Grace sat calmly at her desk, filling out the latest reports of the week on what her factory has done and where they need to be. Thankful that as she shifted through the paper work, her assistant was there ready and willing to lend a helping claw when need be. Silvertongue used his wings to hover just a few feet off the ground, as he put back some of the log books on the shelf that were just out of reach for the normal pony. Matching up the dates of the logs with the reports the princess hoofed off to him to keep track if they would be able to support a long war effort if need be.

The young drake looked off the side of his shoulder, as he watched the princess put the last folder away and lean back in her chair, “You can get some rest if you would like, Grace,” Silver offered up to her, “I can take care of what’s left.”

“I appreciate the offer, Silver,” she nodded in return before staying planted in her seat, “Though I know the moment I rise up to head out, somepony is going to walk through that door with some other news that I have to hear.”

The doors swung open as Iron strolled in, while right behind him Free eased down the guard there at the door so as not to start a fight. The colt calmly strolled in to the room, looking around at the rather fine, but modest, decorations that the princess had picked out for her office.

“Lovely place you have here, Grace,” He said while getting his thoughts in order.

“Silver, I take that back,” she ignored the colt for the time being to address her friend, “I should have left when I had the chance… anyway, Mister Knight, as you should know from your service. My family has always had an open door policy,” she looked back behind him to see the door still swinging on its hinges before the guard there closed them, and Freefall walked up behind his friend. “However, would it really kill you to knock?”

“Just a little…” he said, letting the sarcasm flow as if it were his second language, “though have you gotten any reports of strange appearances around the castle lately?”

Both Grace and Silver looked at one another, each with their own level of both concern and wonder in what the colt was referring to. “If you’re talking about the appearance of a rude, uncouth, fowl mouthed, ill-mannered, and probably narcissistic colt roaming the halls…” she pondered for a second, “only sense you showed up… odd coincidence, aint it?”

Iron turned his head as he caught the momentary chuckle from his friend, “What?” Free said while stifling another laugh, “that was pretty good…”

“Oh you’re hilarious…” he glared down at the mare, piercing her calm and collected eyes, “Though I’m more so referring to something tonight, along the south wall?”

Thinking for only a moment, the princess shook her head, “Nothing that I can think of, why was there something of importance out there that should have been brought to my attention.” The mare rolled her eyes, already taking little interest of whatever the stallion before her had to say.

“No, no…” Iron shrugged while digging his hoof against the carpet, “Just a small fight between two of those under you, and a mysterious mare that was found sneaking her way back over the wall…”

Graces’ eyes shot open at the sound of a possible intrusion to her own castle. Her enemies mustn’t have attacked for the simple reason for not having their own forces built up, while hers are doing the same. However, if they perhaps have more ready than she does, that will give them no reason to hold off any further, and light this powder keg.

“What did she look like? Who was she working for? Did she have anything that would give her away for being a spy?” she shot off the end of her tongue while staring down both colts.

“Well let’s see, she looked like a cloak… because that’s what she was wearing. Didn’t really get to ask who her boss was, somewhere between chasing them down and getting our rump hooved over to us the subject didn’t came up,” Iron rattled off while he stared off in to space, ignoring the ever growing scowl on the princess’s face, “and as for her being a spy… I think sneaking over the wall in the middle of the night is a good enough reason for that.”

“Can you take anything seriously?!” Grace shouted at him at the top of her lungs, to the point that even Silver could feel his claws rattling.

“I’ll have to give you a rain check on that,” Iron brushed her off, “Though who ever this mare was had a few tricks of her sleeve.”

“How do you know they were even a mare?” Silver interjected so his friend could take a breather.

“Well she sounded feminine…” Free followed up with, recounting the event, “Plus I met them face to face while she grabbed me by the throat with a claw and almost crushed my windpipe.”

Grace perked back up while her mind analyzed the facts she was hearing, “So it was actually a gryphon…” she looked back at Iron, “See… that’s an even more solid reason to suspect them for being a spy.”

“Well…” Iron looked back at his friend. Both of them knew this is the part where things would get a little complicated to explain as Free took a place next to him in front of the princess’s desk, “I would guess she was the same… if it weren’t for the fact that she had a ponies’ tail and was able to use magic…”

Graces’ expression instantly sunk to the ground, as did her head, meeting the desk after the colts’ words sunk in fully. Silver stepped up behind the two colts as he put his head between them, “It’s been kind of a long day for her, if this is your idea of a joke… probably isn’t the best time to pull it,” he urged them silently to walk away now.

“It’s not a joke though!” Free stepped up to the plate, looking at the princess square in the eyes while she raised her head back up to face them, “I know it sounds fare fetched, and probably out of this world and the stuff of bed time stories… but princess, Grace,” he narrowed his gaze at her, “as much of an asshole as Iron may be,” Free ignored his friends’ agreement, “We both are telling you the truth. I saw it myself as well… the mare grabbed me by her talons. There were several gems that went up along the side of it, like a gauntlet or something.”

Grace stopped for a moment, before leaning up to her friend and taking a deep breath while the others stood there wondering what she was up too. Settling back in to her seat, she crossed both her hooves over her chest, “You’ve both been drinking,” she glared back at them, “Now I’m one that can enjoy a drink myself… however, you must keep in mind that you are in fact telling me that you encountered a mare that was using magic, so probably a unicorn. Yet somehow was also able to grab you with a claw,” she stopped for a moment to let that sink in while she tried to reason with them, “What is the likely hood that instead it was a unicorn, and she simply used a telekinesis spell on you?”

Iron and Free looked at one another, yes that thought never really crossed their inebriated minds, though they both know what they saw. Even through their drunken mist. “But it wasn’t as spell!” Iron shouted back at her, before grabbing Free by the muzzle and lifting his head up unexpectedly, exposing his neck, “look at this!” he pointed to the bruise marks left by where the mare had grabbed him.

Grace leaned over her desk, as both she and Silver looked at the discoloration under the coat. The drake took his own claws, no larger than the average gryphons’, while he placed them on Free to try and match up the markings, “I can’t see any distinctive claw impressions left, can you?” he asked Grace.

“Nor can I,” the princess rose back up and plopped back in her chair, while she continued to glare at Iron, “anything else to add to your rebuttal?”

“There is no claw impressions to make out because they were close together?” Iron tried to pose to her. But to no avail as Iron let Free go and they stood their dumbfounded for a moment.

“Free…” the mare said as she grabbed his attention, “I respect you, you’re a hardworking guard, and a great friend to have around. Though like anypony else, you’re just a pony and have slip ups…” Free lowed his head like a scolded child while her eyes turned to the other in the room, “Iron… I don’t like you,” Grace started out with bluntly as the colt just rolled his eyes at her, “You’re here because I need creatures like you to do your job… now it’s late, and I don’t feel like listening to the ramblings of a lowly, discourteous, arrogant, narcissist.”

“That may be true…” Iron said simply.

“Especially when he is present in what seems to be his natural state,” Grace leaned in closer to the colt, rising off her seat so she looked up at him in his hazel eyes from only a few inches away, before letting the last insult fall off her tongue, “A drunk…”

“That is also true…” Iron agreed fully with her without any sign of a fight to throw in to what she said.

“If you will excuse me, I would like some sleep,” She tried to wave them off, “If you stay here any longer you’ll both be telling me that this mysterious mare got up and flew away…”

Both Iron and Free looked away from each other as they held their tongues, while Grace processed the response in to her words the only way she could, “Oh damn it…”

“Well she did fly…” Iron said flatly, “the wings were under her cloak the whole time.”

“Then why didn’t she use them earlier while leaving the castle?”

“She could have been spotted if she left from the high walls by one of the sentries.”

“So those wings that you say you saw could have been nothing more than a unicorns’ magic, Telekinesis…” Grace deadpanned at him, “Seriously, you’re the teacher here, you solve the problem and tell me what can’t be explained by simple logic,” she waited for the unicorn to respond before throwing her last bit in, “after all I don’t deny that there may have been some pony or creature there, just not what you say, and if it was a simple unicorn, than they probably didn’t come from the Gryphons or the DDR.”

“That’s where you’re wrong Gracie…” Iron narrowed his eyes at her, “After all if a unicorn was in a tight spot and needed to get out of it, they wouldn’t use a telekinesis spell to float themselves away, they would use teleportation. Oddly enough it’s easier to use than levitation because it just requires a momentary thought and not total concentration…”

He grinned at the mare while continuing to go in on her, “Plus telekinesis would have enveloped them in an aura, making them visible in the night sky to both us, and any guards on the wall. While at the same time, it would have been slow, which means Free here could have caught up with her… even in his state,” Iron placed both hooves down on her desk as he too leaned in to the mare, meeting her own glare with his, “Don’t try to school a teacher, Princess… you won’t win.”

Slowly but surely a breath escaped Graces’ throat in a long, and deep sigh. She’s met a decent amount of mules in the past while her parents paraded her around as their daughter, when she was just a youngling. Though all of them pale in comparison when it comes to stubbornness, to this one colt.

‘I need to take the loss on this one and just send him back,’ the thought crossed her mind for a moment, before she shook her head clean of the thought. After all she did somewhat, sort of, kind of, pay attention a little more to see how many suits he got done compared to the others there with him. Although she won’t say it out loud, she was rather impressed by the stallions’ work.

“Let’s say for a second here, that you’re right…” she mused while easing her mind, “and there was in fact some… creature, out there on the wall. That you ended up getting in a fight with in the streets. There would be proof, would there not?”

Iron and Free didn’t even look at one another as they stuck their hooves to their chins in unison, each thinking of what would have been left over from their little brawl. “I suppose you’re right,” Free answered back at the princess, “Why?”

“Well Freefall it’s quite simple,” Grace said while she clopped her hooves together, “Bring me the proof, and wipe away the doubt… shed some light on what you may have encountered,” her eyes turned to the unicorn before her, as they both tried to read the others game, “and I’ll have it looked in to further.”

“So you’re going to humor us?” Free questioned at first.

“Well not so much you, as I am myself… and that one,” the princess said as she pointed to Iron. Before getting up from her desk and making her way around to them, “The way I see it you both could have gotten just really drunk and wound up fighting some random citizen that may have looked like that they were coming out of the castle,” Grace reasoned while putting all the facts they laid out in to a single logical explanation.

“Yep, she’s humoring us…” Freefalls’ counterpart scoffed.

“I’m giving you something to do for the next day or two,” Grace grumbled at him, “other than drink… Mister Knight,” her hardened steel eyes glassed over while they stared daggers in to the colt. To which Iron simply brushed them off as if his skin was made of the same material, as she leaned in to him, “Seeing as for the time being I would like to get some sleep, and get you to shut your trap.”

“Oh I can think of a few different ways you could do that…” he did the same, leaning his head down to meet her own as he passed the princess a playful wink, “Though sleep would be put on the backburner.”

Grace scrunched her head back, biting down on her tongue and clenching her teeth. ‘I’m gonna kill this colt…’ she muttered to her own thoughts as she felt the involuntary blood start to seep in to her cheeks and face. “I can taste the alcohol on your breath… Iron Knight,” Grace whispered back to him to give herself an out, while she walked away calmly and smacked the end of her tail in his face, “I would wash up before you’re shift tomorrow, and get some sleep…”

“Yes, your Royal Assness…” Iron took an overly exaggerated bow, while Grace casually ignored the comment. Leading himself and Free out of the room and back to their own respective quarters to start the day anew, and in Irons case, hopefully some sort of apology.

Closing the door behind them, Silver and Grace were left alone once more in the comfort of her own office. For a moment or two, the princess simply stood there in silence, calmly letting the recent events replay in her mind while she marked them down for what they were.

The ramblings of an incoherent, intoxicated colt, with too much on his mind.

“He’s flirty when he’s drunk, isn’t he?” Silvertongue said to break the ice that was forming between them.

“No…” Grace answered in a matter-of-fact manor, “I think he would have done that regardless of the alcohol level in his system.”

Silver glanced down at her, watching the coat along her facial features turn from a crimson purple hue to its natural cobalt. Smirking at her, he couldn’t help but poke some of his own fun, “Never the less,” he almost purred at her, “it certainly got you flustered…”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” she snapped back at him, instantly jumping to the defense as her heart rate started to double and the blood returned to her cheeks once more.

“Oh nothing your majesty,” Silver packed up his small satchel as he swung it across his shoulder and headed towards the door, “though like you suggested to Mister Knight, you should probably get some rest as well… Goodnight Grace.” He finished off, closing the door before he could hear any sort of rebuttal to his comment.

Finally, Grace was all alone in her office. Standing there in the middle of the floor, with not even a sound being made by the wind blowing outside the window against the old structure. Silently agreeing with her assistant, Grace stowed away the smaller reports that could wait till the morning, and set aside anything she may need for the upcoming committee meetings that would dot her schedule. Wars didn’t simply start over night, they took weeks if not months of planning to set in motion, though it just takes a single spark to set it all off.

“A spark that I’m dreadfully waiting to come…” the princess muttered as she strolled to the door herself, before picking her head up, and putting a smile on her face to meet any other she may pass in the castle.