It is a lovely warm day in the castle at Canterlot, and you have been summoned to the private chambers of her majesty, Princess Celestia. As a captain of her elite royal guard, this is something that happens relatively often, around once a week. You have served the princess for close to ten years now after having proven yourself in a rigorous set of trials in which you were close to tortured mentally, emotionally and physically in an attempt to prove yourself.

You often reflected on how easy it would have been for you to simply opt out and settle as a soldier, waiting for the opportunity to make something of yourself in combat. As you neared the door to her Majesty’s chamber, you nod to the two white pegasi at the door, who return the gesture to their captain. You knock at the door and hear the calm soothing voice of the Princess tell you to come in, opening the door to find her with a small saddlebag over her midriff, her huge wings slightly out of place on her frame because of it.

Knowing the likely contents of the bag slightly concerned you, having accompanied her on this trip several times now and guessing that the Princess was trying to spice up her little “adventures”.

“My loyal captain, how are you on this fine morning?” she asks, using the magic of her horn to raise a brush and run it through her mane.

“All is well ma’am.” You reply, rising from having bowed to her.

“I assume you know where we’re headed today? I wish to visit my consort. Luna will be taking care of Equestria for today, she’s becoming quite the fair ruler if I may say so myself” The deity said, still looking at herself in the mirror, a warm smile on her face as she thinks about her sister in the throne room elsewhere in the castle.

“Aye ma’am. She certainly shares your gift for fair and compassionate rule.” You reply, wondering in your head why Celestia chooses to go out into the public to visit her lover, when she could just as easily have him brought to her.

“I do trust you captain, you know that you may speak out if you feel the need.” She replied, flicking her head towards you and looking you dead in the eye, her gaze making your helmet and armour feel useless.

“I mean nothing of it your majesty, I have recently spent time in the company of Princess Luna and I have found her to be very just.” You say, maintaining eye contact. Celestia laughs, realising that you were being completely honest and returns to the mirror, running the brush through her chromatic hair two more times before putting the brush in her saddlebag and rising. Glad that she is in such a good mood, you decide to push the question that had been bothering you so much.

“Ma’am, I do have one question, if you may allow me to ask?”

“Go ahead,” she replies, as you both walk out into the corridor attached to her room.

“Well, may I know why you choose to go to the home of your consort rather than have him brought to you?”

Celestia laughs again and looks at you warmly. “The same reason that you are a member of my personal guard, Captain. You concern yourself with protecting Luna and Celestia, rather than serving royalty; this is why I give you a little more leeway than most guards, I consider you a friend as well as a protector. My lover helps me to forget about my duties, the pressure and the stress of being a Princess in charge of such a vast nation.”

You nod, taking in slowly that someone you don’t really know that well on anything more than a professional level considers you to be her friend, even with all of the nobility available to her.

“It’s also why I keep asking you to call me by my name, rather than by my title, but I guess that is something all guards would have a problem with.” Celestia adds, laughing again, trotting out of the door behind you into the brilliant sunshine as you see the guards at the door snap to attention.

It is a busy market day in the town below, the summer sun allowing for exotic wares to be put on the cobbles outside of shops, the royal princess taking interest in some of the rarer items whilst you hope that she doesn’t choose anything to large for you to carry in the sweltering heat. You notice that one specific stall is closed today; you know the store well, as the pony that owns it just happens to be the very one you and Celestia are going to be visiting once she is done browsing. She stops at a stall operated by a group of young fillies, hoof-made jewelery on display, shining beautifully in the sun. The princess immediately sees one that she likes, a simple design in bronze, copper and what looks like gold, arranged to resemble the sun on the flag of Canterlot, its own design based on the sun emblem on her majesty’s flank.

She reaches into her bag and places what must be far too many bits on the table in front of the excited children before seeing another piece looking like the moon and dropping the same amount of money on the table again. The fillies look ready to cry in happiness as they wrap the moon on it’s delicate silver chain in tissue paper and put it in an ornately decorated box, the sun pendant being lifted magically and attached around Celestia’s neck, whilst she raises a golden shod hoof to move her hair out of the way.

She places the small box holding Luna’s gift in her saddlebag and moves on, greeting an elderly mare selling apple pies and continuing down the row. This was one of the things you always admired about the princess, her willingness to be amongst her subjects. Sure, she may be a little paranoid sometimes, there hadn’t been an attempt on her life since an incident with a dragon shortly after you arrived in Canterlot, yet she still requested a high ranking member of the guard with her when she left the castle; more of them if she left the city all together.

Eventually, the pair of you make it out of the market place and into the streets, the feel of the cobbles beneath your feet telling you that you must be close to your destination as they become less uniform. You snap back into reality in a smaller market place, selling purely food rather than a mixture of wares. The sun is making your armour slightly uncomfortable, but you cannot remove it whilst on duty and would most likely have to wait until you could get into the cool showers in the guard house later on. Excited, Celestia breaks into a gallop, approaching the door of her lover’s home and knocking on it. The door swings open and you see the warm loving eyes of the colt settle on the princess before the two disappear inside and you take up a post at the door.

Fortunately, these visits became one of your preferred tasks after the colt had taken sympathy on you and the other members of the guard and had placed a wooden shelter next to his home, a bottle of sarsaparilla hidden in an ice bucket obscured near the entrance. You considered opening it on this warm sunny day, knowing that her majesty’s lover wouldn’t inform on you and theorising that after the conversation this morning, you may even be allowed to have a slight deviation of duty. Your thoughts are interrupted by the loud wail of two foals, two of a group of five that had been playing in the square amongst the market stalls. You’d noticed that one of them, a tiny blue pegasus, was clutching her face in pain, her companion, a unicorn, crying over having injured his friend with his horn. You feel a cold chill run from the back of your head, down your spine, grounding itself in your hooves.

You find your mind drifting back over events still so vivid in your annoying memory. It was the 984th year of Celestia’s Reign, the year when everything started to change. You had been fourteen and just a foal back then, full of bright ideas and a positive outlook on life. You had proper friends back then too; ponies you’d known since primary school, but a dark cloud loomed as you graduated into the puberty fuelled madness of high school.

The first friend you had ever made was a grey pegasus filly named Ditzy Doo, or just Ditz to her friends; she was quite possibly the kindest pony you had ever met, full of slightly random ideas but loyal to the core. You reflected how the two of you had once spent a summer stealing apples from a farm, which had been where you met the second of your group, a red stallion named Mac; he was a year or two younger than you and Ditz, but made up for it by being easily a foot taller than anyone else in the group. You chuckled slightly at your post as you approached the memory of him chasing you and Ditz, before hurting himself tripping on an exposed tree root, causing the two of you to go back guiltily and help him home. His grandmother scorned you for taking apples but then fed you and Ditz until you had been ready to burst as a thank you for helping her grandson back with a sprained hoof.

You couldn’t immediately remember how you’d met Cheerilee or Pierce, the final two members of your peer group. Thinking a little more, you recollect that Cheerilee, or later just Cheri as the two of you had become closer, had just shown up one day chatting to Ditz after you had had a week off with the flu. Thinking about her hurt, so you chose to move on and thought about Pierce, the cocky cerulean blue unicorn who would eventually betray your group and break Ditz’ heart for the amusement of the “cool” ponies. You remembered the day of the “accident” that would leave Ditz permanently scarred, her eyes never quite being able to look in the same direction again, turning the previously bubbly and uplifting pegasus into a recluse for the rest of her time at school.

A fight with Pierce had broken out, you visualise taking a swing at him before Mac had dragged you off, the pair of you escaping before Pierce’s new “cool” friends had joined the fray. It’d been raining that day, you’d just turned sixteen and wanted to leave the damned town forever; this was partly what lead to you becoming a guard in the first place. You had seen Mac a few times in the last year or so, his family having received attention from her Majesty, but hadn’t really spoken to him any more than a nod or quick chat in passing. You didn’t hate him for stopping you putting Pierce in his place for what he’d done to Ditz, but you knew he couldn’t be relied on anymore.

The last time you had seen Ditz was at her husband’s funeral; she was the only one of you that had found happiness and it had been so short lived for the poor mare, heavy with foal as you and several other guards had lowered his coffin into the ground. You had introduced her to Giggles, the court jester, after the two of you had become friends during a mishap at one of the grand galloping galas. You figured that his personality was perfect for Ditz and introduced him to her. Their slightly daft senses of humour had instantly gelled them together and one day they had asked you to be the best man at their wedding.

Giggles’ death had been without any warning what so ever, he’d simply keeled over in the middle of his act for Princess Celestia. The alicorn herself had tried to save him; you remember the etherial glow of her magic keeping him alive long enough for him to give you a message for Ditz reminding her how much he loved her and how he’d wanted to name their child Dinky before passing on.

Crying silently at your post, the tears welling within the intricate patterns of your helmet, you hope nobody in the crowd so close to where you are standing would notice. You blink again, turning and looking up at Princess Celestia standing over you, realising that you had collapsed in tears.

She silently helps you to your hooves, closing the door to her lover’s home behind her and the two of you walk back to the castle, thankfully avoiding the still busy markets. You can tell that she wants to talk to you, being able to guess why you had broken down.
“You were thinking about Giggles, weren’t you?”

“Yes Ma’am.”

“I do miss him some times, it is a true shame that Luna never met him. I still have his photo on my dresser from his wedding day. Do you speak to Ditzy at all?”

“No Ma’am, I haven’t seen her in close to eight years. It was at the funeral.” You think back to how Ditz’s sorrow at her loss had led to her kicking you out of her home after you had given her the deathbed message of her husband, causing tears to well in your eyes once again. The Princess stayed silent for the remainder of the journey back to the castle, before telling you to take the rest of your shift off. Thankful for having your own private quarters within the castle, a luxury very few guards had, you pull off your armour and weep.

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