//------------------------------// // Guilt // Story: My Role To The Princess // by The Sleepless Beholder //------------------------------// I wake up ten minutes before my alarm goes off, having the feeling that today would be difficult. Hopefully, it won't be related to Celestia’s visions. I rise from my bed and grab my horn, placing it against the small indent in my skull till I feel it click in place, sending a small electric shock down my spine as the magic activates. I test it by lifting my alarm clock and setting it off before putting on my glasses and tying my hair into its usual bun. After my morning routine, I walk out of my room and go over to Celestia’s, knocking softly despite knowing that she’s probably already up. “Come in,” she says me with a tone of voice that already tells me she had a bad vision. Stepping inside, I find her sitting in front of her desk, staring at a piece of parchment like if it had just insulted her sister. “You need to send her a letter again?” I ask as I get closer, hoping that it would be something simple like the ticket incident. “A dragon...” she answers, her hooves scratching the floor as her frown deepens. “I have to send them off to face a dragon.” I immediately ask myself the obvious questions; Why a dragon? What kind of lesson is this about? Why them?, but it would be useless to say them outloud. Celestia's already thinking about them right now. “Do we know specifics?” “The dragon resides in a mountain not far from Ponyville. Its snoring is sending smoke clouds that could cover all of Equestria for years.”  “That’s… wrong. Not even the Dragon Lord can produce that much smoke,” I say with a confused frown. “Yet that’s what I have to tell Twilight.” Celestia’s glare moves to the ink and quill beside the parchment. “Not only I can’t go myself, I have to lie to her.” Her head turns towards the bedroom window. “Why? Is feigning ignorance not enough?” “Twilight does have Fluttershy in her group of friends, she should make this ‘mission’ fairly easy. We don’t have much to worry about,” I say, trying to pull her away from those thoughts. “Fluttershy’s also scared of her own shadow,” Celestia remarks. “She could freeze, lose her voice, get sent back home, and then they would be defenseless against the dragon.” “Maybe that will be the lesson they learn from this,” I offer, moving closer to her. “Do they need to learn it by facing an adult dragon? Couldn’t it be something smaller?”  “Sadly, we don’t get to choose what teaches those lessons.” Celestia said nothing, still looking out the window, at the mountains near Ponyville. “I could be there.” “You can’t,” I remind her. She didn’t seem to hear me. “I know where the cave is. I can stand near it with a spell of invisibility and watch over them.” “No,” I say firmly. “You’ll interfere and ruin everything these visions have given you. The entire kingdom may suffer.” Celestia turns around, glaring at me with intense fury. “I’ve kept this kingdom in harmony for a thousand years! I can deal with the consequences!” “Like you did with Sunset?!” Suddenly, the princess extends her wings violently, creating an air current that threw away everything in the room that wasn’t nailed to the floor, and her eyes burn with pure anger. But I hold my ground and stare back, knowing that she would never harm me. We remain at a standstill for a few seconds, her chest heaving with every breath, until finally, the fire in her eyes fades, and she lowers her wings along with her head. “You’re right...” she says, her voice sad and tired. “I should know better.” I move her mane aside so she can see me smile. “We both know this isn’t easy.” She lifts her head till we’re at eye level, and her gaze worries me. “How’re you still here?” I tilt my head to the side. “What do you mean?” “Over the last thousand years, there have been at least a hundred ponies with the same task as you. All of them ended up leaving my side eventually, but you’ve remained as my assistant far longer than any of them.” I could see the hint of tears at the edges of her eyes. “How have you not grown tired of my endless complaints? Of reminding me the same things over and over again. Going out of your way for me despite the fact that I only bring you hardship.” “I would never leave you,” I say without hesitation. “I would never, even in a thousand years, consider letting you deal with all of this on your own.” Celestia slowly shooks her head, with a small smile on her lips. “You’re too good to be stuck here with me.” “Also… I really like the horn,” I joke, pointing at my head, and I smile when the princess laughs. “I should see that they add some more spells to it,” she offers me as she stands up. “I think levitation is enough for an Earth Pony,” I tell her with a smile before looking at the mess she had made of the bedroom, spotting the little ink jar spilled on the floor. “I’ll get you some more writing supplies.” Celestia looks at the ruined parchment on the floor with defeat. “Yes… I’ll need them.” I close the door to her room and move to her office, taking a little detour to ask Tea Cup to prepare a special breakfast for the princess. “You were right about Fluttershy,” I say before taking another bite off my muffin. “Yet they still succeeded.” “He attacked them,” Celestia retorts, shoving an entire slice of cake into her mouth. “They’re fine. Just a hard hit, nothing they couldn’t have suffered in their everyday lives.” She remains silent for a few long seconds, and then takes me by surprise with a question. “Why did he breath smoke instead of fire?” I struggle to find a quick answer. It was an odd occurrence. “Maybe he didn’t want to truly hurt them? Just scare them off?” Celestia didn’t seem convinced. “Do you think whatever’s giving me these visions is also influencing the events? The two colts finding an Ursa Minor without her mother nearby. The Elements activating in the nick of time. And the dragon happens to be relatively harmless despite being angered.” “I… I guess it’s a possibility.” I take a quick sip of my coffee. “Giving you visions would also count as influencing the events.” Celestia looks out the window of the dining room, watching the sunset in the horizon. “So, it isn’t helping me, just keeping me from interfering in its plans.” “Antagonizing it won’t bring anything good to us,” I say quickly to stop her from going down that path again. “I know.” She takes a sip of her tea, the herbs in it help to calm her down. “But I don’t trust it. It’s clearly using us for something.” “Apparently, but at least that something is beneficial for us.” After a few seconds of silence, Celestia stands up, using her magic to send her empty plate and cup to the kitchen. “I think I'll need some early rest today. I'll see you in the morning.” I nod. “Goodnight, your majesty.”