Serving His Empress

Chapters

Part the First
Part the Second
Part the Third
Part the Fourth
Part the Fifth
Part the Sixth

Part the First

Serving His Empress
~or~
How Shining Armor Avoided a Crushed Pelvis by the Empress Daybreaker

Part the First

The first time Shining Armor had seen his Empress, it had been four years ago. Twilight had just gone through the entrance exam of the Canterlot Mages College, earning her Cutie Mark in the process. Actually, it was less that she had passed, so much as it was that she completely demolished the roof of the building, hatched a dragon from sheer magical potential, and got the Empress’ attention. Which led to he, Twilight, and their parents facing, and talking, with Her Radiance. And, by all counts, the living goddess more than lived up to the whispered mutterings from his fellow colts in his school.

Shining wasn’t really paying attention to his parents discussing political things with the Empress, the fourteen year old colt trying to be subtle about hiding his staring at Her Radiance’s form. She was easily larger than even the biggest earth pony that Shining had seen toiling the fields below the towering gazes of the Canterlot elite, her own pure white fur shimmering with a slight gold sheen in the light of Her sun. The way her perfectly sculpted form moved as she paced before his parents before stopping right in front of him.

“And who might you be, young colt?” the Empress asked of him.

Shining gulped, bowing low before her. “I-I am Shining Armor, your Radiance,” he answered, somehow keeping his sudden terror of having the Empress addressing HIM from entering his voice. “A-At your service!”

The Empress chuckled, a molten, melodious laugh that both warmed his heart and froze his blood at the same time. “Indeed. In time, I hope.” She looked at his parents. “How well does he perform in his studies?”

What Shining did next was, at the time, quite brave of him. Looking, back… it was suicidal, and completely INSANE.

“Professors say I’m one of the best they’ve taught Your Radiance!” Shining declared proudly, his chest puffing out. “And I hope I can go on to serve as a member of your Legions!”

Daybreaker looked at him with a coy, almost flirtatious look on her face. “Oh? How so, young colt?” she asked, leaning down to his level.

“Well, Your Radiance, I have a shield as my mark,” Shining replied, “So, maybe that means my special task in life is to defend your empire by being a shield!” Daybreaker looked at him closely, the colt and his family falling silent.

“...very well then,” she said with a note of finality. “Shining Armor, I expect great things from you. Do not… disappoint me,” she added, whispering it into his ear before standing tall. “Quick Note, ensure that this colt gets into the Academy as soon as he graduates. And as for young Twilight Sparkle, I shall take her on as a personal student.”

“As you will, Your Radiance,” the smoky coated mare next to Daybreaker stated, a quill scribbling the declaration at lightning speed.

Two years later, Shining was standing in formation at the Academy’s parade grounds, the sky cloudless and the sun bright in the sky as his new commanding officer gave a presumably boring speech. But what held his attention was the literal goddess standing next to him. She didn’t seem nearly as tall as she was two years ago to him, but that was only replaced by the sheer beauty of her perfectly sculpted frame, her golden-red eyes looking over the parade ground of new cadets with an impassive look.

Suddenly, Shining saw her eyes flicker over to him, and he could have sworn that she gave him a knowing smirk.

Oh Faust, she’s actually looking at me! Shining thought, standing up even straighter just for her, he hoped at any rate. He took a deep breath, and willed himself ready for the training ahead. Which led him to now, another two years later, and the soon to be graduating cadet Shining Armor was standing in front of the doors to Daybreaker’s audience chamber, standing guard silently as he and another cadet waited for the ‘day’ to end.

In the near thousand years since Empress Daybreaker had taken the throne of not only Equestria, but also the Griffin Kingdom, the Minotaur Republics, and the lands formerly held by the now long extinct Caribou, She had controlled both the sun and the moon. The moon was of less concern to her though, as she knew full well how important the light from the sun was. So, for nearly a thousand years, the world kept itself on long, summer days, with the coldest days being that of ‘autumn,’ the harvest season. Now though was the height of summer, and that meant that Shining was sweating under the heavy plate armor he was wearing, spear in hoof.

Suddenly, the doors slammed open as a torrent of fire impacted the opposite wall, Shining and his fellow recruit flinching from the heat of it. “DEPART FROM THY SIGHT, THOU WITLESS CUR!!” the two heard Daybreaker SHOUT. “THOU SHALT NOT RECEIVE THE AID THOUST SEEK!! NOT AFTER SUCH INSOLENCE!! BEGONE!!!” Shining and his fellow guardspony looked at each other, each pointedly ignoring the scorched afterimage of a screaming pony on the blackened wall as another, still breathing pony rushed out of the audience chamber in terror.

Shining and the other pony straightened up, waiting nervously for the next shift to arrive as Daybreaker was audible stomping about in the room. “GUARDS! INSIDE!!” she ordered. Wordlessly, Shining and his fellow recruit entered the audience chambers, minding the scorch mark the length of the marble floor before standing to attention as Daybreaker looked at them haughtily.

“Guards, names,” she commanded briskly.

“Cadet -,” Shining’s fellow guardspony started before the Empress waved him off.

“Leave,” she said in an irritated huff. The pony was all too eager to follow the order as he fled the room, leaving Shining
alone in the room with Daybreaker. “And you… Cadet Shining Armor,” she said, her voice dropping to a low, dulcet tone as she strode over to him. “My, how you’ve… filled out.”

“All for service at my Empress’s command!” Shining answered, trying not to show any nervousness around his Empress. She chuckled, extending a hoof under him to trace the outside of his sheath.

“Indeed… Quick Note, clear my schedule for the rest of the day. I am not to be disturbed,” she ordered. The silent mare nodded, jotting it down.

“By your leave, My Empress?” Quick inquired.

“Go.” Quick nodded, departing silently as Daybreaker shifted her focus back to Shining. “Now, as for you… tell me, when last have you laid with a mare? Or stallion, it matters not.”

Shining gulped. “N-Never Y-Y-Your Radi-”

“Sshhh,” she hissed softly to him, using her magic to silence him, her eyes looking deep into his. “Tonight, you may call me… Daybreaker,” she commanded. Shining nodded silently, not trusting himself to speak as she chuckled again. “So… I may assume that you, my loyal Cadet… are unclaimed?”

“Y-Yes my E- I mean, D-Daybreaker,” he replied. Daybreaker narrowed her eyes, a twinkle in them as her hoof touched the soft velvet of his swelling sheath.

“Oh, then I… and you, shall enjoy this,” she declared, and in a bright, golden flash, Shining felt his armor cease to exist. Which meant that now, by extension, Daybreaker had a good view of EVERYTHING about Shining. “Oh my,” she said with a hungry sounding hum of delight. “You’re quite well developed there,” she commented, massaging the twin, hoof sized balls hanging down under Shining heavily with her magic.

“T-Thank you Daybreaker,” Shining answered, shuddering under the alicorn’s ministrations. The stimulation was quickly having an effect on him, as Daybreaker watched as his mottled shaft grew out of its hiding place… and grew, and grew, until it stopped just over halfway down his barrel, hanging stiff and proud.

“My my… I can… I can hardly call you a colt now, can I?” Daybreaker told him, licking her lips. “I must admit, Shining Armor, it has been… some time since I have seen a stallion with a tool such as this.” Shining felt his cheeks redden in both pride and a bit of slight embarrassment at the praise.

“Thank you Daybreaker,” he said bashfully. The alicorn empress smiled hungrily as she licked her lips, ruby red tongue brushing over her elongated canines as her horn glowed once more. One moment, they were in the audience chambers, the next, Shining found himself bouncing up and down on the Empress’s own vast, four-post bed, the goddess now straddling his chest as she looked back at him.

“Don’t you fret there, young Armor,” she said, lifting his shaft up to better look at it in her hooves. “I will take… very good care of you.” Before he could ask her what she meant, Daybreaker opened her mouth wide and sucked the tip, tongue dancing across the surface of his flared head.

It was as if somepony had taken Shining’s entire being, condensed it down to his dick, and then tried to melt him down to puddle of messy pleasure the likes of which Shining had only ever heard of in barracks banter. His head was thrown back, mouth open in a long, drawn out moan as his Empress took more of him in, hooves running up and down his length, her magic caressing his balls. Academically, he knew what she was doing.

But by Faust, knowing from hearsay was nowhere near enough for the young stallion to prepare for the act itself.
Shining grit his teeth, forehooves digging into Daybreaker’s bedding as his body shook. “D-Daybreaker!” he panted out, looking at her perfectly sculpted rear, his nostrils flaring as he picked up a heady, metallic, and floral scent emanating from her. “I’m sorry, I, I can’t-!”

The alicorn pulled away for only a moment to give him a long, sultry look. “Fret not. Come, show me what you can do, my loyal guard,” she ordered, making sure to let Shining see her take him back into her warm, wet, tight mouth. And then go down… and down, and down until she reached his medial ring.

Shining lost it. He let out a primal, virgin cry of ecstasy as his balls twitched and clenched, his thick cock getting thicker just before a rush of sweet, stickiness flooded its way down his length. Daybreaker’s eyes widened as she gulped down the first spurt… then the second, and the third. By the time Shining had finished coming inside her, Daybreaker was all but grinning as she slowly pulled back on his shaft, sucking him off one last time before his cock plopped out of her mouth with a wet pop.

Shining panted, his mind blown from his first true sexual experience. “My… I mean, uh, Day-,” he began before her hoof silenced him with a press to his lips.

“Shhh,” Daybreaker hissed, turned around so that her body faced his. “Shh, my guardpony. I am most impressed by that,” she told him, her horn glowing a bright, fiery gold. “As I said… it’s been many years since I’ve had a lover with the potential you have. And tonight?” Shining watched as her magic surrounded his crotch, and suddenly, his cock was iron hard, his balls feeling like they were about to burst, “I am going to see how much I will have to… refine you.”

She lifted her hips and tilted his cock to angle straight for her-

Shining’s eyes widened. He was going actually f- no, lay with the Empress?! But she had the strength of easily fifty Earth ponies without even trying, he’d never survive the next few minutes with her! Thinking quickly as his tip reached her drenched folds, Shining cast a quick shield spell, and braced himself.

Hours later, Shining found himself being attended to be the Empress’ hoofmaidens as she stood on her balcony overlooking Canterlot. “Cadet Shining Armor,” she said, catching his attention. “You have done me a great service tonight.
For that, I promote you to Lieutenant. This will be the only time I shall give you a promotion based on you cock, am I understood?”

“Yes, of course your Radiance,” Shining replied, sitting up straight as a dark cherry mare passed behind him, looking him up and down.

“Excellent. Now, for the next few months, you will be assigned to the Savannahs, the Zebra tribes are getting themselves in an uproar again,” Daybreaker continued. “Should you survive, we may continue this. And Lieutenant?”

“Yes Your Radiance?”

Daybreaker turned to look at him, smirking softly. “You were clever. Using a shield spell to last longer with me. I must admit, that has been a first for many, many generations. I expect you to use that to your advantage on the field.”

He nodded quickly. “O-Of course, Your Radiance.”

The alicorn trotted to him, and placed a hoof back on his tender sheath. “And before you go, I have one last standing order for your new assignment.” She leaned in close, enjoying the sudden stillness of the stallion. “...while you are there, do enjoy the locals. Show them why my empire has lasted so long,” she whispered, rubbing him for a few moments before pulling away. “Good night, Lieutenant. You have your orders.”

Shining saluted her on reflex. “As my Empress commands!” he answered back. Daybreaker smiled, walking out of her room, leaving him alone with the hoofmaidens. The stallion let out a sigh.

By Faust, he was fucked.

Part the Second

Serving His Empress
~or~
How Shining Armor Avoided a Crushed Pelvis by the Empress Daybreaker

Part the Second

Shining had expected the savannah to be hot. A bit sunnier than Canterlot due to its location south of his native country, but that was it.

What he had NOT expected was that the savannah wasn’t hot. It was HOT. A dry, sweltering heat that seemed to sap the strength from his limbs as he trudged on closer to his new home for the next six months. A small outpost in the middle of seemingly nowhere, the wood and dried mud fortification was able to house a full company of ponies, plus support ponies, servants, and a few griffin auxiliaries. All told, the fort could hold about a hundred and thirty, a hundred forty-five souls within its walls.

And this was going to be where Shining would first test his skills… if the stallion next to him didn’t annoy him to the point he would buck him in the face.

“So, Armor, ye think we’ll get all the sweet striped pussy we want out here?” the stallion asked with a spring in his step.

“That’s Lieutenant Armor to you Corporal,” Shining reprimanded, giving the stallion a flat look of disapproval. “And what you do while on liberty is not my business. Not until what you do affects your duty to the crown, myself, and your squad. Am I understood?” The corporal groaned.

“Yes sir,” he muttered, the ponies reaching the entrance to the outpost. The doors opened, letting them inside as Shining took stock of some of the soldiers he would soon be in command of.

I got this, the unicorn thought.

~~~

I don’t have this under ANY sort of control! Shining though angrily to himself as he and a scant hoof-full of ponies holed up inside what was left of their hospital. Shining had been at the post for little more than five damn days before the Corporal he had arrived with killed a zebra while on patrol. And not just any zebra, no, that would have been too easy. No, it had to be the local tribal lord’s son, and that had led to them being attacked by at least a legion of zebras.

The Corporal was dead; he had died early on from getting a zebra hunting spear lodged in his throat, left to bleed out on the ground outside as Shining had directed what few pegasi aerial skirmishers to pepper the zebra shamans with whatever weather magic they could use. Of course, that was before those shamans called down a tornado.

That was also on fucking fire.

Shining had saved what skirmishers had survived their insane attempts to stop that tornado, his shield spells holding until they crashed themselves in front of the hospital with severe burns. After that, it had turned into a two day, and counting long brawl between the company and the attacking legion. What had started as a garrison of one hundred twenty led by a Centurion was now down to Shining, a pair of sergeants, about a dozen other ponies of varying race and combat skill, and a half dead griffin mercenary.

“Oh buck, they’re coming through the walls!” one of the surviving ponies shouted, pointing to a section of wall falling apart, the wild shouts of furious, blood thirsty zebras clogging their ears.

One of the sergeants smacked the pony upside the head. “Getta hol’ a’yerself!” she shouted, shoving a lance and shield into the poor pony’s hooves. “Ye ain’ dead yet, so shuddup and keep fighten’! Tha’s a fuckin’ order!”

“Sergeant, let him be!” Shining ordered, stabbing his own lance out of a hole in the wall, a zebra spear glancing off the side of his armor. “Get up here and help me!”

The mare galloped over to him, her lance going through a hole a zebra made and impaled the enemy warrior, the zebra gurgling his last breath before the fur on Shining’s neck stood.

“GET DOWN!” Shining shouted, diving to the hard, dirt ground. The survivors followed suit, and not a moment too soon as light flashed through the walls, a titanic thunderclap nearly deafening them as the world seemingly shook around them. Shining looked up, even as his ears continued to ring. Right outside, visible through one of several holes at his current eye level, he saw the zebra’s looking off into the distance, many of them looking suddenly terrified. Shining got to his hooves, wrapping up his lance in what was left of his magic reserves.

“Zebra’s are on the run!” he shouted, pointing to the door. “Now we can wait and see what just sent them runnin’, or we get out there, and make them REALLY run!”

The Sergeant hefted her lance, one of the pegasi sliding a pair of metal claws over his forehooves. “Well, don’ fancy much dyin’ like a rat ‘ere!” she snorted, glaring at the door that was only just hanging on. “On yer orders sir!”

Shining nodded, his magic flaring just enough to hold onto the door and loosen it up. “Right then! Let’s go! Chaaarrrge!” He, the Sergeant, the pegasus, and five other ponies rushed the door, crashing through it in a shower of splinters. The zebras by the door didn’t have a warning as Shining thrust and slashed his lance forward, tearing their throats out as his Sergeant charged, impaling a zebra with a full force shoulder check and keeping the charge going, trampling over any pony unlucky enough to get in her way.

Stabbing into another zebra fighter, Shining looked around, and was amazed at what he was seeing. In the sky, hundreds of pegasi fighters strafed the zebra lines, lightning lancing down from their hooves to strike any zebra unlucky enough to be in their sights, or plucked off the ground to simply be dropped from cloud height. Off in the distance, maybe a quarter mile away from the wall, Shining saw a mixed mass of earth ponies and unicorn battle mages cutting off the zebra retreat, many of the striped warriors getting felled by warhammer and spellfire. Shining stood still, slack jawed at the revelation that an entire legion had apparently come to his garrison’s rescue.

“Don’t fuckin’ stand there sir, git yer flank movin’!” his Sergeant shouted, kicking a zebra in the face. The shout shook Shining out of his stupor, just in time for him to avoid getting impaled by a spear. Blocking the spear, Shining reflexively slammed the zebra with a simple push spell, sending the other equine flying tumbling to the ground as the last remnants of the invading force lost their will, spears dropping to the ground.

“Ser-Sergeant,” Shining panted, pointing his lance at the fallen zebra, “Please… please fucking tell me that the zebras are surrendering.” The Sergeant looked around, watching as zebra surrendered to legionnaires as fast as possible.

“Well, I’d say it looks like it sir,” she answered, hefting her weapon onto her shoulder as what could only be the legion commander approached, flanked by an honor guard. “Aaaan’ that we might be in horse apples.”

Shining nodded, stepping back from the zebra as the legion commander approached, the burly looking earth pony looking down at him from under the brow of the ornately decorated helm. The commander looked around, taking note of the garrison’s burning and perforated walls, the number of bodies on the ground; it seemed as if the stallion WANTED to try and make Shining uncomfortable.

“Where is that idiot Centurion, Yellow Heart?” the commander asked, looking at Shining. “He is going to pay dear for this.”

“Dead General,” Shining reported. “Died two days ago trying to flee. The zebras… took their time sir.” The General scoffed, looking at the zebra at Shining’s hooves.

“Well, I suppose I must commend you then,” the stallion said begrudgingly. “You’ve kept this garrison from completely dying, and you held a zebra advance long enough for us to come and break them.” He pointed to the zebra. “She shall be yours Lieutenant. Do as you please.”

“S-sir?”

The General huffed. “That mare there is yours, do as you wish,” he said. Shining looked at the zebra mare at his hooves, and nodded.

“I… understand General. I’ll round up what few I have left, and I’ll… I get our… our…” Shining paused as the adrenaline of the past couple days seemed to simply vanish from his being. The General shook his head.

“Don’t bother with the paperwork Lieutenant,” he ordered. “You and your forces have more than earned a rest.”

“I… thank you General,” Shining said, nodding. “By your leave sir?”

“Carry on Lieutenant,” the General looked around the blood soaked battlefield. “If anything… I’ll ensure you and yours get the recognition you deserve. Now go on, rest easy son.” Shining saluted, wincing as his sore muscles protested. The General saluted him back, leaving Shining alone with his Sergeant and the zebra mare.

“Sergeant?”

“Yessir?”

Shining pointed to the mare. “Help me get her up please, I feel like I’m about to fall over dead right now.” The Sergeant chuckled wearily as she trotted over.

“Sure thing sir,” she said. Together, they hoisted the black and white mare up to her hooves. “Y’know, you don’t have to just call me ‘Sergeant’ y’know.” Shining chuckled.

“Sorry, it’s just that, I didn’t catch your name in all this,” Shining commented.

“Eh, it’s all right. Sergeant Blueberry Frost, at yer service sir,” the Sergeant said, properly introducing herself.

“Well Sergeant Frost, rest assured, after your performance these past two days, if I can convince the General, and a few other pencil pushers, I would love to have you stay in my command,” Shining told her, leading them over to a hastily erected medical tent.

“Pfft, Tartarus sir, after the horseapples you pulled off? Ain’t no one who’s still alive gonna want to leave your command now,” Blueberry commented. “So, why are we getting into the tent?”

“We’re covered in blood and guts, we’ve had no sleep in two days, and you just ran through a dozen zebras in a raging charge,” Shining deadpanned. “That, and this mare might need medical attention too.” Blueberry looked at him in bewilderment.

“Not to question your command decisions sir, but… why her too?”

Shining took a deep breath as they arrived at the tent. “Because, it’s the right thing to do.”

~~~

It was nighttime over the savannah, and Mahiri was absolutely terrified. Being bound by an enchanted rope wasn’t much of an issue in and of itself. No, it was the implications of being bound that kept her up. Outside, she could hear the many groups of Equestrian legionnaires having their way with her tribe sisters, the agonized screams of the mares being defiled drowned out by the drunken jeers and catcalls of their oppressors. Mahiri looked around the large tent she was in, searching for a way out however she could. And, as she had seen many times before, there was little, if not nothing, she could do to escape.

The tent flap opened up behind her, and Mahiri quickly turned to face the unicorn she had been ‘gifted’ to. The stallion sighed, walking inside the tent, seemingly oblivious to Mahiri bound near the center of the tent. He stopped by the bed (well, it was a fancy cot, but a bed was a bed) and began taking his armor off.

Mahiri looked at him with a mix of fear and loathing as she waited for him to get on with the inevitable. After all, with a coat like his? Surely, he had to be one the Flaming One’s personal guard, sent to quash any rebellion out in the savannah. The silence in the tent remained for minutes on end as the stallion took his armor off piece by piece, wincing when he over-extended and aggravated his wounds.

Finally, the stallion sighed. “Look, if you’re worried about… well, um, me taking advantage of you, don’t worry, I won’t,” he told her. He set his helmet down, a rich sky blue mane starting to grow back in. “I… I know I don’t have your trust, at all, but…” He looked at the entrance to the tent, ears folded back as he overheard the rowdy cries of wanton debauchery. “My name is Shining Armor. What’s your name?”

“Tamaa wafu, ninyi mchumba mweupe,” Mahiri ordered, glaring pure venom from her narrowed eyes. Shining sighed, rubbing his horn with a hoof.

“Look, you and your tribe have already tried,” he told her irritably. “And with far worse. Admittedly, the flaming vortex of death was… not something the Academy warned me about, but I’ll admit it was inspired.”

“Pata simba na ujilishe mwenyewe.” Shining groaned.

“Look, I’m not going to hurt you Faust-dammit!” he swore, waving his hoof at her. “I swear, okay!” Mahiri scowled, crossing her forelimbs. Shining pointed to the tent entrance. “Look, I promise, all that out there? I guarantee that it won’t happen in here, ever.”

“Lies,” Mahiri said finally, slipping into Ponish for Shining’s benefit. “Lies of a stallion from Her personal guard.”

Shining blinked, confused before he looked at his coat and barking out a disbelieving laugh. “You think? You think I’m actually a member of Her Radiance’s own Royal Guard? Oh Faust, that’s a good one!” Shining continued to laugh for a good solid thirty seconds before collecting himself. “But seriously, I’m not a Royal Guard, and I am not going to touch you without your consent!”

“You… no touch?” Her captor shook his head.

“Not in anyway like outside, no,” he answered. “Honestly, the thought of doing… that to you is pretty sickening. I just… I just want you to know that so long as I’m, uh, I mean you, uh, are, well, umm…” Mahiri let out a deep breath.

“Many, many thanks,” Mahiri huffed out with scathing sarcasm, her gaze looking at anywhere but him.

Shining nodded, chuckling weakly. “Well, lemme get some things from the quartermaster real quick, and then we can try and get some sleep, okay?” Shining stood up, heading to the tent’s entrance. “Don’t worry, I won’t be long, I promise.” He exited, leaving Mahiri alone. The zebra mare’s breathing picked up as her ears fell flat on her head, eyes looking over the shadows playing about the outside of the tent.

Her fears began to take hold. Mahiri thought of Shining, how he must assuredly hadn’t stepped out to get a cot, but was going to get a small platoon of stallions, lead them inside, watch as they-

“Okay, I’m - hey, what’s wrong?”

Mahiri looked around fearfully, her eyes wide as she noted that Shining was the only pony to come into the tent, a cot on his back. “You… you keep word?”

Shining looked around and saw the shadows playing about, grimacing. “...oh. I… see,” he drawled, slowly moving over close to her and setting up the cot. “Look, I… I’m sorry, I really am, I just…”

“Do not be,” Mahiri stammered angrily, shrinking away closer to the pole she was leashed to. “We know many season. Know what… what happen. Know to prepare. Harder when see.”

Shining went and finished making the cot. “All the same, for what it’s worth from me… I’m sorry.” He slowly advanced towards her, not wanting to frighten her. “I’m going to drag the cot closer to you, and you grab it, okay?” Mahiri looked at him, seeing his honest eyes, and nodded. Shining slid the cot over slowly to her, and the mare quickly took the frame in hoof and dragged it the rest of the way closer to her.

“You… will not come to me?”

Shining shook his head. “No. You have suffered enough the past couple of days as it is, I don’t want to… to make it any worse than it already is for you,” he answered, moving to his own cot.

Mahiri scoffed. “My tribe ruined. Bred by soldiers. Would prefer death.”

Shining’s face fell. “Look, I’m sorry, but none of this would have happened had your tribe not tried to kill my entire garrison because of one retard’s idiotic decision!” he snapped, making Mahiri flinch. “Make no mistake, as much as I love my empire, I know damn well how utterly stupid and vile some of its ponies are! Unfortunately, I’m not an Alicorn, and I’m not high enough in the food chain to make any kind of difference!” Shining stepped back, shaking his head sadly. “I… I’m sorry. I didn’t… I…”

“Shining grief,” Mahiri muttered, getting under the covers of the cot. “All do. You will weep, and then when anger, you take me.”

“And I already told you, I’m not that kind of pony,” Shining retorted tiredly. “I’m not going to force myself onto you just to prove a point or to get some ‘stress relief.’ I wasn’t raised like that.”

Mahiri waved a hoof in the air dismissively. “Shining say much. I not see much to believe.”

Shining huffed as he got into his own cot. “Tomorrow, I’ll make it so that you’re on my staff. With the way the General is feeling now, and how… exuberant the Legion is? I don’t think it’ll be much of a problem. General would think I’m being a go-getter, keeping… keeping you. You know…”

Mahiri chuckled humorlessly. “As pet? Oh yes, noble.”

Shining looked over, almost glaring daggers at her. “Look, it’s either you’re on my staff as a mareservant, or you get passed along outside with a bunch of drunk and stupid soldiers. Right now, you’re best option is staying with me.”

“Shining say this like I can choose.”

“Look, I-,” Shining huffed, shaking his head. “Look, let’s just… start over again tomorrow, please? We need sleep… well, whatever sleep we can get anyway.” Mahiri scoffed, turning in her cot to face away from him. She tried to fall asleep, but the sounds outside kept her awake.

As for Shining, he didn’t get much sleep that night either.

~~~

“Mahiri, are you okay? You seem a little distracted.”

Four months had gone by, and the fort that Mahiri’s tribe had assaulted was now almost entirely rebuilt. Wooden walls replaced with stone from the northern quarries, enchantments carved into their faces inside to help reinforce the stone from attack. The survivors of the garrison had been reinforced with new blood, but already word had spread of how Shining had led a scant dozen to victory. In reward for his service, Shining found himself a newly promoted Centurion, with a hundred and fifty ponies and auxiliaries under his immediate command. And through it all, Mahiri stayed with him.

The two of them had… not started on the right hoof that first official day together. Or the second. In fact, Shining and Mahiri had all but strangled each on multiple occasions for the better part of a month before the zebra mare had finally relented and began to treat him with some degree of grudging respect.

After an entire week of she and Shining getting each other’s nerves, she had finally disclosed her name to him, expecting him to quickly replace it with a ‘proper’ pony name. Instead, she had been surprised when Shining had continued to use her name, and not once even attempting to force her to adopt pony habits, save those that would help her in her duties as a servant. Mahiri had always heard stories of how ponies like Shining would not hesitate to force a mare to bend to their whims, and yet…

Shining watched as the mare shook her head. Clad in a simple, yet modest worker’s shift, the zebra smiled at him. “No, nothing is wrong Centurion,” she answered, tucking a feather duster into a pocket. “Just a little under the weather.”

Shining gave her a subtle look of concern as he set the quill and reports he was writing up down on his desk. “Mahiri, please. We’re alone, you don’t have to call me that,” he told her. “Like I’ve told you the past… many times over the last four months.”

“Yes… but perhaps I like to,” Mahiri retorted, flicking her tail his way. Shining rolled his eyes, bemused as he attempted to get back to his reports when his nose picked up a heady, almost spicy smell in the air.

“...is that a new perfume?” Shining asked. “I didn’t know you went to the market recently.”

Mahiri froze. Shining watched as the mare quivered on the spot, shaking in shame as she slowly turned to face at him. “It… it is not perfume,” Mahiri said softly, almost whispering it out. Shining leaned in closer over his desk.

“Say that again?” he asked.

Mahiri turned to him with a blush under her fur. “I’m in heat!” she snapped, her face contorted in worry as her tail flicked once more, spreading more of that alluring scent into the air. Shining’s Eyes widened, realization hitting him fast.

“Oh. Faust… umm, have you seen a nurse about umm, hiding the scent? Or anything like that?” he asked her. “I’m sure if you went now, they could-“

“No, I went this morning,” she told him. “There are no potions for me, nor does she know the spell to keep seed from taking root.” She blushed, looking away from him. “I am sorry…”

“No, no I should be the one to apologize,” Shining said, “I should have… I should have made sure we were fully stocked from that last supply run, and…” It was getting harder to concentrate as Mahiri’s scent filled his senses. “I… I’ll give you however long you need to… to relieve yourself.” Shining stood up to stiffly walk out of the office when Mahiri cleared her throat.

“No, please, stay,” she pleaded. Shining froze. Mahiri took a deep breath as she walked slowly over to him. “...Centurion… Shining,” she said. “I… would trust no one else with my body this season than you.” With every little tap of her hooves, she came closer and closer to him, and Shining became away that the air was charged with a sort of… energy he hadn’t felt before.

“...I… I know that… you… I…,” Shining stammered as she came closer to him. “Mahiri, please. If we do this, you… you know what will happen, right?”

“It will be nothing the Earth Mother would not approve of,” the zebra stated. “Better I have a foal with you, a stallion that cares, than with some nameless legionnaire who stays only a night. Please.” She was standing in front of him now, putting herself between him and relative freedom. “For me?”

Shining gulped. He took a step over to Mahiri, his expression softening as he approached her. “I… would be honored to, at the least, help you through this.” The stallion bent down, nuzzling her neck as Mahiri leaned into the touch. “Shall we go to your quarters?” Shining was referring to the small room beside his that he had built soon after the garrison had begun reconstruction. Mahiri huffed.

“No,” she answered. “I would… prefer yours. If you… do not mind?” she added, looking up at him, a soft smile on her face. Shining took a moment to think it over before nodding.

“Alright. Go on ahead, I’ll be in there soon,” he told her. Mahiri looked at him in confusion before understanding flashed across her face. Turning in place, Mahiri coyly smacked Shining in the face with her tail, leaving Shining even more flustered as his body stiffened. The moment she left, the unicorn let out a deep breath. “Empress, save my spirit,” he muttered as he straightened himself out. Tidying up the office, Shining walked out and spotted newly made First Sergeant Frost at her own desk. “First Sergeant Frost.”

Frost jumped to her hooves to salute. “Sir!” she cried out. “Sorry I’m in here, just needed to git out of th’ heat, I-!”

Shining returned her salute, beckoning for her to calm down. “As you were,” he told her. Frost relaxed, looking at him as the white furred unicorn pointed to the direction of his quarters. “Though, I do have just one order for the rest of the day.”

“Sir?”

Shining took a deep breath. “First Sergeant, until I say otherwise, I am not to be disturbed for the rest of the day and night. Something has come up, and I need to attend to it. The only exception is if the Empress Herself is coming here. Understood?”

Frost nodded, before her eyes lit up in realization. “Sir, she in heat?” she asked. Shining’s jaw dropping gave her the answer. “Well Faust sir, why didn’ ya just say so in the first place? I’ll make sure no one gives ya shit for the day, count on it.” She waved Shining away, giggling. “Now go on sir, I got yer shit for the day. Just make tha’ mare happy, please sir?”

Shining nodded stiffly, turning about face and heading back to his quarters as fast as he could. Was it really that obvious? Shining thought to himself. I mean, I know Mahiri and I are… somewhat close, but this is, well… I don’t want to force myself on her, I mean, she’s had enough happen to her as it is, I don’t want to add to it! Shining rounded the corner to his quarters and walked through the door. Stepping inside, he locked it and sighed. “Okay, I’m ba-,” he said, turning and freezing in place as he spotted Mahiri.

He had expected the mare to want to get straight to, well, to business as it were. But a part of Shining was glad that the zebra mare had gone what was basically far and above the call of duty in trying to seduce his sorry flank. Mahiri was on his bed, but instead of just sitting there, waiting, she had decided to lay down on it lengthwise, her stripes seeming to rise from and fall towards in tantalizing monochrome waterfalls to his bedsheets. Along the walls, Shining could see a few bowls of herbs smoking. Whatever show Mahiri wanted to use to seduce him… it was working. “How… I was gone for all of five minutes, how did you-?”

Mahiri chuckled as she shifted on the bed. Shining caught a glimpse of dark skin between her legs before it was hidden from view. “I have been doing house work here for months, my Centurion,” she answered, voice low and seductive. “I would like to think I know how to use my time well, yes?”

Shining slowly stepped over to the bed, his eyes locked onto hers. “I guess so, I mean, I uhh, well,” he stammered, “I mean, I… I don’t think I’ll ever be able to hear that rank come from your mouth the same way ever again, and I am really, really, really not sure if I’m for-”

“Shining Armor.”

Shining froze as Mahiri’s gaze hardened, the mare’s expression annoyed. “Shining, you are right to think this is the heat talking,” she told him. “But I want this. You are the best stallion here to turn to, and I know you are honorable for a servant of that flaming whorse of an Empress. But right now, I am going to be VERY unhappy if you do not get over here, and try to rut my heat away!”

Shining took a deep breath, and before he could convince himself to try and argue his way out of this, took the last couple of steps towards the mare. Mahiri was about to ask for him to get on with it when Shining took her chin in a hoof. “Mahiri, I…,” he whispered to her. “I… If we have a foal together… I’ll make sure he or she is free. I promise she’ll have more to look forward to in life.”

Mahiri’s mouth opened just a smidge, her eyes widening as the edges watered. “Thank you…” She reached around his neck with her own forelimb, and Shining closed his eyes as the pair locked themselves in a slow kiss. A moment later, and they broke the kiss. Stallion and mare looked at each other for a moment before Mahiri lunged, pressing her lips against his hungrily.

Shining was no slouch either, pushing back against the horny mare as their kissing became less chaste, and far more heated. Shining felt her hooves move across his body, pulling and throwing off parts of his uniform off around the room as his own limbs went up and down her body, feeling the muscles flex under her fur. Mahiri pulled away, panting as her body begged for more. “I am ready, my Centurion,” she whispered, wrapping her limbs around his shoulders.

Shining smiled. “Well, ready or not, I’m not going to just stick it in,” he told her. Mahiri watched as he lowered himself down her body, and she obligingly let her lower legs drift apart. She watched as Shining eyed the pair of petite teats before moving down to her lower lips. Shining, for his part, was admiring the raindrop shaped lips of his companion, the normally dark skin plump and wet as her clit winked at him.

Shining chuckled to himself, looking up between Mahiri’s legs before he lightly breathed on her clit. The zebra moaned, head whipping itself back as the cool air from his breath sent an electric jolt up her back. She swore something in that odd, melodic language of hers as Shining went to kiss her clit. “Shiniiiiiing…!” she whined.

“I did say I wasn’t just going to stick it in,” he commented. Mahiri had to simply brace herself as Shining went down on her, kissing her clit and rubbing it tenderly with his hoof. The zebra quickly found herself about to burst as he worked, the mare digging her hooves into the sheets as she moaned. But, just as she thought it couldn’t get any better, or worse, Shining opened his mouth wide and took her clit into his mouth and sucked.

Mahiri screamed, bucking her hips into his face as she came, her juices splattering across Shining’s snout as he stuck his tongue in and lapped away at the deluge of fluids. The extra stimulation made her squirm more as the agile muscle explored he moist caverns, probing and discovering all the spots that set her off, and in no time at all, Mahiri was shaking and laying in the aftermath of a second orgasm.

The unicorn stood up, wiping his face off a fresh coat of the sticky mare fluids. This, unfortunately for Shining, meant that he could smell her heat, and that primitive, primal part of his brain, the one that lived in the far back under lock and key, was kicking down the door and demanding that Shining get to work on breeding the mare already. Instead, the unicorn took a deep breath to focus himself. “That uh… that take some of the edge off?” he asked her. Mahiri looked down at him, her chest heaving.

“Yes, a little,” she panted. “But we both know I need something… bigger.” Shining nodded, slowly getting atop Mahiri. The mare shuddered in anticipation as the unicorn climbed over her, and she felt something stiff and warm graze the skin of her teats. Mahiri looked up to Shining’s face as he smiled shyly at her.

“Umm… you uh, you want to be on top?” he asked her. Mahiri blinked before she understood what he meant.

“You jest.”

Shining shook his head. “Nope. I want this to be special for you.” Mahiri leaned up and kissed the stallion once more, dragging him down and to the side, the pair rolling on the bed to where the zebra was now atop the unicorn, nearly straddling him. Mahiri giggled as she scooted back to take a peek at what Shining had. And then gawked.

“How… how do you hide this?!” she blurted, a hoof caressing the side of Shining’s cock. The shaft twitched, a dollop of pre leaking from the top as Shining let out a strained chuckle.

“Practice,” he commented. “And uh, well, I’m usually not under a sexy mare in heat, so, uh, there’s that.” Mahiri couldn’t get her eyes off the dick before her as her tunnel clenched, reminding her of what she needed at this current moment in time.

“You… are a very gifted stallion, Shining Armor.” She gave him a few pumps up and down with her hoof before holding herself up, angling him down and ready to enter her heated depths. “I know I will enjoy this.”

Shining waited patiently for Mahiri to make her move, watching as the mare psyched herself up before slowly going down, his earlier ministrations having at least made her sufficiently wet enough that his tip slipped in without too much issue. Shining bit the inside of his cheek, the feeling of a warm, wet, and welcoming vice holding him for the first time in months almost making the inexperienced stallion blow then and there.

Mahiri though felt like she was about to enter the next world with her ancestors. The way Shining’s tip spread her open, the way that he filled her as she slowly rocked her hips up and down, drawing more and more of him into her… as far as sheer, physical pleasures went, Shining had managed the impossible and had ruined her for any other stallion, up to and including the few zebra stallions she had been with a few times before this. She uttered a heated string of words in her native tongue, smiling wildly.

Shining was barely keeping it together himself as he continued to push himself into Mahiri slowly, quickly stopping as his tip was firmly inside of her. Other than… that particular night in his Empress’ chambers all those months ago, Mahiri was the first mare he had actually been with, and willingly to hoof. He brought his head up, lightly nipping along the side of her neck as he left a trail of hickeys up to her jawline. “I’m ready when you are,” he whispered to her. “Just… take it slow.”

Mahiri smiled, pulling Shining’s lips to hers for a kiss. “We will see how gentle I go,” she told him. “For now, we must simply follow the flow.” She lifted her hips up, biting her lip as she felt what little of his length retreat from her before she eased herself back down, taking more of him bit by bit. The pair remained like that for a few minutes, Mahiri easing herself onto her lover while Shining enjoyed simply being intimate with her.

They looked at each other, and by some primal, unspoken agreement, Mahiri began to speed up, bracing her hooves against Shining’s chest as she rose and fell at the pace of her breaths. “You… are an amazing mare Mahiri,” Shining huffed out, his body shaking. He could feel his breaking point approach. “I… I’m… you know…” Mahiri smirked softly at him. Without any warning, or preamble, she started to drive herself deep onto Shining, impaling herself on his swollen spire, her breathes coming out in heated pants of want.

Shining moaned, forehooves reaching to wrap around her thighs as she slammed down, the stallion feeling his tip hit something deep inside. “Worry not, my loving knight,” she told him, holding onto him, “Just lay back, and hold me tight!” Shining could only hold on for the ride as Mahiri finally came, her pussy clenching down on him as she sang her pleasure out for him to hear. And it was too much for the stallion himself, the unicorn neighing in relief as he came deep inside of the mare on top of him.

The two of them came together for several moments before Mahiri slumped down atop of him, clearly contented as she nuzzled the side of his head with hers. Shining kissed her neck, a hoof reaching up to brush a few strands of loose mane out of her face. “That was… most needed,” Mahiri whispered to him. Shining chuckled, nodding.

“Yeah, I… you were…” Shining paused, trying to find the words. Mahiri smiled, putting a hoof on his lips.

“Shining, I am content,” she told him. “You are one of the better stallions I have had the privilege of laying with. You have taken care of me these past months, and with more honor and kindness than most. I-” Mahiri stopped, suddenly aware of something. “...Shining?”

Shining gave her a sheepish, meek expression. “Yes?”

“...why is your penis not… well…?”

“Umm, well, I uh, I have a beautiful mare still on me?” Shining looked at her. “Plus, well, you are in heat. I uh… can’t help it?” Mahiri blushed.

“Oh, well, I…,” the zebra trailed off as she felt her lover grow stiffer inside of her. “Well, this is…”

Shining smiled, leaning up to kiss her as he rolled their bodies over, Mahiri now laying on her back as Shining rested between her hind legs. “This… is going to be one of the better days and night of your life,” he promised softly to her, gently rocking his hips forward and pushing a light moan from Mahiri’s mouth.

“Then please, my Centurion,” Mahiri pleaded, “Take me as you will.” Shining nodded, kissing her nose before shifting in place, pulling himself in and out of her. Mahiri closed her eyes, keeping them barely open just enough to keep Shining in sight as they made love.

~~~
“So… Centurion Armor. Has a rather… respectable ring to it, don’t you think?”

Shining was back in Canterlot, Mahiri resting in his new officer’s quarters as he had reported back in to his superiors. Only, not even an hour after he had given his paperwork over to the clerks did a hoofmaiden come looking for him.

“Her Radiance requests your presence in her chambers,” the cyan and violet mare told him, and Shining knew better than to make his Empress wait. So, he went to her quarters, the Royal Guards stationed at the doors stepping aside to let him in.

She had been resting on her bed, gold hued alabaster coat gleaming under her sun as she looked up and spotted him. Setting an aging tome to the side with her magic, she adjusted herself and beckoned him closer. Which lead to Shining’s current position of laying beside her, his Empress having a conversation with him.

“I will be honest, it is a bit… amusing to hear,” Shining told her. “But I’m sure that General Bulwark Smasher had his reasons for promoting me.” He sighed, getting Daybreaker’s attention.

“Shining Armor, I’ve read the reports over the past six months,” the alicorn stated, smirking at Shining’s suddenly panicked look. “You arrive in the savannah, and not even five days later, a small army of Zebra attacks you and your garrison. A two thousand zebra force against a mere hundred and twenty. And you, my little pony… showed me just how devoted you are to your Empress.”

Shining blinked. “P-Pardon, Your Radiance?”

Daybreaker laughed. “My pony, do you know how rare it is to have a unicorn from Canterlot actually think like a proper soldier? You showed more skill in battle and keeping your garrison alive in two days than I’ve seen generals during sieges. Keep that mind, and I may well decide to promote you personally the next time.”

Shining felt a stir of pride in his chest at her words. “I… thank you, my Empress! I don’t know what to say!”

“Well, you did just say ‘thank you,’” Daybreaker pointed out, stretching herself out and pulling Shining in closer to her with a wing. “Now, to more… enjoyable topics. Like your mare. How was she? Did you ravish her then and there on the field as you received her? Tell me ALL the details!”

Shining blushed. “Actually, Your Grace, I didn’t… that first night,” he admitted. “Or the second. In matter of fact, she and I didn’t share a bed together until close to four months later, when her heat came in.” Daybreaker’s expression was… perhaps not confused, but certainly befuddled.

“It took you… four months to finally bed a mare? Where was that raging spitfire I had laid with six months ago, hmm?” she asked, eyes narrowing. Shining felt the air in the room grow slightly hotter.

“...I believe your standing order for me was to ‘enjoy the locals. Show them why your empire has lasted this long,’” Shining countered politely. Considering that he was sitting next to the most powerful entity in Equestria, if not the world, he needed to tread carefully. “With respect, Your Radiance, you didn’t specify when I needed to enjoy the locals. I took the time to get to know her, and we both agreed to… share my bed, as it were, when her heat struck. She has told me repeatedly, that after discussions with other zebra mares, that many of them envy her relationship with me. Her… associates all bemoan how their masters beat and rape them, hoping to force them into subservience through brute force. A few of them…,” Shining’s face fell as he paused, organizing his thoughts before continuing. “A few of them tried to escape, or worse yet, rebel. None succeeded, and in all cases, lives were lost and wasted. But, my Empress, by treating her as a citizen of your empire, Mahiri has placed her trust and loyalty to me, and by extension, to you as well. And all without a single drop of continued bloodshed between myself and her.”

Silence reigned in the room before Daybreaker’s body shook. Shining braced himself for a flash of heat, but was unprepared for Daybreaker to burst out laughing, her head throwing itself back as her musical chortles filled the air. “HAHAHAHAHA!! Oh, by my Sun and Moon, you are quite lucky I favor you, Centurion Armor!” Daybreaker laughed out. Shining slowly started letting out a breath he didn’t even realize he was holding in. “You conquered a zebra bitch, and instead of just fucking her in the ground then and there, you wooed her into willingly letting you rut her! Oh, I am most impressed!”

“I… aim to please, my Empress?” Shining said as the alicorn looked over to an ornately decorated chest. Her golden aura surrounded it, the chest clicking open. Shining watched, and then gasped as he saw a single, small, nearly ruby-red feather float over to them. “My Empress, is… is that what I think it is?!” Shining exclaimed in shock.

“Oh, this?” Daybreaker looked at the feather in her grasp. “Only a mere tail feather,” she commented. Shining gulped. Phoenix feathers were national treasures. To his knowledge, only thirty or so feathers remained in Equestria to this day, and the feathers not in the possession of his Empress’ greatest minds were all locked away, apparently in that chest. “Now, Shining Armor.”

“Y-Yes, Your Radiance?”

Daybreaker smirked, twisting about in the bed until she had him tucked between her legs, the feather drifting closer to them all the while. “I think, and I know, you deserve this little feather,” she told him. “But… while I can read reports on how well you fight…” A pregnant pause hung in the air as Shining looked down. Daybreaker’s loins were leaking, her inner thighs shining with a light coat of her juices as her clit winked at him.

Shining took a deep breath, lowering his mouth down to start sucking up his Empress’ mess. Daybreaker gazed down at him for a moment before she cooed. “Oh my, this is new!” she called out to him, feeling her subject’s lips moving up her leg to her leaking slit. “I take it your zebra taught you thi-IIIAAAAAYEEEeeeesss!” The alicorn trailed off as Shining’s horn it up, his magic gently grasping her clit and tweaking it, the stallion focusing on drinking up the spicy sweet nectar his Empress produced.

Shining could feel the heat of his Empress, even from a couple of hooves away. Still, as much as Shining was averse to getting his tongue at the least burned off by licking her, he was far more interested in living than in saving his tongue. So, with closed eyes, he cast a shield spell on himself, or rather, a variant of it. A scant second later, and Shining was attacking her directly with his tongue, the tip dancing and twirling about her clit as Daybreaker let out a passionate, shuddering moan.

“Oh yes, keep that up Centurion!” she ordered, putting a hoof on the top of the unicorn’s head. Shining cracked an eye open, looking at the bliss stricken face of his monarch. He supposed he should be glad that she wasn’t burning him to a crisp right now, but there was something about the way her face twitched…

Shining’s fears were confirmed when Daybreaker pulled his head closer, burying his muzzle deep within her folds. “Deeper!” she ordered.

Not like I have a choice! Shining shouted in his head as he took a deep breath. He shifted the focus of his magic, Daybeaker giving out an unexpected yelp at his magic fondling her teats as he buried his tongue deep in her near-scaldingly hot tunnel. He probed and prodded her depths, seeking those spots that he remembered driving her insane all those months ago. Shining’s tongue was surrounded by heat, heat that by all rights should have broken through his shield by now, judging by how much Daybreaker was pushing him in and by how her silken walls were clamping down on the poor muscle. And yet… why was his tongue not burnt to Tartarus and back?

Shining was jolted out of his musings as Daybreaker’s insides twitched. Oh Faust…

Daybreaker came with a yell, the room exploding in heat and fire as her powers flared, the Solar Empress and her current lover the epicenter of the firestorm. And as Daybreaker let herself fall into oblivious climax, Shining did his best to drink down the deluge of nectar flowing out of her in a torrent, the unicorn not letting up in his ministrations as he, in a manner of speaking, was fighting for his life. Daybreaker came down from her high several moments later. As soon as her thighs dropped to the sides, Shining pulled out, quietly gasping for air.

“Centurion.”

Shining gulped, wondering if he had somehow displeased his Empress. “Y-Yes, your Radiance?”

Daybreaker smiled, pulling him down and draping him over her with her magic. “Centurion Armor… you will keep me company tonight,” she whispered to him. “The feather is yours. You’ll find it quite… invaluable in keeping up with me.” Shining looked around and saw the feather close by, somehow having survived his Empress’ explosive climax.

“Oh, so… I won’t be… incinerated?” he asked, trying not to flinch. Daybreaker nodded.

“Well, it won’t do to have my current favorite cooked to less than ash just because he slipped up with his ‘protection,’” Daybreaker chided. Shining winced. “It will keep you safe from fire, and most forms of death. Though, I suppose if you end up drowning, or having your body completely destroyed, well, there is nothing I can do for THAT.” Shining nodded in understanding. “And I expect you back in here next week. With your zebra.” Daybreaker giggled at his expression. “Please. I read medical reports as well, for those that interest me. And I am… quite interested in you, your zebra, and… the foal she’s carrying.”

“I… of course, Your Majesty,” Shining answered her. Daybreaker leaned her head up brushed her head against his neck. “Your will be done.”

“Indeed, it will be.” Her wings folded over Shining’s back, blanketing him in warmth. The unicorn took a deep breath, closing his eyes as he laid atop the Empress. Daybreaker watched as he went to sleep in moments, the soldier clearly still operating on a field soldier’s sleep schedule. Daybreaker sighed, content with herself. Plans were forming in her mind, pieces moving across a grand board. And, if she played her pieces right, when the Usurper returned…

Daybreaker smirked. She would have the power to finish her sister off, once and for all.

Author's Note

Thanks to LanceOmnikron for his invaluable help in proof-reading and making sure that this chapter actually got finished.

Part the Third

Serving His Empress
~or~
How Shining Armor Avoided a Crushed Pelvis by the Empress Daybreaker

Part the Third

The sun was dim as Daybreaker reflected on the actions of the stallion laying beside her. Centurion Armor was… an enigma of sorts. The stallion himself was barely past twenty, hardly even an adult for all intents and purposes, and yet, he had succeeded in doing more for her legions in two days than most of her generals had done in their entire careers. She shifted in place, and let out a soft moan as she felt Shining’s shaft slide around inside of her. The alicorn empress smiled to herself. Last night had been… particularly busy, making up for lost time as it were.

Shining groaned, moving around as he started to wake up. Daybreaker watched as the white and blue unicorn slowly came to, her expression amused at his sudden realization that he was still buried balls deep in her, and that he had his forelimbs wrapped around her middle. “Umm… good morning, my Empress,” Shining said after a moment’s hesitation.

“Good morning to yourself, my Centurion,” Daybreaker purred, spreading a vast wing over him as she turned to brush her cheek against his. “I gather you slept well?”

Shining nodded, folding his limbs under him to prepare to leave. “Of course, Your Radiance,” he answered. “How could I not? Sleeping with you is well, pardon me for saying this, but it is divine.” Daybreaker smirked playfully at him.

“Flatterer. But, at the least, you still have good taste.” She let him get up off her before going to stand up herself. Once she was sure that he was looking, Daybreaker took her time actually getting up, stretching and extending her limbs in several… provocative poses that made Shining gulp. Even after the wild night the pair had, Shining still felt himself begin to harden in response to his Empress’s body teasing him with her curves and divine form. “Now, my dear, as much as I would love for you to continue ravishing me, I’m afraid we both have duties to attend to.”

“Of course, Your Radiance,” Shining quipped, thankful for some semblance of normal as he went to get his armor back on. “I’ll be ever at your service in whatever capacity you desire.”

Daybreaker raised an almost delicate eyebrow in amusement. “Careful now Centurion,” she told him. “That’s a rather… broad promise you’re making there. Many have said that same thing, and many of them failed to live up to that expectation.”

“Well, if you can pardon my frankness, they were all likely overachieving blowhards,” Shining retorted before freezing in place.

“Oh?” Daybreaker walked over to him, brushing her side against his as she flicked her tail in his face. “Do tell me how so?”

“Well My Empress, I would only dare to assume that they were seeking to curry as much favor as they could in your eyes to lord such stature over other ponies,” Shining said in a frantic scramble. “And so, in an ever escalating contest of stupidity and dick measuring, made boasts that they knew they couldn’t keep, but had to try in order to save face, or lied about doing it and took credit anyway.”

“Like you in a few years, my Centurion?”

Shining shook his head. “No, Your Radiance. I’m just a simple soldier, I go where I’m told and I do what I must to ensure the success of your will and the mission.” Daybreaker took a breath, looking him over.

“Interesting… very well then. You are dismissed for now Centurion. I will call upon you when the time comes.” Shining finished getting dressed and bowed.

“Of course Your Radiance.” He turned around and exited her room, leaving Daybreaker alone as she thought on what to do with him. Simply sending him back into combat was not going to happen, what with his luck, and the fact that she gifted him a phoenix feather last night. No, she was going to have to be subtle about this. But then, something clicked in the monarch’s head.

Shining had mentioned that he thought that ponies before him had tried too hard to curry favor with her. That in itself was very much true, she wasn’t going to deny that. But it was the part where he mentioned the ever escalating (and oft times to her, hilarious) show of dick measuring that nobles did that got her thinking. She trotted around her room, deep in thought when she bumped into a book. Her eyes glanced at the cover.

Legal Practices and Law of the Crown City of Canterlot, Volume 1.

Daybreaker grinned. “Oh, this… this will be fun.”

~~~

“I gather you had a… good night with the Empress?”

Shining sighed, looking over his shoulder at Mahiri. The pair were in his new quarters within the barracks of Canterlot, and while the room was still relatively spartan, Mahiri had been doing what she could to make it less clinical in appearance. “Would it bother you if I said yes?” he asked her, the zebra mare trotting over to his side and resting her head on his neck.

“Shining, what you do with her is… between you and her,” she commented. “All I ask is that you never forget me.” Shining rolled his eyes, shaking his head with a smile.

“How could I ever forget about you?” he said softly, nuzzling her. Mahiri hummed appreciatively as the pair stood together in silence. “I love you, Mahiri. And Harmony as witness, I’m not going to abandon you. Not even if Daybreaker threatened to incinerate me.”

The zebra smiled, muttering something in her native language. Shining still didn’t really understand it, but he did catch ‘luck’ and ‘Earth Mother’ in there, and he assumed that it was a good thing. “So, Mahiri… about the foal…”

“Mmm?”

“I was wondering,” he continued, walking over to their bed and sitting down on it. “What are we going to name them? I mean, I’m pretty sure that a zebra name would be better, and-.” Shining was silenced when Mahiri put a hoof over his mouth, her expression deadpan as she looked into his eyes.

“And why are you assuming that we are naming the foal with a zebra name?” she inquired. “To make them stand out in this gilded cage of a city?” Shining shook his head.

“What? Tartarus no, I just thought that, you know, if they do end up raised here, that… that they should have a connection to their mother’s culture beyond just the pattern of their coat,” he answered. “I know how ponies here are, and frankly, they have their noses so far up it’s a miracle they haven’t bent over backwards to smell their own asses yet.” Mahiri chortled at the rather humorous description as Shining continued. “But our foal should be proud of who they are. Both as a pony, and as a zebra.”

“And I recall why I fell for you, my Centurion.” Mahiri pressed herself against Shining’s side, smiling. “You are a good pony. Never let anypony tell you otherwise.”

The stallion chuckled as he put his foreleg over her shoulders and brought her into a hug. “Well, I’ll do my best in that regard,” he promised. “No guarantees though. And if I do end up an ass… please, tell me.”

“Oh, on that, I can guarantee,” Mahiri countered. “I’ll not have my stallion become a monster.” Shining’s face beamed at her.

“Thank you. Now… since we’re already on the bed,” he offered, rubbing his love’s shoulder in slow, gentle circles. “And I’m very much not needed on duty for quite some time…”

Mahiri laughed, even as she slowly pushed him onto the bed fully on his back, the mare straddling him playfully. “I would think you exhausted after a night with your Empress?” she asked. Shining leaned up and kissed her lips.

“Well, the Empress is one thing, but… I have an equally beautiful mare on top of me right now, and I love her very, very much,” he told her.

“Mmm, good stallion,” the zebra said, leaning in closer to kiss him again. “You may yet have some… ‘fun’ today.” Shining felt himself getting hard at the implications, and drew her in for another kiss. Mahiri giggled, indulging him as they both held their kiss for as long as possible before breaking apart for air.

“Mahiri, I-,” Shining began before the door to their quarters was knocked. “Oh Faust dammit,” he swore as the door sounded off again. “Who is it?” he called out.

“Pardon the interruption Centurion Armor, but you have been requested in the Grand Hall by the High Adjudicator,” the messenger said through the door. Shining was confused now, a sentiment shared by Mahiri.

“The High Adjudicator? I wasn’t aware that the High Adjudicator had authority over the Empress’ legions,” he said, even as Mahiri groaned in irritation, getting off of him as the mood was clearly dead.

“I’m sorry sir, but that’s all I was told,” the messenger declared. “The High Adjudicator wishes to speak with you in the Grand Hall today as soon as possible.”

Shining sighed. “Of course. I will be there soon,” he said. He heard the messenger depart, the clack of hooves on the stone floor growing quieter as he looked back to Mahiri. “Duty calls I’m afraid.”

“I only ask you do not make yourself too much of a fool, please?” Mahiri asked. “I’m too fond of you to simply have you leave my life due to stallion-fueled stupidity.”

“Of course, love,” Shining replied, putting on his armor once more before departing their room. Travelling down the halls, Shining passed by serving ponies and fellow soldiers alike as he made his way to the Grand Hall, which served as one of the Empress’ audience chambers. Although nowadays she much preferred the resplendent Solar Hall to any other, leaving the Grand Hall the domain of the High Adjudicator.

Turning a corner, he saw the bronze doors to the Grand Hall in sight, a pair of guards standing at attention. As he approached, the guards looked over to him, and noticing his uniform, stood up just a touch straighter. “As you were, guardsponies,” he told them, stopping in front of them as they saluted. “I’m here to see the High Adjudicator.”

“Of course, Centurion,” the one on his left said. “The High Adjudicator is just inside.” The guards both stepped aside, opening the doors so that Shining could enter. He passed by them, and had to suppress the urge to whistle at the interior of the Grand Hall. Like much of the castle, the walls and floor were marble, off-white in color, but where the Solar Hall was gilded in gold wherever possible, the Grand Hall simply let its tapestries and stained windows of the valiant efforts of the three pony tribes of Equestria speak of its grandeur for itself. And there at the head of the hall, sat the High Adjudicator.

The pony didn’t look up from her papers for some time, letting him approach in silence save for the scratches of her quill on the documents. Her hair was golden and slicked back into a professional pony-tail, contrasting sharply with her fair white coat. A richly adorned dress covered most of her figure, save for a slit in the sides which revealed her cutie mark, a gavel emblazoned over a crown. As he arrived on the dias in front of the pony’s desk she finally looked up, a bland stare greeting him as he met eyes with her.

“Ah yes, here we are. The Empress’ freshest muse. How nice to see you responded promptly to my summons. I would have figured you would be left comatose for the day after the no doubt thorough work you were put through last night pleasing our Finest Radiance.”

Shining held back the urge to blush as he nodded respectfully to her. “I serve the Empress,” he stated simply. “That is my duty, and I would be remiss if I failed to attend to any and all duties she assigns me as promptly as I can.”

To his surprise the pony smiled back at him deviously, a grin that was surprisingly intimidating from such an otherwise placid face. “Oh yes indeed, that is your duty, and as it happens she has passed down to me a new task for you to accomplish, one that I’m sure your vaunted skill and ability is perfectly suited for.”

He didn’t have a chance to respond to the barbed sarcasm before a set of papers was teleported onto his face, leaving him sputtering as he tried to clear his vision.

“I’ll be blunt, Centurion, I don’t have the time or patience to deal with teaching you the ways of government properly. I am far too busy to waste such effort on a toy stallion who will likely not last the year under our Empress’ tender mercies. Thus, she and I have come to an agreement. A trial by… fire as it were. You will learn the ways of governance by understanding it from the roots in your own study, and as such your task is this. Study the provided legal code, such as it is, and come up with a better, more robust, fairer, and more effective system for it. In two weeks.” She paused to let her words sink in, grinning at his panicked expression. “Is that understood, Centurion?”

Shining nodded. “I understand,” he said. “Now, before I am dismissed, am I allowed an advisor to assist me in going over the legal code? Not that I object to our Empress’ will, but such as it is, I’m certain that the process would be far more effective if I was assistance in this manner. With your blessing of course, High Adjudicator,” he added, nodding to her.

The mare’s grin somehow, someway, grew even more predatory. “You misunderstand the purpose of this, fair Centurion. The goal isn’t to have you be taught how to deal with the mysteries of legalities. The goal is to see how well you figure it out for yourself using your own resources. The libraries are open to you, of course, so that you may find the written advice of other ponies likely long dead and gone, but don’t forget, they may be hideously wrong themselves, so trust the written word only as far as you dare.”

The mare paused in her work so that she could stand up across her desk to loom over him. “To be frank, young foal, the test here is to see how intelligent you are in your own right. To be skilled in combat is useful, to be skilled in bed is alluring, but to be skilled in the mind is real power. And anypony who seeks to serve the Empress to the best of her expectations will need to make use of that power to be respected. Or alive. Now, take what I have said, and my warnings, and go. After all… the clock is ticking, as it has since the day began. 13 days, 12 hours, and 44 minutes to go.” She shooed him away with her hoof as she returned to her papers.

Shining nodded, bowing to her. “Then thank you for your time, High Adjudicator,” he said, standing back up and collecting the documents in his magic. “Fair fortune to you this day.” He turned away, heading to the door as he thought of what to do. While the library was a good start, diving into the complexities of Equestria’s legal code right out of the gate was a bad idea. And the High Adjudicator wasn’t going to give him an advisor to assist in the endeavor. A part of him was utterly terrified of the prospect.

But that part of Shining Armor was sent to the side as Shining Armor the soldier took over, and he began to rationalize what he needed to do. Objective: Streamline the Equestrian legal code within thirteen days. Problem: he was not versed in the Equestrian legal code. Solution: Learn the legal code using whatever assets he could utilize in the Royal Library, again, within thirteen days. He hummed to himself as he paused at the door, thinking to himself.

The High Adjudicator hadn’t given him an advisor… but she also hadn’t said anything about not hiring one either. With that in mind, Shining continued to leave the Grand Hall, heedless of the High Adjudicator pausing in her work to look at him as he left.

“If he lives through the next six months he might be useful,” she mused to herself as she turned to the side door. “Bring in the next one!”

~~~

Shining strode over to the closest advisor firm and entered, a little bell jingling above him to let the ponies inside know of a potential… customer. Shining was well aware of the reputation such ponies had, but at the moment, he had a job to do, and reputation or not, he needed the help. Standing by a desk, he waited patiently for a secretary to come over and assist him.

“Hello! How can I help you today?” the secretary asked, batting her eyes at him, hoping to throw him off guard. Shining though didn’t fall for it.

“Yes, I was curious to know if you had anypony on staff versed in general Imperial law,” he told her, lifting the stack of papers that the High Adjudicator had given him. “I was given this as a project, and I’m afraid that a lot of it is a bit advanced for me. Is there anypony on staff that you recommend?”

The secretary took one look at the papers, tilted her head in confusion and visibly gave up, shouting back, “Hey Word Twist, I’ve got a messy one for you!”

Shining’s eyes nearly popped out of his head when he saw a stallion pop his head out, and he briefly thought that the High Adjudicator had teleported here, threw on a glamour spell, and was now trying to fuck around with him. Because the resemblance this stallion had to her was simply uncanny. At least… until he opened his mouth.

“Ah, a new client, excellent.” The stallion walked out and offered his hoof to Shining, who shook it. “Welcome, good sir. I see you are an officer in the Solar Guard, what can I do for a servant of our Great Sun?”

Shining gave him his best smile. “I would like a crash course in Imperial law,” Shining said simply. “But please, may we take this into your office? I’m sure it’s more legal that way than simply discussing business in a hallway.”

The stallion laughed, ushering him further inside. “You’d be surprised the places where legal work gets done. We advisors like daylight walks as much as anypony else.” The stallion let the way into his office, a simply decorated but professional room. The stallion sat himself behind his desk, folding his hooves on the wood. “Now, you said you needed to learn about Imperial Law? Can you give me some details on that, because there is very much to learn on that subject. My mastery can attest to that.” He waved to the lovingly framed document hung in its own special portrait on the wall behind him.

Shining took the papers and dropped them on Word Twist’s desk. “I need to learn enough about Imperial law to draft a possible replacement for it in thirteen days by order of the High Adjudicator and the Empress Herself. And this is all paperwork the High Adjudicator gave me as a reference,” he said simply, watching the other stallion’s reaction. “For now, only the basics. Lay it on me as if trying to explain it to a foal with no legal experience.”

The stallion’s eyes shifted back and forth between Shining and the documents, his expression hardening. “I see… so… my sister gave you this task, did she? She always was a demanding one.” He ignored Shining’s surprise at the revelation as the stallion took the papers in hoof. “Well to be frank, my good officer, it seems you have been given a snipe hunt of a task, one that would be difficult even for the likes of me to accomplish properly in the time allotted. And if you are truly as ignorant to legal code as you say you are… my goodness, we have our work cut out for us, don’t we?”

“Well, in that case, let’s be real here then,” Shining said. “We both know that one pony given a crash course in law can’t figure out a way to completely replace the current code. So, let’s focus on something… smaller, and more manageable. If we can replace a section of the law, then that gives what I assume is precedent to commit to further changes later on, right?”

“Oh yes, most certainly,” the advisor agreed. “However, that’s just the start, my friend. If we want to get this task done properly, then we need to go even further. And I would recommend starting with the most basic of laws, the stuff that governs nearly everything in general, and then building up from there.”

Shining nodded. “Of course. The basics first,” he agreed. “Now, I know that you have a rate, and I am willing to pay for the lessons in full, I just-.” Word Twist held up a hoof to silence him.

“I’ll do this for free.”

“What?!” Shining said in alarm. “Nononono, I’ll pay you, you deserve-.”

“Look,” Word Twist told him, cutting him off. “I’ve heard word that the Empress has a colt-toy that she fancies, and it looks like it’s you. If she’s given you this level of chicken shit to do, then she either wants you deader than fine ash, or she’s greatly impressed with you, and is trying to figure you out. Now, in the unlikely chance we succeed in getting something done in two weeks, you’ll get a bump in position. All I ask is that after you get that promotion, you refer whatever legal issues you or anyone you know has back to us for however long you’re still alive. Or until you terminate a contract with us, et cetera.” He chuckled. “That, and I want to see the look on my sister’s face when we get this done. THAT alone is gonna be worth my desk’s weight in bits.”

Shining took a moment to think on it and then nodded. “That… is agreeable. So, let’s get started then. From the top, basics of law.”

Word Twist smiled. “Of course pal, of course. So, to begin…”

~~~

Four days. Four days since Shining had started learning about Equestrian law, and the white-furred stallion was currently passed out on the bad, Mahiri holding him close to her as she rested. Her internal clock said that it was late in the morning, but without any windows, it was hard to tell just how true that was. Still, trusting her gut hadn’t done Mahiri too much ill, so she had to thank the Earth Mother for at least that much.

Shining groaned, shifting in his sleep. Mahiri smiled softly and wrapped her forelegs around the barrel of his chest, pulling him closer to her. Whatever had disturbed her stallion’s sleep, left him as he stilled, shifting closer to the heat of her body. The mare giggled softly to herself as she began humming a gentle tune to him. It was an old tune to be sure, one passed down from countless generations of mothers to their daughters, but it worked well enough in calming foal and stallion alike that Mahiri didn’t mind using it on Shining as he slept.

It was a few minutes later that Shining slowly drifted into wakefulness, blinking away the dredges of sleep from his eyes. “M’hiri?” he asked groggily.

“Shh, rest my love,” she cooed, putting her cheek in the crook of his neck as she held him tight against her. “Just rest, my dear Centurion.” Shining groaned, shaking his head even though he let his hoof drift over to hers to pull her closer.

“But I need to work now,” he mumbled. “Got ‘n empire to fix dear…”

Mahiri huffed. “Shining Armor, you can’t fix the entire empire on your own,” she chided softly. “Not unless you’re secretly an alicorn like your Empress.” She smiled at the small pout on his face as he finally looked over to her, the stallion’s ire muffled by his grogginess.

“Tha’s… not a fair comparison you know,” he quipped. The zebra smiled.

“Don’t care. I love you anyway.”

“Love you too.” Shining turned in place, kissing her gently as Mahiri closed her eyes, enjoying the soft touches of his lips on her. He kissed her for a few moments more before he pulled away, yawning widely much to her amusement. “Well, I suppose I have to get up at some point anyway, right?”

Mahiri nodded. “Of course. And I think that whatever it is that has you scurrying to an adviser at all hours of the day, can take a break today.” The pony groaned, but didn’t argue the point as he clambered out of their bed, shaking his head clear of any remaining mental cobwebs.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he commented, stretching himself out and popping a few joints back into place as she watched. “A bit of time outside, clearing my head would probably do me some good. Who knows, maybe I’ll get inspired or something, right?”

“Of course,” Mahiri agreed, getting off the bed herself at a slower pace. She paused, simply watching as Shining performed basic stretches to ensure he was as limber as possible for the stallion went to put on ‘light’ armor. “...please tell me you’re not going outside in that.”

“What?” Shining asked, confused. “It’s only armor!”

“And you are trying to relax,” Mahiri pointed out, trotting over to him to gently push a piece of armor away from him. “This… does not look relaxing.” Shining huffed.

“Mahiri, please,” he begged. “At least the chest plate?” Mahiri looked him over, eyes narrowed.

“...Fine. But ONLY that!” she ordered, pointing a hoof in his face as she turned away. “In the meantime, I shall be getting ready to go out!” Shining sighed, watching as his lover waltzed over into their small bathroom, his eyes lingering on her striped rear before he shook his head free of the temptation. The Centurion put on a lightly armored cuirass and strapped it on tightly on himself as he waited for Mahiri to finish up.

“So, any place you want to see while we’re out?” Shining asked her. “There’s the castle, there’s a few parks, uh, the market, umm, let me think here, umm…”

“The market? What’s that like?”

Shining paused, trying to think about it. “Well, it’s… busy I suppose,” he said. “I’ll be honest, I have very little experience actually going into the markets, my mother or somepony else always did the shopping, and then I got deployed to the savannah, and I met this beautiful mare who spoiled me in going to the market…”

“You flatter me,” Mahiri called out to him, the sound of running water echoing in the room before it was cut off. “But… I think I’d like to see a ‘proper’ market.” Mahiri stepped out of the bathroom, her coat glistening in the lantern light. Shining sucked in a breath, and the mare giggled at him. “Please?”

“I… okay,” Shining conceded with a smile. “A quick trip to the markets it is then.” Stallion and mare both left the small home together, walking through the winding corridors of the guards’ quarters before finally stepping out into the sun.

Mahiri let out a gasp of awe at the sight of Canterlot City before her. So many buildings, many far larger than the fort she had met Shining at were spread around the city. Parapets of gilded gold dotted the cityscape, even as pegasi weather teams manipulated the clouds to provide shade for the populace below, or to add water to reservoirs and aqueducts. Shining smiled at her, brushing against her.

“Still speechless huh?” he asked her.

Mahiri nodded. “It… it’s still more than I can imagine any settlement to be,” she admitted. “No zebra would think or say that a city can be on a mountainside, and yet, here we are, in a city among the heavens. My tribe would think this place an affront to the Earth Mother. I still do.” She paused, looking over and smiling at Shining happily. “But… I can make an exception for a special pony that I know.”

Shining laughed. “Good to know that I’m held in such high esteem!” he commented as the pair walked through the streets, many ponies giving Mahiri curious looks. “One of these days, I should introduce you to my parents! Oh, and Twilight! Oh Mahiri, you’d probably love her, she’s just the nicest filly on this side of Equestria!” He looked to her midsection, and then leaned over, whispering, “Though I think she’ll have some competition when this little one comes out.”

Mahiri smirked. “Well, hard to say now,” she said. “For all we know, the foal could be ugly.” Shining rolled his eyes.

“Nonsense! The foal will be handsome or beautiful regardless of what they look like!” he declared. “And that’s a fact!” The sounds of ponies chattering grew louder as they walked, the smells of fried hayburgers and other such foods adrift in the air as they approached the market. They rounded a corner, and Mahiri let out a soft gasp at the sheer size of the market before her.

All around the plaza, ponies chatted and traded, bargaining for lower prices, discussing the latest trends in their currency, an economic display of barely controlled chaos that reminded her suddenly of her home on the savannah. Shining tapped her on the shoulder. “Mahiri? You okay?”

She nodded, swallowing down a nervous lump in her throat. “Y-Yes,” she replied. “I’m just… I just remembered home is all.”

Shining looked over the market, his eyes going over the hustle and bustle before he sighed. “Oh. Well… If you want to head back, we can. I don’t want you to be uncomfortable, or anything like that Mahiri.” The zebra smiled at him as she nuzzled his neck.

“And you are still a proper gentlecolt,” she told him. “No, I only just arrived here. It would be embarrassing for us to depart upon merely arriving. Now please, let us look around Shining! Please?”

“Okay, okay!” the stallion laughed aloud, letting his lover lead the way into the markets. Shining watched as Mahiri looked at everything with foalish wonder, her eyes wide in awe at the works of glassblowers, or when she stood by and listened to a mare playing a cello in the square. He watched in glee as Mahiri had her first taste of a properly made hayburger, laughing as she ordered a second… and then a third. Luckily, he managed to convince her not to devour a fourth, if only for the sake of their growing foal.

They were beginning to walk back to the castle when their good mood was abruptly popped in the most cruel way possible. And that was when some stallion dressed in cheap fabrics passed by Mahiri and groped her flank.

Mahiri’s hoof met the stallion’s face, and the warrior’s blow sent the pony flying back several gallops away before he hit the ground, sending passersby back as they gasped in fright. The zebra mare whirled about, shouting and snarling in her native tongue and Shining held her back with a foreleg.

“Mahiri, please, Mahiri, MAHIRI!” Shining shouted sternly, getting her attention. “Mahiri, please!”

“Radiance above, damn bitch near broke my nose!” the stallion complained, standing up and glaring at them. “I’ll have yer fookin’ head on a pike when I get the Guard here you striped whore!”

Shining’s gaze locked onto him, narrowing as he stood in front of Mahiri. “Sir, I AM with the Guard,” Shining announced, a part of him somewhat satisfied at the look of fear on the stallion’s face. “Now, do tell me what possessed you to grope this mare, and in public?”

The tall brute of a stallion looked Shining up and down and snorted, obviously unimpressed. “What, you with her hooflicker? Guess she needs somepony around to make sure she don’t go sucking off the wrong stallion and cause an incident. How’s about you keep the barracks slut out of sight, eh, ‘less you want to share the access.”

Shining took a deep breath, even as he wanted to send this stallion flying through a simple levitation spell. “Sir, again, we are in public,” he said as calmly as he could. “There is no need for you to use that kind of language here at all. Now, again, why did you grope her?”

“Shin-,” Mahiri started to say before she stopped herself, taking a deep breath. “Centurion Armor, I don’t think this stallion cares to listen to reason. I’d much rather just leave now.”

“Yeah, sure, run off back to the barracks,” the stallion taunted, snarling at her. “Hope they break your fucking throat and pussy til you’re so used up you can’t even wa-”

The stallion’s jaw was all but shattered as Shining’s back hoof connected, the Centurion finishing a spinning kick that was reinforced with a repulsion barrier spell enveloping his hoof. The stallion spun several times in place before his body was held in place by Shining’s magic, the white coated stallion’s patience finally at its end. “Sir, by authority of the Empress Daybreaker, and by the Code of Common Law, Section Five, Paragraph Twelve, I am placing you under arrest for harassment, and for disturbing the peace under Section Nine, Paragraph Twenty-Two, Sub-paragraph Two. How do you plead?”

The stallion couldn’t speak, as his mouth was so ruined by the kick that he was left spitting out blood, but the baneful glare he sent Shining’s way said plenty.

“Your plea has been duly noted,” Shining said, catching sight of a pair of Royal Guards galloping towards him. “Guardsponies, take this stallion to the dungeons, and get his jaw fixed.”

“For what reason?” one of them asked, leering at Mahiri.

Shining’s eye twitched. “Public harassment of a mare,” he stated, getting their attention again. “Disturbing the peace. Sexually harassing a pony under the protection of House Sparkle, and under the interest of Her Most Holy Radiance Herself, the Empress Daybreaker.” As Shining rattled off the charges, the guards faces fell increasingly fast, up to abject horror at the mention of Daybreaker. “Now will that be all, Guardsponies? Or will I need to seek out your commanding officers for wasting the time of a Centurion?”

“N-No sir!” the guard who hadn’t even looked at Mahiri stammered, taking the bloodied stallion in his own magic. “We-We-We’ll get this pony processed sir!”

“See that you do,” Shining snapped coldly, standing up straight. “And you will process this stallion properly, understood?”

“YES SIR!” the guards shouted.

“Dismissed,” Shining told them before focusing his attention on the crowds. “Everypony, please go about your business! There is nothing for you to see here, please go about your day!” The crowd looked around at each other nervously, but one look at Shining’s stern gaze sent most of them walking off to less intimidating venues. Soon, it was just Shining and Mahiri standing there, the mare shaking in place as Shining approached her. “Mahiri… are… are you okay?”

“I could have handled him,” Mahiri whispered, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. “I could have trampled that weak excuse of a stallion to the ground, why didn’t you let me take him down, I could have made sure he never touched another mare again, I-!”

“Mahiri, please, please, look at me!” Shining hissed, guiding her over to a bench to sit at. “Mahiri, my love, please, look at me!” The zebra grudgingly looked up at him, seeing the stallion let out a deep breath, his fury slowly bleeding out of him. “Mahiri, look. What that stallion did… was wrong. I’m not going to deny that, and for the most part, neither will the law. But unfortunately, the law is less clear when it comes to anypony who isn’t a native born Equestrian citizen. If I let you attack him, I’d have had to arrest you too, and… Mahiri, my love, I can’t… I WILL NOT let you step foot in a dungeon like that. Not while I have any control of the situation.”

“And you consider that under control?!” she snarled. “That fucker touched me Shining! In the savannah, I would have had his hoof!”

“Well we’re not in the savannah anymore!” he snapped. Silence hung like an executioner’s axe as both stopped to catch their breaths. “Mahiri… I… I’m sorry,” Shining said after a moment. “I… I didn’t… I didn’t mean to snap at you like that. I’m sorry.”

“No, Shining, please, don’t do this,” Mahiri told him, taking his hoof in her own. “I… I am clouded by anger, and I have failed to realize that… that I am the outsider here, in this city.” She sighed, slumping over and resting on Shining’s shoulder. “I thought… I thought that things would be different here, in your Empress’ capitol. I was wrong.”

Shining let her rest there, looking off into the distance before his gaze settled on the parapets of the Empress’ castle. “We were both wrong,” he said softly. “...but I still love you Mahiri. I always will. Whenever you’re ready, we’ll head back home.”

“And what of you?” she asked. “What of your task to fix the Empire?”

Shining’s gaze hardened as he continued to look at the castle. “It’ll get fixed… and I know just where to start.”

~~~

“We’re going to replace the laws surrounding servants, indentured workers, and slaves,” Shining told Word Twist hours later. “And we’re going to reform the standards of the Royal Guard.” Across the desk, the advisor looked at Shining in dumbstruck confusion.

“I… I mean okay, if you want to go there, we can go there. But are you sure that is going to be your focus for this project? I mean, there’s a lot of documentation and legal history to cover when it comes to those topics, particularly with slavery…” Twist looked at him shrewdly, poking a hoof at Shining as he asked, “What brought this up, might I ask? What got you on this train of thought?”

“My lover was groped in brought daylight and in public, by a stallion who should have been apprehended by the Royal Guard the moment that she cried out,” Shining said coolly. “She’s a slave, yes, but she’s… more than that to me. I know it’s selfish, but… I cannot let her live her life afraid to step outside because the populace thinks it safe to molest and defile her and others in her situation without repercussion.”

Word Twist contemplated this for a while, looking out the window as his hooves came together in front of his face. “Can you keep a secret, Centurion?”

Shining nodded. “Of course.”

“I despise slavery as an institution.” Twist turned to look at Shining, a pale flame of passion in the lawyer’s eyes. “I have spent a good part of my career taking on cases involving slaves, either the lawful trade of them or the unlawful abuse of them, to such a degree that I’m sure the reports would make you hurl buckets. I’ve seen what slavery does to beings, not just ponies, and have had ample opportunity to consider it from every angle possible. In that time, I have come to the simple conclusion that slavery as a practice is both morally repugnant for the removal of freedoms it involves and economically bankrupt and frankly stupid due to the short term gains leading to long term stagnation and demoralizing atmosphere. To be frank, Centurion, if it were in my power I would free every slave in Equestria and throw the majority of slave owners into prison for abuse of sapient rights!”

Twist paused, sighing, and fell back in his chair. “Sadly, I am not in a position of any real power. Instead I merely serve the powerful, work to grease their wheels of operation so that they may continue to more effectively run our country the way they see fit, without the slightest care for the iron hoof they grind into the faces of those who had the misfortune to be enemies of the state or merely in the way of the legions when a war was on. Now you tell me… how could we even begin to reform this corrupt system when our leader, bless her stellar heart, was the one who instituted it to begin with centuries ago?”

Shining was quiet for a few moments before he sighed. “Word Twist… it’s my turn to share a secret with you,” he said. “I was with the Empress, in her bed, when she asked me what had taken me so long to… woo my lover.” Word Twist nodded as Shining told his story. “I told her that… that had I simply just raped her, like every other soldier in my position, then she would have hated me and resisted me the entire time we would be together.”

Shining paused to take a deep breathe, the stallion slumping into a seat across from the advisor. “Somehow, I managed to convince our Empress that by treating her with basic pony decency, that Ma-... my lover would be loyal to me, and by extension the Empress and Her Empire. I insinuated that by simply being nice to other ponies, zebras, and what have you, that… that…”

“That their happiness would affect their work for the Empire, and thus, would benefit the Empress in the long run,” Word Twist finished, nodding. “I suppose that’s… one way of doing things. I’m honestly more surprised you had the balls to tell our Holy Radiance that to her face.”

Shining chuckled humorlessly. “Well, I must have made an impression, ‘cause here I am,” he gestured to himself. He sighed, rubbing his temples with his forehooves. “I wish I knew what in Tartarus I’m doing, I really do.” Word Twist looked at him shrewdly.

“You love her, don’t you? Your slave.”

“She’s not a slave,” Shining shot back near instantly. “She’s… she’s stuck with me because I couldn’t let her suffer.”

Word Twist gave him a small, unguarded smile. “Sounds to me like you’re the best type of pony to be with her,” he quipped. “Respectful, honest… and loyal to a fault to your ideals.” Shining shrugged.

“What else can I do?”

“Well… you can help me help you make sure that what happened to your mare, and I don’t mean that in that particular way,” Twist clarified, “Doesn’t happen again, and that others like her, mare and stallion alike, are protected.”

“You know… we won’t be able to get rid of slavery,” Shining pointed out as he scooted closer to the table. “Most certainly not in our lifetimes.”

It was Twist’s turn to shrug. “Foal steps,” he answered. “If nothing else, we get to start planting the seeds of change in the minds of the nobility.” Shining nodded as he pulled over one of Word Twist’s volumes on criminal law. “And… you want to reform the guard too?”

“Ponies and others deserve to know that the ones who are guarding them at night can be trusted to do so, and that even we aren’t above the law,” Shining said. “We have to be the paragons we pledged ourselves to be. No exceptions.”

Twist laughed, making Shining raise an eyebrow at him. “Oh no, I’m not laughing at you. It’s just… I never expected to find an idealist in the guard, let alone one who achieves an officer’s rank. I guess what I’m trying to say, my friend, is… I’m impressed with your fortitude.”

“Thank you,” Shining said earnestly. “And I’m impressed that you would go out of your way to help a clueless colt like me.”

“The clueless are the ones who are the quickest to find the true path,” Twist quoted at him, then smirked and added, “And yes, I did just make that up. Alright.” Twist planted his hooves on the table, sitting up tall. “If we want to drastically alter the base of this empire at its moral failings, let’s get to it.”

“Agreed.” Shining opened up the book in front of him, and then at Twist. “Find legal precedents to change the laws, and… oh, access to census records,” he said. “If slaves and indentured servants are a sizable part of the population, then bringing in those numbers could help out our case, you know, impress on how much their satisfaction, or lack thereof, could hurt the Empress’ empire.”

Twist laughed. “And you said you didn’t have a clue about law.”

“I don’t,” Shining reiterated. “But I’m a Legionnaire first and foremost. In the face of adversity, adapt and overcome.”

“...that’s actually a saying?”

Shining snorted. “No, I just made that up. Sounds catchy though, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, yes it does. Now, let’s get to work.”

~~~

Shining stood in the Solar Hall, clad in his dress uniform, and standing at attention as the High Adjudicator looked over the stack of papers at hoof, Empress Daybreaker sitting at her throne and watching the proceedings with a look of professional disinterest. Along the walls, various nobles and regional governors were assembled, mumbling amongst themselves as they waited for this dalliance to begin.

You’re going to be okay, Shining told himself. It’s only a few laws, nothing TOO drastically major… you hope. Oh Faust, do not the Empress try to kill me.

After a moment, the High Adjudicator sighed, setting the papers on the table. “Alright, let’s get this part out of the way so we can let the rich rabble squabble some more. Centurion, front and center please.”

Shining stepped forward, stopping a respectful few paces away before first bowing to Daybreaker. “I have come as summoned, my Empress, and High Adjudicator,” he stated. “I am ready to discuss the proposed changes to the Imperial Law at your leisure.”

A wave of murmurs swept through the room, then ceased in an instant when Daybreaker sat up in her seat, causing every pony in the room to look up.

“We hope you impress us with your work, Centurion,” she purred, looking down at him through half-lidded eyes. “We expect great things from you.”

“I understand, my Empress,” Shining responded. He looked to the High Adjudicator, and nodded. “I am ready, High Adjudicator, and nobles of the court.”

“Ignore them, they’re not important,” the Adjudicator said, following her own advice as several of the upset nobles bayed at her in anger. “The only one you have to impress here is me. Thusly, I suggest you do so. Provide a summary of your proposed changes and then hoof me the documents you have written. I shall see if they pass muster or not.”

“Of course. In summary, the proposed changes contained within the volume before you affect the practices of indentured servitude, slavery, and workers within the borders of the Empire, and changes to the recruiting and conduct standards of the Legion and Royal Guard,” Shining stated clearly, ignoring the sudden gasps in the Hall. “Specifically, the proposed laws will replace or streamline the Accords of Unity in the year 326 AD, the common law instituted by the Parliament in 480 AD, and the Royal Guard Doctrine, Sections Three though Eight.”

By now the noise from the crowd was starting to get obnoxious as the various nobles and business ponies shouted over each other to be heard airing their grievances. Then Daybreaker flicked her wing and the room fell silent.

“Speak of your changes, Centurion,” Daybreaker said. “We find ourselves intrigued.”

Shining nodded. “It is a fact that this Empire uses slave labor,” Shining said, beginning to slowly pace the Hall. “Slaves who were either born into it, were captured as spoils of war by the Legions, or committed some crime that sentenced them to such a fate. All of this is fact.” Shining paused, and then continued. “These slaves, all beings who by legal definition have no rights, are the ones who grow our food, craft our tools, do the tasks that many of us here find demeaning and beneath our attention. These same beings are also ones we trust to watch over our families, and in some cases, become family in their own way.

“But, if this individual is by legal definition property, then what is the punishment for the misuse of, or the abuse, or the outright murder of these beings?” Shining asked. “By legal definition, they are property, easily replaceable, in theory. But the truth is, they are not. A slave is not like a dog you can pick up at the pound. They are thinking, sapient beings. They feel joy, they feel love, they know fear, same as we do.”

“Oh for the Empress’ sake, GET ON WITH IT!” a noble snapped irritably.

The glare sent towards the offending shouter by the rest of the room only lasted as long as it took for Daybreaker’s heatbeam to lance out across the hall and burn him away, leaving only cinders in his place.

“Interrupt again and I shall ensure the speaker’s family is placed in slavery while they are left to feed the carrion gryphons.”

Oh shit, Shining thought, refocusing on the task at hand. “Mares and Stallions of this court, My Empress,” he added, “The simple matter is, if a slave feels safe, if they feel secure in their lot in life, and they have the trust from the ones to whom they are bound to, then the Empire becomes that much more prosperous. Imagine, fields of crops where no slave drivers are needed, because the workers are glad to be of help. Or tradesponies who can trust their servants to create works of art that can grace these very walls. How envious the last remaining hold outs against our Holy Radiance’s glorious reign would be to know that even in servitude, our Empress is able to inspire even the lowliest among us to great heights!”

Shining pointed to the papers in the Adjudicator’s hooves. “Detailed are changes to how slaves and indentured servants are bought. No longer will they be crammed into carts you can’t even place an infant manticore in! If a slave or indentured servant is to be bound for their contract or for life, then they are owed, by basic pony decency, to be treated as living beings worthy of respect!” At this point, Shining was speaking loudly, his gaze sweeping over all as he almost seemed to command the floor.

The nobles were all silent, none daring to utter a single sound now that Daybreaker’s ire was raised. The Adjudicator was unfazed though, taking the papers in hoof and shuffling through them, reading at an impressive clip. “The wording all seems to be in order, no doubt due to my brother’s aid in the writing. Yes, Centurion, I do know you went to him for assistance, how could I not know? All the same, from what I can tell the idea for this came from you. My brother would never be brave enough to propose legislation of this magnitude on his own. All in all, I would say it passes muster, if only as a starting point. Now, was there anything else you wished to present to us?”

“Of course, only one other thing,” Shining told her. “Proposed changes to the Empress’ Royal Guard and Legions. Specifically, those of the Royal Guard.” Shining took a deep breath. “I will be honest, Adjudicator. I wanted to be a member of the Royal Guard as a colt. What colt doesn’t when they are young, or young filly for that matter? And yet… not too long ago, I have seen full fledged members of our Empress’ own Royal Guard fail in their duties, and not only that, but actively defy it.”

Shining looked to the Empress and bowed his head to her. “With respect to you, Your Radiance, if the populace see the Royal Guard that is entrusted with preserving your ponies from harm shirk their sacred duties, or willingly engage in the very acts they swore a binding oath to prevent… then I cannot in good conscience let this travesty stand. Not just in duty to you, but because the Royal Guard must. Be. BETTER.”

The room was hushed, and not just due to the threat of Daybreaker’s glare. The whole of the audience was staring at Shining in abject shock, bewildered at the idea of anypony, let alone an officer of the guard itself, calling into question the guards’ sanctity and value. It simply wasn’t done. And yet Daybreaker hadn’t smote him where he stood, but was instead staring down at him with an intrigued expression.

“You speak colorfully, my Centurion,” Daybreaker said, “but perhaps honestly as well. The guard are certainly capable in protecting my lands from foreign foes, but perhaps we have let them become lenient on their drive to serve my ponies as effectively as they should be. Tell us your proposals of how they can improve. We shall listen intently.”

“To start, all recruits will be judged by merit, with station playing no part in the selection process,” Shining answered immediately. A noble pony opened their mouth to speak out, but quickly snapped their jaw shut to preserve their own hide. “Recruits to the Royal Guard must understand that, beyond loyalty to you, My Empress, that their duty is to the safety and freedom of all ponies within your borders. That they too, are not above the laws they enforce. That at all times, a Royal Guard MUST be an example of how to serve the citizens of the Empire, but to you as well.”

Shining chuckled. “I myself will admit that I am far, far from being a model example of a Royal Guard recruit under these changes, Holy Radiance, but-.” Shining was cut off as Daybreaker held up a hoof. Wisely, he shut up and stood at attention.

“You do not give yourself enough credit, my dear Centurion,” Daybreaker said with an air of finality. “You are among the most capable, and more importantly balanced, officers in my employ, and the only reason you have not yet risen higher in the ranks is my wish to ensure you are capable of commanding from such a position. Were the only criteria merit, you would be General of My Army.”

Shining forced himself not to gulp in shock. “My Empress, merit or not, if that is your will, then it is only my duty to execute your will to the full extent of my abilities, or to die trying in service to you,” he stated. “As it stands, I am aware of my personal limits as an officer to know that I would not be a good general to you as I am now. That said, my duty is to serve you, regardless of my faults.”

Daybreaker smiled, closer to genuine happiness than many had seen from her in a long time. “And that is why you are my favorite, my dear Centurion. I look forward to our future years together. Now… proceed.”

The Adjudicator sighed, straightening out the papers before setting them down. “The proposals are sound, the details up for debate at a later time. I suppose you pass, Centurion, even if you cheated somewhat by obtaining outside help. Still, you proved you have the ability to think for yourself on such things, which is the important part of this test anyway. Next time you won’t be given such a nice little loophole to use though, so keep that in mind.”

“Understood, High Adjudicator,” Shining stated. “Will that be all, ma’am?”

“For the time being, Centurion,” the Adjudicator replied. “If it pleases the Empress, then you are dismissed.” A subtle nod from Daybreaker clued him to her reply, and he bowed low to them.

“Thank you then for your time then, My Empress, and to you as well High Adjudicator.” Shining stopped and trotted out of the Solar Hall, leaving the council of nobles and business ponies alone with Daybreaker and the High Adjudicator. The air was tense as no one wanted to say something that would trigger a gush of flame being sent in their direction.

The moment the door closed, Daybreaker languidly stretched on her throne, relaxing on it as the temperature seemed to rise a few degrees. “Now,” she said after a few moments, grinning at the nervous expressions of the nobles in attendance, “Does any pony have questions on these proposals? Anypony at all?”

“Well Your Radiance, I can start by asking where in Tartarus we’re going to be able to afford these changes!” a mare dressed in highly fashionable garb complained, waving her hoof in the air. “Most of the peasants in my region can barely pay for anything after the taxes I put on them, taxing them for this simply won’t lead your empire anywhere!”

“Then I suppose you will have to pay for them,” Daybreaker shot back instantly, delighting at the mare’s horrified look. “Now, listen, and listen well! Each of you rules some part of this empire, and I let you have some degree of freedom in how you rule. But remember… I am the one who has given that position! And I am more than capable of taking it away! You may decide on the finer points of these laws, but they WILL be passed!”

The Alicorn monarch looked over to the High Adjudicator. “This meeting is adjourned, you may discuss these laws at your leisure, but get them finished!”

“As you will, My Empress,” the Adjudicator said with a bow as Daybreaker departed from the hall. The Alicorn exited, golden doors shutting behind her just in time for her to teleport to her quarters and magically throw off her regalia, sighing in relief as she jumped onto her bed and sprawled herself on the covers.

“Oho, my Centurion is a crafty one!” Daybreaker chattered to herself. “The Adjudicator wouldn’t give him an advisor when he asked for one from her, and yet, he still has the sense to hire one! Oooh, what a clever one to twist her words like that!”

A moment later, and Daybreaker suddenly stiffened, her eyes narrowed. “Show yourself,” she commanded. From out of what few shadows existed in the room, a dark plum colored mare in almost black armor stepped out, bowing her head down in the Empress’ presence.

“Holy Radiance, I have returned,” she reported, even as Daybreaker stood up. “The Crown Prince of the Deer continues to elude us, but I have struck down one of the deer next in line for the throne should the Prince fall.”

Daybreaker smiled, walking over to the smaller mare and bringing her into a close embrace. “Oh now, now, my little shadow, there’s no need for business here,” the Empress told her. “You’ve only just returned, rest, take off your armor, please, take some time to feel like a mare!”

The mare was hesitant, but slowly went to remove her armor by hoof; enchanted plates of armor falling to the floor soon enough as she sighed, twisting her torso side to side. “Thank you, My Empress, for allowing me this,” she said, only for Daybreaker to float a bottle over to her.

“Tempest, relax young mare,” Daybreaker chided gently. “You are free to be yourself here.”

Tempest gulped, just as her stomach rumbled. “In that case, please, bring a cake up here, I’m ready to kill for a decent fucking cake!” she exclaimed, making Daybreaker laugh aloud.

“Well my dear, you have certainly done that!” Daybreaker commented, flaring her broad wings out with a smile. “Now come, come, sit down and tell me everything, my sweet little shadow!” Tempest smiled and followed her Empress to her bed and lay down beside her. Next to her, the much larger Alicorn began to listen to the mare’s tales of her exploits and worries, plans forming behind the thin smile on her face.

~~~

The sun was dimming outside, not that Shining or Mahiri could see it as they lay together in their room. Mahiri had her back to the stallion, her breathing steady as he held her close to him, cheeks touching tenderly. “Shining… you didn’t have to do what you did,” she murmured.

Shining chuffed. “Nonsense. I’m allowed to protect my homeland, and be selfish at the same time,” he said. Mahiri giggled, shuffling closer against him. “Besides, I’d do it all again if it shuts up some of the more idiotic nobles.” His lover chuckled even more as she snuggled closer.

“Still… in two weeks, you’ve managed to impress your Empress enough to be a bit more… lenient on those in my position,” she told him. “Countless won’t know you, but… I’m sure that they will thank you all the same.”

“Credit should go to you.” Shining kissed her, rubbing her firm belly. “If I hadn’t met you, then none of this would have happened.” Mahiri smiled.

“Oh? So, no desire to please your beloved Empress, but rather, love to a mare you were forced to enslave?”

“Love to a mare who deserves it, and so much more,” he affirmed. “Now, let’s get some sleep love. Tomorrow is a new day after all.”

“Of course.” Mahiri closed her eyes and sighed. “Usiku mwema mpenzi wangu.”

“Na kwako, moyo wangu,” Shining murmured back. The pair settled themselves on the bed, and let sleep take them, dreams of a hopeful future hanging in the air.

Author's Note

Holy crap, this took forever to do. But still, I want to thank LanceOmnicron, Corona Blaze, and Blazing Phoenix for their assistance in getting this chapter done! Anyhoo, read and review to your heart's content folks!

Part the Fourth

Serving His Empress

~Or~

How Shining Armor Avoided a Crushed Pelvis by the Empress Daybreaker

Part the Fourth

The weather in the area of the former Griffon kingdoms was, in the opinion of Legal Twist, utter shit. There was not a single weather pony in the locale to clear the sky of the same dreary grey clouds, the winds themselves were cold nine months of the year, and the attitude of the natives was just as, if not even colder. Legal Twist huffed as he shook his head.

“Miserable flea-bitten cat birds,” he complained, turning around to step back inside the heated halls of one of the Empress’ many forts, “Why they choose to settle in this Empress-forsaken waste of rock, I will never know.”

“Are you still complaining about this place, Legal?” Legal Twist glanced over and spotted Autumn Twirl leaning over her desk at him, grinning at him widely. “Come on, we’ve been here nearly a year already. Surely something has to have grown on you by now!”

Legal Twist scoffed, trotting past her. “Unlike you, miss Twirl, I don’t deign to sully myself with the carnality of a bunch of uncivilized barbarians,” he said gruffly, heading to his desk. “Now, we have reports for Governor Fund, and I refuse to be tardy in their deliveries due to your predilection for salacious soirees.”

Autumn Twirl scowled at him, the unicorn mare glowering at him as she went to work on her own paperwork as Legal Twist did the same. Silence reigned in the room until another pony walked in.

“Ah, Governor Fund,” Legal Twist greeted curtly as he worked. On the other side of the desk, Governor Slush Fund saw the pile of paperwork on his worker’s desks and smiled.

“Legal Twist, Autumn Twirl,” the burly earth pony said. “I see that the reports are coming along well?”

“Yes sir,” Legal Twist answered. “Reports will be on your desk by this evening, provided there are no distractions.” Slush Fund smiled, just in time for several of the windows, and parts of the wall, to explode. The distinctive report of Griffon bowguns echoed in the air as the three ponies threw themselves to the ground in a panic, a bowgun shell passing through the space that Slush Fund’s head had just occupied a moment before.

“We’re under attack!? What in Tartarus?!” Slush Fund shouted, crawling to the exit as fast as he could while the others followed.

“Less talk, more fleeing!” Legal Twist shouted. The other two ponies didn’t verbalize their agreement, but their frantic movements intensified as they passed through the threshold into the halls of the fort. They got up, and they saw with some relief that the few members of the Imperial Legion stationed to safeguard them were running around in full gear to their stations.

“Oh thank the Empress, at least they-,” Autumn Twirl started to say before a massive explosion took out the front door, taking most of the guards out in one fell swoop as their bodies were thrown backwards, impaled by wooden splinters or hitting the walls and pillars with sickening crunches of bone and metal. “...oh fuck.”

“Fuck, to the wireless room!” Legal Twist shouted, shoving the two forward as furious Griffons started to pile in, trashing everything in sight as they and the remaining guards became locked in combat. The trio sprinted down the corridors, ignoring the cries of the fighters as they piled into a small room. The doors slammed shut, and Legal Twist shoved a filing cabinet over, pushing it over to the door. “Autumn, send a message to the Empire, tell them we’re under attack, we need help now!”

“B-But, I only do paperwork, there’s documents in using this, I-!” the panicked mare stammered as Legal Twist glared at her.

“FUCK THE DAMN PAPERWORK AND WORK THAT DAMN MACHINE!” he shouted. “WE ARE ABOUT TO FUCKING DIE!” The door suddenly shook in its hinges, the shuffling of bodies on the other side evident.

“Open up right now!” squawked a Griffon. “Open the fuck up right now, and we won’t hurt you!”

“Autumn, now!” Legal Twist shouted, shoving another cabinet in place.

Autumn Twirl nodded her head frantically, passing by a stunned Slush Fund and sitting by the machinery that would send a wireless message to the closest embassy to the Empire. She looked around for anything that could help, and quickly started to smash her hoof on the clicker.

~~~

Shining Armor walked down the side of the training yard, overlooking the mix of ponies assembled in front of him. Following just behind him, Sergeant Blueberry Frost waited patiently for the Centurion to give her an order as they continued their inspection. A few more minutes of silent walking, and Shining stopped at the head of the formation, standing straight and facing the ponies.

“First Sergeant Frost.”

“Yes sir!” Frost responded, standing up straight herself as she looked at the group with him.

“First Sergeant, I have inspected the company front to back, and I am disappointed to say… that I have not found a single thing wrong among these fine ponies,” Shining told her with a slight smirk of amusement. He saw Frost relax just slightly as he refocused on the ponies before him. “That said…”

The company of ponies straightened as Shining cleared his throat loudly enough for them to hear. “Mares and stallions, you are Imperial Legionnaires! You are the face of Her Radiance’s armies as they go out to preserve peace around the world! We are professional soldiers, dedicated to serving the Empire however and wherever we can! However, it has come to our Empress’ attention that we in the Legion, as well as our Empress’ Royal Guard, have not been vigilant in our duties and thus, changes are taking place as we speak.

“To start, all promotions within the Legion and Guard are to be decided on merit and ability alone,” Shining announced, seeing more than a few ponies flinch and gape in horror. “We will not be promoting based on family name, monetary supplements, or the like. Second, we will be cracking down on the unethical treatment of prisoners of war, and all incidents related to such practices. And yes, this includes myself as well, for those of you who have served with me prior.”

“Finally, from this point on, we will not be treating, or calling enemies of the Empire savages, or beasts,” Shining continued. “If they have lasted this long against our Empress’ rule, then there is a reason for it. So, we will treat our enemies with the respect they deserve, and they will do the same. And in doing so, we will become more than just soldiers. We become heroes. First Sergeant, they’re all yours.”

Blueberry Frost nodded as she stepped forward barking orders at the company as Shining sighed in relief. Oration was never something he was particularly good at, the hearing for changing Equestria’s laws notwithstanding. That speech, no matter how small, had terrified him. Still, it did fill him with some amount of pride to see several of the ponies under his command standing straighter than they had previously. Shining watched as Blueberry Frost took the new troops through their paces as she continued to bark orders at them, only noticing the messenger approaching him when Shining realized that she wasn’t one of his soldiers.

“Centurion Armor? Sir?” the runner panted, slowing down from her gallop to stand in front of him.

“At ease, relax, catch your breath now,” Shining ordered. The messenger nodded gratefully, catching her breath before standing up straight and saluting him.

“Centurion Armor, our Holy Radiance, the Solar Empress Daybreaker herself, requests your presence in the Solar Hall as soon as you are physically able!” the messenger stated. “It is of utmost importance, sir!”

Shining nodded, resisting the urge to sigh. “Understood. You are dismissed, and I will be there in the hall as soon as I can.” The messenger took the hint and took off, leaving Shining to wait for Blueberry Frost to return to his side. “First Sergeant, you have command of the troops until I return,” he told her.

“The Empress summon ya again sir?” she asked.

Shining nodded. “She did,” he confirmed. “That said, start preparing them for deployment. I get a feeling we might need to pack our things.” The mare nodded.

“Understood sir. You go an’ take care o’ things with the Empress, I’ll git these louts ready for ya when ya get back.” Shining nodded appreciatively as he headed out of the training field and into the halls of the castle. He passed by dozens of serving ponies, a few of them wearing collars signifying their status as indentured servants, but where weeks ago many of them seemed to carry an air of fear around them, most seemed to have relaxed somewhat. Proof that apparently, something that Shining had said to the courts, and to Daybreaker, had gone through.

Still, the dutiful unicorn stallion made his way to the doors of the Solar Hall, and waited patiently at the thick golden doors as the guards checked him. They nodded a few moments later, opening up the doors and letting Shining pass them. He stepped inside, and was once again struck silent at the sheer grandeur of the hall. And there on her throne at the end of the hall sat Daybreaker, although… the pony in front of her was a new one for Shining.

Stopping a few paces away, Shining bowed to his Empress. “I have come as summoned, my Empress,” he stated, keeping his eyes low to the floor as Daybreaker giggled.

“Rise, my Centurion, and please, come closer,” she told him. Shining did so, coming to a stop beside the other pony. Daybreaker licked her lips, taking a quick sip from a goblet before addressing him further. “Centurion Armor, there has been an incident in the Griffon Territories. Four days ago, another band of rebels have attacked one of our outposts, only this one was a diplomatic outpost.” Shining nodded along, waiting for Daybreaker to continue. “Now, normally, I’d send my legion to wipe these feathered fiends out and rid the world of their filth for good, but…” Daybreaker sighed dramatically. “They have seen fit to capture several of the workers there, and are holding them hostage.”

Shining nodded to her. “I see. So, if I may presume Your Radiance?” he asked. Daybreaker nodded to him with a smirk. “I would presume that in light of there being a hostage situation, that you want those ponies rescued, and fast. So, sending in a full legion to squash this is a gross misallocation of resources, but if you send in a small team, then the chances are that even they could be stopped by sheer numbers, no matter the skill.” The pony beside him scoffed, and Shining looked over at them and was only somewhat surprised to see a rather stern looking mare beside him, her plum colored coat an unusual rarity up in Canterlot. But what took his attention for several seconds was her horn… or rather, the jagged stump of what used to be her horn.

“I do apologize to you, miss, if I have insulted you in any way. That is merely how I perceive this situation,” Shining added before refocusing on Daybreaker. The monarch smiled as she laughed to the mostly empty hall.

“Well my dear Centurion, you aren’t too far off, I will admit!” she exclaimed. “And you are indeed correct. Sending in a full legion to take care of a few ruffians is… wasteful.” She set her goblet down, standing up off her throne and walking to the pair. “However, as much as my dearest shadow would love to take care of this whole matter by her lonesome, I’m afraid I will have to deny her request. So, a compromise.”

The pair straightened up as Daybreaker stood beside them, her wings gently tracing their sides with literal feather light touches. “Shining Armor will be in overall command of this operation,” she declared, “But Tempest Shadow is your equal as well, Centurion. I expect you to listen to her.”

“Of course, my Empress,” Shining told her with a calm voice. On the other side of Daybreaker, Tempest took a deep breath and sighed.

“It will be done Empress,” she said flatly. Daybreaker grinned.

“Good! The two of you depart today!” The two unicorns looked at Daybreaker as she skipped back over to her throne, jumping onto the plush cushions with a flourish. Shining took that as his cue to leave, bowing to Daybreaker, Tempest doing the same as they departed the Solar Hall. The pair exited through the golden doors, and had rounded a corner away from the hall when Tempest turned to face him with a scowl.

“What are your intentions Centurion?” the mare asked Shining with a sharp tone. The stallion raised an eyebrow at her, keeping his expression neutral at the mare’s rather barbed inquiry.

“I’m afraid you have me at a loss,” he replied. “Are you asking about my intentions for this mission, for my career, or…?”

Tempest huffed, irritated. “I mean, what are your intentions with the Empress?” she shot at him. Shining had to wonder just what he had done to piss her off THAT much before he looked her over for himself, a faint memory suddenly rushing to the forefront of his mind.

“Wait a minute, I remember you!” he said, stopping Tempest from going on a rant. “My first night with the Empress, after she was finished with me, you were there in the room for a few seconds before you left and I was swarmed by those servants! I honestly don’t know how I didn’t recognize you earlier.” Tempest blinked, momentarily surprised by Shining’s memory before she hardened her expression.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she pressed.

Shining sighed. “Fair enough. My intention is simple. To serve her, and her empire, to the full extent of my abilities and do right by both,” he said. “Nothing more, nothing less.”

“She gave you a phoenix feather.”

“One which, while I’m honored, I still feel like I didn’t deserve,” Shining countered. “I lost nearly my entire garrison defending that post, and that was a price far too high.”

“And your little… slave laws?”

Shining chuffed. “Miss Shadow, please,” he explained. “I can be a selfish buffoon of a stallion, and still have the interests of the empire populace at heart. Those laws happened to coincide in a good way.” Tempest narrowed her eyes, forcing herself to look straight ahead.

“And your plans for those terrorists?”

Shining took a deep breath. “If I can be honest, I don’t know. I don’t know the full situation, nor the area we’ll be fighting in. Without knowing what exactly we’ll be going into, we don’t have a plan beyond the bog standard ‘wait them out’ ploy.” Tempest grunted, whether in dismissal or agreement, Shining couldn’t tell.

“Very well. I will attend to our means of transporting your soldiers,” she told him. “You will corral them and make sure they understand that they are departing. I assume you are capable of doing that?”

Shining nodded, keeping a sudden rush of anger from lashing out. “Of course. I can get them ready and to the trainyard in… two hours.” Tempest nodded.

“That is… agreeable. Go then.” Tempest trotted off down a hallway, leaving Shining alone to ineffectually glare at her retreating form. Shaking his head, Shining started to trot back to his unit, passing through hall after hall before coming back to the training grounds, Blueberry Frost still barking orders at the new recruits.

“Sergeant Frost!” Shining barked. At once, Frost straightened up and looked him in the eye. “Sergeant, assemble the troops, I want them packed up and ready for deployment, meeting up in the trainyard in an hour and thirty minutes!”

“Yes sir!” Frost responded, snapping her attention back to the soldiers and yelling at them. “WELL?! YA HEARD THE CENTURION, GIT YER FLANKS IN GEAR, EMPRESS-DAMMIT! MOVE MOVE MOVE!!” Shining watched the soldiers rush off, likely heading to their bunks to grab their gear and pack it, not to mention rush on over to a supply clerk and check out their assigned weapons from the armory. He looked over to Frost, who gave him a curious look. “New orders, sir?”

“Direct from the Empress,” Shining confirmed. “I’ll brief en route.” Frost nodded, giving him a salute. He returned it, letting Frost rush off to get her own gear ready in time for the company to muster at the docks. Trotting to his quarters, Shining looked at Mahiri, who was currently lying on the bed asleep, snoring cutely as she pulled more of the blankets over herself. The stallion smiled softly, taking a moment to simply stand there and admire the striped mare in the bed before gently walking over to her side. “Mahiri, love,” he whispered, nudging her tenderly on the side.

“Mmmm?” the zebra mumbled. Shining laughed gently kissing her along the stripes on her neck.

“Time to wake up love, we’re moving,” he said to her. Mahiri grumbled more, shaking her head weakly as she tried to mummify herself with the blankets. “Mahiri, we need to go,” Shining said a bit more forcefully. “Empress’ orders.”

“Noooooo,” she mumbled. “Kaa na mimi…”

Shining sighed. “Okay, well, I gave you fair warning,” he said taking the blanket in his magic, and then teleporting it off the bed, leaving Mahiri laying there exposed to the cooler air in the room. The sudden chill to her body snapped the zebra awake, the mare looking around wildly before her eyes locking onto Shining.

“Shining Armor?!” Mahiri snapped before devolving into angry Zebrican, her words flying by Shining in a rush as Mahiri vented at him for a few seconds. The stallion merely waited for her to get the frustration out of her system before Mahiri stood there, still stewing a bit in annoyance at him. Still, Shining smiled at her, walking over and hugging her. She stiffened for only just a second before relaxing into his hold.

“I’m sorry I woke you up,” Shining apologized, holding her close.

“You are forgiven… at the moment.”

Shining nodded slightly. Fair, he thought to himself. “Well, I do have… news,” he told her. Mahiri huffed.

“The Empress has another impossible task?” she grumbled. Shining nodded. Mahiri reached around the armored parts of her lover and hugged him closer to her. “Where?”

“Gryphus.” Mahiri glanced at him curiously. “Well, what used to be Gryphus,” he continued. “They haven’t been a proper kingdom in well over five hundred years now, not since King Grover lost the Battle of Tirek’s Claws, and the subsequent collapse soon after.” Mahiri hummed in thought, even as Shining finally broke the hug. “Anyway, we got word that one of our outposts there was taken over, and… I’ve been tasked with finding a way to take it back.”

“Oh…,” Mahiri looked at Shining worriedly as he started to pack his things. “Then… you will be gone for some time, won’t you?”

“No, I won’t be gone long,” Shining told her. “We will be.”

“Shining, I am pregnant with our foal. Are you certain taking me to a possible battle is the safest thing to do?”

Shining shook his head. “Honestly? No,” he replied. “But between that, and the possibility of leaving you here alone while the nobility stews and schemes and complains about the new changes I put forth? I’m sorry, but I trust the bad aim of Griffon terrorists more for your safety than the goodwill of the Canterlot nobility here.”

“...it’s sad that I agree,” Mahiri finally commented, walking over and helping him pack. Shining smiled ruefully at her, taking a moment to nuzzle her before resuming his own packing. The pair swept through the room, packing everything they needed into couple of trunks before being finally ready. Standing at the door, Mahiri looked over Shining and smiled. “For what it’s worth… you are still a rather handsome stallion in armor.” Shining chuckled as he opened the door, levitating their belongings behind them.

“Heh, thanks love,” he said, leaning over to kiss her before the pair walked out. The two soon came across Shining’s company, Frost leading them before she silently stepped aside so that Shining would take the lead to the trainyard. As one, the one hundred and twenty-three pony company marched, cutting through crowds as they went to the stations lower down the mountain. It didn’t take long for them, and Shining had to suppress his own urge to whistle as he spotted the trains coming and leaving, their long, almost serpentine lengths stretching from one end of the station to another.

The company marched to the front gates and waited, and it didn’t take long for Shining to spot Tempest waiting just on the other side. “Wait here,” Shining ordered Frost, who nodded as he trotted over to Tempest. “Ma’am.”

“Centurion.” Tempest looked at a nearby clock and nodded. Shining swore that a flash of a smirk graced her face before she looked back at him. “You’re early.”

“We didn’t need to pack much,” Shining countered politely. “So, we’re taking a train then?”

“Yes. Follow me,” Tempest ordered. Shining nodded, signalling for his troops to follow. The Centurion followed the mare through the station, moving into the military access trains soon enough before coming to an empty series of cars attached to what appeared to be a much more streamlined engine than what Shining was used to seeing.

“That’s… quite the engine there,” Shining said, impressed.

“It was designed by a thaum-mechanical engineer about twenty years ago,” Tempest said, pointing to the open cars. “Your soldiers go here.” Shining glanced at the cars, then nodded.

“Sergeant Frost, fall in!” he ordered, pointing a hoof at the cars before looking back at Tempest. “How long can we expect this trip to take?”

“Two days to arrive at Griffonstone, and from there, we travel another three days to reach the outpost,” Tempest explained. Shining nodded, moving to help his soldiers onto the train when Tempest cleared her throat. “You will not be bunking with them.”

“...Excuse me?”

“Centurion, you are an officer, you shouldn’t be bunking with common soldiers,” Tempest commented. “There are better cars for the two of us to-,” Shining huffed, cutting her off as he pointed to his soldiers.

“Miss Tempest, at the end of the day, I’m a soldier,” Shining told her firmly. “No more, no less. And with respect, my troops come first. So, I’m staying with them.” Tempest’s jaw clenched as she stared him down.

“Centurion, the Empress-,” she started before Shining cut her off.

“Wants results,” he pointed out, helping lift up a pack of one of his soldiers and getting it on the luggage car. “The more time you and I waste on debating the merits of me sitting in a fancy car while my soldiers travel packed in cars like sardines, the less time we have to do our jobs and save ponies in need. Again, with respect Miss Tempest, I’m not here to play politics. I’m here to protect others.”

Tempest looked like she wanted to argue the point further, but let out an irritated huff instead. “Just make sure your troops get on the train,” she snapped. “We leave soon.” She turned away, trotting off to the front of the train. Shining shook his head, even as Mahiri wandered over to him.

“Shining? Are you okay?” she asked him.

He sighed. “I’ve been better,” he told her. “Nothing too bad though. Besides, with luck, we won’t need to work with her for long.” Mahiri nodded, looking over his shoulder at the retreating mare.

“…She does seem to be a bit of a bitch,” Mahiri quipped, much to Shining’s amusement, if the slight smirk on his face was anything to go by.

“Well attitude or not, we need to respect her, dear,” he told her, helping her pack their things onto the train. “Besides, she’s closer to the Empress than I am, I think. Wouldn’t do us good to actually piss her off.”

“...you think they… are that close?” Mahiri asked, grinning as she said it to Shining in a near conspiratorial whisper. Shining groaned.

“Mahiri, love, I don’t know, I don’t want to know, and I don’t think there’s enough gold in the treasury to make me WANT to know,” he answered. “Let’s just get on the train and ready to go, please?” Mahiri laughed, nuzzling the side of his neck before the two quickly finished getting their things onto the train before getting on themselves. Inside was packed, groups of ponies chatting with each other amiably as Shining wandered to the front, quickly spotting Blueberry Frost at the head of the group. “Sergeant Frost, is everypony accounted for?” he barked.

“Yes sir!” the blue furred mare responded. “Ev’ry pony here and accounted for! We’re all set, ready to roll outta the station, sir!” Shining nodded.

“Good. Do a quick check before we leave anyway, I don’t want to leave anypony behind, or lose any equipment. Once we’re moving, get the other sergeants together, and we’ll start the initial briefing.”

Blueberry Frost nodded, passing by Shining and Mahiri as the pair found an empty compartment and settled down inside. They had only just gotten down when Shining found himself pinned to the wall, his zebra lover leaning against him and resting her head on his shoulder. “Love you too Mahiri,” Shining said fondly, turning his head and giving her a kiss on her forehead.

“And I love you,” the mare murmured. “Just… stay still. Please?”

Shining smiled. “Of course.” He remained in place, enjoying the simple joy of Mahiri resting against him, their chests rising and falling almost in unison as they waited for the train to depart. They didn’t need to wait long, as the train lurched before moving forward out of the station. Mahiri watched in fascination as the train pulled out, soon entering the vast plains of farmland near the capitol as the train picked up speed. “Heh, you know… it’s odd,” Shining commented quietly. “I look out there now, and… I almost miss the savannah.” Mahiri gave him a curious look as Shining smiled. “Reminds me of you.”

“Now you’re just trying to flatter me,” she said with a smile.

“Not flattery when it’s true,” Shining remarked as Blueberry Frost opened the door to their compartment, looking at Shining.

“All soldiers present and accounted for sir,” she told him. “All the sergeants are ready for the briefing.” Shining nodded, and Mahiri got off of him reluctantly.

“Excellent Sergeant Frost. Go ahead and get them up, we’ll go on ahead and meet up with our new… advisor.” Shining stood up, kissing Mahiri before walking out of the compartment. Blueberry Frost motioned for the remaining Sergeants to follow them, and they began to head up the train. Car after car they passed through, most of them full of disassembled siege equipment. Catapults, enchanted rolling walls, even a few ballista; Shining was impressed at the stash of force, but his brow furrowed all the same.

This isn’t right, he thought. We’re a company of infantry, not engineers. Why carry all of this equipment? What does she have over there that we don’t?

He opened a door, and nearly slammed into a seemingly annoyed Tempest, who briefly looked flustered at his sudden appearance before composing herself in a flash. “Centurion Armor,” she said, looking over his shoulder and narrowing her eyes. “And I see you’ve brought nearly half of your force with you,” she added, her voice dripping with seeming disdain.

“Only my sergeants,” Shining commented. “May we enter please?” Tempest took a deep breath and stepped aside, allowing them inside. Shining looked around and realized that they were inside of what had to be the briefing room, what with maps pinned to the wall and a table covered in parchments. Shining motioned for his sergeants to take seats, and without a word, Blueberry Frost and the others sat down, their attention focused on him and Tempest as she walked to the main map on the wall.

“Okay, now that we’re on the way,” Shining said, glancing at Tempest who merely glowered, “We can start the briefing. Four days ago, Griffon rebels attacked a diplomatic outpost within the Griffon Territories. As far as we know, the rebels have captured members of the outpost, and are holding their position inside.”

“How many hostages are we looking at sir?” Shining looked at the sergeant in question.

“At this time, unknown,” he answered. “Miss Tempest?”

Frowning, the plum colored mare huffed. “We know that the Griffons have at least two, if not three,” she said. “The local governor, and two outpost officials. Beyond that, we don’t know for certain how many other ponies they’ve captured.” The sergeant nodded as Shining looked at the table and looked through the parchments.

“Now, as it stands currently,” Shining continued, “We have no idea as to the total numbers of the enemy, nor of the hostages, let alone the area around the outpost. So, with that said…” Shining looked at Tempest. “Miss Tempest, I’d like to know what skills you have. Just so we can properly plan things out.” The sergeants leaned in, eager anticipating Tempest’s answer.

“Fine. If you must know Centurion, I am our Empress’ best assassin,” Tempest said coldly. “I’m sure most of you can stretch your imagination at least a little in that regard, especially considering your commanding officer.” Shining took a deep breath, trying to calm himself before he somehow snapped.

“In that vein… for now, prepare all soldiers for possible siege warfare,” Shining ordered. “We’ll be in Griffonstone in two days, that’ll give everypony time to prepare. Dismissed.” The sergeants began to trot out, Tempest moving to leave the other direction when Shining cleared his throat. “Miss Tempest, a moment of your time please?” Tempest huffed, standing still as Blueberry Frost was the last to leave. Once the door closed, Shining took a deep breath.

“Look, I get that you don’t like me,” he began, turning to face her. Tempest was expecting a shy stallion to look at her, but the stern look on his face told her otherwise. “And whatever issues you have with me and the Empress, well, that’s between you, me, and her. But let me make this absolutely fucking clear.” Tempest blinked, leaning back suddenly as Shining got in her face. “You will not imply that I am incompetent to my soldiers while on duty and in their faces from this point on, and you being the Empress’ assassin be damned to Tartarus!”

And even now, Tempest was impressed at how Shining was keeping his composure. “We are equals in this mission, as per the Empress’ wishes,” he continued, “But that also implies that we both maintain a level of respect and professionalism! If you feel like there is an issue with my method of command, then you may discuss it with me, in private. At no point are my subordinates to be involved with your issues with me, as technically speaking, you are not in my chain of command, nor are they in yours. Right now, my soldiers need a solid, fixed point, and I am not in the mood for any pony with entitlement issues to undermine my soldier’s faith in me before our mission even starts! Am I clear in that regard, Miss Shadow?”

Tempest looked Shining straight in the eye as she responded. “Clear.” Shining gave her a flat look. “...clear, Centurion Armor.”

“Thank you Miss Shadow,” Shining said, stepping away. “Now… I understand that this is our first formal operation together, so I will not put this in any reports. Right now, this is merely a discussion between equals. The Empress… does not need to know,” he added, suddenly nervous at the mention of hiding anything from the Empress.

“You’d lie to the Empress about this?” Tempest jumped at the bit, trying to tear him down to size. She saw an opening, a spot of weakness, and as her Empress’ Shadow, she was NOT passing an opportunity like this up.

“Not lie, just… not tell her about a petty squabble,” Shining tried to explain. “Come on, the Empress is a busy mare, and I’m sure she doesn’t get told the minutiae of what happens every day in the Empire, right?” Tempest felt her blood pressure rise as the stallion… made an infuriatingly good point.

“And yet, she favors you,” Tempest deadpanned. Shining groaned.

“What is… no, I’m sorry, that almost came out wrong,” Shining apologized. “Look, perhaps a dinner tonight is order.”

“...a dinner?”

“Professional of course!” Shining stammered, gulping a lump of nervousness down his throat. “Just a simple meal where we just… talk. If that is agreeable with you?” Tempest was silent for a moment, making Shining start to worry that he had somehow gone and truly pissed off the assassin when she sighed, visibly lowering her shoulders.

“It is… agreeable,” she answered. “Dinner at dusk. Sharp.” Shining watched her leave, his heart hammering in his chest as he stood there in silence.

“...oh Faust, I’m fucked.”

~~~

Shining was in the food car, forcing himself not to pace its length as he waited for Tempest to show. He was dressed up as best as he could for the situation, a simple dress uniform with what few awards he had earned stuck to his breast. Even the phoenix feather was tucked inside of an inner pocket that he had sewn in, mostly as an assurance… just in case. “Oh come on now Shining, it’s only dinner,” he muttered to himself, “A dinner with a mare who can probably kill you with a single buck to the face. Or in my sleep… oh Empress, this is… oh Faust…”

A door opened, and Shining turned to face the newcomer. “Hoooooowww…,” Shining started to say before he trailed off, eyes wide in surprise.

Standing there, apparently even more nervous than he was, stood Tempest Shadow. But it wasn’t that she was standing there that shocked Shining. It was the fact that she was… well… Shining had to stop and clear his head because he simply didn’t know how to react to Tempest in a dress. It was simple attire, closer to the very low end of ‘acceptably fashionable’ by the snootiest of Canterlot elite, but the simply cut red-orange fabric complimented her coat well, especially since the dark, flaming tones of the fabric lightened as his eyes travelled up her flank and to her face.

“Excuse me Centurion, I’m afraid that… this may not be what you’re used to,” Tempest said, trying to remain serious even as she seemed to blush hard under her fur. “I-”

“...wow, you look… beautiful,” Shining said. Tempest froze.

“...Pardon?”

Shining gestured to her. “You’re beautiful,” he repeated, gulping down his own nervousness. “Your dress is… well, it’s great on you, and you wear it well, and, umm, well… oh Faust, this went somewhere awkward, didn’t it?”

Tempest looked at him and nodded slowly. “...Yes.” She gestured to the table. “In any case, let’s… let’s get this over with.” She went to go sit down, only for Shining to suddenly be there, pulling the chair out for her. “Uh, what are you doing?”

“Uh, helping you sit down?” Shining answered, confused. “I mean, that’s the gentlecolt’s thing to do, right?” Tempest looked down at the offered chair and took a deep breath, sitting down and allowing him to push her to the table before going to sit across from her. He sat down, glancing at the menu as a serving pony came out. “So, uh, you know what you’d like?” he asked Tempest.

Tempest grunted. “I do.” She looked to the serving pony. “Carrean salad, dressing on the side, with Radiant Gold to drink.” The server took the order, then looked to Shining.

“Umm… regular salad, with water please,” Shining told the server, who dutifully took the order and walked out, leaving the pair alone at the table. An uncomfortable silence hung in the air between them for several moments before Shining attempted to break the ice. “So… how long have you been serving the Empress? Um, that is, if you don’t mind me asking,” he inquired. Tempest closed her eyes, remembering.

“I have served her faithfully for… many years,” Tempest answered. “Longer than you.”

“Ah.”

Silence.

“...So, where are you from?” Shining asked. “You don’t look or sound like a native to Canterlot, n-n-not that that’s a bad thing!” he added as Tempest started to glare at him. “It’s just that your accent isn’t all… pompous like most, and-”

“Centurion, my past before I met and served the Empress does not matter,” Tempest cut in coolly. “Let it go.” Shining nodded, biting the inside of his cheek as he went quiet.

“...I’m sorry,” he apologized a second later. “I… okay, umm… how many missions have you done? Like, anywhere exotic, or close to the Empress, or…?”

A razor thin eyebrow went up as Tempest looked at him in what would charitably be called amusement. “Eager to see how you compete?” she asked back. Shining shrugged.

“Professional curiosity?”

Tempest snorted. “If you wish to call it that, fine.” The server came back in, a tray hovering in his magic as the pony dropped off an empty glass and a bottle of a golden wine before Tempest, followed by Shining’s own meager glass of water. She waited for the server to leave before continuing. “I’ve been all over the world. Griffon Territories, the Savannahs, Yakyakistan. Carrea too.” She went to grab the bottle with her hoof, freezing as Shining picked it up with his magic.

“Umm… if I may?” he asked her. Silently, eyes beginning to narrow, Tempest slid her glass over. Shining uncorked the bottle, the soft pop echoing in the room as he poured out the wine into her glass before setting it down between them. Seeing her glare at him, Shining sighed. “Look, I’m not doing this because of your horn, okay?”

“Then why?”

Shining fought the urge to give the mare a dumbstruck look. “Because it’s the polite thing to do? Because I was raised to be an upstanding stallion by my parents? Take your pick.”

Tempest huffed scornfully. “Centurion, nobody helps anyone else just because it’s ‘polite,’” she remarked. “Everyone always has an angle.” Shining went and sipped his water, setting the glass down as he leaned in over the table.

“Well, what if that angle really is to be a nice pony?” Shining asked. “I mean, from what I can tell from how you’re… defensive for her, you care about the Empress. And I’m willing to bet she cares about you too. Ever think that maybe she cares simply because she likes you?” There was a pause as Tempest gave him a momentary owlish look before she finally broke out laughing. The stallion was left confused as the mare laughed, leaning her head against a foreleg as her shoulders heaved. “...I fucked up didn’t I?”

“The Empress… the Empress and I…,” Tempest began to say, trailing off as she saw Shining look at her with interest. “We… she cared for me when no one else did. I owe her for that, and it’s a debt I can’t repay.” She took a sip of her wine, setting the glass down and looking at Shining. “And do you think she cares about you?”

Oh Faust, Shining thought. “Well… I don’t know,” he answered. “I would like to think so, but I can’t deign to know what goes through our Empress’ head. But, if she didn’t want me around, then I wouldn’t be in this… relationship with her. It’s as simple as that.” Tempest huffed.

“Oh really?” she drawled. “I hardly think it would be that easy for you. After all… you’ve lain with her.”

Shining nodded slowly. “Yeeeeeees, but I am not staking my entire relationship with the Empress based solely on how she and I are intimate,” he told Tempest. “That, and she’s our Empress. Harmony alone knows how vastly better at uh, ‘being intimate’ she is than me, let alone anypony else alive.” Tempest rolled her eyes.

“Not what she says,” she muttered. Shining perked up, but wisely kept his mouth shut as the mare took another drink from her glass.

“That all aside, I think we were discussing where you’ve been to, right?” Shining asked, hoping to change the subject. Tempest nodded. “So, you mentioned the Savannah. What was it like for you?”

“Hot, dirty, and the zebras are a bunch of mud loving savages who I can’t care less about,” she answered dully. “Their petty tribal conflicts bore me, and it’s too easy to get them destabilized. Poke a zebra from one tribe with a spear made by another, and it’s another tribal war being waged within a week. Pathetic if you ask me.” Shining frowned, folding his forelegs across each other as he looked at her.

“They aren’t savages,” he said firmly. “Different, yes, but they aren’t savages.” Tempest shook her head.

“You’re only saying that because you’re fu-,” she started before Shining nearly jumped out of his seat angrily.

“They’re no less honorable than any pony out there!” Shining snapped. “And for the record, what happens between me and Mahiri is none of your damned business! Tartarus below, she’s more of a mare than most in the Empire that I’ve met, and I’m not going to tolerate her being insulted by somepony who’s so stubborn and cynical that basic acts of kindness seem to be beyond your grasp! Let alone somepony who’d spit and insult our Empress’ faith in her subordinates!” Shining stood up, heading to the door as Tempest stared after him.

“Wait, Centurion? Where are you-?”

“Miss Shadow, I don’t have to like you in order to work with you,” Shining snapped, glaring over his shoulder at her. “So long as you don’t piss me off, and I don’t piss you off, we should get this mission done just fine.”

“But… your meal?” Tempest asked, suddenly nervous. Shining huffed.

“Not hungry. Good night, Miss Shadow. Rest well.” Shining opened the door, stepping out just as the server came back into the car with their food.

“My Lady, will… will you still be needing these, ma’am?” the server asked, uncertain as he looked at the well dressed mare. Tempest huffed, this time in defeat.

“No Stellar, I… I will not. You and the cook may have it,” she answered glumly. Stellar took the hint and swiftly departed the car, plates held aloft as he left Tempest to her thoughts. The mare sighed, resting her head on her forelegs as she simply sat there, a small tear forming at the corner of her eye.

Down the length of the train, Shining strode furiously down to the car where Mahiri was waiting for him. Various ponies popped their heads out of their compartments, took one look at the Centurion, and then wisely went back inside their compartments. Shining didn’t mind. Tartarus below, he didn’t even really register them as happening. All he could focus on was just the sheer nerve of that mare he just left. How could she be so damned callous to everypony? Shining thought. Not everypony is bad, and that includes zebras! Just… what does the Empress SEE in her?!

He came to the door of his compartment and opened it. He almost strode straight in before he noticed that Mahiri was curled up on the retractable bed, chest rising and falling in slumber. Shining took a deep breath, trying to let go of his anger as he stepped inside. Shutting the door quietly, he stripped off the fancy clothes he had been wearing and put them away before settling onto the bed next to Mahiri. Looking over the sleeping mare, Shining smiled fondly at her before curling up next to her, swiftly falling asleep with her in his grasp. Tomorrow would be a new day.

~~~

The Solar Primus was rising to its zenith as Tempest walked down the length of the train car, passing by soldier after soldier, and a few train engineers besides. Last night had been… uncomfortable for the mare, and for once, she had actually failed to get any sleep at all. Tempest forced herself to continue holding a neutral expression on her face. Entering a compartment, she spotted the Centurion’s pale form hunched over a desk, reports being filled out in relative silence as a quill scribbled across parchment.

“Centurion Armor, if I may have a moment of your time?” Tempest inquired, stepping up to the desk. Shining glanced up, and Tempest felt an unfamiliar tightening in her chest at the look of seeming indifference in his eyes.

“You may,” he answered curtly, gesturing to a seat with his hoof. Tempest took the seat, her armor making it only slightly uncomfortable for her as Shining resumed his reports, pulling a few sheets of parchment closer to him as he wrote.

“Centurion, I…,” Tempest took a deep breath as she forced herself calm. “I believe we got off on the wrong hoof. The Empress did pair us together for a reason, and I would be… critically remiss in my duties to her if I antagonize you further.” The quill stopped, and Shining looked at her.

“Miss Shadow, I believe you made your views clear to me last night,” he said flatly. “Just as I made mine known to you. Now, I do not deign to know our Empress’s thoughts, but regardless, we have a job to do, and I expect all of us to put personal feelings aside to complete it. Is that satisfactory to you?”

“It… I believe so, yes,” Tempest answered. “Is there… is there anything you would like to discuss with me in regards to the mission?”

“Yes.” Shining pulled out a sheet of parchment, sending it over to her via levitation. “We have siege weapons, but very few engineers. I’m assuming you have contacts in Griffonstone who will provide us with said engineers?”

Tempest nodded. “Yes, I do. Members of the Twenty-Third Engineering Legion, and Griffon mercenaries aside.” Shining raised an eyebrow. “They’re mercenaries Centurion. They don’t care who they fight, so long as they get paid.”

“...I’m going to assume you don’t trust them.”

“Of course not.”

“Good.” Shining went back to his reports. “Let’s try to give them no reason to double cross us then.”

Tempest wasn’t used to this. When she told ponies who she served, many treated her with fear. Some bent over backwards to kiss the ground under her hooves, trying to earn her favor, and by proxy, the Empress’. To have Shining Armor treat her as another pony… or to have him treat her so coldly was… different. “Centurion Armor… about last night…,” she began.

“Last night is of no concern to the matter at hoof,” Shining stated, stopping Tempest in her tracks. “The Empress has given us a mission, and we will focus our attention on it, and it alone. Agreed?”

Tempest fought back the urge to flinch at his tone. “...agreed.” She looked down at his desk, eyes roaming over the many reports, several of them looking to be maps with penciled in notes. “Is there anything else we need to discuss Centurion?”

“Your skills,” Shining answered. “What can you do?” He glanced up, his eyes briefly settling on the stub of her horn. “And don’t worry, I am not going to ask what your spell repertoire is, I understand that it’s nowhere near what the College would deem ‘acceptable.’”

“I am skilled in hoof to hoof combat,” Tempest answered. “Give me a weapon, and I can use it well enough. And I’m good at slipping in without too much incident. Magically… I can create an electrical blast and… that’s about it.” At that point, Tempest couldn’t help but let just a little hint of resentment filter into her voice as she mentioned her magical skill, or rather, lack thereof.

“The fact that you can do anything with that stump is impressive enough.”

It wasn’t the words that struck her, it was the tone. Grudging respect, but minimal, professional. Dismissive. Tempest was internally shocked at how effectively this stallion managed to praise her yet also backhoofedly insult her in the same sentence. And he claims to not have an angle?!

“Still,” Shining continued, “Magic or no, your skills are something we can both work with. Preliminary plan is that we reach the outpost, and you will lead several scouts in to reconnitor the area, see just who and what we’re up against. Rules of engagement will be to attack only if discovered. At absolutely no point are you to go on a one-mare killing spree and attempt to free the hostages by yourself Miss Shadow. Our Empress’ best you may be, but you are still only one mare. I’d rather you stay alive than rush off and die.”

Tempest sucked in a breath at what she was sure was an implied insult. “Of course Centurion,” she replied, holding back her own temper. “That said, if I have a chance to eliminate a target… I will take it.”

Shining looked at her. “Really?” he asked her. “And what if that ‘target’ is just a scared little child in the wrong place at the wrong time? Are you really that willing to have their blood on your hooves?”

Tempest stilled, mind filling with rage at this stallion for daring to question her. “Shining Armor, there is something you must understand. In the work of the Empress, there is no line which shouldn’t be crossed, no order which can’t be followed. Our Empress commands all, bears all responsibility. If it is her choice that we must kill, then we shall, regardless of the who and why. So yes, if I find myself needing to kill the young, the old, or the weak, I shall do so, because my Empress commanded it.”

It was deathly silent in the room, mare and stallion looking at each other in quiet study. Seconds dragged on into minutes, and Tempest was waiting, expecting, silently demanding that Shining explode in rage at her words. Finally, he spoke up. “...that may be why you, and you alone are her shadow,” Shining said, his tone deceptively calm and measured. “But I… do not share your views. I am not willing to kill the weak, the old, and the young. For the Empress, I am not willing to become the kind of pony you hear in stories to protect her empire. I cannot allow myself to be like you.” He took a breath, then gestured to the door. “We’re done here Miss Shadow. Dismissed.”

That was not what she expected, at all. And for the life of her she couldn’t simply accept it. “Do you think yourself better than the Empress?” she demanded, stepping closer to him, ignoring the dead-eyed glare she received in doing so. “Do you think you have the right to simply ignore what needs to be done to serve your own petty morals? She is our Empress, our leader, our Goddess, and you, a lowly stallion chosen to grovel at her feet, think you are aware and attentive enough to think you can step beyond her commands? Who do you think you are, Shining Armor?”

“Exactly who I say I am. Shining Armor.” Tempest blinked, even as Shining continued. “My name means that I stand as a pony who protects others. That I have a code of morals. That I stand by them, even when my country, my world… and yes, even my goddess, demand otherwise.” Shining closed his eyes. “I am no better than any other pony. No better than you, no better than my First Sergeant, and certainly no better than our Empress. But I will be damned to Tartarus if I allow myself to choose methods of cruelty as a first resort when other options are available. I will serve my Empress faithfully to the end of my days, but I will do so with honor and integrity befitting my position a Centurion of her Legion. No more, no less.”

Tempest stared at him, unwilling to process the words he was saying. No pony thought like this. No pony behaved like this. Believed like this. No pony, no being, no where. It wasn’t possible. Beings were selfish, inherently, and didn’t give a damn about anybeing else around them. Even the Empress only ‘cared’ for her as an effective tool, nothing more.

“You… you are a fool,” Tempest said lowly. “Fool for thinking that you can stay moral in a messed up world like ours. As a child I thought being good was easy, was possible.” She lit her horn, sparks flying like tiny cinders to bounce off Shining’s armor. “I learned the hard way that no good comes from being good. That trying to do what is ‘right’ will only lead to a bad end somewhere down the line. You are merely delaying what is impossible to avoid, nothing less.”

“Then I’m a fool,” Shining shrugged, “But at least I’m honest about being such. And I never said being good was easy. It’s not.” He stood up, Tempest’s eyes following him as he gathered up his reports in his magic. “Quite frankly, being good hurts, it’s not even remotely rewarding in the relative long term, and yes, I suppose that at some point down the line, my good deeds will come and bite me in the flank. But knowing that I am doing the best I can as a pony, as a decent being… the faces of those I save… that is worth the pain.” Shining smiled just a bit. “It’s an uphill struggle… but I find those little victories worth it.”

“You… you can’t…” Tempest did not normally stutter. She always knew what to say and how to say it, based solely on knowing exactly what the other pony had to hear. But for this… she had nothing. “You can’t just… You KNOW what is wrong with what you do yet you do it anyway?! How can you be so…?”

Then Tempest looked, really looked in his eyes. And in that moment she saw the same determination there that she saw in her own. Only there was more than just determination there. There was passion, strength, and… and something she only half recognized, having seen it in the face of hapless morons she’d manipulated time and time again.

Hope.

“I…”

“Get some rest Miss Shadow,” Shining told her, moving past her as he headed to the door, his tone now back to stoic professionalism. “We still have a day yet to reach Griffonstone, and we’ll need our strength to march from there to where we need to go.” He finally passed by her, leaving Tempest alone in the room as the door shut most of the way behind her. “Have a good day.”

Tempest stood there, frozen in shock and disbelief as the stallion left. He… he really does think he… but how? Tempest looked over her shoulder, catching a fleeting glimpse of his tail before it vanished from view. Shaking her head, Tempest looked at his desk and decided to rummage through it. She… she had to find something, ANYTHING to make certain that Shining wasn’t an aberration, that even he had his faults, that he HAD to fit in her world somehow. The mare got behind the desk, frantically rummaging through the drawers, shuffling through papers.

“Come on, come on!” she whispered to herself, her pulse racing as by the second, her fears were cementing themselves inside her. Finally, she slammed a drawer shut and leaned over the desk, her heart racing as the truth threatened to overwhelm her.

Shining Armor was a pony convinced that being good, no matter how difficult or ineffective it was, was worth it for its own sake. Believed sincerely and utterly that doing the right thing was more important than anything, even orders or threats to his very life.

And she would have to work with this pony in a hostage situation. After her Empress explicitly told her that casualties didn’t matter so long as the targets were dealt with.

“Oh Faust…”

~~~

The train had pulled into the station a few hours ago, and Shining’s first impression of Griffonstone was much the same that most ponies, and Griffons, had of the place.

It was a Faust-damned dump.

Streets were filled with trash, a few rotted and decayed carcasses of small prey here and there which sickened several of his troops. The buildings themselves were falling apart, or had already fallen apart years ago, and the locals were by and large either indifferent or passively hostile to Shining and his forces. Several Griffons that passed by were clearly mercenaries, clad in half-rusted plate armor, barely functional weapons at their sides. Shining’s eyes hovered on a few Griffons holding weapons that resembled crossbows, were it not for the metal tubes sticking out the front.

“Never seen a bowgun sir?” Frost whispered to him. Shining shook his head.

“Not outside of the Academy, no,” he admitted. Bowguns were a weapon used almost exclusively by the Griffons, and that made fighting them even more difficult than normal. A pegasus could outmaneuver a Griffon in the air, striking with weather magic with relative impunity in open air. But a pegasus against a Griffon with a bowgun? Well, depending on the type in question, then the pegasus was more often than not almost powerless against the faster moving projectiles the weapon fired. Still, Shining noted that the few Griffons present with bowguns clearly hadn’t bothered to maintain them, their barrels rusted and wooden furniture beginning to splinter.

“Well, here’s hopin’, right sir?” Shining nodded, even as Tempest approached through the crowd, her vivid mane sticking out like a light in the dark.

“Everything go well, Miss Shadow?” Shining asked.

“We have our engineers, and our support,” Tempest answered with a nod. “And the outpost itself is only three days away via airship. I’ve already taken the liberty of getting the equipment sent over to the docks.” Tempest saw Shining’s jaw clench as he gave her a slight nod.

“Of course. Very well, since things are taken care of, Miss Shadow, if you would be so kind?” Tempest turned around, walking through the crowds as Shining and the troops followed. They passed through the streets unaccosted, not a single Griffon bothering to even shout insults at them. Although, there were a few younger Griffons who paused in their play to watch them pass by, a few of them even looking at them in awe before their parents took them away.

Tempest slowed her pace, now only just in front of Shining. “Is there a problem, Miss Shadow?” Shining asked, his guard swiftly coming up.

“No,” she answered. “Just… be careful. Some of these Griffons are crafty.”

“Oh yes. Clearly the infants have an insatiable bloodlust for pony deaths,” Shining deadpanned. “Miss Shadow, they’re fledgelings. Hardly a threat. Still…,” he paused, glancing up to the tops of the buildings, “Stay on guard. It’s not the children I’m worried about.”

Tempest nodded, her eyes looking to the tops of the buildings as well. Thankfully, nothing came of Shining’s fears as they reached the airship docks, where several transports and a freighter were waiting for them. The company piled on into the airships, Shining finding himself, his command squad, and Mahiri on the lead ship… with Tempest. “Is there a reason we’re all on one ship?” Shining asked Tempest as he found her at the bow of the ship, even as crew continued to get their supplies and ships in order.

“It’s a solidly made airship,” Tempest answered. “She’s well-armored, and is fast for her weight. Crew is well-trained. We are safer here than on any of the other ships.” Shining hummed in thought, looking over the bow to the whitecapped waves crashing on the distant shores.

“Ah.”

The silence between the two was awkward and tense, even as the crew finished preparations. Suddenly, Shining felt a presence next to him and glanced over. Behind him, Mahiri looked at him, her posture hesitant. Shining smiled, moving to the side and nodding to her. Mahiri stepped closer to him, her eyes looking at the vast ocean in awe as she stopped by his side. The airship lurched suddenly, the zebra giving out a startled yelp before she found herself held against Shining, his magic holding her close as he smiled.

Mahiri sighed, resting herself against her stallion’s side as he let his magic dissipate. The pair stood still, watching the waves as the airship finally took off. And through it all, Tempest watched them, looking at the pair with critical eyes. The leaner mare looked at how the zebra and pony interacted, taking in their subtle cues. How Mahiri rubbed her head against Shining’s neck. Or how the two entwined a front hoof in their partner’s. To anyone else, and if given the right context, he and the zebra would have appeared as little more than a pair of well adjusted and loving individuals.

And yet, he is a Centurion in our Empress’ Legion, and the zebra is his slave, Tempest thought to herself, stepping away and giving the pair space. Yet… why do they seem so… content with each other? Making her way below decks, Tempest trotted into her ‘suite’ and shut the door, sealing herself off in the small room. It was bare, devoid of personality considering its occupant even as Tempest hopped onto the cramped bunk, heedless of the fact that she was still wearing her armor. She sighed, staring at the ceiling. How can he look at that zebra and be so… hopelessly enamored with her? What’s so Tartarus-damned special about her?

While Tempest was mentally agonizing over the stallion she was forced to work with, Shining and Mahiri remained up above decks, the pair looking over the ocean as the airship flew. “This… this is amazing,” the zebra whispered to Shining, her striped body flush against his. Shining nodded.

“Yeah, it is,” he agreed. Shining leaned over and kissed her, making Mahiri blush under her fur at the display of affection. He smiled, looking at the vast ocean. “You know… this is the closest I’ve ever been to the ocean.” Mahiri laughed.

“Really? A first for us both then,” she commented. Shining laughed along with her, happy to be with her in the moment as one of Daybreaker’s suns began to dim to twilight. The two of them stayed in place, watching the waves before Shining cleared his throat.

“You know… we’re going to be stuck on this airship doing nothing really the entire trip,” he said. Mahiri nodded.

“Yes. And?”

Shining gave her his best attempt at a roguish smile. “Well… perhaps the lady would like a bit of a… distraction from the monotony of the trip?” he asked. The zebra mare made a show of thinking it over before she leaned over and pulled Shining over for a kiss.

“Well, my beloved Centurion, I dare say I’d like that,” she replied. Shining grinned, happily sweeping her off her hooves with his magic, Mahiri laughing along the way as they went below decks to their room.

~~~

Tempest sighed, wishing for sleep to come to her, her mind exhausted from trying to calculate and perceive the confusing conundrum that was her fellow officer for this mission. Unfortunately for her, she heard a mare laughing outside of her room before a door to an adjacent cabin opened and then shut. “Oh joy, a pent up moron,” Tempest muttered, rolling her eyes in annoyance, reaching for a pillow to muffle the sound before the voices filtered through the evidently thin walls.

“So, my dear Centurion,” the mare purred, “How will you ravish your dear mare tonight?” Tempest’s eyes widened in alarm. She knew that accent. That was Zebrican. Which meant that the only other pony in the room next to hers besides that zebra was-

“Depends,” the unmistakable voice of Centurion Shining Armor answered. “What exactly would my dear like for me to do?”

Empress, give me strength! Tempest pleaded in her head as she grabbed the pillow and jammed it over her head, desperate to block off what she knew was about to happen. The absolute LAST thing she needed to hear was that idealistic fool fooling around with that mare!

“Well… perhaps you can start here,” Tempest heard the zebra say. A moment passed, giving the assassin a brief moment of hope before the zebra started moaning, a shuddering, relaxed sound that made Tempest contort her face into a look of utter frustration. “Oh yeeeeees, right there Shiny!”

“‘Shiny?’” Tempest muttered to herself, befuddled. “‘Shiny?’ Really?!”

The moaning continued, driving Tempest to groan herself as she pressed her face deep into the pillow, the magenta mare trying not to shout in anger. Still, something about those moans was… well, it was doing things to her. Something was building up in her core, a slow burning heat as Mahiri was being given something by Shining Armor.

“You are so, so beautiful Mahiri.” Tempest perked up, hearing Shining speak up.

“You say that all the time,” Mahiri responded.

“Doesn’t make it any less true,” Shining countered. Tempest groaned into the pillow.

What a complete sap.

Still, Mahiri giggled. Tempest could almost see the stupid look on the striped mare’s face as she spoke. “Vema mpenzi wangu, do go on.” Tempest heard Shining chuckle, and then the thuds of armor plates hitting the wooden floor boards.

“Oh no… oh Empress no,” Tempest muttered, squeezing her eyes shut in frustration. “Please no…” Unfortunately, fate had other ideas as she heard the bunk next door squeak, likely from Shining climbing on. She heard yet another moan from the mare, with the addition of a lower pitched groan from Shining. And then… she heard the damned kissing. The slow heat building up inside of her was getting warmer, and her armor, nay, her form hugging under-armor, was suddenly far too tight on her.

She huffed, quietly tearing off her own armor and setting them down on the floor. In moments, mostly due to years of practice and more than a bit of desperation, she was effectively ‘nude’ on her bunk as she laid back on it… and HARMONY DAMMIT HOW WAS HE STILL KISSING THAT ZEBRA?! Tempest fully expected the likely horny pair to have already gotten around to rutting like debased animals by now, especially considering the rather risque tales her Empress had more than proudly shared with her. That Shining was not fucking that zebra yet was driving her nuts!

“Nakupenda Mahiri,” Shining said, his Zebrican heavily accented, but still more than easily understandable. Tartarus, even Tempest paused as she took a moment to try and translate it in her head. I love you Mahiri. Somehow, something inside of Tempest twisted, even as her hooves drifted down her frost, brushing through her soft fur. “Is it safe?” Shining asked.

“Shining, I’m already carrying your foal. You can’t exactly get me pregnant again like this,” Mahiri replied. “I can take it.”

On the one hoof, I want to say he has the endowment of a twig, Tempest thought. And yet… he can satisfy my Empress. So just how big is-? Tempest got her answer as Mahiri let out a sharp gasp, and then a long, shuddering groan that was more than clearly orgasmic in nature. And that was the kind of cry that, on very rare occasions, that Tempest overheard when passing through Canterlot’s red light districts, and various other seedy locales all over the world. ...there’s no way. No. He can’t be that foolishly naive or in my Empress’ favor with what I think he has. He just… how?!

Even now, she was still hearing Mahiri moan and groan as she assumed Shining finally began to screw her… and yet, she wasn’t hearing that bunk move. Why wasn’t the bunk rattling? Where was the loud, inane sex her Empress claimed he could induce?!

“Shin-iiiiing!” Mahiri moaned.

“Shhh…,” the stallion told her. “Not until you tell me to.”

Tempest blinked. And then she shuffled herself closer to the wall, her hoof touching her wet folds as she listened intently to the actions on the other side. Tartarus, she was beginning to rub herself when she heard Mahiri speak up.

“Go on Shining. Take me… my dear Centurion.”

Tempest blushed as she heard Mahiri call Shining by his rank. While academically, she knew that ponies had dumb, infuriatingly and sickeningly sweet pet names for each other during sex, she never thought that anyone’s rank could be made quite that… well, dirty. Especially since it concerned that idealistic-

A wet smack echoed in the next room, Mahiri gasping. As luck would have it, Tempest did so too as she accidentally brushed her hoof against her winking clit. The mare bit down on her lip, freezing in place as she listened for any sign that the couple not even inches away through a wall heard her. And with the slow, rhythmic slaps coming from their room… Tempest was pretty sure that they hadn’t even noticed. Hesitantly, she reached back down and stroked herself, biting back a whine of pleasure as the couple the next room over continued to go at it.

She touched herself, pushing her hoof into her steadily soaked folds, listening to the sounds of Shining and Mahiri having sex so close to her. Still biting down on her lip, Tempest closed her eyes, ashamed that she was doing this to the sounds of a zebra and a complete fool… fornicating. Still, a part of her was… oddly satisfied in that for once, she wasn’t having to deal with a clueless dolt of a stallion who would thrust once and finish, nor have to use a toy to force herself over the edge.

Tempest could hear the two conversing with each other, but she couldn’t hear the exact words. Not when, completely unbidden, that damned ivory colored stallion invaded her thoughts. Made her wish that he was in her room right now, that whatever he was doing to the other mare, he was doing to her. Tempest imagined that stallion atop her, that clueless, hapless, well built, stupidly endearing male ravishing her. She imagined that it was his hoof instead of hers bringing her to the edge, that his… ‘lance’ was penetrating her, and that he was whispering sweet nothings in her ear.

And it was at the point that Tempest came, and came hard. She let out a high pitched squeal, her mouth shut as she tried to contain her climax to her room before her body went slack, the mare panting in relief as what seemed like weeks of stress just melted away from her muscles. Tartarus below, she barely even paid any attention to the slowed down sounds of ponies screwing in the other room before Tempest slowed her breathing down… and then promptly fell asleep.

On the other side of the wall, Shining was gently going in and out of Mahiri, the two of them looking at the wall in concern. “You think she is okay?” Mahiri asked. “She sounded… strained.”

Shining huffed, shaking his head. “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” he commented. “Empress knows she can take that polearm out of her ass and loosen up. Still…,” he paused, hugging his lover close to him and adjusting himself to rest comfortably beside her, “I would never have taken her to sound anything remotely cute like that.”

“...you think it was cute?”

“I would. Problem is, she’s still a speciest bitch,” Shining clarified. Mahiri was quiet for a moment before she spoke up.

“So… you’re saying that were she less of a bitch, and more tolerable, you’d lay with her too?”

“What?! No, nononono, uh uh, no, absolutely not!” Shining stuttered, blushing. “Mahiri, I wouldn’t think about it! I love you, and I don’t- I mean, she’s got a nice coat and all, but I’m not just going to… to… I’m not going to screw her based on that alone!” Mahiri smirked as she turned her head to kiss Shining’s cheek.

“So… is that a yes?” she purred.

“Mahiri…,” Shining groaned. The zebra chuckled, shuffling in place and making sure the Centurion’s forelegs were wrapped around her barrel.

“Shining, already I share you with the Empress,” she pointed out. “If you can ever get her to relax, then I won’t mind.” Shining snorted.

“Right. Mahiri, the chances of that mare EVER being a nice pony are about as likely as me encountering one of those so called ‘Elder’ kirin in, I don’t know, Neighpon or something,” he retorted. “It’s not gonna happen.”

Mahiri only giggled in response. “In any case, good night love.” She kissed Shining on the cheek before closing her eyes contentedly. Shining smiled, kissing behind her ear before closing his eyes and falling asleep right after her.

Part the Fifth

Serving His Empress

~Or~

How Shining Armor Avoided a Crushed Pelvis by the Empress Daybreaker

Part the Fifth

It had been a good couple days of travel by air, but eventually Shining and his troops made it to the collection of craggy rocks where somewhere, the outpost was located and crammed full of hostile griffons. While ponies rushed every which way in a perfect example of organized chaos, Shining walked through to the hastily erected command tent and entered, his eyes going over everything. Ponies were taking inventory of supplies, a few composing additional reports for Shining to eventually go over at some point, and then there were the three currently standing around a table waiting for orders.

“Centurion,” Blueberry said, standing at attention and saluting.

“As you were,” Shining answered, making the mare relax as he reached the table. “So, these are the most recent maps of the isles here?”

Tempest nodded, the mare looking down at them. “Correct, Centurion. However, seeing as the outpost has been taken over, these maps will be of little use to us.”

Shining nodded. “Of course. The best weapon and advantage the griffons have over us right now is knowledge of the area. So, let’s start by robbing them of that.” He looked over to Tempest, his expression stern. “Miss Shadow, I’ll ask you to scout ahead, mark areas that we can move through, and pinpoint enemy positions.”

“Of course. I’ll be sure to report back as soon as possible,” Tempest said before Mahiri cut in.

“Centurion, I’d like to accompany her,” Mahiri commented, drawing a look of ire from Tempest. But that was nothing compared to the look of alarm on both Shining and Frost’s faces.

“What? Mahiri, no, please, mpenzi wangu, think this through!” Shining told her, going to her side and holding her. “You can’t be going out in your condition, I can’t… I don’t…” The stallion’s voice was hushed by the zebra’s hoof on his lips.

“Shining, I will live,” she told him. “I will be with the single most lethal pony on this side of the Empress’ empire, and I have no intention of losing my foal to some rowdy griffon. Besides, you know the customs of my tribe.” Shining sighed, shaking his head as he looked at Tempest.

“Miss Shadow, you will be taking Mahiri with you.” Tempest felt her ire rising as she looked the stallion in the eye. “She used to be a scout too, and as good as you no doubt are, I’d prefer that you have somepony with actual experience watching your back than a rookie.” Tempest clenched her jaw, taking a deep calming breath before nodding.

“I suppose that I shall,” she said gruffly, eying Mahiri warily. “When shall we depart?”

“As soon as you both are ready,” Shining said. “If that’s not objectionable to you Mahiri?” The table looked over to the zebra, the striped mare chuckling as she shook her head.

“Not at all, Centurion,” she answered. “I will make sure that I do not inconvenience Miss Shadow at all during this.” Tempest gave her a flat look.

“We’ll see,” Tempest deadpanned. Shining sighed, face-hoofing in annoyance.

“Ladies, you’re both pretty, can we please focus?” he asked, looking between Mahiri and Tempest while Blueberry gave a slight chuckle. “Now, Tempest, you know my preferences in regards to combat. I’d like for you to at least attempt to not kill everything you see.”

“No promises sir.”

“All I ask.” Shining sighed. “Anyway, Tempest, Mahiri, you’re dismissed. Sergeant, what’s our status? How’s morale for starters?”

“You mean with the stallions who think we’re just doing some skeet shooting, or the ones who actually remember that griffons used to be dangerous?”

Tempest left that conversation behind as she exited the tent, swiftly followed by Mahiri, the pair composing an extremely odd couple as they went on their way. “Northern edge of the camp, ten minutes,” Tempest ordered sternly. Beside her, the zebra grunted.

“As my Empress’ assassin orders it,” she answered, turning slightly and flicking her tail in Tempest’s face, making the unicorn scrunch her muzzle up in annoyance. Moving to where her own possessions were stored, Tempest needed only to glare at the mares guarding the crate to make them flee, neither of them wanting to incur Tempest’s possible wrath.

Good riddance, Tempest thought, opened the crate and began to pull out whatever she needed to do her job. Crystal orbs that, when shattered, would blind any being stupid enough to look at it when it shattered, or basic smoke bombs. There were a few wands, one of the only ways that Tempest could feel like a proper unicorn, given the state of her horn. Fireballs, lightning shocks, and, as much as she hated it, even one for basic shielding. Then again, one of her more well used wands was that of a basic levitation spell. Tempest gave herself a satisfied smirk. So many things could be levitated and used in unconventional ways, most beings really had no idea how lethal their environment was.

Slipping all of that onto a pitch black harness, the last thing Tempest retrieved was a small blade, one that was buckled around her forelimb and focused around a simple locking swivel. Tempest felt her magic ebb just slightly as she made sure the blade itself was in its ‘safe’ position. Making sure no one was watching, Tempest raised her limb up and gave a sharp flick, the blade snapping out and locking into position. The sunlight from Her Radiance’s sun seemed to be sucked into the metal of the blade, the only ‘bright’ spot remaining on the untreated base of the weapon where a simple glyph was engraved. Focusing on it, Tempest willed her magic through her horn, the stabbing pain of frayed and severed magical nerves an uncomfortably familiar sensation as she telekinetically grabbed the blade and folded it back in.

Satisfied that she had everything she needed, Tempest headed to the northern edge of the camp, her eyes looking for the black and white striped mare that she was stuck having to work with. Moving past engineers, the armored mare reached the edge of the camp and waited with an annoyed sigh. “I swear, if she is not here, I am leaving without her,” Tempest muttered.

“I don’t believe so.”

Tempest held back the urge to jump right out of her armor as she looked over her shoulder, blinking in mild surprise as Mahiri rose from her spot on the ground, the white sections of her fur covered in dirt and making her dark enough to blend into the ground on the small island they were on. “I didn’t see you there,” Tempest commented.

Mahiri giggled, stepping closer to Tempest while letting a spear rest on her shoulder. “I would hope not!” she explained, smiling in amusement at the other mare. “I would have been a horrible scout otherwise for my tribe!” Tempest’s eye twitched as she followed the zebra out of the camp, the pair walking in silence until they were finally well away from earshot or sight of the camp.

Tempest looked around, eyes narrowed for any sign of pegasus scouts, or worse still, any griffon crazy enough to be flying close to the camp before looking at Mahiri. The unicorn took a deep breath, trying to remain focused as thoughts of most of the past week came to mind. The mare snarled, stamping a hoof into the dirt roughly.

“Are you well, Lady Shadow?” Mahiri asked quietly. Tempest’s ire suddenly spiked at the tone of voice Mahiri used with her. How dare she try to sound concerned, the patronizing horse!

“Well? Well? What does well have to do with anything of what we are about to do? We have a mission and we will see it through, regardless of anything. Especially nosey mares who think that just because they were brought out of destitution they get to play military with the actual, trained experts!” Mahiri recoiled from Tempest’s venom, the mare staring at Tempest at first with anger before sighing.

“...you may be right, Lady Shadow,” Mahiri said finally. “But I know this. What you call ‘destitute,’ I called at peace with the world. What you consider ‘playing,’ I know of to be a reminder that I have fought since long before I came here.” She paused, moving herself in front of Tempest and making her stop. “And I know that you are not whole.”

Tempest’s fractured horn sparked along with her rage, and it was only her years of training in discipline that kept her from unleashing it right into the face of the mare next to her. “You know nothing of what I go through, don’t pretend otherwise! I don’t need your sympathy, your pity, or your empathy! All I need from you is to follow orders and not fuck this up, or else I swear I will kill you myself and hang the consequences with your ‘lover’! Am I clear?”

Mahiri’s face was stoic, looking Tempest in the eye, heedless of the sparks from her horn. “I understand full well. And where sympathy and the chance to share your burdens with others fail, then perhaps a firmer approach is needed. You are a stubborn, wrathful mare, so full of hate, so full of rage. Truly, a storm without equal.” Mahiri tapped the head of her spear against Tempest’s head, the flat of it resting by her horn. It took every ounce of Tempest’s willpower to not simply kill the mare right now. The only thing stopping her was her needing Shining’s cooperation, and the idea of her Empress being disappointed in her. “But I can tell you are unfocused, lashing out against everything in the world that isn’t your Empress. You, Tempest Shadow, may think that your rage and hatred is with the world. But first, you will need to make peace with this,” Mahiri glanced to Tempest’s stub, “Before you will have any chance of being truly at peace. Otherwise, your rage will kill you. And I can be very certain that your Empress will be… greatly displeased with that, should it occur.”

Mahiri removed her spear and turned away, beginning to walk off as Tempest was frozen to the spot. “I have spoken my piece, Lady Shadow. Now let us do our duty, hmm?”

Tempest wanted to do anything but her duty right now. She wanted to rage, to shout, to tear this mare down, whether with words or violence she couldn’t tell right now. But her Empress had impressed deeply into her mind that the mission came first, the mission was all, and that to deny the mission was to deny the Empress herself. So Tempest did what she was good at: bury the feelings under her sea of anger and let her calm slip back to the surface. It was harder this time than it usually was, but she made it happen. She had to.

“Follow my orders, do not ask questions,” she said in a flat tone of authority before moving past the other mare and jumping off the path into the brush. Mahiri grunted, falling into step behind the unicorn as they advanced through the brush. It was slow going, the salty bite of the sea making most of the plant life tough and hardy, nearly impossible to pass through without excessive force. Yet, between the two of them, Tempest and Mahiri made good time towards their objective, freezing only once when a shadow passed by overhead.

“...griffon,” Mahiri whispered, her body hidden in the shadows of a gnarled, stunted tree. “Heading north. Lazy, didn’t look down.” The zebra huffed. “Simba kipofu angetukamata, he’s an insult to predators.”

Tempest ignored the foreign speech in favor of examining what she could of the griffon as it passed them by. The griffon seemed young, barely able to stay airborne considering the state of his plumage. Held in his claws were a pair of ‘longclaws,’ steel blades at least four hooves long that would normally cleave straight through standard pony armor and flesh, digging into the bone. But with the amount of rust she glimpsed, Tempest would have been surprised if the weapons didn’t simply just snap on one good hit with a shield. Her professional opinion as to what this griffon was?

Barely a threat beyond spreading an alarm call.

“These grifs are desperate,” she said aloud, “If they’re using chicks like that in their forces. Which suggests both that they are undersupplied and undertrained but also fanatical enough not to care.”

“Which means that they will either die to a griffon,” Mahiri commented, “Or if we can kill their leader swiftly enough, that they will quickly fall apart. Many tribes in the savannah have fallen that same way.” The zebra narrowed her eyes. “We’ll need to get closer, try to locate their leader from afar.”

Finally, something that this mare and I can agree on, Tempest thought. “Follow,” she called out once more, taking a few steps forward before the hairs on the back of her neck rose. Tempest turned, her leg rising up to flick her blade out before a heavy mass of fur and feathers crashed into her, sending her to the ground hard. Struggling to get the weight off, Tempest looked up and saw the leering face of a ragged griffon, a series of jagged scars running across the drake’s face. Oh, for Faust’s sake!

“Well well, what do I got here?” the griffon asked, grinning wickedly as Tempest felt the point of a longclaw tink against her armor, scraping across its finish before settling into a crack in the plates. Tempest froze, knowing that it would only take a little pressure for this grif to slip the blade past her armor and straight into her heart. She’d be dead in a minute, if that. “What a pretty pony I’s got, eh? Tell me pretty pony, what brings you all the way out here, eh?”

Tempest remained silent, glaring defiantly at him. Partly to try and intimidate him, and mostly because of force of habit. Either way, she was plotting dozens of ways to make this griffon’s death as painful as possible before movement behind the griffon caught her eye. The griffon himself was only just turning when Mahiri’s spear stabbed into and through his claw, slicing through meat and tendon to force him to let go of his weapon.

The griffon opened his beak to scream, only for the heavy, blunt shaft of the zebra’s spear to spin around and smash into his face, sending him back as the blade tore out of his claw in a spray of red. Mahiri’s eyes narrowed. She spun the spear, and then delivered vicious slash to the griffon, a spray of blood flying out to stain the ground several lengths away. The griffon gurgled, bright and dark red mixing freely as the drake clutched his throat, trying to stem the flow as Mahiri helped Tempest up. A soft thud let both mares know that the grif had fallen to the ground, dead.

“You could have let me die,” Tempest said, watching as Mahiri stepped over to the griffon’s body and calmly stabbed her spear into his side. “You… you know full well I would have.”

“Yes.” Mahiri pulled her spear out, more blood spraying out before she looked back at Tempest. “Thankfully, I am not you.” She gestured to the north, nodding to Tempest. “We must continue.”

Tempest nodded. “Yes. Yes, we… we must,” she said slowly, looking at the dead griffon once more before taking the lead. The two mares marched on, the pair making sure that at least one of them kept an eye on the sky at all times as they stalked through the undergrowth. A couple of hours later, the two scouts finally reached their destination, laying down in some brush while looking at the former outpost.

“Fifteen on ramparts that I can see,” Mahiri whispered, staying still as Tempest nodded. “Counting more inside based on movement, but there’s no way to tell how many from this distance.” Tempest looked over the area, noting how flat most of the area was before her gaze settled on a bluff close to the walls.

“There,” she whispered, pointing it out to Mahiri. “We’ll be hidden from view long enough to get close to the wall. From there, it’ll be easy to find the escape door and slip in.” Mahiri nodded, frowning.

“Centurion Armor needs to know what’s here though,” she pointed out to Tempest. “I would go back, but you would be alone in hostile territory. Which means that-”

“We go together, yes,” Tempest cut in curtly, making Mahiri blink. “At least inside, we should have something resembling an advantage, given our sizes.” She looked at the zebra’s spear. “Though, I am hoping you find something smaller than that to use.”

“The Great Mother provides.” Mahiri shifted, easing her legs under her for a quick getaway if needed. “Now, to get in, see how many remain inside, and then where the hostages are.”

Tempest mentally groaned. What was with that stallion and his need to preserve lives? So long as the mission succeeded, then all other considerations were but after thoughts. “If we can locate them, fine,” the assassin noted. “But I am not going out of my way to save them. Clear?” Mahiri nodded. “Good. Then let’s go.”

Slowly, the pair made their way to the bluff, pausing whenever they saw a griffon stretch their wings. Still, the two made good time as they finally reached the wall, Mahiri’s nerves wearing thin as Tempest led her along the length of the wall. “Where is that door?” Mahiri hissed, keeping her eyes up as Tempest rounded a corner carefully.

“Close.” That actually was a good question as far as Tempest was concerned, especially since they should have come to the door by now. Leading them to yet another corner, Tempest almost rounded the corner before stopping, and then immediately backing up, nearly hitting Mahiri in her surprise. “Fuck!” she hissed, alarmed.

“What?!”

Tempest pointed to the corner. “They have a bucking Jarl!” she swore. At Mahiri’s confused look, Tempest growled. “Look, centuries ago, the griffons were a series of kingdoms, each kingdom having their own ‘lesser’ kings, called Jarls. If they have one here…” Tempest shuddered. “The Centurion will have a vicious, Tartarus damned fight on his hooves. Jarls aren’t to be taken lightly.”

“We cross that when we get to it,” Mahiri whispered. “Right now, we need to sneak past.” Tempest nodded, looking over the corner again. The Jarl was looking away from them, a whetstone in their claw as they sharpened a wickedly long blade. Mahiri frowned as she looked the griffon over. They were clearly healthier than the vast majority of the griffons she’d seen so far, and judging by the near pristine state of the armor they were wearing, wealthy too. Or just skilled. Tempest gestured for Mahiri to follow, and the mares trotted by, staying behind clumps of rubble before spotting a hole in the wall.

Well… it’s not the door, Tempest thought, stepping over some rubble with Mahiri right on her tail. Tempest looked over the ruined interior of the hall, noting the massive gouges in the stone work from stray bowgun rounds. Coming to a column, Tempest stopped, pulling Mahiri to the side. “Scout, we need to split up.”

“Split up? Here? Now? Are you out of your mind?!” Mahiri hissed. “Neither of us are ready to fight off this entire outpost even together, let alone separated!”

“I am aware of that,” Tempest told her coldly. “But it’ll be easier to find out how many enemies we’re dealing with that way… and it gives you time to find your precious hostages.” Mahiri stared at her. “Just find them, count how many griffons you see, and come back here and hide. I should be done with my own duties soon enough, provided neither of us are detected.”

Tempest watched Mahiri’s face closely. The zebra’s face went from shock, then various shades of concern and doubt, before finally resolving itself to simple acceptance. “Fine. Stay safe, Assassin.”

Tempest nodded, turning away and trotting silently down the hall, leaving Mahiri alone to her own devices. Sighing, Mahiri shook her head and set her spear down on the floor, making sure that it wouldn’t be too obvious for any griffon who happened to look. “‘Find the hostages’ she orders,” Mahiri grumbled. “What a pretentious horse. Great Mother, grant me patience as I seek the innocent,” she added, sliding from cover to cover on her way down the hall.

Mahiri heard voices coming down the hall. Taking a deep breath, Mahiri dropped to the floor next to some rubble, hoping her choices in coloring her fur would help her at this range. She spotted a pair of griffons walking down the hall, the two avians chatting with one another in hushed tones. Mahiri forced herself to remain still, holding her breath as her eyes tracked the pair coming down the hallway. Closer they came, Mahiri noting how the one on her left limped, and the one on her right seemed blind in their left eye, closer, ever closer until…

They walked right by her, heedless of her ever being there. Mahiri waited until she was sure both were gone before getting back up and moving onwards inside. The zebra slunk past another roving pair of griffon guards, the stinging stench of cheaply made spirits lingering on them as they passed her. Mahiri pressed onward, taking a mental tally of griffons as she moved from the ground floor to the second. Reaching the landing, Mahiri noted the more numerous holes in the walls, sections of roof missing; presumably, it was to allow them an additional method of escape or attack.

Mahiri crept down a hall, only to pause when she heard whimpering. The zebra strained her ears, hoping to catch a trace of the sound again. There! Down the hall, roughly three heavy wooden doors down! The zebra slunk down, her fur keeping her nearly invisible as she approached the door. Every hoof-fall closer, and Mahiri’s heart plummeted at the rhythmic slapping sounds she could make out. The wet collision of flesh against flesh. The zebra crept close to the door, cracking it open slowly to look inside.

There was a mare inside, her fur matted and caked in grime as a griffon lay on top of her. Mahiri didn’t need to look down to see just where the wet slaps were coming from. She had heard it often enough in a situation just like this, months ago. Her eyes narrowed, and she pushed her way past the door. The drake didn’t know what hit him as Mahiri’s back hooves spun around and slammed into the side of his head, the zebra’s strike shattering the avian’s cheekbones, head snapping to the side as he tumbled off the mare under him.

“Wha-?!” he attempted to squawk, only for Mahiri to race forward, grabbing the griffon’s own discarded longclaw in her mouth and running him through with it. She pressed her forehoof hard against the griffon’s throat, silencing him as he bled out, finally falling limp a few moments later. Mahiri let the corpse fall to the ground as she went to the traumatized mare’s side.

“Shh, all is well, he can’t hurt you,” Mahiri told her, looking around for anything to cover the shaking mare with before grabbing a discarded cloak and throwing it over her. The mare clutched the cloak tightly around herself as Mahiri pulled the body out of sight, hiding his weapons under some debris. The mare looked at Mahiri with tear filled eyes, a haunted look on her face.

“W-Who… where did you come from?” the mare asked in a terrified whisper.

“I’m… I’m with a company of Her Radiance’s legionnaires,” Mahiri told her. “I came to scout ahead, but you… I have to get you out.” The mare nodded shakily. “Miss?” Mahiri stopped a length away from her, taking care to not violate any safety bubble this mare surely had now. “What’s your name?”

“A-Autumn,” the mare stammered, still shivering. “A-Autumn Twirl. I… I’m just a clerk, that’s all I am, I’m just a clerk…”

“Shh, shh,” Mahiri comforted, easing her way over to hug the traumatized mare. “You’ll be safe soon, and away from here. Now come, let us depart, and quietly.” Autumn Twirl nodded as Mahiri led the way, the zebra even more alert as she led her charge back to where the scout had originally parted from Tempest. Autumn kept mercifully quiet, something that Mahiri appreciated as they approached the rendezvous point, Tempest already in sight.

“...I see you’ve gotten one of your precious ‘hostages’ out,” Tempest deadpanned. Mahiri glared at her, Tempest almost flinching at the intensity of it.

“Now is not the time!” she hissed. “We need to leave, now! Before the griffons get any wiser!” Tempest nodded in agreement, and led the other two out of the ruined embassy.

Unlike approaching the embassy in the first place, the two scouts plus their charge made their way back to the imperial encampment quickly. Amongst the first to see them arrive was Shining himself. The stallion took one look at Autumn and barked out his orders.

“Medic! Trauma, now!” he shouted, getting out of the way of the two healers that galloped up to the civilian’s side and guided her away. Looking back at Mahiri and Tempest, his expression grew stern. “Report, both of you.” Tempest looked to Mahiri, who gestured with her hoof to Shining. The assassin huffed, annoyed as she looked Shining in the eye.

“At least eighty griffons inside the fort,” Tempest reported, her posture straightening. “I counted thirty heavy bowguns in the upper floors, twenty of which were repeater models.”

“We’ll need to make sure our engineers target those first,” Shining said, trotting to the command tent. Tempest and Mahiri followed, the two mares spotting Blueberry Frost approaching. “What about their fields of fire? Any overlap?”

“Yes Centurion.” The group reached the tent, and Tempest quickly pointed out positions on the map. “There are three overlapping fields of fire here, here, and here. Now, there’s also a breach in the fortifications here, but… I recommend against assaulting it. You’d lose more legionnaires trying to get there than from a frontal assault.” Shining nodded, looking at Mahiri.

“Mahiri? Any more hostages than the one you rescued?” The zebra shook her head.

“No, none that I could find in time,” she answered. “But I would assume that any such hostages are held in a more secure room inside the fort. And… Centurion, there’s one more thing. The griffons… they have a leader. Tempest called him a… what was it again?”

Tempest gulped. “They have a Jarl,” she told Shining. The response was immediate, as both Blueberry and Shining flinched, the mare visibly paling under her coat as Shining stamped his hoof on the ground.

“Shit… a Jarl here is trouble,” Shining grumbled. “Tempest, have you ever fought one before?” The assassin shook her head.

“Not personally, no,” she admitted. “I don’t ‘fight’ beings like a Jarl. I make sure that they end up in situations where they can’t fight me, or I just poison them.” Blueberry sighed, glancing at the map.

“Well darn,” the Sergeant commented, “There goes my good feelin’ on tryin’ to git rid of him quick then.” Shining shook his head, looking outside to where the ballista engineers worked.

“Jarl or no Jarl, we need that facility,” he said. “We can use the ballista as cover fire on their bowgun positions while the main force advances. Our aerial skirmishers will have to work as best as they can under the circumstances. What’s the effective range for bowguns again, about a hundred feet?”

Tempest scrunched up her face in thought. “...depending on condition, model, and shell used? Anywhere from practically point blank to maybe three hundred, four if you’re lucky,” she said finally. “But that’s if you’re talking point accuracy. For general suppressive fire, then we’re looking at closer to six or eight hundred.” Tempest turned and looked in the direction of the fort. “But the heavy bowguns worry me the most. They fire the more specialized shells, and if they’re the wyvern heart models…”

“Big booms,” Shining finished for her. “Damn dragon gems are always a pain however they’re used. Well, the only thing we can do in this situation is move forward.” The Centurion turned to look at Blueberry. “Sergeant, get the troops ready to move, have our pegasi up in the air and ready to use weather magic.”

“Yessir!” Blueberry trotted out of the tent, leaving Tempest and Mahiri alone with Shining. The zebra went to his side, gently nuzzling him and making Tempest’s insides twist uncomfortably.

“I shall remain here,” Mahiri said. “Stay safe.”

Shining chuckled. “I will,” he told her, kissing her before pulling away from her. Tempest watched silently as the pair gave each other a longing look before Shining trotted and left the tent.

“Tempest.”

The assassin turned her head to look back at Mahiri. “What?”

“Please… bring him back safely to me,” Mahiri pleaded softly. Tempest took in a deep breath, thinking over how much she wanted to say no. But the image of Daybreaker’s wrathful gaze flashed in her mind, and Tempest relented.

“I… will do my best,” she said finally.

Mahiri smiled at her. “Thank you.”

‘Thank you’. Those two words nearly made Tempest stumble on her way out of the tent, following Shining to the front of the formation. Getting there, Tempest watched as Shining looked over his troops and nodded, his expression set in stone.

“COMPANY! FORWARD… MARCH!” As one, the massed group of ponies began to march, hooves marching in beat to an internal drum beat as Shining led the way. Trotting just a bit faster, Tempest went to Shining’s side, her expression stern.

“Centurion, about the fort… how do you plan to get close without those bowguns tearing them apart?” she asked. Shining chuckled, glancing over to her.

“That? That I have a plan for,” he told her. “Don’t worry, it’ll work. But Agent Shadow, if at all possible, I want you to do whatever it is you do best. Disrupt the enemy, confuse them, anything.”

Tempest couldn’t help the slightly amused tone from slipping into her retort. “Anything?”

“Well, anything within standing orders,” Shining clarified. “That sound fair?”

Tempest nodded, fixing her gaze forward. “Indeed Centurion.” Shining nearly looked forward too, only to notice the slight smirk on Tempest’s face.

Huh… she looks completely different when she smiles, Shining thought to himself as he marched. Taking a deep breath, the stallion tried to calm his nerves as he mentally went over his list of spells. Harmony above, watchful mother to us all, please protect us as we march into battle. Forgive us our sins, and the sins of those we face, and may the world know peace in your name.

The company marched in silence, at least up until Tempest spoke up a few minutes later. “We’re close.”

Shining nodded. “Split off from us, sneak behind their lines,” he ordered, mentally picking a spell and priming it. A rush of magic went through him, focusing at the base of his horn as he kept the spell ready. “Sergeant Frost, signal for the skirmishers to engage at range, and have all units divide by squad.”

“Yes sir!” Frost replied, hanging back to get to the signaller. Shining took a deep breath.

Time to see how we fare against griffons…

Sergeant Soaring Blitz led her wing forward, leaving the rest of the company behind on the ground. She had seen some action prior to being transferred to Shining Armor’s company, so the thought of combat didn’t terrify her as much as it used to. The same could not be said of the other six or seven pegasi in her wing of twelve. Glancing over her shoulder, Blitz saw one of her pegasi begin to lag behind. “Corporal Breeze, Cirrus is lagging, help him out!” she barked.

An off-white pegasus mare nodded, snapping her wings out and falling back in formation to assist the straggler. Satisfied, Blitz looked back forward, scanning both the ground and air for any hint of an ambush. There were a few clouds present, little sickly grey things that no competent weather pony would allow out of a factory. Still, she’d take what she could get.

“Sarge, how well equipped are these birds anyway?” Blitz looked back at one of her other recruits, a spry blue pegasus with a bit of the Cloudsdale twang to her voice.

“At the very least, long claws and very sharp talons!” Blitz told the mare. “Other than that? Maybe-.” Without warning, the pegasus to Blitz’s right side rear tumbled in the air, flesh and feathers flying off the mangled stump of his wing as he plummeted, screaming, to the cold ocean below, just a sharp crack echoed in the skies. “BOWGUNS! GET TO CLOUD COVER, NOW!” Blitz shouted, beating her wings as hard as she could to the nearest cloud.

She saw her opponents easily enough; a simple ‘flying V’ formation taught in basic flight school, but even from where she slammed her chest into the sickly cloud in front of her, she knew what they were trying to do. Send flanking wings to harass her pegasi, force them to bunch up and settle into one spot. Then, encirclement. And from that… death. A pegasus denied mobility was a dead pegasus. Drawing upon her own magic reserves, Blitz shoved her hoof into the cloud, forcing it to get stronger and harder.

“Breeze, report!” she shouted, watching as a griffon came in closer, closer… and then got struck with a bolt of lightning for their trouble, stunned in the air just long enough for one of her soldiers to throw a short spear into the griffon’s chest. Breeze shoved herself into the cloud next to Blitz.

“Cirrus is dead, so are Nimbus and Featherfall!” the corporal shouted back. The NCOs looked over their cloud cover, seeing the rest of their group huddled behind their own clouds. “We need a damn fog, but there’s not enough cloud up here to do anything with! What do we do?!”

Blitz growled, sending another lightning bolt towards a griffon. “Well, we can’t stay the fuck here!” she snapped. She pointed to the flanking griffons, the glint of bowguns barely visible in the light. “First priority is those bowguns! We let them keep those, we’re fucked! Get the teams out there, take those guns out! I’ll cover!” Breeze nodded, jumping off the cloud and dashing to the next cloud, leaving Blitz alone with the last pegasus in her section, the poor mare huddled in the cloud shaking.

“Hey, HEY!” Blitz shouted, the shocked mare’s eyes locking onto her own. “You’re going to make it out of here, I promise!” Blitz told her before focusing her attention on the griffons settling on the clouds opposite hers, setting up position. Blitz closed her eyes, calling to mind a spell matrix her mother taught her. It wasn’t one taught at the flight academies, and from what her mother said, the spell was an envy to unicorns. But right now, her ponies were in danger, and Blitz would suffer no fool to live.

The first, and only warning most of the griffons got as to what was about to happen was their fur standing on end. Then Blitz flared her wings out wide, arcs of electricity racing along her primaries as her eyes snapped open, pools of pure power glaring at her foes.

“Schiesse! Bewegung!” a griffon screeched, leaping off and away from the cloud before a bolt of lightning worthy of a unicorn war mage slammed into the other cloud, making it explode and electrocuting three griffons who weren’t lucky enough to get out in time. The sergeant sucked in a breath, her wings itching from the mana strain.

“Sweet Radiance, how did you…?” The mare next to Blitz started to ask before Blitz held a hoof up.

“Not here, not now!” she hissed. “We have a mission to complete!”

Meanwhile, Corporal Breeze was leading two other pegasi up to try and take out the griffon bowgunners. “Remember, those guns of theirs use different types of rounds!” she shouted. “With luck, they haven’t switched to close quarter rounds!”

“What happens if they do?” one of the pegasi asked, terrified.

“...pray that it’s a quick death,” Breeze told him. Suddenly, she spotted a trio of gunners hanging onto a cloud, another two close by without the blocky crossbow like weapons. “Five, up high!”

In moments, she and the other two pegasi broke formation as the gunners opened fire, sharp snaps of bowgun rounds missing them as they flew. Breeze summoned a ball of lightning, only for her to instinctively halt in place as a fur- and feather-covered mass nearly slammed into her. Oh FAUST!! Breeze thought in panic as the griffon hovered in place to look at her. Despite how gangly the other creature was, Breeze was all too wary of the griffon’s natural weapons: razor sharp talons on their forelimbs, retractable claws on the hindquarters, and that beak… already had… no, Breeze couldn’t think on that as she juked to the side as her adversary charged at her.

“Dammit! Stay still you fucking bitch!” the griffon shrieked, talons outstretched as she tried to grab onto the pegasus. Even from a length away, Breeze could smell the fetid stench of rotted scraps of flesh in the hen’s claws. Breeze beat her wings hard, propelling herself backwards and putting some distance between the pair.

“Fuck fuck fuck!” Breeze spat as she slung another bolt of lightning at the griffon, the bolt unfortunately missing the furred avian. The pegasus dove, claws swiping through the air that her head had been occupying mere moments ago. I need distance, anything to get away from-!

There was pain, an unimaginably unbearable agony as Breeze’s forward momentum was halted all too quickly, the screeching cry of a griffon about to make a kill echoing in her ears. There was a scream, a moment passing by before Breeze realized, dimly, that it was her screaming her lungs out as the griffon’s talons dug even deeper into her shoulders. Her wings weren’t doing anything that she wanted them too, her magic quickly fading away from her.

“Hehe, finally, some fresh fucking meat!” the griffon purred, digging her claws in deeper into Breeze. Breeze let her head hang down her chest. She saw drops of brilliant red falling to the stormy sea below. She didn’t care that it was her blood, her life fading as the griffon tore a hand out of her back, raising it for the killing blow.

Suddenly she was weightless. The griffon fell out of the sky next to her, throat slit. Breeze looked up, seeing Blitz reach out a hoof towards her. Breeze smiled, her eyes going glassy as Blitz watched the corporal’s life fade from her eyes. Blitz flapped to the nearest cloud, letting Breeze’s body rest on the stringy material before glaring at the three griffons left in the air. “Okay you mangy bastards,” Blitz snarled, charging up a lightning bolt in one hoof as a rapidly spinning ball of air formed in the other. “Now… Now I’m pissed.”

The sergeant burst forward, unleashing the micro-tornado upon the gunners. With a roar, the spinning vortex expanded, shredding the clouds the griffons were cowering behind and throwing them across the sky, their weapons flying out of their claws. One griffon managed to right himself, only for the lightning bolt to slam into his chest and fry him alive. The griffon was dead in an instant as the electric surge cooked his nerves to nothing, heart coming to a stop as his brain was wiped clean of all thought. And in the next second, his flesh exploded, the lightning having flash-steamed his blood and flesh to a gory mist. Blitz looked to the next griffon, her expression blood thirsty as the avian gave her a terrified look.

The griffon had barely flapped his wings to flee before she was on him, her hooves pummeling the base of his wings, bones snapping under the blows. Blood was flung into the air as Blitz sent the young fledgling falling out of the sky, her head already swiveling to her next target, only to see the remaining members of her flight rounding up the last of the griffons and taking care of them.

“Make these monsters bleed, Centurion,” Blitz said to herself as she flew over to her remaining pegasi, taking note that, of the twelve she had gone in with, only herself and four others remained. “Please tell me none of you are critically injured,” she groaned, taking note of the jagged lines on their armor.

“N-no Sergeant,” one of the rookies stammered. Blitz blinked. Huh, it was the rookie she had shoved into that cloud earlier. “But what do we do now? Half of us are dead, and there’s more of them than us, and…”

“There’s still half of us alive,” Blitz pointed out, floating over to the new soldier and looking the mare in the eye. “That’s a pretty damn important half. Now I know you’re scared, but we got over a hundred other ponies on the ground that still need us and want to go home. Because the Sun as my witness, I ain’t letting a bunch of dirt humpers go back home in boxes, or get eaten by a bunch of fucking birds while I’m still flying. Understood?”

The pegasus nodded as Blitz looked over the others. “Now, here’s the plan. We get as much cloud as we can get, and we turn it into fog. I’ll handle getting in place, I just need you four to do the hard part; making it.” She reached to her side and pulled out a small stoppered vial. The sergeant pulled the stopper out with her teeth, spitting it out before downing the shot of stormy blue fluid inside. Almost instantly, Blitz felt her magic reserves swell, the potion reinvigorating her as static crackled along her primaries. “After we lay down that fog cover? We bring Empress blessed Tartarus down on their heads from above. Clear?”

The pegasi all nodded, and Blitz pointed towards where the advancing company was heading. “Now, let’s get our tails moving dammit! We have a battle to win!”

Shining ducked his head down, a bowgun shell snapping by his head. All around him, teams of engineers with the ballistae siege engines engaged the heavy bowguns, the heavy rounds from the griffon weapons hitting the steel plates of the ballista shields. Shining turned his head, just in time to see one engineer step out of cover for a second, and instantly take a shell to the head. There was a brief puff of pink mist, and the pony’s headless body just dropped to the ground.

Shining snarled, glaring at the fortified building lividly. “HARMONY ABOVE, RUN OUT OF FUCKING AMMO ALREADY!” he shouted, casting another shielding spell around a squad of ponies. “GO GO GO!” The ponies dashed forward, trying to stay in the shield as he sprinted to a crater and slid into it. Shining narrowly avoided another bowgun shell, the projectile whistling through the air before hitting the ground outside the crater.

SH-BOOOM!

Dirt erupted from the ground, showering Shining in debris, along with a couple of body parts he really didn’t want to think about as he peeked out of the crater. Three hundred feet. Three hundred feet until his soldiers were too close for the bowguns to hit. A body skidded into the hole next to him, Shining’s horn lighting up in preparation for a push spell, only to see Blueberry Frost, her fur covered in viscera and dirt just like him. “SIR!” she shouted, ducking to avoid another bowgun burst. “WE’RE GETTING OUR FLANKS SHREDDED OUT HERE! WE NEED BIGGER SHIELDS, NOW, OR WE CAN START PRAYING THAT HARMONY HAS ROOM FOR US!”

Shining looked around, spotting a particular pair of bowguns. “GRIFFON COVER FIRE IS COMING FROM THOSE TWO GUNS!” he shouted, pointing them out to her. “GET TO THE BALLISTA CREWS, TELL THEM-!” Another exploding shell made the pair duck, the cries of dying ponies and spell fire nearly overwhelming. “TELL THEM,” Shining continued, “TO FOCUS FIRE ON THOSE GUNS FIRST! WYVERN HEART GUNS WE CAN DEAL WITH, GETTING SHELLED WE CAN’T!”

“FUCK, CONSIDER IT DONE!” Frost declared, turning back and sprinting out of the crater. Shining cast a brief deflection on her, a shell bouncing off the magical barrier a second later. Panting, Shining pulled out a mana potion and gulped it down, feeling his reserves swell. Taking a few terrified breaths, Shining jumped out of the crater and sprinted forward, his horn lighting up brightly. Every pony in sight who saw him immediately ducked their heads down.

There was a bright flash, and Shining had to blink as his own spell caught him. “ON ME!” he shouted. “ON ME!” He charged forward, the influx of bowgun fire having dropped sharply as the griffons rubbed their eyes in pain from having a humble flash spell going off in their eyes. Alongside Shining, squads of ponies charged, letting out war cries as they all galloped closer to the walls of the fort.

A flash of red-orange, and Shining saw that a pony had been plucked from the ground, held in the talons of a heavily armored griffon. “Oh fuck…!” Shining muttered as he reached the wall, looking at the griffon in horror as the Jarl flapped his wings, hovering in the air as the pony legionnaire struggled in a panic.

“No, no! Put me the fuck down you feathered fu-!” the pony shouted before in a flash, the Jarl slammed his talons into the mare’s gut from under her armor and pulled her cuirass off from the inside, the wet RIIIP audible across the noisy field. The mare’s bloodied screams would haunt Shining for years, he was certain as the Jarl let his victim scream a bit longer before carelessly tossing her away, the mare hitting the ground with a heavy slap, her screams finally silenced. Every single pony in close proximity looked at the mutilated body and then back at the Jarl, terror on their faces.

Shining saw the looks in their eyes and grimaced. “HEY! ASSHOLE!” he called out, getting the Jarl to look at him. “YEAH, YOU! COME AND FIGHT A PONY THAT’S ACTUALLY WORTH YOUR TIME!” Shining saw the Jarl look at him, saw the beak curl into a sneer. Immediately, Shining telekinetically drew up a blade from his side and parried the griffon’s longclaw, the steel blades scraping against each other in a shower of sparks as the griffon landed on him, trying to pin him to the ground.

“You will regret saying that!” the Jarl growled, shoving his blade closer to Shining’s throat. Shining grimaced, his horn glowing brighter. Suddenly, the Jarl found himself thrown off his opponent as a force spell slammed into his gut, Shining getting back onto his hooves as he looked at his soldiers still watching in shock.

“TO THE WALLS! ON ME AND TAKE THE WALLS!” Shining bellowed, waving his blade around in a circle as the Jarl snarled. Shining snapped his sword forward as the Jarl leapt forward, the blade clanging off of the griffon’s armor as the unicorn dodged his attack.

Several hundred feet away, Frost saw Shining battle the Jarl and grimaced. “Ah shit, he’s gonna get his ass handed to him!” she muttered, a couple of ballista engineers working to load the siege weapon with fresh bolts. “HEY, YOU YOU!” she shouted, pointing at a unicorn. “YEAH, YOU! WHAT KINDA SPELLS YA KNOW?!”

“NOTHING TOO EXTENSIVE!” the unicorn shouted, ducking into cover as a bowgun burst flew over her head. “JUST BASIC LEVITATION MAGIC, AND AN EXPLODING RUNE WARD FOR PERIMETER DEFENSE, BUT-!”

“WAIT, EXPLODING RUNES?!” Frost shouted, surprised as she ducked under the bowgun bursts. She looked at the ballista bolts getting loaded in, and suddenly, an idea clicked. “SPECIALIST! DRINK UP ON THOSE MANA POTIONS, NOW!”

Back at the wall, Shining was keeping his back to the fallen masonry as the Jarl dove in and out of range, their blades clashing again and again in a shower of sparks. Sweet Harmony, this grif hits like a fucking hammer! Shining complained in his head as he ducked under a wild swing of another longclaw, the Jarl dual-wielding both with cruel ease. The stallion stepped back, only to trip and fall into a crater. Shining saw the Jarl grin, wings flaring to the sides… and then squawk as something exploded behind him, sending the griffon flying. Dazed, Shining poked his head out from the crater and stared, gobsmacked, at the sight of Frost directing one of the ballista as an anti-air weapon.

“Sergeant Frost, you crazy bitch, thank Harmony!” Shining gasped as he saw another bolt fly out and nearly hit the Jarl. The griffon banked, flapping his wings to do a proper barrel roll just as the head of the bolt came to pass him… and then explode, knocking the Jarl out of the sky.

Ballista bolts don’t do that! Shining noted as he clambered out of the crater, his soldiers surging into the fort with a cacophony of yells. Still, the unicorn shook his head to clear his thoughts as one of his soldiers came to a stop next to him.

“Sir, we’ve got ponies in the walls!” she shouted, leading him to where his soldiers were finally exploiting a breach in the wall. “We’ll have these feathered bastards on the ropes in no ti-!” The mare was slammed into the wall, Shining skidding back as the Jarl’s blade tore out of her throat, the griffon glaring furiously at him.

“Ich werde nicht gegan ein Kind verlieren!” the Jarl snapped, lunging at Shining as the unicorn blocked his blade. “I WON’T LET SOME BASTARD TAKE THIS FORT!”

“Should’ve thought of that BEFORE your griffons raped an innocent mare!” Shining snarled back, shoving the bulkier griffon away, only to feel a sharp pinch along his flank. He tried to step out of range of the Jarl, only to stumble to the blood soaked ground. He looked at his side, and saw that his white coat was stained red, a line across his side showing even the fat under his skin. “Oh… fuck.”

The Jarl raised his blade high, ready to bring it down on Shining when a black armored pony crashed into the griffon from the side, sending them sprawling onto the ground. Shining flinched as he saw Tempest land on her hooves, blade snapped out and ready as the Jarl stood up, helm knocked off his head. Shining had to grimace at the sight of the heavily scarred griffon as he screeched at Tempest. The unicorn ducked under his wild swing, her blade singing through the air to slash through his armor.

Heh… the one place you’d never expect an assassin, Shining thought as he tried to recall a healing matrix, channeling magic to his horn. Yet the moment he did, the Centurion hissed in pain as his horn throbbed angrily at the unicorn’s attempts at magic. Fuck! Mana burnout NOW?!

Up above, Tempest was having to deal with not getting her head removed from her shoulders as the Jarl attacked her, pushing her back as the griffon flapped his wings. “Fuck!” the mare hissed as she ducked under a wild swing, feeling some of her mane catch on the Jarl’s blade as she swerved to avoid his bulk. Above her, the Jarl snarled, slamming his shoulder into her side. And despite her athletic build, Tempest was still only a unicorn. The impact sent her flying meters away, the assassin landing and bouncing off the dirt with a grunt of pain as she finally came to a stop. “Oh Empress that’s gonna leave a mark…”

“That’s not all that’s going to leave a mark…”

Tempest’s blood froze as she glanced over at the advancing griffon, his gaze lingering on her hungrily. Tempest rushed to get up, only to gasp as her ankle buckled under her weight. “Oh yes… my griffons will slaughter your soldiers, and those who surrender?” Tempest felt his talons wrap around her throat as he loomed over her, pressing down on her as he brought his beak to her ear. “...we will enjoy the spoils of battle for as long as you hold up.” The Jarl licked the inside of Tempest’s ear, and she could only squirm in revulsion at the molestation. “Now… do you surrender, bitch?”

“F-f-fuck… you!” Tempest spat at him, glaring hatefully at the scarred brute. The Jarl chuckled grimly.

“I had a feeling you would say that,” the Jarl said, grinning. “It will make my enjoyment of breaking you exquisite…” He raised a claw to strike at her. Tempest closed her eyes.

“TEMPEST, RUN!”

Tempest’s eyes snapped open, just in time to see Shining, bleeding heavily and holding his sword in what was left of his magic, slam himself into the Jarl’s side. The griffon squawked in surprise, only to roar in pain as the sword went to work stabbing into his body. Tempest watched in awe as Shining attacked with merciless efficiency, his blade slipping past the folds of the Jarl’s plates, strikes focusing on crippling his wings. Something stirred within Tempest as she got her leg out from under her, watching Shining… protect her? Was that what he was doing?

“GENUG!”

The Jarl slammed his free claw into Shining’s shoulder, the Centurion crying out in pain as he was yanked off the griffon’s back. The stallion tried to yank his sword out of the griffon, only for his chest to get struck repeatedly, his armor digging into his flesh with each strike. Black spots swam in his vision as the Jarl threw him to the ground, Shining momentarily blacking out before coming to, seeing the infuriated griffon stomp up to him and lift him up by the neck to his eye level.

“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!” he bellowed, his claws digging into Shining’s neck.

Shining frowned. And then he spat, the crimson spit splashing into the Jarl’s eyes and blinding him. The griffon hissed, dropping Shining to wipe his eyes clean of the blood. Shining landed on the ground in a heap, the unicorn looking at the griffon shaking his head free of the former’s blood. And then, Tempest was under the Jarl, slashing at his limbs, crippling him further, bringing him to the ground. The Jarl looked at Tempest, horror dawning on his face as Tempest lifted up the blackened blade on her leg, and stabbed it forward, sinking it into his throat.

“For the Empress!” Tempest hissed, throwing her leg out to the side. The blade sliced through muscle and flesh with equal ease, the side of the Jarl’s feathered neck nearly coming off with the blade as his life blood gushed out in a heated red geyser. The griffon clutched at his neck, trying in vain to stem the bleeding before Tempest pivoted on her hooves and bucked him in the face, the wet snap of breaking bone audible even to the griffons on the ruined ramparts.

“Schieße! Der Jarl is tot!” one of them shouted, just as they were stabbed by a pony’s lance. In moments, the griffon’s lost their resolve, all of them trying to flee as Shining’s remaining forces cut them down. Tempest watched a few of the griffons try to flee before scoffing.

“Fools,” she muttered, hobbling over to Shining. “Still, quite a victory Cent…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at Shining’s prone form in shock. “Oh Empress, no… HEALER! I NEED A HEALER, NOW!”

Shining was wondering why in Harmony’s name Tempest was yelling. Or why she was the one with a panicky expression on her face. She was… the Empress’ assassin. She was a fucking hardass who needed to pull the lance out of her ass. And she was kinda cute, sort of. Shining chuckled to himself as his vision grew dim. Harmony, he was so tired. Maybe Mahiri, or even the Empress, could forgive him if he just… took a bit of a nap. Whatever the Jarl did to him knocked him around a bit, he needed rest. A lot of rest.

He looked down, seeing his rent armor, the jagged punctures in his chest. Hints of his own shredded organs.

Oh. Fuck. Well… shit. I’m so sorry Mahiri. I’m so… sor… ry….

Author's Note

Well... this took a bloody while.

Part the Sixth

Serving His Empress

~Or~

How Shining Armor Avoided a Crushed Pelvis by the Empress Daybreaker

Part the Sixth

Shining groaned, shaking his head and feeling his helmet rub against his skull. “Ow, that fucking hurt,” he complained, taking a moment to enjoy the lack of pain he was feeling. “Sweet Faust, you healers are doing a phenomenal job with the pain killers.” He paused for a reply, and yet, much to his surprise, he heard nothing. In fact, he wasn’t hearing any sound at all, save the slow hush of a breeze.

He opened his eyes, looking up at the dreary grey sky before shakily getting up on his hooves. “Okay, this isn’t fun...ny…” The unicorn stared at the view around him, bewildered. The world around him seemed blurry and faded, a wash of grey hanging over everything in sight. Ponies and griffons still fought, but it was at a glacial pace, if at all. “What the…?”

“Hello, young one.”

Shining turned in place, looking for whoever had spoken. Those three words would have been a relief to hear normally, but… the way they were said, the pacing of them was wrong. There were stresses on syllables that shouldn’t have been stressed, as if whoever had spoken had never spoken Common Ponish before, or had only read about it, and practiced only with themselves before speaking with others. And in a split second, Shining gasped in shock. Before him stood a pony. At least, he was pretty sure that it was a pony. Yet the tattered cloak around them didn’t hide the gaunt frame of the equine, nor the sickly pale, off-white fur of their coat, like freshly burnt ash. Shining’s eyes met with the strange pony’s, and his body shivered, as if suddenly splashed with ice water.

“Who… who are you?” Shining asked, taking a step back reflexively. The pony chuckled, taking a slow, deliberate step towards him. “Where am I?”

“You are in the world in between,” the pony responded. “Though I think you already know that, don’t you?” Shining gulped, looking around once more. In the moments since he had talked, the scenery hadn’t even changed, the world still washed out.

“So… I really am dead, aren’t I?” Shining asked, looking back at the pony who nodded. “Then… you’re…” Shining gulped, trying to settle his nerves. “...you’re the Pale Horse?”

“I am.”

Those two words shook Shining to the core as the Pale Horse continued, “The Pale Horse, Death, Mort… I have many names, across many ages. I am the shadow of creation, and yet, its guardian. Beyond the scope of eternity, one can say.” The Pale Horse approached Shining, giving him an uncanny simile of a smile. “You, young Armor, are an odd one.”

Shining looked the Pale Horse up and down, a disbelieving expression on his face. “...respectfully, I am talking with Death, and you’re saying I’m the odd one,” Shining pointed out. The Pale Horse looked at him, and for a moment, Shining was afraid for his soul before the spectral being chuckled, sending shivers up his spine.

“There is nothing ‘odd’ about death, young Armor,” the Pale Horse commented before helping Shining out of the crater. “It comes to all every day, upon all corners of every realm that knows of me. Now, come. I have not had company such as yours for… well, it would be rude to speak ill of those under my care, such as they are at times.” Shining nodded slowly, watching as the Pale Horse began to walk away to another pony close by.

“So… how… what exactly killed me?” Shining asked, following the Pale Horse. The Pale Horse looked at the pony, her chest pierced by a stray bowgun shell.

“You are about to die from blood loss, mostly. There was some shock, but on the whole, your death is currently painless.” The Pale Horse gave him a small smile as it looked over its shoulder. “Were you a child of Gryphus, they would have called it a good death. Slain in battle, facing a superior foe, slaying them before you yourself expire… poetic, in a sense.”

“It was stupid,” Shining retorted. “I acted like an idiot and got myself killed trying to save Tempest. Honestly, I should have just focused on the objective.” Shining huffed, and froze as the Pale Horse turned and gave him a disapproving look.

“You made the tactically irresponsible decision, yes,” the entity agreed. “But Creation as witness, you made the morally right choice. I shall not have the most interesting mortal I’ve met these last long eons become that which has… soured, this particular reality.” Shining blinked, confused.

“Soured? Reality? What are you… I am confused. Umm, Sir.” The stallion looked over the Pale Horse, the entity’s baleful glare melting into amusement as Shining asked his next question hesitantly. “Actually… what form of address do you prefer?”

“Oh little Shining Armor,” the Pale Horse told him, beckoning him to follow. Before Shining’s eyes, the Pale Horse waved a hoof, a rectangular doorway of light appearing before them. “As I have said. I have many titles, and many names. All of which are true.”

“Because you are… well, Death?”

“Quite,” the Pale Horse agreed. “Now, come. I have not had company these many eons, and while I know your tale and how it ends, it is rare that I can… hear it from the horse’s mouth, to borrow a phrase.” Shining looked at the entryway, and then back at the Pale Horse.

“I… I would be honored, I guess,” he said finally, stepping over to the portal. “Umm… I suppose asking about my death would be out of the question?” The Pale Horse gave Shining a genuine smile as it walked beside Shining.

“The answer is simple, young Armor. You shall have nothing to fear from me.” Shining felt a weight lift from his chest, one that he didn’t even know he had. “Now, to better topics. Please, step inside, and I shall listen to your most interesting tale.” Shining chuckled, stepping through the portal with the Pale Horse.

“I don’t know about that,” he said. “I always thought my life was pretty average in the grand scheme of things…”

“HEALER! I NEED A HEALER!”

Tempest was doing her best to stop the flow of blood from Shining’s chest, the stallion’s body already chilled to the touch. All around her, the battle continued to go on, though thankfully, with the griffon Jarl dead, the remaining griffons were quickly losing morale and breaking ranks. None of which was at the forefront of her mind as a harried looking healer slid into the crater with her, eyes going wide in horror. “Please! We need to stabilize the Centurion!” Tempest said, looking at the healer with a desperate expression. “He’s already getting cold!”

“How much blood has he lost?” the healer almost shouted, her horn lighting up and pulling out dozens of yards of gauze before shoving them all onto Shining. In moments, the fabric was stained crimson, the healer’s horn glowing brighter as she pulled out potions.

“I… I don’t know!” Tempest admitted, shaking her head. “A lot, that’s all I know!”

“Fuck!” The healer looked at Tempest, then grunted. “Since your horn is about as useful as a strainer in the ocean, get your hooves on this, keep applying pressure! I need to get the sanguinary potions! Anything to keep him from fully bleeding out!” Tempest nodded, putting her hooves on the gauze and putting pressure on Shining’s wounds.

Just keep it together, Tempest thought, the healer moving beside her to shove blood potions down Shining’s throat. It’s not the first time you’ve seen ponies die. Tartarus, it’s not even going to be the last. So why am I scared about this one dying?

A griffon landed nearby, flapping their wings to try and get away before a dirt and blood covered Blueberry Frost galloped by, stabbing the hen in the chest with her lance before stopping by Tempest and the healer. “Oh Empress!” Frost said, looking at the sight below her before looking back at the ruined outpost. “You there! Yes, you!” A pegasus dropped to the ground, her chest heaving in exertion. “Get back to the camp, tell the healers there that we need immediate treatment for Centurion Armor! Every healing potion under the Empress’ suns, now!”

“Yes Master Sergeant!” the pegasus exclaimed, jumping back into the air and flying off as fast as she could. Frost looked back at Tempest, her expression grave.

“What the fuck happened, Assassin?” Even with the din of the dying, the question cut through Tempest like ice, Frost’s eyes boring into her soul as Tempest reached over to the healer’s bag and grabbed another wad of gauze.

“He… He took… Empress, it’s all my…,” Tempest stammered, her breathing quickening as Shining’s blood flow began to lessen. “Healer! We need to put him in a stasis spell, or freeze him, just… just please, do anything you can think of to keep him alive just a bit longer!” she begged.

Frost dropped into the crater next to her, horn lighting up and pressing down on the gauze. “Assassin… Shadow, we need to at least stabilize him enough to move out of this crater!” the mare said. “We can’t walk him back, that’ll take too long, and I don’t think any unicorn here has the skill to pull off a stasis spell for long. Teleportation is possible, but those healers capable of it are back in camp, and need to know where they’re jumping to.”

Tempest grimaced at Frost’s words. She looked back at Shining’s body, could see that he was barely even breathing. “That… that isn’t entirely true,” Tempest said, calling upon her magic, her stub already throbbing in pain as the mana pooled up. Frost looked at her, or, more accurately, the electric green sparks coming from the other unicorn’s horn stub. “I can’t… I can’t cast magic. Not like you can, but the Empress made sure that I knew the basic theories of common spellcraft.”

Frost put a hoof on Tempest’s shoulder, suddenly alarmed. “Are you crazy?! That would kill you AND Shining both! You could go miles off course, meld with rock, pop up halfway through a wall, you just, I mean-!”

“I know where the camp is, and I know the cost,” Tempest cut in. By now, the pain in her horn was as if she had a white hot poker shoved into her brain, but still, she kept the spell in mind, reaching over and grabbing Shining. “We can’t wait. Empress would… do something much worse if her new favorite died because we didn’t save him.” Tempest grit her teeth in pain as she pictured the healer’s pavilion, bringing up the spell matrix in her mind. The mana strain was about to break, she was in agony, worse than the Ursa, and then…

Tempest howled, releasing the magic and with a flash of emerald light, she, Shining, Frost, and the other healer vanished, only to reappear in the pavilion, surprising dozens of healers. Tempest looked over her shoulder at them, her body swaying unsteadily until she caught sight of a horrified Mahiri. “Shining… help… him…,” she managed to get out before falling to her side, mana exhaustion hitting her hard as a platoon of healers rushed to their side, levitating Shining away and towards a proper emergency care tent. Mahiri rushed over to Tempest, the zebra pulling Tempest to her hooves as the former rapidly spoke in her native tongue in panic.

“Can’t… can’t underst… tired…” Tempest murmured, her vision swimming with black spots before the urge to close her eyes became too great. And then, with zero grace, the assassin passed out.

Shining suddenly clutched his chest, gasping as the tea in his hoof nearly fell to the floor. The Pale Horse watched, a serene expression on their face as Shining recomposed himself. “Surely, the tea is not entirely disagreeable,” the Pale Horse commented with an approximation of a wry smile. The pair were inside of a small cafe of sorts, the realm still greyed out in a timeless, misty limbo as Shining regaled Death with stories of his life.

“No, sorry, it’s just that I umm…” Shining grunted in pain as something coursed through him, his magic pulsating erratically. “Fuck! What in Tartarus is-?”

“Your healers,” the Pale Horse told him, rising from its seat and beckoning for Shining to follow. “They are trying to save you.” Shining groaned, getting up and following the spectre as it created yet another portal, the two going through it.

“But… I’m dead, aren’t I?”

The Pale Horse chuckled. “You are mostly dead,” it explained. “There is a difference between true death, and only mostly dead. When one is only mostly dead, there is still a chance to bring you back, however slim and scant. And at truly dead, the only thing left to do is look for pocket change, one supposes,” the Pale Horse said, cracking a smile. Shining looked at it, face scrunched up in thought before laughing.

“Okay, that’s actually kind of funny,” the stallion quipped, just as he looked around and saw himself at his company’s base camp. “Wait, this is the camp. Why… where?”

Another lance of pain shot through his chest, bringing Shining to the ground as the Pale Horse stood over him. “You will live, young Armor,” the entity said, Shining writhing on the ground before the Pale Horse reached for him and touched his shoulder. Instantly, the stallion was calmed, Shining looking into the Pale Horse’s eyes. “Live, and have no fear of me.”

Shining looked at the Pale Horse, and nodded. He felt heat bloom in his chest, blood stirring in his veins as the Pale Horse let go of him. “Will I remember any of this? When I wake up?”

“No. But in the twilight of dusk and dawn, between the bliss of sleep, and the cruelty of waking… perhaps.”

Shining nodded, closing his eyes as the heat within bloomed…

...and the tent his body was in nearly exploded, the healers covering their faces as from inside Shining’s sundered armor, the phoenix feather the Empress gave him ignited. The assembled healers watched, Mahiri and Frost in particular watching in awe as the most critical of Shining’s wounds closed up, tongues of fire racing along his body, repairing the damage before the stallion’s body fell back onto the bed, Shining gasping for breath with wide panicked eyes.

“Quick, restrain him!” the head nurse shouted as Shining’s limbs flailed, nurse ponies dog-piling onto him as a nurse rushed over, casting a calming spell as another held his mouth open long enough to shove a blue potion down his throat.

“What just… was that?” Frost asked, bewildered and in awe as Mahiri slumped against her.

“A feather from the huma,” Mahiri muttered. “You call it a phoenix, but…”

“Those birds haven’t been seen in the Empire for nearly six hundred years, the only things left are the feathers,” Frost confirmed, still in awe as the healers rushed to stabilize Shining. “Tartarus, I didn’t even know he had a feather on him! Empress keeps those things reserved for her generals and trusted advisors!” Mahiri scoffed, rolling her eyes as the two mares were soon forced out of the tent.

“Well, it is our dear Shining,” the zebra pointed out. “If anyone could fuck a feather out of the Empress, it would be him.” Frost chuckled, shaking her head until they came upon an occupied cot. There, laid out comatose, was Tempest Shadow. If not for the shallow rise and fall of her barrel, most passing ponies would have assumed her dead. “...and she teleported you here? With a broken horn?”

“Yeah.” Frost looked at the plum colored mare and gave her a respectful nod. “I’ve met mages in Canterlot with working horns who couldn’t pull what she did off. It’s a miracle she isn’t dead, but… Empress willing, she and the Centurion can both talk about this to the Empress in pony.” Mahiri went to Tempest’s side and patted her on the shoulder.

“Kaa na nguvu, dhoruba nzuri,” Mahiri told Tempest before looking back at Frost. “We should get the camp ready for the others. Wounded, prisoners… the dead.”

“Of course.” Frost headed out, catching sight of the first few squads of soldiers, griffin prisoners in tow. “Empress knows we’re going to have our hooves full…”

Tempest woke up, and immediately wished that she hadn’t as her stump throbbed furiously, her body drained of energy. Groaning, the mare looked around and saw that she was in the common healer’s tent, cot upon cot next to her with injured ponies and griffons laying on top of them in various stages of care. “Fuck,” Tempest hissed, sitting up and regretting it, feeling nauseous. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a healer trotting over to her, a quill and parchment held up by their magic as they came to her side.

“Lady Tempest! You’re awake! That’s good, you were touch and go yourself for quite some time,” the healer said, scribbling notes as Tempest groaned.

“‘Touch and go’? Touch and go how?” The healer looked at Tempest, bewildered.

“Lady Shadow… you almost died from burning out your magical core,” she explained. “Every unicorn knows this, how could-?” Tempest gave her a look that could chill a dragon’s blood, the healer soon shutting up and revising her statement. “...w-w-what I mean is… the teleportation spell you used brought not only you, but Healer Stout Heart, Sergeant Frost, and the Centurion here to camp. It is ordinarily a spell only used by master mages from the College, and often only after a lifetime of training. You umm…”

“So, I should be dead then, is that what you’re trying to get at?” Tempest asked dryly, coughing into the crook of her foreleg. The healer nodded, procuring a glass of water and giving it to Tempest. The assassin looked at the glass, then at the healer, and sighed, taking a drink from it and leaving the healer to cower in silence. “...the Centurion?”

“Alive, thankfully.”

Tempest let out a sigh of relief. That’s one disaster averted, she thought, right as the healer continued. “Of course, the Centurion lost a lot of blood, and many of his vital organs had been damaged when you brought him in. We don’t know how he acquired a phoenix feather, but it did repair the worst of the damage enough so that we could take over and-”

“He had a Faust-damned phoenix feather?!” Tempest hissed, reaching over and grabbing the healer, dragging her in close. “How in the seven rings of Tartarus did he get a damned phoenix feather?! That daft, selfless dumbass couldn’t have earned a feather this early in his career unless…” And just as suddenly, the flames of Tempest’s ire faded as she realized just how he got the feather in question.

...she never told me… I never knew he…

Taking a deep breath as she let the healer go, Tempest let out her frustrations with a slow exhale. “Is the Centurion safe?” she asked. “And may I see him?”

“Well…” The healer looked at Tempest, the mare giving the healer a flat glare of disapproval. “I… the zebra moved him to his personal tent, it’s umm… it’s uh…”

“I’ll find it.” Tempest slowly got up off the cot, trotting to the exit as the healer continued.

“He hasn’t woken up, not since we sedated him after he umm… set fire to the ward with his feather.”

“Not a problem. He’s far more bearable when he’s shut up,” Tempest deadpanned as she finally exited the tent and stepped outside. She then groaned as the healer exited, standing next to her.

“Ma’am, you really should be resting,” the healer said. “You burnt out your core, and you’ve been injured, and-”

“If you do not stop talking, I will see you in my cot, with your head up your ass,” Tempest cut in coldly. “Now, leave me be.” The healer cowered from Tempest as the latter started to walk through the camp, a slight limp in her step. Damn, I do need rest… but not until I see the Centurion alive myself. Navigating through the maze of tents, she soon found Shining’s tent, its entrance guarded by Sergeant Frost and another pony. Frost caught sight of her as she approached, the earth pony giving her a once over.

“...ye look like shit.”

For once, Tempest laughed, grimacing as she felt something constrict in her chest. “You should see the other guy,” she retorted, Frost giving her a grim smirk. Tempest’s expression fell as she stood up straight. “The Centurion… has he woken up?” Frost shook her head.

“Nope. He’s been out cold since the feather healed him. That, and the docs shoved enough calmin’ droughts down his throat to knock out a minotaur I reckon ‘bout five, six times over.” Tempest blinked, stunned.

“That… that would kill even the hardiest earth pony out there,” Tempest noted. Frost nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, but whatever it was, if the Pale Horse was comin’ for him, then the Centurion put up a damn good whoopin’,” Frost remarked. Tempest nodded, then glanced at the tent flaps. Frost nodded, stepping aside and letting her through. The assassin stepped inside, noting that the inside of the tent seemed… bare. Not that she had any reason to complain about it herself, but from what she knew of the stallion, and of the zebra, it was… unsettling.

In the back, Shining’s cot was set up, the stallion tucked under a few sheets and asleep, his chest rising and falling. Looking around, Tempest didn’t see Mahiri anywhere nearby him, and slowly made her way closer to the officer. With each step she took, Tempest saw just how bad his situation really was. His body was thin, sunken in a bit, his fur lacking its usual luster. Stepping up to the bed, Tempest hesitantly reached out for the covers, stopping at the last moment.

“Oh come on Tempest, it’s just a body,” she said to herself. “You’ve seen worse.” With that brief inspirational pep talk, Tempest drew the sheets back and hissed, flinching at the sight below her. All across his chest, wicked, angry slashes of red scar tissue went across his barrel, a stab wound just above where his heart would have been. Tempest leaned over, grimacing as she saw a new scar just behind his left shoulder.

“Oh merciful Harmony… you dumb bastard, you should have just… you should have let me die,” she told him quietly, pulling the sheets back over him. “The mission couldn’t possibly be worth saving me. Oh Empress, if you don’t wake up, it’s my ass the Empress is going to incinerate, so please, wake the fuck up.”

No response from the still unconscious unicorn.

Tempest sighed, pulling up a seat next to the bed and settling down next to him. “You, Shining Armor, are the single most frustrating fucking bastard I’ve ever met,” she told him. “You fuck your way into the Empress’ good graces, you act like a complete political moron, and… and for Faust’s sake, you’re too fucking nice! Guard reform, slave and servant protections? All because you have a zebra mare who is…” Tempest paused, groaning as she hid her face in her hooves. “...admittedly a far more competent pony than I assumed. Don’t ever tell her that. Actually, forget I ever said that.”

“And that’s the other thing. Ever since I met you, I’ve… I’ve felt different.” Tempest huffed, shaking her head. “The first time I saw you, it was after you laid with the Empress the first time. You were confused, just… going with what she demanded of you. No bargains, no pleas. Just… duty. Then you come back from the Savannah, and… you manage to get the Empress to listen to you. All by being a… a nice pony. No one is just a nice person, it’s just… it just doesn’t happen and yet, you… yet you…” Tempest groaned, letting her head rest on top of her forelimbs as she laid them up on the bed. “It just doesn’t make sense that some stallion from a minor nobility would be so fucking nice to people. Nice, respectful, and… Faust, willing to save me.”

Tempest huffed, glancing at his face. “Just… look, I’m an assassin. Faust, I’m the fucking ‘Empress’ Shadow’. That’s not a name folks just throw around, and it’s certainly not a pony that people go after to save. And you, you dumb, handsome, and well hung dumbass, had to go and nearly die saving me. For Tartarus sake, there are better ways to die you know! Like, I don’t know, getting your pelvis crushed by the Empress as she rides you! Which you SOMEHOW fucking survived! You dumb fuck, I was partially sent out here to make sure that you DIDN’T do something stupid, like dying, and yet you did it anyway, by saving me! Me, the fucking assassin!” By this point, tears were running down Tempest’s face as she shook, holding back the urge to hit something, anything at all.

“So please, just… just wake up. Wake up, go back to Canterlot and retire, be the Empress’ consort for a few years,” Tempest pleaded. “Just… I… I don’t want you to die. Please?”

There was silence in the tent as Tempest stewed, her head resting on top of Shining for who knew how long. Her eyes had only just gotten closed when a rustle of cloth got her attention, as well as some pony’s hoof on her shoulder.

“You know…” Tempest jerked up, looking at Shining as he looked at her with a half-lidded eye, his voice hoarse, “There are easier ways to say ‘Hey, would you like to go on a date after work sometime,’ you know that, right?”

Tempest felt her gut sink in abject horror. “Fuck, umm… how much of that did you hear?” she asked. Shining chuckled, grimacing in pain.

“Not much. I was kinda still half asleep when you started talking, but… I almost did laugh when you got to how I avoided a crushed pelvis by the Empress,” he answered. “Definitely heard everything after that.” Tempest made to leave, only for Shining to hold onto her. “Hey, I’m not mad. Please, stay?”

“Why? Because of me, you almost died.”

“Tempest, I’m a soldier. It’s an occupational hazard,” he pointed out. “And… look, everyone dies. Empress excepting, of course, but still.” Tempest saw him smile, eyes closed as he nodded. “If I had to go through that battle again, I wouldn’t change a damn thing.”

“But… but why? I’m just an assassin that the-,” Tempest tried to say before Shining huffed.

“I saved you because I care about you,” he told her. “Same way I care about anypony else. Maybe even a bit more, because I know that the Empress cares about you.” She blinked as he continued, “Because yeah, I do remember the first time I saw you. I saw a stunningly beautiful mare, who didn’t give a damn about her lack of a horn, and if that mare could just walk into the Empress’ bedchambers without getting blasted, then that meant she was special. So stop thinking that I will only ever think of you as ‘Tempest the Assassin’ when I first met, and want to know, Tempest the Pony, who is an incredibly badass bitch that can fuck up a griffin Jarl. Okay?”

Tempest was struck silent by his words, gaping at him in disbelief as Shining watched her reaction. She just… this had never happened to her before. Sure, she’d had her fair share of… affairs, but nothing meaningful! All she had needed since foalhood was the Empress, and yet, this stallion was… was…

Without warning, Tempest lunged forward, wrapping her limbs around Shining in a great big hug. “Oh gods dammit all, don’t you ever change then you stupid, naive, noble bastard!” Tempest begged with a whisper.

“...empes… oo iiight!”

“Hmm?” Tempest asked with a grunt.

Shining hissed, grimacing in pain. “Too… tight! Air! Paaaiiiiiin!” Tempest blinked, then realized just what he was saying as she let go of him. Shining gasped for air, coughing weakly as Tempest stood by his side, a tide of embarrassment rising inside of her.

“Oh no, Centurion, I’m so, I didn’t mean to-!” Tempest struggled to apologize as Shining waved it off weakly.

“It’s fine, it’s fine,” he sputtered. “I’m glad to be alive, and I’m glad you’re okay! Empress, I need a breather…” The mare nodded, letting him rest for a bit before clearing her throat.

“Well, still, I shouldn’t have… it wasn’t…” Tempest cleared her throat, sitting up straight with as much dignity as she could muster. “My behavior wasn’t proper, Centurion Armor. Forgive me the breach in protocol.” Shining scoffed, rolling his eyes at her.

“You can call me Shining, you know,” he said. “You’ve earned it, saving my flank from death and all that.” Tempest quirked a scarred eyebrow at him.

“Are… are you certain?” Shining nodded. Tempest nodded, a soft, timid smile on her own face. “Then… I offer the same courtesy. You can call me Tempest.” Shining nodded once more, sighing and leaning back in his bed. “I would… I suppose under normal circumstances, I would leave you to rest under care of your sergeant and her fellow guard. However, I am paranoid, and thus will stay here to ensure you do not get assassinated while you sleep.”

“Spare cot in the corner,” Shining pointed out, waving a hoof to what would be his field desk. “Mahiri insisted after I fell asleep sitting at the desk too many times.” Tempest grunted, walking over and pulling the cot out. Quietly, she set it up close to Shining’s bed, making sure to keep one eye on the entrance as she got comfortable. “Rest easy Tempest. Empress knows you’ve earned it,” he said, closing his eyes again.

“I’ll rest easy when I’m dead,” she grumbled. Shining snorted in amusement.

“Been there, done that. Was kind of boring.”

Tempest chuckled at the grim joke, her eyelids suddenly heavy as exhaustion set in. “Well… rest well yourself Shining,” she said before yawning. In moments, both stallion and mare were asleep, while by the tent flap, Blueberry Frost and the other mare peeked in.

Pulling away, the other mare took her helmet off to reveal Mahiri, the zebra muttering in her native tongue as Frost chuckled. “I mean… I’mma be honest, didn’t expect any o’ that,” the sergeant commented as she dug into her saddle bag and pulled out a few coins. “How did you?”

“I know my love well, and the kinds of mares he seems to attract,” Mahiri retorted, holding out her hoof for Frost to drop the coins on. “If he can manage to woo myself and the Empress, then the Shadow would be a pleasant walk in comparison.” Counting out the coins, Mahiri tucked them away before looking at Frost. “What about you? You knew him before I met you, did you not?”

“Only by a couple of days. Then that shit at the fort happened, and you know the rest,” Frost answered. “Why do you ask?”

Mahiri peeked back into the tent, and then glanced at her companion. “...and you’ve never been curious?” Frost blinked, taking a moment to process what Mahiri was implying before letting out a nervous chuckle.

“Well, yes, I mean, he is a catch of a stallion, I’ll give ‘im that,” she said, much to the zebra’s pleased expression. “But he and I are… well, it’s easier for us both if we don’ go foolin’ ‘round none. I sure don’ want to make things odd between us while on duty.”

“So… you’re just looking for the right one then?”

Frost nodded, shrugging. “That, and I ain’ lookin’ to get between you, Miss Shadow there, or Harmony forbid, the Empress herself and him. He and I both deserve the best for each other, and I ain’ that for him.” She chuckled, looking over at Mahiri with a mischievous smirk. “Still won’t stop me from thinkin’ ‘bout it from time to time for my own pleasure of course, if you don’t object none?”

Mahiri gave her a look. “I share him with the Empress.”

“...fair point.” The pair looked back over the camp, watching as ponies moved about their business, standing guard in silent vigil.

Nearly a week had passed since the battle, and Shining was only just cleared for desk work by the healers, and the first time he’d been allowed to get out of bed at all. Granted, he was still in his tent, but now that he could finally get something done, he was all too eager to work. “Alright, Frost, how many did we lose?” he asked her, going over reports as Frost and Tempest stood in front of him.

“Thirty-five dead, ‘nother twenty or so still getting patched up,” Frost answered. “Support staff that Miss Shadow brought along lost half their number, but the toll could’ve been worse without your shields up.” Shining nodded as he looked at Tempest, who stepped forward.

“Per your orders, and from digging around more, we recovered another five pony hostages from within the keep itself,” Tempest said. “We found the bodies of seven more buried in the dungeons.”

“I see. And the griffons?”

“Lot of ‘em are scared bundles of fur and feathers, barely past foalhood really,” Frost explained. “Think this was the first time any of them ever saw battle. Jarl of theirs must’ve been pretty persuasive to get them to come here.” Tempest huffed.

“It was a Jarl. As far as the griffons are concerned, that’s just a step down from a direct order from a king, not that they have one. The entire royal line was presumed killed off about thirty years ago,” Tempest explained. “The old keep of Boreas in Griffonstone was set ablaze, killed Godric Boreas and his mate for sure. Of course, stories say they had a hatchling, but again, the whole place went up in smoke, and no one can say for sure.”

Shining scoffed. “Are you kidding? With our luck, the griffon is probably alive, well, planning our demise or quite possibly making a dynasty of bastards the size of our Empress’ considerable throne,” he commented, making Frost laugh and Tempest chortle in amusement. “Hard to say at the moment. Still, that is a problem for down the road. How capable are we of being able to restore the outpost?”

“Well, we-”

Before Frost could continue, the trio heard yelling from outside the tent before a pony barged in, followed by a pair of harried guardsmares. “I’m sorry, who are you?” Shining asked, eyes narrowed as Tempest and Frost immediately squared off against the intruder. Said intruder was a bit on the heavy side, a financial cutie mark on his flank as he stood up, trying to seem imposing to Shining… and utterly failing to do so.

“I am Governor Fund, and I demand to know what you plan to do with the civil unrest here!” Fund demanded. There was a moment of quiet in the tent before Shining cleared his throat.

“Forgive me, but I wasn’t aware that I took orders from governors,” Shining said flatly. “My orders come from my superiors, and they, in turn, receive the Captain-General of the Guard. And they answer only to the Empress, or those select few who have earned the right to speak in her stead. From what I can see Governor Fund, you are neither the Captain-General nor the Empress, so why are you in my tent?”

Fund’s eyes twitched as he stomped his hoof against the ground, looking like a petulant foal. “Well I… I have… I have never!” he stammered. “I want you to take action against these flea bitten, craven savages! They took me prisoner, assaulted my staff, and they likely robbed me of all my-!”

“Robbed? Why would you care about bein’ robbed at a time like this?” Frost asked, shutting Fund up in a heartbeat. “You should be glad you even got out alive!”

Shining looked at Fund’s cutie mark, his brow furrowed as he looked at Fund carefully. “...what did you say your name was?” he asked, Fund suddenly growing pale under his fur.

“Well, I umm, I’m Governor Fund, I-I-I…,” the pony stammered stepping back hastily. Shining nodded, the two soldiers behind Fund holding their lances across the entrance to the tent.

“Name. In full. Now.” Shining’s tone brokered no argument.

“...Slush Fund,” the governor admitted finally. Tempest huffed, rolling her eyes.

“Oh of course it had to be you,” she commented dryly. “Let me guess, you thought you could raise the taxes of the griffons here to some absurd rate, send in only the required amount to the Empress, and then pocket the rest? In fact, I’m sure if we took a look at your finances, we’re going to see some very expensive things that you shouldn’t have out here.” By her side, Frost’s expression grew increasingly livid as realization set in.

“Wait a minute, you mean all this shit that happened was because of one lousy bloodsucking PARASITE?!?” Frost yelled. Fund yelped in panic as Frost lunged at him, only for Shining’s magic to hold her back.

“Sergeant Major, we do not attack prisoners in a blind rage, no matter how justified,” Shining told her. Frost simmered down, glaring daggers at Fund as he turned his attention to Tempest. “Miss Shadow… I believe embezzling from the Royal Treasury is a capital offense, is it not?”

“That it is,” Tempest confirmed, a dark smirk on her face. Fund’s face paled, fully realizing how much shit he was in. “And as one of those ponies that can speak with the Empress’ voice… I am not entitled to be all that lenient on you.”

“Indeed, she’s not,” Shining said. “Besides, you should see what she did to the Jarl who took you captive. Wasn’t pretty. Still…” He stood up, groaning from the pain. “...I’ll not have her execute you on the spot. In fact, you are not going to face reprisal from anyone under my command here.”

“...really?” Fund asked, Frost and Tempest looking back at Shining in confusion. Shining nodded grimly.

“Indeed. You wronged the people whom you were charged to represent. I can only find it fitting that you answer to their justice as well. Is that agreeable, Miss Shadow?”

Tempest blinked, stunned for a moment before a most blood chilling smirk grew on her face. “You know what Centurion? You’re right.” She looked back at Fund, the portly stallion quivering in fear as a puddle grew from under him. “I think the griffons should have a chance at justice with this one. Spare me having to write the paperwork.”

“What?! No, NO! YOU CAN’T DO THIS!” Fund shouted as the guards grabbed him, dragging him out of the tent. “YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME, I AM THE GOVERNOR OF GRIFFONSTONE, I-I-I-I HAVE CONNECTIONS!!”

“Sir, I’m friends with the Empress’ Shadow, I wrote the slave reforms you no doubt ignored, and I share the Empress’ bed on her whim,” Shining deadpanned. “If your ‘connections’ can beat that, then you have nothing to fear.” Fund screamed, struggling to escape the guards as Shining added, “Put him in irons, we’ll let the griffons decide his fate once we get back to Griffonstone.”

The other stallion screamed in terror as Tempest and Frost looked back at him. “A bit excessive, don’t ya think?” Frost asked. “You know those griffons are probably gonna tear him limb from limb in the middle of town square, right?” Shining sighed, letting his face drop into his hooves.

“Blueberry,” Shining said, making the two mares flinch at the casual use of the sergeant’s name, “If we kill him now, then the standards which I set up for the Legions and the Guard are useless, and I’ll likely lose my command, if not my life. If we bring him with us back to Canterlot, who’s to say that the griffons won’t just rebel even worse than they did just now? I’m not happy with the decision, I’m really not, but really, what can I do?”

“Well, I suppose you could step up as provisional governor,” Tempest said. “We’ll contact the Empress, appaise her of the situation, and then see what she says.” Shining groaned, even as Frost whistled for a soldier to come inside the tent.

“Private, is the wireless set up?” Shining asked, glancing at Tempest.

“Yes sir. You needed a message sent sir?”

Shining nodded. “Yes. Priority message to the Empress, via Major Swift Sky. Outpost secured, recovered survivors. Uncovered abuse of power by governor, requesting immediate replacement of leadership. Placing myself in temporary command until replacement arrives. Will return in Griffonstone in three days.”

The soldier nodded, galloping away to send the message, Mahiri stepping inside to look at Shining, confused. “What is going on? There was a stallion kicking and screaming, soldiers shoving a bridle in his mouth.” The trio looked between themselves before Shining spoke up.

“My love… Governor Slush Fund has been found to have been embezzling funds,” Shining explained, Mahiri’s eyes going wide. “Overtaxing the griffons, lying to the treasury, it's bound to be a political shitstorm. And to top it all off… he will not be facing reprisal from myself, Miss Shadow, or any other remaining soldier in my command.”

There was a moment of silence in the tent before the zebra mare took a deep breath, a hoof scraping the ground forcefully. Moments passed until finally Mahiri spoke. “Shining Armor… if you are not punishing him, then I suppose that you are letting the griffons do so?” Shining nodded. The zebra sighed, walking over to him and pulling him away from the table. “Shining, my mpenzi… I will say this once,” she whispered. “This stallion deserves punishment if his actions led to many dying needlessly. But promise me, please, promise me, that you will not let this happen again. For our sake.”

Shining looked into her eyes, the two of them standing in silence before they slowly hugged each other. To the side, Tempest edged herself away, giving the pair space as Frost did the same.

“Sir, I’ll go and get the troops ready to move back onto the ships,” Frost said. “I’m sure the Empress’ reply’ll be fast.” Tempest nodded in agreement as she started to walk out.

“I’ll tell the engineers to start repairing the fort, place should be up and running in no time,” Tempest added, letting Frost pass her as she left, leaving Shining and Mahiri alone in the tent for a bit longer. The two held each other for a moment longer before the zebra pulled away.

“Mahiri… thank you,” Shining told her, kissing her on the cheek. “I… the past week has been, well… I just-”

“Shh,” Mahiri held a hoof up to his lips, silencing him. “I understand that. All I ask, and pray, is that you don’t compromise who you are anymore. Your soldiers, the Empire… the Empress, need you to be strong enough to say no.” Shining nodded, smiling as he leaned over and nuzzled her, putting a hoof around her midsection and caressing her belly.

“Okay. I will… for both of you. I promise.” Mahiri smiled, content to hold onto Shining for just a moment longer before duty called.

They arrived in Griffonstone three days later, and already, Shining was getting a major headache. Just outside the airship docks, a mob of infuriated griffons were gathered, cawing and braying for blood as Shining and Tempest took the lead, Slush Fund behind them and surrounded by soldiers. “Well, if nothing else, it’s going to be a show worthy of Tartarus!” Tempest shouted over the noise, Shining grunting in annoyance.

“That’s what I’m afraid of!” he answered, making his way through the crowds until he and his ‘escort’ reached the center of town. Shining looked up and saw the cracked and moss covered statue of a resplendent griffon king, and silently wondered if that king had ever had to deal with a mob of angry griffons before. Tempest by his side, the guards quickly shoved Slush Fund next to Shining as they worked to give them space, Shining looking over the crowd and swallowing his dread.

Oh Harmony, this is going to go so well, Shining thought sarcastically to himself before clearing his throat and speaking. “Citizens of Griffonstone, please, remain calm!”

“CALM?!” one of the griffons shouted, waving a clawed fist into the air. “YOU BASTARDS WENT AND KILLED OUR OWN BECAUSE OF THAT BIT HOARDING FUCK NEXT TO YOU! WHY SHOULD WE STAY CALM?! GROVER’S BALLS, WE SHOULD JUST-!”

“We should just what?”

The voice cut through the angered shouts of the crowd like a knife, silencing the griffons as Shining and Tempest spotted the speaker. Making their way to the front, a bulky griffon stepped forward, a brown and grey male wearing a simple chainmail shirt. Jaded green eyes locked onto Shining’s own blue for a moment before the griffon looked at one of the others. “Swarm the legionnaires here, be done with it?” the griffon continued. “Do that, and the only thing you’ll be bringing here is a full legion, ready for blood at the least. Do us all a favor, fly away and fuck off.”

“And you are?” Shining asked, nodding to the griffon.

“A concerned citizen,” the grif said mockingly. “You?”

“Centurion Shining Armor. You the leader here?”

The grif scoffed. “I don’t lead shit here, no grif does. Not unless you pay.” Shining chuffed.

“Or you’re a Jarl.” Shining saw, if only for a moment, something resembling a flash of panic in the griffon’s eyes before they continued staring Shining down.

“Let me guess, you managed to defeat Jarl Gorm?” they asked.

“Well, we didn’t exactly have time to exchange names, given that we were trying to kill each other, but I can assume so,” Shining replied, a murmur going through the crowd. “Look, I don’t even want to be here, but,” Shining nudged Slush Fund forward with a hoof, the latter looking completely terrified, “I know now that this… bastard here, robbed all of you blind. By Imperial law, his life is mine to decide.”

“Your point?”

Shining took a deep breath. “Simple. I’m letting you, and the citizens of Griffonstone, decide his fate. After all, he stole from you. Seems fitting to let you all take back.” The crowd went quiet, the griffon in charge looking between the mob and Fund. Finally, the grif looked back at Shining warily.

“...and what in Grover’s crown makes you think I can trust you? That if we take him, that you won’t just kill us all anyway?” Shining let out a grim laugh as he pointed at Fund.

“Honestly? You don’t. But the only way to know for sure is to extend it,” Shining answered. The griffon closed their eyes, deep in thought before exhaling, nodding.

“Alright then. ALL YOU FEATHERY FUCKS, LISTEN UP!” the griffon shouted, the crowd going still. “HERE’S WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN! ALL OF YOU GET ONE, YES, ONE HIT ON THIS FUCKLESS WEASEL! NO KILLING HIM, OR MAIMING HIM TO THE POINT OF DEATH! YOU GET ONE HIT ONLY! AFTER THAT, GO TO HIS MANSION, AND GET ONLY ONE ITEM FROM INSIDE! GOT IT?” When no one in the crowd complained, the griffon nodded. “Good.” In a flash, the griffon had crossed the distance between them and Slush Fund, and rammed their elbow into his face, knocking the pony flat on their side. “Have at it then.”

The mob rushed forward, the soldiers getting out of the way as griffon after griffon delivered blows to Slush Fund, Tempest narrowing her eyes as she tracked the lightly armored griffon, Shining overseeing the beating. The griffon was about to take off, pausing only to look back at them when Tempest noticed the unusual facial markings of the griffon, up until they took off. “I don’t trust that griffon,” she muttered to Shining, leaning in close so that the other griffons couldn’t hear.

“Is that you, or your training talking?” Shining asked.

“Shining, the griffon doesn’t give us a name, implies he’s not a jarl, and then somehow gets a mob of griffons out for blood to listen to them,” Tempest explained. “I’ve seen what a mob of angry griffons can do, it’s not pretty. But them being commanded by one griffon? It’s suspicious.”

“Well, as far as I’m concerned, so long as this city isn’t erupting in a literal bloodbath, I can live with one oddly charismatic griffon,” Shining shot back. Tempest shook her head, letting out a disbelieving chuckle.

“Well, he’s not the only oddly charismatic being I know,” she told him, nudging his flank with her own. “And had others underestimate him for it.” Shining glanced at her, just as a pegasus messenger flew in, nodding to Shining.

“Centurion Armor sir, we have visitors from the capitol waiting at the embassy!” she reported.

Shining nodded, sighing in relief. “Oh thank Harmony… who is it?”

The messenger gulped hesitantly. “Sir… it’s the Empress herself.”

“...oh shit.”

Author's Note

Sweet merciful Fausticorn this took too long to write... freaking COVID.