Chapter 2 Nightmare Within Rewrite

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The Door into the Royal dining hall opened. Within revealed a feast fit for royalty, a table filled with piles of Pastries, and apples, and grains, all of the Highest of Quality. The warm musk hit the filly like an unforgiving wall. It wasn't until recently she was old enough to eat in the royal dining halls during royal events, but the delicious food sure in Tartarus have been brightening up twilight's evenings since.

The room was huge with a large oak table in the center, and a huge fireplace to the side, along the walls. Tapestries of the royal couple who lived in the castle and past heroes of the land hung from the walls, each pretending to be stainglass windows.

Looking towards the head of the table her father sat, prince Sombra of the crystal empire, a grey unicorn with a black mane with dark blue streaks through it, he was wearing his usual silver crown and torc, with his favorite royal purple cloak draped over his withers. and always on his left was her older brother sat, Prince Shining Star, a white alicorn stallion with a blue mane and tail, who was currently talking among the tables other occupants, generals, nobles, the usual for these types of events.

Getting off luna's back, twilight ran into the room without a second thought, "shining, you're finally up!" she yelled, running up to the other alicorn.

She pulled up the chair and sat next to him. "Morning daddy!"

The grey unicorn looked up at her then smiled, "Good morning my star," glancing over towards the main doors. He sighed, "manners, deer. Please don't shout or run in the hall, we have important guests over," he told her as if out of habit.

Taking her a second to process his words she looked up at the tables other occupants, most of which looked scandalized by her 'improper decorum'. "S-sorry," she practically whispered in embarrassment.

The food was always the best in the royal dining hall, but there are its downsides. the royal dining halls were only used during formal events, meaning she had to act and appear proper, a perfect royal image of the Everfree Family. With her older brother being the heir to the equestrian throne and her being the heir of the Crystal Empire's throne, the nobles and common ponies expected her to act a certain way in public.

Twilight finally looked down to see a magenta aura unceremoniously drop five pancakes onto her plate, shining chuckled "well what else can you expect from a foal, especially on a big day like this one."

"Well such energy would be better put to use while packing, not in the dining halls," Sombra said.

"I've already done that last night!"

He arched his eyebrow at that, "Really?" she nodded, "your soaps and toothbrush?" she nodded again. "how about Your dress clothes and ceremonial regalia?" she paused at that.

"Why would I need them?" she asked.

"Because your aunt loves to throw balls for the upper class of Canterlot, and she would most likely expect you to join in," Luna said, finally making it to her seat next to Sombra.

twilight inwardly sighed then nodded, "yes mother, ill pack after dinner."

Sombra smiled then looked up to one of the Generals or what she thought to be a general due to all of the metals he had on his uniform, he was a Dark Grey Umbrum Unicorn with a silver Mane and tail, and Purple slitted eyes, "now that we are all here, General Onyx I give you the honor"

nodding the nocturnal Unicorn and the 2 nearby Thestrials, one with brown coated Captain and a one with a Black coat wearing no badges. they stood up and soluted the royal family, "your Royal majesties Prince Sombra Amore, princess Luna Selene Everfree, and your royal Highnesses Prince Shining Star Everfree, and Princess Twilight Asteria Everfree of the Lunar Courts" he Greeted with a bow of the head followed by the other 2 guards, "today I had asked for an audience, for you to bear witness and introduce you to a new officer of the Night watch" the three of them took a couple of steps back from the table before unicorn motioned to the Black Thestrial "this is Corporal Noctis of the platoon 12 of the 32ed Legion under the Direct Command of Captain sunder wind"

Noctis bowed, "greetings your majesties. Two weeks ago, My Squadron had been sent out on a mission to the northern town of neighston in the territory of the Noble house of Dawn, to deal with rising tensions between the local lords and their townsfolk, that came to be with their conflict with The house of Aurora ."

"Ah yes," Luna said perking up slightly, "our dearest sister was dealing with that situation, it's truly a shame that the House of Dawn and the house of Aurora are fighting, tell us how was your mission on maintaining order?"

Noctis paused for a moment, "The situation did escalate and caused civil unrest amongst the populace, however, our troops are currently working on maintaining order as we speak."

luna nodded "I would need to consult my sister, she is the one handling the disputes between the two houses."

General onyx cleared his throat before continuing, "when my Platoons were half a day from the town of neighston, they had set up camp for the day, and planned to arrive around midnight. due to the mission's objectives, our troops were not expecting many issues on the road and our lookouts were lightly armed. however, apparently, the locals were under the impression that our soldier was there to force the town to submit, because of this there was an ambush and the platoon leader was wounded."

Luna nodded at him to continue, this was not news to her, she had received the incident report yesterday, about 12 hours after it was handled.

"Corporal Noctis here showed leadership, and quick thinking, when the Platoon leader was wounded and unable to lead the defensive, he rallied his fellow soldiers behind him and repelled the attack. after the rebels retreated he had led the counter-attack that ended in the capture of the remaining fighters around 58 unicorns, 23 earth ponies, and 5 pegasi." onyx gave the thestral a nod of appreciation, causing him to smile. "after his display, he had shown himself to be worthy of the position of an officer within the 32nd legion. with your blessing, Prince Sombra and Princess Luna he will become the Nightwatch's newest Lieutenant."

Prince Sombra stood up and walked over to them causing Noctis to stiffen Slightly. he circled the candidate for a closer look, causing the captain and general to give him a wider berth. "hmm... well I can see you have the potential, given the right training" he stopped in front of him, and smiled like a foal with a new toy, "I definitely approve." he said before almost prancing back to his seat "sit and eat," he said appearing to luna to be blissfully unaware of the other tables occupants dumbfounded expressions and the annoyance on their daughters face "and Noctis, please stay and talk after everypony has left"

once he sat down luna whispered over to him, "ok, what was that?"

he glanced up at her "I just came up with a brilliant idea, to fix our problem"

"you mean between the houses of Dawn and Aurora?" she asked shocked that he actually started caring about Equestrian Politics, it's not like he did not care about the political system of Equestria, more like he kept his attention more on helping local ponies with problems, or the crystal empire.

"oh, no!" he exclaimed, "I meant the problem that actually matters! our Daughter"