I had found myself in the bed I had chosen the previous day. I am in the room I had chosen for myself, where I hide everything I carried with me. A small room, intended for a guard in her majesty's service here at the castle at Canterlot. I recall everything from the previous day.
I know who and what I am. I am still Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander of the USS Enterprise NCC 1701E, currently in orbit of the planet Equus, where I happen to be quartered at this point.
I am here in the form of an Earth Pony, working as a guard for the two royal Princesses Celestia and Luna. I had no problems keeping up my post. I have quite enjoyed my stay. Thank Celestia, we live in peaceful and prosperous times. I may not have a problem with standing my ground and defending my post. Though I much prefer the peaceful times, I am working in order to maintain a peace.
The Ponies are not our enemies, they never were. This isn't even a strategic position. The only value I had found, is a potential ally to have trade and exchange with. I guess this could be a great place for shore leaves as well. The one reason we even stopped by the planet, the ship in orbit, as small as it may be, but it is representing something much greater. Once we realised, they are peaceful, it became a priority to investigate them, in order to have an agreement with them.
I had had the strangest of dreams. There had been this large mare, visiting me in the dreams. Why she was there, or how she could be there, I had no idea, as of yet. Something told me, I was to be the wiser soon enough. This isn't a mare, like any of the Horses I ever had seen before. From the looks, she had to be of the world in which I am right now. What is strange about her, aside from her wings and horn? I knew of both Unicorns and Pegasi, not just because I had seen several of them amongst the guards I was among. The guards I had seen are roughly my built and size. That would most likely count for the majority of the ponies in all of Equestria, not just the Royal castle, in which I had been sleeping all night.
The mare I had encountered in my dreams is neither Pegasus, nor Unicorn. She had actually told me she is an Alicorn. It was apparently the blend of all the common types of Ponies of Equestria, Earth Ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns, all in a single form.
No, the strange thing about her is her mane. Not only is it black as the night shy, it also sports all the stars of the night. She is the Princess of the night. Her name is Luna.
Now I will meet up with her sister, Celestia. To see the Princess of day. If the Princess of the night has the night sky as her mane, would the Princess of the day has the day-sky? The word defied logic, but it still made sense.
Why Luna, the Princess of the night had visited me, if it truly was she who had granted me an appearance, I had no idea. I couldn't recall if she had even told me, she probably never did.
Her form purely equine in nature, yet she was just as sentient and clever as ever any entity I had ever encountered.
Now part of the nightly visions had started to fade, yet the main part of the import, the details is still with me, as if I had been communicating with her.
Curious, I had been greeted as the Pony my form looks like, yet it is as obvious that she knew me deeper than the flesh before her eyes. Is this what is confusing me?
I had never been in this exact form, yet I have been disguised in one form or the other more times than I could count, not counting my 'previous lives', since I knew I had had at least one more. Only the forms had all been bipedal and humanoid once. I guess they shouldn't really count.
Waking up, I only required a short moment to gather myself and my bearing on the situation. To wake up in the form of an Earth Pony isn't something simple, but it seems to be promising something for my future.
Just getting my legs in under me and keeping track of all my four hooves. Slipping the quilt to the side. Slipping down and onto the floor, gathering my thoughts and preparing for the day. My form as a Pony doesn't offer any suggestions, but it did not really prove any hindrance either.
I'm just one more Pony, a guard who serves the Princesses of the castle or Canterlot. I guess this position isn't as strange as I had expected. I have been in this sit6uaion before, even if I was an officer of a ship back at the day. I did not have a particular desire to stick out before and it isn't as if I felt the urge now either.
I had made my bed, the way I had always done, the way any Equestrian Pony would have done it, or it is as I imagined. I'm hungry, so I went off towards the mess hall where all the other hungry guards would be gathered or gathering for breakfast. I knew my way by now. I was just careful to leave the small room the way I expected every guard to leave their rooms before they left for breakfast, clean and in order. Nothing to give away that it was I who lived here, for the duration of my stay.
Strange how vivid the dream is. Or is it a vision and message from the one mare of the night? Maybe it is how to explain why I could still recall as much as a single detail.
The way to the mess is just as long as it was the other day. It will be just as long tomorrow and any other day. It isn't as if there was anything special with this day. I'm just trotting off to the mess for my breakfast, just as every other guard in service for the Royal Princesses of Equestria in Canterlot.
The one difference for me, I'm not aboard my ship in my own room, even if the room had started to feel like it had been mine. I guess I had gotten used to my form and position as well. Trotting to the mess is a breeze, it isn't as if it was all that far and I had gotten used to be me.
As I slipped into the hall, I noticed groups of Ponies scattered about in the large room. Most of them are already busy with the meal, while others are serving or being served as I entered.
“Morning, Blue Daggers, Shining Shield!” I greeted my friends from the day before.
“Morning!” Blue Daggers and Shining Shield responded with a nod from the table they were sitting by.
I slowly gathered the food for my breakfast, before I turned towards the table where they sat. Putting the food before my chosen seat. It was still hard to carry the tray by hoof.
“I take it you are always starved in the morning?” Daggers teased.
“Like a Horse. I haven't eaten since yesterday. I need to have a good breakfast, if I am to be trusted to defend the Princesses and the castle, if and when needed?” I merely responded.
“Yes, that's true. Who can be trusted to defend the Princesses, without a decent breakfast?” Shields responded.
“Good thing they haven't moved the ship. They picked up the scouts late last night, I heard!” informed Daggers.
“They did?” I merely grunted with my mouth full of food.
“Who wouldn't be curious about a little Pony, piloting a small ship, if one had a ship like theirs?” Shimmering Armours interjected giggling.
Apparently the guards were well informed, or they were here to see me respond to what they knew? I could add small snippets to the conversation, but never explain anything overall. If I gave anything I didn't know they would reasonably know, or try to act as if I knew nothing, they would know who I was, or. Either way, I kept up my position as a palace guard, just as intended.
“If our scouts were picked up, I hope they learned something useful from the Ponies aboard the ship. I just hope they are well treated and that the ship isn't piloted by vicious Dragons, or anything equally horrid!” I responded.
“They could be friendly Zebras or Deers?” Daggers proposed.