And Now For Something Exactly the Same

by Damaged


Epilogue

[[ A Lyra Perspective ]]

Smiling as best I could, I nodded to Stiff Peaks. "Sorry, sir, but there's not much I can do about it. You know how it is with princesses." It was a big pile of horseapples and we both knew it. Twilight hadn't been a princess for a week yet and here I was claiming her orders as being law. Well, they were law, but there was law and then there was law.

He looked at me like he recognized my explanation was as paper-thin as it actually was. There wasn't much else to do than hide behind Twilight's autograph on the letter. "Sergeant, let's be realistic now. This—What would happen if I took this letter up to Princess Celestia? Would she still transfer you to the private guard of a princess not even a month into her wings?"

A week was a long time for planning and paperwork. I'd never realized how much Twilight enjoyed paperwork or how good she was at it. Not just good as in can fill out forms good, she could write me a pennant of paperwork that would protect me from death itself. Reaching into my pack with my magic, I pulled out a second letter and set it before Stiff. "Sir."

I watched him open it with absolute glee—that I hid behind my sergeant demeanor. "A letter from Princess Celestia stating that Princess Twilight Sparkle is a princess in power as well as name? That's all you—" I cut him short with a letter from Princess Luna. He read it and stared at me with shock. "All this says is "Yes"."

Twilight was scary-good at paperwork. I had five more letters, but by the way Stiff slumped back in his seat, he was done. "If it makes any difference, sir, I will be permitted two weeks to train my replacement. This was as much a shock to me as it is to—"

"I can't fight this. No matter how well you train someone, they'll never replace your proficiency at training recruits." As he spoke, though, he started writing. It was an acceptance of transfer. "You won't be required to train the next sergeant—since you already have. I don't think there's a unicorn in the Guard right now who hasn't either been trained by you or studied every single one of your training methods."

"If they're one of mine, sir, they'll serve well." That was a feeling that was absolutely undeniable. I wouldn't hesitate to have any of my students fighting at my side. "If there's nothing further?"

"There is nothing further. Can I at least expect to hear more about you in future?"

I snorted and returned the salute he gave me. "Sir, I fully expect Princess Twilight Sparkle to have me working my horn down to a nubbin." Well, not for a few weeks at least.

He finished the salute and shook his head. "Don't be a stranger. If you find any more breakthroughs like that snake toy thing or the fast-march spell, you let us know."

Turning, I marched out of there with my counter-signed orders from Lieutenant Stiff Peaks, feeling a new kind of freedom. Like a winged Valkyrie, Twilight Sparkle had unhitched me from my life and aimed me in a new direction. The entire ride back to Ponyville had felt strange. I still had a pannier half-full of letters to get me out of my official duties for Stiff.

On the train, I pulled out a few of the letters. One was from Blue, an order to leave my current location as soon as possible with my transfer orders signed. Another was from Commander Spitfire, which was a request for me to transfer to the Wonderbolts' HQ (I had matching ones from Commanders Spring Dance, Bright Feather, and even Joy Dancer of the Royal Dragoons). Twilight had, somehow, gotten a letter from just about everypony senior to Stiff Peaks requesting him to release me with signed transfer orders.

And now I was in Ponyville, just having gotten off the train, and I had no idea what to do. Sweetie Belle's first lesson with me was in two days and I had nothing to do until then. Well, I had to report to Twilight, but the way she'd spoken when she sent me off to Canterlot, she wasn't expecting me to be back today.

Heading home, it was too early for Scootaloo to be out of school or Sweetie to be home from work, so I slipped out of my armor and had a quick shower to put my coat to right. Grabbing my saddlebags again, I headed out to explore Ponyville with no actual destination in mind.

Through the town center, around the market, past various shops, there was even a fast-food place that had recently opened. The town had really grown in the years since I moved here, but my hooves had brought me to one business that hadn't changed one bit.

Stepping into Sugarcube Corner, I got in line behind three mares who were discussing flower arranging while they waited for somepony else to be served. Was this going to be my life? Maybe for a few weeks, but then I would find things to do if Twilight didn't.

Flowers, apparently, required lots of chatter about color-matching, seasonal-matching, and very careful arrangements to balance brightness and a million other little details I wouldn't have ever thought of. There was so much language involved in flower-arranging that, if I wasn't sure that Sweetie Drops and Scootaloo had as little clue as I did about it, I would have wondered if it was me not being born a mare—or pony—that was at fault.

Eventually the three were at the front of the queue and then started deciding what they wanted. Doing such might be a common injustice, but it didn't bother me today. I waited patiently as they discussed the qualities of cupcakes over muffins, one pastry over another, and even which particular eclair they thought was best.

When they were finally done and I got to the front of the line, I recognized Mrs. Cake behind the counter. She looked apologetic, though maybe it was apoplectic? One of those. "Sorry for the wait, Lyra. What can I get you?" Apologetic it was.

I pointed a hoof at the special board. "I would love to try a lemon muffin surprise."

"You're lucky, I have just one left—" As soon as Mrs. Cake said it, I heard a gasp from behind me.

Turning, I spotted Derpy Hooves looking almost panicked. "You wanted the lemon muffin?" I asked her.

"Ye—Is that you, Mrs. Heartstrings?" Derpy's wings shot out and flapped in excitement. It was one of the cuter things I'd seen all week. "I haven't seen you in sooo long! I wanted to thank you again for helping Dinky get into Princess Celestia's school."

I gestured for her to move up to stand beside me. "It's good to see you too, Derpy. How is the little firecracker of a filly doing? She starts at the school next year, right?" I turned to face Mrs. Cake. "I'll take that lemon muffin for Derpy and a blueberry muffin for myself."

The look of delight on Derpy's face was worth any amount of muffins—even if I did prefer the lemon ones. "Yup! Next year she'll be going there and learning all kinds of amazing things. Are you sure you don't want me to pay for that muffin?"

"It wouldn't be a gift, then. Besides, I am celebrating." Walking to a table, I used my magic to fill a pair of glasses with water from a fountain to the side and brought them over.

"What are you celebrating?" Derpy asked.

From the corner of my eye I could see Cup conspicuously cleaning nearby, her ears no doubt soaking up all the delicious gossip of her guests. Given the information network I'd helped set up across Equestria, I couldn't complain about a mare's devotion to overhearing conversations without being a massive hypocrite, besides, it wasn't like it was a secret. "I've been transferred to a new part of the Guard."

When Derpy took a bite of her muffin, the look of enjoyment on her face was undeniably going to be a high point of my day. "What for?" she asked, when she'd chewed and swallowed enough muffin to clear her mouth.

"A friend needed help." It was the easiest way to explain it. I noticed that Cup had wandered away—apparently Guardpony gossip was less enjoyable than whatever she expected me to talk about. "And, well, you know how I love helping ponies." Derpy's enthusiastic nod egged me on. "So it looks like I am the first to serve as Princess Twilight Sparkle's guard."

Derpy gasped and her wings shot out from their folded, rest positions. "Really? That's amazing! What will you be doing for her?"

"Now that's the issue, isn't it? I'd say I'd be protecting her, but I've seen some of the fights she gets into. Discord, Nightmare Moon, Sombra… There's no way I'd be able to even attempt to stop any of them." It was fun to muse out loud on this. Normally, for my work in R&A, I couldn't exactly talk about things without causing a potential problem. "She has already given me three orders to carry out.

"First, I am to take some time off. She told me I was working far too much and I needed to wind down a bit. I'll be honest, I don't know how to handle that one.

"Second, I am going to be teaching Sweetie Belle magic as a distance-learning option from Princess Celestia's school. Maybe we can do that with Dinky next year.

"Third, Twilight wants me to start exploring the new magic she created. She wants all kinds of spells that use friendship magic, but I have no clue what sort of things to make." I could see Derpy wanted to ask something, so halted my explanation for now.

"Y-You mean we could keep living in Ponyville? How does this distance-learning work?" she asked.

"It's just a trial of it. Sweetie Belle will still have to go to Canterlot for two days a week for classes there, but the remaining work will be covered by myself and Cheerilee. I don't know exactly how it will go, but I'm definitely going to give it my all—and I think Sweetie Belle will as well."

Biting her lip for a moment, Derpy eventually asked, "So I'll still need to move to Canterlot to look after her?"

"There are dormitories in Canterlot for students. I was in one for a while—it's where I met Sweetie Drops. Her and her mother ran it and I started helping out. Next thing I knew I—Okay, that's probably going off-track a little. She could stay at that for the week and come home on weekends." Really off-track. It caught me a little by surprise to be talking about those days.

It seemed like an age ago. Ten years, in fact. Deep breath, Lyra, that means you get to do something super-awesome for your wife, but what?

"Oh. I didn't know that. I—I might still take at least a week off and go spend time in Canterlot to help her settle in." To say Derpy looked thoughtful was an understatement.

"Well, we do have a house in Canterlot you could stay at while she's settling. Sweetie Drops and I use it whenever it would be inconvenient to come back to Ponyville." With things changing so much, I wondered if we'd bother keeping it—but then, with Mum and Dad having a busy house, it's nice to have somewhere to stay in the city.

The topic turned to simpler things like the food and the weather. Derpy wasn't a weather pony, but it was funny how all pegasi got a focused look on their face when discussing anything weather related. It was so nice just to catch up with ponies I hadn't seen in a while that it kept me distracted right up until mid-afternoon between Derpy and then Cup.

I escaped at last and made my way to the town library. "Golden Oaks Library. The home of the local seat of power for Equestrian royalty." Lifting my hoof, I prepared to knock when the door flew open to reveal Twilight. "Princess!" I snapped my best salute.

"Lyra?" Twilight stared at me like she had no idea why I was here. "Oh, Lyra! Look, can you take care of the library for me? I need to go to Canterlot and—SPIKE! Sorry, I need to go to the princesses and—Spike! Where are you?! I need to go and—"

"I got it." Stepping to the side and lowering my hoof, I made room for my new commander to pass. "Need me to do anything while you're gone?"

Twilight's horn glowed for a moment and then Spike appeared on her back, he was (of course) holding dozens of scrolls, quills, and ink wells. "Just—I can't believe there's somepony I can ask this of and actually expect them to carry it out—Just make sure the town doesn't explode or get overrun by anything until at least next week?"

"Can't promise anything, Twi, but I'll do my best," I said.

"Your best is pretty good, Lyra," Twilight said.

"Don't we have to catch the train in about twenty seconds?" Spike asked.

Both of them vanished in a loud pomf of magic. With a certain amount of relief, I walked into the library and used my magic to start returning several books scattered around the room to their shelves. "Chillest job I've had in years. Just take care of a library. What could go wrong?"