Chapitre 4

Chapter 4

I laid on the couch, my front legs crossed in front of me as I stared at the page floating before me. It was mostly empty even after several hours wracking my brain.

I didn't just want to do the same thing as I did with Star Wars, adapting something I remembered from back home. But that was finished just a few weeks ago.

This time I wanted to write something else. The problem was that I was stuck.

Reaching out with my magic, I picked up the cup of strong tea and took a sip. It was similar enough to Earl Grey that I really couldn't tell the difference. It was also triple strength with a bunch of sugar and a couple of drops of milk in.

Usually, this kind of caffeine and sugar kick get me writing like a maniac. Not today, though.

I frowned at the page before me and tilted my head in thought before I sighed and wrote down 'Star Trek?' with my quill.

I supposed that I could still go that way in an emergency. If nothing else, it would clear my head.

A sound pulled my attention from the mostly empty page and I looked to the side to see Skitter laying across one of the armchairs, looking bored out of her mind as she stared at the door.

"You don't have to be here, you know?" I said with a smile, lowering the page.

"I'm your bodyguard and assistant, My Lord." The changeling answered and moved to sit up again. "It is my duty."

I rolled my eyes. "Skitter, I'm in the castle. In Luna's wing. In her tower and one of her personal chambers. If something attacks me here, we have bigger problems. Go eat something or take the night off."

The changeling did nothing but look stubborn, fluttering her wings with a buzz. "My Queen charged me with this duty."

I sighed and nodded. "I suppose she did."

And that was pretty much that. Queen Chrysalis might now be an Ally of Equestria, but she was not a subject of the Princesses other than following our laws. Her people were allowed to live in Equestria and were citizens, but her word was above that of the Princesses for the changelings.

Which made sense.

The changeling settled down as I picked up the page again. "Can you at least drop the 'My Lord' thing? I could have sworn I asked you that before."

"Yes, My Lord."

I rolled my eyes and sighed before giving her a Look. The changeling looked completely innocent but I didn't buy it. She knew exactly what I thought about that title.

Turning back, I stared at the page for a second before I balled it up and floated it over to drop in the fireplace. "Fuck this. Let's find something to do."

The changeling buzzed her wings and jumped off the armchair. "What would you like to do, My Lord?"

I considered that for a moment. Luna was holding court. There was also some stuff out in town that I could do, but that was mostly clubs open at this time of night.

There were some drawbacks to being awake at night. My favorite tea place being closed was one of them. If I wanted to go, it would have to be during the mornings. My evenings.

Having the time to easily stay with Luna was nice, but a lot of the night she was busy with work, leaving me to do my own thing.

Maybe I should shift things... partially. Maybe stay awake from, say... noon till three or five in the morning. Give me plenty of time with Luna while still being awake during most of the day. It wasn't optimal, but better than nothing.

I had not seen Thunder Cloud for almost a month and Swift Spear I'd only met a couple of times, he worked days. Then again, Thunder was off to basic guard training. Not like I would be able to see him much even if I was awake during the day.

"Well, at this time of the night?" I finally said and jumped off the couch. "It's the Library or going to watch Night Court. Well, that or some club out in town."

I knew which the changeling would have preferred. A lot of emotions in the air in those places. Not a lot of love, but they could eat other emotions than love. Love just gave them the most power and sustenance.

"The Library, sir?"

I shook my head. "Not today. Let's go to Night Court."

XXXXXXXX

We took the less traveled parts through the castle, allowing us to move without risking running into more than a couple of guards and cleaning staff.

Not that there a lot of people around anyway, but I didn't feel like pretending to be polite to some stuffy noble at this time if one happened to have shown up to see Luna.

Opening the small side door by the back, I peeked out. A small crowd of ponies, perhaps twenty in total had gathered. Luna was on the throne listening with interest at whatever the large stallion before her was saying.

"Take something a bit less conspicuous of a form." I whispered to Skitter.

She nodded and green fire crawled across her form, leaving behind a white unicorn mare with changeling wings. "Will this work?"

I nodded"It'll do." before leading the way out of the side passage into the throne room but keeping to the back.

Luna's eyes flicked in my direction when we stepped out from behind the pillar but other than that she didn't react, just returning her attention to the earth pony in front of her. He was saying something about mining rights?

As he prattled on about ore ratios and rock strata, I looked idly around the throne room before frowning slightly as something struck me. I didn't usually go here, this was only like my fourth visit to the throne room itself.

It had a flag with Luna's mark and colors right next to Celestia's above the throne, but the rest of the entire large throne room was all in Celestia's colors. White marble, pink and gold. Large pink windows.

Very little here was in Luna's colors.

That didn't seem right. This was a Diarchy. Why was the throne room still almost only symbolizing Celestia?

Actually, now when I'm thinking about it, why is there only one throne!? They were taking turns on it, yes, but there would be times they would both be here at once.

I really need to talk about this with Luna. That didn't seem fair.