“My, my, what a terrible mess. Completely unbefitting of a room in the royal palace,” a stallion's voice chided in melody to the percussion of his clopping hooves as he entered the devastated chambers. He spoke with a disturbing evenness, a lilting, artificial enchantment playing subtly through his tone. “It’s such a dreary fact that all these rooms appear the same to me. Makes my job quite difficult. Which one is this?”

“Why hello, Guard-Captain Glancing Shock,” Princess Celestia said with clear disapproval in her voice, “so nice of you to grace us with your presence so punctually.” Luna had left quite some time ago to raise the moon after Celestia lowered the sun from this room, but had returned and currently laid comfortably on a cushion near the center of the room where the prone creature still slept, a thick tome open before her. Ridge Dancer’s fear had since succumbed to boredom, her nature finally overpowering her deference to the princesses. She stood with her face to a wall in the back of the room, trying to find patterns in the dark green veins that ran through the marble.

Through the threshold of the room entered a cornflower blue pegasus. He moved with viperous grace from the entrance of the room, and even with her millennia of experience Celestia was left befuddled over whether his agile motions reminded her of the aery lightness of a dandelion’s seeds dancing in a soft mountain breeze, or the sanguine calculation of a jungle cat stalking its prey, its coiled muscles ready to snap and loose death without warning. He seemed to shift between either mode of locomotion effortlessly and without warning, such that the two blurred together randomly. Far more off-putting was the aloof calculation behind his half-lidded eyes, an apathy that seemed to contradict his own lithe movements. The fact that he always had a mild smile on his face, the outer edges of his mouth hinting at an upward turn without ever actually completing the action, further added to his perturbing nature.

He bore a shock of brilliant white mane that was jaggedly disheveled and tinged a darker blue shade at the edges than his coat, and matched the color of his cutie mark: three simple white lightning bolts outlined in a slightly darker blue, forming a circle. His spartan uniform, if it could even be called that, contrasted sharply with his unreadable physical faculty. Eschewing the staple armor that enchanted all guardponies with a simple glamour such that they all shared a similar appearance, he instead wore a simple leather brigandine with holes cut in the sides for his wings. Two swords, one a rapier and the other a gladius, were mounted in scuffed black leather sheaths across his back and crossed right where his wings joined his upper back to avoid impeding their movement in flight. His badge of rank was displayed plainly on his left breast, clearly added to the thoroughly worn—though well-maintained—light armor much more recently.

Seemingly oblivious to his occupational faux pas and ignoring her implied insult, Glancing Shock merely stared at her for a few seconds, the silence seeming to stretch on longer than it should have as his blank, amber eyes had fogged over with ambiguous anticipation.

Celestia snorted as her regal visage imploded and instead replied flatly to his original query, “It is one of the many waiting rooms for nobles seeking a private audience with myself or my sister.”

“Oh, good. I do say, you two seem to run yourself ragged attempting to appease that lot,” he waved his hoof errantly. “Fewer waiting rooms amounts to less nobility, which amounts to less mane-pulling frustration. I still say that sending them to me first to cull the chaff would be a better option than worrying yourselves with their banal implorations. I know just how to handle that sort. Just how to handle them.” His voice had segued from a musing monotony to a razor’s edge almost instantly.

Celestia's eyes narrowed, and while Luna still appeared to be studiously absorbed in her massive tome, one of her eyebrows cocked slightly. “Oh? And how would you handle peaceful petitioners with valid requests, Guard-Captain Glancing Shock?” the white alicorn asked, a faint threat tinging the edge of her otherwise patient voice.

“With a false smile,” the Guard-Captain replied, his voice reverting back to its tempered evenness. “I might even suffer their presence for a time. I certainly wouldn’t destroy their waiting rooms, of course, but that is an ingenious ploy, dear Princesses, if I do say so myself. What would they do without their soft couches and their refreshments while they waited to harangue the benevolent rulers of our happy little nation with their quibbling, selfish demands?” Celestia suppressed the urge to flinch as one of his hooves shot up to his chin with shocking speed, landing there and remaining in mocking rumination.

“Glancing Shock, what took you so long to address what is clearly an issue of palace safety?”

He merely held his hoof to his chin, staring confusedly at the ceiling.

Celestia’s eyes hardened, her brows furrowing in growing anger. “Captain, I grow tired of your games. I command you to answer me.”

The pegasus’s eyes almost widened enough to notice, before he shook his head and looked around in honest confusion. “A thousand apologies, Princess Celestia. You know...how I am.” There wasn’t a hint of solace in his voice, he merely stated it plainly.

He sighed mildly, as though the act of breathing were an almost inconsequential inconvenience. “I assumed there might be a ruckus when I assigned Ridge Dancer to your personal guard, so when I caught wind of an altercation, but received word from neither you nor Luna, I presumed my assumptions correct, considering her history.” He shot an accusatory glance towards Ridge Dancer, who was too thoroughly entranced by the patterns in the marble wall to notice. “When a dozen injured guardsponies entered the castle infirmary, I again assumed that the belligerence of a certain intractable guardspony was the culprit.” Ridge Dancer traced her hoof along a particularly elegant pattern on the wall. “I immediately tended to them, ensuring, along with the medical staff, that they would all make a full recovery, and that I would not have to remove a particular Private’s horn with my sword if they did not. For some reason, none of them mentioned our newest guest, and I’ll have to speak to them about this before I give you a reason for their silence. I’m assuming they feel shamed at failing to apprehend the intruder, however.” The glaze behind Ridge’s eyes began to slough off as her focus sharpened on the world around her again. “Only after their wounds were tended did I make time for the Filly Scout leader who had been requesting an audience with me for the last two hours.”

The sound of ripping paper coming from the center of the room may as well have been a thunderclap for all the attention it gained. Glancing Shock and Celestia merely cast measured glances towards the sound, but Ridge Dancer jerked her head around violently and gawked at Luna.

Luna focused blankly at the severed page floating in front of her, willing her features to remain as measured and unreadable as her older sister’s. Her endeavor only appeared to succeed with the mare private.

“Hmph. ‘Tis tragedy that ponies of this day and age are given such amorous refuse as this incompetent filth to read,” she muttered off-hoofedly, crumpling the piece of paper in midair as she violently snapped the book closed, the name “Hemingmane” written in gilded lettering along its spine. “A thousand years and literature still remains a shallow derivative of Shakespony’s excellence.” She huffed, but glanced with shameful longing at the book she had just set aside.

Glancing Shock, unruffled, continued, “The Filly Scout leader had come to petition the royal confectioners to purchase some home-baked goods to support the local chapter. After being refused, they were on their way out of the castle when they were caught up in what, they described, was an escape attempt by one of Luna’s more exotic pets.”

To her credit, Luna remained stoic throughout this part of the Guard Captain’s explanation.

“After the animal was subdued, she was apparently ordered to contact me. She did about 5 minutes ago. So, here I am,” he chirped indifferently, his voice barely raising an octave with the final sentence in an awkward semblance of cheer.

“...You should have told us,” Luna finally whispered at her sister.

“And further embarrass my sister in front of half the guard after she had just sent a civilian to fetch the Guard-Captain? Perish the thought, Luna,” Celestia replied warmly, the mischievous flame in her eyes mirroring what had danced through her little sister’s features earlier in the day.

“They really do bear an uncanny similarity...” Luna pleaded.

“No, Luna,” Celestia pressed a hoof to her forehead, “the Guard’s armor and the Filly Scouts’ uniforms look nothing alike. The latter is not even armor. I trust that this incident is all the incentive you need to perform your due diligence and acquaint yourself, finally, with the officers outside of the Night Guard?”

Luna simply pouted for a moment, before nodding obstinately and levitating the Hemingmane book back into the air to continue her reading. Celestia sighed, an act becoming far more common for her as the present day wore on. ‘Still, I shall have to reward the Filly Scout’s troop leader for their loyalty in fulfilling my sister’s request. A few boxes of cookies won’t put the royal ledger into the red. Or a few hundred...’ Celestia mused over the acquisition of more pastries for her daily dessert before her meditations were shaken by a sudden, sharp gasp.

She turned her attention to Glancing Shock, who had relieved the creature of his two swords and now hugged them closely, staring up at Celestia with quivering, pleading eyes as all pretense of his characteristic, strictly moderated control was abandoned. His hair seemed to stand on end more than usual.

“Can I...” he exhaled in a hoarse whisper. “Can I keep them?!”

Celestia was momentarily taken aback by his rapid shift of temperament, but her features revealed none of her surprise. “Absolutely not,” she replied resolutely.

Glancing Shock wilted as a crestfallen despair overtook him momentarily, but in less than a second a physical wave shuddered through his features and he looked back up, the same half-dead glint in his eyes. He simply snorted and replied with his rhythmic drone. “Very well, then. Still,” he wondered aloud, “these swords are no normal weapons. These are the work of master craftsman. I’m not even sure I’ve seen their match amid the few examples you keep in your private vault, Princess Celestia, though I don’t know if any sword could hold a candle to your sisters'.”

Celestia levitated the weapons before her, both Luna and Ridge Dancer abandoning their distractions and coming closer to examine the weapons. “Indeed. The thin one even managed to temporarily sever the magic from my telekinesis spell.”

“But that’s- That’s impossible!” stammered Ridge.

“Hardly,” Glancing Shock smiled wanly for an instant before his mask reformed, “Just extraordinarily difficult. I imagine in all Equestria, the only two ponies capable of that are Luna and myself.” He cast a sideways glance towards the sleeping monster on the ground. “Interesting.”

“And very, very dangerous,” Celestia chided. 'Had it been anything more than a basic telekinesis spell?' she wondered grimly. She magicked the slightly curved weapon out of its sheath and suppressed a shudder as a dark chill fled through her body. Glancing Shock shivered visibly for a second, and Ridge Dancer’s teeth began chattering uncontrollably. Luna seemed unaffected, a small smile even playing across her lips as she studied the blade with an intense curiosity.

“P-p-please, Princess. P-p-p-put it aw-aw-away?” Ridge pleaded, staring in fear at the umbral, chilling aura emanating from the sword in waves of Chaos magic. Celestia noted that, while indeed a work of excellent craftsmanship and possessing a powerful, dark enchantment not unlike King Sombra’s twisted magics, its physical features were quite plain. She gave the weapon a final cursory examination before assenting to the poor unicorn’s request and re-sheathing the sword. Ridge dancer exhaled in sudden relief, though Luna seemed mildly dissatisfied. Glancing Shock merely stared blankly at something in the distance.

Celestia set the curved sword aside, and levitated its partner. The long sword’s physical appearance was, at first glance, the antithesis to the curved blade’s. Its cream-colored, ivory hilt gleamed with the decoration of numerous diamonds, topaz, and zircons, each of which sparkled a bit more than they otherwise should in the light of the room. The guard of the sword was a painstakingly detailed form of two golden chimera, their mouths facing inward and opening up towards the blade, which was covered by a royal blue sheath decorated by brilliant silver accents. Celestia unsheathed the sword and repressed the urge to allow an awed gasp to force its way from her lips, her composure maintained but only with millennia of discipline as waves of joy flowed through her.

This sword shone. There was really no other word to describe it; the light from the room refracted from the blade with a magnification of intensity that defied even her grasp of magical enchantment. Its light was brilliant, blinding even, its gleaming only slightly dimmed where arcane characters etched the blade, front and back, but even its physical light could not hold a candle to the warmth and prestige its very aura projected. Joy, contentment, honor, even love emanated from this sword. It was a hard love, that of a parent reprimanding a young child for an honest, ignorant mistake, but love nonetheless. And it flowed forth from this sword in a violent swell of Harmony magic.

Glancing Shock gazed at the long sword with open desire, his neutral temperament again temporarily abandoned. Ridge Dancer shielded her eyes with one hoof while reaching towards the light pleadingly with the other before planting her face on the floor after losing her balance, trying to steal a glimpse of the blade as she laid awkwardly with her rump still raised off the ground.

“Tis a bit bright for our tastes, we think,” Luna said, staring directly at the blade through squinting eyes. “Magnificent, however. Painfully magnificent.”

With a regretful sigh, Celestia sheathed the sword. The spell that came over the four ponies seemed to drop.

“Are you quite sure you don’t want me to requisition these weapons for use in the defense of Equestria?” Glancing Shock asked, his robotic composure regained. His unnerving temperateness had started to grate on Celestia’s patience, but she merely turned to Glancing Shock and shook her head. He simply stared blankly at her, as though his thoughts had hitched.

She almost sighed, but stopped herself. “No, Guard-Captain. These swords are to be confiscated immediately and stored with the Elements of Harmony in the royal vault. I shall be along shortly to unlock it before I head off to sleep.”

“Very well. I presume we will also be locking away these?” his hoof gestured questioningly, holding two curious metal items that dangled from corded cloth belts. They appeared to be handles attached to elongated pieces of blunt metal. “I’ve never seen their like before, but they appear to be of the same quality as the two swords and have their own odd sheaths. As such, I can only assume they are weapons of some sort.” He stared intently at her, awaiting a command.

“Yes, Guard-Captain,” Celestia replied, suddenly feeling very tired. Her headache had almost subsided to a dull throb, but still added to her exhaustion. Eyeing the center of the room, her horn glowed slightly as a wave of light passed over the being. “Also, his dark gray cape is host to powerful magics that I would like to identify,” she added, levitating the clothing off the being, flipping him over onto his back in the process. ”We shall store it with the rest. Luna, I trust you can manage the situation from here?” she asked.

“Of course, dear sister. Please, rest.”

“Ah!” Glancing Shock interjected. “There is still one other matter to attend to.”

The two princesses looked at him questioningly.

“Private Ridge Dancer,” he whirled suddenly, moving with a sickening speed that even Celestia had a hard time following. “Hi!”

Ridge Dancer yelped. “S-Sir!” A hoof shot reflexively to her forehead in salute.

“Do you recall why you were punished with Princess duty, Private?”

“P-punished?!” Ridge forced through her lips. “Sir, it’s a great honor to defend the princesses, sir!”

Glancing Shock lazily waved one hoof dismissively, “We’re both well aware the Princesses can take care of themselves, and I’m sure they’re sharp enough to have realized long ago that that particular detail is a form of punishment, like forcing a colt to stare at a corner for long stretches when he misbehaves.” Princess Luna looked upward thoughtfully before shrugging in passive agreement, whereas Princess Celestia gazed down upon the pair regally, neither confirming nor denying the Guard-Captain’s claim. Ridge Dancer’s jaw just worked silently, seemingly unable to respond. “You know how I handle unanswered questions, Private. I expect an answer.”

“A corporal stared too long at my cutie mark,” she muttered quickly.

“Try again, Private.”

Her eyes shot wildly between her superior officer and the two princesses, before she closed them and steeled herself for further embarrassment. Steadying her breathing, she said, “A corporal stared...no, I thought a corporal stared too long at my cutie mark, and I found it inappropriate.”

“And?” Glancing Shock lilted.

“I...put him through the wall of the barracks. But I didn’t break any of his bones or anything!”

“And I’m assuming your particular idiosyncrasy resulted in this?” He gestured to the rubble around the room.

“Yes, sir,” Ridge mewled humbly. “It slapped my flank and then ran off, hurting a bunch of the guard when it tried to escape.” Something moved deep below Glancing Shock’s amber eyes, as though a mountain had shifted and then settled. “Now that I think about it, though,” a memory of the monster’s apologetic look flashed through her mind, “it was probably just trying to heal my leg after it broke it-”

None of the ponies present quite registered the full range of the Guard-Captain’s movements in the next few milliseconds. There was just a flash of feathers and the smell of ozone like a lightning bolt had struck the room. In one instant Glancing Shock stood next to the princesses, interrogating Ridge Dancer and seemingly bored, and the next he was on top of the creature, his gladius in one hoof and pressed against its throat with barely enough force to draw blood, miniscule tendrils of electricity visibly snaking their way up and down the blade. He glared down at the creature hatefully, bringing his head around with stuttering, restrained slowness and looking Princess Celestia in the eye.

“Please,” he intoned politely in stark contrast to his quivering muscles, “let me kill it?”

“Sheathe your weapon immediately, Guard-Captain,” Celestia’s voice was so low it almost whispered, but she delivered the sentence with the hardened force of a hurricane’s gale.

“He assaulted my soldiers! He- he,” Glancing Shock spat, all pretense of control gone from his voice, “he hurt one of my ponies. He hurt a lot of them.”

“Glancing Shock, I assented to your promotion on the basis of one statement alone. I had initially expressed dismay and denial when Shining Armor recommended you, and almost vetoed your appointment in favor of Colonel Stone Wall. You are a violent, dangerous pony, in spite of your tactical and strategic acumen. When I expressed my concerns to your former Captain, Shining Armor, he agreed fully with me. However, he also told me, ‘Glancing Shock is far more dangerous than even you realize, Celestia. Because of his history, he also knows better than anypony how to match violence with violence, and, more importantly, to what degree. I may be speaking out of turn, but he's about as likely to lose control as you are, ma'am, and his devotion to sparing his soldiers from harm is beyond reproach. He’s exactly the type of Captain the Guard deserves.’ Am I to assume your predecessor's glowing praise of your self-control is nothing more than a mistake or a lie?”

The Guard-Captain’s left eye twitched uncontrollably, but with a snarl he removed the sword from the ugly creature’s throat. He shuddered visibly. He turned slowly to Celestia and muttered in a bored tone of voice, “Very well, Princess,” before trotting towards the exit with his oddly serpentine finesse. At the door, he paused, no longer even attempting to veil the malice in his voice. “But, if that thing brings any more harm to my guards-”

“You will do absolutely nothing without first consulting myself or Luna,” Celestia retorted sharply.

He quivered mildly in frustration, but turned in the direction of the vault that housed the Elements of Harmony and cantered off. Celestia watched him warily, wondering how she had ever been convinced to promote him to the head of her guard, but trusting Shining Armor’s judgment with enough faith to let the situation be. For now.

“I guess I’m on Princess duty for the foreseeable future,” Ridge Dancer mumbled dejectedly, drawing circles on the ground with her hoof.

“No, my little pony,” Princess Celestia said with a soothing voice. “I believe I know a more appropriate position, one far more suited to your particular talents. First and foremost, however, please remove the raiment of the Royal Guard.” Ridge suddenly felt a surge of dread rise in her chest.

Ridge Dancer grumbled, twisting her mouth and blowing a lock of her curly, bright orange mane out of her vision as she walked along the dank halls of the oft-disused palace dungeon. She had already stopped deriving pleasure from the creature’s head bumping rhythmically on the uneven brick floor as she magicked him by his leg across the ground to his cell. Tossing him in the general direction of the cell's bed, she set up a rudimentary containment spell, and then plopped down on her behind outside the door as she resigned herself to become the first dungeon guard in centuries. She sighed.

’So bored...’

Princess Luna gazed out the open windows of the royal throne room, observing the city of Canterlot as it shimmered like a jewel even in the waning hours of the early morning. From the height of the castle, the myriad twinkling, candle-lit windows in the city below was not unlike her own night sky, were it not for the city's inviting, warm glow; if her masterpiece of brilliant stars upon the night sky conveyed the mystery of a beauty undiscovered and untouched by pony hooves, below her was a canvas of light wrought solely through the familiarity and safety felt by everypony. Even if its earthly lights did not match the quantity of her distant stars, the soothing illumination of love and acceptance radiating from this city far outpaced her ability to enchant its occupants with the ephemeral machinations of billions of stars floating through the deep blue night sky, try as she might out of reverence to her stars' origins.

And she did try, because for every pony that could bask in the bustle of a city’s fleeting company, there was one who longed for the quiet enigma, for the implied exploration, that only her night sky could provide. For everypony that guffawed in the taverns below, clapping other patrons on the shoulder in boisterous, jovial camaraderie before retreating to the comfortable embrace of their own bed, there was a pony out there lying on a soft, grassy hillside, staring with stark sobriety into the expanse of her creation and wondering gently.

Over ten millennia old, now, she was no stranger to loneliness, and she knew all too well how the same socialization and civilization that comforted some ponies vilified and hurt other ponies, and it was for those that she joyously crafted her grand, celestial effigy, that they might take a retreat from the mindless business of their daytime lives, look skyward, and become lost in the infinite sea of stars. Her craftsmanship was but a reflection of her desire for their happiness.

In a sudden flash of self-consciousness, she smiled ruefully at herself. She spent most nights like this, absorbed in her own thoughts. That she was still able to do so, in spite of odd mishaps like today, amazed even her. Tonight, however, she was pleasantly forced to abandon her self-imposed loneliness as a voice jilted her out of her meditations.

“Princess Luna!” the joyous cry erupted from behind her. ’Even we sometimes forget that my sister is not the only pony that can summon feelings of genial ardor out of our subjects,’ she thought as her inward smile shifted from self-deprecatory to congratulatory at the swell of contentment that the voice conjured within her.

“Twilight Sparkle. Tis a boon that thou hast graced us with thy presence!” Luna stated excitedly, none of her enthusiasm feigned. “And we see thou hast with thee thy five friends. Most excellent! Such distractions aside, however, thou knowest full well how we feel about our title.” She smiled.

Twilight giggled warmly, “Sorry, Luna. Old habits and all.”

“All sleights are forgotten amidst the company of friends, Twilight. We are simply happy thou hast arrived.” Luna smiled openly, basking in the presence of Twilight and her five friends. Celestia’s order to summon them had come late, almost at at dusk, and as they arrived finally in the early hours of the morning, they all bore the fatigue she would expect of ponies up past their bedtime. Except for the pink one.

“Hi, Lulu!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed with a gargantuan smile, her eyes squinting shut entirely under the weight of her gaiety as she hopped in place.

“Hello, Pinkie Pie.” Luna nodded simply, summoning every vestige of control she had learned from her sister. “We trust thee no longer possesses the urge to flee from us like a screeching filly without the intervention of Twilight?”

“Of course not, silly-filly! That was just for fun on Nightmare Night!” Pinkie said. She paused her hopping, floating in midair and placing a hoof thoughtfully at the bottom of her bubblegum jaw. “At least, so long as you don’t blow up Equestria with your soul or anything.”

Ten thousand years or not, nothing can quite prepare one for Pinkie Pie, so Luna simply stared blankly at her until Twilight interrupted the silence.

“Luna, I’m sure you remember Applejack?”

“Of course. We recall dear Applejack had quite the assortment of distractions last Nightmare Night. We had...fun.”

“Well, shucks, Princess-”

“Just Luna,” the princess interrupted.

“-uh, err, ‘Luna’. Glad our games were a bit o’ fun fer ya’.”

Luna simply nodded to the orange earth pony, her smile never leaving her features. The silence stretched for a few seconds before Applejack’s head dropped and began studying her hoof intently, making a few passive swipes at the ground before her. “I never know what ta’ say in situations like this. Sorry, Luna,” she mumbled apologetically. Luna merely chuckled knowingly. “Think nothing of it, Applejack. We often find the company of silence more a comforting salve than a restrictive noose." The orange earth pony seemed visibly relieved at her words. Luna turned her head to the quivering yellow mass behind Applejack. “Art thou in agreement, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy merely curled up into a tighter ball on the ground behind her friend, staring intently at the red carpet, and remained silent. As the quiet wore on for over 30 seconds, Luna’s bright smile had begun to slowly falter under the weight of maintaining it, like a train derailing in slow motion, and more than one pony began to question the wisdom of her previous statement in the stretching silence.

“Umm, yes...” the Pegasus finally whispered in a barely audible tone before burying her face in her own wings. Twilight’s eyes flitted rapidly between the yellow pegasus and the alicorn princess. Luna merely laughed heartily, striding forth and placing one hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. She leaned in close to Fluttershy’s ear and whispered something that could only be heard by the shy pegasus. Her eyes widened, but her response carried a bit more confidence as she intoned, “Oh, no, Pri- uhh, Luna. The pleasure was all mine. I really am happy to see you again.” Fluttershy smiled happily before her insecurity tightened its grasp and she began looking around the throne room with undue paranoia. Twilight forcibly quelled her piqued curiosity at the exchange before remembering there was one pony with whom the Princess had not yet made a proper acquaintance last Nightmare Night.

“Uh, right. Oh! Princess, I’d like to introduce you to Rarity, I don’t believe you two have met since...uh, you know, the-”

“Please, darling. Did you really think I would pass up the chance to mingle with royalty when I heard Luna had arrived in Ponyville?” Luna’s smile widened perceptibly at the interjection of the white unicorn. “Luna, dear, I trust my modifications to your costume went over well? You’re still quite the talk of Ponyville, even after all this time.”

“Indeed they did, Rarity. We were torn over our ability to adequately represent our...unfortunate alternate persona, and we still owe thee untold amounts of gratitude for completing the illusion. Our memories of our form during that time still have not wholly surrendered their secrets, making a simple glamour spell impossible.”

“Princess Luna,” Rarity spoke with sudden gravity even if her voice escaped her throat as a whisper, “it was and always will be my utmost honor to serve the royalty of Equestria.” Her voice returning to normal, she simply gazed at one hoof and added, “Besides, even a filly could have crafted those false fangs out of ivory. I can create so much more for royalty, and,” she added without the overtone of melodrama that normally tinged her register, “one of my dear friends.”

“Hardly necessary, Rarity,” Luna replied with a diplomatic, conciliatory tone. “Thy intelligence and grace is gift enough even to those of royalty. However, we can’t help but feel that we are missing somepony of import,” she thought aloud with one hoof to her her chin. “Oh...yes.”

Tendrils of electricity crackled around her wings before dancing through her body and gathering at her hooves. Under normal circumstances, the manipulation of lightning required the presence of clouds to build up enough energy for the electrostatic discharge, but rare pegasi could manipulate the magic through their wings and even through their own bodies. Being far more familiar with her own internal magic than everypony in the world save for perhaps her sister, it was a trivial task for Luna, and the small ball of lightning had begun to coalesce where her hooves met the carpet There, the bolts jittered energetically before firing off through the carpet towards the dozing blue pegasus at the back of the five other ponies assembled before her. As the weak lightning connected with the pegasi, she screeched and jumped up, all six of her limbs shooting out in every direction.

“Whu- I’se don’ see- Let me at ‘em!” she slurred as she took up a defensive stance against a nearby pillar before her spinning eyes ceased their rapid orbit around their sockets. She shook her head, her wild rainbow mane dancing haphazardly with the action, before she shot accusatory glares to each of her five friends. “Hey, what gives?! I was having a really awesome dream!”

“If thou truly desires the company of the Wonderbolts, we are certain they have a modicum of free time, seeing as they are presently on leave here in Canterlot. Spitfire spoke highly of your exploits at the Wonderbolt Academy, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow whipped around violently with a fierce glare, her mouth already stuttering out, “Hey! I wasn’t dreaming about-” before she locked eyes with the Princess of the Night.

“I- oh cloud-fooling horse-apples,” Rainbow cursed, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. “Hiya, Princess. Probably shoulda taken Scoots more seriously about that whole dream thing considering how long it took her to work up the courage to talk about it...”

“Luna,” the dark blue alicorn corrected.

“Nah, I get a lightning shower wake-up call, you get your title, Princess!” Rainbow teased.

Luna cocked an eyebrow. “The entirety of thy mornings and copious daytime naps might all be so pleasant as thy awakening here, if thee desires it?” A wicked grin played across her face. “Our little Shadow Bolts have also been chomping at the bit for some action. We can schedule an appearance every time thy lids close.”

Rainbow Dash’s pupils shrunk to pinpricks before she grinned. “Alright, Prin- Luna. You’re on. But you better introduce me to the Wonderbolts!”

Luna snorted, “As if they’d easily forget the mare that saved their lives at the Young Flier’s Competition. Those three are more fickle with their pride than thou art, though we assure thee they are well aware of a certain light blue pegasus looking to earn their graces.” ‘Most of them are frightened by the volume of fanmail said pegasus has sent,’ Luna thought, but kept it to herself.

“Heh, of course they remember me. What pony wouldn’t?” Rainbow beamed, prancing around with her head held high.

All the girls simply laughed at this, although one particular unicorn’s gaiety was short-lived.

“Twilight Sparkle, thy distraction is most obvious. What troubles thee?”

“Just ‘Twilight’,” she corrected flatly but with a sarcastic grin, which prompted more titters from her friends, their nervousness slowly releasing its grasp. “It’s just, we were summoned here by Celestia’s letter requesting the ‘Elements of Harmony’ and were even brought here by the Pegasi Guard in a royal chariot. Yet, you don’t seem all that troubled.”

“While we are troubled with the haste with which thee arrived-” Luna started as she turned her sights out the window, to her night sky-

“Hey, it takes a long time to pack the party cannon! A mare’s got to be prepared for anything” Pinkie soberly interrupted-

“-the situation has been contained.” She glanced sideways at the six mares, flashing a wicked grin. “We’ve already trapped the alien in the dungeon “

“A-alien?” Fluttershy whimpered.

“Oh, yes. 'Twas quite a terrible being,” she mused as she began circling gracefully around the group of shocked mares, already feeling another monologue coming on. “He invaded Celestia’s private chambers, insulted her taste in pastries-” Pinkie released a horrified gasp at this, “-assaulted her most viciously, with vegetables no less, then eluded her magic long enough to create a ruckus in the castle until he dared to physically assault us. Having sufficiently subdued the creature, we allowed the guard to exact just vengeance for the numerous injuries they suffered in its attempts at escape.” Five of the present mares stared with open-mouthed shock. The orange-colored earth pony’s mouth, however, twisted into a quirk as she desperately studied the nearby walls. “We saved everypony.” Applejack’s frown deepened. Luna merely smiled.

The air near the group seemed to warp and twist, before there was an audible pop and Celestia appeared in a flash of light.

“Dear sister!” Luna exclaimed mockingly, secretly relieved that her sister made her presence known, “Thou requires thy beauty rest! The nobles will not stand to petition their banal requests to a princess possessing such a disheveled mane.”

“As I recall, our ability to host nobility has recently declined. I’m certain those with the most pressing desires can endure a princess's bedhead,” Celestia replied, her tone deadpan.

Most of the Elements of Harmony stared at the sudden exchange, the casualness of the royal sisters' sarcastic sniping catching them offguard. “My little ponies, there’s no reason to worry. My sister was well-renowned for her pranks in ages past,” Celestia intoned. This just seemed to further confuse the six mares. She sighed mildly, wishing they dropped their propriety in her presence as much as they did for Luna.

“For the most part, what Luna has told you is indeed correct, if a bit misleading. An odd creature did appear in my chambers at dinnertime-”

“Ooh, what did you have for dessert?!” Pinkie trilled.

Celestia stared at her coldly for a moment before continuing, attempting to ignore Luna's poorly hidden smile. “While I initially thought it to be a disguised Discord, further evidence suggests it might actually-”

“He,” Pinkie chirruped, bouncing around the group.

“-it might actually be from another worldstream.”

She immediately held her hoof up, preemptively silencing a particular purple unicorn. “But, you all have had a long day, and we should all get some much needed rest before the morning. It’s-”

“He,” Pinkie again tweeted-

“-not going anywhere.”

The girls all nodded in assent, except for Pinkie Pie, who was making obscene faces at patterns in the marble wall, much to the embarrassment of Rarity and Applejack in the presence of royalty. The two princesses shared a glance, before a guard ushered the six mares out of the throne room.

“Was that really necessary, Tia?” Luna muttered.

“Not in the least,” Celestia replied. “I simply couldn't sleep with this awful headache. Although I was fairly entertained by your summary of today’s events. In ten millennia, I can now count the times I’ve been 'assaulted by vegetables' on one hoof.”

“Tis the truth," Luna pointed out plainly.

“Perhaps, little sister. Even still, the hour grows late, and in a short while I will have to raise the sun. The act warms me less than your newfound interactions with your ‘friends’, however.”

“We...I...possess no knowledge of your implicatio-”

The lightning bolt struck her squarely on her moon cutie mark and she yelped. In the Royal Canterlot Voice. When Celestia recovered from the staggering vocal blow, she couldn’t help but laugh openly at Luna’s vehement apologies, even as a scratchy voice laughed in the background. Luna whipped her gaze around at the cyan pegasus, who had managed to sneak in a thundercloud so quickly even she didn’t notice, before smiling warmly.

“We trust thee will have sweet dreams for many a night to come, Rainbow.”

“Hah! Good luck keeping up, even in my dreams!” The pegasus laughed proudly, then disappeared in a flash of chromatic light.

Celestia snickered. “Will you really punish her for being the first to ‘get you’ in 3,000 years? Not even Glancing Shock could manage that...”

“Nay, sister,” Luna responded. “Though we cannot say how our actions might inconvenience our sister for her part in distracting us...”

For all the day’s chaos, Luna actually felt quite a bit better than she had in a long time. As the Elements of Harmony headed off to their rooms, and her sister retreated back to her chambers for whatever small amount of rest she could get in the next few hours, Luna looked outside the window again. Most of the lights of Canterlot had been extinguished in the last hour, but her stars still twinkled brightly. With a modest smile, she noted they gleamed with quite a bit more warmth than before.