The Shadow of the Moon

The Shadow of the Moon

Act 1: Drifting

Chapter 9: Getting Closer...

I was standing outside the “door” that led to headquarters. It was going to be a long night. As a member of the LSTD I had one screwed up sleep schedule. Sometimes I slept at night and worked the day, or slept through the day and worked at night. My sleep was scheduled around the raids and not because I needed to be there to kick in the door. Since Luna appointed me case lead on catching the ponies responsible behind the ritualistic murders of the Seen, I had been placed on restricted field duty, and in place of that I was permitted to stop by Princess Luna’s chambers to deliver reports and news so that she didn’t have to trek all the way down. Now I spent most of my time in the command center listening in and giving orders over the microphone. That wasn’t to say that being the commander didn’t have its own set of highs and lows, or gets my adrenaline going, but it wasn’t the same as actually being there in full tactical gear sweeping buildings.

Tonight had been rough. The information we had been able to extract from the prisoners we captured had proved invaluable up to now. In the past month, my raid teams had taken down twelve locations throughout Canterlot. We had been really kicking ass and taking names. Some of the support ponies in the command center had begun calling the raid teams “Midnight’s Shadows” and the name stuck. We suffered no casualties; we struck fast, and left no trace. Everything was looking up.

After today though, it seemed we might be back to square one. I had sent several teams to go make a bust on a confirmed Seen hangout. The teams were excited and in high spirits. The command room was bristling with anticipation. We ran like a well-oiled machine. I gave the go ahead and the teams rushed the building. We weren’t expecting the kind of surprise the teams found. After the building had some cleared and secured, my “Shadows” came back to base and the evidence retrieval team moved in.

I had just finished with mission debriefing. It was small; made up of myself and my “Shadows.” I would take their accounts and the evidence submitted and present it to Princess Luna privately. Right now though, I had a bigger concern. I walked through to castle heading to Princess Luna’s chambers. Over the last month, I had learned to navigate the maze of hallways and could find just about anything now. I marveled at the craftsponies that built this place. The attention to detail was impeccable. I would have to ask one of the Princesses how long it had taken to build this place sometime.

Taking a right I in the right hallway and Princess Luna’s chambers were on the left. As I approached her room the guards stopped me.

“Sorry, but you can’t enter,” the guard on the left droned.

I was taken aback, “Excuse me?”

“You are excused,” the right guard smirked.

I looked at him incredulously, “What was that smart-ass?”

“He said you were excused,” the large earth pony guard took a step towards me, “Now I recommend you best run along and comeback later. The Princess said no visitors, aside from her sister and a select few.”

I didn’t back down, “Well soldier, I can assure you I am one of the select few.”

“Well, I sure don’t recognize you, so scram,” he barks as he moves forward another step.

These two were starting to run through my patience quickly, “I am Lieutenant Midnight Shadow with special orders from the Princess, now get out of my way.”

“What division,” the guard interrogated, “I want to clear this first.”

I facehoof, “I am in the “way above your pay grade and so damn classified you can drown in red tape” division. Does that make it clear?”

“Listen here,” the guard snarls and closes the gap between me and him, “I don’t give a damn where you’re from so beat it and come back later.”

I grind my teeth, contemplating the various ways I could dispatch the two until I have a brilliant idea. I smile at the guard, “You know what; I will be back later.”

I trot off and leave the two of them stumped. I wait until I am out of sight before opening a window. I check my saddlebags and jump out the window. I dive to pick up my speed before unfurling my wings and whipping back up to the castle towers. I fly straight towards the balcony that was Luna’s. I slow down as I approach; figuring she probably had some kind of protection there. As my head clears the balcony, I am greeting by two crying turquoise eyes, now wide in surprise.

“Midnight Shadow!? What are you doing,” the surprised princess exclaims.

“I have some information about the raid tonight I need to share with you but I ran into a few problems,” I explain.

“Oh,” she wipes her eyes quickly and her horn glows for a minute. She turns around and walks in. I stay hovering outside not sure what is going on. She reappears a second later, “You can come in now you know.”

I land on the balcony, fearing that I might get shocked or something worse, but nothing happens. She laughs a little seeing my hesitation, “Glad to see I taught you well. So what were the few problems you ran into?”

I grin wickedly, “Oh, nothing to worry about,” I say as I walk to her chamber doors, “It shouldn’t take but a second.”

She looks at me confused. I open the doors very slowly and gently as not to alert the two standing guard. Without wasting a second I grab both their heads and bash them together. The two stumbled, dazed from the hit.

“I rescheduled and it’s later,” I growl. I swiped at the large one’s legs that tried intimidating me. He fell forward against the floor. I pulled off his helmet and beat him over the head with it knocking him unconscious. I turned around to see the second ones scrabbling to react. I buck out with my hind legs with connect with his face. He crumbled to the floor, his armor clanging as he fell. I walk back inside to see Princess Luna’s still confused, but amusing face.

“They wouldn’t let me use the front door,” I remark.

“I see,” she says.

“Uhh, Princess?” I ask.

“Yes,” she responds.

“Before I get down to business,” I start, not sure how to phrase what I had to say next, “Were you crying?”

Her eyes shrink for a second. “Uhh,” she stalls before hanging her head low, “I don't want to talk about it.”

She doesn’t say anything more so I decide to drop it, “Fair enough.” I turn and close the doors behind me while the unconscious guards took their nap.

Princess Luna now sat on a cushion, and more composed than when I arrived, “What was at that you wanted to tell Midnight?”

I pull out the report, and selected a few photos, “I believe we may have a leak in the LSTD.”

She looked at the photos. On the wall over the body of a dead pegasus without wings was, “Better luck next time. I see everything,” written in blood.

“I suggest he hold planning meetings and these debriefings somewhere that hasn’t been compromised and we can secure with no problems,” I continue.

She puts down the photos, “What makes you think that this is a leak rather than the Seen being careful and trying to screw with us?”

 I pulled another photo out, “This is a photo graph one day before the raid taken by one of our aerial surveillance teams. You can see several suspects moving around and working,” I pull out a second photo, “This is six hours before I gave the go ahead. The suspects are no longer working but destroying materials. When the raid team busted in they found nopony there and the entire place scuttled. Somepony tipped them off.”

She considered my explanation carefully. She stood up and went to her balcony and stared down at the city. Finally I hear her call me over, and a step out onto the balcony with her.

“You may be right. If there is a leak, we will have to be careful about why we go detecting who it is. I hate to add another thing for you to investigate as this is large enough as it is, but I fear that it is necessary.”

I nod my head understandingly.

She turn her vision away from the Canterlot streets and looked at me with a large smile, “In the meantime, under our leak is found, I do know of a safehouse we can go to.”

Princess Luna and I stood underneath a sign that read “Pony Joe’s; Open 24-Hours.”

I look at the grinning princess, “Really?”

She never said a word but just smiled and began walking into the empty diner. Shaking my head in disbelief I follow her in.

“How can I help you two?” Joe asks from behind the counter.

“How’s the weather on the moon Joe?” Princess Luna asks.

“Quite hot,” Joe responds.

“But only when I’m there,” Princess Luna laughs.

Joe chuckled, “Follow me.”

I continued to shake my head.

“All this time and never knew it or suspected. How many times did I visit here and not even notice?”

I continued to kick myself mentally all the way to his back room.

“Alright, here we are,” Joe said as he pushed in a brick, opening a false wall, “Just close it up when enter.”

“We will,” Princess Luna replied, “Do you think we could get a dozen or two donuts and some coffee too?”

Joe snorted, “Like you had to ask. I’ll bring them in a moment.”

Joe walked off the get our order while Princess Luna and I walked inside and shut the false wall.

Her horn glows as she turns lights some lamps around the room with her magic. The tiny room comes into view. In the center of the room is a small, but sturdy table with a few cushions surrounding it. There were a few corkboards on the walls for pinning things and several sleeping bags. I fine layer of dust covered everything.

“I take it that this place hasn’t been used often,” I comment.

“Yes, well, we don’t have to hide very often,” she replies.

I stand next to the table, “Princess, you may want to hold your breath and close your eyes.” I pump my wings backwards, sending gusts across the table, clearing it off. I stop and let the dust settle down and plop down on one of the cushions. Princess Luna comes over and sits down right next to me. I was a little surprised, as I was expecting her to sit across from me but I proceeded to pull out the file over the raid earlier that day. Before I able to get started, the false wall cracked open and Joe walked through with the donuts and coffee.

“Here you go,” he said as he laid them on the table and left closing the wall behind him.

Princess Luna wasted no time and delved into the coffee and donuts, “Hmmm, no….no….ah-ha!” She pulled out a donut with pink frosting and tons of sprinkles. She took a large bite out of it, almost eating the whole thing before she noticed me staring with large eyes. “Whaf, dey er mah fervorit,” she mumbled donut filled cheeks with the largest, sweetest eyes.

Unable to take it any longer, I burst out laughing. “I can that they are your favorite,” manage to say and roll on my sides

Unperturbed by my laughter she proceeds to eat the rest of the first donut and select another. I come to my senses and sit back up. She takes a sip of her coffee and clears her throat, “Okay, what happened today?”

I open the file, “Well, Princess, the teams had the-”

“Stop,” she interrupts me, “Can you do me a favor, Midnight?”

“Sure,” I reply.

“Just call me Luna,” she tells me.

“Umm, okay,” I say not sure what to think. This went against everything I was taught in training and my entire life, but here she was telling me to talk to her casually.

“I get tired of formalities. Everypony spends so much time saying my title, that I wonder if they even know my name,” she continues, “Anyway, anypony that sneaks onto my balcony when I am crying, and beats the crap out of my guards without batting an eye just to tell me that there’s a mole in an organization of ponies I picked,” she looks at me, “I figure can call me Luna and beat up my guards anytime they want.” She smiles that same beautiful smile that I remember from the night I graduated training and was first offered this job.

I smile too. “So do you really mean I can kick their asses anytime?” I ask.

She laughs. It’s a sound sweeter than any other. “Well, give them a chance to heal first.”

As much as I wished we could sit there and laugh all night in the small little room eating donuts and drinking coffee, we had to deal with the threats outside. The rest of the debriefing went by in a blur. I told her about the freshly collapsed tunnel the evidence teams found under the building and how we suspected that’s how they escaped. We discussed how the message was more personalized as evidenced by the use of the word “I,” giving us more definitive proof that there was a single pony in charge. At some point, I don’t know when we were sitting over that table; our wings became wrapped around the other.

****

It faded away. I heard a steady beeping sound.

“Suture the rest of that and I think we are done.”

“Yes doctor,” nurse-voice said.

“Now I’m going to go talk to the Princess and explain as best I can."

I could hear hoof falls walking away from me. I try to speak but all that comes out is, “Luna.” My voice is weak and muffled.

“Later honey, later,” nurse-voice says soothingly.

I let the blackness come get me and fell into it’s embrace.