The Knight Shift

The way the world is made. The truth is all around you, plain to behold. The night is dark and full of terrors, the day bright and beautiful and full of hope. One is black, the other white. There is ice and there is fire. Hate and love. Bitter and sweet. Male and female. Pain and pleasure. Winter and summer. Evil and good.Death and life. Everywhere, opposites. Everywhere, the war.

One thing that Mythic Aurora loved about her job: she could go to B ‘N’ Barb Tavern an hour before her shift, have three hard apple ciders to get tipsy, and still be able to make her shift with no one noticing. Of course, that was easy to do when you worked the night shift as a royal guard for the Royal Palace.

Sometimes Scarlet Bow would chastise her during their rounds. “You’re going to get fired, you dumb bat,” she would say. “All one of the Princesses needs to do is look you in the eyes and just sense that you’re drunk. No test needed.”

Mythic would roll her eyes. “The Princesses may be powerful, but they are not omnipotent. They’re regular ponies who happen to have wings and horns and…” She paused, rolling her flagon of whiskey apple cider in her hoof. “... they just govern the Sun and Moon. No big dealio.”

Scarlet would call her blasphemous and that bats never understood the role of the Goddesses like normal ponies did.

The banter went on and on and on, often causing Mythic to have to book it to the castle so she wouldn’t get a markup, physically wiping herself out as she flew clear across the city of Canterlot to make it. Luckily, she didn’t have to go through checkpoints; the Royal Guard were oddly pretty lax when it came to their fellow guards. Mythic Aurora often just climbed through a window she always left open and acted like she was on patrol.

Despite the chastising and bantering, both mares would always return to the B ‘N’ Barb.

Except… this night was different.

Mythic Aurora, donned in a sleek midnight-purple vest, stood outside of the tavern. There was a commotion - an odd sight to behold in the perfect city of Canterlot - city watchponies stood in a perimeter, not allowing any citizens to even get close to the building. A small crowd had already gathered by the time Mythic arrived, but soon after more and more ponies came to see what the cause for inconveniencing their evening stroll was.

The door was ajar, hinges busted with what Mythic deduced was the buck of a skilled earth pony, especially since the door was pointed inward when it was designed to open outward. Mythic peered closer, scooting between two hoity unicorns. A symbol was marked on the doorframe. Actually, now that she got closer, the thestral noticed that there were several odd symbols carved into various areas of the outside building.

“Watcher,” she called in her best I'm-Higher-Up-The-Food-Chain-Than-You voice to the closest guard. “What’s going on?” She could hear the regal citizens she passed snort at the absurdity of a small bat pony commanding the City Watch. The nerve of the common folk!

The guard tilted his head at Mythic and took a step forward. “And you are…?”

“Lieutenant Mythic Aurora, Lunar Protection Shift,” she answered.

He stared at her for a moment before motioning toward the tavern with his head. “Break in,” He said and didn’t elaborate further.

Mythic blinked. “That… That can’t be it. I come here every day and those symbols aren't there.” She pointed to the nearest one with her hoof.

The guard followed her pointing hoof before shaking his head. “Look, Lieutenant, this doesn’t concern you. Our best unicorns are on the way to examine them. Plus… you’re not a watchpony, you’re a night guard. Go worry about whether the stars are in the wrong place, little bat.” He about-faced and walked away.

Mythic could feel herself seething. She was tired of the disrespect. It happened all the damn time. She flapped her wings in frustration and turned to leave. Just as she broke through the crowd of ponies, she let out a yelp as she was suddenly pulled aside by Scarlet Bow.

The white unicorn held her by her shoulders, staring intensely into Mythic’s yellow eyes. “What happened?” Her voice was off. It was even and calm, a clear disconnect from her eyes. Mythic raised a hoof to break the hold on her shoulders, moving Scarlet’s hooves off in a nonchalant manner.

“Somepony broke into the tavern. Weird drawings all over the place too. Real weird. Watch were being jerks and wouldn’t tell me anything else.” She glanced back over to the crowd, which was now dispersing due to the constant shouts of the City Watch. “Weird feeling when you’re over there too now that I think about it.”

Scarlet Bow’s gaze slowly shifted from Mythic to the tavern. And without another word to her friend, she trotted off.

Mythic raised a brow. She looked around for a moment before giving a small wave to the departing unicorn. “Uh… bye? See you tomorrow maybe… if stuff is back to normal,” she muttered. She shook her head and gave one last glance to the tavern and the Watch before taking off for the Castle. She might as well get a little bit of overtime. Too bad she wouldn’t be drunk to pass the time.

Weird start to the night.

The flight was uneventful and Mythic arrived at her Uber Super Secret Unlocked Window. She pushed open the window and swooped in, shutting it with her back hoof.

If she had taken the time to stop and look, she would have noticed a symbol etched into the wall next to the window.

It was weird, to say the least. Fury Shield wasn’t tired. And he was always tired. He would constantly fall asleep during his shift and have to be woken up by his partner. He wasn’t complaining though! He felt so much better not being in a perpetual state of exhaustion on the brink of falling over into a deep, deep sleep-coma.

But it was weird.

The unicorn trotted down the hall, away from the eastern section of the castle. His almost 12-hour shift had ended, a shift filled with questioning and searching nobles who came to petition Princess Celestia for… whatever they petitioned the Princess for. Fury Shield honestly just thought that they got a kick out of annoying one of the most powerful ponies in the country. Actually, now that he thought of it, Celestia probably got a kick out of annoying them back. They would always leave disgruntled and much more annoyed and snappy with him than when they arrived.

Sometimes he could swear he would hear laughter emanate from the throne room after a few meetings.

But that was behind him! Tonight, he could get stuff done! He smiled triumphantly and held his head high as he walked. He could fold some clothes, do some dishes, read a book he’d been meaning to pick up for months, maybe even write a letter to his mother back in Manehattan! He came to a stop abruptly. How many of those things can he actually do in a barracks?

Suddenly something bumped into him, snapping him from his train of thought. A white unicorn mare stared wide-eyed at him. “O-oh! Sorry about that, sir!” she stuttered out.

Fury laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck with his hoof as he replied. “Eh, no problem. I probably shouldn’t be standing in the middle of the walkway.”

The mare laughed stiffly with him and nodded. Her smile was dangerously large, almost forced through a surge of anxiety, Fury noted.

“So… what’s your name? I haven’t seen you around here; are you new?” he asked, taking a step forward to get a better look at the pony. She had a white coat and a scarlet-colored mane. She was wearing a dark brown cloak, which covered most of her body including her cutie mark and tail.

She took a defensive step back. “O-oh! Uh! Yes! I’m part of the night shift! Just transferred here from Ponyville actually! Heheheh…” She looked around quickly. “Well! I better go! Don’t want to be late on my first night, right? It was really nice meeting you!” And with that, she cautiously backed away until she was at a corner, which she swiftly ducked behind, done all in a little under two seconds. Fury didn’t even have time to react.

Fury Shield blinked. “Uh.. wait, miss, I still didn’t get your name!” Something was fishy here. An odd mare in the depths of the Royal Palace in a cloak? Suspicious, to say the least. Either that or he was grasping at straws, desperately wanting something to happen other than a regal pony in a handlebar mustache yelling at him. Regardless, he galloped after her, swiftly turning the corner and smacking headfirst into a purple mane.

They both fell to their flanks, the mare clutching her head. “Bucking… Ow!” she exclaimed. “Could you watch where you’re going, dude?”

Fury Shield desperately tried to apologize, clutching a bleeding nose. He opened an eye, seeing a dark blue bat pony in her standard dark purple royal armor. “Crud, I’m really sorry about that.”

She grumbled a few words under her breath, getting to her hooves and dusting herself off. “Why were you running anyway?”

“There… was a mare? You didn’t see her? Brown cloak, red mane, white coat?”

The bat grumbled. “No… I haven't seen anypony except for you since I got here.” She glared at him. “I get that you wanna get to bed, but for Celestia’s sake watch where you’re running.”

Fury Shield rose as well, not really looking at her but rather behind her down the hall. True to her word, the pony he had encountered seemed to have just… vanished! She could have teleported away, but Fury would have been able to see the flash of light. Plus, that was very advanced magic and he could only count a hoof-full of unicorns who could pull it off.

The mare rolled her eyes at him. “If it's any consolation, I’m sure your marefriend isn’t too mad at you,” she said as a small smirk surfaced on her face.

“My… no, no. I didn’t even get her name, much less have a conversation that led her to date me so quickly.” He shook his head dismissively and stepped cautiously around the thestral. “Look I... gotta go. Sleep and all that normal pony stuff.”

Her smirk left as quickly as it came. “‘Normal pony.’” She echoed with a snort. “Yeah, sure, bub. Keep telling yourself that.”

Fury Shield turned his head to respond but she had already left around the corner where he had come from. What was up with tonight and his weird experiences with mares?

He slowly trotted down the hall, trying to spot any sign of concealed unicorn, whether through magic or just very well done camouflage. But after walking up and down the same hall five times, he gave up. Let the night shift deal with it. He was going to go be productive in his bunk. Maybe he’d get tired if he started reviewing the Highly Advanced Tactics and You! book his mom got for his last birthday. That seemed to put him to sleep every time he tried.

It was a good thing he couldn’t find it when he got there too.

The dark night crept further and further into the Canterlot Castle and the city itself. Ponies should either have been asleep or falling asleep shortly thereafter. Luna’s inner mind should have been filled in with doorways to the dreams of her - her sister’s - subjects.

But, for the first time in her history of watching over the night, no dreams appeared. No doors, if they even did appear, could be opened. The Dream Realm, where Luna lost herself each night, was useless in staving off the boredom of night.

Now she knew how her guards felt.

However, this wasn’t like the rare quiet times when there were no nightmares to quell or fears to help conquer. There was nothing. And Princess Luna was scared.

Evenly Stars walked down one of the deeper parts of the castle. By himself! The audacity of the Captain tonight! Sending him off on his own! And to what felt like catacombs, no less. Usually guards would be sent in pairs, and one was usually a unicorn. But the Captain said that since these were the deepest parts of the Castle, he didn’t need a unicorn to patrol with him; all his earth pony strength would be enough if he found himself faced against a rat.

Seemed he drew the short straw this shift.

It wasn’t like it was difficult. Quite the opposite, Evenly Stars figured. Just incredibly dull. And dark. Dull and dark. There were probably more spiders down here than ponies in Canterlot, too, not that he was going to seek them out to count them.

He pursed his lips and blew out a sharp, bored whistle which echoed down the hall and back to him a dozen times. It was absolutely silent down here apart from the clopping of his hooves against the stone floor and the few magically infused torches that lined the hallway.

He came to an intersection in the hall. This is where the castle ended, and the catacombs of Old Canterlot began. Constructed a long, long time ago and built as an incredibly complicated maze of lookalike hallways and tombs and graves of long deceased nobles and heroes. All long forgotten to time. Evenly wasn't even sure if the Princesses remembered.

He sat on his haunches, reaching into his saddlebag to pull out an old map. The guards who came down here always brought the map. Somepony found it years back - nopony knew who - but it was vital to patrolling this area and not getting lost in the darkness. According to the map, he was to turn left to avoid the vast majority of maze-like hallways. So that's what he was going to do, since he didn’t want to get lost. He rolled the map back up and slipped it back in his saddlebags and turned left.

That's when he heard it. A low, wet growl.

He swung around, using his head to bring down the spear strapped to his right side, attached to the saddlebag.

There was nothing. Just darkness.

Evenly Stars’ heart began to race. He shook his head, trying so very hard to convince himself that he hadn't actually heard it. It was part of his imagination! It had to be! He laughed, a nervous, stiff laugh, and stood from his defensive stance.

As soon as he did, one by one the torches began to go out.

The hallway across from the intersection went pitch black, illuminated only by the flickering torch a few feet behind the earth pony. He went to take a step forward, but a thumping noise echoed through the dank hall and stopped his hoof in midair. After a moment, another thump. Then another.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

It didn't take long for Evenly Stars to realize that something was walking toward him in the darkness.

It got louder, and it got faster. But then it stopped. It stood just on the edge of the darkness. Evenly could just barely see it. It was large, almost the size of Princess Celestia. But it wasn't a pony. It didn't even resemble any known creature in Equestria as far as the earth pony could tell. Its bleeding, red eyes stared hungrily at Evenly Stars. Saliva dripped from its enormous mouth, filled to the brim with impossibly sharp teeth.

Evenly was frozen where he stood. His eyes grew wide as the beast stepped forward, its three-clawed leg revealed along with the rest of its demonic form. Its skin was red, covered in scars and ugly looking pustules, leaking some otherworldly, horrific ichor. Bones protruded and pushed its skin outward in various places on its body, threatening to break free from the tight flesh. One of its paws reached to grip the corner and three large,clawed, knife-like claws were revealed to match its feet.

That was all Evenly Stars needed to see. So he ran.

He didn’t even make ten steps before the things claws sank into the stallion’s flank, igniting a harsh and shrill scream. The beast yanked, and Evenly Stars felt more pain than he'd ever felt in his life as his back legs, starting right above his cutie mark, were ripped from his body. Its other set of claws snatched up Evenly Stars by the mane and flung him back over its head, where he fell onto the floor like a sack of meat. All he could do was stare at the demon in horror over his missing lower half.

It almost seemed to smile at the world of pain that he was experiencing as it lurched forward again, tearing him apart with its vicious claws. It took his intestines in his mouth and flung him against the walls of the hall as if he was a dog’s chew toy.

Suffice to say, Evenly Stars didn’t live long after that.

The creature, once done with its play of slaughter and torture, slinked the way Evenly Stars came. To the upper levels of the Canterlot Castle.

And more followed.