Day Dreams

The night was warm; summer was coming quickly in Equestria. It has been a week since Jack started running. The daily exercise was tiring and his legs ached at the end of each watch, but it's a good kind of ache. And, while his midriff was still plump, there was already clear evidence of initial weight loss and even some muscle growth.

Jack has kept his promises to himself, doing his best to hold himself to a higher standard; Polishing his armor every day, getting to his scheduled watch on time, if not early. He should be standing tall; he should feel like he’s finally starting to accomplish something with his life. Yet being in formation under the glaring eye of the squad's second in command, Moon Shadow, Jack felt as tiny as ever.

Moon Shadow walked up to each of the squad members giving them a different set of patrols to do. Which seemed a bit unusual to Jack. Most nights only about half the Night Guard would actually patrol, while the other half would handle more night to night operations; Like cleaning, or logistics and supplies.

The fact was Canterlot is a peaceful city and Canterlot castle all the more so. Regular patrols were generally more of a formality and done more for the sake of appearances than actual protection.

Finally, after all the other guards had been given assignments, Moon Shadow came up to the last two guards, Star and Jack. Shadow was having a hard time from saying anything insulting to the two of them. Sending them off together bothered him immensely.

He was going to assign the both of them to assist Mani with his logistics tonight. It wasn't his first choice to place these two so close together or to take any ponies or guard off of patrols, but in Shadow's mind these two were the only ones that could be spared for such trivialities.

"You two," he barked at the two guards.

"Sir," Both Star and Jack spoke in unison.

Moon shadow sighed ever so slightly, "I need every guard I have for watch duty tonight, but Mani desperately needs help with stocking and inventory. I suppose I can spare the two of you. You two are to help him tonight. I expect both of you to do as ordered and focus on stocking. Understood?" His voice was sharp and there was a strong sense of disdain in it.

Jack and Star both had to keep from saying something they might regret.

"Yes Sir," They both answered. The two guards released their salute as Moon Shadow glared at Mani for a moment.

Mani saluted to Moon Shadow who barely acknowledges the gesture before turning to walk way.

Trotting up to Moon Shadow, Mani tried to stop him before he could get away, "Moon Shadow, I asked for four guards to help me?" He asked with a hopeful spark in his voice.

"They can't be spared Mani. We've been having reports of thefts throughout the castle. You'd know that if you paid attention in the daily briefings," Moon Shadow spoke with an almost growl. Turning again he walked off into the castle shadows.

"Huh, wonder what his problem is?" Mani spoke more to himself than anyone else.

"So what do you need us to do exactly, Sir?" Jack spoke, pulling Mani out of his thoughts.

"Oh! Umm…" Mani reached into a small satchel on his side and pulled out some paper work.

"We just got a supply of, umm... Miscellaneous..." Mani sighed after reading off the heading of the manifest. He grumbled under his breath something about hating crates, and crappy labeling as he flipped the pages.

Jack scratched at his chin, "Miscellaneous, huh? What does that mean, like pens and stuff?"

Mani was still looking over the sheets in his hoof, "...And stuff. But mainly it means a bunch of paper work for me."

Shaking his head Mani put the manifest away. Waving the two guards on, they started walking to the storage areas near the outside of the castle. Star walked behind, tring to keep her distance from the two of them.

The room they came to was very large and mostly open. It had rows of shelving down the middle of it and along the walls, all of which were filled with crates. Even along the floor there was nothing but crates. Each of the crates had numbers written on the side and the word Miscellaneous under that.

Mani waved a hoof around the room and looked at Jack, "This is our loading dock. I don't think you've ever been here, Jack?"

Jack shook his head, "No. Never been in this part of the castle at all actually."

"Well, this is the storage and logistics part of the castle. All of these crates are ours. Well, the Night Guard’s anyway. My office is actually right down the hall." Mani grabbed the paper work from his satchel once more and looked it over, doing a quick mental count of the crates in the sheet and the room.

Looking up from the paper work Mani had a bemused expression, "So, this manifest is rather... sparse. It says how many crates, and their serial numbers, but not what was actually shipped. I put an order of basic supplies in a few weeks ago, I'm assuming this is it. You two are going to help me open all of these and record everything that's here."

Star looked around at the massive number of crates, "Are you bucking serious? There have to be a thousand crates in here!"

"It won't be that bad Star Screech; I've done more than this by myself before. We need to get the stuff counted and then I can figure out where everything is supposed to go. The Day and Royal Guards agreed to help move everything in the morning, but I need to know what's in them first, to figure out where it all goes."

"They're doing that to help us? That's kind of nice of them," Jack spoke with naïve optimism.

Mani couldn't keep from laughing at it, "Hardly. I agreed to help them with the paperwork on their shipments coming in the morning. Given how much paper work their shipments generate; if anything, we'll be helping them out. "

Picking up a few crowbars Mani gave one last sigh. He gave them to Jack and then fetched some paper and charcoal pencils from his satchel. Handing these over, he gave the two some last simple instructions, "Just record what came in each crate, the amount and the crate's serial number on this paper. I'll organize it all later." He thought of all the papers already on his desk, it was going to be a very long morning for the guardsman.

Before he walked away Mani turned around, "Oh! And no funny business tonight. We need to get this done."

Jack blushed slightly at Mani's remark. Star on the other hand, responded with a snort and by snatching the extra crowbar from his hands and walking away.

*Crack*

With a loud popping crack, Jack pried the top of the first crate off. Looking inside he noted a pile folded greyish green cloths that were each wrapped in a bit a bit of twine. The material was a little rough looking, like cheap wool. "Looks like blankets, count... Fifty." He looked at the serial number on the crate and read that off as well. Star Screech didn't acknowledge him.

"Star did you get that?"

Her face didn't show any sign of acknowledgment or emotion. "Yeah, 50 crappy blankets in crate number M-4-1-1-6-0-2." The first thing Star said to him all night, and it was short and snappy. She started to scratch some marks on to her sheets, before heading to the next crate.

*Crack*

The next crate had a very odd floral sent once the top was removed. Inside were small bars of soap wrapped in some kind of parchment paper, and surrounded by small amounts of straw.

It was well organized, which made the counting easy. Jack was grateful for that given the amount. "Ok, looks like bars of soap, thirty by twenty on top, with... ten stacks. That should be-"

Star cut him off, "Six thousand bars of shitty soap. What's the serial number?"

"M-4-1-1-5-8-7... Star, are you ok?"

She didn't answer him; instead she walked to the next crate, and started trying to pry the top off with her own crowbar.

Jack was worried about her. Star wasn't behaving normally. She was always a bit mouthy, but she never seemed this distant before. "Star ar-"

She cut him off, "You're too slow Jack. I'll be faster doing this on my own..." Star was dismissive of the human, hoping he would get the point and just leave her alone. She couldn't deal with the emotions he stirred inside of her.

"Star-"

"Just take your crowbar and do your own inventory!" She snapped again, and walked away from him.

'Ok,' Jack thought to himself with a sigh.

He wandered over to some crates on the other side of the room and started opening them.

*Crack*

So the night dragged on; the silence of the large space broken by the occasional sound of a crate cracking open.

Opening crates was boring work, and gave them all ample time to think, much to Jack's displeasure. He thought about how Star had been acting the past few nights, her attitude and personality, it had all taken a 180. She was usually fun loving, mischievous, and more than a bit flirtatious with everyone. Yet, ever since he told her to back off a bit, things had changed and not for the belter.

The other guards had noticed it too. Star didn't seem to smile as much. She hadn't been to the bar all week, even when Leucippe offered to buy Star's drinks. She almost punched Night Blade square in the jaw last night. It was almost amusing watching Mani and Leucippe try to hold her back, almost.

A small part of Jack's mind worried that she was about to snap.

Near the middle of the room, Star walked between her opened crates reaching the last one in her section. This crate was very large and had to be close to twice as tall as she was.

'Jack would be better suited to open this,' she scowled at the thought before trying to shake it out of her head.

She climbed to the top of the crate and shoved her crowbar under the lid of the large object. Pressing the handle down she tried to pry the top off, but nothing happen. She pushed down harder, still nothing. Star tried many different angles and approaches to the crate, pushing, pull, hitting, until finally she found herself dangling from the side of the crate by the crowbar.

Star grimaced, realizing how ridiculous she must look, then she felt her hoof slip. She lost her grip, quickly falling to the ground. Her armor clanged on the stone work below.

Lying there Star's face grew a deep shade of red as her blood pressure started to rise. "You mother bucking, Celestia damned, cursed gods- AHHH!" she screamed.

Even across the floor Jack heard Star’s scream. Dropping his crowbar, he ran towards her, having no idea what to expect. As his body ran, so too did his mind: Was she hurt? Did something fall on her? Was a crate secretly a mimic and now trying to eat her?

Ok, the last thought was unlikely, but in this world you could never know.

As Jack approached her, he could see Star lying on her back, with her front hooves covering her eyes.

"Star? Are you... ok?"

Star moved the hooves from her eyes as she looked up at him. Her cheeks were wet and mated as a few tears ran down them.

She rubbed the moisture from her eyes. "Yeah. I'm fine. I just... fell." She got up and stared at the crate in front of her.

"I was trying to open this bucking thing!" With a kick from her back hoof, she left a large hoof shaped dent in the wooden crate.

Star took a deep breath, trying to compose herself. "Jack I..." She paused, not really knowing what to say.

Off in the distance a cracking sound could be heard as Mani was still opening his crates. He was lost in thought, thinking about all the sleep he was going to lose in the morning. Mani was completely unaware of the conversation Star and Jack were now having.

"Star, are you ok?" He asked again.

She rolled her eyes at his question, "It wasn't much more than a couple of meters up. I'm fine, Jack."

"No, I don't mean physically. I mean emotionally, and mentally. Are you, ok?"

Her body shook slightly as conflicting thoughts tore inside of her. One part of her wanted to say 'Yes,' and get back to work. Another wanted to say 'No,' and punch Jack in the face before jumping on top of him.

Finally, she half screamed and cried "I don't know!" Her body shaking even more as her thoughts ripped through her mind.

She sat down and tried to breath, "Look, I... I'm not used to being rejected ok. Usually I'm the one to reject other… ponies," she hesitated on the last word.

"I..." She took another deep breath and paused. Her shaking subsided as she calmed down a bit.

Her ears fell against the sides of her head which she tilled downwards to the floor. Her eyes were looking over the stone work under her hooves instead of him. "I like you Jack," she whisper just loud enough for Jack to hear.

'There it was,' thought Jack. The words that he had hoped not to hear.

"I never thought I would ever find a stallion I truly like, until I meet you."

All Jack could respond with was, "Why?"

Star huffed and waved her hoof in the air dismissively.

"No, I mean it, why? We barely know each other. I've only been in the Guard for a little over a month. What do you know about me, for that matter what do I know about you? We talked before and even around joked a bit, but the only thing that really seemed to connect us was the sex." He knew his words were probably quite bitter to the bat mare.

Indeed Star flinched at the words, reeling slightly. It was like a fist of words hitting her chest.

She looked up into Jack's eyes. "But I do know you. Well, kind of..."

"How?"

"Well to start with, everyone knows you already saved Princess Twilight. You're loyal and you have more integrity then I've seen in half these ponies. I don't think you give yourself enough credit."

She laughed and a slight blush rose through her cheeks. "Even when you first arrived you were easy to get along with. You enjoyed joking around, but could still keep things serious when they needed to be." A slight blush came over her cheeks, and a small smile grazed her muzzle, "Plus, I do think you're kind of cute. I'll admit the first night was more of a curiosity thing, but after it..." Sighing she looked back at the ground.

"I know I'm a bit of a horn dog. I've heard the rumors about me and they aren’t… wrong. I’ve bedded more than my share of males. But you’re different, and I'm sincere when I said I like you."

He tried to process everything she had said to him, "So that first night when you said you wanted to help me win Luna's heart. That was just you wanting to spend time with me?"

"N-no. I meant it when I said it. I do believe in true love. I see the way you look at her. But that night... I've had sex many stallions and males, but I've never felt more..." She paused looking for the words, "I never felt that good or content. I've had sex with many, but I've never actually been able to sleep or dream with anypony else."

The two stood there both unsure what to say or do at this point.

Star began to realize just how silly this was; her feelings for this human, ‘Why,’ she though. She had so many encounters before him, so why did she feel this way? It wasn’t right, nor was it fair, especially after she promised to help him.

Star wiped the tears from her eyes again, "I'll stay true to my word Jack. I'll help you win Luna's heart."

Jack was at a loss for words. What could he say to her?

"Star, you don't have to help me. I can-"

She held her hoof up and shook her head, "No. I want to help you, and I will."

She put her hoof down and sighed. "We're both guards Jack. I knew a relationship between us could never work. I shouldn't have let myself get so attached." The words stung her; she could feel her insides ripping and being squeezed as she forced herself to say them.

Star wasn't expecting the human's arms to wrap around her, embracing her in a human hug. Again she was torn, a part of her wanted to pull away, but a louder stronger part reach her hoofs around him and squeezed him back. 'I can't let him go,' she thought to herself.

"Star, you're a good mare and a good friend. I'm sorry if I hurt you." Both Jack and Star let go of each other, Star taking a bit longer then needed.

Jack continued, "I will always be your friend Star. You helped me get over my fear of... intimacy with mares. You helped me find my confidence. I owe you, and I promises even if we can't be together I'm not rejecting your friendship."

Star gave a bitter sweet smile and nodded. "Oh fuck," she spoke in a half laugh as she rubbed the last of the tear from her eyes. “This is ridiculous, we should get back to work, Jack," she turned and unconsciously swished her tail a few times.

Star jumped and fluttered up to the top of the crate with her wings. She tapped at the crowbar trying to loosen the grip it had on crate's seam.

Jack watched her bang on the edge of the crate. Unsure what the problem was he asked her, "So, what's wrong exactly?"

Star shook her head, "Damned if I know. I can't get this crate open no matter how much I try." She kicked the crowbar, causing it to fall down to the ground with a loud clang.

Reaching up, Jack ran his fingers along the edge of the crate. The top of it had numerous crowbar marks. Most were from Star's attempts, but a few seemed off. Like as if they came from a much larger object. Then, there were the nails on top, some were out right missing and a few were popped up. The small bit of hardened yellow resin he saw sealed it all; literally. "I think this crate was resealed, Star." Jack spoke as he ran his fingers over the hardened resin.

She bent her head down and looked at the seam around the edges. She frowned and mentally kicked herself for not seeing it earlier.

"Star, go get Mani. He needs to see this."

Star nodded and galloped off, a moment later Mani was walking towards Jack with Star in tow; He had an annoyed look on his face, "Jack, Star, what's the meaning of this? Do you honestly mean to tell me you can't open a crate by yourselves?"

Jack pointed to the edges of the crate, and the harden resin that leaked around the edges. Mani flew to the top of the crate and ran his hoof over the resin. "This crate was resealed," he declared.

Jack rolled his eyes, "Yeah, we know. That's why we called you. Do you know why? Can you open it?"

"This isn't normal resin. I'm going to need my blade." He jumped down from the top and began trotting out of the room. Yelling, "I'll be right back, don't do anything funny," before he left.

Standing in silence, Star's thoughts began to drift. She looked up at Jack who gave her a light sweet smile, acknowledging her. She had been a complete jerk to Jack over the past week. Ignoring him, then cutting him off when she was forced to talk to him. Yet through it all, he still smiled at her.

"Jack I-," Star was cut off by the sound of Mani running back interrupted her train of thought.

He had his sword attached to his side, "Let's open this thing."

*Creak, Crack, Creak, Crack*

The small blade worked along the edges of the crate. Cracking the resin apart until,

*Crack*

The top of the crate cracked open. Inside of the crate there was... nothing. Just some bits of straw, hay and a large void. Whatever had been stored in it was removed.

"Shit," Mani swore as he looked inside for something, anything. He tapped his forehead with his hoof. "This is going to be more paper work," he moaned to himself.

Looking at the side of the crate Mani made note of the writing and serial numbers on it, Special, SP-0-0-0-1-1-4.

"This crate wasn't shipped with the rest," Mani pulled out a large log book from his satchel. Flipping through the pages frantically till he reached the section he was looking for. He read over his notes, and gave a sigh, "This crate should have been in lock up on the other side of the castle. So what's it doing here?"

"What was in it?" Jack inquired.

"Another box. Actually, a chest filled with Gem stones. It had special storage instructions, hence the special designation."

"Jewels? Was there anything special about them?"

Mani shook his head, "No, at least not that I was aware of I should check my log books to be sure though. There must have been something special about them to warrant being locked up in one of the holding rooms."

He turned to face his two guards, "Ok, we need to inventory the holding room where these came from. You two are going to come with me."

The three stopped by a small office on their way down the hallway. Mani unlocked it with a key from his satchel. Inside were literal towers of papers, and file folders about ready to explode from being over stuffed.

Mani wasted no time and made a bee line for one such file cabinet on the other side of the room.

Jack looked around at the mess of an office, "I can't believe Shadow and Blade made a big deal about my room. I mean look at this place."

Mani's ear twitched as he dug through his cabinets, "I can hear you rookie, and yes this place is a mess. I don't know what they expect of me. There's just too much paper work and not enough room!" a surge of lose papers exploded from the cabinet as he pulled out a faux leather bound tome.

Mani looked at the papers on the floor and shrugged, "Eh, I'll clean that up later."

He opened the tome on his desk and looked through it. "Hmm, my logs say they were a payment from the griffin kingdoms several decades ago." He paused, "These were from the same shipment stolen last week." Mani was looking over the log book, flipping through its pages as if looking for something.

"I'm sorry sir, but what shipment?"

Looking up from the book in a bit of a daze Mani responded, "Huh? Oh right, rookies and low ranking guards wouldn't have been told. We've had a rash of thefts recently, damn near every night. Always the same thing, gems and jewels originating from the Griffin Empire and kingdoms."

Mani closed the book and trotted out of the room, "Come on you two!" He yelled from outside. Jack and Star quickly made their way out to Mani who was already half way down the hall.

Once outside Mani had run toward a new Night Guard rookie, who was on patrol in this section. He stopped the guard and whispered something in his ear. The guard seemed to stare at Mani with a bemused expression until Mani slammed his hoof on the ground and shouted, "That's an order rookie!"

The guard stood up strait and saluted before galloping off into the dark recess of the castle.

Jack caught up to Mani, "What was tha-"

He tried to speak, but Mani interrupted him, "Not now Jack. We need to go check out the storage room that crate was in." Mani took off again, nearly running this time.

The small team made it to a set of giant doors with no apparent handle. Mani rummaged around in his satchel and pulled out a metal key. The doors swung open once he put the key in the door and turned it.

Inside the room was fairly small and packed full of chests, and crates. Mani and his team squeezed around the room, inspecting every item, every chest and crate for signs of damage or forced entry.

Finally, after about an hour of searching Mani shook his head, "Doesn't look like anything in here has been touched."

Jack nodded his head. "Yeah, every crate and chest seems to be where it's supposed to be. At least according to your notes, Mani."

Mani looked at the large empty spot on the floor. "Every crate except for 0-0-0-1-1-4. It's the only one missing from this room, thought I can't imagine why? There are actual items of value that weren't touched. Why would a thief steal a crate of common gems? Also, why would he drag the resealed crate to the loading dock? They could have just left it on the shelf and no pony would have known."

Mani scratch his chin, "Unless... they couldn't get back in?"

Star Screech didn't quite follow, "What do you mean?" She asked.

Mani tapped at the closed door to the room, "This door is locked with a very powerful spell. I doubt any thief could bypass it. They'd literally have to break the door down or..." The last thought chilled Mani's bones.

"Or what?"

Mani shook the thought from his head, "Or… They had somepony leave it open for them."

Jack didn't like that answer, the thought that a fellow guard would be working against them bothered him. "Maybe someone was just careless," He asked with a sense of optimism.

But Mani shook his head, that wouldn't have been possible, "No. To leave this door open would have required intent. This door is on special hinges and it wants to shut automatically. I mean, there's a simple spell you could cast that would leave it open, but someone would have noticed. The locking spell would have had to been temporarily disabled. This screams intent to me."

The sound of hooves clopping down the hall way could be heard. Mani opened the doors just as two ponies rounded the corner. The one had a deep look of distain and seemed quite mad. The other, pony face was just annoyed, but hide it far better Mani took a breath, "That's why I called Night Blade and Fire Wall earlier."

Mani stood as straight as he could as Night Blade and Fire Wall stopped in front of him. Jack and Star did their best to mimic his pose.

"At ease Guards," Fire Wall spoke.

Fire Wall walked into the storage room and started looking around.

Night Blade glared at Mani before speaking, "You're sure the crate contents were stolen?"

"Yes Sir. No doubt in my mind the crate was moved from storage, and its contents emptied. I have no logs of anypony taking this crate out," Mani began to sweet. This whole situation was just bad all around.

Fire Wall turned to look at the other two guards who were still present, "What's the rookie and the guardpony doing here? Do they have anything to contribute?" Fire Wall look Jack in the eye. Jack could almost feel himself shrink under his gaze.

Mani was going to speak but Jack beat him to it, "General Sir, Star and myself found the crate, and recognized that it was resealed. We then came to this storage room to look for additional damages. Just like Mani reported. Sir."

Fire Wall nodded and Night Blade stared at his three guards. "Very good Jack." Fire Wall turned his attention to Mani, "Guardsman, you'll need to come with us to make a full report. I don't think we'll need any more from your underlings to report this event."

Fire Wall turned and started to slowly walk down the hallway, Night Blade quickly followed him.

Mani also started to walk with them, but turned to Jack and Star, "Ok guys. Looks like I'm in for a long debrief here. They don't need you to come along but stick around the castle just in case. Otherwise you two can retire for the night. It's already well passed our normal shift any way."

Mani walked off with the two high ranking Night Guard. Jack and Star couldn't see the sweat on his brow as he thought about the line of questions they were going to ask him. 'Why did this have to happen on our watch?' The Night Guard lowered his head and frowned at the thought.

Jack couldn't help but notice Fire Wall's cutie marks as he rounded the corner. He hadn't been able to get a good look at it before. His right side had been nothing more than scar tissue hiding the mark entirely. But his left flank, was different. The mark was buried under a large scar that ran across his flank in a strait line. It looked like a brownish red flame sitting on top of a wall of scar tissue. It was quite the image.

He made a mental note to himself to ask about the mark, but some other time when it would be more appropriate.

Star spoke, snapping Jack out of his trance, "Hey Jack, I'm going to head back to my bunk to crash for the morning."

"Ok," Jack shrugged.

Only Star didn't leave. Instead she rubbed her right leg with her left hoof, debating if she should ask him a question that had been burning her mind for the past week.

Sensing there was something else, Jack asked her, "Something wrong, Star?"

She swallow, "Well, would you mind if I ran with you tomorrow?" Star's ears fell flat against her head. It was such an odd site to see the usually very forceful and brash Star Screech acting so modestly and fearful.

He thought about the request for a moment. He could almost sense that there was more to the request then just running, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her no. Not that it would do any good even if he did. Knowing Star she would just invite herself along anyway. "No, I don't mind. But you should know I do more than just one lap."

There was a slight twitch in her left ear. A sign of mild bemusement perhaps.

"Ok. I can do two laps." she smirked.

Jack smiled back, he didn't have the heart to tell her just how far he planned to run.

It was hot in Night Blades office, Mani had all he could do to sit in the tiny room. His throat was a dry from all the talking and his eyes started to burn from being awake for so long.

Finally the words he had been hoping to hear for the past hour came out, "Ok Mani I think we have all we need here. You can go now." He saluted his captain and the general before walking out of the room.

Off in the distance he could hear the chimes of the morning bells. He counted nine and his eyes shot wide open. "Oh shit," he screamed as he ran back to the loading dock.

Once he arrived Mani ran around the loading dock, trying to make sure all the Night Guard's crates were taken care of as the Day Guard’s shipment was starting to arrive. He was exhausted and having a hard time of it all. 'Bucking thief, screwed up all my plans' he thought.

Thankfully, the Day Guard were nice enough to help him move the near thousand boxes of Night Guard supplies.

Most of them anyway, "Mani!" One of the Day Guard captains, Janis, barked at him. "I need you to move your Night Guard's crap out of here. NOW!" He proceeded to further yell at the over worked pony.

"Sir, I apologize, but like I said to your staff earlier there was a theft and we-"

Janis interrupted Mani by shoving his hoof in his chest, "No excused Night Guard. Get it done or I'll make a formal complaint to your captain."

Janis sneered at the Night Guard before he walked away. Mani watched him walk up to one of his own female subordinate. Judging by her stance and blush, his conversation must have been quite lewd.

"What an asshole," Mani whispered under his breath as he walked away.

Crate after Crate was check off Mani's list. Most of the Night Guard's supplies had been moved from the loading dock. Unfortunately not all had been inventoried, but he could worry about that later. It would just mean a bit more paper work in the end.

It was now time to inventory the Day Guard's shipment which had just arrived.

The Day Guard’s crates were starting to stack up outside of the loading dock. Walking out the large doors, Mani was greeted by the castle court yard, and several large towers of crates. A few ponies ran by the loading zone on their morning exercise run.

He tapped his hoof against his head. He was supposed to run later today. There was no way he was going to be up for it, but as an officer he had no choice. He had to set the example.

"Hey Mani could you move please?" A Day Guard pegusi was carrying a small crate and Mani was blocking the entrance way.

"Oh, sorry guardsman," Mani nodded before backing up into a pink rose bush. The thorn's from the bush cutting into his side. "Buck," He yelped.

'Could this day get any worse,' he thought to himself. He pulled out some paper work from his satchel and started recording the incoming Day Guard supplies.

The sooner he got this done, the sooner he could go to bed.