Midnight awoke suddenly, a nightmare shaking him from his sleep. He was covered in cold sweat and to add to that, he was freezing. He slowly assessed his surroundings. Darkness, that means that it is still night time. Looks like 1:00 am. Ok, there is the barricade, the door is still glowing and shut, so why is it so cold in here? Slowly, his head turned to look at the window. It was open, but maybe it had been the whole time. He hadn't paid attention to it as he'd hidden and there had never really been time to notice it. First Luna and Vinyl, then crying onto-

Even more slowly, his eyes turned down, looking at the grey earth pony curled around his seated form. Octavia shivered, and curled up even more. Midnight smiled calmly down at her. She had helped him, even when she didn't have to. He had to be grateful. Carefully, he untangled his rear legs from hers and walked to the pile of furniture in front of the door. Lifting up the vast majority of it, he found the mattress from the bed and brought it over to Octavia's sleeping shape. He also liberated the rest of the bedding while he was at it.

Carefully, so as not to make a sound, he placed the mattress down next to her, then lifted her up and placed her upon it. He laid the blankets from the bed over top of her, and slowly shifted a pillow under her head. Quietly, he cast a spell. Now she would sleep, undisturbed by nightmares, but still open to pleasant dreams until he came back, and then some. Then he cast a shield over her, to protect her in case Luna happened to show up. Next, he removed the barricade and spells and slipped out the door, gently replacing them behind him.

Midnight made his way down to the kitchens. There, he found himself some ingredients, a small pan and a stove. Quietly, he began carrying them back up through the palace. About halfway, he looked up to see a shadow flying overhead. LUNA! He placed the stove on the ground, put a sack of flour on his head, surreptitiously brushing his coat down with it to change it's colour to a lighter shade of blue. Hiding his horn in his makeshift flour hat, he turned on the stove and was pretending to cook waffles when Luna came in to land, a little too close behind him.

Luna looked down at the chef pony directly in front of her. It was obviously Midnight, but she wasn't about to let him know that she saw through his actually rather impressive disguise. His only problem was that he was using magic instinctively to handle several of the tasks of waffle making at once. Other than that, he could have passed for a sky blue earth pony. She decided to have some fun with him, in the royal Canterlot voice.

"SERVANT, WILT THOU GIVE US SOME OF THINE WAFFLES?"

She was impressed at Midnight's act as he stammered in a quavering voice, that sounded nothing like his own voice, or even that of a stallion for that matter. He actually sounded like a nervous mare. It was cute.

"Look Midnight, I know it's you. I just want to know why you think that I would be fooled by you disguising yourself as a FEMALE EARTH PONY TRYING TO COOK WAFFLES IN THE CORRIDORS."

Midnight was suddenly gone. It wasn't translocation, teleportation or even invisibility. Luna swore to herself that he picked up all of the things (that he had carried by magic this far) IN HIS FORELEGS and ran down the corridor faster than that Rainbow Dash Pegasus could fly. The flour that had coated him slowly settled, after retaining it's shape for seven whole seconds. Luna smiled and flew back to her balcony. She did wonder what he had needed all that stuff for, but
that was nothing that a little friendly torture could-

She looked into her private room at the game board that represented her battle with Octavia. She had cast a magical enchantment that would move the pieces to update her on the progress of the game whenever she looked at it. Slowly, three of her pieces moved into worse positions and one disappeared altogether. Running some simulations in her head, she decided that anymore moves made that night would have a similar effect. Swearing silently to herself, she watched as Midnight barricaded the room again and prepared the waffle batter.

Midnight quietly mixed up the batter and checked on Octavia at the same time. The royal guard unicorn training taught one how to separate parts of the mind and task different parts with different things. He carefully rechecked the spell that kept Octavia in a perfect sleep and then set another timer to wake himself up at 8:00. It was 1:30 now. He finished preparing the waffle batter and left it on the cool floor. Next, he laid a metal grille into the pan that he brought and set it down. All was prepared.

He slowly made his way to the mattress on the floor and changed the spell so that Octavia would wake up completely naturally at 8:15 am. He slid into the cover's beside her and kissed her softly on the cheek, a gesture that penetrated into her dreams. She blushed a little in her sleep, and managed to return it, gently pecking his cheek with her lips. He recoiled a little, blushing furiously, but then settled down again. He rested a hoof across her shoulders and drew her close. His run through the palace had warmed him, but she was still very cold. He fell asleep with her in his arms.

Luna finished another sweep with her red pieces, knocking Vinyl out of Africolt. She controlled both North and South Americorn and was preparing a force to march on Central Equestria. Luna passed Vinyl the dice and made a quick check of the rooftops, just in time to watch Midnight kiss Octavia's cheek. Luna swore to herself once more and walked back to the table, checking on her "game" board as she walked. Octavia's pieces were moving again. Even in her SLEEP she was winning.

Luna forced a grin as she walked back over to the table and sat down. Vinyl began her turn by revealing three cards. An earth pony, a Pegasus and a unicorn. Luna's face went completely flat as Vinyl placed the ten extra ponies on the board, as well has her normal reinforcements. Vinyl began to declare attacks. Her first one was into Saddle Arabia from Afghanistallion, an easy victory as Luna only had one pony there. Her second was into Luna's biggest force on equal terms. From Saddle Arabia, a swarm of blue ponies seemed to be flowing. Luna set her jaw, she would not lose this battle, the defense gave her the advantage. Slowly, she watched as her East Africolt forces were soundly destroyed, Vinyl's blue pieces barely reduced in numbers. Luna took another look at the risk board after the battle and let her head smack onto the table. She heard a cracking sound and swore for a few seconds.

"What is it?" Vinyl asked, her voice radiating concern.

"I GOT MY FUCKING HORN STUCK IN THE TABLE!" Luna 'calmly' replied.

Author's Note

I finished this chapter at 3:00am the day after pulling an all-nighter. I am really, really tired. Anyway, Saddle Arabia IS something from the show, however Africolt, Afghanistallion and North/South Americorn were all me. Any suggestions for other names for such things or even ones I haven't used yet would be appreciated. I want to revisit the risk someday and think that it could be fun to base it off of a real game.

Anyway, Thank ALL OF YOU who read this regularly and enjoy it. Please tell me what you like and dislike. If you can find nothing that I am doing wrong then please tell me something that I'm doing right. I worry about this way too much, but hey, that's who I am.

Finally, as always, it has been a real pleasure entertaining you, see you next time.

And Newly, I love you all, whether you hate me or live me. I have had people tell me to die and others wanting my children. I love all of you. Especially those who tell me how they feel. I will begin to give official gratitude to people who comment on this story.
The first of these goes to Ranak.

Your comments helped me to feel like I was doing a good job. They made me feel warm and fuzzy inside while keeping me grounded. Thank you. Also, I kind of miss you commenting on every chapter. I really value your feedback and hope you can enjoy the whole story, wherever it goes.