"Thank you guards, you are dismissed from your shift, please send in the next batch," said Princess Luna as the clock struck midnight, signaling the shifts end. It was a night like most other nights except the fact it was clearer than most, making the sky appear larger and prettier.
"Right away your highness, have a good night," said the two guards at the same time, as they were trained to. The guards trotted back through the hall and gave the signal for the next guards to enter the throne room.
"It's a beautiful night, isn't it your highness, one of your best yet!" said the smaller of the two guards, the only female of all of them. Both she and the other bat pony assigned this shift went to the proper positions, one on each side of the princess. Luna smiled.
"Shield Song! There you are, I was hoping to see my favorite guard tonight, how has your day been?" asked Princess Luna, happy to see the guard she was so proud of. Song smiled back at the princess and started speaking,
"Some colts tried to flirt with me, and when they noticed I was ignoring them, well let's just say, they learned never to mess with me." said Shield Song, with a smile,
"What did you do?" asked princess Luna, used to Song scaring the heck out of ponies who rubbed her the wrong way, or rubbed her at all for that matter, Song relished in her personal space. The other night guard was starting to feel awkward from the conversation, it was apparent, though neither the guard nor princess noticed it.
"I simply flipped them over, well one of them anyway, the others ran off the moment they saw what I could do," said Song, bragging in her playful way.
"Good to see you are doing fine, how is your little brother? It looks like he got into your armor storage again," said the Princess of the Night with a chuckle, Song's armor was covered with doodle in crayon and looked like the art of a three year old, which it was.
"Yes he did, unfortunately I didn't notice until I was on my way over here, that's the fifth time this month!" Song replied, feigning annoyance, in reality, her brother was to cute to punish, he was constantly getting into Song's armor and pretended to be her guard, Luna enjoyed hearing the stories of how her brother had 'saved her from the evil dragon' or 'defeated the giant sea serpent' they added some fun into those long nights where nopony came to her night court.
"At least he has taste, some prankster got into the armory and wrote some, obscene things on the other guard's armor, luckily he didn't get far, a lot of armor had to be replaced though," said Princess Luna, laughing at how ridiculous some of the guards had looked in their, newly decorated armor.
The rest of the shift continued like this, them talking, the other guard feeling awkward the whole time. The Princess and the guard talked about a lot of different subjects, from the new laws to Discord's recent escape, luckily he was back in the garden, trapped in stone where he belonged.
Or was he?
After her shift Song took a quick walk in the gardens, everypony knew if you argued there nowadays, there were serious consequences, soon she came to the entrance of the maze and noticed something was missing, turning around she saw it, the statue of Discord was gone, after a careful observation, she knew he had broken free. There were small bits of stone everywhere, and no signs of ponies having taken it, if someone had carried an object that heavy there would have been some kind of prints left behind. There was no way he was just 'stolen'.
Song took of flying, she had an..... incident, with a cockatrice a few years before and knew how hard it was to break free from stone, she was lucky. She was heading towards Ponyville, but wanted to check something first. She knew of a cave, she hid there a lot when she was little, as she flew a few feet above the cave she heard a familiar laughter, a wicked one, one of a creature nopony had known existed until recently, Discord's.
Song quickly turned directly to Ponyville and flew as fast as her wings would let her. She flew right over Ponyville and into the Everfree Forest, exactly where she needed to be. She didn't have a cage, but quickly, thanks to her survival training she got as a guard, she made one. Soon it was a game of cat and mouse, or cat and cat, because the cockatrice started looking for her.
The cockatrice swooped down, thinking quickly, Song through the cage, which surprisingly caught the cockatrice, Song didn't notice this. Even though she was a guard and thought to have no fear she ran a few meters until she realized it wasn't behind her anymore, she turned around, regained her dignity, and grabbed the cockatrice cage after covering it with an emergency blanket she had in her saddlebag. Yet again she started flying as fast as possible.
She started flying to the cave, her wings were starting to ache, so she slowed down. Song looked at the sky and enjoyed it's beauty for as long as possible, soon she reached her destination. As soon as she entered the laughter stopped.
"Pray tell, who are you?" asked a voice, surprisingly serious for the creature it came from, "and what is that thing you are carrying?'
"My name is Shield Song, this is a cockatrice," Song replied, silently laughing at the sprit's confusion, "and do I have a deal for you!"
