//------------------------------//
// Unexpected Company 
// Story: The Night Guard 
// by Petrichor 
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	It was a cool summer night as you lazily glided across the sky by the outskirts of the Everfree Forest. The slight breeze that flowed through your mane and coat made you shiver slightly, but not because you were cold. Rather, you enjoyed the breeze because it reminded you of when your mother ran her hoof through your mane while she read you bedtime stories. You couldn’t stay up long enough to hear the end of those stories, but you didn’t mind. It was nights like these that made you breathe a sigh of content.

Your brief moment of nostalgia was ruined as you saw a small indistinct figure below by the Everfree Forest. As you tried to sharpen your senses, the figure mysteriously disappeared from your line of sight. You shook your head and tried to comprehend what you had just witnessed. One moment you see something right below you and the next it literally disappeared right before your eyes. Either your head was playing tricks with you, or you were failing your duty at being a vigilant guard. You weren’t sleep deprived, nor had you gone crazy the last time you checked. Regardless, you stopped and hovered for a moment to look around. Facing away from the Everfree, your eyes met nothing but a plateau of grass. Nopony could have run in an open field without you noticing. You had a bird’s eye view of the whole area after all. Turning your attention to the trees of the Everfree Forest, you noticed that it was far too dense for anypony to enter or exit without making a noise. In fact, the trees were so tightly packed together that you had to wonder how anything could get through them. You took a moment to silence your thoughts and focus on any noise that hinted to the figure you had just seen.

After straining your senses for about a minute, nothing had alerted you. You inhaled deeply and chalked it up to one of those things where you thought you saw something, but in reality never existed at all. It could have just been a unicorn teleporting, but unicorns had a distinct sound and aura. You exhaled and moved on.

After about four hours on duty, you decided to take your lunch break. The night had been long and uneventful thus far. You headed toward the nearest park and found a picnic table to eat. Tonight you were having a double Daffodil sandwich, a side of hay chips, and water to drink. The bright moon gave you the necessary luminescence to see what was in front of you (you thanked Luna under your breath as eating with no light could have ended in a big mess). You picked up your sandwich with your wings, took one look at your sandwich, and chomped down.

“-those wings!”

You stopped chewing. You heard a couple of giggles followed by a hush in a nearby bush. Was your hearing playing tricks on you too? There was only one way to find out. You really hated being interrupted while doing another task (especially eating), but your own safety was at risk. Who in the wide world of Equestria is still up in Ponyville anyways? And why are they spying on you? You got up with annoyance plastered over your face and began walking toward the bush. As you closed in on your target, your annoyance left your body and was replaced by curiosity. In one quick and fluid motion, you pounced on the bush. You flailed wildly within shouting to whoever was in the bush to ‘halt’ and ‘hold still.’

After fighting with yourself and a few twigs, you realized nopony was in the bush except you. You struggled to untangle yourself from the branches and hoped to Celestia that nopony saw that horrendous display of trying to catch somepony, whether it was the perpetrator that you tried to catch or a pony watching from the comfort of their home. After untangling yourself and setting yourself proper, you sighed (you had been doing that a lot, but who could blame you?) and went back to your food. You picked up your sandwich and continued eating, mentally scolding yourself in the process. Where in the wide world of Equestria was it okay to just throw your body at something? You never attack somepony or something first, unless they attack you first. Also, throwing your body at something is highly ineffective and quite dangerous (and makes you look like a foal, to your dismay). We’re supposed to be stoic, not jumpy, you thought. I swear, somepony is following me. That could have been the reason you took action first. Your senses were falling short, either by tricking you or leading you in the wrong direction. For all you knew, the perpetrator was probably hiding in another bush. That’s the last time I take a two day break.

After your midnight snack, you decided it would be best to take to the sky for the rest of the night. Not even twenty minutes had passed until you heard a few more feminine giggles behind you. “What the hay? I’m in the sky,” you muttered. You turned around, but lo and behold you found nothing but a single cloud that was slowly drifting by. You were beginning to feel agitated, which was uncharacteristic for you, but it was warranted considering the fact that somepony was following you. Wait a minute, you thought. You heard a noise behind you, and the only thing remotely close to you was a single cloud. That meant it narrowed it down to a creature that could only walk on clouds and manipulate them. Your thoughts immediately screamed the name Gilda, probably stalking you to see how you worked and moved. Then why would she be giggling? Is she making fun of the way you flew? Was she judging you? You hated nothing more than to be silently judged, especially by somepony who didn’t know your life. As an adolescent colt, you used to work in a coffee shop and brewed certain concoctions, depending on what the customer wanted. It was a mediocre job, and it helped your parents pay the bills, but there was one thing that always bothered you. As you turned away to make caffeinated flavored beverages, you could always feel the customer stare at you. It gave you a burning feeling on your back every time, knowing that he was judging your appearance and your movements. The difference now was that Gilda was probably trying to add insult to injury.

Deciding not to give her the satisfaction of irritating you, you decided to have a little fun. “Hmmm, I’m feeling a bit tired. I think I will rest on this here cloud for a bit!” You said it slow and precise. You glided over to the cloud and rested all four hooves on it. You thought you heard a grunt. Just as planned, you grinned mischievously. You let out a loud yawn, and laid on the cloud, shifting your body weight directly on it. You gently stroked the cloud with your forehoof. “Oh cloud, you so fluffy,” you said lazily. You slowly slipped your hoof inside the cloud, and sure enough you felt fur. You were having way too much fun with this. Hope Gilda likes massages. “And so furry, too.” You continued to stroke the fur, causing the cloud to moan by doing so. “Wow cloud, I didn’t know you made noises,” you chuckled. You hadn’t had this much fun since beating General Mit in a race back at the Academy. As your thoughts began to drift, you accidently hit the wing causing it to poof out of the cloud. Oops. Before you could let out a groan in disgust, you noticed the color of the wings. They were cyan and significantly smaller than that of a griffon.

“What the-”

You opened the cloud to look at its contents. Inside was Rainbow Dash, her face redder than an apple. Even though it wasn’t light out, you could still visibly see her red cheeks. Next to her was Pinkie Pie, which bewildered you.

“Why are you two hiding together in a cloud?” you asked them (that’s what she said).

Rainbow Dash bucked you off the cloud causing you to fall, but before any significant altitude was lost you flared your wings and pumped them. You returned to the cloud where the now standing Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie were.

“Why am I hiding in a cloud? How ‘bout why you were fondling me, huh?” the irate pegasus reminded.

You were so surprised about your new guests that you forgot that you were stroking your new friend’s back and touched her wing. That only happens in pegasi mating practices. This could get awkward fast. Luckily, you deflected by rephrasing the same question you asked.

“Well you wouldn’t have been fondled if you weren’t stalking me all night. Why are you even up in the first place?” You mirrored Dash’s expression and scowled.

“Well Pinkie and I were going to see why we haven’t seen our new friend in all week and why we haven’t seen you leave your house in the evenings. So we decided to wait for you to leave your house. I didn’t know I was going to be sexually harassed.”

Ever since the party, you hadn’t seen your friends all that week because of the awkward schedule you had in relation to theirs. 

“Well maybe you could have just asked instead of following!” you retorted.

“Well maybe you could have let us known that you knew we were here.” Was this mare serious?

“I did back at the park! I jumped in and said halt! That would be a clue.”

It was clear that she wasn’t backing down and neither were you. You didn’t mind losing an argument, but Dash’s attitude acted like a catalyst that somehow wanted to make you win this one.

Rainbow Dash was about to counter your argument, but was instead interrupted by Pinkie. “Oooohhhh, I remember that! You jumped in that bush and then started beating it up!” She laughed that high pitched laugh that you found adorable. “Boy muffin, you sure are funny!”

Although Dash was trying to stay in the heat of the argument, it was all lost when Pinkie brought back the recent memory. Unable to control her need to laugh, Dash started along with Pinkie.

“Heh, yeah. I’d never thought I’d see that from ‘muffin’ over here,” she giggled pointing at you. She also picked up the name Pinkie called you. “Boy, first Pinkie and now me. I know were drop-dead gorgeous, but I don’t think you can handle the both of us,” she teased, much to your embarrassment.

Trying to avoid any awkward situations, you turned to Pinkie. “So how in the world are you up here in the clouds?” you ask.

“That’s easy! I told Twilight I wanted to spend the night at Dashie’s house, but I couldn’t walk on clouds. So I asked Twilight to do the cloud walking spell for me and she did it and now I’m like Dashie and since I’m like Dashie I can now talk to you too and stuff. It’s so awesome! Dashie showed me some of the greatest sights from the sky and boy was it beautiful!”

“Oh, makes sense,” you said as your brain was trying to catch up on what she said. You were glad that Pinkie was here. She dug you out of a hole with Rainbow Dash, intentionally or not.
“So, what is it that you exactly do as a ‘night guard?’ Rainbow asked. You proceeded to tell them about all of your duties including patrolling over Ponyville and keeping the place safe, but avoided telling them why you were actually stationed out here. Being as broad as you could, you told them that most nights were uneventful save for a few adrenaline filled situations.

“Sounds kind of boring to me,” the brash pegasus responded. “Whatever floats your boat.”

You rolled your eyes. You couldn’t tell if she wasn’t amused, or if she was hiding her amusement. “Well as much as I’d like to stay and chit-chat, I have to get back to work.”

“Not so fast!” the brash pegasus ordered. What did she want now? Couldn’t she tell that you weren’t exactly in the mood to talk, especially after fondling her? She seemed to have forgotten about the recent events, though. Still, you didn’t want to make anything more awkward. “We haven’t seen you all week. We’re sticking to your side until the end of your shift.”

You opened your mouth to retort, but you realized Dash’s boisterous attitude wouldn’t take no for an answer. Trying to argue with her wouldn’t make a difference, other than just waste time. Besides, it could be a nice change from all of the lonely nights you had at work. “Fine, you can come, but on one condition.”

“Name it!”

“Try not to intervene with my work. If I get into a fight with somepony, just stay back and let me handle the sticky situation.”

This stifled a groan of dissatisfaction from the pegasus. She obviously wanted in on the action, but she’s still a civilian (regardless if she’s an Element of Harmony). Your primary objective was to protect her and her friends, after all. Meanwhile, the strangely quiet Pinkie Pie smiled widely, nodded her head and Pinkie Promised, gesturing with her hooves. Why was she so quiet? You had barely spent any time with her, but you knew all too well about her hyper antics. Unfortunately, you didn’t have all night to ponder. You made a mental note to ask her later.

“Alright,” you said. “Let’s get going.”

For the rest of the night, Pinkie and Dash stayed up with you keeping you company while you worked. Unfortunately, the laughs you shared didn’t exactly keep a low profile, but thankfully there wasn’t any trouble. At the end of your shift, you bid your buddies farewell and promised to spend more time with them. With your body spent, you dragged yourself to bed and dreamt of pink and rainbows.