The Day Shift

The pale moonlight washed over Canterlot Palace. Most ponies were asleep or shuffling off in that direction. The gentle ebb of dreams started to flow over the world like infinite strands of incandescent light that formed an invisible tapestry, reflecting and refracting across the night sky. Guards left their post, and only the barest skeleton of a replacement was put up. This was the most well-defended castle in the most powerful nation in the world. Who would dare attack? Where would the enemy come from?

And yet, a shadow slipped effortlessly through the halls. Gaps in attention, blinks, turns of the head. These were the tiniest of delays necessary for the unseen invader to make their move, to dance past unseen. Their hooves didn’t even leave a whisper, a difficult trick on the marble floors that spanned much of the castle hallways.

The sprawling spiderwebs that were the hallways of the castle's residential wing were an impossible network of foiled sightlines, nooks, crannies. It was through this and impossible skill that the shadow managed to slide past patrols and evade the half-aware glances of sentries. Once, a horn glowed and a particularly astute guard could only fight for a brief moment to stay awake before their eyes fluttered closed and they fell fast asleep.

And into the personal apartments of Princess Celestia crept the quiet figure. Here the attention was dimmed. Who would dare threaten Her Eminence? How would they even know what to take? And still they went deeper, tracing the curved hallway and slowing their path only to pass more carefully by the door of the sun goddess herself. And then finally, the door of the newly appointed Prince Consort.

It was locked, but that was of little consequences. With the tiniest flick of magic the door was unsealed, and the passage unblocked. Inside was a spacious room. The furnishings were simple and comfortable, their plain appearance belying the obvious quality of materials and construction. And sleeping fitfully on the bed was the adorable form of the Prince Consort himself.

Princess Luna smiled to see him, tossing and turning. He would have no trouble sleeping with her.