I excused myself while everypony was having their delightful laugh. It seemed my lieutenants had everything under control, for the time being at least. With a tired sigh I slowly made my way to the Reaper Knight wing of the palace. My mind was full of everything I had to do in the near future. First, I needed to determine what I was going to report to General Black Wing and Princess Luna. The task of purposefully leaving out some information was going to be dreadful at best. To add to my problems was they both possessed this wonderful habit of calling almost anypony’s lie.

The second problem was also going to be equally interesting. When I took into account that there was no way possible for me to keep track of everypony at once I quickly realized I needed help. Which this in turn means that I needed to assign each of my lieutenants up with one of Twilight’s friends. I would have to be extremely careful in my selections as to not cause problematic conflicts. Lastly, Spike added to the issues as he bounced between seeing Rarity and Twilight.

After several minutes of mentally beating my mind against a wall, all I could come up with was that I was in desperate need of a shower. This was easily determined because the horrid smell of burnt fur and sweat on me was causing some of the servants I passed to gag. The ones that did not gag kept giving me sour looks. At least the showers were a good place think. I just hoped that perhaps I could be alone for a few moments to clear my head. So with a bit of effort I steered my sore body to the showers.

When I arrived I was delighted to discover that the showers were indeed empty. After sighing in relief I lit one of the blue flame torches by the door. While there were several others in there, I did not light them as the darkness was soothing. I also believed my lack of motivation may have played a slight role too. Besides, not many of the other knights seemed to care either, except of course, Tactics. He always had to have it lit up as bright as a full moon in here for whatever reason. I decided years ago it was best to not ask.

After shaking my head a few times from those amusing memories, I started working on my removing the rest of my bandages. However, just like the ones on my head, it appeared they were not going to go without a fight. Each one of these nightmare strips was Tartarus bent on painfully pulling out even more of my fur with them. Oh what I would not have given to meet the sadist who invented these abominable things. Our meeting would probably consist of me shouting out strings of unpleasant words and threats of cocooning them in their own horrid creation.

As the last bandage fell off I again had to fight an overwhelming urge to light those strips on fire and laugh. However, my lack of energy won out and I ended up unceremoniously tossing them into a waste bin. When I was secure in the fact that those blasted things would bother me no more, I made my way to the nearest shower head. I position myself under the closest one I could find and worked the controls with my left forehoof.

Within seconds the warm water washed over me. While the sensation was pleasing at first I soon noticed that just about every muscle in my body ached. My vampiric healing was working as I far as I could tell, but it was moving slow. I was probably well enough to attempt to speed heal again, but I was exhausted. Also letting my body to actually heal on its own for once was not a bad idea either. So with nothing else to do I started to think.

As I began to think while under the water, my weariness started catching up to me. It then shifted to a dark brooding. This soon turned to my dreadful habit of focusing my mind inward. My thoughts churned as the memory of Twilight’s scream began to plague me yet again. It came in waves, repeating over and over again. Soon the scene of what caused it flashed over my sight.

I squeezed my eyes shut, but it was futile as the nightmare came through anyway. Again, I was forced to watch as the horrible memory replayed in my mind. There was just nothing I could have done that night. I was only able to stand by and watch them almost get destroyed. The painful thought of losing them and especially her, started to become too much to bear. She was the only one in over a century that I had truly let in. I sat down and covered my face with my shaky forehooves. I then began to quietly weep alone, hoping the noise of the water would drown out any sound I was making.

I was only in this state for a few moments before I heard somepony else walk in. As quick as I could I uncovered my face and tried to wash the tears from it. Somepony seeing me in my moment of weakness was the last thing I could have used. After a few seconds I turned my head to see who it was. However, I could only make out their outline before they started to speak.

“What is it with you and several of the other knights showering in the near dark? I swear I’m surprised you all haven’t crashed into each other in here,” they said. I recognized the voice was Cloud Streak’s. It was confirmed when she lit more of the blue flame torches.

I attempted to steady my voice as I said, “I was just-”

“Sobbing in front of a shower head while most likely reliving some past nightmare,” she said, interrupting me. She then added, “I’d bet a bag of bits it was that looovely train ride,” while walking over to me.

There was not much I could have said. She must have seen me attempt to wash my face off. I swallowed hard while I tried to find the right words. “It was nothing more than a passing memory,” I said, not looking at her.

“Passing memory my plot! Every time you say something like that, you hole yourself up in your alchemy lab for a day or two,” Cloud Streak retorted. “Why do you always beat yourself up so bad?” she inquired.

I had no answer. My decades of mental torment ruined my mind until guilt was second nature to me. It was a near constant feeling of my failures. Even after removing the main cause of my mind’s anguish at ponyville this awful sense of remorse was only slight dented. However, it was a strange double edged blade. For it was the main driving force that pressed me forward. It fueled my burning will, my sheer stubbornness to not let it win me over.

I felt Cloud Steak nudge me with her hoof. It snapped me out of the deep thoughts I must had slipped into again. I turned my head to face her. She just tilted her head and narrowed her slitted eyes on me. She then pursed her lips before stating, “Something’s different about you. I just can’t put my hoof on it. While there’s still pain in your eyes, there’s something…else. Is…is it love? You truly love her, don’t you?”

“I…yes I do,” I said as I felt a smile crawl up my face. It was incredibly pleasing to say those simple words.

“Yup, that proves it. This is wonderful news!” she burst out, before squeezing me tight.

I raised an eyebrow, chuckled and stated, “How did you get so superb at analyzing others? You are not turning into another Tactics are you?”

I felt her shake her head. “When you bring yourself close to the edge and come back…you…get good at trying to see the happier things in life,” she said, her voice slightly shaky.

I wrapped my forelegs around her as I remembered that night. I was about to go searching for a midnight meal when I found her along the outside of the palace walls. She had been bleeding out from obvious self-inflicted wounds on her forelegs. I was only able to save her by turning her into one of my kind. I squeezed her tighter remembering the feeling of holding her while she turned. That night lead her to look to me as some sort of father figure from then on.

I wanted to lighten the mood so I grinned and stated, “Now that you have bought up my love life. How has your’s been? Meet anypony special?”

“Meet anypony special HA! After that fiasco with that one mare I doubt I’ll find anypony else,” she said as she sunk lower in my forelegs.

“Do not worry. If I can somehow manage to find another, so can you,” I replied and messed up her mane with my left forehoof. She quickly squirmed away in protest.

“Hey! I just got my mane untangled today!” she said while trying to fix her now thoroughly disorganized mane.

“Oh I do believe it looks better that way. The fluffy look is really in,” I said in a joking tone.

She glared at me before a wicked smile spread across her face. “Fine you wanna play that way huh? Take this!” she said as she hit the controls on my shower with her right forehoof.

I did not have enough time to react as I soon discovered what she had done. I yelped as icy water bathed over me. In my sudden reaction I quickly remembered that I had forgotten to turn on my suppression field from before. My legs lifted me off the ground with little effort and I slammed right into the low ceiling. I then fell to the floor with a loud thud.

Cloud Streak broke into roaring laughter at what I had done. She however abruptly stopped when I looked up at her and reached out with my magic. She had attempted to run out of the room when I wrapped my magic around her and pinned her wings to her sides. I then used my magic to pull on her hind legs and she fell to the floor.

She dug at the slippery floor with her forelegs trying to get traction. “Nononono Noooo!” she blurted out right as she got into range. With one quick movement I pulled her under the shower head and hit the shower controls with my right forehoof. She squealed as she got her own taste of frigid justice.

After laughing for a few moments I finished washing up and left the showers. Cloud Streak had told me she was going to stay in a little longer to “Thaw”. I shook my head in response as I walked out. It was not what I was expecting when I went in there originally, but the odd experience did allow me to return to my normal self. I dare say that I felt quite chipper for some reason. I also noticed a smile on my face as I walk passed a mirror on the wall. However, there was something that kept nagging at my mind.

Something I was supposed to be doing, but I just could not put my hoof on it. Then it flooded into my mind with painful clarity. “I am supposed to give a report to Princess Luna and General Black Wing!” I blurted out to nopony, but myself. My blood immediately ran cold and I swallowed hard in nervousness. I had no idea when they wanted to see me. Did Black Wing tell me? I was rather out of it at the time, she could have. I galloped as fast I could to the Night Court meeting room.

I armored everything, but my helm and reactivated my suppression field trying to get ready. While I was usually on good terms with both of them, they were indeed busy ponies and they loathed having their time wasted. I straighten up and held my breath as I slowly opened one of the large obsidian doors. ‘Please do not be late. Please do not be late. Please do not be late,’ I chanted over and over in my mind.

“You are late…” I heard a voice speak in a snarky tone from inside the room. I cursed in my mind. The voice then added with a small laugh, “Actually, truth be told I had forgotten to give you a time to meet us. However, we figured you would panic and that you would have headed straight here after your shower.”

I quickly determined it was Black Wing who was speaking when I walked in. Both she and Luna were sitting at the other end of the long obsidian table. There were some parchments placed close to them and they seemed quite focused on them for some reason. As I walked closer to them I had determined they were other reports of the train incident. My blood ran colder when I remembered that I had to somehow withhold some information from them.

They did not look up until I had sat down in a chair opposite of Black Wing. Their gazes made me extremely nervous, which was strange as I was normally calm giving these reports. After a short moment it was Luna who broke the silence first.

“Why so nervous dear Blood Moon? It is not as if this is your first report to us. You have indeed had many. All we desire is the truth, as always,” she said her last sentence with an emphasis on that word “truth”.

She knew something I did not or perhaps it was something I did know. I straightened myself in my chair and began answering their inquiries. Black Wing, to my displeasure, was writing down every word. I first started at the beginning in ponyville before describing the awful train ride. Everything was going perfectly to plan until I got to the gunship part. “There must have been some munitions accident on board which caused them to crash,” I stated, but it did not sound convincing, even to me.

Black Wing stopped writing and looked up from her parchment and quill. Luna narrowed her eyes and leered at me over her forehooves. Their combined gazes felt like looking into an unforgiving abyss. I could feel sweat start to drip down the side of my face. They had called my lie with ease and they seemed to take pleasure in watching me twist in the wind. I had tried to speak further, but my voice got caught in my throat.

“Now Blood Moon, you are not attempting to deceive us…are you? Are you trying to protect somepony? Perhaps, a certain train team?” Luna’s voice came in a cold tone from behind her hooves as her eyes narrowed further.

“Perhaps, he is trying to withhold information about ‘The Angry Mare’,” Black Wing added in a similar cold voice.

My eyes widened while sweat poured down my face. Then as if a flood gate opened, Black Wing lost it and burst into laughter. Soon Luna joined her in her obvious state of amusement. Black Wing then wiped a tear from her eye with her right forehoof and said “I am sorry Princess. I could not keep it up. The look on his face was absolutely priceless!”

I blurted out in confusion “What is going on here!?”

“Oh do lighten up, Blood Moon. You are going to give yourself a heart attack. We know all about train team twelve and their whimsically named cannon. Who do you think gave them said cannon?” Luna said while still trying to catch her breath from laughter.

“Even though your sister would probably not have approved, Princess,” Black Wing said with a chuckle.

“Ha, my sister would not approve of many a thing. Which is why we disguised ourselves when we trained them on the usage of that glorious beast. Nighttime train robberies slowed down within a fortnight,” Luna replied with a haughty laugh.

“Slowed down? No, they are nearly gone. There is no such deterrent like the threat of a fiery oblivion. I had only wished I was able to see that cannon in true battle,” Black Wing said with a distant gleam in her eyes.

I, on the other hoof, just sat there dumbfounded with my mouth partially hanging open. I had raised my left foreleg as to say something, but nothing came out and I just slowly lowered it back down. They did indeed knew the whole time and were just using me for sport. I had felt so used. After sighing I rubbed between my eyes with my left forehoof.

Luna glanced over at me, let out a small sigh and stated, “Alright, we shall get back to the task at hoof. It is indeed true we were responsible for setting up your meeting with the train team twelve. We had hoped they could aid you in your journey here. It appears we were not mistaken in our judgment. However, did you manage to get a prisoner we could interrogate?”

I took a deep breath though my nose before responding. “Well, we were on the verge of capturing one of those rogue units, but…” I started to say, but I did not finish it. I proceeded to take another deep breath, close my eyes and rub between my eyes again.

“Gray Mane?” Black Wing inquired with a knowing tone.

“Gray Mane indeed,” I replied.

Black Wing huffed and stated, “Well, that was not all that unexpected. However, it would have been grand to know where they came from. Do not worry. I will just have to order a larger search team for the wreckage.”

I opened my eyes to see Black Wing tapping her right fang with her right forehoof. Her eyes looked deep in thought before she spoke again. She then cleared her throat, sat up in her chair and stated, “As I can assume you probably already know, we are keeping you on the task of protecting Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friends. You seem to be quite capable of protecting them and we trust your best efforts in this matter. In addition after conversing with Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, they are going to allow them to stay in the Reaper knight wing so you can keep a closer eye on them. Now the only question that remains is should we setup a separate room for Princess Twilight Sparkle or will she be staying in your’s?”

“Thank you for your insight. I think it would be best to…wait what?” I started to speak, but stopped when I finally processed the question. My face scrunched up as I realized I was sport yet again.

“Bwhahaha you need to see his face again. That was marvelously executed, Black Wing hahahaha,” Luna said while laughing through her statements.

My face scrunched up further as Black Wing joined in the jolly merriment at my expense. I tried to gather what little pride I had left and attempted to make a retort. “Well you two are just envious that you do not have access to my other special talents,” I said with a puffed out chest.

Black Wing looked up at me while still half laughing and said “Do hehehe those ‘Special Talents’ also include enraging every chef in the palace hahahaha?”

While barely holding back laughter Luna added “How about immolating thyself and galloping in circles like a madpony?”

My pride was dealt yet another death blow when Luna burst into roaring laughter while banging on the table with her right forehoof. Black Wing had begun to laugh so hard she fell backwards in her chair. I had nothing left to do, but sit there red in the face from embarrassment.

After a minute of sheer humiliation I mustered the nerve to inquire if they were finished with me. I was dismissed with a wave of Luna’s right forehoof as she was still laughing too hard to speak. I then got out of my chair and stomped towards the exit doors. As I was about to stomp out the doors I saw Twilight walking by while reading my tome.

She paused in confusion for a moment and said “What’s with all the laughter.”

I heard Luna’s voice yell from the room behind me, “Hail Twilight Sparkle! Make sure you inquire about his ‘Special Talents’!” Further laughter emanated from behind me.

Luna’s statement only increased Twilight's confusion and she said, “What are they talking about?”

I narrowed my eyes and yelled over my shoulder back into the room. “Perhaps you should ask that inquiry to Princess Luna and General Black Wing! They seem to have generated a list!” I said with an aggravated tone. This gathered more laughter out of the room before I began to stomp down the hallway.

I continued stomping down the hall while finalizing my plan for a sparring match with Twilight and her friends versus me and my unit. There was no doubt in my mind that I was certainly in the mood for it now.

Next Chapter: Chapter 18: Sparring Practice: Part 1 Estimated time remaining: 9 Hours, 21 Minutes