the middle of nowhere does not sound like it will benefit my kirin in any way. At least our old home is safe."

"It may seem as much," I said, nodding, "But your old home is nothing but a slow trap. You noted as much yourself, your population is shrinking."

"And moving would help in which manner?"

I flicked one ear, "The manner where via trade and other movements of ponies back and forth through your village and Nocturnis will likely end up boosting your population."

One of her eyebrows went up, "You're talking of..."

"That is the usual way such matters happen," I said in amusement, "All ponies are cross compatible, I don't see a reason kirin wouldn't be as well. Sure, some foals will be non-kirin, but with your population as low as it is, any more kirin would be a massive bonus."

She shifted slightly, "...With non-kirin?"

"Yes, with non-kirin," I sighed, "I'm not saying anything specific, just that ponies have a tendency to get involved with each other. More ponies moving about helps. There’s not enough of you for anything else."

Rain Shine studied me for a moment, "And would Canterlot not be better for this?"

"Absolutely," I agreed with a smile, "And I would be more than happy to assist if you wish to move there instead. But there are reasons why not somewhere heavily populated."

"Such as it would help Nocturnis?"

I snorted, "It sure would. But I could found my own fishing village and it'd be fine and have the same effect. In Fact if you decline, I will. No, what I was thinking of was kirin and ponies. Ponies are nervous about strange beings in the first place. Kirin are strange from their perspective, you can burst into flames, you look different. It'll scare ponies, make them nervous."

"Ponies in Nocturnis have not looked upon us like that."

"Ponies in Nocturnis are not the average pony," I pointed out, "Even disregarding my bats, the kind of pony that moves to a place like this is a bit strange."

She frowned, "Would they not get used to us?"

"Oh, absolutely. But moving somewhere like Canterlot you have a new issue. The Kirin, are they educated?"

"...To some level."

I nodded, "Finding jobs would be difficult. Especially all in one place. And if not in one place? There's so few of you left and you would be scattered to the four winds. It's what happened to my bats and there were a lot more of them originally."

"...It would be the end of the kirin," she said quietly.

"Possibly," I said before I sighed, "Rain Shine, I don't have all the answers," I said and jumped off my throne before walking over, looking up at her, "I just had an idea and thought I would give it to you. Think it over, talk to Midnight about it. Go back home, talk it over with your people, see what they think."

She frowned slightly, looking uncertain before she nodded, "I think I'll discuss it with Midnight first."

"Usually a good idea," I agreed, "She and her sister are way smarter than ten of me. Maybe she has some better ideas."

She nodded before turning slightly before pausing, "Good night, Prince Page."

"Good night, Rain Shine," I said as she left the throneroom.

"Trouble," Flower commented from her desk as soon as the door closed.

I turned to her, "When is it ever not trouble around here?" I asked her with a smile, "At least this one will solve itself."

She flicked one ear and frowned, "How do you figure that, your majesty?"

"Simple. Either they agree and make a village a few days from here and solve, oh, half a dozen different issues for us eventually, or they decide not to and buck off and become somepony else's problem."

Flower eyed me suspiciously, "And you will just let them risk going extinct if they leave and not get involved?"

I let out a sigh and just looked at her.

"Thought so, sir," she said with a small smirk.

"...I have no idea how, if they don't want me to," I said and jumped onto the throne to lay down again.

Flower actually smirked, "Well, I can think of a way. Like you said to Lady Rain Shine, the usual way poni-"

I just groaned as both Shade and Leaf giggled at me. Actually giggled, I didn't know the twins knew how!

"Yes, yes, very funny," I grumbled and let out a sigh, "...Well, whatever happens, it's not that urgent. In the meantime, I'm going to have a nap for a bit. I should talk with Sparks and Sunny, they should be starting back to Nocturnis soon."

"Wish them well from me," Flower said with a smile.

"As soon as they get back, it's your and Starlight's turn," I pointed out to her with a smile of her own, "Buck, bring that coltfriend of yours too."

Flower just rolled her eyes.

I smiled and got comfortable before closing my eyes and slipping into the dreamscape. Heading for Sanctuary I then changed my course as I saw a shimmer of a mane exiting a dream portal.

"My Sky."

Luna turned to me, "My Page," she answered and moved to meet me. Before I could say anything else, her lips found mine and her forelegs slipped around me, pulling me tight. I smiled and leaned into it, kissing back as her wings wrapped around me in turn.

"Miss me?" I finally managed to ask.

"Very much so, My Page," she said quietly.

"Me too," I said and leaned against her, "What I miss the most may be evenings spent in your tower, just relaxing by the fireplace, reading a book together."

"Those were good times," Luna agreed, nosing at my ear with a small smile.

I shifted and smiled up at her before I pounced.

Luna squeaked and fell onto her back and I landed on her, keeping her pinned with my hooves,

"Rawr, I got you now, Princess!"

Luna laughed and grinned up at me, "And what will you do with me now?"

I smirked and settled down, bumping my nose softly against hers, "I can think of a few things. How much time do we have?"

Luna sighed and her forelegs slipped around me, "Not long. I have court in perhaps twenty minutes. You are in a good mood this night."

"You know what, I am," I said, "I figured out some solutions to some problems," I told her before explaining what the plan was.

Luna slowly nodded as she stroked my mane, "...That makes sense. It's a good plan."

"Thank you," I said with a smirk, "Now, how much time until you need to wake up?"

Luna sighed, "Some ten minutes or so."

"I can work with that."

Luna squeaked in surprise.
> Chapter 37
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I ducked, the wooden staff passing by above my head and I shifted mine, held between foreleg and body, my hoof crooked around it.

Swinging it around, I gripped it with my teeth to spin it around in a return strike and to my other foreleg.

Moon Glow shifted her own around and brought it up to block, bracing it against her neck with her foreleg to take the impact. It completely threw me off when I felt the impact and I almost dropped my staff.

She pulled back, shifting her weight and rested her staff against her neck, held with one hoof, "You let go too early, sir. Always keep two points of contact with the staff. Hooves, teeth, neck, does not matter. But two points of contact or you completely lose leverage."

"This is way harder than it looks," I admitted and shifted my staff around into the same resting position as she held.

I could use a spear okay. Sword, yeah, sure. In my magic primarily.

But I used a sword held in my teeth in the past during training with Luna.

But that's not the training Moon Glow had set up. No, she wanted me to use the staff like an earth pony. Which meant no magic, no wings.

The worst thing was that I couldn't even really argue with her logic that sticks were everywhere and if I got as far as needing to defend myself like that, my wings and magic likely weren't working.

"It really is," she agreed with a nod, "while some things carry over from the spear, you don't have that sharp point so you really need good leverage and grip. You can't just jab and let the sharp point carry it through, sir. You're several times stronger than me, but you saw how my staff blocked yours with no effort?"

"One point of contact," I agreed, slowly nodding, "Shifting it with my teeth is well and good, but don't let go until I have it with my other hoof."

Moon Glow smiled and nodded, "Correct. If it helps, sir, you're doing really good for somepony that has never used a staff before."

"My bruises appreciate your kind words," I said dryly, "Not quite true though. I have used a staff before, it was the first thing I learned actually when my wife was teaching me to defend myself. But it was always held in my magic which is very different."

She nodded, "Going up against a good unicorn is a nightmare," she admitted, "They'll always have an advantage in grip and reach, even if they don't blast you with magic. You have to break their concentration somehow. A bonk to the horn is ideal for that."

I nodded in agreement, "Yes, having a red hot steel spike driven through your head sure breaks my attention, Glow."

She grinned, "That's the point, sir."

"I thought the point was that you enjoyed the opportunity to beat me with a stick."

Moon Glow smiled, "Whyever would I ever do that, your majesty?"

"Maybe for all the stress I put you through?" I suggested with a smile of my own, "Seriously though, Glow. I appreciate it. Both the work you do and agreeing to help me practice. If nothing else, it's good exercise."

"You're welcome, sir," she said and then glanced up at the moon, "I think we should break for tonight. It's getting late."

I nodded in agreement again, "And if I don't get to reviewing those reports, Flower is going to borrow your stick," I agreed and hoofed over my staff when Glow offered to take it.

Glow grinned and nodded, giving me a small bow. I nodded to her and then headed over to where Leaf and Shade were waiting,

"And you two don't need to be enjoying yourself so much," I teased them.

I got a pair of innocent looks in turn, 

"Whatever do you mean, sir?" Leaf asked.

I shook my head with a smirk, "I swear, I should sell tickets or something," I said and then reached up with my hoof to brush my mane back. Shade held out my silver circlet and I smiled at her,

"Thanks," I said and took it in my magic, putting it back onto my head. Didn't want to risk damaging it by getting hit in the head with a stick.

I felt my mane with my hoof again. Starting to get a bit long really, but Luna liked it and so did Sunset. Even so, I should likely have it looked at and maybe evened out a bit. My tail too for that matter.

There wasn't much scheduled for the rest of the night. Well, official stuff anyway, I had planned to visit Fern closer to sunrise but until then my schedule was actually fairly clear.

There was a stack of reports and various stuff waiting back on my desk, but right now I rather jump off the platform with my wings tied.

I couldn't even go visit Sparks and Sunny, they were working on getting back on Nocturnis time during the trip so we were still awake.

But I could visit Sunshine.

"I think a nap is in order after all of this," I said and stretched a bit, "Especially if I'm going to be running around with Fern later. I'll never know where that overgrown houseplant gets the energy."

"It's a mystery, sir," Leaf commented.

I grinned at her and then took to the air, heading for my balcony. It wasn't a very long flight and I didn't bother to land.

Slowing down, I swept in through the opening and then pulled up hard, turned it into a flip and my tail wrapped around the rafter. The momentum swung me up and I put all four hooves on the ceiling to brace against the impact before swinging back down again.

Careful motions with my wings quickly slowed my swinging down to nothing before I pulled my legs to myself and wrapped myself in my wings.

One yawn, a bit of magic and I was in the dream realm.

A quick sorting and de-nightmaring of dreams later, I trotted up to Celestia's dreamportal. It was silvery and blue. She was having a happy normal dream.

Smiling, I touched my horn to the silvery surface and slipped in through it.

The dream formed around me and I found myself standing on the grass of a hill. I could see the mountain Canterlot is built on the side off in the distance, but no city clung to its side.

Beneath the hill was a small village surrounded by fields, but it looked different. Straw roofs, wood and mut walls. A dozen smaller buildings and a larger one that was made completely of wood, looking a bit like a longhouse.

A river glittered in the sunlight next to the village and I could see earth ponies going about their business.

A quick glance around revealed Celestia, she was laying on the grass, surrounded by a group of ponies of all major tribes, unicorn, pegasus and earth pony.

She looked younger, barely larger than Cadance is now, her mane still a bright pink and not moving.

Her group was facing a small gathering of earth ponies, led by an elderly earth pony.

Solidifying the dream as I approached, I listened in.

They were talking about... staying the winter?

Celestia's ears perked up and she looked around before she spotted me. She smiled and then turned back to the older earth pony, "Birch, this is my stallion, Blank Page."

I gave the elderly earth pony a bow, wings spread but didn't speak.

She looked me over and then nodded before turning back to Celestia, "It's agreed. In return for favorable weather during fall, your group may put camp on this hill and move through the village at will."

"Thank you, Birch. We appreciate it. We will assure that weather is favorable for your crops."

As the earth pony delegation got up and moved away, I slipped in next to Celestia and settled down, "This was really early," I told her softly.

"It was," she agreed and smiled softly, "Two years."

"Two years?"

"Two years until it really starts," she said softly, "That's when villages had really started to join my sister and me. That's when the earthy pony empire took notice. What followed was a long time of strife," she sighed before turning to me, nosing at my ear, "But these two years were really good."

I shifted, leaning against her, "And this time, did you intend to create something like Equestria?"

Celestia laughed and then smiled at me, "As much as you intended to become a prince. No, my sister and I’s goal at this time was to forge bonds between villages of the different tribes. To stop fighting and to increase trade."

"Well, you certainly succeeded there."

"Eventually," she said and then frowned, "Birch didn't survive the winter. She got ill soon after first snow."

"It was a rough time," I said quietly.

"...It was," Celestia agreed and then sighed, "One we must never return to," she said before she shook her head and then turned to smile at me, "I think this is a perfect time for a history lesson."

I had rather different ideas about what I rather spend the time doing, but I nodded anyway, "Of course, miss Celestia," I said with a smile, "What will I be learning today?"

"Let's go down to the village," she said and got to her hooves.

Nodding, I followed her.
> Chapter 38
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I waited as the train started to pull into the station.

Screaming metal against metal, puffs of steam, drifting smoke.

The door of the train carriage opened and a pair of guards exited to take position by it, followed by...

I moved to meet them, "Sunny," I said with a grin, "Spa-mph!" I managed to say before Sunsets lips found mine and shut me up. Sparks pulled us both into a tight hug and I broke the kiss, giving her one in turn as I hugged back tightly.

We stayed like that for quite a while before slowly letting go. I dropped down on all four hooves with a smile, "Welcome home."

Twilight stretched a bit with a smile, "Oh, it's good to be home," she said and looked around.

"Yeah," Sunset agreed, "Manehattan was... strange."

I frowned a bit, "Strange bad?"

Sparks shook her head, "No, just strange. Sounds and smells were very different," she said and took a deep breath, "...This smells much more like home."

I smirked, "Coal smoke and hot metal?"

"No, jungle!" Sparks sighed and poked me with her wing, "Nocturnis still where we left it?"

"Uhm, more or less," I admitted, "Some things have been going on."

"Like what?" Sunset asked, one eyebrow raised as Moon Glow started to herd us towards the waiting sky carriages.

I shook my head, "Nothing serious or urgent. Most of it can wait until tonight when you two have had some time to rest."

"No," Sparks said and climbed into the carriage, glancing back at me, "Spill."

I climbed into the carriage with them, "Well," I said and flicked one ear in thought, "I started working out some. Twice a week I started to spar with Moon Glow."

"That sounds fun," Sunny said with a smile, "Think I can join?"

"Sure," I agreed with a grin, "Sparks?"

Twilight hesitated and then nodded, "...I likely should move more so, so yes. if you don't mind."

"Awesome."

"What else?" Twilight asked from my right.

I flicked one ear, "Well... there's trouble with the solar guard base. Due to there now actually being consequences for guards that get arrested, they have banned anyone from there from going to Nocturnis. Been a couple of weeks so far, we'll see how long they last."

Twilight frowned, "That's not good."

"Not good at all," Sunset agreed from my left, "That's against the entire reason to have it here at all."

"Not completely, it really is for training," I pointed out, "But yeah, most of it. But it really was causing more issues than it was worth. Besides, I don't think it will last."

"Possibly," Sunny mused. "What caused it?"

"I got tired of dealing with it, requested a Judge from Canterlot and gave her a free hoof," I said with a smirk, "So far, she's doing awesome."

Twilight nodded, "Anything else?"

I scraped my hoof against the floor of the sky carriage, "The griffons... no, you know about the griffons offer of dredging the river. That was before you left. Oh, I know," I said with a smile, "Midnight found a new tribe of ponies."

"WHAT!?" Sparks exclaimed, jaw dropping as she stared at me, "She actually found some!?" she then asked. Sunny looking just as surprised.

"Which ones?" Sunny asked, "Kirin or Kelpies?"

I smiled, "Kirin," I said and sighed, "Their leader and a small group are in Nocturnis right now. As far as we can tell, there's only a thousand left of them."

Sparks frowned, "A thousand..." she said softly, looking towards the rising sun.

"Yeah," I agreed with a sigh, "A thousand."

Her ears drooped, "That's... Page, we did the math when it came to the thestrals before we knew how many... a thousand... it's not enough!"

I shook my head, "Not purely from Kirin at least," I agreed, "But they're still ponies. They have isolated themselves for a long time, but nothing says they're not cross compatible with other tribes. I guess we'll find out."

"If they move here," Sunset said, catching on at once, "Can we take in a thousand ponies at once?"

I smiled, "Oh buck no. But I thought about that. But I'm not going to tell you."

That earned me a double annoyed look, "And why not?"

I smiled at Sparks, "Because I want to know if you come up with something different from me that's better, without my idea biasing you."

Twilight frowned at me before she sighed, "That's fair, I suppose," she grumbled, "But I want you to tell me tonight."

"Tonight," I agreed, "After your massive brain had time to work on it."

She shifted a bit closer, leaning against my side, "...Missed you."

I nosed softly at her ear, "Missed you too, Sparks," I said with a smile.

"What about me?" Sunset teased and slipped in beneath my other wing, side against mine.

Smiling, I turned my head to give her a soft kiss, "You too, Sunny. I missed you two... so much," I said and slipped my other wing across Twilight's back, "I could never do anything like this without you two."

Even as I said it, I felt a tension I had not even realized was there flow out of me.

I had missed them.

More than I had realized.



###########



I slowly blinked my eyes open. It was early evening, the last of the suns rays shining across the room.

We must have forgotten to put up the darkness bubble over the bed.

I couldn't hear Sunset anywhere, but Twilight was laying on the bed, facing me. Mane a bit mussed up, a pillow hugged to her chest, slightly curled up on her side.

"Evening," she murmured quietly with a small smile, eyes half open and sleepy.

"Evening," I answered as I watched her, "Sleep well?"

She let go off her pillow and slowly stretched, something I always found very interesting to watch. She rolled onto her stomach in a full body stretch, wings rising high before she relaxed again, wings folding back down and she shifted back onto her side, nose almost against mine, "The best."

"Oh?"

"Mmm. Missed our bed," she admitted, "The one at the hotel was too soft I think. It was nice enough, but..."

"Not yours."

That got a smile and her nose touched mine for a second, "Not mine."

"Sunny up already?"

Sparks smiled and scooted closer, I reached out to pull her close with my forelegs as she nuzzled in beneath my chin, "Bathroom. And said she'd find us some breakfast."

Sighing softly, I held her close, burying my nose in her mane and closing my eyes.

We didn't move until there was the sound of the door opening, hoofsteps I recognized very well. They paused for several long seconds  before the bed wobbled slightly.

I opened one eye to look at Sunset as she laid down across from Twilight, a smile on her lips as she watched us, a wooden tray floating in her magic.

"What?" I asked with a smile of my own.

Sunset smile turned into a grin, "Oh, just trying to remember what the name of that artist we saw in the Manehattan Royal Gallery was. Was thinking of hiring her to take your portrait like this."

Twilight let out a small groan of protest but started to move again, rolling onto her back and reaching up to pull Sunset close for a small kiss, "Evening."

"Evening sleepyhead," Sunset answered after the kiss before leaning across and giving me one in turn, "And you too, wingboy."

I smirked, "Didn't call me boy last morning."

The inside of her ears turned a bit red, "No I didn't," she answered with a grin before pulling back and setting the tray down, "Mixed diced fruits, sandwiches and orange juice."

"Love you," Sparks said and rolled over onto her stomach.

"What she said," I happily agreed and did the same.

"I also ran into Flower," Sunset told me, "I canceled everything you had scheduled for tonight."

I picked a bit of mango from the tray with my magic as I couldn't help but smile, "This evening is getting better and better!"

"Abstract Contrast."

"Huh?" I asked, looking at Twilight, "What's that?"

She smiled and looked to Sunset, "That artist you liked."

"Oh yeah," Sunset agreed and then looked at me, "I was thinking of buying one of her paintings actually, but even with magic preserving it really wouldn't have survived this climate for long."

"I think you would have liked them too," Twilight said to me as she picked up a sandwich in her magic, "She painted night scenes, but used shadows to create another scene in the first depending on how you looked at it."

Huh.

"Sounds neat."

Twilight nodded and then eyed me, "...Alright, I have been patient. Spill. What's your plan with the Kirin?"

"I'll give you a hint," I said, "We have another problem too. Fluttershy brought it to my attention that the prey animals are starting to smarten up. The large ones are slowly starting to avoid this area. In a couple of years we'll likely be at a deficit for even our current bat population."

Twilight frowned as she considered the problem.

Sunset eyed her sandwich in her magic before she raised an eyebrow at me with a smirk, "Eat the Kirin?"

I groaned and facehooved, "No, we're not eating the Kirin!"

That got a small laugh from both of them before Twilight shook her head, "Alright, I give up. What's your plan?"

"Branch village," I explained as I chewed on half a strawberry, "Set up a fishing village out by the coast, by the inlet of the river. Set up a shield dome and build a small port."

Twilight slowly nodded, "A trading outpost too," she said softly, "Goods could be unloaded there and then shipped into Nocturnis on much smaller boats that can handle the river."

"It's a several day long trip," I said, "Not practical to do for every ship individually, but if they can unload there and then be off again, suddenly it's practical."

Sunset looked thoughtful, "even if the Kirin don't want it, we should do that anyway."

"Exactly my thoughts," I agreed with a smile, "And it has another big pro for the Kirin."

"Which is?"

"It will mean a lot of ponies coming through," I said, "But slowly, get them used to non-Kirin. And, in addition, a lot of new blood, both in contact with Nocturnis and the rest of Equestria."

"That'll help their population numbers in the long term,' Twilight mused as she nibbled on her... daisy sandwhich I think. How did the chef even get hold of daisies?

I nodded, "That's my long term hope at least," I admitted, "What do you think?"

"I think you're way smarter than you think," Twilight said with a smile, shifting to lean against my side and wiggling a bit to put my wing across her back.

Sunset smiled and scooted close to Twilight in turn, "I think it's a good idea," she agreed.

We did eventually get moving, but by then it was well after midnight.