“Don’t you move a muscle!” The night guard ordered. The three disguised ponies, not wanting to be actually arrested, complied.
“Turn around. Slowly! No funny stuff!”
The trio did just as they were told, slowly turning in place to face the night guard.
“Sunny Skies” looked to her sister. She could tell that “Starry Night” wanted to just hit the guard pony with a black-out spell and be done with it, but was choosing not to. For now, at least.
“Now, down on your stomachs. Slowly!”
Sunny Skies looked over the guard as she brought herself to the ground. The light being shined in their faces kept her from making out his face, but it was definitely a unicorn stallion. Judging from his voice, he was in his late 20’s or early 30’s. The aura around him indicated that he was a seasoned magic user.
The night guard walked closer to them, lowering the brightness of the light spell radiating from his horn.
“What, in the name of Faust, are you three doing here at this hour of the night?”
Radiant was shaking. They had been caught. What she had wished wouldn’t happen, did happen. Her imagination started running wild all the terrible things that could happen now.
Sunny Skies answered the guard’s question. “We were looking for a book, good sir.”
“After closing hours, in the middle of the night,” the guard said, “Forgive me if I find that hard to believe.”
“It is the truth.” Starry Night said.
“You’re either rotten book thieves, or procrastinating university students,” the guard snorted, “And I have no tolerance for either of them.” The guard pointed in the general direction of the front door. “Up and out with ya!”
“But, I…I-” Radiant started to protest.
“Ya either leave and fail your class, or stay and get arrested,” the guard cut off, “I don’t care which.”
Radiant’s stress and confusion finally boiled over. “I just want to know what’s going on!!!”
Her voice echoed in the dark, empty library. The two sisters expected the guard to snap back at her with some kind of rebuke. Instead, silence came over the space.
“...Hold on a second,” the guard said, his tone communicating deep though and recollection. The guard moved the ball of light from the tip of his horn to the left of his face. “...Radiant?”
Radiant blinked in surprise. She looked up, and saw something she’d never thought she’d see. A face that she recognized.
“Night Light?” Radiant asked, needing to know if she was right. She was.
“Radiant!” Night Light exclaimed, magically turning on the lights in the history section, “What are you doing here? Where have you been? And why are your colors flipped?”
“I’ve been…away.”
Night Light arched an eyebrow, “Away?”
“It’s complicated,” Radiant said, “What are you doing here?”
“I work here,” Night Light said, “This is my job.”
“You work as a library night guard?” Radiant asked, “I thought you hated reading.”
“Well-”
“Ahem,” Starry Night interrupted, regaining the attention of the two unicorns, “Is it fair of me to assume that you two know each other?”
“Oh, uh, yes,” Radiant replied, “We were classmates occasionally. We weren’t friends, though. More like…acquaintances.”
“Wait, no,” Night Light shook his head, refocusing, “I’m mad at you! Who are these ponies, why did you break into the library, and why are your colors flipped?”
Sunny Skies and Starry Night looked to each other as Radiant looked to them for ideas.
Sunny Skies turned her attention to Night Light. “Well, for your second question, we were looking for information on recent events, as we are in need of clarification and context for the current state of The Empire.”
“And my first question?” Night Light
“In regards to your first question,” Starry looks up to her horn as magic began to swirl around her and her sister. A bright light enveloped the two, causing Radiant and Night Light to shield their eyes.
When the light faded, the security pony looked back to where the tall pegasus and unicorn had been, only to be greeted by a jaw dropping sight.
Standing there before him, barely three paces away, were The Royal Sisters. Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna.
Night Light stood there, dumbstruck. He couldn’t believe his eyes. In fact, he didn’t believe them, as he shook his head and rubbed his eyes.
“Okay, very cute trick. Of course, you do realize now that I’ll have to turn you in. Impersonating Royalty to evade consequences is a serious crime.”
Celestia smiled while Luna frowned.
“Ah, a questioning type,” Celestia commented, “Very good.”
“I hate ponies like this.” Luna grumbled.
Radiant looked to Night Light, “Light, I know this is hard to believe but these are actually Princesses.”
Night Light chuckled, “Riiiight. And I’m a pegasus.”
“Light, I’m serious!” Radiant pleaded.
“Look, Radiant,” Night Light sounded a tad annoyed, “I know that you’re not usually the type to lie, but the only way that these two could convince me that they are the Princesses is if ‘Celestia’ over there teleports me to the surface of the sun, and then ‘Luna’ rockets me to the surface of the moon, climaxing with me getting sling shot right back here to where I stand.”
The two Royal Sisters initially looked shocked by Light’s statement. But they soon turned to each other with mischievous expressions.
“Radiant,” Luna said, walking up to Night Light, “Could you give us a minute.”
“Uh, Princess,” Radiant asked hesitantly, “What are you do-”
“Just stand over there, this shouldn’t take long,” Celestia took a hold of Night Light and gave him a smile, “Hold tight.”
“What are you do-” Celestia, Luna, and Night Light suddenly vanished in a flash.
Radiant had no idea what had just happened. She just stood there in silence, waiting for something to happen.
After about half a minute of standing there, Radiant started to make her way over to a shelf to read a book. Then there was a bright flash, as Celestia and Luna reappeared. Standing between them was a stunned, speechless, shaking Night Light.
Radiant looked to Light, then to the Princesses.
“What did you do to him?” She asked.
“He described what it would take for him to believe that we are who we are,” Luna explained, “So we did exactly that.”
“You wha-” Radiant fumbled over her words, trying to pull together what the Princesses had jus done. “You can’t be serious! Is he going to be alright?”
As if in an attempt to answer her question, Night Light let out a groan, as he started to collapse and fall to the floor.
Celestia caught him, lifting his unconscious body onto her shoulders.
“Oh dear,” the sun Princess said, “I think that might have been a bit much for him.”
“You think so?” Radiant said almost sarcastically.
“Let’s get him onto one of those library couches,” Luna suggested, “See if we can get him to recover as soon as possible.”
“You’re not going to use dream magic on him, are you?” Radiant asked with concern.
“I doubt it would help at the moment,” Luna said plainly, “So no.”
Night Light groaned as his eyes began to open and return him to the realm of consciousness.
He rubbed his head, everything felt fuzzy.
“Oh my head,” Light let out a long yawn as he rubbed his eyes, “Everything aches.”
He blinked a few times to clear his vision, “Oh goodness, that a weird dream. Wait dream? Oh no, did I fall aslee-?”
Light froze. When his vision finally cleared, he was greeted by the sight of the two Royal Alicorn Sisters sitting at a table reading books, and Radiant pacing back and forth in front of the bookshelves containing preserved newspapers.
As if they could sense that he had awoken, all three ponies turned to look at him.
The four ponies just seemed to stare at each other for a while, with Night Light looking between the sisters and Radiant.
His gaze finally settled on Radiant.
“It wasn’t a dream, was it.”