Brony Recon: Eyes of Chronos

Skyblaze’s POV

One annoying thing about being a Night Guard was that you were required to wear your armor anytime you entered the palace grounds. It wasn’t so much that the armor was uncomfortable. Far from it, actually. Night Guards depended less on physical force and power than our diurnal comrades, and more on subtlety and mobility. Therefore, our armor was made lighter and allowed more freedom of movement, which, by consequence, made it much more pleasing to wear than the heavy armor of the Day Guard.

Rather, it was the strange looks and wary glances I got. You see, part of the Night Guards’ tactics in battle is psychological warfare: we need to look freaking scary as schist, both in and out of battle, to create an image of fear and mystery. Unfortunately, this gave us a soiled reputation as burglars and assassins that only existed to do dirty work for the Princesses that they didn’t want the public to know about.

Which was partially true, I guess.

I sighed, looking up at the gates to the palace, then back down to the ebon helm. “Let’s get this over with, then.” Lifting the helm up, I slid it onto my head.

The enchantment on it activated instantaneously, sending a shiver down my spine. To make sure it had worked properly, I leaned over a puddle in the cobblestone road from the recent rainfall last evening. Under the helm, my golden eyes blinked, now appearing slitted, like a cat’s. My ears had grown a thicker and longer layer coat, making them longer and more pointed. I ran my tongue across my newly-grown fangs, careful not to poke myself. Looking back at my sides, I admired the pair of leathery, bony bat wings that had replaced my feathered ones. Beneath them and my dark, ebon, chain-and-plate armor, my coat had turned a darker and frightful shade of its usual indigo.

It was all an illusion, of course, but no one outside the Guard had to know that. They just had to know how to fear it.

“Evening, Corporal,” one of the Lunar Royal Guards greeted as I approached the front gate of the palace. “Here on official business, or is this another personal visit to the Princess?”

“Nah, just a personal visit tonight, Chief,” I replied with a polite salute. “Is Luna in, tonight?”

The lieutenant shrugged. “Can’t tell ya if she is. Last I heard, she was in a big, important war council about the you-know-what. From the word-of-mouth about it, it sounds like nopony in that room is coming out for a long time, including the Princess. I suggest you go out and get some fourthmeal while you wait; the last one took a few hours.”

“Schist...” I swore to myself. “Thanks for the heads-up, Chief.”

<<

Two hours. That’s how long I waited outside the war room of the palace for Luna.

It wasn’t all bad, I suppose. It gave me time to catch up on my favorite hobby: poetry. Yeah, I know, it’s not the most stallionly of things to do with my free time, but it does help pass the time, along with a few other benefits. As a Bard, my usefulness in battle depends on Archaic phrases and songs that I had either learned from studying obscure Bardic texts, sung out of adrenal instinct, or created myself. I discovered some time later, during a skirmish with some gangsters in Manehattan, that songs I had wrote myself were greatly more powerful than those I had read or that came to me automatically.

With a frown, I looked down at the Archaic runes I had scribbled into my notebook, then up at the secretary running the desk outside the war room. “Excuse me,” I said, getting her attention. “Does anvigr sound like it rhymes with vaalr?”

The cerulean unicorn blinked at me from behind her horn-rimmed glasses. “I... I don’t believe so, no,” she replied honestly. “The beginning of the last syllable on the first word is a hard sound, while the second has a longer one of the same. I believe they should both either have hard sounds or soft sounds.” The secretary reached behind her desk and removed a book with a blue cover. “Need a thesaurus?”

“You wouldn’t happen to have one for Archaic, would you?” I joked, making my point.

She giggled at that. “No, I suppose I don’t.”

With a short ‘thanks anyway,’ I resumed my writing, though a little more distracted this time. I kept glancing up at the secretary, noticing how neatly she put up her light-blue mane in a perfect bun. Every so often, I would catch her stealing glances as well. Finally I looked up at her and took in a breath. “Hey, I was wondering... um...” a blush crept onto my face beneath my helm.

“Inkwell,” she introduced, blushing as well. “And I get off at three.”

“Three... great!” I chirped back with a smile. “Oh, I uh... I’m Skyblaze.” Suave wasn’t my defining trait, but I was just glad I hadn’t bombed that pick-up. I usually break down into a nervous wreck when I ask somepony out. “You don’t seem too bothered by my armor,” I noticed.

Inkwell shrugged. “You get used to it when you manage the desk outside the war room.”

I laughed. “Yeah,” I replied. “But I don’t think you’ll have to see this batty face when I pick you up later.” Gah... that was stupid. Why did I say that? I need coffee... Oh! Coffee! That’s it! “So, uh... coffee, then? Or maybe a small bite?”

“Sure, that sounds good,” replied Inkwell with an understanding smile. “I know this place by a park. We could walk there after we grab our coffee.”

“Perfect.”

Suddenly, the doors to the war room burst open. A stressed-looking Princess Luna, along with several equally-stressed commanders and officers exited. I immediately stood at attention as soon as the higher-ranking ponies began passing, like any respectful subordinate. After a moment, somepony muttered ‘at-ease’ to me. Waving to Inkwell and putting my notebook in my saddlebags, I trotted quickly after the Lunar Alicorn.

“Luna!” I exclaimed, trying to get her attention as I came up behind her.

She turned to face me. Luna’s face tried to smile as I sidled up beside her. “Ah, Skyblaze, good morning,” she breathed. “You would not believe how glad I am to see your face. After that meeting, I need some decompression...”

I guessed that my question could wait. Luna’s well-being was more important than my trivial dreams. She had a country to co-rule, after all. “Really? That stressful? I couldn’t tell,” I said, my voice dripping with humored sarcasm. “So decompress. What’s up?”

“It’s classified above your rank, I’m afraid,” she stated with a huff. “I would tell you, but then I would have to have you killed. To be honest, I would rather that I keep you and the other guard informed of the whereabouts and actions of our enemies, but the commanders have agreed that it was for the better, so as to not cause panic.”

“Bummer,” I frowned, patting the Princess on the back with a leathery wing. I wasn’t sure if she was kidding about having to kill me if she had told, given her past. “Maybe you could talk to your sister when she gets up. I bet she had the exact same meeting yesterday.”

“Undoubtedly.” Luna eyed my wing. “You should be careful. Tia says there has been talk amongst the nobles recently about the amount of time we spend together. Not all of it in good taste.”

With a nervous chuckle, I removed my wing. “Sorry,” I apologized, then let out a laugh. “Lucky Shot said something along those lines too. Why can’t ponies nowadays just have friends they like to be around without sending the wrong message?”

“You tell me. I’ve been away for a few centuries,” she joked.

“Yeah, that’ll do it,” I said, then continues to walk beside her for a few moments in silence. “Oh! I almost forgot! See, I thought that you’d be in that meeting for hours- and you were, so I brought you some fourthmeal.” I reached into my pack with the spur on my wing (probably the only real part of the Night Guard illusion), and pulled out a take-out bag from a sandwich joint not too far from the palace.

Luna eagerly took the bag in her telekinesis and opened it, pulling out the hoagie sandwich and a travel mug filled with Saddle-Arabian dark roast. Tentatively taking a bite of the sandwich, the Princess smiled. “Lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, and black olives,” she said after her first bite went down her gullet. “You do know me too well, my friend. You didn’t have to do that.”

“I kinda did,” I replied. “Consider it a co-pay.”

Luna looked at me quizzically. “Co-pay?” she asked. “You realize that, in my many years, I have never practiced medicine?”

“No no no, not like that. It’s something else. In fact, you’re probably the most qualified pony for the job.” Looking out the windows in the corridor, I saw a gibbous moon slowly beginning to sink lower in the sky. “You command dreams, right?”

Luna nodded in realization, then sipped her coffee. “Of course, yes. Very well... what is your problem?”

I took in a breath as we paused together at a window that held the stained-glass impression of a pegasus hero, driving back a dragon from a town below. Stalwart Sky, I think his name was, the only pony to single-hoofedly drive back a fully-grown dragon. “I’ve been having these dreams for a while now, and-”

“No you haven’t.”

I turned toward Luna in confusion. “What?”

The Lunar Princess shook her head. “You never have dreams,” she stated plainly. “I thought this was a little odd, but by no means unheard of. Never, since the day I met you, have you ever had a single dream.”