As Gallus walked around the courtyard of the castle a small smirk stayed on his face. The cool bracing wind of the even running his dark blue feathers and the tan fur on his chest. Maybe there was an upside to the little piece of metal that was called armor in the kingdom. He wouldn’t have been able to feel the clean cool mountain air in a full suit of armor. Though his old armor was currently being worked on and was soon going to be back on him. Pipp had insisted that he let her take a look at it and try to spruce it up. That way he would not only have his armor back but it would also fit in with the rest of the kingdom. So these cool evenings had their days numbered.

But that didn’t stop the Griffin as he marched forward, trying to make sure that the perimeter of the castle. Considering the incident with the princess' tiny fans, the ‘pipsqueaks’, he had been trying to take care of the more serious security stuff. Thankfully there hadn’t been any security breaches since that that he wasn’t aware of. As his talons stepped on the smooth stoney pathway that looped around the entire outside of the castle he quickly was reminded why he needed to take the duty upon himself. In the distance, he saw a half dozen Pegasi all sitting on the dark green grass. Their faces were illuminated in the darkness by the phones they were obsessively tapping on. Different voices came from the tiny boxes, and game sounds sounded from a couple of the phones, even one of the guards had their phone to their ear taking a phone call.

“We’ll be talking about this in the morning,” Gallus said as he walked by them, all the guards jumping into the air, most of them dropping phones.

“Sir!” They all said, bringing their hooves to their heads in a salute, well all but the pony who was on the phone as she let out a MOMMY as she saluted.

But Gallus continued to march forward, it was getting to be too late in the evening for him to try and come up with any creative punishments. The barricades were spots and minty fresh from being scrubbed with the toothbrushes. The lawn around the cast was perfectly cut from the guards taking scissors and trimming each blade by hand. Maybe their next punishment would involve them clearing the mountain the kingdom sat on of the loose rocks and boulders. Having to carry them to a specific place so they could watch him knock them down.

“In the morning,” He reminded them with a head shake as he pushed forward, getting to the large stoney entrance to the castle. Much like the windowless windows the entrance had no door to open and close but was just a giant hole that stretched a mile or so high into the air. But with that, he had his track around the castle completely. Thankfully nothing seemed to be out of place so he could rest easy with that. So taking a deep breath in Griffin decided to take a little break himself and sat down as he looked into the sky and drank in the beauty of the night sky. The blackness was decorated with more shining white sparkling lights than he could count and a giant pale circle in the middle of it all. Once upon a time, the imprint of a pony was scarred on the moon. It had been the aftermath after Princess Luna the Princess of the Moon and Night had been trapped on the rock for 1,000 winters. But now looking up at it there was no sign that the alicorn had ever been to the moon. Though it made the blue creature wonder how the sun and moon rose and fell. The alicorn sisters from his time had been in charge of taking care of the threat, before them Starswirl the Bearded shouldered the burden on his own, and before that, it was up to the strongest unicorns in Equestria to handle it. But with all magic gone the sun and moon seemed to cycle just fine.

“AH!” A high-pitched screech pierced through the quiet of the night, making the captain’s fur on his back stick up as he got back up to his feet. With a powerful flap of his wings, dusting the entire front of the castle, Gallus zoomed back around the corner to where the guards were at. Thankfully a few of the guards had chosen the smart thing and had broken away from the group. But that still left a good number of the guards still where he had found them. “Report?!” Gallus ordered, landing in front of them, looking between the guards, who all just stared at him in confusion. But before he could get a chance to bark something at the guards he felt his phone start to vibrate. Reaching under his wing he pulled out his phone, half expecting to see Pipp’s name on it since they two had been talking a lot, but he frowned seeing the name ‘Glory’ instead. “What’s going on?” Gallus asked, flapping his wings as he floated into the air.

“Gallus, I mean dude, I mean man, I mean sir!” The pegasus spat into the phone, panic thick in her voice. “Room! Bam! Gone!” She stammered into the phone, making Gallus roll his eyes.

“In a language I can understand?!” He barked at her, floating higher and higher as he tried to hear an explanation.

“Gallus, sir!” Thunder's voice said from the phone next. “Princess Pipp’s door has been knocked down and we can’t find her!”

“Did you try calling her?” The Griffon asked next, giving a powerful flap as he went towards Pipp’s room.

“We did, but her phone was left on her bed!” Zoom said, finding her voice again, “And she wouldn’t go anywhere without that!”

“Er…. I’m on my way,” Gallus growled into the phone before hanging up. The first time one of the guards was contacting him for something other than a sick day or asking to leave their station early it just had to be because they lost one of the Kingdom’s Princesses. But the Captain of the Guard knew what to do as he flapped his wings and flew straight to Pipp’s room, soaring maybe 20 feet into the air. The distance made him wonder how the Pipsqueaks managed to get up to the Princess’s room so easily. Only one of them had wings and he doubted the little filly unicorn had the magic power to lift her and the earth pony up. But he would have to figure that out later as she landed in the open window. “What are you doing?” Gallus asked, his eyes immediately growing wide as he saw Pipp’s room.

The room looked as if it had been completely trashed with the pink pegasus’ trophies on the ground, her bedsheets torn off, and her white tap stretched out in the vague shape of a pony on the ground. Yellow caution tape had been stretched across the open door to prevent other ponies from coming in.

“Uh… preserving the crime scene?” Thunder asked from around the window, making Gallus peek his head around to see the green Pegasus with the roll of yellow tape, spreading it across the room and getting ready to cover the window.

“Crime scene?” Gallus asked, unamusement dripping off his words. “The Princess was kidnapped, not murdered! Why is there a body outline? Was there a struggle, why is the room trashed?” He pressed as he crawled into the window. If Pipp had been fighting and nopony had heard it the Griffin might finally fire his first guard.

“Oh no we uh… kind of did this to match the vibe of the situation,” Zoom said, nervously stamping her hooves on the ground.

“What-? You know what, we’ll talk about how stupid that is later.” The captain huffed as he reached over and jerked the tape out of Thunder's hands. He might have to go into an early retirement, well he was technically over 200 years old so it wasn’t really early, if those two continued to hang around him. “Ok, we don’t need aaaaaany of this.” He said, pointing the tape around the entire room. “I need a report.”

“Oh well, Zoom and I were guarding the door outside of Princess Pipp’s room,” Thunder started to explain, bringing a hoof to his chin as if he were thinking of a distant memory. “Nothing was going on so I was checking my Cloudpuffs on Cloudpuff Go. Making sure they had enough food and were bathed when all of a sudden the Princess screamed and the door to her room flew open. A black figure zoomed out of the room with the princess trying to scream through a rag.”

“And you gave chase?” Gallus asked, expecting the answer to be obvious, but as the two looked down to the ground the Captain groaned again. “So what I’m hearing is-. Somepony PONYNAPPED YOUR PRINCESS. And you two did NOTHING to stop it from happening or trying to save the princess?” He hissed at them, making the two ponies' heads drop down to the ground.

“W-we didn’t know what to do in a situation like this.” Thunder muttered, kicking at a trophy that was at his feet.

“Ok, answer me this then. What situation are you two ready for?” The Griffon barked, marching back and forth, “Cuz it seems as if the Queen needed you to protect her with your lives it would be a very quick battle to get through you or anyone!” He said, slamming a talon against the ground. “This is the second time! Not first, but the second time, somepony managed to get into the room without anypony noticing!” He said, his eye twitching as he saw Zoom’s grey frame start to bounce up and down as she sniffled as if she were a filly being chided for breaking a window with a baseball. “And the worst part, by far, is instead of doing SOMETHING to try and find the pony who kidnapped her, you two were goofing off in here!” He said, turning and marching out of the room, clawing at the tape at the door and cutting through it like a hot knife through butter.

As the bluebird creature got into the hallway he was greeted by the sight of the rest of the guard standing in the hallway. For the first time since he became a guard none of them had a phone in their hooves and didn’t have some sort of goofy grin on their face. Their faces were a mix of fear, confusion, worry, and sorrow. As he shot them each a gaze their heads dropped down, not wanting to meet his gaze. They probably showed up after hearing all the commotion and had heard their Captain’s speech to Thunder and Zoom.

“Guards, ha!” Gallus spat as he started to march down the hallway, “I’ve seen children show more gumption!” He said as he walked past the Pegasi, who lined up to the side of the hall, accepting their punishment. Not letting off any but’s or this is how we normally do things. “Pipp’s fans climbed up the castle to find her! Yes climbed as only one had wings. I’d trust those three to try and protect the princess more than I would you lot!” He said, stopping and turning around to see if anypony had anything to say. But the group had their heads hanging so close to the ground they were almost kissing it.

“Leave finding the Princess to me.” He spat before moving forward, “Since there seems to only be one creature here who is willing to try and protect his princess and kingdom!”

“Wait, Sir!” A soft but firm voice called out, making the Griffin pause and sigh, recognizing the voice immediately.

“Zoom, are you willing to gamble wasting more of my time while the princess is-.” Gallus started to say before he was cut off.

“No!” The gray Pegasus shouted before the sound of her armor clanking got closer to him, making Gallus turn. “I-I… I don’t know what I’m doing!” She admitted as her violet eyes stuffy and red from her cry session in the princess’ room, but let them lock with his. “But I know I need to learn! T-this is my fault and I want to make it right!” She said, standing up straight before giving him a salute. “Zoom, Knight of Zephyr Heights, reporting for duty, Captain!” She said, not blinking as the Griffin turned his body to face the Pegasus. The pony’s co-workers had their eyes set on the two as if this was a scene in the kingdom's newest hit movie. But as Gallus raised a taloned hand up the crew gasped, some looking away expecting the worst, but as a gentle clank was heard with no cry everypony looked back up and gasped.

“I’m glad to have you here then, Zoom,” Gallus said, smirking as he returned the salute to the young pegasus.

“Thunder, Knight of Zephyr Heights, reporting for duty as well, Captain!” The green Pegasus said, marching up beside his friend and saluting his Captain. Then following the lead of the two Pegasi the rest of the guards filed in behind them and saluted their Captain.

“Ok, looks like I finally have something to work with here,” Gallus said smiling as he dropped his hand to the ground before flapping his wings to get in the air, that way all his troops could see him with no issue. “Ok listen up, we all know what's going on. Princess Pipp is missing. We don’t know who has taken her, why they have, or where they have gone. It’s not a great situation to be in. But we need to find her!” He said.

“H-how are we going to do that?” A pony asked, their voice barely above a whisper as if they didn’t want to be seen asking the question.

“Good question,” Gallus said, drilling his talons on his chin. “We can’t have the entire kingdom in a panic right now. I doubt the kidnapper could have gotten far. Even this late at night I’m sure a screaming princess would draw plenty of unwanted attention. So we’ll split up into three groups. A small group will stay in the castle and look around, a bigger group to check the grounds, and everypony else go to the city and keep an eye out for anypony suspicious.” The Griffin ordered, landing on the ground, and started splitting up the groups. The first group consisted of him, Zoom, Thunder, and three other ponies. He sent nine Pegasi outside to check the grounds of the castle, and the rest flew off to the city to start watching there.

“Ok, you three.” He ordered the three Pegasi, “You are a team, stick together and search the castle’s upper floors and we’ll search the lower floors. Leave no stone unturned.” He said turning to head to his destination but figured he better specify before the group was found flipping rocks over. “And by that I mean check everywhere!” He corrected himself before nodding his head to Zoom and Thunder and rushing forward.

“Gallus sir,” Thunder said, galloping after the Griffon. “I’m sorry for being on my phone instead of doing my job."

“Me too. I was watching funny uni-rabbit videos.” Zoom admitted, running on the other side of Gallus. Though the Captain didn’t need to be told that the gray pony was goofing off at the time of the ponynapping.

“If we had been doing our jobs this might not have happened.” Thunder admitted, “But we’re going to find her and make things right!” He promised as the crew flapped their wings and glided down the stairwell.

“I’m glad to see a change of attitude, just a shame it took the princess being taken for it to happen,” Gallus said, gently getting a jab in about the two letting the princess be taken. But better late than never. But the conversation was quickly cut to its end as they landed on the bottom floor of the castle.

Off in the distance that seemed only a few miles away, the large entrance to the castle waited. It would have been easy for somepony to slip through there. Gallus was sure that there had been some ponies stationed there but sadly they hadn’t been too keen on actually doing their jobs at that point. But there were ponies outside looking so there wasn’t any point in them going out and trying to find the princess there.

“Ok, so what’s next?” Zoom asked, the two ponies looking at Gallus as if this were their first day at filly school and he was their teacher.

“Well, how about you two tell me?” Gallus asked, turning his attention to them. “I know there hasn’t been a situation like this before. But tell me what you think we should do in this situation.” He ordered them. “Focus, the princess is kidnapped. She hasn't been murdered so we don’t need any tape or preserving a crime scene. Nothing like that. What should we be looking for?”

The question made the two ponies pause as they looked around. The Griffin could swear that he actually saw smoke coming out of their ears and heard old rusty gears turning as they tried to figure out what they needed to do. The first time they had to think about something in a long while apparently.

“We should… look… for something out of place!” Zoom said, jumping as she gave an excited look. “If the pony is still in the castle they probably don’t know their way around that well!”

“But they knew where the princess was.” Thunder reminded her. “So they might know the layout of the castle. But that doesn’t mean there might not be a clue as to where the princess is! Princess Pipp was struggling when we last saw her so her pony napper would have time for an easy simple escape!” He said as he met Zoom’s gaze.

“Right! Plus they were fast so they might have been clumsy and knocked something over or maybe the princess did!” Zoom cheered.

“There might be hope for you two yet,” Gallus said with an amused scoff as he reached over and patted their heads. “Ok well let's look for something suspicious.” He said, rushing down the hall. They had that floor and the basement floors to check so they had plenty of ground to cover. But it wasn’t as if there were a thousand hiding places on each floor so they weren’t going to need to spend hours on each floor. “Well, go!” He ordered them, getting a salute from the two before they ran off to find anything to help in their search.

Thankfully it didn’t take too long to spot something that was out of place, a door leading to the lower floors of the castle had been left open. The knights were normally good at making sure to shut doors as they went through them. Plus there wasn’t any reason a pony would be heading lower into the castle at that hour.

“Looks like our culprit might have decided to hang around.” Gallus mused, walking to the open door after Thunder had called for him and pointed at it like a dog finding something it had been tracking.

“It was dumb for them to go down there,” Zoom pointed out as she joined them and peered down the staircase. “There's no escape route down there. Just the cells, some storage units, and the vault that once held the tennis ball.” She listed the different rooms below them. “And the shipping room where packages once came through.”

“And is there a way for people to escape in that room?” The Captain asked, getting a shoulder shrug from both of the ponies.

“The doors haven’t been open in decades and I think only the Queen has the key to open anything down there.” Thunder thought though his eyes shot open after that. “Except Princess Zipp swiped the key and has been using it to sneak in and out of the castle! She usually leaves it open so we can’t hear her coming!” He said before his wings shot open and lept down the stairs, becoming a green blur as he rocketed down further.

“Thunder, wait!” Gallus tried to order the green pony, not wanting their group to split up. He had no idea where the package room was. “Zoom, lead the way.” He ordered the gray pony, who nodded her head and much like her coworker jumped down the passageway with her wings unfurled. Though she went at a peace that the Griffin could keep up.

Getting down a few flights of the purple steps, passing the well-furnished cells that looked as if they never held anypony in them, the two shot out of a door and rushed down the hallway to where a large metal door was open. A chilly wind poured out of it, ruffing Gallus’ feathers as they got closer.

“Halt! The Knights of Zephyr Heights orders you to do so!” Zoom commanded someone from the other side of the door. “Release the Princess this instant!” He said as Zoom and Gallus entered the room. It wasn’t like any of the other rooms in the castle from what Gallus could tell. Instead of the dark purple carpets and paint the room was made of stone with the scent of mildew burned in his nose. Old rusted pieces of metal littered the floor, packages in brown stained packages long forgotten about sat on long wooden tables, and a broken stained glass window with the pony races looked down at them. But, and probably the most important part was a large hatch that was open leading to the outside world. The clear night sky was visible through it and the dim moonlight revealed two ponies at the edge. A pony in a black tracksuit with lime green lines decorating it, a helmet over their head completely hiding their face. Only the pony’s teal wings were visible. Then next to her was Princess Pipp, who had her legs tied with rope, a white sheet wrapped around her body to prevent the pony from flying, and a bandana over her mouth to stop her from talking. The mysterious Pegasi looked at the three of them before reaching over, grabbing Pipp’s binding and pulling the princess closer to the edge. Giving them the silent message of ‘Don’t move or the Princess goes’.

“Dammit,” Thunder spat, taking Gallus by surprise as he had just assumed this new wave of Pegasi didn’t know how to curse. “Don’t drop her, trust me that will not end well for you!” He assured the Pegasus, making Pipp’s eyes grow wide. Probably did not appreciate any talk about her being dropped. Considering the ground was a nice four-mile drop it wasn’t something any pony was living through.

“What is it that you want?” Zoom asked, trying to figure out what the ponynapper’s goal was in all of that. “Who are you?”

All the pony responded with was a head shake. The strong silent type apparently. But it was clear they didn’t want to talk to the trio at all.

“Sir, is she really going to drop the princess?” Thunder whispered to his captain, making the Captain look over confused. The threat didn’t exactly seem empty with the pink Pegasi a few inches from a free fall. “I mean if they went through the effort of kidnapping her it doesn’t seem like it would make sense to kill her.” He said making Gallus bounce his head from side to side. It wasn’t the worst train of thought he had heard from the pony.

“Are you really wanting to risk the princess’ life on that hunch?” Gallus asked, not taking his eyes off the mysterious pony.

“Not really,” The green pony muttered as he stayed frozen, it didn’t seem like there was much that they could all do. But as a soft veeer was heard all eyes shot to the Griffin.

“Um… Sorry, phone call?” Gallus said, slowly reaching towards his wing to grab his phone. But when the Pegasus moved the princess closer to the ledge. “Hey hey, look if that's one of my knights and if I don’t answer, they'll know something is up and come looking for us!” Gallus explained as he froze, a silence that felt like it lasted for years followed. But as the ponynapper pulled the Princess back he sighed and grabbed his phone. “Hello?” He answered the phone.

“Sir, we’ve scoured the courtyards,” The pony on the other end informed him. “We couldn’t find anypony. Do you want us to move and help search the city?”

“NO!” Gallus yelped, making everypony around him jump before he cleared his throat, trying to recover from the explosion and not make the mysterious pony suspicious. He couldn’t have the nearest backup getting further away from them. “Just stay where you are in case something else comes up.” He ordered.

“Alright sir, I’ll call you and let you know if anything else comes up.” The pony assured him, sounding like the end of the conversation, making Gallus grind his teeth. He had to let the knight know where they were without saying it.

“Alright sounds good,” He said, giving a slow nod, “Also I just wanted to say that the video of the Princess dog playing with packages was… cute. Keep it a secret though. I’d hate for the princess to see that the dog dropped the package off that ledge. Since nopony is supposed to be there.” He said.

“Um… Ok?” The pony said confused, Thunder and Zoom even looked at their Captain confused at the ramblings. “Are you ok Captain? You don’t watch the videos we send and I don’t think any pony has-!”

“Yes, it was adorable!” The Captain said, “It will be an emergency pick me up if I’m ever feeling down! Now goodbye.” He said hanging up and slipping his phone back into his wings. “Sorry, this lot never wants to shut up.” He said shrugging his shoulders as if to say "What can you do silently?" “So what is it that you are wanting? Riches? Rare ancient artifacts?” He asked.

“We’re fresh out of those since the inventory incident.” Thunder mumbled, shuttering as he relived the moment Gallus had shattered the tennis ball. “I think a bit of me died that day.” He whimpered to himself, kicking the ground.

“Ok, money, that's really all we got,” Gallus sighed, “Unless you have something more devious planned?” He tried pressing. But the mysterious figure just stood there, as still as a statue. “Well, we can’t just stay here for the rest of time. Eventually, somepony will realize we’re missing and come looking for us. So do you have some kind of demands before you’re completely surrounded?”
The ponynapper, as if Gallus finally got through to them, looked around before pointing their hoof behind them. Trying to figure out what the pony wanted, Gallus followed an invisible line that landed on a large white wagon that had probably been used to move around large amounts of letters and packages at one point. Though now with its rusted wheels and stained cover it looked more suited for a junkyard.

“Ok, what about it?” He asked, making the pony point at each of them before going back to the cart. “Oh… you want us in there?” He asked, getting a confirming head nod. The pony would probably get them in there and make her escape with Pipp. But there was no other choice unless they really wanted to test and see if the pony would drop Pipp.

“Ok, Knights.” Gallus sighed, walking backward to the cart, “Follow my lead.” He ordered, not taking his eyes off the pony.

“Fuck,” Zoom hissed as she started to walk backward as well.
“This isn’t good.” Thunder sighed, following their lead, “If we hadn’t been on our stupid phones maybe none of this would have happened.”

“Is it a bad time to say you’re right?” Gallus asked as the pony got further and further away. “That and not having any weapons. I’d even take that tennis ball to chuck at them.” The Griffin sighed.

“Wait…” Zoom gasped, her eyes going wide and her wings spreading out. She got an idea, and a lightbulb practically appeared above her helmet.

“Knight Zoom what are you-?” Her captain started to ask. But he didn’t get to get the question out as he saw the gray Pegasus reaching into her wing and chucking something.

“Say cheese, b-bitch!” Zoom yelled, stuttering the curse word out clearly not used to using such language. But as a black rectangle flew through the air it crashed into the pony’s helmet with a loud CRASH banging through the room.

“Ah!” The ponynapper yelped, finally making some sort of noise after everything that had happened. Though the sudden wireless attack made the pony stumble backward, her hoof was still on Pipp.

“MMPH!” The pacified pony cried out, her bound hooves reaching forward to try and grab onto someone.

“No!” Gallus yelled, lunging for the princess as the mysterious pony fell off the ledge, dragging the pink pony with her.

“PRINCESS PIPP!” The two knights beside him cried as they flew forward, their front hooves out in an attempt to save their princess. But as all three of them swiped an inch in front of the princess they watched her go over the ledge.

“NO!” All three of them said, looking over the edge, expecting to see a Pipp-sized hole in the clouds that surrounded the mountainside below them.

“Zephyr Heights Knights, reporting for duty!” A blue Pegasus said he and another Pegasus floated in the air with Pipp in their arms, making Gallus sigh in relief as the Princess was lifted up. Once she was sat on the ground Gallus used a talon and tore through all the pink Pegasus’ bondage. “Thanks for the hidden message, Captain. It took us a minute to realize what you were talking about. But it looks like we got here just in time!” He said.

“Are you alright, Pipp?” He asked her silently as he met her gaze before helping her up to her feet.

“Eh, I’m fine. But you guys were cutting it a little close, don’t you think?” She asked with a sheepish giggle, turning her head and looking down at the long trip she took to the ground.

“Yeah,” He said, reaching up and scratching the back of his neck, “We might want to go over what to do in a hostage situation.” He admitted, “But it all worked out in the end.” He said before looking around, the empty room now filled with a dozen or so Knights. “An hour ago I was getting ready to fire all of you and try running the castle security by myself. You all were trying my patience with being on your phones, slacking at your jobs, and a hundred other things.” He said, making all the Knights wince and cringe, some going back to not looking at their captain. “And when I learned that someponies had been watching videos instead of their jobs I almost lost it.” He pressed on, shooting a glare at Zoom and Thunder. “BUT… Instead of running away and leaving finding the Princess to me, like I thought you would. You all stepped up and genuinely impressed me.” He praised the group, getting shy smiles and a couple of cheers from the ponies. “I hope you all see why us being prepared is such a serious and important matter.”

“Yes,” Zoom said, stepping forward. “And… I’m sorry for not taking what you said seriously, Sir. I thought you were just a mean and cranky creature that was overreacting.” She admitted, reaching down and lifting her phone up, black shards of glass sprinkling off the shattered screen. “But if I had been ready this might not have happened.”

“Same for me,” Thunder said, stepping up with his chest puffed out and his cheeks inflated. “A-and I’m ready for whatever punishment you have for me. But know, Sir, I am ready to start taking my duties seriously!” He promised Gallus, the rest of the Knights in the room stepping forward with murmurs of agreement, making the Captain smile.

“We’ll worry about punishments later,” He promised them with a head nod, “But for now I need everypony to do a lap around the kingdom and the mountain to see if they can find the ponynapper! Now go!” He ordered, pointing to the open hatch. Immediately the knights rushed forward and jumped out to do what the Captain said with no questions, for the first time.

“Ok whew, that was iiiiintense,” Pipp sighed, crashing her head against Gallus’ side, using his fuzzy body like a pillow. “And I’m a little surprised it worked.” She said with a giggle looking up at him, making the Griffin blush as he looked away.

“Oh well, I just figured either an actual emergency would make them realize that they needed the shape up or it would weed out who really needed to leave.” He explained.

“I’m glad it was the first choice,” She sighed, standing up straight. “Though you could have been a bit more gentle with the rope and stuff, Lightning Dust.” The Princess whined, looking back at a black silhouette flew back into the room. The mysterious pony took their helmet off revealing Lightning Dust as she shook her mane.

“Hey you wanted it to be believable didn’t you?” The teal Pegasus asked with a scoff. “I gotta say that was some damn good acting, Princess. All that screaming made me think I was actually kidnapping somepony!” She laughed, reaching over and slapping Pipp on the back. “But I gotta thank Zipp for the map to the castle. I almost flew right into the Queen’s room. That barking cloud almost blew my cover right off the bat.” The Washout said.

“Well you did a great job either way,” Gallus said, giving a half-hearted salute to his friend. “I don’t think that any pony is going to forget this night for a long time.” He promised

“I hope not, I might not get away so easily next time if you can actually train these bird-brains. I might have to worry more about a phone being thrown at me!” She said, walking past Gallus, “I’m gonna take a long way home, just in case some pony manages to figure out it was me who stole the princess by appearances alone.” She said, walking out the door, leaving Pipp and Gallus alone.

“Er… we’re gonna have to replace Zoom's phone… again” The Princess sighed. The royalty phone plan was the biggest perk the ponies got working as knights. Getting new phones, accessories, and the best protection ever. The replacement part had been put to the test with Gallus chucking and breaking the knight's phones multiple times throughout training. But the princess shook it off and addressed Gallus. Ok, well congratulations Mr. Captain,” Pipp giggled, “Your mission was successful and I think that deserves to be celebrated.” She declared trotting forward.

“Oh?” Gallus asked following her.
“Yeah I’ll get the chef to make some smoothies for us,” She told him, “After all I gotta celebrate my boyfriend’s victories.” She laughed.

“Oh are we finally using the B and G words?” He teased her as he climbed the steps behind her. After a few months of plotting this little endeavor, the two had definitely grown closer over countless smoothies and meals.

“I think it’s time, but we might want to wait until we say it in front of my mom.” She advised the Griffin, not wanting to put his job on the line. If things got more serious then they would see. But who knew where things would end up between them, the Princess and her Royal Captain.

Author's Note

And we're back to this story after the Christmas story being posted in its entirety. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! There is one more chapter left so look forward to that. But like usual if there are any comments of feedback please feel free to leave a comment down below.