I barreled down Canterlot Castle’s stone hallways, chasing after the purple and pink tail that was almost constantly just out of sight. Because of my slight delay in getting my shield charm, Twilight had a second or two head start on me in our mad dash for Celestia’s private room. She always seemed to be rounding corners just as I got into the hallway. That’s all fine and dandy assuming both parties involved know where they’re going, I did not. As I had never personally been there, I only had the vaguest idea of where Celestia’s private chambers where. I could only assume that they’d be near Luna’s chambers at the very least. As a result of all of this, Twilight’s two-toned purple and pink tail vanishing around corners was my only indication that I was on the right track.

“Hells bells Twilight, slow down!” I called after her. “I’m going to get lost if you keep this up!”

As Twilight rounded the next corner, I heard her hooves slow to a near stop. I turned into the next stone hallway which brought Twilight back into full view just as I felt a painful stitch bite into me, right behind my right foreleg. I clambered next to the frantically pacing mare and stopped to catch my breath after our all-out sprint.

Oh damn, I’ve been neglecting my cardio. I need to hit the tracks more.

“What’s the holdup Harry?” Twilight demanded, her hooves dancing on the stone floor as I caught my breath. “You were as excited as I was to find this lead, you should be outgalloping me right now. How much coffee did you drink at Luna’s party?”

“More than a little, less than enough,” I responded. I lifted my head back to my full height as soon as my side stopped hurting and I could breathe normally again. “Twilight, unlike you, I didn’t grow up here. I don’t inherently know where everything is. Would you please slow down just a little, so I don’t wind up lost.” I heaved a short sigh, “With my luck, I’d probably end up back at the barracks.”

Twilight nodded and continued down the hallway at a brisk trot instead of her previous all-out gallop. I hurried to catch up and then matched her pace.

“Sorry Harry,” she apologized. “I just get carried away sometimes.”

I shook my head and offered a small chuckle, “I know the feeling.” I shot a sidelong glance at Twilight as she led me through the castle, “Now you’ve personally known Celestia longer than the rest of us right?”

“Well I was her personal student when I was growing up here. Aside from Luna, I’m probably closer to her than anypony,” she responded. “Why?”

“Can you tell me how Celestia normally acts?”

Twilight’s head tilted slightly at me, “What are you talking about? You’ve met her before.”

I shook my head in response, “I’ve seen her while she’s debriefing us or making some kind of sweeping statement. I mean Celestia is a ruler, and is therefore a politician. If I’m going to meet her in her private room, I figured it’d be good to know what she’s like when she’s not on the job.”

“She’s always on the job, Harry,” Twilight responded. “And I’ve always known her to be calm and collected, no matter what situation she’s in.” She paused for a moment in her trotting to reconsider that. “Well… I’ll admit that she tends to be less formal when in a casual environment, but she’s still the same loving princess we all know.”

“The first time I met her, she deep fried a captive vampire,” I pointed out. “And since then she’s created a miniature star that gave that same fate to a city full of the Red Court.”

Twilight cocked an eyebrow at me, “Are you really complaining about that?”

I angled my head so that I was looking slightly upward and my teeth flashed in a broad smile. “No, no I’m not.” My gaze lowered back down to peer at Twilight, “But I would prefer to avoid inadvertently insulting a normally friendly demigod.”

Twilight flashed me a grin before refocusing her attention to the castle’s hallways. “So long as you don’t grow pointed teeth and try to eat us, I think you’ll be fine,” she said as we rounded another corner, bringing into view a large set of double doors. “Ah, we’re here!”

As we drew closer, more and more details could be seen about the surprisingly ornate door. The first and foremost was that it was a set of large wooden double doors decorated with a large image of Celestia’s cutie mark. The edges of the door were set in cast iron framing that worked around it in odd flowing patterns. It was likely hell for the smith that made it, then again I’ve never really studied metal working. On either side of the double doors were two guardsponies clad in thick golden armor, their eyes scanned over us the instant we came into view. Lastly, the closer we got to the guards and the large double doors, the warmer the air around us grew. The air next to the doors felt similar to standing directly under the noonday sun. All of this gave the act of simply walking towards the Princess’s private room the feeling of approaching some kind of peaceful nirvana, or possibly Celestia’s personal executioner’s block.

As we reached the double door the guards nodded their permission for us to pass shortly before pulling on either side of their respective doors. The knowledge that I was nearing an obscenely powerful being’s private room loomed over me like a just out of sight threat. I instinctively began drawing in a little power to satisfy my paranoia. Almost immediately after I did so however, the warming aura around the door seeped into me, soothing my tensing muscles, paranoid thoughts, and relaxed my held magic back into the environment.

The effect the architecture and the power within it was having on me got me thinking, The White Council would probably give a lot to contract Celestia’s building planners. A diplomatic meeting room that actually calms those in it would be invaluable. Then again that power could be applied for the opposite effect, like an interrogation room that drains hope. I shuddered at that thought. I really need to stop my analyzing about one thought earlier.

The doors to Celestia’s room finally opened wide enough and Twilight and I stepped through into the room. My immediate thought upon seeing the room was that it was oddly under furnished. We stepped into a brightly colored and almost perfectly round room which held very few pieces of furniture. In the center was a very large deep purple cushion with a long yellow backing along one side. If it weren’t for the back I would’ve classified it as a bed. As it stood, it appeared more as a large couch. A sizeable round table stood off to the side of the room with only a few small cushions lying on the ground around it to serve as seating.

There was, however, much decoration to distract from the lack of furniture. The most noticeable was the large fireplace sitting immediately opposite the couch. The fire inside the fireplace cast a wide beam of light over the entire room, eliminating the need for windows or other light sources. The walls of the room bore many small tapestries and paintings that depicted several nature scenes, varying from a brilliant sun rising over a frost tipped mountain, to a shooting star across the night sky. The several decorations and little furniture gave the room the feel of a common room or perhaps a relaxing study. Opposite the door we came in from was another, far simpler door that I assumed lead to the actual bedroom.

What drew my attention more than the room and what it was designed for were the things that very clearly normally wouldn’t be there. All along the wall between the bedroom door and the fireplace were hastily made and very plain shelving that housed a large collection of books lined up in neat rows and papers that lay out in stacks at the ends of the shelves. Celestia herself was lying on the couch in the center of the room and was busily sifting through a loose pile of paper that sat on the ground next to her, and she wasn’t alone either.

Three other ponies sat around the large rounded table off to our left. I could immediately identify Michael and Shining Armor, who were both still in the armor they wore to Luna’s party. They were busy leaning over the table, considering whatever was on top of it. And, for whatever reason, sitting on the opposite side of the table was Pinkie Pie with a content smile plastered on her face.

The fact that Pinkie was even there wasn’t quite as distracting as what she was wearing. Displaying her uncanny ability to make me completely forget about what I was supposed to be doing, she was garbed in an honest to goodness gypsy outfit. She had a deep purple turban wrapped around her head with a single red jewel sitting on her forehead and large purple feather sticking out of the top of the jewel. For accessories, she had yellow lunar earrings hanging from either ear and a purple scarf wrapped around her neck.

Upon our entry, all four ponies in the room looked up from their respective distractions to see who had walked in. Twilight and I staggered a little and then froze under the sudden gazes and the unexpected company.

“If you’re busy getting your fortunes told, we can come back later,” I said automatically, and with a slight nod of my head at the overly excitable mare. Pinkie snorted and began giggling uncontrollably.

Celestia offered us a slight smile and a nod before returning to the collection of papers about her forelegs.

Twilight craned her head around to seize the collar of my overcoat in her teeth and haul me forward a few more steps. Upon releasing me she gave me a short glare, “No we can’t Harry.” She looked back around to glance questioningly at the others. “But, what are you all doing in Celestia’s room?”

“We’re trying to narrow down our search area for the Red King’s den,” Michael offered immediately and leaned a little so that the tabletop was in easier view.

Now that I had a clear view of the table, I could see that they were huddled over a large map of Equestria. The cities and towns were the most prominent features of the map and had several lines of transport drawn between them. Outside the boundaries of the cities on the map, were a few red dots that were scattered around the landscape. I could only assume that these were supposed to be sightings of Red Court vampires.

Shining Armor got up from his cushion and approached Twilight. “Hello again, little sis,” he said as he embraced his sister in a small hug. They broke away after a short second, leaving both siblings looking a bit peppier. “After that little fiasco at Luna’s party, I’ve gotten a crash course on all of the Red Court movements in Equestria. I may not be too learned in personal combat with them, but I can still recognize army patterns when I see them and…” Shining paused for a moment and cocked an eyebrow in our direction. “Are you two okay?”

I hadn’t noticed it until Shining drew attention to it, but my hooves were shuffling beneath me ever so slightly. As soon as I realized that, my thoughts were unwillingly drawn to what Twilight and I almost did just a few hours earlier, and became increasingly uncomfortable given the company at the time. Beside me, Twilight was evidently having similar thoughts and was decidedly looking at anything other than her brother or myself.

My private life had always been just that; private. The sole property of myself and whoever I cared for. There were some that tried to meddle in my private life for one reason or another. Namely my half-brother who constantly tried to get me laid as a tool to get me to loosen up. Those situations usually resulted in my telling the outsider to go screw off, with Michael’s advice being the only exception. But Shining was in the uncomfortable position of being both an outsider and, because of his relation to Twilight, a part of that private life. That was kind of a new one for me, as my hooves were eager to show.

I made the effort of will necessary to still my limbs and donned the best poker face I could. “It’s nothing,” I stated simply.

Smooth Harry, smooth.

Shining was not fooled by my rather weak attempt at deflection and narrowed his eyes at me. After a brief second they widened as they fixated somewhere on my forehead. His eyes then darted between my head to Twilight and then back again, an odd mixture of emotions on his face.

He pointed a hoof at my head and asked, “Is that a ring on your horn?”

“Huh?” I grunted and crossed my eyes trying to look at what he was pointing at. “My shield charm? Yeah, it lets me project shields more easily. What about it?”

Shining’s demeanor changed almost instantly as he put on a wide grin and pawed at the ground excitedly, not unlike Twilight when she’s given a new spell to learn. “Oh you do shields? I don’t really like to brag, but I’m fairly adept at shielding magic myself. Well, it is my talent after all.” Shining twisted around so that I could see his star spangled shield of a cutie mark.

Twilight eagerly jumped on this excuse of a conversation change and added, “You’re being too modest Shining.” She gestured a hoof at her brother while beaming a proud smile at me, “Shining here held off an entire changeling army for several minutes with just one shield around the whole of Canterlot.”

I felt my hind legs quiver and then give out as I fell back onto my haunches. “You held off… an entire army… with one shield,” I breathlessly stammered just before my jaw went slack.

Hells freaking bells and pony feathered pigs. Where were these guys when I was being attacked by werewolves and necromancers bent on world domination?

“That’s nothing, you should see the shields my wife can make,” he said with a smirk. “She makes my shields look like driftwood hovels in comparison.”

That’s it, when all this is said and done, I’m going to get lessons from these ponies. I want to be able to go for a jog while under direct mortar fire, and not have a single worry on my mind.

Twilight began laughing at my shocked expression and nudged a hoof at her brother, “Can we continue with what you were saying earlier about the Red Court, before you break Harry any further?”

Shining nodded at his sister, “Alright, alright.” He turned back around and moved over to the table, with Twilight and I close behind him. “Now like I told you before, the Red Court don’t seem to have spread any further north than Canterlot, so we can likely ignore that entire area,” he said as he gestured a hoof at the map. “But from all of the scout reports I’ve looked at over the last hour or so, there aren’t any clear indications of where they’re held up. From what I’ve read, they are appearing in even forces all over the lower half of Equestria.” He sighed heavily and shook his head, “I had no idea how widespread these things were.”

Michael bent down to lower his head to the floor next to him, when he came back up there was a small stack of papers in his teeth. Michael set the papers on the table and pushed them towards me with a hoof. “Scout reports, our pegasi teams have been seeing vampires darting in and out of almost every forest south of Canterlot,” he offered as I reached out to investigate the first few pages on top. “As widespread as they are, there is good news. It would seem that they’re getting increasingly desperate in their attempts to replace their losses.”

Twilight walked up next to me and scanned over the papers I had finished reading. “What do you mean by desperate?” she asked.

“Because of all the lessons that we’ve been spreading about the vampires, most of the established settlements have become too risky for the Red Court to continue abducting ponies there. So instead they’ve apparently refocused their attentions to the trade routes in-between the cities. Since we drove them from Canterlot, I’ve received more than a few reports of trading caravans disappearing in the night.” Michael reached for and produced another piece of paper, one that had the shield of the royal guard in the upper corner. “Not only that, but they’ve had resort to preying on our combat trained scouting parties. There are a few reports of some pegasi patrols spotting a vampire at night and when they try to follow, they’re led into an ambush.”

“The majority of the time the scouts see it coming and can fly away before they’re trapped.” Shining bowed his head in a silent show of respect, “But some of our patrols are still vanishing from time to time out there.” Shining looked back up at us and offered a small smile, “I’ve already issued a standing order for all scouts to perform only high altitude surveillance at night and to disengage if spotted.”

It was at that moment that Pinkie’s capacity for self restraint broke. A pink blur flashed around us to rest in between Twilight and Shining. The resulting shift in mass forced Shining to jump back several steps, and Twilight to fall backwards against me. “And I’ve been helping!” Pinkie shouted as she practically vibrated with pent up excitement. “I’ve been helping a lot!”

“I believe she means she’s been playing messenger for me,” said a soft spoken, but undeniably authoritative voice from right behind us.

Twilight and I turned to find that Celestia had finally set down her papers and joined in the conversation. Now that I could see her up close, I noticed that Celestia was looking pretty ragged around the edges. Her normally aurora mane and tail looked to be losing their vibrant colors slightly and drooped lower than normal. Even her pristine alabaster coat looked a few shades darker than normal and had a few patches of fur that stuck out in odd angles. In short, she looked like ten miles of bad road.

Twilight turned around completely and looked at her mentor with genuine concern in her eyes. “Princess, when was the last time you slept?”

Celestia gave her student a baggy eyed smile, “Coordinating the military and searching through Equestria’s history demands a decent amount of time and dedication. Please do not worry about me, I have been through hard times before in my life, and I look forward to being able to go through more later.” Celestia shifted her gaze until she was looking over at Pinkie, “Your friend here has been quite the helper, Twilight. I remembered from one of your letters that Pinkie Pie had an uncanny ability to see into the near future. So I summoned her to help us in the hopes that she might be able to point out where we should be focusing our attention.” Celestia’s nose crinkled in agitation, “But…”

“I explained that my Pinkie sense doesn’t really work like she was hoping,” Pinkie said as she started bouncing in her seat. “That it’s just a reflex sort of thing. So I asked if there was anything else I could help with.”

Celestia nodded her head and seemed to regain some of the vibrant color to her mane, “I’ve been using her to send my and Shining Armor’s orders to where they’re needed.” Celestia began chuckling under her breath, “We don’t even need to tell her where she’s delivering it to, we just give her a name and she’s off. I don’t think I’ve had a faster messenger in all my life.”

Considering where that was coming from, that was major compliment. As Celestia said that, Pinkie practically beamed and began vibrating even faster. It seemed that no matter what she was doing, just so long as she was helping in some way, Pinkie was happy. I made a mental note to be sure to set aside a few tasks for her to keep her busy.

Celestia straightened herself back to her full and considerable height. “Now then, is there a reason for this visit, or did you just want to talk?”

At those words, the entire reason for my visit to Celestia came rushing back to me. I resisted the urge to facehoof several times. “Oh right, they distracted me,” I said as I waved a hoof at Michael, Shining, and Pinkie, most of whom shot indignant looks back at me. “Anyway, Twilight and I may have found a lead to finding the Life Drinker’s lab.”

The torn piece of paper I held in my overcoat pocket worked its way out and floated in front of Celestia. The aura around it shifted from deep red to bright yellow as Celestia took hold and unfolded it to read.

“It looks like a title page torn from one of the Equestrian Records books,” Twilight offered. “From the summary at the bottom, we think it could hold the information we need.” Her eyes grew large as she looked hopefully up at Celestia, “Please tell me that you or one of the other researchers has found volume eighteen of the Equestrian Records.”

Celestia’s eyes finished moving down the paper around the same time Twilight finished speaking. Celestia lowered the paper and looked back around towards the makeshift shelving next to the fireplace. Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she considered her recent memory.

“Possibly,” Celestia muttered and swiftly moved to stand in front of the bookcase. “I know I’ve seen several of the Equestrian Records books before, but after I spent several hours going through just two of them, I started setting them aside to look through later.” Her head swept over the shelves of books and papers as she searched. “Many of the scholars found some as well and sent them to me.” Celestia’s ears perked up as she came to a large collection of brown hardcover books, “Ah, Equestrian Records here we are. Let’s see… volume ten, thirteen, forty-two, and… volume eighteen!”

Everypony there watched with interest as Celestia withdrew one of the random books from the shelves and brought it over to the table we still sat at. The book she set on the map of Equestria looked extremely ancient and cracked, much like the page that had been torn from it. The book’s cover and spine were unadorned and held only the title, Equestrian Records, Volume Eighteen, making it an extremely vague source of information at first glance and easy to overlook.

Once set down, the book flipped open under Celestia’s power and pages turned until she found the book’s index. A few seconds later and we were looking at a dossier of the one responsible for the Red King’s massive energy pool.

“Alias: Life Drinker. Birth name: unknown. Birth date: unknown,” Twilight began reading aloud. “Unicorn mare who devised a spell that allowed her to steal the energy necessary for a pony’s body to function. Details of her life prior to becoming Life Drinker are unknown. She was confronted by the royal guard and chose to die fighting rather than surrender.” Twilight’s nose crinkled in frustration as she read. “Nothing we didn’t already know.” She flipped to the next page, which bore what looked like an old map of the land around Canterlot tucked underneath another bit of text. “Aha! Here we are!” Twilight leaned forward so she could read the faint text better, “The royal guard spent many days tracking Life Drinker to a small shack at the northern edge of Whitetail Woods, as shown in the sketch below.”

“Hey Twilight, wait a minute,” Pinkie chirped and ceased in her excited bouncing. “Isn’t Whitetail Woods where we did the Running of the Leaves thing?”

Twilight’s horn began to glow as she nodded in response, “Yes, but we only ran through the parts closest to Ponyville.” With a flash of purple light, a phantom copy of the map in the book appeared hovering in the air. With a little effort Twilight moved the image to superimpose itself over the map on the table. “From the looks of this, Life Drinker’s lab was much further north in those woods than we’ve ever been.”

From where I sat I could see both maps quite clearly. The two maps had very little in the way of commonality between them outside of the largest of landmarks, owing to the millennium difference between them. There were ancient towns in the conjured map that hadn’t survived into the modern one. Ponyville and Manehattan were only even visible because of the transparency of the old map over the more recent one. So Twilight had aligned them on the most noticeable shared mark between them, Canterlot.

The ancient map showed a depiction of a long dotted line leaving Canterlot that trailed down to a small red X at the edge of what I assumed were the Whitetail Woods. That forest had changed over the years however. In the time since Life Drinker, the Whitetail Woods had grown to several times their original size. In the modern map, the red X was lodged deep within the woods a couple of miles east-southeast of Canterlot’s walls.

“That does not matter. We now know where they are, now I can finally protect my subjects,” rang Celestia’s carrying voice, but with a bit more steel in it than I’ve heard her use in casual conversation before.

I craned my head around to catch a glimpse at her, and found a much different Celestia than before. Just minutes ago, Celestia had been smiling, kind, and radiated warmth; sure she had been run ragged with work, but she still had a serene calming aura around her that Michael wishes he could copy. The Celestia I was looking at now was focusing on the little red X on the map with a narrow eyed stare that screamed malice. The air around her grew uncomfortably hot and her rainbow mane and tail turned several shades closer to fiery orange. I was forcibly reminded of the first time I met her and the captive feral vampire down in the castle’s dungeons. When I had told her that there was no hope for her former subject, she had torched the thing to cinders without a second thought. There’s nothing like a gentle reminder that, under the right circumstances, Celestia could become the stuff of nightmares.

Celestia’s head snapped up to face Michael. “Mr. Carpenter, send word to Dresden’s battalion and to two or three extra platoons of soldiers. I want to be ready to march immediately.”

Michael nodded immediately, placed a blank piece of parchment on the table, and seized a nearby pencil in his teeth to write some letter.

Shining stepped forward and bowed his head, “I’ll prepare the guardsponies to march as well, Princess.”

Celestia’s gaze shifted at once to Shining. “No, you will remain here and organize the guards,” she snapped in an authoritative tone. “I want triple the number of security around Canterlot until our return. The Red Court might try to counterattack while we’re away.”

My ears pricked up and twitched at those words, a certain amount of uncertainty settling in my gut. “Whoa, hang on just a minute,” I interjected and frowned up at the Sun goddess. “We? Our return? You don’t think you’re coming with us do you?”

Celestia turned her frown onto me and her piercing gaze grew even colder. “I know I am going with you Mr. Dresden,” she stated as though it were a simple fact. “Too many have been lost already to these things, and this Red King has shown no remorse or restraint to make me believe he’s capable of redemption. I intend to ensure my little ponies’ safety, personally.”

Against my better judgment, I shook my head and continued to argue against her. “No, that’s an unnecessary risk. Their forces are too spread out to do anything, and we have their leader’s location; we have more than enough muscle to simply roll over him and finish this.”

In the space between two heartbeats, Celestia’s appearance changed dramatically. Her eyes began glowing a bright yellow and the colors of her mane and tail shifted to represent all of the different shades of orange that you would typically see in a bonfire. On top of all that, the sheer power of her concentrated will fell upon me like several dozen lead blankets, forcibly folding my legs underneath me and making it difficult to breathe.

“I AM YOUR PRINCESS AND YOU WILL FOLLOW ME!” she roared at me. Her voice was amplified several times her normal volume and caused me physical pain at such a close distance. She was perhaps not quite as loud as Luna was in her party, but it was close. “THE RED KING HAS DONE ENOUGH HARM TO MY PONIES AND I WILL SEE HIM STOPPED!”

With her power still holding me in place, I could only watch the events around me. All the other ponies in the room were looking at Celestia with varying amounts of alarm and disbelief. Twilight was looking up at her mentor with nothing short of complete shock and actually took a step back from her. Even Pinkie offered a rare moment of stillness as she gaped at the inflamed princess.

After a second or two, the invisible force holding me in place lifted and I could once again breathe properly. My muscles and joints popped loudly as I shakily stood back to my hooves and looked back up at the princess. What I saw was just as just as surprising to me as her sudden outburst was. Celestia had recoiled away from all of us, sat back on her haunches, and hid her face behind her flowing mane. Her forelegs were shaking slightly and I could hear her taking several deep calming breaths.

After a few inhales her mane resumed its usual rainbow colors and her coat brightened back to a pristine white. Her mane fell away from her face as she looked back up at us. Several lines had appeared around her face and under her eyes, making her appear as though she had aged several decades in the space of a few seconds. Her sudden shift from outburst of anger to moment of weakness was jarring enough that I was genuinely at a loss for words, which just doesn’t happen to me.

“I-I apologize,” she muttered, her head hanging just a little bit. “It has been a very, very long time since Equestria has been subject to trials such as these; and I fear that they bring out the worst in ponies, including me.” Her face regained some youth and a sense of determination as a crease formed between her brows again. “But my subjects look to me for protection and hope. Hope that is being taken away by the Red King. His conjuration walked right through my front doors and challenged all that I am trying to hold together.” Celestia’s eyes narrowed a little more, “I must take personal action against him, I will protect my ponies.”

At that moment my opinion of Celestia as a ruler skyrocketed, as did my trepidation for the coming hours.

Before, I had largely only spoken with Celestia on official matters; my only real experience with her outside of debriefing were the occasional second long conversations and stories from Twilight. From what little I’ve seen, Celestia was very much a ruler that selflessly did whatever she could for her subjects. While that was true, it didn’t quite do her justice. Her emotional outburst was an instinctual reaction, not a calculated one. Celestia’s ponies were more than mere subjects to her, they were her family. Once I actually considered her personal desires, on some fundamental level I just knew that Celestia’s entire purpose in her extremely long life was to watch over and care for all of us.

The downside was the vulnerability that mindset entailed. Obviously Celestia was no stranger to death; she’d be used to her subjects succumbing to the effects of time that had always avoided her. What she wasn’t used to, were violent deaths. I knew there had to have been many fights and violent deaths over the last thousand years, but that’s not the same as the focused bloodshed war offers. Celestia had been enjoying leading Equestria through a millennium of peace and love, which had made her sensitive to the horrors of a conflict with the Red Court.

Consider some ordinary Joe who is responsible for looking after his distant cousin for a while. He may not necessarily be close to her, but she still looks up to him and depends on him for protection, and he knows it. Then that cousin trips, falls, and cracks open her head in an accident beyond Joe’s control. Again, he may not have been personally close to her, but she was hurt while under his protection and the guilt of failing her would begin eating away at him. It’s the kind of situation that can kick off many a downward spiral.

Now take that guilt and add to it with another body, then another, and then another. What was just one failure became a hundred, and then a thousand. That was the pain I saw in Celestia’s eyes, the shame of failing those that depended on her and the anger of being unable to do more. I suspected that the only reason she was still in control of herself was a combination of her godly status, and of her desire to prevent any further harm coming to her ponies. She was going to make damn sure that the threat to those she cared for was eliminated, and I respected her for that.

What had me worried was the risk that elimination involved. As powerful as the Red King had grown, he was not a God; all of his stolen power was bound by mortal restrictions, and could therefore be overwhelmed. With the resources at my disposal it would even be relatively simple to do so. I welcomed the idea of fighting alongside someone of my own caliber like Twilight, but fighting next to someone like Celestia was a different story entirely. There was no doubt in my mind that Celestia could eradicate the Red King, but she had the kind of power that could turn me to ash with a stray thought. I didn’t relish the idea of standing next to her in a high intensity situation like combat. I knew there was no way I could actually stop her, so I just had to ensure that when the fur started flying, that none of us were anywhere near her or the Red King.

I frowned a little at Celestia, but still nodded at her in a begrudging acceptance, “I would expect nothing less… Princess.” I hesitated a little at her title. I’d always had a problem with authority figures stomping all over my life and in general ruining it. The only one that I ever assigned any kind of honorific to was my old mentor, and now Celestia. Her genuine concern for her subjects had earned her at least that much.

It was then that something behind Celestia caught my attention, something that was just visible out the corner of my eye. I shifted to better see it, and froze in confused shock; in the corner of the room stood a reasonably tall figure on only two legs. He was around the same height as Celestia, give or take an inch. He wore loose comfortable clothing, including a plaid shirt and denim overalls. His arms and legs looked ragged, but I knew they held deceptive strength gained from working on his farm.

McCoy?

As soon as I thought that, the figure vanished in a wisp of smoke, leaving behind only a whispering memories and a splitting headache.

Twilight moved past Celestia and aimed worried eyes at me, having noticed that something was off, “Harry, are you okay?”
I rubbed a hoof against my temple to dull the throbbing, “I’m fine. It’s just a headache.”

Around us, things were calming back down. Celestia had resumed her usual brightly colored figure that radiated calmness and serenity. Michael and Pinkie retook their seats around the table and seemed to be operating under an unspoken agreement to act like nothing happened.

Shining nodded once to Celestia and made a few steps for the door, “I’ll rouse the guards and begin patrols, Princess.”

“Thank you Shining,” Celestia responded just before Shining closed the door behind him. Her head swiveled around to look back at Michael, who had resumed writing something on his parchment. “Mr. Carpenter, are you not going as well?”

Michael set down his pencil before he answered, “There were a few platoons I sparred with, and I want to invite them to come with us.” He nodded at the pink mare next to him, “Pinkie will be able to spread my message to them a lot faster than I could.” Pinkie took the compliment with a certain giddiness that just did not belong when planning military actions.

Celestia nodded her head and moved back over to her large couch, “Very well. I recommend that you all prepare yourselves as soon as possible. The next few hours will be trying, but soon this nightmare will finally be over.”

Satisfied that I was physically okay, Twilight craned her head around towards her mentor, who had begun organizing and putting away the papers around her couch. “Wait, what exactly should we be preparing for?” She asked timidly, and then hastily added, “Aside from the fighting, I mean.”

Instead of Celestia, Michael answered her. “You shouldn’t need anything too special. We’re just heading a ways into Whitetail Woods. Fluttershy and the other medics will have supplies if anypony trips over roots or anything. Aside from that, just bring some water and you’ll be fine.”

Once my head had gone from a splitting pain back down to a bearable ache, I set my hoof down and moved over to survey the map once again. “I’d be less worried about the environmental hazards than the strategic advantage the woods give them, Twilight.” My eyes shifted over the woods between Canterlot and our destination, “If we’re not careful, vampires will be dropping out of the treetops at us.”

At that statement, Pinkie simply vanished from her seat on the other side of the table and reappeared right next to me. She began rubbing a hoof vigorously against the top of my head and practically pressed her cheek against mine in a motherly fashion, showing once again her complete disregard for petty little things like personal space. “Don’t you worry your fuzzy little head,” she crooned with another grinding of her hoof against my skull. “Your Aunt Pinkie Pie and her Pinkie Sense will protect you from those nasty little vampires.”

My brain nearly exploded as I tried to consider just how many ways her title as ‘Aunt’ just didn’t make any damn sense. Michael actually began chuckling under his breath at Pinkie’s statement, which thoroughly impacted the message he was trying to write. On my other side, Twilight sighed heavily and rolled her eyes at Pinkie in a dismissive gesture, though I could still detect a little bit of tension behind her outward indifference. This was made a bit more apparent when Twilight’s horn lit up and Pinkie was levitated about a foot away from me.

Operating under the assumption that Pinkie’s logic just wasn’t something that any normal mortal could comprehend, I faced Pinkie and began laughing a little. “You know Pinkie, for just one day, I would love to live in your little world,” I commented through a wide grin. “I likely wouldn’t get much done, but I probably wouldn’t care all that much.”

Pinkie looked back at me with an indignant frown. “What do you mean I don’t get much done?” she cried out in a slightly hurt tone. “I made breakfast in the mess hall this morning, I helped Luna put together that super fun party that that mean Red King crashed, and just before that, I hit Applejack with my rock cracking hammer.”

The entire room dropped what they were doing to gape at Pinkie. Even Celestia paused in putting away her papers to frown at the unnatural child of sugar and lightning.

I was the first to find my voice and managed to stammer, “I’m going to assume that means you were sparring with Applejack.”

“Because if not, then we need to have a talk,” Twilight finished for me.

Pinkie cocked her head to one side in confusion, “Well of course I was sparring with Applejack. Why else would I want to hit her with my hammer?”

Michael thankfully saved us from having to play the Pinkie Pie guessing game. “That will have to wait,” he said after he set down his pencil and slid his parchment towards Pinkie. “I need you to take this and give it to the three captains on the bottom there. Think you can do that?”

“Of course I can, silly!” Pinkie chirped, her usual smile reappearing in an instant. “I’ll just be a minute.” With that said, she seized the parchment in her teeth and zipped out of the room in a pink blur.

Michael let out a sigh and craned his head back to face Twilight and I. “You two should go and round up the others and make sure they have their equipment ready.” He paused for a moment to think, “Meet the rest of us in the main barracks hall as soon as you’re done. I should have at least our battalion ready to march in fifteen minutes.”

Twilight and I nodded in unison and left Celestia’s chambers. Twilight took the lead again as we galloped off towards our rooms. The castle’s stone halls breezed by as we silently moved through them, not quite at the same dead sprint as we did after we left my room, but definitely several times faster than the brisk trot we settled into after that sprint. Within a few minutes, we were back in our barracks and stood in front our friends’ rooms. We both began hammering our hooves on the doors to rouse those inside.

“What’s the big idea?” yelled a baggy eyed Rainbow Dash as she opened the door I was knocking on. “I was trying to get some sleep.”

“Rainbow, not now,” I retorted. “I need you to grab your crossbow and the rest of your gear.”

“What in tarnation is going on?” asked a familiar southern drawl.

I turned around and found Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy all standing outside of their respective rooms. Fluttershy’s overly frizzled mane and tail suggested that she had also just been roused from sleep. Applejack and Rarity conversely looked positively peppy and ready to go. Possibly because they were already used to late nights from their jobs back in Ponyville.

“Why do we need our equipment?” Rarity asked, her ears twitching around trying to pick up any faint noises it could. “Are we under attack again?”

Twilight stepped around Rarity and began shaking her head, “No, we finally found the information we were looking for. We found the record of Life Drinker’s old lab.”

Applejack’s eyes grew wider as she ran through the logic train, “So that means…”

I smiled a wide vicious smile, “We’re about to ruin the Red King’s day.”