I’ve got a couple of hours to kill, but what to do? Wait, what is happening? I feel a tingling on the back of my neck. There’s an event happening related to Chaos? Let me use my Remote Sense to see what’s happening, it feels like a destructive kind of Chaos.

Activating Remote Sense my eyes widen as the stream of sensory information starts to flow in. It’s Celestia. She’s using a spell that I am intimately familiar with, it’s the same one Daybreaker used to try and finish me off. I survived thanks to Resilient Sphere but it decimated a huge chunk of the Everfree and left a massive crater.

I can only watch in awe as the colossal red and orange beam of light slams into the earth, like an orbital laser, but much larger in scale. I’m curious what she’s doing, but if I had to guess she’s venting her anger. Now that I think about it, I bet half of those ponies were shitting their pants because of Celestia as well, and I just didn’t notice her aura change.

It’s only when the giant beam of sunfire narrows and disperses entirely that I realize what she’s done. Celestia just destroyed the entire mountain where the thestrals used to live. Holy shit. Suddenly the alicorn turns and somehow looks directly into my eyes, despite me not actually being there. “Hm, nopony was supposed to see this. Who are you?”

It’s Ignis. I became aware that an event related to Chaos was unfolding and opened my senses to the location. You just displaced thousands of animals and a decent number of yeti’s. Also, there were still a handful of thestrals in there. Mostly a criminal that we banished to there and some of her sympathizers but still…there’s no way they were related to the plan the thestral in the throne room spoke of.

“There might’ve been some in there at some point, but it was clear of life when I scanned it. Seems they’ve relocated to another remote location or defected to foreign nation. Just how many new abilities do you have?”

A ton. If you need to vent more of your anger feel free, I can tell you about it after the trials. If you’re done though we can talk now. I met with Twilight for a few minutes, but she’s in therapy now and I can’t find anything to do. I’m quite bored if I’m being honest.

“I don’t need to vent anything, but I did have some paperwork I wanted to catch up on. So, I’ll take you up on the offer to talk after the trials. You should go find a hobby or something.”

The alicorn disappears with a flash of her horn, and I cut off the Remote Sensing. Can’t believe she just told me to get a hobby. I take back all of the nice things I said about her. No, but she is right. Oh here’s an idea.

“Sending. Hey Shining, it’s Ignis was just wondering where you’re at, I had a favor to ask of you.”

“Bold of you to assume I'd be willing to grant you any favors. I’m at the training area outside, going through some magical defense exercises with my guards.”

I’m surprised he didn’t ask what I wanted, but that’s fine I wanted to ask in person anyways. With a snap of my fingers I’m standing outside of the small arena I used to spar with Shining back when I first got here. Looking around I spot him near the target range and walk over.

“Your structure is good, but you’re not channeling enough mana into it Private.” Sounds like he’s giving some feedback on a shield spell that I can see being cast. Shining turns and spots me approaching and tells the guards to take a 10 minute break. His face has shifted into an absolute scowl as he approaches. "What do you want?"

“I need you to forge documentation for a fake unicorn to join the Day Guard.”

“What? That's ridiculous. I'm not forging paperwork so some new member of your harem can join the Guard. In fact the only reason I even entertained this conversation was because you were true to your word and revived my sister. I have no choice but to be grateful for that. But, it doesn't change what you did. You're vile.”

“Yeah. You're right. This isn't for someone else though, it's for me. I plan to disguise myself as a unicorn so I can see if there's any issues falling through the cracks for the lower enlisted. I no longer need to sleep since I've ascended, so I have a lot more free time when the sun is up. You can hate me all you want, but this truly is for the betterment of both of our guards.”

Shining just tries to bore holes into my skull as he stares into my eyes. "Fine. Follow me."

I follow the unicorn with my hands held behind my head and he leads me back into the castle. After a few turns through different hallways I find myself in what appears to be a giant supply closet. He floats over a closed box and opens it to reveal just a bunch of golden shield shaped badges that all have a sun emblazoned in the center of the shield.

“Here you go, one identification badge.”

I grab the thing and slide it into my pocket and then I activate Alter Form. I opt to transform into a creme colored unicorn with a short bright red mane that has a small braid running down the right side of my head. Using that as the base I activate Alter Form again and alter my equipment to be the standard Day Guard armor that changes my fur to a pure white color. I give myself cyan colored eyes and a cutie mark that depicts a small volley of fireballs.

Turning towards Shining I raise my eyebrows. “Well, what do you think? Did I get everything right? I’d hate to get called out for some minor design fuck up on the armor.”

“How did you do that? I expected some sort of polymorphing spell when you said you'd go in disguise, but how did you even manage to recreate our armor?”

“I can freely alter my form to be just about anything as long as it has no more than two extra limbs compared to my normal form. Including my equipment. As far as I can tell though this is purely cosmetic. I don’t think this armor is actually giving me any type of defense as my AC didn’t go up when I altered my form to have the armor equipped.”

“What’s your false name? I’ll need it when I’m making your record later.”

“Rapid Fire.”

He just gives me a flat look that screams, really? “Alright. Well…welcome to the Day Guard, Private Fire.”

“Thanks! Now I’m gunna go wander around the barracks and introduce myself to some of your ponies.”

I hear the unicorn clear his throat and I look backwards at him with a questioning glance. “Are you not going to salute your superior officer?”

Now it’s my turn to give him a flat look, and he further explains his reasoning with a sadistic grin and a mocking tone. “I’m just trying to make sure you don’t blow your cover within the first hour of walking around. As a Private you’re gunna have to use proper courtesies and address a lot of ponies with respect. You’ll definitely be saluting a lot.”

“You’re lucky this is the new me. The old me would’ve weighed down on you with my presence and told you not to push your luck. But, you’re right. That is something I will have to do. Trust me though, I’ll be fine.” It’s still a little annoying to walk on four legs but after doing it for a couple of minutes it’s mostly coming to me naturally.

"I'm afraid I must insist, Private. Assuming you really want this paperwork filed. What's the harm, huh? It's just a salute."

Count to ten, Ignis. Calm thoughts, waterfalls, clear night sky, getting smothered in a cuddle pile on a bed. Resist the urge to throw him out a window. Am I really bored enough to give this fucker the satisfaction? "Fine, fuck your paperwork then. You already gave me the badge and that's more than enough for me to do what I wanted to do for today."

The smirk disappears and his eyes widen at my sudden shift in attitude. I wonder if really didn't realize how much I was holding myself back for our entire interaction? Even what I let slip there was only half of my real frustration. What an asshole.

“Hey look, who is that?”

“I don’t know. Were we supposed to get somepony new today?”

These two mares are just talking to each other right in front of me as if I don’t exist. “I can hear you, you know?”

“It’s really a pain in the flank that both Captains of the Day and Night Guard are stallions. Feels like every other new pony we get strolling in here is a stallion nowadays.”

“I know right? When it was just the smaller villages and border towns it was fine to let stallions join. The regiments there were in desperate need for more bodies. But, the decision to let them join the Royal Guard? Feels like things have just been going to shit ever since, ya know?”

I can feel my eye involuntarily twitching. “So you’re both just going to keep pretending like I’m not standing here? Alright, fine. I’ll go find somepony else to show me around.”

“Woah hang on there cutie. We’re just joking around! We’d be happy to show you around.” The unicorn mare removes her helmet and I watch as her illusionary white fur changes a dark blue color. It has a nice contrast to the golden mane that spills out as the helmet leaves her head entirely. “Name’s Lightning Spear and this is Tepid Defender.”

When her name is mentioned the other mare gives me a flat stare. “Sup?” Her tone of voice is equally as flat. I guess Tepid is an accurate adjective for her. She doesn’t seem interested in removing her helmet so all I can really tell is that her eyes are pink and she’s a unicorn as well.

Lightning motions to follow her and the three of us go inside the barracks. “This is Aurora barracks. The building is pretty old so half the rooms no longer have hot water because the gems used in the faucets have either been overused and lost the ability to recharge themselves or they’ve just fallen apart. Stallions live on the first floor, and luckily for you most of the heating gems on this floor were just installed a couple of weeks ago. Did they tell you what your room number is?”

“If they did I don’t remember it. Why the first floor?”

“We can’t have the stallions climbing up and down the stairs after a hard day's work. I think it’s a bit of a silly reason, but that’s what the building manager said. I think most of you guys get bothered too easily and there’s always some kind of drama going on, but I don’t think you’re so fragile you can’t climb a few steps everyday.”

“Since the first floor just got the heating gems in their faucets replaced does that mean the other floors are getting replacements soon as well?”

This time Tepid is the one to answer me. “As if. That mare just tells us we’re guards and if we can’t handle some cold water then we shouldn’t be here.”

Alrighty then, that’s already one huge improvement I can make here. “Have any of you reported it up your chain of command?”

“Yeah but they all just say that barracks issues aren’t something that falls under their area of responsibility. All maintenance and other issues are to be submitted to the building manager.” Tepid sighs before continuing. “Speaking of, we’re gunna have to talk to her to figure out what your room number is.”

“Wait. Are there any other problems like that in this place?”

Tepid just raises an eyebrow and gives me a condescending look, but Lightning seems to be the one to verbalize her thoughts. “Why? You think you can change anything? Look colt, I appreciate the sentiment, but you’re fresh out of basic. Trust me, it’s been like this for a couple of years now, so you aren’t going to be able to change anything.”

I apparently let too much annoyance into my voice when I respond as they both flinch at my tone. “Humor me.”

The two mares share a look before turning back to me, and Lightning sighs before responding. “A lot of the windows don’t properly seal anymore, so it gets cold during the winter. The rooms on the top floor have leaks all over the ceiling whenever it rains. For some Celestia forsaken reason the Night Guard does their physical training in the open field we have around the back of the building and they’re way too loud. We’ve tried asking them to either move it somewhere else or to at least stop doing it in the dead of night when we’re all trying to sleep. They just tell us to take it up with their Captain.”

I pray that my cheeks are actually flushed right now. When we first started up the Night Guard the gym was always closed whenever we needed to train so I just said fuck it and picked the closest open field to the gym. Okay I’m pretty sure I can flex and pressure in the right places to get all of this fixed. Especially the Night Guard issue because that one is legitimately on me.

“Got it. Well, it was nice to meet you two. I just remembered I have somewhere to be, but I’ll talk to you later.”

They both go a bit wide-eyed at my sudden departure, but before they can say anything I’m already back at the entrance of the building opening the door. “Wow Lightning, you scared off another one. No stallion is gunna want a mare that complains that much.”

For some asinine reason I tried using a forehoof to open the door instead of telekinesis. Probably because my muscle memory is to use a hand, but as a result my dumb ass falls face first into the door with a loud thud. When the two mares hear the sound of metal armor crashing and banging into something right after hearing me yelp they put two and two together.

I hear a gasp followed by loud hoofsteps and open my eyes to find both of them staring down at me with concern. “Wow, is that your natural mane color? It’s pretty rare to see a bright red mane like that.” The words come out of Tepids mouth and just leave me a bit confused. I guess the fall knocked my helmet off.

“The guy slams his horn and face into the door and you’re asking him if his mane is dyed or not? Tepid what the buck? It is a nice shade though…anyways, are you okay dude? You never gave us your name.”

“Rapid Fire, and yes I’m fine, thanks for asking.” After I get some help standing up I look at both of them feeling a bit embarrassed. “For what it’s worth neither of you scared me off, I really am on the verge of running late for something important. Thanks again.”

This time I use telekinesis to pull the door open and zip out of the building. After looking around to make sure no one is looking I teleport away and land in my office. As I return to a bipedal form I can’t help but to put two hands on my back as I stretch and arch it. Getting a few cracks for my trouble I let out a groan. I don’t know time passed by so fast, it feels like I was barely out there. Is this a symptom of regaining some of my elven personality? I’d hate to have a warped sense of time.

Quickly making my way to the back door of the throne room I greet the two guards again before casting Invisibility on myself. “You’re late Ignis.”

“Well I’m late to your 1245 asking time, but I still got here before 1300. I decided I’m just gunna chill up here on the throne with you, and I’ll stay invisible the whole time. We can just speak into each other's mind so no one will know I’m acting as your lie detector.”

“If you’re going to be using telepathy then why are you sitting on Luna's throne?”

“Cause it’s super fucking comfy.” Celestia just rolls her eyes.

“Just…don’t kill any of the other criminals today, please.”

“No promises~”

After a few minutes pass the doors open and ponies pour back into the throne room. Celestia says some nonsense about how we couldn’t risk the thestral being broken out of the dungeons by any co-conspirators that might have been captured. Funny enough that is technically true, but it’s definitely not why I snuffed her out. There’s a few questions from different ponies, I think some are nobles and some are news people? No clue to be honest. Celestia just gives them non-answers and then the first defendant is brought in.

“So, did you have any specific questions about my new capabilities or did you want me to just list them off? She’s lying by the way. When she said she was under mental compulsion magic from Discord. She is telling the truth that she didn’t harm anyone though, so I guess she just hung around with the traitor crowd and then backed out when it came time to act.” Celestia hums in thought for a few seconds.

“I’ll have you list them off to begin with and then if I have any questions I’ll ask them. Being able to tell which part of her statement is the lie is actually quite a notable ability. I suppose I’ll give this mare community service, since she wasn’t a guard her actions aren’t nearly as egregious.”

The next several trials all go the same way. Out of every single pony we judged today, only one just admitted that they were scared, didn’t know what to do, and just wanted to survive. Every single other pony tried to shift the blame to some external force or tried to lie about the severity of their crimes. It’s after the tenth trial that I finally finish rattling off all of my new abilities.

“When you say that you can bestow spells and minor abilities through a blessing, what exactly are said spells and abilities?”

“Only a few spells are set in stone, for the rest I just give them access to a mental library of sorts. They instinctively know all of the spells they can cast and when they wake up they can trade out any of their spells for other spells in that mental library. It’s mostly supporting spells though. Healing, empowering, bolstering their defenses, and even something like an area of effect sphere that silences everything inside it. For you ponies, silencing isn’t that big of a deal, but for my kind that requires incantations, it’s a deadly effect.”

“And the abilities?”

“Mostly the same. One causes allies nearby to receive less damage when they’re hit, and another lets allies feel more well rested after a good night's sleep. Pretty mundane stuff, truth be told.” Celestia still looks conflicted about something and I can tell she’s still deep in thought. Deep enough that she’s ignoring the trial completely, Raven is trying to get her attention.

“I assume there’s a limit to how many creatures you can give this blessing to?”

“Nope. The only restriction is that they have to worship me. I’m pretty loose on the definition of that word though. As long as they just follow me and try to stick to the core principles I don’t really mind if they’re not super devout. By the way Raven has been trying to get your attention for like a solid minute now. The defendant finished talking well over five minutes ago and they’ve all just been staring at you.”

I can see her gaze snap upwards and she apologizes for getting lost in thought. “This one lied when he said he didn’t harm anyone. You should narrow it down and see if he killed anyone.”

“So you swear on the core tenants of Harmony that you did not murder anypony during the incident?”

“Murder?! Your Majesty, of course not! I could never do something so cruel and violent.”

I instantly direct my voice into her mind. “Lies. Do you want me to attempt the enchantment that forces him to tell the truth?”

“I’m not sure. That likely falls under mental magic and is almost certainly illegal. I can only use a variation of a similar spell that doesn’t force you to tell the truth, but it will not let you speak a lie.”

“First of all, it isn’t magic. Second of all, my ability is mostly the same. The only difference is that mine strictly prohibits the evasion of truth. They can likely stay completely silent if they so wished. Oh and I don’t have to tell them that the effect is activated like you do for your Zone of Truth. So, can I do it?”

Her eyes squint in consideration. I can tell she’s really conflicted about this, which means she wants to do it but is worried about the morals of the act. “Do it.”

“Power of Truth.”

“How many of my little ponies did you kill?”

The stallion opens his mouth, but looks confused when nothing comes out. He opens his mouth again and says, “I only managed to rob four ponies of their futures.”

He instantly slams his foreleg into his mouth as his eyes widen in panic. “What I meant to say is, the power I feel knowing I prevent them from decades of happiness and love as I watched the light fade from their eyes was exhilarating. My only regret is that I only managed to find four foals alone and stupid enough to follow me!”

Tears start pouring from his eyes as he’s half way through his confession, realizing that he has sealed his fate. Compared to the thestral from earlier, the only feelings that stir in my chest when he admits to killing four children is sadness. Their friends and siblings, their parents being forced to bury their child.

Before I can get too emotional I realize a lot of ponies in the front half of the audience have a similar look on their face as before. They look like they’re about to shit their pants. It must be caused by Celestia then. I guess that confirms I can no longer even discern her aura. I can only imagine how pissed she is though, I know she views all of the ponies of her kingdom as her own family. Likely a coping mechanism for the lack of any immortal mates or ponies biologically capable of giving her an heir, and not to mention the 1,000 years without her sister.

My eyes widen and now I don’t need to be able to feel her aura to tell she’s enraged. Her hair just caught on fire!

"How dare you? What even are you? I refuse to believe there is a pony so vile that they would not only take advantage of an apocalyptic situation to murder foals. But, to also take pleasure in it? To have your only regret be that you….you….DIDN’T MURDER MORE?"

Her horn is glowing. Should I stop her? Just a few hours ago I killed a criminal for my own selfish desires, wouldn’t I be a hypocrite if I stopped her? That’s the wrong question. I should ask myself, would she want me to stop her?

I think she would.

Her horn glows brighter and I whisper out loud. “Forgive me, Celestia.”

The alicorns horn flashes and in that instant I snap my fingers revealing myself. “COUNTERSPELL!”

A tiny ray of fire appears in the air over her horn before sparking and collapsing in on itself. Celestia instantly snaps her head towards me. “You dare?! Hypocrite!”

“I just wanted to make sure this is what you really want. I asked myself if Celestia would want me to stop her, and the answer I came to is yes. If this is truly what you want I have no right to judge or stop you. I just hoped for you to take a short second to really ask yourself if this is what you want to do.”

She’s still seething and her draconic eyes are trying to set me fire through pure willpower alone, but after a second I can see her brows furrow. The fury starts to slowly fade. Celestia’s eyes return to normal but her mane is still ablaze. “You have my thanks, Ignis.”

Her gaze turns icy as she turns back towards the murderer. “I sentence you to four life sentences in Tartarus. The sentences are to be served consecutively, and believe me when I tell you that I will make damn sure you live long enough to carry out that entire sentence.”

She ignites her horn one more time and a circle of fire appears under the pony. He starts to scream as the circle rises and completely surrounds the pony before imploding and after a brief flash, he’s gone. “How are you gunna keep him alive for 400 years?”

“I don’t know, but I have at least 100 years to figure it out. I really do appreciate it, Ignis. You were right in believing that I would want you to stop me.” The fiery mane returns to a pastel rainbow as Celestia addresses the audience. “That will be the last trial for today. If you have any disputes that would normally be settled during Day Court you’ll be allowed to bring them up when my sister opens her court tonight.”

The throne room empties out and Celestia tells the guards to leave as well. “What’s happening to the world? Even during pre-unification when things were at their darkest, ponies were not like this. Sure they were scared and racist, but in one day I’ve seen two ponies have more evil in their hearts than even some of the worst villains I’ve fought to the death. It feels like everything is crumbling around me, Ignis.”

I…did not expect to see this side of Celestia. “If Harmony is to be believed it likely has something to do with my existence. The way ponies acted when I first arrived here and the way Equestria is described in history books painted such an unrealistic picture of this kingdom. I truly thought it was propaganda. Compared to both of the realms I lived in before this, Equestria of the past was a utopia. From my perspective it just feels like this place has become more…realistic.”

“I wonder what things were supposed to be like. Would Luna still be happy in that world where you never existed? No, I’m sorry, that’s a dark line of hypotheticals to dive down and it’s not constructive at all. At least I can take comfort knowing that your existence has nothing to do with what happened to my daughter. She’s adopted of course, but she was my student before Twilight. The tragedy involving her was years before you showed up, but I wonder if the ultimate outcome of her fate will be for better or worse in this sequence of events.”

I’m starting to get the feeling that I don’t really need to say anything. I think she just needs someone to listen. “What was she like?”

For the first time since the guards left the room Celestia actually makes eye contact with me. “You’re not going to ask what happened to her?”

“You can tell me if you want, but I figured you’d appreciate the chance to gush about her. I’m just a set of ears right now.” Her eyes widen a tiny bit, almost like she’s had an epiphany. Maybe she didn’t even realize that she just needs someone to listen to her.

“She was brilliant. If she was still here she and Twilight would be competitive rivals for sure. Like Twilight she didn’t see a point in having friends or socializing, but Sunset was much more assertive. I love Twilight but she can be a bit awkward, you know? She’s earnest and tries her best though, and that’s all I can ask, but I worry about her leadership skills. They’re both polar opposites on that front. Sunset had the qualities of a leader, a strategic mind, but I worried with her attitude towards ponies she could become a tyrant. With Twilight I just worry if she’ll be able to handle the weight of the decisions she has to make, and if she’ll be able to make those hard choices.”

“So her name is Sunset? Did he give her that name or did she already have it when you took her in? If she already had that name then it almost feels like… I hate to say it, but fate.”

“Sunset Shimmer. It had to be fate. One of the first titles I ever received was Celestia, the Radiant Dawn. It made me think that if she ascended we would’ve shared the responsibility of the sun. I’d raise it in the morning and she’d bring it down in the evening.” The alicorn starts to sniffle and I feel uncomfortable. I don’t know how to handle a crying Celestia and normally someone else is here for her.

“What is it?”

“It’s nothing…mentioning her lowering the sun made me realize that Luna never got to meet her. Realizing that just made my regrets a bit heavier than I was expecting.”

I want to ask if she died, because that’s what it sounds like. But, even I have a bit more tact than that. It’s almost like Celestia read my mind though, because she answers my unasked question. “I suppose they could still meet. If you remember when we first met I told you there was an artifact that opened up access to a dimension that housed creatures similar to the humans you described. Ultimately I know that place is a mirror of this world, so it couldn’t have been your Earth you speak of, but that’s where she is. We had an argument, well it was an argument we’d had at least 100 times, but this time she finally snapped. She ran through the mirror and I couldn’t afford to go after her and risk the portal closing while I was in that place.”

“It closes?”

“Indeed. It only opens for one night every three years. 30 Lunar cycles to be exact, so two and a half years I suppose. It pained me to know that I couldn’t risk being trapped in that place for such an extended period of time without Luna being here. The unicorns of todays modern age wouldn’t be able to move the sun and moon, so it’d be a disaster if I was gone for 30 months. It was the single time I held resentment for this crown and this cutie mark. Being forced to choose my kingdom over my daughter. It’s cruel.”

It is cruel. If it were me I’d have forsaken everyone here and told them if I don’t make it back to figure it out on their own. I dare not say that out loud though.

“If it were you I bet you’d have told Harmony to kick rocks and told the unicorns to figure it out. Then you’d have gone in there without a moment of hesitation. So unapologetically selfish, and I wish I could also be so. I won’t lie though, I can sleep just a bit more soundly at night knowing Luna has somepony that’ll set the world on fire if it means saving her.”

“You were so displeased at me holding Twilight’s soul hostage, though? I assumed you hated my mindset.”

“Of course. Don’t you understand? Twilight might have Night Light and Twilight Velvet, but I still can’t help but to see her as my second daughter. I practically helped raise her, to the point that she’d slip up and call me mom sometimes. You were threatening to take one filly when I’ve already lost one. Which just makes it even worse that I let her go back to Ponyville knowing she needed professional help that isn’t available there.”

I should weaponize sad ponies. Seeing these creatures like this makes me wanna lean into them and scratch their ears and make it all better. I resist that urge in this case though, I’m pretty sure she’d turn me to ash if I pet her like a cat. “Nah that just makes it make even more sense. No mother wants their child to hate them, and I assume that’s what you feared would happen if you kept her here against her will to go to therapy.”

“Essentially.”

Things fall into an awkward silence after that, so after several seconds of quiet I decide to re-initiate. “Did you have any further questions about my Divinity?”

“No, I think I asked everything I needed clarification for. It’s astounding how many abilities you gained compared to us, though. Back when I did have an entire cult worshiping me, I could feel the surges in power, but I couldn’t just speak directly to any of them or remotely perceive their temples. I definitely can’t give any of my ponies access to my solar abilities. Thanks for lending me an ear, Ignis.”

“Yeah no problem. I’m just glad we’re able to get along. I could tell it made Luna a bit upset back when we were at each other's throats. Oh by the way. I have a list of things that need to be addressed for your Day Guard. Do you want to hear them or should I bring them up with Shining Armor?”

“Oh? I’ll hear them. I might still refer you to him, but how serious are the problems?”

“Nothing that serious, but it’s several observations I made while walking around in disguise today. Your building manager for the Aurora barracks seems to be pretty sexist and is giving a lot of preferential treatment to stallions. A majority of the mares living there have defected heating gems in their faucets, so they have no hot water. Most of the seals around the windows are non-existent resulting in extremely cold rooms during the winter. The roof of the building has leaks all over the place so residents on the top floor constantly have water dripping from the ceiling. This is all just one of your barracks. I can’t imagine the other barracks are much different.”

“I disagree, that is quite serious. I just approved funds for over 1,000 new heating gems last month and you’re telling me only the rooms on the first floor received the replacements? That building manager is probably embezzling the funds and hiding it behind sexism to keep the residents from being suspicious. I’ll have Captain Armor and a few investigators sent over to question the mare in charge and to document all the repairs needed for the building. I’ll make an example of this mare and that’ll likely cause the other building managers to fall in line if they’re also neglecting their duty to maintain those structures.”

“Perfect. Morale should improve a lot for the mares living there. I’ll probably keep going around in disguise to find other quality of life issues that might be falling through the cracks and keep you updated. I decided that’ll be my daytime hobby for now. It’s quite fun pretending to be some fresh new recruit in the Day Guard.”

“I can’t say I don’t get it, I have a few secret identities myself. It’s nice to just get away from it all and pretend the mundane problems of my mortal identity are the only problems in my life. It also gives me a certain appreciation for other aspects of my life. Anyways, Ignis, I’m afraid all this venting has left me quite peckish and I believe I hear a chocolate cake calling my name in my office. Thanks again for everything today, and I’ll see you at dinner.”

“No problemo, cya Sunbutt.”

I feel a pair of eyes trying to bore into the back of my skull. “I’ve learned to accept that you’ll continue to call me Celly, but I draw the line there. Do not refer to me with such a vulgar nickname.”

“Sorry haha, I was trying to lighten the mood. But yeah I’ll see you at dinner.” I guess I’ll go lay in bed with the girls until they wake up. I might not need sleep anymore, but you can never have too many cuddles.

Author's Note

Would've released this tomorrow and ended it after the scene with the two guard mares, but ended up wanting to rewrite a few parts and then went to bed before I finished. So instead you all can have this longer-ish chapter today :D

Thanks for reading! <3