//------------------------------// // Boring Nights // Story: Luna and the Guard // by blackdragonepic //------------------------------// Another loud sigh could be heard by Starry sky through the door as he stood guard outside Princess Luna’s room. It was a rather uneventful job but someone needed to guard whether there was any real need or not if at least just for appearances sake, he was new to the job same as the other guard and it pretty much consisted of, wake up at sun set guard to morning, go to sleep. It was really boring but he had managed to find himself other things to think about than just about what wasn’t going on at the moment. However one thing that worried him though was the sighs that he could hear coming from the princess room, as far as he knew she didn’t have much to do. Despite her eagerness, Princess Celestia wasn’t giving her much to do in terms of ruling. Instead she gave her a few responsibilities and encouraged her to learn more about how ponies act into day society. The only problem with that is whenever she tried ponies either acted out of pure fear and like she was going to bring eternal night or the bowed down and were afraid that if they acted up in the slightest way she would send them to jail. Also she couldn’t even observe them as nopony was around when she was up. So her schedule pretty much consisted of get up, do an hour of work, be board until sunrise, and go to sleep. She had long since given up ask around to see if there was anything that she could do since at this time of night mostly other ponies were asleep. He looked beside him, the other pony that was guarding with him had faded away again basically falling asleep with his eyes open he now looked blankly at the wall in front of him his eyes drooped. It seemed that instead of switching his clock around with the vacation time he had been given he had instead spent it on other things which he was now paying for as every half an hour he would jolt look around and continue being awake for 10 minutes before fading away. Another sigh sounded causing Starry to look at the door he had been hearing more than normal tonight, which troubled him even more, glance at the other guard before doing something he knew he most likely shouldn’t do he walked over to the door and knocked before being allowed in. Starry looked around the room it certainly wasn’t like most ponies rooms, the ceiling was covered in constellations that covered the night sky which glowed to light up the room, the way the stars Shawn seemed to make the light cascade down over everything giving the room a beautiful moonlit look while still keeping it at a normal light levels. The walls were a mixture of blue and black with the occasional glowing star here and there. The decor was a comfortable setting as someone would expect for a bedroom and while it was a adult looking in one corner was a slightly more childish side with a small chest surrounded by stars it occupants hidden. Whether or not its occupants where what normally accompanied was inside and if she ever when in it, It reminded Starry that while she was quite old and for the most part acted that way, being a ruler and becoming nightmare moon had torn her away from her child hood never allowing for her to truly and fully mature thus leaving behind small traces of child in her. It would take a very good mind to spot it but the tiny traces were there. The night Princess or Luna herself laid across her bed sprawled out with a rather board expression across her face. Her gazed was currently focused on the ceiling her could see her eyes tracing the constellations on the ceiling and waited patiently for her to answer. Finally she shifted her body and brought her head up from the bed and cast her bored gaze towards the stallion in front of her “yes? What does thou want with me?”. Starry quickly began to come up with something to say as the gaze of the curious Princess continued to lay across his. “your majesty, I have no new to report to you however, I would like to ask is if there is anything that you would like done at this moment.” She raised an eye brow. He stopped for a second thinking of how he was going to word this as one does not speak lightly towards a princess. “What I mean by that is there anything you want. Maybe a stroll through the garden perhaps, a book that you might be interested in? or maybe you are hungry? Anything that you would like just ask me and I can have one of the servants get it for you” he finished up before saluting her and standing still waiting for her response. “Was I really that loud” she asked looking at the Starry with a deadpan face, Starry’s ears fell back she had seen right through him in why he had come in. He had never felt so foalish in his life, he had disturbed the princess with such thin veil that it would put see through paper to shame. “um… ah… yes you were kind of loud.” He said wishing he could disappear “alright well duly noted return to your post” she said laying her head back on her bed. Starry felt completely ashamed as he walked back to the door and raised his hoof to open it before Luna called out behind him “wait” she said. Starry turned around to face the Princess he saw that she was now laying with her head up looking at Starry a smile ever present on her face. Her horn glowed as a chair was pulled out from a table across the room “sit down” she said with a slight bit of giddiness in her voice. Starrys heart dropped as he obeyed his mind automatically thinking the worst “oh no, what have I done? Is she going to punish me for disturbing her I wish I could b somewhere else by now.” He sat down and looked at the princes as she walked towards him a small box hovering next to her. Princess Luna sat down in the chair opposite to Starry, it had been so long since she had any real fun, and Starry had just walked in and practically said that he wanted her to not be as bored. There was no way she could pass up an opportunity like this so she placed the box in front of her as she gleefully sat glad that she had something to fill her hours of boredom with. Starry was sitting down staring at the box wondering what was inside hoping it wasn’t anything bad or at least bad for him. The lid flew off revealing the horrors inside…. Ponyopoly? Starry looked down as the Princess began to put the board together, this was not what he had expected. Well, he didn’t know what to expect but it certainly wouldn’t have been this, but the more he had thought about it the more it made sense considering it. She didn’t have much to do at night so why wouldn’t she want to do something fun “which would you prefer the saddle, carriage, bag, or hat?” she asked He thought for a moment “I’ll take the hat” he said. ~~~~~~~~~~~~ I was almost morning time and Starry found him and the princess laughing together as they played different games, it had started off with Ponyoply which he had lost terribly at, and continue on with different board games and eventually a game of twister was brought out. To which Starry had done well at until he had twisted his body into a position which he couldn’t get out of which of course left Luna on the floor laughing at his predicament. The games continued on until Starry excused himself because it was morning his shift was over and he needed sleep, and Luna also had to lower the moon. “Thank you Starry, that was the most fun that I have had in such a long time. Maybe we could do it again sometime” she said “yes I enjoyed that as well it is much better than a night full of nothingness. Until next time your majesty” he said, causing the Princess to smile “oh please call me Luna”. Starry smiled back and walked out the door to find the other guard on the floor sleeping, it seemed that he had fallen over in the middle of the night and not woken up to any of the sounds that were going on inside. With one hoof he shook him awake “hey it’s time for the guard switch” to which he sprung up eyes wide open knowing he had once again failed to stay awake. He stood bathing in his own shame as Starry stood beside him eager to get some sleep. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Princess Luna tossed and turned in her bed unable to get to sleep, her mind was to awake at the moment running over the events of the night and of course. Him. Everything she thought about him she couldn’t help but smile it was just something about him, his laugh, and his smile. How he had tangled himself during twister, now that was hilarious. So putting aside the seemingly impossible idea of sleep Luna got up from her bed and began walking with a certain destination in mind. Luna move through the castle hiding her excitement as she got close to the place she was headed, the palace not surprisingly was much busier during the day guards walking around maids inspecting every inch of the palace. They had all greeted her with friendly but curious expression, as the night Princess walked around in daylight when she is normally sleeping. At last she had gotten to where she had been headed: Starry’s room. Normally guards would sleep in the barracks but since he was stationed to outside her quarters he was sleeping in a much more luxurious room. Many often commented for how little the stallions do they get quiet good accommodations, all of this aside she pushed open the door and walked in to the room. When she walked into she took in the surroundings, the lights were dimmed and it was completely quiet. She walked over to the bed located on the far side to see Starry sleeping soundlessly in it his fur that had been dyed dark blue as per the standards of Luna’s night guard, looked like he had been born with it giving his almost silky fur and body a huge compliment. In fact the more she looked at him sleeping soundlessly the more hansom he looked and in fact he was quiet cute when he slept. No. He was adorable, his face giving of the most innocent look a pony could have made Luna giggle. She stopped herself as soon as she could in order to not wake him up. She turned and quietly crept out of the room and headed towards the library, she had a book in mind that she would like to read. Upon arrival she was greeted by a librarian who asked her if she was looking anything in particular she told her that she could find it herself and left the librarian to her sorting. She trotted off and began searching among the mountains of books soon she found what she was looking for. She Finally found what she was looking for, she had seen it once and had not given it much thought until now. The book was titled “fun and games sure to thrill and make you laugh” she looked down at the book smiling, oh where going to have soooo much fun she thought. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Starry stood outside the night Princess door once again guarding for the intruder that would probably never come he was quiet happy that he had done what he did. He had not heard a single sigh from Luna’s room yet neither groans or the occasional head that popped out looking desperate for something to do. No instead he had heard nothing from the nigh princess which meant she had probably found some means of entertainment. It seem like it was going to be a rather uneventful night, although it seemed that the guard beside him had finally been fed up with falling asleep and seemed generally awake this time. Maybe he will make it through the night. However it seemed that if by some sense of irony just as he though this he heard the thump of the other solider falling asleep. Looking besides him he saw the familiar sight of the guard out cold once again. Chuckling to himself he continued to stand there before he was surrounded by a dark blue aura and teleported away. Starry’s eyes widened as he realized he was now hovering above Luna’s bed with a smiling Princess at the foot of it after about a second move of hovering he dropped on to the bed bouncing off and ending up in a ball rolled up in a tangle if blankets. “oh great this is just as bad as twister” Starry said as he tried to untangled himself from the blankets before Luna burst into laughter which he soon followed as they laughed at his new found predicament. Finally Luna was able to stop laughing and untangle him from the blankets to which Starry stretched out his limbs free from the bonds that had just entangled him. “So Luna what do I owe this honor.” He said with a smile still laughing from the incident a few seconds ago “well we both had so much fun last night , so I thought we would do it again tonight” she said with a smile. Starry frowned but then smiled again “yes well it’s true I should probably get back to my post the other guard” “who will be out for the night” Luna interrupted, Starry continued “well um yes… but if there is an intruder” “and when was the last time we had one of those?” Luna asked. “well um but still if somepony found out” he started to say but Luna once again interrupted “Oh come on. No pony comes up here at night barely anypony is awake right now, much less wandering the halls of Canterlot. Now come on I have a few games planned for this evening” she finished with a smile. Starry thought for a moment “ok. I guess your right but if where going to do this lets get started right away I can’t wait to see what you have planned” he said finally causing the Princesses smile to get even larger. “I mean it’s not like any pony is up at this hour.” He said. Mean while across the palace as if woken up by those very words, Shining Armor captain of the guard eyes opened.