Everypony got an early start the next morning. Twilight, as always, was up at the crack of dawn, with a sleepy Nyx and a grumbling Spike trailing in her wake.(1) To Nyx's bleary-eyed surprise, Cadence and Shining Armor were up as well and already scurrying about to prepare for the day. It seemed that they both had busy, and unpredictable schedules, and the early hours and the late evening were among the rare times they had together. Because of this they made a point of always taking breakfast together, no matter what.

Breakfast actually was rather nice, with every little frill you could imagine: fresh fruit, pastries, juice, toast, coffee, little pats of butter set out on a dish, cream in a little pitcher... The serving staff had given Nyx and Spike both a heaping stack of flapjacks. Nyx's appeared to be blueberry, while Spike's were layered in between, to his delight, with a syrup made of crushed emeralds. Both were chowing down with a hearty appetite.

To Nyx's surprise, Shining Armor had waved aside his own proffered plate of berry pancakes with a shake of his head. A good night's sleep and a plate full of warm buttery flapjacks had temporarily cured her of her timidity, so she piped up. "Why doncha wan' yo' pancakes?" She asked, her mouth full. "Dey're good!"

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Nyx," Twilight said automatically without looking up from her oatmeal. Nyx mumbled an apology. For all Rarity's coaching, Nyx was still a little filly and tended to forget her manners when she was in a good mood.

Shining Armor twitched a little. "I'm afraid I've gotten a little sick of Crystal Berries in everything. It's like they don't grow anything else around here," he muttered to himself. One of the servants give a little moue' of disapproval at Shining Armor's comment, but said nothing. Oblivious, Shining Armor served himself some fresh fruit and a plain danish.

Nyx, surprised, raised her fork and pointed at it with an inquisitive noise. "Yes, those are Crystal berries," Twilight said.

Nyx carefully swallowed and dabbed her mouth with a napkin like Rarity had taught her. "They taste like blueberries," she said, then paused and licked her lips thoughtfully. "Well, almost like blueberries... but... tingly? Like you can taste the sparkles." She looked closer at her pancakes; now that she was looking she noticed that the berries studded in each flapjack were twinkling a little bit in the light. "Wow, even the food sparkles here!"

"That's the Crystal Empire for you," Cadence chuckled.

Nyx thought for a moment. Aunt Cadence was smiling at least. She seemed a lot friendlier than she had last night. Maybe she should keep talking? Rarity called it 'friendly chatter;' she said it was important to make people feel at their ease. "Always pick a nice safe neutral topic," the fashionista had told her.  And there were a few questions Nyx had, that had been bubbling up in her brain the entire train ride to the Crystal Empire. "Auntie Cadence?"

"Yes?"

"How do you keep dragons away?"

This question was so odd that it made everyone set down their utensils and look at her. "What do you mean?" Cadence asked, puzzled.

Nyx hesitated, a little self conscious at their reaction. Obviously what she thought was a nice casual topic and what everypony here thought was a nice casual topic were two different things. She decided to forge on ahead. "I mean, dragons eat gems, right?" Cadence nodded. "Well, everything here is made of shiny sparkly crystals! If a dragon saw it he'd be chomping up everything in sight!" It seemed a fair enough question, and a nice safe topic. Well, safe as anything could get that had to do with dragons.

"Not all crystals are gems, Nyx," Twilight said. "I'm not sure a dragon would find just any old crystal to be appetizing." Or would they? She silently wondered. She looked at Spike.

Spike saw her glance and interpreted it. He made a so-so motion with his hand. "Eh, kinda sorta," he said. "Most of 'em just don't taste real good. "

"But how would the dragon know?" Nyx insisted, caught up in the topic. "Like, suppose there was a dragon flying over the Crystal Empire..." she held up her fork in one hoof and held it over her plate, miming a dragon flying over the countryside. "Flap flap flap, rarrr, boy I'm hungry," she said, making her voice low and growly. "Oh, look down there! Lots and lots of shiny gems to eat! Arrr..." the fork dove into the plate and Nyx scooped up a load of pancake, stuffing it into her mouth. "Arm narm narm narm..."

Shining armor snorted, spraying coffee out his nose. He mopped his face with his handkerchief, huffing and snorting while he composed himself. He mentally scolded himself for falling for the act. Doggone it, this was still Nightmare Moon...

Spike and the girls laughed out loud at Nyx's performance. Twilight giggled, "Well I suppose Mister Dragon would get a big mouthful of crystal buildings and find out they tasted bad."

"But then it'd be even worse!" Nyx exclaimed. "Arm narm narm, AUGH, this is awful, it tastes like brussels sprouts and cough syrup! Argh, now I'm angry, let's go break stuff!" Nyx walked her fork through the pancakes, mauling them. "Stomp stomp stomp, buildings squished in my toes, arrr..."

Shining Armor snorted coffee again. Great Maker that Fancy Roast made his sinuses burn... No. I am not falling for this charade, he thought, annoyed at himself.

"Eat your pancakes," Twilight managed to say between helpless giggles. Nyx complied, digging into her monster-mashed plate.

When Cadence finally composed herself she tried to venture a reply. "A dragon couldn't fly overhead, anyway," she said. "The Crystal Heart protects us from outside dangers, a dragon couldn't get through. But I'm sure that the Crystal Guard has a response plan for a dragon attack."

"Really? What is it?" Nyx said, turning to Shining Armor.

Shining Armor blinked. "I have no idea," he said. He was darned well going to look it up later.

"And what about Changelings?" Nyx went on. "The Crystal Heart is full of love energy, the Changelings must go bonkers for it."

Shining Armor scowled at the mention of the creatures. " I added an anti-changeling forcefield to the Crystal Heart, first thing." No need to tell her it was a revised version of my own. "And we've got magic lanterns set all over the castle and every street in the Empire that dispel Changeling disguises."

"Besides which, we're far from their home in the wasteland, and the weather here is too far cold for their tastes," Cadence said.

Nyx's nose scrunched up as she thought. "But we got here," she pointed out. "If a pony can get somewhere, a changeling that looks like a pony can get there. And why would a forcefield made out of love stop a Changeling that eats love?"

Shining Armor rubbed his chin with a hoof. That was an unpleasantly true point about the Changelings. They weren't mindless insects, after all; they were thinking creatures and could figure out a way around an obstacle.

"When we defeated Chrysalis, our forcefield was made out of our love," Cadence replied, smiling at Shining Armor over her coffee cup. Shining blushed and smiled a bit at the memory. "And she and her Changelings certainly didn't seem to care for it."

Nyx "huh"ed at that. "It musta been like getting beat in the face with a sandwich," she commented, forking another load of pancakes in.

Darn it, the orange juice burned his sinuses even worse than the coffee. Doggone it, it's Nightmare Moon, remember no matter how much she makes you want to bust a gut, it's Nightmare Moon....

With a heroic effort and a hastily grabbed napkin he managed to disguise his reaction as a bought of coughing. Coughing, choking and strangling... "So what's on the schedule for everyone today?"  he managed to get out.

"A long list of meetings, as always; There's a group that wants to change the zoning laws. Their argument is that they want ponies to build what they need, not what some city official thinks they should want. The city planners of course are opposed... Diplomats from several countries that want to negotiate trade agreements--- I'm having trouble getting them to understand the Crystal Empire's stand."

"Which is?" Twilight queried.

"We only trade with nations that have the same civil rights protections that we do, and some form of representative government. The Crystal Empire was just freed from rule by a tyrant; the ponies here have no interest in making another tyrant fat off our trade." Cadence rather primly buttered a scone. "Then there's the royal treasury, the holidays and festivities board--- that's a lot more important when your country depends on something like the Crystal Fair to keep its greatest protection recharged--- then the office of roads and rails, to discuss adding a zeppelin port.... then to the parliament to speak to the house of nobles about all the bills we're trying to get passed or revoked...." she sighed and regarded her scone. "Basically another day of silliness.... telling everypony 'Yes, go do that like you decided" and telling the ones who complain 'no, you can't do that.' " She took a bite of her scone and chewed thoughtfully.

"Well my day sounds almost simple compared to that," Twilight said. " Spike and I are going to head to the Crystal Empire library and see what sort of progress they've already made."

"And that's the end of my vacation," Spike said, resting his chin in his hand. "What about you, Shining Armor? You gonna be going to all those meetings with Cadence?"

Shining coughed awkwardly. "Um, no. Crystal Empire law; the royal consort doesn't have any say in such matters, and in fact it's a breach of etiquette for them to attend."

"...Oh," Twilight said awkwardly.

"Ouch," Spike muttered.

"What I am going to be doing," Shining Armor said, hastily moving on, "Is doing a round of interviews for promotions within the ranks of the Guard... as well as talking with several ponies about my, um, replacement." Shining Armor turned his attention back to his plate. "But all that is in the afternoon, so I'm going to probably be spending the morning going over the Guard paperwork. Or something." His mouth set in a thin line.

"Well... then that's good," Twilight said. "You and Nyx can spend some time together, get to know each other better--"

Nyx and Shining shot each other horrified looks neither was able to quite suppress.They both looked about as enthused with the idea as a trip to the dentist.

"Wait, what?" he said. "I thought she would be going with you, Twiley."

"She can't go with me, Shiney, Spike and I are going to be up to our eyebrows in it working on this library. And they're going to be renovating... everything! And I'm going to be in meetings or running around helping sort their archives and arrange their new cataloging system... There'll be no space for her, nothing for her to do--" She looked him in the eye. "Besides, I didn't bring her all the way to the Crystal Empire to spend her time watching me stack books."

"It's what she brought me here for," Spike grumped. Noone paid him any attention.

"And I certainly can't have her follow me around today," Cadence said. "The... the ponies I'm meeting with would be constantly griping... about a filly underhoof." She glanced aside. Actually they'd be doing something a lot louder than that if they clapped eyes on Nyx wandering around their offices, she added mentally. Equestria was distant, but it wasn't that distant. When the sun fails to rise for weeks on end, word gets around as to the reason why. The ponies in the Empire darn well knew who Nightmare Moon was, and it wouldn't take much brains to figure out the connection between her and a little black alicorn filly with turquoise cat eyes. "It would be best all around if you did keep an eye on her, Shiney."

Shining Armor started to protest that he was going to be at least a little busy himself, perhaps one of the servants could take Nyx on a tour of the city or something--- when he suddenly realized what he was about to say. He was about to foist Nightmare Moon off on some maid or butler for safekeeping. He quickly decided that the absolute last thing he wanted was to let the former Mare in the Moon out of his sight in the middle of the Crystal Empire for even a minute.

Nyx saw Shining Armor's face go from reluctant, to pensive, to calculating. She felt her exuberance deflate like an untied party balloon. "On second thought, you're right. I'd feel much better if I was watching her..."

Twilight was naive about some things, but she knew her brother. She gave him a less than gentle kick under the table. "Play nice, BBBFF," she said, forcing a smile.

Shining rubbed his hock. "Calm down, sis," he said. "So long as she behaves herself, we'll get along just fine. Won't we, Nyx?"

Nyx slumped a little lower in her seat, but nodded dutifully. She hadn't had a sinking feeling like this since the day Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon had shown up on the library stoop, saying that they wanted to be best friends...

"Okay, let's keep it simple," Shining Armor said. He and Nyx were in the study; he was pacing back and forth in front of a glum-looking Nyx, unconsciously behaving like he was in front of a squad of cadets under review.  "You want something, you ask for it first. If I'm working on something, or speaking with someone, you wave your hoof and wait, you don't speak unless spoken to. You are not to go anywhere without me, you stay in the same room I am in at all times. Do all that and we'll be just fine." He stopped and regarded her with a raised eyebrow. "Is that all clear?"

Nyx nodded.

"I can't hear you," Shining Armor said.

Nyx rolled her eyes. "Yes, sir," she said dolefully.

"Great! I'll be working right over there at the desk. You... read a book or something." He waved at the bookshelves lining the walls; Nyx visibly brightened at this. "Now I'm going to be busy so just leave me be.... what?" he said to her meekly waving hoof.

Nyx squirmed a little. "Umm..."

"This isn't working," Nyx said irritably. The closed door muffled her words.

"Well tough," Shining Armor said from the other side of the bathroom door. "I'm not leaving you unsupervised for a second."

"I can't GO with you standing there!" Nyx yelled. Having a boy standing right outside the bathroom was giving her fits.

"You think this is bad, try having your wife march right in while you're sitting there, like there isn't even a--- forget it, never mind," Shining Armor grumbled. Please, dear Maker, don't let one of my interviewees show up while I'm standing guard on a little filly going wee....

"What?? Ewww." Nyx was horrified. She couldn't imagine a violation of sacred personal space like that. "....Stop staring at the door."

"How did you know I was even looking at the door?"

"I didn't till you told me."

Grumbling at being 'zinged', Shining Armor turned in a circle, turning his back on the door. "I'm looking away from the door, better now?"

"And stop listening!"

"Look, just--- just turn the water on in the sink, that way nopony can hear you tinkle," Shining Armor said patiently. He flashed back briefly to the first time he gave that advice to somepony; a certain little purple filly with a starburst cutie mark and a terrible self-conscious streak...

There was a sound of someone turning on a faucet, then silence. "Nyx? You in there?"

"No," came back the drippingly sarcastic remark, "I fell in, pulled the handle and flushed myself away."

"Would you hurry up in there?"

"Would you stop talking to me??"

The clock in the study ticked softly. Shining Armor was at his desk, sorting through several stacks of files on the Guardsmen and cadets he was about to interview for their promotions; Nyx was lying on the floor, reading one of a pile of books she had picked at random from the shelves. Tragically, whoever had picked the books to add to the shelves had done so based on the principle that books in a study were supposed to impress the visitor rather than enlighten the owner; they were mostly old dry tomes with few illustrations even where they would be advisable (the book on Crystal Empire botany, complete with a large section on potentially toxic plants and fungi, was a glaring example) and acres of wheezy, self-important maundering by "respected scholars" of yesteryear-- who had largely been respected for their ability to sound intelligent and to praise their own genius.

The unknown librarian who had selected these works hadn't reckoned with the daughter of Twilight Sparkle, however; Nyx was dutifully burrowing her way through one of these juiceless volumes like a worm through an apple. (The aforementioned volume on Crystal Empire botany, if you must know.)

She would be making more headway, though, if somepony would just stop staring.

Every time she looked up from her book, Shining Armor was squinting at her suspiciously over the top of whatever folder he was reading. He didn't say anything; he just looked at her. Then he'd look away again, quickly, like she'd caught him looking.

Nyx gritted her teeth and decided to pretend it wasn't happening.

Shining Armor couldn't help it. Even looking away from his papers once in a while wasn't helping the itch at the nape of his neck. The filly was just too quiet. Worse, every time he tried to sneak a glance at her, he would catch her staring at him with those creepy cat-pupil eyes. Every. Single. Time.

He ground his teeth and decided to pretend it wasn't happening.

He heard her get up and trot to the bookcase; he risked watching from the corner of his eye. She went over to the bookshelves and pulled down another volume-- earth-pony style, with the spine of the book in her mouth. Why didn't she use her magic?-- and add it to the slowly growing book fort in the middle of the floor.

Oh, the memories that brought back. Had she picked up that habit from Twiley? Or maybe even inherited it from her...?

Shining Armor gave himself a mental shake. Don't be ridiculous. They're not even blood relatives!

Still... those gaps in the bookshelves, all in the bottom two rows.... that little three-sided pile of books... that little clip-clop of a tiny filly trotting back and forth... that suspicious glare as she stopped and turned to stare at him...

---whups.   "What?" she demanded, half guilty, half suspicious.

"Nothing." Shining Armor went back to his work. Nyx grumped to herself. The big bully was just pushing her buttons, she knew it. With a will she turned to her new book.

The minutes ticked by. Nyx felt eyes on her. She couldn't help it, she looked up.

Shining looked back.

They both looked away.

The clock ticked.

Shining sneaked another glance. Met Nyx's eyes.

Both looked away.

"What??" Nyx demanded.

"Nothing!" Shining Armor insisted.

"Why are you staring at me?" Nyx whined.

"I am not staring at you," Shining Armor said truthfully. "Go back to your book."

The clock's ticking seemed slower. And louder.

Nyx could feel that itch on her neck. She clenched her teeth. She would NOT LOOK.

The clock ticked even louder.

Nyx couldn't read the words in front of her. She was forced to just focus on the crease between the pages. Doggone it, she was not going to--

She peeked. There he was, staring at her again.

Just like. Every. Other. Time.

Nyx's trigger temper finally went off. She jumped to her feet, kicking her book in Shining Armor's direction. It went a whole half foot, but the intention was there. "WHAT?? WHAT IS IT??" she yelled.

Shining Armor jumped in startlement, then got to his own hooves, his own temper flaring. "Nothing!" he yelled back. "What are you yelling about?"

"YOU!!"

"I am not bothering you," Shining Armor said angrily. "And I do not appreciate being shouted at, little filly!"

Nyx got right up in his face, her face flushed red under her black coat. "Then STOP STARING AT ME, you big dumb PLOTHEAD!!"

Her timeout lasted until the first guard arrived for his review.

The first guardpony arrived in his armor, looking both rather dapper and rather nervous.  He was looking to be promoted from second lieutenant to first, and he had no idea what to expect from the foreign unicorn who had been in charge of the Guard since the Crystal Empire's return.

He certainly hadn't expected to find the acting Captain of the Guard in his study... with a coal-black alicorn filly sitting in the corner, sulking.  "Ah, Second Lieutenant Diamond Bright, come in, have a seat. I've been reviewing your file, and... is there something wrong, Lieutenant?"

It was an understandable question, as Diamond Bright hadn't taken his eyes off Nyx from the moment he stepped in the room. The crystal pony seemed to think over his words. "I'm... sorry if I walked in on a family thing, sir...." he digressed.

Shining Armor shrugged. "Sorry about that. Okay, Nyx, your time out is over. Go on." Her lower lip stuck out in a pout, Nyx slid off her little stool and left the corner. "I'm going to be in a meeting with this pony for a while, so I'm going to trust you to go entertain yourself. Don't leave the royal quarters though." Head down, the alicorn filly shuffled on out, closing the door behind her.

The instant she was gone, Diamond Bright's head whipped around. "Was that--?" he whispered conspiratorially to Shining Armor, pointing over his shoulder.

Curiosity piqued, Shining Armor said, "Was that who, Lieutenant?"

Diamond Bright gulped. "Nightmare Moon." He corrected himself. "Or the filly who used to be Nightmare Moon."

"You recognized her?"  It was easy to forget, but the Crystal Empire had disappeared over a thousand years ago... shortly before the rise of Nightmare Moon. The Mare in the Moon didn't have the same meaning for the ponies here.

"After our return, several of us in the Guard took the initiative of updating ourselves-- reading up on current forces and powers like King Sombra that might be a threat to the Empire," Diamond Bright said. "Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis, Parasprite infestations..."

Shining Armor was impressed. "So you make a point of studying Eques-- studying the Crystal Empire's potential enemies? And for your information, yes, that was the ex Nightmare Moon... she calls herself Nyx now. No need to worry. She was depowered when she surrendered. She's no more powerful than any filly her age... er, size... well. You know."

Diamond Bright nodded. "Yes sir, I do. It took some time to get a debriefing from Canterlot on the whole Nightmare Moon situation in particular."

Shining Armor nodded. "Well that's a good start on impressing me with your qualifications, Lieutenant." The pony guard sat up a little straighter. "So let's begin this interview by testing that noggin of yours with a few hypothetical situations."

He thought for a moment and smiled. "Tell me, Lieutenant: what's the standing Guard protocol for dealing with an attack on the Capitol by a hungry dragon?"

Nyx lay on her mother's bed and moped. Her big promise to fix things between her and Shining Armor sure wasn't off to a great start. But was it her fault he was such a big grouch?

Maybe, said a tiny little voice. Mom always talked so much about how much fun he was. How he was her BBBFF. What's different here, except you?

Nyx shook that off. She wasn't going to give up that easy, was she? She'd been chomped by a hydra once, she was tougher than that! She just needed to try harder... For one thing she needed to apologize to Uncle Shining for shouting at him. She thought that over. Had she ever really apologized to Shining Armor or Aunt Cadence for what happened? Really really apologized?

"How do you apologize for something that big?" she muttered aloud. "'I'm really really sorry I brainwashed you' doesn't really cut it, does it."  She thought back. How did ponies do it in books?

She remembered one story where a prince who had hurt a village of ponies with a foolish law because he was angry had apologized by throwing the village a big feast. Nyx thought it over. She couldn't possibly throw a big feast. But maybe she could make dinner?

The more she thought about it, the more she liked it. She would make Shining Armor some lunch; she'd bet he'd be hungry after his meeting. And maybe write an "I'm sorry" letter to go with it? She clapped her hooves; yes, that was perfect. She jumped off the bed and trotted to the kitchen.

For convenience the royal chambers had their own kitchen; that way not only could the staff prepare their meals right at hand, but if either of the royal couple got the urge to fix themselves something for a change they could do so. When Nyx got to the kitchen, it was empty of staff--- Cadence and Shining Armor both preferred to fix their own midday meals, and so gave the servants the middle of the day off.

Nyx took quick stock of the kitchen and larder. What would be good, but easy to fix? Soup and sandwiches, she decided. She began gathering supplies for celery soup and daffodil sandwiches. It took several trips and several precarious climbing expeditions, headbutting a stool around the kitchen to stand on, but she finally got it all. Lucky, they had all the fixings for daffodil sandwiches, even a bread toaster. Double lucky, the soup was already pre-made, in a jar! This was going to be easy.

She pushed the stool to the stove, climbed up, and set a pot on the burner. She dumped the jar of soup in and turned on the heat. She regarded the results. It didn't really seem like a lot of soup. Maybe another jar? Thought was deed; another trek across the kitchen with her stool and back, and she dumped a second jar in. A little spilled down the side; she'd clean that up later.

Leaving the soup to boil, she went to the counter where she had set out the sandwich fixings. She had a bit of trouble with the toaster-- one slice got stuck inside. Poop. Disgruntled, she went with plain bread instead. She slathered on plenty of butter and heaped on the cut daffodils, unknowingly failing to snip off the bitter stems first. There, done! She mashed the sandwich down firmly to make sure it stayed together, scooped it off the counter and plopped it on a plate, adding a sprig of parsley she found in a jar to the side.

The soup was just barely steaming. It was taking too long! Impatiently she cranked up the heat to twice what it had been. She waited a bit, but it didn't seem to be warming any faster. She decided to write her apology letter while the soup cooked.

She trotted down the hall, hurriedly looking for a pencil and paper. She could've run back to her and her mother's suite but she was worried about leaving the soup alone that long. With a moment's hesitation, she ducked into Uncle Shining and Aunt Cadence's room.

Her first impression was "Wow. Swanky." The royal bedchambers were dominated by an enormous four-poster bed, with a canopy full of ruffles and ribbons and a beautiful silk bedspread. Laid out across the bed were a gorgeous ballgown in pink and what looked to be Shining Armor's full dress uniform.

To Nyx's delight there was an inkwell and quill sitting on a tray on the nightstand. She trotted in and picked the tray up in her mouth and turned to gallop back to the kitchen.

It was then that what everyone in Ponyville called "the curse of the Crusaders" struck.

Individually, there was no denying that the ever-growing membership of the Cutie Mark Crusaders were smart, clever, gifted, and precocious colts and fillies. When they put their minds to it they could accomplish feats of physical prowess, inventive design and artistic skill that left their peers wondering why the hay all of them hadn't gotten cutie marks on day one. But at the same time, paradoxically, they had a knack for having their plans come apart at the seams on them without warning.

Granted, it was largely due to the fact that if capability were propulsion and wisdom were steering the average CMC was the equivalent of a pair of bicycle handlebars duct-taped to a giant skyrocket. Yet at the same time, even simple things could go awry on them in spectacular ways. The curse struck in direct proportion to the number of Crusaders involved, but even a lone pony who wore the Crusader badge could suddenly find themselves in the middle of chaos that would have left Discord giggling.

And the Curse was working overtime today.

Nyx's hoof caught on the fringe of the exotic rug. She tripped and fell flat on her chin, the tray bouncing off the floor like a springboard. The ink bottle... the unsealed, open ink bottle... inscribed a perfect arc in the air and splashed down...

Right on the bed....

Spraying ink all over both the ball gown and the dress uniform.

"No," Nyx breathed, her brain seizing up. "No no no nononoNO!"

She was dead. Dead, dead, dead. They'd banish her to the Moon. they'd banish her to the Sun. They'd find someplace even worse to banish her to, and banish her there twice. She did a frantic hoofy-dance in the middle of the floor. After a few seconds of hysterical silent panic, a thought floated to the surface of her panic-frozen brain like words in the window of a magic 8-ball:

You have to get those clean before the ink dries.

"The laundry room!" Nyx whispered. She seized both the suit and the dress in her mouth, ignoring the taste of ink, and dragged them down the hall to the laundry room.

The laundry room had been put in for the same reason as the kitchen; convenience of the servants. It was mercifully modern; several extra large, magically powered industrial capacity washers and dryers graced the walls, as well as equipment for pressing and dry-cleaning. Nyx ran to the first washer and crammed the dress in as fast as her hooves could; with a second thought she crammed the fancy uniform into the second. She dashed around, looking for soap. There was an enormous box labeled "detergent," she opened it...

And stared. Instead of powder or flakes, the box was full of these little... pods. Nyx prodded one with a hoof. They were vaguely squishy, and about the size of a marshmallow. What were they? She tipped up the box and read the label aloud:

"Crystal brand Detergo-Pod laundry soap. One pod to a load gets everything sparkling clean!" She gave the pods a skeptical look. They were apparently soap, but... one to a whole load of laundry? No way. She didn't trust that to be enough, not by a long shot. This was an emergency! She emptied half the box into one washer, and dumped the rest into the other. She slammed the lids closed, cranked the knobs over to "heavy duty" (that was for heavy duty messes, right? Of course) and hit "start." Thank goodness all the buttons were labeled.

Whew. That was close. Then she remembered the bedspread... she ran back and, with a great deal more trouble, dragged the bedspread to the laundry room. One more washer, another box of Detergo-pods, and the day was saved.

"Whew," Nyx said, sighing in relief. She might actually live after all. Leaving the machines to do their job, she trotted back to the bedroom to get the spilled ink bottle, mop up the few drops on the floor,  and write her apology letter.

"Well, Lieutenant," a smiling Shining Armor said to a hopefully smiling Diamond Bright. "I have to say that I'm impressed with what I see here. I think it's fairly obvious that your promotion is--"

Both smiles were wiped off in the next moment, when from elsewhere in the royal quarters came the shrill scream:

"FIRE! FIIIIIRE!!"

Both soldiers bolted from their chairs and out of the room. they stood in the drawing room, looking around, trying to determine where the scream was coming from. "This way sir!" the Lieutenant yelped, darting down the connecting hallway. Shining Armor right on his tail.

Both ponies skidded to a halt. Halfway down the hall terminated in a wall of white.  "What the...?" Shining Armor said. A blob of foam dripped down  to float at his feet.

From somewhere in the white mass a filly screamed. "FIRE! HELLLP!"

Without hesitation, Diamond Bright dove into the white mass. Hesitating for a brief moment out of confusion, Shining Armor followed. They flailed blindly through the foamy mass, blundering through the laundry room door by sheer luck. Shining could hear washing machines rumbling and juddering somewhere. "Nyx! Where are you?" Shining shouted. He acked and spat out the bit of soap that got in his mouth.

"I don't know!" The filly wailed. "Everything's all white!"

"Okay, just keep talking, I'll follow your voice..."

After several seconds of floundering and shouting and coughing out soap suds, Shining Armor managed to find Nyx. He picked the filly up and threw her over his back. "Lieutenant! Where are you?"

"Over here sir--- shutting off the machines!" There was a series of clicks, and the rumbling machines fell silent. Slowly the soap suds settled, revealing three foam-covered ponies (or at least three pony-shaped foam blobs) standing in the middle of billowing mounds of suds.

"The heck happened here?" Shining Armor said, wiping his face clear.

"Looks like someone dumped a whole box of soap pods in these machines, Sir," Diamond Bright said. "And um... ouch..." He pulled the remains of the laundry out. "Three casualties to report, sir. Looks like they used to be a silk ball gown, a royal dress uniform and a bedspread..."

"What..." for a moment a dozen questions warred in Shining Armor's mind for precedence. But before he could speak, Nyx started to sniffle. Then the floodgates opened and she started to bawl.

"I'm sorreeee!!! It was supposed to be a surprise, and I wanted to apologize for stuff and then the ink spilled and I tried to clean up and---" In a torrent of wails, sobs, and hiccups, Nyx conveyed the sequence of events that had led to the disaster around them. She finally trailed off with "...and now I made a huge mess and ruined Auntie Cadence's dress and your bedspread and your nice uniform and...." She sniveled and buried her face in her hooves.

Shining Armor, to his own surprise, couldn't find it in himself to be angry. Not in the face of a sobbing little filly. "Well," he sighed," I suppose Aunt Cadence won't be happy about the dress. But we can buy new dresses and bedspreads. And it's only soap suds, I'm pretty sure it'll be easy to clean up..."

"I'll send for a cleaning crew, Sir," Diamond Bright said.

"Yes, do that," Shining agreed, with a wave of a hoof.

Nyx sniffed. "But what about your nice uniform?"

Shining Armor regarded the thing. He recognized it, even as a soapy and ink stained mess of wrinkles. It was the "new" dress uniform created for him by-- he forgot the name of the designer picked to make it, but he cursed it daily. It had been a hideous thing with pleats, gold braid, enormous buttons and plumes and had made him look, in his opinion, like a circus clown. It had been intended to debut at a royal ball that weekend, despite all his protests. Oh, what a tragic loss; they would have to design a new one. "Ehh... I'll live with the loss."

There was a "snerk" that sounded suspiciously like it came from the Lieutenant.

A question finally bubbled its way to Shining Armor's forebrain. "Nyx, why the heck did you yell 'FIRE?' "

"Well," Nyx said with a mournful little sniff, "Nopony would've come if I'd yelled 'LAUNDRY.' "

Lieutenant Diamond Bright began wheezing and sneezing violently. Shining Armor was having a little trouble himself. "First Lieutenant, go fetch that cleaning crew, would you?" he managed to say with a straight face.

"Yes, sir," Diamond Bright saluted.... then did a double take and grinned. "Really, sir?"

"You earned it," Shining Armor said. "And I like the fact you think fast on your hooves. Congratulations." Diamond Bright beamed.

At that second all three of them smelled smoke.

Nyx gasped. "The SOUP !!" She jumped off her uncle's back and galloped for the kitchen, leaving a furrow in the foam. A moment later her shriek came from the kitchen.

"AGH! FIRE!! FOR REAL THIS TIME!!"

Both soldiers ran to the rescue again.