Chapters "Fired!?" a bat pony-hybrid asked a tall, dark blue alicorn.
"Yes, you did not do anything to help during Chrysalis's attack." the alicorn said.
"Bu-but Princess Luna! Your sister's guards had it all under control! That's why I didn't send any troops out!" he explained.
"But we were still kidnapped, I am firing you because you failed to protect the princess!" Luna said.
"Bu-but you can't do this! Who's going to step up? I already fired my second-in-command!" he stated, trying desperately not to lose his job.
"You're fired! Now leave this castle at once!" Luna yelled.
He left the the castle in a huff.
"I thought that he was a keeper." Luna muttered as she filled out a poster saying: Captain of the night guard needed! Requirements: At least some military experience. We're desperate!
"Be sure to use that copying spell and put it up in the bat district of Canterlot, and in their roots in the Everfree Forest." Luna told her messenger.
"I don't suppose any of you want to be the new captain?" Luna asked, looking at her small guard.
None of them stepped forward or said anything, for fear of losing their job and not being able to feed their families.
"Well, you all can have a two week break, or maybe even longer, you can all go home and see your families, I know that it's been awhile." Luna said, smiling wearily as her overjoyed guards walked out of the meeting room.
"I guess I'll go into town and scout for a new captain." Luna said as she walked out of the room.
The bat district of Canterlot was a small one, but was bursting with life and fun. Little foals were playing, their families laughing and retelling old stories, it was the perfect place to live. Luna used to love taking strolls through this are before her corruption. The ponies there were different and invisible, like she used to be. All of the young stallions were crowded around the new guard poster, except for one, he was playing with a small filly, she looked like any other regular bat filly, except that she only had three legs, and a huge red blob was in place of the front leg. Luna wanted to talk to this duo. She walked over to the two ponies.
"Um, excuse me?' Luna asked when she got over to the two.
"Yes- Princess Luna! What are you doing here?" the stallion asked as he bowed.
"Please, call me Luna! I came here to look for a new captain for my royal guard and I was immediately interested in the fact that you're not looking a the guard poster." Luna replied.
"Oh, well, I don't have enough money alone to buy a meal at a regular Canterlot restaurant let alone to become a captain! But I do need money money to pay for my little sister's surgery." he said.
"Not to be rude, but what happened to your little sister?" Luna asked.
"She has some type of cancer, she got it right after our parent's died and left us in debt two years ago." he said.
"I'm terribly sorry and I am willing to let you become captain of the guard for free, it pays very well and if you have any military experience, I can get you already for the job!" Luna said.
"Would playing wooden swords with your dad count?" he asked, desperate to help his sister.
"Not really, but I will personally train you, after all, I learned to fight during my exile on the moon." Luna said.
"Wait, you mean I can be the captain of your guard?" he asked.
"Yes, if you want to that is." Luna said.
"Of course, anything for my sister, but where will she stay?" he asked.
"Well, I will get your sister treated without you having to pay anything, but you will still be paid to pay off your debt." Luna said.
"Thank you very much! I'll try to do my best!" he said.
"No, thank you, and I never caught your name, what is it?" Luna asked.
"I was never named, though my sister's name is Dreamcatcher. When she was born, I really wanted to name her, so we did." he said.
"Well, we shall call you...um...do you have any nicknames?" Luna asked.
"Well, my sister calls me Night Light, but, that's the name of Princess Twilight Sparkle's father." he said.
"Well, we'll still call you that, we can change your birth certificate right now! Let us go to where your birth certificate is!" Luna yelled as she took down the poster and started walking to the hospital. She looked back at Night Light.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" Luna asked.
He smiled at her and said to his sister: "You're going to get well!" he said.
The hospital was an interesting experience, at first, the pony at the desk refused service to a hybrid, but saw the princess and immediately let them through.
"I love my job." Luna said as she and Night Light got his sister to her own royal sweet to be treated.
"And I can tell that I'm gonna suck at my new one!" Night Light joked.
"Well, practice makes perfect! Now, let's get you a name!" Luna said.
"Yeah, good idea." he said.
Luna got Night Light his name and the pair headed to the castle for Night Light's training. When Luna brought Night Light to her guard, they were all surprised, not only by his quick employment, but by the fact that he was so scrawny and didn't know how to fight.
"Psh, there's no way that HE REALLY
"Well, your new captain is going to be trained by me! Your so called, desperate boss!" Luna said, coming up behind him.
"Oh please, you can't fight! That's why we were hired in the first place!" the same one said, angering Luna even more.
"So you think I can't fight eh?" Luna asked as he punched him into the wall.
"Point taken." he mustered.
"Uh-huh, you all are still of for two weeks, I only called you here to meet your new captain, I still need to train him!" Luna said, shooing the rest of the guard away.
"Yes, okay! Goodbye your Highness!" one of them said as he walked out of the door.
"Now, let's get your armor!" she said once the room was empty.
"This is going to be a long two weeks." he muttered.
Night Light was overwhelmed when he got into the armory, swords and and clunky armor everywhere. And in the middle of it all, was an old stallion with a ton a scars.
"Hello there, Mr. uhh, I'm terribly sorry, but I forgot your name." Luna said to the elderly stallion.
"Oh! Your majesty! My name is Mr. um, well, I seem to have forgotten my own name! Well, you can just call me Mr. Um." he said.
"O-okay Mr. Um, I need you to fit this young colt right here." she said, pointing to Night Light.
"Hey! I'm not a colt! I'm 27 for crying out loud!" Night Light pouted.
"Could've had me fooled. Anyway, I don't believe that I have or can make any armor that small." Mr. Um said.
Just then, the doors burst open and a group of six colorful ponies, including an alicorn, walked in.
"Hello there, Bartholomew, I'm going to need six sets of armor, mare's size 6 for each of them." the alicorn said.
"Ah yes, that's my name! Bartholomew! Why do you need armor, Princess Twilight?" Bartholomew asked.
"Well, my friends and I all want to have easy-to-put-on armor so we won't get hurt if we ever have to battle another villain." Twilight explained.
"But make mine fashionable, darling!" a white unicorn with an elegantly curled, purple mane said.
"But not too fashionable! I don't want our battle to be ruined by Rarity's ignorance!" a raspy-voiced blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane said.
"Oh please Rainbow Dash! I would never choose style over substance!" Rarity countered.
"Uh, remember Rainbow Falls?" Rainbow shot back.
"Oh please darling, I was just experimenting with a new fabric and that was the best kind of style to use!" Rarity explained.
"Yeah, but you could have at least used it for something other than one of the most important relays in my life!"
"But, without it, you might not have learned to be loyal and get your friendship key!"
"If not, I would have gotten the key another way!"
The two continued to bicker while Twilight placed the order and left with the others. Rarity and Rainbow Dash followed them out, but were still bickering.
"Well, um, if you can't make any armor that small, why don't you just give us the smallest possible size." Luna suggested.
"Okay. Just to let ya know, the smallest piece of armor that I have is pretty big." Bartholomew warned.
"It'll have to do until you can make armor small enough." Luna said.
"Okay, it's way in the back so, I'll be back in ten minutes." Bartholomew said who;e disappearing into the many racks of armor, leaving Luna and Night Light alone.
"So."
"So."
"You um, wanna tour around the castle after this?" Luna asked.
"Sure." Night Light answered.
"Okay. So, um... what did you do for a living?" Luna asked.
"Fixed houses." he replied.
"I see. So, um your sister, how old is she?" Luna asked.
"Seven, my parents adopted her when she was a baby." he replied.
"I see."
"How old are you?" he asked.
"1,027, you sure are a colt compared to me!" Luna chuckled.
"Hey! Only by a thousand years!" Night Light pouted.
"It's still a lot!" Luna reminded
"Yeah, yeah." he pouted.
"I'm back!" Bartholomew chimed as he appeared from the great racks of armor holding a rather large set of armor.
"That's the smallest set of armor you have?!" Night Light asked.
"Well, yeah! I can make armor smaller, but I can't make it fit your scrawny standards!" Bartholomew said.
"Well, we'll have to take it for now." Luna sighed. "After all, we only have two weeks, but we would appreciate it if you could make smaller armor."
"Yes! Anything for the princess!"
"Thank you. Now, where is the stallion's fitting room?" Luna asked.
"I will show you." Bartholomew said.
"Thank you."
The first three days of Night Light's training weren't the greatest. First, he almost speared Princess Luna, instead of the dummy. Second, he could barely dent the metal armor dummy. Third, he could barely even stand up during the harsh conditions test. But, slowly, he started getting better and stronger, not to mention wiser with the lessons that Luna was teaching him. By the time the two weeks were over, Night Light was one of Luna's most promising guards.
"Alright, I would like to welcome you all back! And I am pleased to welcome your new captain, Night Light!" Luna said, motioning to the door.
The doors opened, and Night Light walked through. But he was not the scrawny, nervous, and jumpy stallion that he was two weeks ago. Oh no. He was much more muscular, he looked much more confident, and he seemed to be standing sightly taller. Most of the guards were surprised that this was the same captain that they had seen two weeks ago.
"That's the same stallion that we saw two weeks ago?!" one of them asked, jaw wide open.
"Heh, I can assure you, I am the same stallion that you saw two weeks ago." Night Light chuckled, his still the same as it was.
"You are?!" almost all of the guards asked.
"Yes, he is. Now, he will give you your daily orders as usual." Luna said.
Night Light gave out the guards daily orders as normal. Luna gave him his usual schedule and they went their separate ways. Luna decided that she would go visit Dream Catcher in the hospital before her surgery. When Luna got to Dream Catcher's room, she found her sleeping peacefully, wired to a machine.
"Dream Catcher?" Luna asked quietly, waking up the little filly.
"Yes?" the small filly yawned.
"I just wanted to see how you were doing."
"Oh. Well, the doctors say that there is little chance of me surviving after my surgery tonight." Dream Catcher said.
"Oh. I see. But, how are you feeling?" Luna asked.
"I'm feeling alright. How's my big brother?"
"He, is doing perfectly fine. Today is his first day you know!" Luna said.
"Cool! To bad I won't get to see him." the filly said grimly.
"Don't worry, you'll get to see him. Hey! Would you like me to teach you how to dream walk?" an excited Luna asked.
"Would I? Of course I would!"
"Great." Luna said happily.
Luna was on her way back from the hospital when she noticed something in the sky. It looked like an airship. Luna looked closer and saw that it was an airship. She decided to fly up and make sure that it was authorized. But when she prepared to fly up, it dropped a bomb. Luna saw it coming, and put up a forcefield to protect the district that she was in. The bomb was too strong and broke through Luna's forcefield. All of the ponies in that area scattered and Luna made a run for the castle. She had alert the guards. When she got there, the whole castle was in a flurry, guards running to protect there families, servants and cooks heading to the safes spot, it was terrible. Luna tried to find as many guards as she could, but only ran into Night Light.
"Luna! I'm so glad that I found you! What happened out there?" Night Light asked frantically.
"The health district of Canterlot was bombed by an airship. I tried to protect them with my forcefield, but the bomb was too strong, it hit the district." Luna said, on the verge of tears.
"No." Night Light breathed. "I'll go round up as many guards as I can and get up there, you need to go to the south tower and stay there, I don't want you to get hurt."
"Yes, of course, but I need to go out there with you. A princess needs to fight for her country, even if that means she will die." Luna said.
"I can't risk one of the princesses dying, you need to stay in the south tower!" Night Light demanded.
"No, I taught you how to fight. And even if I'm just gathering up children, I need to go out there." Luna said firmly.
"Okay. But if you get hurt, you can not go back out there, understand?"
"I completely understand."
"Good, now let's go!"
The two parted ways. Night Light ran through the castle, gathering up as many guards as possible. Luna, on the other hoof, summoned her armor and teleported to the health district and gathered as many ponies that she could. The hospital was in ruins. Luna ran straight into the crumbling hospital in search of Dream Catcher. When she got to her room, she found Dream Catcher in the corner, crying her heart out.
"What happened?! Are you okay?" Luna asked while scooping up Dream Catcher and taking her out of the room.
"I-I don't know, I was about to go into my surgery when somepony ran in and stabbed the doctor!" she sobbed.
"It'll be alright, don't worry, I'm here to take you and all the other children to the safe spot in the castle." Luna said while grabbing as many people as she could.
But suddenly, another bomb fell out of the air, aiming right for Luna and Dream Catcher. Luna threw herself over Dream Catcher as the bomb fell. Everything went black