Blood slowly dripped onto the earth.
A valiant guardspony stood over the dying form in front of him, sword held high into the air. He stood alone in a square filled with the dead or the dying and he smiled. He spat the sword out and it fell to the ground with a dull clang reverberating through the air. Victoriously, he lifted his last victim into the air and stared into their eyes, the light slowly fading from them.
"I told you, no one messes with a royal guard."
The words were simple, but their meaning held great weight. The attack had failed, their mission incomplete. As the guardspony saw the realization fill his victims features, he let him go. The body fell to the earth and was still.
Silence filled the area for a few seconds before the chirping of birds began to return, it sounded strange to the pony's ears however. Almost as if they were chanting his name.
"Night Wing... Night Wing..."
"Night Wing!"
The young stallion shot bolt upright in his seat, his mind brought instantly back to the real world by the shrill shouting of the pony at the front of the room.
"Er..."
"I hope for the sake of you're pitiful flank that you weren't sleeping through my lecture of ancient Pegasus battle techniques. Because if you were... Let's just say that by the time I'd be finished with you, even the comfy thrones the Princesses themselves sit on wouldn't lessen the pain."
"No."
"No, what?"
"No, Sir, I wasn't sleeping."
"Good!" The lecturer's face curled into a furious snarl, "Then tell me, how did the Pegasi win against the clearly numerically superior Gryphons at the battle of Skyre Peak?"
Sweat began to form on Night Wing's face as he desperately searched around the room for any hints to the answer.
"Err..."
Two sets of hoofsteps rang out across the courtyard as two ponies observed the forest that surrounded one side of their home. One was white, her mane the colour of the aura borealis. The other was as black as night, her mane spangled with stars.
"Sister, is this a truly necessary course of action?"
"There is no need for thine worrying dear Luna, it is completely normal. Everypony does it at some point."
"I have seen this not, the actions that have been seen by our own eyes are that everypony gets married after falling in love, not getting what amounts to a harlot."
"The word is consort, Luna, remember that. Besides, for one in positions such as ourselves, falling in love is completely out of the question."
"Why, prithee tell us this?"
Celestia, looked down at her sister, a mixture of sadness and pity in her eyes.
"Thou art immortal dear sister. Thou will live forever whilst ponies around us, our citizens, will wither and die. That is why thou must have a consort, so as to deal with any urges without the pain love will bring thee once they die."
"But thine consort will die one day as well will he not? Will that not also be sad?"
"Of course it will, but thy sadness will be not from a broken heart, but a broken friendship. That is why they must only be consorts, so when it comes to it, thou can take another."
"We see dear sister. Thou hast garnered great wisdom already in these last five years."
Celestia smiled down at her sister, appreciating the compliments. "It is a necessity that we garner what wisdom we can, hopefully one day we will have somepony to pass it onto."
"A child?"
Celestia was shocked and seemed greatly troubled for a question that seemed so innocent.
"No, Luna, not a child. We cannot have children, we meant more a student, protege if thou will."
"We cannot have children? Thou mean thou art ...?"
"No, we are perfectly capable of having children, but it cannot happen. Neither of us must ever have children Luna."
"why is this, pray tell?"
Celestia thought for a moment in a thick and unending silence, she wondered how she should respond. Eventually a heavy smile settled on her face and she spoke with well chosen words.
"That is something best left for another time, thou already hast the burden of choosing a consort already. We think that shall be enough."
"Must we choose immediately? And by what method should our choice be made?"
"Not immediately, no. But we would recommend soon, within the year perhaps. It shall be expected and questions are already being asked about who thou art choosing. Tis in thine best interest at any rate, it is mine fear that the next summer months will be a pain if thou hast not chosen by then." Celestia smiled at Luna, remembering her own first summer heat. "And thou may choose any methods thou wish to decide. As long as they are fit and healthy to fit thy needs, then we shall approve."
"Hmm, we shall need time to think on this."
"Do so, now we have some issues of state to deal with, thou best go to bed. We doubt you want to be tired when bringing out the stars."
The two sisters bowed out of respect for each other before heading their separate ways. Celestia towards the royal court, and Luna towards her part of the palace.
It was times like these that made Night Wing glad that school had earned him a large vocabulary of filthy language.
Of course he hadn't been able to answer the bloody question posed to him by his lecturer and so of course he got punished. A far harsher punishment than he ever expected. At school his punishments were at worse a smack with a ruler, but here, he was reminded by his lecturer, was boot camp. Not a place of weaklings, so if he couldn't take the punishment he could leave right now and find himself another profession.
A shaming he would not let happen to himself.
So he took the punishment like any stallion could. He stood grunting as he was caned and sweated as he did press ups. Now here he was, the final part of the punishment, clearly the atrium to the Lunar Wing of royal palace. It was a large space, often used for various royal events at night and that meant a lot of scrubbing. And not even with a mop or a broom, no, he had to use a toothbrush.
Night Wing sighed, this would take him all day. And it was the only day this week without an afternoon march, looks like he would be unable to take advantage of that at this rate.
He continued brushing the floor for the next few minutes, fall all of his punishment's tediousness it allowed him to marvel at the construction of the place. The floor was made out of the most exquisite obsidian, it's surface absorbing all light. The downside of this was that it meant any dirt or imperfections were instantly visible.
Night Wing had to admit though, while it meant it would be obvious if he failed to clean it properly, it also made it obvious where he needed to clean.
He was brought out of muttered grumbling and moaning about the boredom and the pain in his rump by the sound of hoofsteps from the corridor outside. As far as he knew, the Princess slept throughout of the day, and guards didn't usually come into this part of the palace. From what he could assume therefore was that it could only be his lecturer coming to check on his progress.
"Better put my back into it," he muttered to himself under his breath.
Luna always enjoyed the walk from the main section of the palace to her own private wing. It passed right by the edge of the forest and during the day the colours of the flowers and the sound of beautiful bird song filled her senses. During the night, the sound of insects and the nocturnal creatures of the forest ensured the place felt alive even when all other ponies were asleep.
Today however, her mind was preoccupied with her conversation with her sister and she was muttering quietly to herself. Glad there was no one around to hear her ramblings.
"How in this whole kingdom am I meant to find a Consort? One can hardly trot up to the next stallion she sees and go, 'Hey, would thou like to proceed in coitus?'" Luna shook her head, "No! There must be a better way for us to identify a ..." Luna stopped her muttering and paused in her walking when she caught the scent of polish on the air.
"Tis strange, mine cleaners are not scheduled for another month."
Luna hurried towards her quarters and to her surprise found the entrance propped open with a rock.
"What, pray tell, is going on here? We did not leave mine chamber open."
"What, pray tell, is going on here? We did not leave mine chamber open.
That wasn't his lecturer's voice at all, it wasn't even male. The voice was definitely female, and one he recognized from many a state occasion.
Princess Luna.
‘Alright, Night Wing, just keep your head down and don't draw attention to yourself. You were sent here, you haven't done anything wrong by being here and you don't want to make the situation any worse for yourself.’
He could hear the sounds of the hoofsteps as Luna walked into the chamber and he could almost feel her eyes staring at him. There was no chance she couldn't see him, not when he was wearing the traditional white cadet's uniform.
"Guard, We believed cleaning day to be next month, or has plans changed?"
‘Oh cud, Luna asked me a question, what do I do?’ His heart was pounding rapidly in his chest, and he could swear he was beginning to sweat rather heavily.
"Guard? Did thou not hear me? Pray tell, is cleaning day not next month?"
Night Wing realized that he was going to have to answer her, so nervously he stood up from the ground, toothbrush still in hoof.
"Y-Yes, your majesty. I-I-I mean, no, your majesty. I-I mean, I don't know your majesty..." His mouth felt dry of a sudden and he began to feel rather nauseous. "I was just sent to..." He was interrupted by the princess as she raised a hoof.
"Ahh, I doth see thou art a cadet. Would we be correct in assuming this is a form of punishment?"
"Y-Yes, your majesty." Night Wing looked down at the ground ashamed, his face becoming a bright shade of crimson.
"Come now," said Lunar, her voice filled with compassion. "Tis nothing to be ashamed of, we all make mistakes. One simply has to deal with the consequences of thine actions." Night Wing felt a hoof appear suddenly against his chin, pushing his head up to meet her gaze. Luna's eyes were open to their fullest and despite their scrutiny, he found it hard to draw his gaze away, he felt drawn to those dark pools.
"We doth see remorse inside, thou regrets thine actions. Hopefully thou will learn the lesson thy tutor wishes to impart and move on."
Luna smiled at Night Wing and removed her hoof from his chin, for some reason Night Wing still couldn't bring himself to break eye contact with the Princess.
"Now, We have kept thou too long from thy work, it appears a lot is still to be done, and it is not mine wish to deprive one’s free time, limited as it may be as a cadet."
Luna moved off but before she left, she placed a hoof to his flank, with the intent to playfully push him to his work. He hoof however made contact with the region caned earlier that day which drew a hiss of pain from Night Wing and caused him to flinch away from the contact. Luna instantly withdrew her hoof.
“We are sorry, we did not wish to cause you pain."
"It's alright, your majesty, nothing more than some fresh scars. They will heal."
"Scars? Let us take a look at them."
"No, your majesty, really there is no need..."
"It is all right, it is thine princess's duty to ensure the safety of thine subjects."
Before he could press further protest, Luna had placed her hooves on his flank, carefully this time, to inspect his wounds.
"These are indeed fresh!" exclaimed Luna after some minor inspection. "They could not have been inflicted any earlier than this very morn." She paused for a moment, thinking about what this could mean, before reaching a rather valid conclusion. "Indeed, art these part of thy punishment as well?"
From the tone of her voice, Night Wing could tell she did not approve of this turn of events. However, he was reluctant to get his lecturer into trouble. With him trying to get into the guard, it was a likely way of him making his own life very difficult. Luckily, Luna seemed to be able to read his mind.
"Thou need not be afraid of thine Officer's wrath, we would not seek to punish him. It is within his rights to deal punishments as he see's fit, and within mine to amends them as it fits my own opinions." Night Wing gulped nervously.
‘Well, if he won't get in any trouble, I guess I can tell her.’
"Yes, they are from my punishment." He confirmed, nervously. Luna gave a snort of disgust in response.
"Then this shall not do, thy has already been punished, and physically at that. I can see no purpose this cleaning shall afford. But what shall be done about this? Hmm..." Luna looked around her in deep thought, then suddenly a thought struck her. "But of course!"
Luna's horn glowed as she began to cast a spell and then, with a flash of light that temporarily blinded Night Wing, the deed was done.
Night Wing rubbed his eyes, and when his vision returned he was greeted by Luna admiring her handiwork and a completely clean floor. He couldn't believe it, the Princess had just cleaned the entire floor for him. He instantly went down on his knees before her.
"Oh thank you, your majesty, thank you." Luna chuckled.
"Think nothing of it, Cadet, after the reign of Discord our heart can not bare to see ponies punished beyond what is needed." She smiled and then proceeded to help him back to his knees. As she did so, she noticed the toothbrush in his grasp and took it into her magic.
Night Wing was startled by the sudden force applied to his cleaning implement, but made no resistance when she levitated it into the air.
"Was this thy tool for cleaning?" he nodded. "Then we guess we better make it look used. After all we would hardly want to get thou into more trouble after going to all this effort." She smiled again, and with another flash of magic, smaller this time, the brush looked well used.
Luna levitated the brush down to Night Wing who took it in his hooves with a smile, there was no way the Lecturer was going to doubt he had cleaned it now.
"Thank you, your majesty."
"Thou art welcome, Cadet. Pray, forgive me for my rudeness as we have yet to ask thee thy name. And thou need not call me ‘majesty’, you can simply call me princess, or Luna if thou would prefer."
"It's Night Wing, princess, my name that is. Thank you again for helping me."
"Dwell not on it, we are glad to be of assistance. Now thou must forgive me, for the day is dwindling, and I doth need some rest before the night comes. Night Wing, we bid thee farewell, but if thou dost see me in passing, do not hesitate to bid us well."
"Thank you, Princess, and I hope you have pleasant dreams."
Luna smiled and nodded before leaving the stunned cadet alone in the chamber.
Night Wing looked around and smiled, it looked like he had the rest of the day off, his classes having been put aside for his punishments.
"My friends are never going to believe this." He muttered, before running off to find them, stopping only to close the door to Luna's quarters.
Luna giggled to herself as she prepared herself for bed. Her sister had told her many times before of how good it felt to help ones subjects. As she felt this warm glow fill her, she knew how correct her sister had been. What her sister had neglected to tell her was how to remove the subject from her mind.
For some reason she couldn't remove the thoughts of the young cadet from her mind. Still she was glad that it was something to keep the thoughts of finding a consort from taking root.
As she lay down to sleep, her mind drifted back over the form of the young cadet. His muscles refined from constant training, his flank, although scarred, as her hands gently examined it.
"What was it the stallion said, ‘I hope you have pleasant dreams?’" Luna smiled to herself sweetly as she closed her eyes. "We most definitely will."
