Despite how extremely exhausted the mare was, Celestia could find little in the way of sleep. The mare had spent the last few hours in bed, drifting off every few minutes or so, but waking up just the same. It had been like this for months now as the worry and stress of her job continued to gnaw at the back of the mare’s mind.
“Princess Celestia, are you awake?” a voice called from beyond her bedroom door accompanied with several knocks. The princess could only sigh as she contemplated whether to answer the guard or not. It didn’t seem like a pressing matter, in which case the guard would have most likely barged into her room with a bow. But still, the comfort of her bed begged the princess to dismiss the voice, if only for a few minutes of extra sleep.
“I am awake. You may come in,” the princess reluctantly stated, feeling that the comfort of her bed was not worth what the guard had to say. Stepping into the room, the guard proceeded to bow in front of his princess, before rising to meet her eyes.
“Princess, I am sorry to disturb you, but I bring news on the progress of the safe.” The princess’s ears shot upright as the guard mentioned the topic, though rested themselves back against her head.
“Did our guest finally give up on trying to open the safe?” the princess questioned, noting how late it had become. The guard shifted his posture to more proactive stance before shaking his head.
“No your highness. I came to inform you that he managed to get it open.” The words shook the princess to the core as she stared disbelievingly at her guard. She knew she had not had much sleep, though she could have sworn her guard just gave her good news.
“I’m sorry, but could you please repeat that?” Celestia added, the disbelief in her tone clearly evident.
“Yes princess. I said that the guest you left me in charge of managed to get the safe open. I don’t really understand how he did it, but after you left he sort of played around on the open safe before chuckling to himself and trying random combinations on the other one. I don’t know if it was a stroke of luck or genius, but the safe is open.” Within an instant the princess flung her covers off the bed with a renewed vigor she hadn’t had in months.
“Come Gallant Wing, we have work to do.” The princess gave no time for her guard to respond as the pony was quickly covered in a golden aura. After a few seconds, the two vanished in a brilliant flash of light.
“Come on, you gotta tell me! How did you do it?” the voice of an energetic mare questioned. The human could only shake his head at the pleading attempt of the guard to understand how the human accomplished such a feat.
“And I already told you, it’s a trade secret,” the human teased, watching as the mare groaned in frustration.
“I promise I won’t tell anypony! Just tell me how you did it?” the mare continued to beg. Before the human could respond again a bright flash of light blinded the occupants in the room.
“What the fuck?” Devin shouted, shielding his eyes as he almost had the piss scared out of him. Looking around the room, the first thing the princess noticed was not the momentarily blinded human or guard, but the unopened safe sitting next to them.
“Did I mishear you Gallant Wing? I thought you said our guest managed to open the safe?” Celestia questioned. The guard nodded his head before motioning towards the human.
“We did your highness. Devin just needs to re-enter the combination. We didn’t want to take a chance of somepony reading the documents while I was away,” her guard responded before nudging the human with a hoof.
“Devin, the momentary blindness should have passed. Princess Celestia is here now so you need to enter the combination.” The human blinked his eyes several times, a few tears streaming down his face before finally making sense of the room again.
“For the love of God, please don’t do that to me. It not only startled me, but that shit can’t be good for my eyes,” Devin stated in a slightly annoyed tone. The mare guard next to Devin had also regained her vision along with a few tears in her eyes.
“If you wouldn’t mind princess, the door would be lovely next time,” the blue-coated mare agreed. Despite the overwhelming issue present, Celestia nodded her head with a light giggle.
“Your concerns are duly noted. Now, Sir Devin, if you would please,” Celestia asked with a hoof motioning towards the safe.
“Yeah, that’s not going to happen Celestia. Not until you agree do something for me first.”
“WHAT?” everypony in the room questioned at once. The human held his smile as he stared down Celestia.
“You heard me. The safe doesn’t open until you agree to do something for me first.” The fact that this human was demanding something in return for a service he offered wasn’t the most unbelievable thing to princess. It was the fact that he was blatantly doing this to royalty that the mare just couldn’t believe.
“You do realize that I could have you thrown in the dungeons for such a brazen statement?” The princess’s lack of sleep coupled with her frustration made her tone more intimidating than she had intended. Despite this, the human didn’t falter.
“I did not realize that but i’m sure you wouldn’t do such a thing. Besides, you haven’t even asked me about what I want from you?” It was in this moment that the princess decided if dragging the human down to the dungeons was worth all of the fallout afterwards. With a heavy sigh, the princess planted her rump on the ground before calmly looking back towards the human.
“Tell me what you want then, and if it is within my power and reasonable judgement, it shall be done.”
“Wonderful. I’m sure you will find this favor rather enjoyable. Tomorrow, I want you to spend the entire day with Twilight out on the town. You know, do stuff that mare’s do like go to the spa, watch a movie, clothes shopping.” Silence filled the room as Devin waited for a response from the princess. During all of her years as princess, she had only come across a few favors such as this. Most of them being from concerned friends and family members when the princess would sometimes lose herself to her work.
“And if I agree to do that, will you open the safe then?”
“Yep. All you gotta is spend the day with Sparkle Butt. Besides, it will do you two good.” Given her choices on the matter, it was easy to see what choice she was going to pick.
“Very well. I give you my word as Princess Celestia, that if you open this safe for me then I will spend the next day with Twilight.”
“Good choice princess! And you would be doing me a favor also. I mean, I know she means well and all, but I can only handle so much of that mare before she starts rubbing me the wrong way. Her curiosity and measures to sate it know no bounds,” Devin added with a chuckle. Moving his hand over towards the safe, the human input a combination before pressing down on the latch and opening the door. Celestia’s heart thumped rapidly against her chest as the human handed the mare all of the contents inside of the safe.
“Welp, here you go. This is everything. Now if you will excuse me I need to get some sleep. Knowing Twilight, she is going to wake my ass up when the sun rises. Have a good night Celestia and don’t forget about tomorrow. I will let Twilight know later today.” And with that the human was off.
“Well, that was a bit unexpected,” Gallant spoke.
“Indeed it was Gallant Wing. Though we do not have time to dwell on that. Come, you and Windbreaker will assist me with the task at hoof. I have a feeling I'm not going to be getting very much sleep today.”