Luna sat in the Canterlot gardens, her head was on the shoulder of her friend Dominic as she read a few nondescript reports. The young man was leaning against a tall tree with his eyes closed, the birds sang and the flowers bloomed brightly. It was a soothing sensation for the princess, feeling that he was relaxed and content. Luna looked at him for a moment, his face wasn’t plagued by stress or emotion, he seemed so… Happy. She felt joy in her own heart for him and shifted so that she was more comfortable.

She let the hours pass by, occasionally shifting her place when she was uncomfortable. Luna then felt the tug on her senses, it was time to wake up.

[♦]

With a content sigh the lunar princess opened her eyes. Over the past week she had found her dreams shifting towards her friend, at first she was confused. What reason would she have to dream about him, unless it was a nightmare like in the beginning. But she was a master of her craft, and she quickly deciphered why she was having such dreams. She just missed her friend, that was all. There could be no other conclusion.

She stretched and a flapped her wings a few times, a soft ache made itself known in one of the joints. Most likely from sleeping on it wrong, or maybe it was just in need of a massage. She shrugged the pain off for the moment and walked to the glass doors on the right wall. Luna stepped out onto her balcony in time to see that the sun was starting to set. The lunar princess rolled her neck and groaned, she had slept too long. Quickly she ignited her horn, the connection to her moon was quick and it sent a wave of chills over her body.

The wind around her began to pick up and she closed her eyes, in her mind she pictured the most beautiful things she could think of. Flowers in a meadow, puppies and foals playing together, Dominic and her in the gardens… The last one confused her. Luna managed to keep her focus though, and with the will of all the thoughts in her head, the moon rose into a beautiful sky.

Luna opened her eyes and her mouth dropped, the night sky was lit up with more beautiful stars than she had ever seen before. Even with the light pollution from the city the stars gleamed like massive gemstones, the princess could see ponies coming out of their homes to look up at them. Even though the smoke and the tear gas was still clearing, even though many homes had been damaged, they still looked in awe.

Luna had barely any time to prepare herself to craft such a tapestry, and yet mere minutes after waking up it was above her. It was such a sight she wished she could look at it for the rest of the night, but duty called her to night court. Her sister handled the political debacles that had followed the riots during the day, and that meant all legal proceedings were shifted to her night court. Princess Luna looked to the west, seeing the lights of a small town in the Unicorn Range. She wondered if the thought about him had caused such a beautiful sky, but that would be absurd. With a sigh she left her room to carry out her nightly duties.

[♦]

Meanwhile…

The basement of the safehouse was rather large, larger than Dominic had expected. It reminded him more of a bomb shelter than anything. There were large crates of food, water, a work bench sat in the corner. The bright light given off by the magic lamps gave off a feeling of sterility, at least for the most part. It was clear that the area didn’t see much use, the numerous cobwebs stuck to Dominic’s shirt were evidence of that. Aside from that, the basement was perfect for his uses.

“I still think that you're full of crap.” Commented Rolling Thunder, one of the lunar guards that had been assigned to guard the young man. “There’s no way your club can take out a target at a distance.” In one hand was Dominic’s backpack, loaded with dozens of shotgun rounds, the other hand held his Benelli.

“Rolling, this isn’t a club.” Dominic said for the umpteenth time, he had yet to convince the guard that his shotgun was more than a blunt instrument. It was mainly to keep the stallion from staring directly down the barrel. The pair was being followed by the other guards, Dominic hadn’t really spent much time with them though. He barely knew their names. “Do you have anything you don’t want?”

“That box of canned pinto beans, no one eats them.” Said one of the guards. Dominic set his bag down and grabbed a couple cans of beans from the box. He then walked to a crate and placed the cans along the top. “I’m putting my bits on it not doing anything.”

“Me too.” Said another guard, Dominic didn’t pay them much mind. He idly hummed the theme to Team America’ as he adjusted the cans.

“I bet he’s gonna kill all those beans.” Said the lone mare of the group. Dominic walked over to the bag he had set on the floor and withdrew seven shells. The man loaded them one by one into the tube, then slid one into the breach and readied the weapon.

“Guys, stand behind me.” He said, the guards shrugged and complied. Dominic shouldered his shotgun and took aim at the cans of pinto beans, the Lunar guards watched with rapt attention. The man let out a breath and pulled the trigger, the firing pin struck the primer and milliseconds later a hail of bird shot was propelled down range. The guards covered their ears and flinched, the first can became nothing more than a mixture of twisted metal and pasted beans.

“Sweet Night Mistress…” Said the female thestral, wiping some beans off of her face. Dominic fired again and again, splattering pinto beans across the back wall of the basement. The young man was aware of the risk of ricochet, but he really didn’t care. The shells bounced when they hit the floor, sulfur and cordite filled the basement with their acrid stench. When it was empty Dominic safetied his weapon and set it on a nearby crate. Begrudgingly the other guards handed their bits to the mare.

“That was cool.” The mare said, looking at the beans. Dominic rubbed his shoulder, it’d been a while since he’d fired the weapon in such quick succession. “Hey Rolling, what was that about a club?” The mare gained a shit eating grin.

“Shut up, Errant.” Rolling Thunder muttered, wiping several stray beans from his muzzle.

“Hey, someone’s gotta clean this up.” Said the other guard, Dominic and the mare looked at eachother, then at the two skeptics. “Damn it.” Dominic packed up his weapon and the shells that he’d fired, then he and the mare ascended from the basement while two annoyed guards scrubbed the remnants of birdshot and pinto beans from every surface.

The ground floor of the safehouse was the only floor, it was a small ranch style house with scuffed wood flooring and tacky wall paper. There was a hallway that lead to the bedrooms and the bathroom, as well as the steps to the basement. Dominic and the thestral quickly grabbed some towels from the bathroom and made their way to the sparsely decorated living room.

“So, you’re Errant?” Dominic asked after he wiped his head with his towel, some of the bean debris had gotten in his hair. The mare nodded, removing her helmet to scrub it clean. Her coat shifted to a light brown with a blazing orange mane. Her flank remained blank. She noticed that Dominic was staring, scratching his head subconsciously.

“Thestrals don’t get cutie marks.” Errant explained, causing Dominic to nod and go back to cleaning himself up. “What about humans? Do they have them?” The man shook his head.

“Nah, used to be able to get tattoos though.” He explained, using the towel to get rid of some of the cobwebs stuck to his shirt. “Then things got complicated, can’t get a lot of things anymore.” Dominic felt at home with military personnel, they knew when and when not to press an issue. He was glad that Errant didn’t inquire further about what he’d said.

“So, what’s that thing called?” Asked Errant, looking at the shotgun Dominic was wiping down.

“It’s my boomstick.” He replied, looking the weapon over a few times. He came to the conclusion that the weapon didn’t need to be cleaned. “Capable of dishing out hate and discontent at a maximum distance of fifty five yards.” The thestral eyed the firearm with greater respect than before.

“Where’d you get it?”

“That’s a can of worms I don’t intend to open.” The man replied briskly, tossing the now soiled towel over his shoulder and into a pile of dirty laundry. “Speaking of cans, what’s on the menu tonight?”

“Well, we have protein paste, protein paste and protein paste.” Errant said, looking slightly annoyed by the selection.

“So pasted beans again?”

“Yes.”

“Fuck.” Dominic took his shotgun and his backpack and started walking towards his room. “Set me a place, I think I might eat with you guys tonight.” Errant nodded and went to the dining room. The young man tossed his bag into the closet and locked the shotgun in a footlocker at the end of his ratty old bed. The light from the night outside shown through the cracked window like a spotlight, Dominic smiled a bit at that. “Luna’s putting on a real show tonight.” The light seemed warmer than usual. “She must have really put her all into it.”

The man tossed his dirty shirt onto the floor and donned a white wife beater, he walked out of his room and into the hallway. Rolling Thunder and his counterpart were trudging up stairs with sour expressions.

“Where have you two bean?” Dominic asked, Rolling Thunder scowled.

“Fuck you.”

[♦]

Back in Canterlot…

Luna sighed as she brought the gavel down several times, her patience for whining nobles was running extremely thin. She had only been on the bench for half an hour and already she wanted to introduce the ponies to the punishments of old.

“You two have argued this case five times in the previous months, what makes you think the court’s ruling will change now?” Luna asked, looking at the mare and stallion with a stern glare. Jet Set and Upper Crust scoffed for a moment.

“Because we told you to?” Jet Set said smugly. “After all, we wouldn’t want the papers to publish something about you and the ape? Would we?” That tore it for Luna, Dominic had been absolutely right. Nobles were quote ‘glorified idiots unfit to reproduce’. The princess brought her gavel down hard, nearly cracking the desk she sat behind.

“This is for the record.” She said firmly. “How thou ever passed through the educational system is beyond me, but I will be sure to look into it. As for your previous statement, please note you will be recieving a fine of twenty thousand bits, I deny your petition to remove funds from the armed services retirement funds to build a country club and revoke your right to refile. NEXT CASE.” The two ponies gaped, two guards escorted them away to pay their fine.

The guards announced the next case, a unicorn mare was suing a noble pony for damages. The mare looked nervous, but Luna could see she would ‘Stick to her guns’. Humans had such strange sayings. The noble looked smug, as they always did. Luna missed Dominic, he would at least be able to offer some sort of distraction. She sighed and began to preside over the case.

It was rather straight forwards, the noble had destroyed her fruit stand while ranting about something trivial. When he refused to compensate her for the damages she threatened a suit, more and more ponies were realizing that was possible. The pretentiousness of the noble was palpable, he didn’t doubt for a moment that Luna would rule in his favor. For nearly an ten minutes he ranted, certain he made a case by stating his status. The unicorn mare instead offered photographic evidence, witnesses and statements.

“The court rules in favor of the plaintiff.” Luna said decisively, slamming the gavel down. The noble was stunned, Luna wished Dominic could see the shock plastered across his face. The princess was glad that finally more and more nobles were getting their just desserts. With a bit of happiness she proudly said. “Next case.”

Author's Notes:

Hooray! He finally plowed through that Berlin Wall of writers block! Here's another chapter for all of you.

In other news, unemployment is down, stocks are up, and Vladimir Putin has decided to take a chill pill.... Now on to the real news.

I've been working on bettering myself for the future, started training and studying for the ASVAB. I have a meeting with a recruiter this week. What's this mean?
Put simply, depending on what happens within the next few months, I may or may not be gone for a while. Just an advisory, in case I disappear for no reason. That's all in the news category

I'm your friendly neighborhood Boss Man, good night, and god bless.

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