Disclaimer: I do not own MLP:FIM, or anything that is copyrighted.
Canterlot was well known as the calm capital of Equestria, and this was mainly the case when it wasn't under attack by powerful forces. Even tonight, the only noticeable figures this night was the pair of bat pony guards that were walking through the Canterlot gardens, while become more involved in their discussion.
"I told you that I don't want to speak about it." Said one of the bat ponies, who was wearing an iron set of armour with the night guard crest on his chest. The other simply shook her head and looked at her partner as she said "Come on, Helm. You've been acting less active as of late, and you won't even tell anyone about anything. You'll have to talk about eventually, for your own good if not for anything else." The iron-cladded bat pony shook his head as the pair of them walked into the statue gardens, before saying "I know that you're trying to help me, shield, and I appreciate that. But just because you're my supervisor for this season doesn't give you the right to start meddling with my personal life. So just drop it already."
Shield stopped them in the middle of the path and looked at him hurtfully as she said "Helm, do you only think of my as your supervisor?" He sighed and looked down in guilt for a moment, as the uncomfortable silence surrounded the pair. After a few moments in the garden of frozen glares, he looked back up at Shield and said "I'm sorry sis, but I've just been trying to forget the whole thing. But now I think about it, you deserve to know if nothing else." Helm paused for a moment, expecting his sister and superior to ask a question.
He sighed softly as Shield patiently waited, so he decided to continue. "Last Month during my last few days of private time, I was meant to meet up with my marefriend at this café for lunch. When she didn't turn up, I just thought that she was busy at work as usual. However, her sister found me a few minutes later and she was crying, so I asked her what was wrong. After she stopped sobbing, she managed to tell me that there was an accident at their family business and that... my marefriend was…" The look on her brother's face and the silence that followed was all Shield needed to understand what had happened.
Shield then lifted a wing and wrapped it around her younger brother's form as she said "Helm, I'm… sorry for making you bring it up. If I had known…" Helm raised a forehoof to silence her and said "But you couldn't have. I didn't even know until it was too late. I didn't even get to say goodbye." He then looked up into the sky with tear-full eyes, as a star shot across the princess's night sky. "I just wish that there was a way in which I could see her again, no matter what. Even if it's only once, so that I can say goodbye." The Younger bat pony then sighed as he looked down and said "But I know that'll never happen. There's nothing that can bring her…"
CRACK!
The two night guards jumped to face the noise, the past conversation forgotten about as they mentally prepared themselves for a fight. Shield led the way off the path and through the garden of stone statues, with Helm walking behind her to avoid being attacked from the back. As they walked between the statues, a feeling of emptiness seemed to surround them until it became the underlying emotion the pair felt as they stopped at the base of a cloaked statue that stared ahead from the shadows of the hedges. Helm looked around the area for a moment, before saying "Well there seems to be nothing here, so we best be on our way."
Shield shook her head, before saying "You know that we have to check the area if anything suspicious happens, so that we know if we have to report it to the captain." Helm sighed, before saying "Shield, it's the middle of the night in the royal princess's castle, in the middle of the most heavily protected city in Equestria, prison and showcase to some of the most dangerous creatures that ponies have defeated. What could possibly…"
CRACK!
The bat ponies froze in position as the loud sound of stone breaking ripped into the silence of the night, and the two slowly turned to the direction of the noise. It was now obvious to the pair of night guards that the statue of the cloaked figure had several large cracks on its cloak and hood. Distracted by the statue slowly breaking apart and the growing feeling of empty aura surrounding the area, neither of the two noticed that the shooting star disappeared from the sky.
"Shooting stars of the night, or 'Nightmare dreams' as they have been called in the past, have been wildly considered as Nightmare Moon's attempt to trick innocent ponies into a life of unfortunate events. Theses Shooting stars are considered as Nightmare Dreams as ponies are able to have a single wish when they see a shooting star, but the wish also have unforeseen effects on the world around the ponies. One such example is of a mare that wished for true love, and went on to fall in love with a disguised changeling who-"
Princess Luna's was interrupted from her reading of pony myths when a bat pony wearing a suit of iron armour flew into the main castle chamber, before bowing as she said "Your highness, there has been a discovery in the castle grounds. I believe that an immediate response is needed to protect Canterlot, your majesty." Luna sighed lightly as she closed the book and placed it on the throne's arm rest, before asking "May we ask what discovery this is which needs an immediate action from a princess instead of the captain of the royal guards, soldier?"
The bat pony seemed to step out of her bow as she looked at the princess with practiced professionalism and said "I and another guard discovered that there seems to by a mysterious aura around a cloaked statue in the royal gardens, your highness. The statue itself also seems to be showing mysterious behaviour, as it seems to be gradually breaking apart. My partner is currently guarding the statue in case anything happens." Princess Luna's appeared to have a look of distressed, before putting on a neutral face and saying "Thank you, guard. Please wait with the other guard until a team of guards comes to relieve you both. You are dismissed." The bat pony bowed again as she muttered a thank you, before taking off into the air and towards the statue garden.
As the night guard flew out of the room the room fell into silence as the advisors and servants looked at Princess Luna, who was deep in thought. "If one of the statues is breaking apart, and an aura of emptiness is around it, then there's no mistaking it. He's found a way to break out of his confinements. Who knows what will happen if he escapes..." Luna turned to one of her advisors and said "Organise a patrol of guards and a team of royal caretakers to go get that statue, and have them move it to a dungeon cell." She then turned to another and said "Go inform my sister of the events that have occurred, and inform an extra deployment of soldiers to patrol the dungeons." Luna kept ordering the servants around her to fill out orders, until it was just her in the chamber.
As Luna got up to head to the castle dungeons to ensure that all of the preparations were complete for the transfer, princess Celestia walked in into the chambers and said "Why does everything have to happen at night? Don't they need to sleep like the rest of us?" To most mortals Celestia would have looked her usual self, but Luna knew her sister well enough to tell that she was annoyed and tired. "We assume that they prefer to sneak around under the calm light that only our nights bring, dearest sister."
Celestia sighed lightly as she walked up to Luna, before stopping in front of her sister and saying "Luna, I know that one of the statues is falling apart, but from what I've heard from the servant you have wake me, you've already managed to put the possible threat into a safe quarantine for the moment. So was necessary for you to have me awoken immediately for an event that hasn't happened yet?" Luna nodded, before looking at Celestia and saying "Yes it was sister. We need to ensure that the pony doesn't escape." The solar princess glared at the lunar princess for a moment, before walking towards the exit. "You have the entire castle hyped up of one of the pony captives?" Said Celestia as she continued to walk out, lightly shaking her head as she continued. "You know that many of the pony statues in the garden are either statues made from magic rock or are already dead."
Luna flew in front of her sister and blocked her path, before saying "We know that, sister. But the guards who found it felt a magical aura surrounding it, and the statue in question is the cloaked pony statue you placed out of the way." Celestia stopped in her tracks as her eyes widened, before asking "Wait, you don't seriously think that…" Luna sadly nodded as she said "With the information, we have no choice but to believe that the necromancer is breaking out of his confidents."