The sounds of crisp, steady hoof steps on finely polished marble could be heard making their way down the hall. The light rattle of armor moving with its wearer only heard by those who pass near her. The ravaged look of years of guard training is etched onto her face, eyes forward but seeing all around her.

A mare on a mission, she is the officer of the day at the main gate with a missive tucked under her right wing as she continues on. She rounds a corner with military precision and before her at the end of the hall standing in silent tribute are the doors of the Sun Court. The doors shone with pure beauty and warmth, as if they were the sun themselves. With the day nearing noon, it made one wonder if she did it on purpose. One of the officer’s ear was turned backwards as to keep track of the two civilians following in her steps.

Before the doors of the Court six Solar Guards, were standing in a semi-circle around the door, watching all of the hallways leading to the doors. Ever silent, but always watching. Everyone of them unicorn stallions. The lieutenant neared the doors from the main hallway, her solid crips hoof falls announcing her arrival. With her nearing the doors the center unicorn stepped out of formation to intercept her, taking four steps but only making the sound of two.

The sergeant, lightly charged his horn. Lavender, the Lieutenant tittered internally at the shade of magic, not a usual color for a stallion. Once the security scanning all of three of them was complete, the Sgt. saluted the Lt, with the pegasus returning the salute to the unicorn. With the sounds of both hooves hitting the floor, our Lt. withdrew the missive and presented it to the Solar, upon which he snapped his hooves to attention and with a brief pulse of magic scans the missive, and replies “Our Holiness would like you to escort them to the Royal office, it will be the first door on the left down the hall to your right.”

“Thank you Sgt, carry on.”

“Yes mam.”

With a crisp step back into the line the Sgt. Snaps a sharp salute. “ The Sun Will Rise.”

“THE SUN WILL RISE,” is soon echoed by the other Solar Guards and a very teary eyed unicorn mare that was standing at attention as well, with just a hint of tears at the corner of her eyes. Her filly was asleep on her back, looking calm and serene.

“This way please, Mrs Hoof.”

As they turned to leave Mrs Hoof came to stand a foot or two in front of the Sgt. “Thank you, thank you all,” she said in a low voice as to not awaken her cargo. All of the Solars came in to form a solid row, the Sgt removed his helm and as one, all of the stallions took a knee and in a clear quiet tone the Sgt spoke. “ No mam, the honor is ours. He is still among us, for as long as Our Sun shines we never truly die. Go Mrs Hoof, Her Glory awaits for you.”

With a nod of acceptance and look of gratitude she turns to her right to follow the Lt. For after the mare turns, the Sgt returns the helm to his head and all of the stallions return to their assigned posts. Ever silent, ever vigil, just as their Sun bids them.

After a slow walk down the hall, they come to the door that the Solars told them. The Lt then knocks on the door with three knocks, awaiting for the permission to enter. She does not receive it for as soon has her hoof touches the floor, the door handle is aglow with the magic. The door starts to open, only for Celestia herself to answer the door. Now with the door fully open, the princess greets them with a warm smile. “Hello my little ponies.” The Lt takes a step back while bowing, she opens her wings in a old pegasus tradition as a sign of respect and that they have nothing to hide. Only the missive is still held in her right wing, just barely in her primary tip feathers. Mrs Hoof could only bow a little for her filly was still on her back, still napping.

“You may rise, there is no need for such formalities. We are not in the throne room, or in public view. Lt, thank you for escorting them here personally, you may return to your post.”

With a quick bow, the Lt snaps an about-face and returns down the hall from which they came. Her solid, rhythmic hoof falls echoing all around.

“Mrs Hoof, do please come in. Feel free to sit anywhere you like.”

“Thank you, your Grace.”

The office was very well appointed, silk lounging cushions, exquisite paintings from all over Equestria. The furniture was either imported or made eons ago. You could tell that Celestia spent a lot of time in this room, judging from all of the papers and files in neat orderly rows on her desk. But was most curious were photos of unicorn fillies on one wall, all of them about the size of your hoof. Under each one had a little card with their names and cutie marks. The last one being Twilight Sparkle herself, and the one before was Sunset Shimmer.

Finally after looking around the room enough, she gently lowers her filly to and near by pillow, not waking her, and finds a nice sized cushion for herself and sits down with a bit of a thump.

“How would you like your tea Mrs Hoof?” asks Celestia as she is walking toward the lunch trolley. “I also have a some cake, biscuits and other lunch pastries here. Anything for your filly?”

“Thank you your Grace, but Morning and I are good, we had a small breakfast at the house before arriving. I haven't had much of an appetite as of late.”

Celestia nods her head in understanding, and makes herself a nice cup of Jasmine tea. She takes a seat on a cushion next to Mrs Hoof, her magic holding her cup of tea steady.

“How have you been doing Mrs Hoof, do you need anything?” Celestia asks, looking at the mare. You can tell she is not doing well. Her eyes are bloodshot, tear stains on her muzzle are evident, her mane is just tied back into a simple pony tail. It looks her coat needs a good brushing and her ears are folded back. The last day and a half have not been kind to her.

“Thank you your grace, but I’m fine. It was just really rough last night.. A lot of the other Guard families stopped by. They brought a whole bunch of stuff and kept me company. But it wasn’t until later that I…..”

Pain.

As Celestia sat there she knew all too well the sound of a broken heart. For she herself has had many loves over the centuries, and each one left a lasting memory on her soul. It is this reason why she no longer finds lovers, instead she takes on pupils to teach. To love them as if they were her children. Yes, she still feels the pain of their passing, but it is nothing like the loss of a loved one. Much like what Mrs Hoof is feeling right now.

“WHY! Why did it happen! Didn’t we pray hard enough to you? Did we do something wrong that you took him away from me?”

The sudden outburst from Mrs Hoof catches the Princess off guard to where she just looks at the angry mare in a confused manner. Her tea still floating in front of her.

“You let my husband be killed by that, that thing! You sat there and did nothing!”

Grief.

The deep breaths, trying to control one's emotions. The heavy sobbing, the wiping of forelegs across your muzzle to keep the tears from collecting around your eyes. Celestia knew this feeling as well. Being a ruler of a nation and having to send your little ponies off to war to defend your way of life. Sitting at your desk after tactical meetings after meetings only to read the casualty reports of the ponies that will not be coming back home. Knowing that you were the one responsible to sending them.

Try locking own sister away in the moon for one thousand years. Night after night looking up at her moon, that you just barely raised, knowing that you put here there because at the time you did not have an alternative. You didn’t want your sister killed, but that is why you founded the Solar Guard. It was at the last minute that you told them to stand down and you would take care of it, personally!

` You snap yourself out of your daydreaming to see Mrs Hoof is just an emotional wreck. You walk over to her and lay down next to her and in a sign of compassion, Celestia takes Mrs Hoof under her wing and gives her a great, big wing hug. It is then that Celestia feels something coming up along her other side, only to see little Morning snuggle under her other wing, and begins to hug her as well.

“Thank you for accepting my invitation. I do understand your feelings Mrs Hoof, I may be long lived, but I am not heartless. I try to be the best pony I can be. Just like everypony else. We all make mistakes.”

“You are right, if I had known what was going to happen yesterday, I would have stopped it. Your husband did not deserve to die. None of my ponies deserve to die. You did nothing wrong. A lot of the blame rests on me but I will have words with the Solar Commander, and Luna, for they are responsible as well.”

“Why my Grace? Why”

“I wish I knew my little pony. I wish I knew. Just remember the love he had for you and never let it go.”

“They wouldn't even let me see him. By the time I got down to the floor he was gone and nopony would tell me where he was. All I was told by another Solar guard was to go home and the Commander would be by.”

“Did the Commander show up?”

“Yes, it was then that he told us that Heavy died. He proceeded to tell us that we would receive a pension and death benefits but since he was still a initiate he would not be cremated. That he would be buried as just another pony.”

“Did he seem sorry for your loss? From the sounds of it, he was very flippant about the whole thing.”

“No your Grace, he didn’t seem to care about Heavy. It just sounded like he was doing it out of obligation” Mrs Hoof was now snuggling up to the side of Celestia and little Morning was doing the same.

“I guess a small nap is fine.” As Celesta cast a small spell on the two to give them some rest and with a few small spells the Solar Princess fixed up Mrs Hoof mane, and gently cleaned her muzzle of any traces of tears.

Warmth, the soft warmth of another being next to you as you wake up.

“What time is it, Heavy, you're going to be late for your shift.” As Mrs Hoof opens her eyes she sees white. White? Her bedspread is red. She sits up on her haunches and soon finds that she is still in Celestia's study and that she still has her wing draped across her lower back.

“How do you feel my little pony. Did you enjoy your nap?”

“Nap?” Ah, right, nap. The yelling, the anger, the why’s. Oh wow, she really is nice and warm.

“Are my two ponies ready? There is someone I think you should meet.”

As the two ponies slowly rise from their nap with the Princess, they have some small talk while sharing tea and biscuits

“Mommy where is the Princess going to take us?”

“I don’t know, Morning.”

After cleaning up after themselves Celestia states “If you could follow me please, we are going to go down a few floors in the castle.”

With Celestia in a slow walk as not to outpace the mare and her foal, they make their way down to the Royal infirmary to where all of the injured ponies are being treated after the events of the tryouts from yesterday.

You could tell that this was a medical part of the castle, from the turn of the hallway and through the steel double doors, the hall gave way to a soft white ceiling and walls with a very bright white floor tile and the ever present antiseptic odor

“There is somepony here I would like you to meet, he was the attending physician on duty when your husband was brought in yesterday, along with Leaf Stream, and Lightning Array. I checked the roster on the way down here so he should be in his- Oh here is the little pony now. Hello Dr Stone. Do you have a few minutes? I would like to introduce you to some very special ponies.”

The poor doctor was just coming out of the restroom and was in the middle of the hall when the princess saw him and greeted him. Celestia for some reason enjoyed surprising ponies and adored the look of sheer surprise on their faces. Something Raegdan once mentioned about deer and headlights, well whatever they are. With a sliding bow the doctor greets the princess. “Good afternoon princess. This is quite a surprise seeing you down here so early. I’m right in the middle of things here, could you be so kind to please wait for me in the family room?”

“Not a problem Doctor, we will wait for you there.”

“Thank you your Highness.”

As Celestia leads the family on to the assigned room, the Doctor makes his way to the nurses station to give some last minute orders and to let them know that he will be in the family room with one of the Princesses. “Nurse Goldenheart, I’m sorry. Daisy, I’m going to be in a meeting with Princess Celestia for a bit, please make sure that telemetry makes it to room 3 and be sure somepony from ortho gets me a report on the pegasus in room 5.”

“Sure thing Dr Toomb, telem to room three, and ortho report room five. Umm, what about room 2, Dr? He’s starting to annoy the other patients.”

From down the hall you hear “Do you see this penis! It wasn’t like this yesterday. Do you see it, DO YOU!!.” While walking around on his rear legs “It had to be a changeling. DO YOU SEE THIS PENIS!!!”

With the Dr, dropping his head and the nurse facehoofing, you hear the Dr say “Call security and have him moved to iso. You were not kidding, were you?”

“NOPE”. And with that said the nurse presses the intercom button and calls out. “Security, transport room 2 to isolation, I’ll be there in a sec.” From out of nowhere two huge earth ponies show up and with a pointing hoof Daisy tells the orderlies, “thats him”. The two guards move to secure the rogue pony. All you hear is, “hey guys, do you see this? Do you seeeee…” from then on all that could be heard was the sound of flailing hoofs and then silence, followed by the crisp sound of marching of the two orderlies (retired guards) taking their charge to his new room, followed by the nurse with a nice big syringe of sedatives to “relax” the boisterous pony.

After getting a drink of water from the cooler, our brave Dr returns to the family room to see what the Princess has in store for him. When he arrives he sees Princess Celestia sitting down and taking up most of the couch on one side of the room while a unicorn mare and her little filly sit on the smaller pair of cushions placed on the floor. The Dr heads over to another cushion. and moving it in his magic places it to where he can speak to all three ponies with ease before he sits down.

“Good afternoon Princess, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”

With a warm smile Celestia says, “I would like to introduce some very special ponies to you. This is Mrs Hoof and her filly, Morning Dew. This is Sgt. Hoofs family. I brought them here to speak to you for I believe that they may have a few questions that I would not dare to answer.”

The Dr turned his head from Celestia to the Hoofs. “Mrs Hoof, I am so sorry for your loss. What would you like to know?”

The Dr. did not like this part of the job. He loved the rush he got from treating a patient in critical care, rushing to administer the correct care at the correct time to get the correct results. He cares for his charges, but having to deal and cope with the family sometimes, is one part of the job he doesn’t revel in.

“Can you tell me what happened? Was he alive when he was brought here?”

“Your husband was brought in by unicorn medic, they teleported directly into the receiving area. The medic was able to deliver a quick report of blunt force trauma to the shoulder area with no pulse and no eye dilation before he passed out from magic exhaustion. We got him on a bed and got him moved to a room to see if we could do anything. We had blood and fluids hung, the monitors were placed on him and Nurse Steady Rhythm was trying to keep his heart going. It wasn’t until Dr Side Scan showed up and showed us the extent of the internal damage. There was no chance of us saving his life. He died there, in the arena. We tried for 15 minutes Mam, there was just nothing we could do.”

The two older ponies sat there with their heads down and ears back. Celestia knew it was a hard blow, but for this to happen to a pony of this size truly shocked her. She was there, she heard the hit. She saw him slide across the area floor to the wall.

“Did he feel any pain?”

“No Mam, I don’t think he did. When I received his autopsy report this morning, he died instantly. When he was hit with that hammer, it broke off a piece of his scapula.”

“His what?”

“His scapula, shoulder blade, the part of the bone right here.” The Dr. pointed on himself where it is.

“Oh, ok, sorry to interrupt.”

“Well a piece of that bone had broken off and was propelled through part of his body and it severed his spinal cord at the base of his neck. It was practically instantaneous. I feel bad to say this but your husband died before he hit the dirt, it was that quick. I am so sorry.”

“I want to see my daddy.”

Three stunned faces quickly turned towards the source of the voice.

“I want to see my daddy!”

The slackjawed Dr. just looked between Celestia and Mrs. Hoof, for he did not know how to answer her. Celestia for the most part kept a good poker face. Other than than the slightly bulged eyes, you might have guessed that a member of the wait staff got cheeky and flashed the Princess. Mrs Hoof on the other, well, hoof, just sat there with her mouth agape and ‘did you really just say that’ look to her face.

Celestia was the first to respond. “What did you ask, my little pony?”

“I want to see my daddy. He promised me that he would come back, and my daddy always keeps his promises. I want to go see him.”

“Dearie, we talked about this while you were having breakfast. Daddy is not coming home.”

A nervous silence filled the room. The lamp sitting on the end table in between Celestia and Mrs Hoof was suddenly very interesting to the good doctor.

“ I know mommy, but I want to see him. I want to tell him that I love him and that he was the best daddy of all time. He needs to know that what happened was not his fault. It was that big, black meanie on two legs that hurt my daddy.”

Little Morning had a hard time seeing the room, for small tears were running down her muzzle and making her vision all blurry.

“I don’t know baby, I don’t know.” As Mrs Hoof picked up her foal in her magic and brought her over to her to caught by two front legs and was Immediately brought in for a very tight loving hug, to which Morning wrapped her ever growing legs around her mother's neck and hugged her back as hard as she could.

Celestia leaned over to the Dr. and asked, “is it possible to have them see Sgt. Hoof today?”

“Yes Princess, I’ll see to it.”

“Thank you.”

KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK.

All four heads swivel to the door to see a Solar Guard standing outside holding a scroll in her magic. The Dr. gets up and answers the door. “May I help you?”

“Yes, I have a letter here for Her Radiance.”

At which point Celestia with the slightest of groans makes her way off of the couch to see what the guard has for her. With the slight lighting of her horn, she gently takes the scroll in her magic and floats it over to her while walking to the doorway.

“Thank you private, you may return to your station.”

With a deep bow to the Princess and a “thank you your Radiance,” the guard disappears down the hall.

Upon opening the scroll you hear Celestia mutter. “what now nephew?” only for the scroll to disappear in a flash. Celestia turns around to speak to the rest of the ponies in the room. “You will have to excuse me, Prince Blueblood has yet again done something foolish and I am being requested back to resume the Day Court to sort this out. Mrs Hoof, you and your precious little filly have an open invitation to the castle and the Royal Gardens. I will see to it that your family name is added to the Official Roster for ease of entrance, for I am truly sorry for the loss of your husband. You have my deepest condolences. Oh and Mountain, when you feel that you are ready I would really like for you write me a letter from time to time. I just love reading letters from little fillys and colts like you.” The little filly looks up to Celestia and smiles.

“Dr. Stone, please see to every need that Mrs Hoof and her filly need while they are in your care.”

“Yes your Majesty. I will take great care of them.”

Celestia, looking straight at Mrs Hoof, bows to her. Raises her head and wishes a “Good bye for now Mrs Hoof.” and in a blinding flash, teleports away to resume her duties.

“Mrs Hoof, if you could please follow me, I will bring you to your husband.”

“Morning dear, time to go.”

“Ok, mom. Did Princess Celestia really say that I can write her letters?” A look of curious astonishment on her little face.

“Yes she did, dearie, yes she did.”

As the three ponies slowly walked down the hall, Mrs Hoof and the Dr were talking about something, but little Morning wasn’t paying attention to them. Her sensitive little ears every once in awhile would hear something odd but familiar. After they passed a few more rooms and through a hall intersection the odd sounds became clearer and recognisable.

“I want you to give Leaf Stream a chance. Ask her if anyone came to her before she does something rushed.”

It’s the monster, here in one of these rooms. She slowly starts to take quiet steps towards the voice big meany that hurt her dad and those other ponies.

“I think that’s stupid. Fine. I will do that, if she says yes. Happy?”

Why is it here, does it want to hurt more ponies like it did to my dad?” as she watches it walking out of a room and down the hallway towards her. She sits down, slowly watching them talk, its big, black metal form slowly getting bigger and bigger, blood still on its ugly black armor.

“I know you do, dad. I just think you can do much better.”

Her daddy was gone. No more bedtime stories, no more playing in the yard. She will no longer feel the warm hugs, or the loving kisses of a loving father.

She looks up at the monster and with a strong and determined voice yells.

Author's Notes:

Thanks again to Crimmar for his input on this story arc. I really appreciate the feedback I've gotten from the first two chapters and I hope I didn't disappoint with the third.

Thank you all for reading.

Mech.