Shadows of the Night

(Author's Note: Prereader(s): Moon_Fire, Paw Print thank you)

           I quickly fell into my new routine by the third day. Reginald had been most pleased with my seemingly tireless ability to transport objects, and I was more or less just given the job of Royal Trash Collector. Since my job, which was normally done over the course of two days by a team of fifteen ponies I was given an increase to my paycheck. Not only that, but because of how much time I saved everypony else, including myself, I wasn’t officially given any more to do, leaving me with, in my opinion, too much time on my hands.

         But it wasn’t all bad, Twister had been really nice to me, especially since I’d stood up for her that first night. I’d also gotten a few words of thanks from a few of the staff who usually got the job of taking out the garbage and were most glad they wouldn’t have to do it again. I’d been getting better at paying attention to gossip too, something I’d been loath to do back home because it was always so wretchedly inane (I still can’t figure out why anyone would care if ANY celebrity gained weight, or what drinks they take at a club). Seemed some griffin was out causing a ruckus out down south with some out of control hydras, something of which was considered to be at least partly true when some of the military blimps were sent out to some town, Moistclaw?... whatever.  There was also word that this creature was also creating a pirate crew, which apparently was true as Weather Vein showed the group the wanted poster during breakfast with a black and white sketch of him and ‘Griffin’ posted in grand ole opry style under the name. That really didn’t help sway my opinion of the ponies and their xenophobia.

         We’d all even meet up for lunch and dinner together too. Seemed they were all pretty good friends, and it felt pretty good to have been so easily invited, but accepted as well.

         But as for the job, with so much time on my hands, and not wanting to seem too aloof and spent all that time alone… okay, actually that was Caligo, I had wanted to go to the Canterlot Library and see if there were any fiction books that caught my fancy. I decided on working in the kitchens, it was a hub of constant activity, and thus information, and even though it was one of the most well lit rooms of the castle during the night, it still provided enough shadows around the room for me to keep easily keep my cover, it just took a little more concentration.

         Devil Cake had personally been happy to have someone there to help out. He didn’t have much to do, being the head chef, as the few assistants he had were there to help keep the buffet well stocked. He was there to personally cook anything should one of the Princesses require a midnight snack of some sort. He’d been a little worried at first that he’d need more assistance in order to help accommodate the initial increase to his work load when Luna first came back, but she’d lately taken to being more active during the daytime of late. He was quite nice, and he’d even begun teaching me how to cook. Turns out I wasn’t too good, oh I could follow a recipe well enough, but it turns out that you’re not supposed to put them in the order they are sometimes written in, something about how eggs should go in after flour. I wasn’t going to be entering any contests anytime in the future, Cake was just pleased enough to have some nice company, as was I.

         Things had been going pretty good as I settled into my schedule, until one night I looked up and noticed a great pink sphere encasing Canterlot Castle. I’d completely forgotten about this. Every single fictional story I’d ever seen or read always went on about how much trouble one could get the time stream into by changing events, but it certainly wasn’t going to change much if I told my… I’m not sure if friends were the right word to use, but I certainly had developed a caring bond for them.

         During that lunch, at midnight, whilst everypony was talking about their day, I finally worked up the courage to finally speak up, fifteen minutes into it. I was doing a good thing here. “Excuse me, but do any of you know the exact date of the wedding between Miss Cadenza and Shining Armor?”

         Normally being very quiet and letting others keep control of the conversation everypony in the group all became quiet and turned towards me.

         “Wow, somepony’s interested in something for once.” A smiling Weather Vein, good naturedly, joked, getting some titters from the twins and an outright chuckle from Twister. “But it’s a good thing you mentioned it tonight because the wedding is going to happen today. Planning on going to the ceremony?”

         “Maybe, but I wanted to know if any of you guys were planning on going.”

         “Sorry, but I’m working overtime into the morning to help make a ring of clouds for the sunset for tonight. The wedding planners want to have them just right so they’ll help stream shades of pink off of the last rays as the sun dips. So I’ll be too tired to do anything but sleep afterwards.” Weather Vein said.

         “Same thing for us,” Xtra said, Oxi’s mouth full of food at the moment, “We’re both working well into the morning to make sure all the carpeting is particularly luxurious for the morning. We’ll retire to our house back in town once our shift ends.” Oxi nodded in agreement.

         “Well, I thought I might go myself, but I didn’t really want to go alone” Twister said. “I wouldn’t mind going with you Rumor.”

         Crud, not the reply I wanted to hear. And I think this might imply she wanted to spend some time alone with me. That didn’t make my conscience feel any better, and in fact gave me a spike of shame for my continuing lie of existence. Though it wasn’t nearly as noticeable as my first day, the repetition of it all was starting to desensitize me to it, guess if you tell a lie long enough, or however that saying goes. But at least I had the saving grace of my trump card.

         “I’m not sure that would be a good idea. Isn’t the whole point of a giant shield around the castle to be for defense? I have this… feeling, that something bad might happen during the wedding.”

         Twister look a little crushed at my implied no, but she, as well as everypony else at the table agreed that the shield was a little strange.

***

         I let myself out of my trance as my time to work was about to start and my daily training with Caligo ended. Though I asked him to let us stop round mid-day, my sense of time being nil without a watch, something I planned on getting once I got my paycheck at the end of the week, because I wanted to be especially ready if any changeling made it to the servants sleeping quarters I and many other ponies were using. Turned out it was all for naught, the changelings hadn’t bothered with the servant wing at all, except to use it to go to the more affluent parts of the castle as they buzzed through the hallways. Even though nothing had happened, it still made me feel pretty heroic knowing that I had been there and would have acted the part of a super hero had anyone been stupid enough to come into the shadowed area that was the entire room save a few glowing crystal lamps near the floor.

         Once I got out of bed and headed out into the hallway, the dying light casting deep shadows outside I noticed everypony I saw was walking instep together, not in line, but in-sync, and they were also humming a tune that niggled at the back of my head as something I should remember. Passing by an open window proved that the wedding reception was taking place, and apparently just starting as a sonic rainboom echoed through the air, looking all the more radiant in the dying light. Everypony was humming that love’s in bloom song. Man, the whole castle was a-hum with it. It was kinda creepy to tell the truth, it may look pretty cool from the television point of view, but everypony just picking up a song, and dancing with it out of nowhere right in front of you, with absolute perfect timing, is just not right to see in anything outside of robots working in concert. What’s worse I appeared to be the only one not dancing, made clear by all of the passing stares I got from ponies when they could spare a glance past their choreography.

         I finally got to the kitchens where, thankfully, the music seemed to have no sway. Though it probably helped that one couldn’t hear it over the sound of the castle kitchen working at full capacity. I waved to Devil Cake, who despite his frenzied state of working on a row of seven crepes at once spared a quick smile before returning to the task of making sure all the nobles had plenty of high-class nibblies to snack on.

         I’d just gotten into the servants dining area when Reginald immediately began striding over to me as soon as I’d entered the room. He seemed much more tense than normal, and that was saying something, even from a guy who’d only seen him two times, the second being in passing, and said, “As soon as you have had your meal I would like to speak with you in my office.” And with that he quickly trotted off out the kitchen and into the hall.

         I didn’t spy my normal buddies, and I was about to panic, when all three of them came in, behind me, and got a quick drink and a bite before they all went back out. They’d apparently already been working for a bit, though they weren’t able to say much, other than they were glad to see me, as they had to go right back out and go attend to the wedding guests.

         With nothing else to do I had myself a baglewhich with a glass of milk, and then made my way over to Reginald’s office.

***

         “As you have just woken up, I’m afraid it is my displeasure to be the first to inform you that the castle has just gone through an invasion by a shape-shifting pony-oid race known as the changelings.” Reginald took a moment to let that sink in, and when no comment was made on my part he continued. “Luckily, however, the worst anypony has seemed to have suffered has been mild injuries. However, and I do not do this lightly, and I can do no more than ask, especially for one so new, and rest assured you may decline on this, but, the winning stroke of the battle that led to our victory led to a rather… soiled ending, very soiled ending for the changelings. As I have been told, a wave of power was shot through the castle, power by the newly wedded Prince Armor and Princess Cadenza. And while this was most fortuitous, the wave having scattered the changeling army to the four winds, those that were inside the castle did not all make it, lest they had been by a window at the time.” Again he paused, trying to gauge my reaction to all this, I having done nothing but keep my shadow stone-faced, he continued. “Due to your unique skills, it was my hope that I might have you assistance, in conjuncture with the soldiers who have been ordered to help clear away the forms that have been left behind as quickly as possible.” He then leaned back into his seat behind his massive wooden desk and awaited my reply.

         I had no idea how to handle this. The show made everything seem so easy, and here was this pony mentioning corpses, in an eloquent manner, but death nonetheless. It was, well, a little overwhelming. But death happens all the time, and even here ponies don’t just live forever. I took a deep breath and slowly eased it out.

         “I will of course help with this endeavor, just show me where to go, and where to take the garbage to.” Caligo pointed out that I should give my puppet a hard set jaw at this, which apparently helped ease Reginald a little bit seeing me express some form of emotion. He silently nodded in acknowledgement to the grim task I had agreed to and silently led me through the castle to, what I quickly found out was a quarantined off section where a large number of changelings had congregated to start forming a hive in preparation for what they had believed to be a victory.

***

         A few attempts had been made on the part of the military unicorns to help clean the mess, they’d done a good job of it too, but the problem was that none were gifted in transportation, at least none that were currently stationed in Canterlot. So when it came to my part it was mostly just to get the great sphere of muck they’d compacted it all into to a massive pit that had been made at the bottom of the mountain. Even the stone face soldiers gave a few raised eyebrows of appreciation at my effort as I went from room to hallway to room getting all of the organic material out of the castle so that they could be cleaned and ready for use the next day. I’ll say this about the ponies; they are good at keeping things clean. Caligo had also been happy with the work, but only because I’d been so close to the soldiers and had hoped to overhear any scraps of information on anything that we weren’t supposed to hear. He was quickly disappointed at each venue I went to as the soldiers either remained grimly tight lipped, or grimly whispered their own thoughts on how grateful they were that so few had gotten hurt, and how worse it could have been.

         I quickly finished up with the, organic, disposal and after that I went about my normal duties to get rid of the normal refuse around the castle. I was able to get everything but two places. The kitchen and the courtyard the reception was going in, both of which were still going on by the time I’d made my rounds. With nothing better to do I went to the servants’ buffet and found myself a snack, some crystal candy to munch on, of which was a delightfully real tasting strawberry flavor. That’s when Reginald again came up to me again.

         ‘Geez, he must be a veritable god at networking.’

         ‘Again, one of the reasons why infiltrating as a servant is so effective.’

         ‘Stop calling it that, you make it sound like we’re some sort of evil spy or something.’

         To that Caligo remained silent, but a silent acquiesce was felt.

         “Hello again Rumor. I have need of you to come into my office again.” I gave a slight start, unable to stop myself from projecting my surprise onto my puppet. “It’s not another gruesome task I assure you.” I gave a sigh of relief, though not for the reason he personally thought, though if pressed to say I wasn’t quite sure myself. He again turned and began to walk off, not bothering to look back, though he hadn’t need to as I again fell back onto my lifelong tradition of respecting those placed in authority above me, of which bosses was right near the top of that list.

         The music outside had died down, and by the looks of it, from the scant few seconds I saw through the windows, it was starting to die down. The crowds were definitely smaller than the multiple courtyard spanners they had been. But the sound of Reginald’s office doors opening snapped my attention back to the matter at hand. He didn’t enter the doors himself, but bade me enter and take a seat, and that he’d be back shortly.

         As I sat down my mind began to wander. One of the more prime thoughts being why the two seats in front of Reginald’s desk had backs to them whilst his did not, though I suppose if he had to give out reprimands it gave a sense of entrapment so one couldn’t just back away. Not that I was complaining, in a world made for ponies the chair had surprisingly good back support, my shadow a clear indication of it as I had it sitting back like me as well. Then the lights grew brighter.

         When you are attuned to the dark you’re able to perceive changes in its lessening quite readily, so when the Reginald’s office doors opened up behind me and the room became flooded with shimmering radiance of a captured spring dawn I immediately went into full out panic mode, i.e. I froze up and began to try and think of a way out.

         “Reginald has told me much about you my little pony.” Her voice was like silk. “And for one so new and so young to make one’s self so useful in so short a time is quite a feat indeed.” She continued walking in as the doors shimmered shut. “But then to take on a task that should not ever need befall upon one of my little ponies, and with such efficiency, that is something to be commended for.” She walked past me, her eyes shut, as she wraps her words in a soothing motherly tone, not needing to look to find her way in the castle she has so long resided in. She lifts her wings as she takes her seat then adjusts them once she is settled. “Thank you” A simple statement that bespoke volumes in the sincerity from the voice behind it.

         Only after all that time did Celestia finally open her eyes to look upon the young stallion she had heard praises from Reginald, of whom she obviously held in high regard, only to see my shadow blink out entirely leaving a gangly guy mentally trying to fold himself away into his inky cloak as the eyes of Princess Celestia turned to steel and were directed towards me.