It is the late hours of the night. The moon cuts through the darkness that would consumed the land with the stars gleaming in assistance. Many are sleep in their beds, dreaming their peaceful dreams unworried of the things that lurk in the dark, with few exceptions. The young stay awake, afraid of the darkness itself as only the young can be. The adolescents stay awake through the night, either for the work that they did not do during the day, or for their own entertainment. And for those who remain, they stay awake in the night, for it is there ideal environment, the darkness, the quiet, the solitude, it is a time that many can understand the joy of being in, but few would choose to do so.
After all, the things that thrive in the dark are the things you should fear.
Even if those things get easily lost.
The thing in question is a bat pony, in the castle of Canterlot. He is a notable pony even amongst his own kind, for his eyes are not heavy golden yellow that is common amongst his species, but rather a bright purple of a magenta hue, and a mane of silken white waves. He's clad in the armor common amongst the guard of the princess of the night, but not making any noise while he moves with an unnatural grace.
He's unintended wondering has led him into the dining room, and he was about to return to his unintended wondering, but he then and noticed the door into the kitchen was open and light was peering through. He knew that no one was supposed to be in the dining room or the kitchen at this hour. It was likely one of the guards on staff, however, unlike him, who merely got lost trying to find his way towards the destination he was supposed to be at, this guard had probably shirked off his duties to grab a midnight snack.
He moved over to the door and peered inside, seeing a site he never thought he would see. Celestia, princess of the sun, wearing a toque blanche and baking a cake. A small and simple cake, impossible to tell what flavor, as it had already been covered in vanilla frosting. The princess was decorating it in pink frosting in the shape of flowers.
The bat pony made his way out of the dining room, he knew better than to try and stop the being that controlled the sun from having her cake.
He resumed the search for his intended destination. but avoided the night patrol. He didn't want to have to admit that he had gotten lost on the first night of his new post. Somehow he found his way to the vault. It used to house the most important gemstones in the land, but they had been returned to their source to save the kingdom from an impending catastrophe. The vote was open, if anything had been put into the vault after the return of those gemstones it was gone now, as the guard confirmed when he looked inside and found nothing.
The guard was ready to move, but he heard it the sound of a tune being hummed approaching from behind. He flew into the air and caught himself at the corner we're two of the walls met and held himself there. It was possible that the thief had realized they had forgot to close the vault door and had returned to ensure that no trace of their crime would be found until it was too late.
The guard heard the humming coming closer and closer, and saw the princess of the sun approach the vault. Her magic holding a wide variety of baking goods and equipment, and a finished cake. She hummed and hummed as she willed her magic to take the ingredients in utensils into the vault. They had disappeared from sight before the glow of her magic surrounded the door of the vault and closed it shut. Than the princess walked away humming her tune, her magic only holding a cake.
The guard gliding back to the ground with an elegance only surpassed by the sheer quiet of his descent. He blinked once before resuming his search for his destination. Rather than wander around aimlessly though, he decided to take to the sky, hoping that he would be able to find his destination from the air. While doing so he saw the princess of the sun on her balcony, looking up at the night sky enjoying a piece of her cake.
The guard spotted his destination, and careful to not alert the princess to his presence he flew down to take his post, the Canterlot archives. He made his way through the halls of knowledge in complete silence, passing room after room of knowledge to get to its destination, the Star Swirl the Bearded wing. The bat pony reached into his arm and pulled out a key, inserted into the keyhole on the door and give it a turn, unlocking the door.
He walked inside, closed and locked the door behind him, and moved in, taking in row after row of knowledge, knowledge he knew he would never be able to use and had no intent to do so.
He done it, he made it to his new post after hours of being lost. This post that was assigned to him after one unicorn snuck inside and stole a powerful spell that allowed one to change time and used it to play with fate like a toy. Everything was alright in the end, but the princesses decided to add extra security to the Star Swirl the Bearded wing so that such knowledge could never be stolen again. But now the guard was tired form hours of wandering around lost had now worn on him and he still had hours to go before he would be relieved of his post. He closed his eyes than yawned and when he opened them he noticed an object floating towards him.
It black object with a white layering surrounded by a golden glow that it stopped in front of him and he reached out just in time to catch it as the glow disappear. It was a triangular object with a pink flower on top.
It was a good night to be a guard.
Author's Note
Originally this was about a bat pony guard catching Celestia getting some cake as a midnight snack and having a talk with her, I decided to change it to this because I thought it'd be more entertaining.
Also the name Silent Night, while not intending to be the ponies name, (it was originally Nocturne), that can be the name now. The title of the chapter is supposed to be a reference to the song Silent Night, but it works well as his name to. Especially since he's supposed to be perfectly quiet.
