//------------------------------// // Ones Future Love // Story: One to Die For // by lunablue17 //------------------------------// When I came to again, it was already day time, probably early in the day. I stared out the window for a few moments to take in the sunlight hitting my face. I felt the bird, Snowball, move around a little in my mane. My eyes turned forward again to see Rainbow Dash sitting in a chair asleep. She was covered with a blanket and she was snoring a tiny bit. I giggled a little from hearing this. Snowball woke up too giving a small chirp, which I guessed was a yawn. I heard Rainbow yawn right after. I turned my eyes and watched as she stretched her body and flapped her wings a couple of times. She turned to see that I was awake. Her eyes had a glare that couldn't understand. "Listen um, about yesterday. I'm sorry about the whole thing. I'm always so worried about Flutters and she might get hurt or something..." Just then, the yellow pegasus walked in, but didn't say a word. "...and I just wanted to tell you that I care a lot about her. That was why I came into here all angry-like. She is one of my oldest and closest friends. If something were to happen to her, I don't know what I would do." "I guess you won't have to be telling her that same thing again." She gave me a confused look with one eye half closed. "What are you talking about?" "Oh, Rainbow Dash," She flew over and hugged her, lifting Rainbow up into the air. "I didn't know that you care so much about me. Well, I guess you may have hinted at it before, but now that I heard it all, I am so happy that you care so much about me." Even when she was excited and happy, her voice still sounded like Princess Luna's. I began to think that she was the princess, just that she used a spell to make herself look like Fluttershy. "Whoa, when did you...how did...huh?" "It's OK Rainbow, I know that you do care a lot about your friends, even if you don't show it that often." "Hey Fluttershy, were you able to deliver the letter to her?" "It took a bit longer than I thought. Sorry but, I am easily scared when outside at night. So many shadows from the moonlight really scared me, but yes, I did give her the letter." "At least now I can rest easier. If something happened to you, I would have to go looking for you too. I am just glad to see that you're safe." "Wait, hold on just one minute. Fluttershy, why were you delivering a letter? What was written on it?" "That is what I wanted to tell you before I passed out. Fluttershy, you can head back home if you want to. I just going to explain what the letter was about to Rainbow." She shook her head gently. "It's OK, I want to stay here and make sure that you get better." I nodded to her in return. "The letter she was carrying was from me to Princess Celestia. It said that I wanted her not to be alarmed at the current situation and that I needed to be brought to the Canterlot Medical Facility. I had to be healed quickly so that I can head off to go look for Princess Luna. I couldn't tell you before because Fluttershy and I made a promise not to tell anypony about who it was for or what was in the letter." "Why wouldn't you let her best friend know what was in it?" "Nopony could know what was in the letter or who it was for. That literally meant nopony, including you and the other four." I was hoping that she would understand everything and just move on, but it seems that she still cared a lot about the yellow pegasus. "So what? If it concerns her well-being, her best friends should know what was going on. What if the something were to happen to her? What would you have done then?" I thought about that for a moment. My eyes wandered around to Snowball. She was sitting on my cheek again. I smiled and looked at Rainbow. "I would have gotten out of this bed and gotten her myself." She watched my face closely as it stay in its usual stern expression. She smiled and nodded at me. "I believe you. You guards don't leave any friend hanging. That is why I like you guys, you remind me of...me." My eyes wandered around a bit again. They came to rest on the sleeping Fluttershy. Rainbow was going on about herself and how the guards were basically just copies of herself. I was feeling tired again, but I didn't want to be insulting to Rainbow about asking her to leave. "Listen Miss Rainbow Dash, I appreciate your concern for your friend, but I think you should take her to her house. She fell asleep, probably because she was up all night." The rainbow pegasus looked over and saw the sleeping pony. "Yea, you're probably right. Hey um, I guess I'll come by later and talk to you. Not about the letter, but you know, just talk. I'll fill you in on some of the news that's going on about Ponyville. You won't believe these crazy stories that I hear." She picked up the other pegasus and placed Fluttershy on her back. A moment later, I was alone in the room, well, except for the bird, Snowball. I looked at the bird for a while. She did nothing but sit on my cheek while I lay down on the bed. "Snowball, can you understand me?" The bird looked at me and nodded her head. I was surprised to see that she was actually reacting to me. "Can you do me a favor and fly off to Princess Celestia. I would like for you to lead her to me. If possible, make her follow you. I am sure that she is on her way right now, but you and those other ponies know where I am. Can you lead her directly to me?" Again she nodded her head and flew out the open window. I couldn't wait for her to return with the princess so that I can explain everything in person. For the moment, I closed my eyes and fell asleep, awaiting the arrival of Snowball and Princess Celestia. A few minutes later (or a few hours later), I felt a small fluffy ball land on my cheek again. My eyes opened slowly to the sight of the beautiful Princess Celestia, with a couple of guards as well. "So this is where you were this whole time. I was beginning to think that you disappeared along with my sister." I couldn't tell if she was joking or if she was being serious. "Anyway, thank you for your letter. Miss Fluttershy delivered it with some resemblance to Luna. Did you tell her to act that way when she delivered your letter?" "Yes princess." She gave a long sigh. "At least I now know what is currently happening. Thank you for informing me. You did say that you had something to ask of me however, what is it that you needed?" "As mentioned in the letter, I will ask you when I am completely healed. As for now, can you please take me to the Canterlot Medical Facility?" "Of course my dear, just make sure you tell me everything that you know what happened two nights ago." "I shall, Princess Celestia." "Captain Aquilinus, please have your guard carefully take Night to the chariot for transport." At that moment, the captain of Celestia's royal guard walked in. He seemed a bit more muscular than the captain of the night guards. "As you wish princess. You two come in here!" Immediately, two other guards-stallions hurried right inside. "Take Miss Night Runner to the chariot and prepare to depart for Canterlot!" The two of them responded in unison, "Yes sir!" They gave their salute and with Nurse Redheart behind them, they carefully placed me on top of one of them. I turned my head to Nurse Redheart. "Nurse, do you know where my armor may be?" "If I remember correctly, I believe the pony known as Twilight Sparkle should have it." "Do not worry about your armor, she had it delivered the day after you arrived at Ponyville. The only thing she mentioned in her letter, was how you fell from a cloud and didn't use your wings to save yourself. Was it because of what had happened?" "I am so sorry for letting her disappear like that. I had no idea what was going on. The pink pony took me and Luna had asked me to go with her..." "There is no need to continue. I am sure that we will find some trace of her and be able to track her down." "Actually, can I ask you that favor now?" "Of course my dear, what is your favor?" The sentence was to soft for her to hear. The only audible words were "...search...myself." "Can you repeat that please, you were speaking a little to softly." "I would like to search for Princess Luna by myself." The princess gave me her stern look that she would give her sister after she had been caught for one of her pranks. Before she could say anything, the pink pony appeared right in between us. "Hi there, where ya going Night? Are you going back to Canterlot?" I was too scared to answer at first. When I focused more, she was doing her usual bouncing thing. "Yes I am heading back to Canterlot. Are you sure that bouncing doesn't hurt your hooves?" "Don't worry about me silly, worry about yourself! I mean look at you, you are being carried by another guard with a broken shoulder and a broken hind leg! You should be worrying about yourself instead of me!" Finally somepony, other than Princess Luna, was telling me to take care of myself instead of helping others. I couldn't respond to her with anything. The two ponies, Pinkie and Fluttershy, reminding me too much of Luna. Then there was the rainbow one. She stood up against me. The only one to have ever stand up against a decision I made were the princesses. The three of them brought back tons of memories of Luna and I. As I relived those memories in my mind, my eyes closed and began to tear up. A few second later, tears were streaming down my face. There was also a comforting type of smile as well. I felt like I was with Luna every time I got close to those three ponies. By the time I opened my eyes and returned to the world around me for a moment, we were on the chariot flying back to Canterlot. I was still on the back of the royal guard. I flipped my head around to see the pink pony and Princess Celestia beside me. I said nothing except wondered why she was coming with us. I just closed my eyes and returned to the memories of Luna and me. We were flying around the castle giggling at one another. We arrived at the garden just before the sunset. We sat there staring at the sky as it turned from orange to a deep, deep blue. The moon began to rise and Luna decided to fill the night sky with stars.Her horn was glowing and suddenly, these white spots appeared in the sky forming some sort of picture. She described it as a constellation just for the two of us. It showed both of of cutie marks next to one another. I was hugging her out of joy when Princess Celestia came to us. She saw the constellation that Luna had created and smiled, at it and the both of us. Every night since then, I have always gone to the garden to look at the constellation. After being lost in those memories for a while, I opened my eyes and found myself in the Canterlot Medical Facility. There were a couple of unicorns around me using magic to heal my wounds. I looked at the third unicorn who was writing on a notepad held up by her magic. "Excuse me, do you know where a pink pony might be that came in with me?" She turned to me with a smiling expression. "I believe she is with her highness at the moment. She said that she would come back later and have a celebration for waiting for you after we were doing healing your injuries." I looked down at my body. My leg was out of the cast and it looked just fine. The unicorn that was healing shoulder was done and told the doctor. She turned and asked me to move my shoulder. I did and it felt like it was brand new. The other unicorn used her magic to heal my leg. "Excuse me nurse, when will my leg be healed? I have an important task ahead of me." She stopped the healing process, probably to take a break. "We will be finished healing it by tomorrow. Until then, you must stay in bed and get a good night's sleep. Your task will have to wait until then." All of the nurses walked out of the large room. I laid my head back against the pillow and stared up at the roof. My shoulder was now healed while my leg remain unusable until tomorrow. That was the probably the worst news to tell me. I looked around the room and saw a couple of other guards in two other beds. I recognized one of them. He was one of the recruits that I taught. The stallion there was a pegasus, like myself. He was staring at the roof. The other one was probably one of Princess Celestia's guards. He was fast asleep. I looked at the other one who was still awake. "Are you a Night Guard by any chance?" He looked over at the other guard, then at me. As soon as he saw me, he sat up. His eyes were peering at me awkwardly. "Yes ma'am, I recognize you to be my mentor when I was a new recruit." So my memory was right, he was one of those ponies. "Is there something you need?" "No, just asking a question." It was just then that I noticed he had a sling for his right front leg. "What happened to you to get that?" He looked down at his hoof in the sling. "Oh this...I had problems with one of the other guards. We were doing a practice run and he tripped me during one of the turns. I flew off the course and landed right against a tree. My shoulder was dislocated so I came here to have it fixed. Might I ask why you are here, ma'am?" I peered down at my leg. "I was sent to investigate the disappearances in Ponyville. I left the palace with Princess Luna and the captain. I was separated by one of the locals and when I got back to the town square, I learned of horrible news. After that, I don't remember what happened other than waking up in the town's hospital." Even though that was a lie, it was also the truth. I did learn of horrible news, but I do remember what happened during the time in between. "I am sorry to hear that. Permission to ask you another question?" "Go ahead." "Do you know where Princess Luna and the Night Guard captain are? I haven't seen them around for a couple of days and the other guards are getting worried and confused." I wish he hadn't asked that question. What lie should I make up to answer back? Should I lie or tell him the truth? I was never one for hard decisions like that. Since he was a fellow Night Guard, he deserved to know what was happening. "Well, what I said before was partially a lie. I do remember what the horrible news was and how I really got my leg and shoulder broken. When i arrived at the town square, the mayor of the town called me off to the side. She told me of how Princess Luna had "disappeared"." I looked up at the guard to see his reaction. of course his eyes were dilated and his mouth was hanging open. "Can I tell you something?" He shook his head, probably to clear his thoughts and snap from his confusion. "Anything you want ma'am." "My past with Princess Luna is long so I will tell you in a short version. I am here in this palace because of her. I was abandoned at the doorstep of this place and she brought me in. I have lived here with her and her sister. Heh, she was always fun to be with. So from that you can tell that we had a close connection. When I learned of her disappearance, I went on an emotional rampage. The only thing I did was tear a cloud in half, but I got my anger out. I fell from the cloud and straight to the ground. According to some, I was almost saved by a unicorn who slowed down my fall. My leg still broke and my shoulder was fractured." Finally getting that off my chest, I felt more relieved. I looked at the guard on the other bed and he was staring at his arm. "Is it alright if I speak freely ma'am?" "Anything is permitted when not in public, almost anything." "I don't know what to make of this. Just seeing you in here had me worried enough as it was. I thought you were attacked and beaten in battle. When you told me about Princess Luna's disappearance, I just don't know what else to do anymore. Are you going to go search for the princess when tomorrow? I heard the nurses say that you were going to be released then." "Yes, I will be. I am heading to Ponyville tomorrow to go find clues to find her. I will ask Princess Celestia if she can spare a few guards, but once we find where she went, I was going to send them back. I plan on doing this alone. It is my responsibility to protect her at all times. If I mess up, then I make us look bad. Do not offer to help me in your condition. Thank you for letting me talk to you though. I must get some sleep for tomorrow, lot of important things to do." "Good night ma'am." He laid back down on his bed. I placed my head back down on the pillow, looking up at the ceiling. Why did I tell him everything I knew? That's not normal of me. What changed? What made me change? Those questions now left in my thoughts to ponder on. Without any further hesitation, I closed my eyes and was asleep. I opened my eyes to the sun shining in through the window. I lifted my head to see that the nurses had already begun to work again. Two were beside me; one was healing my hind leg again while the other was writing on her clipboard using her magic. She took notice to me waking up. "I see you are awake Miss, Night. How is your shoulder?" I rolled my right shoulder around a bit. "It's doing just fine." "Great, we will be finished with you leg in about an hour. Until then, please stay still so we may continue working." She went back to her clipboard reading and writing a few things here and there. I looked over at the other night guard. A nurse was using her magic to heal his shoulder. Everything was quiet, other than the sound of magic being used. I just laid my head back down on the pillow. I was closing my eyes when I heard a noise; one ear twitched. I popped my head back up looking around for where the sound was coming from. No one else noticed it seemed. They were still doing their own thing. I heard it again, this time it sounded like a chirp. Seconds later, I felt something land on my head. I looked up to see Snowball. The nurse with the clipboard turned and saw the bird. "That bird always seems to fly to you. We have a policy against animals being in here. Your bird keeps getting in somehow. Since it only seems to stay on your head, I just let it be." Staring at the bird on my head, I could hear it chirping. "Nurse, do you hear her chirping?" "Hmm? Is that bird chirping? I don't hear anything, sorry. It has been so quiet every time I saw it." "Never mind then, I guess it was my imagination." I knew Snowball was chirping. I was witnessing it. It's beak moved and I heard the sound. Why wasn't anyone else hearing it? I just ignored it. I laid my head back down and Snowball jumped onto the pillow next to me. I closed my eyes and fell asleep once again. I was woken up by the nurse. "Excuse me? Excuse me Miss Night?" "Yes, what is the problem?" "We have finished our treatment. You are free to leave at any time. However, you must take it easy. Your leg may be healed, but it is still a bit more fragile than your others." "Don't worry about me, I will be sure not to do anything rash." I got off the bed and onto my hooves. My leg felt brand new, just like my shoulder. "May I test how strong my leg is still?" "What is you method of testing? It cannot be serious enough to break somepony's leg. Bucking a tree is fine, but you cannot do anything with a lot of risks." "Don't worry, my tests are not as hard as many think they are." I was giving her that smile I always gave my new recruits when they were assigned to me for training. "Yes it is! It was definitely worth it in the end though. Without your training, I probably would have had my whole arm broken." I turned and looked at the guard and gave him that straight-faced look I always have. "Oh come on, you know it is that hard." "Like I said, nothing I can't handle myself." I turned back to the nurse who was giving me a glare. "I promise that nothing will happen to my leg. I won't do anything bad enough to break it again." "That's more I like it. You may leave whenever your ready, we have more patients coming in soon." She turned and walked out of the room. I walked over to the guard who was having his shoulder healed. "Did you really think it was that hard of a course?" I didn't have my normal straight-faced look. It was an expression of confusion and question. He raised his eyebrow at me which signaled that he never saw me like this before. "Well of course. Comparing what we went through to what the other guards did, their tasks are like a walk in the park. You kept pushing us to our limits and over them. That is what we benefited from. Me and my fellow recruits are always having an easy time beating all the other guards." He was blushing a bit. He seemed embarrassed and also nervous. Apparently I was the worst teacher, but also the best. "Personally, ma'am, I wish you would train us more. Your course was really hard yes, but at least we get assigned to more missions every so often. It's like being trained by you was an automatic recommendation for any mission no matter how difficult." "I guess I'll take that as a compliment. I never got your name recruit, care to share what it is?" "My name? Oh right, my name is Private Silver Stars ma'am." He gave me a salute with his hoof that wasn't in a sling. "Thank you for actually telling me what the others thought of my course. I always asked, they kept telling me it was fine and that they could handle it, which was why I always made it harder each time. I will see you later on the training grounds. Maybe I could go through the course with you." I turned around and walked towards the door. "Ma'am?" I stopped and turned my head a bit so that I could see him out of the corner of my eye. "Does that mean you are going to train us again?" I just gave him a smirk and a single chuckle. "Then we will see each other on the training grounds again." I just turned forward again and walked out. I headed for my room, which was somewhere down the hall. I was relocated twice because something never went the way I planned and usually got hurt somehow. I built a tolerance for injury thanks to all those times I got sent back to the medical ward. Thank Celestia that I never actually got killed at any of my attempts to "practice", as they would call it. I called it "hard training", they probably just thought I was suicidal or something similar. I arrived at the door to my room. Night Runner's Room Room 6 I always liked that number. It has been my lucky number for most of my life. I remember how I would only get about six recruits every time I wanted to train some. It was just the way I liked things, done in sixes. I walked into my room and immediately spotted my armor on its stand. I closed the door behind me and walked over to it. I was surprised there wasn't a dent or a scratch in the armor. I placed all of my armor on except the helmet. I sat on my bed looking at my helmet. Something clicked for me then. I could see Nightmare Moon's face in my helmet. Why I did, I had no idea. I just planned on find Luna and that was it. But like a disease, the question that Princess Luna asked me came up again. Are you going to follow your oath and help the princess, or are you going to leave her by her orders? This question will never escape my thoughts until I answered it myself. The newest question was, which answer do I pick? I let that question drift away into my memory. I put my helmet on. It felt different. Something didn't fit right? Was my helmet accidentally switched with someone else's? No, it was mine. The way it fit around my head began to feel familiar. I realized that maybe the bird was still in my mane. I quickly pulled my helmet off and flew over to the mirror. I search around my mane, but couldn't find her. Where could she be? I heard another chirp from behind me. Turning around, I saw Snowball perched on my armor stand. I sighed of relief and put my helmet back on. She flew over and land on my back this time. Again, I smiled at the bird and walked towards the door. Before I could get close, it slammed open. Next thing I knew, there were all the recruits I had trained last time standing there. "Sorry for intruding on you like this, but we got worried about you. All of us came to check up on how you were." "Don't worry about me, I am doing just fine. By the way, when I asked you before how my training course was, what were you really thinking?" They weren't looking at me anymore. They were actually looking at the bird on my back. I turned sideways putting my side towards the recruits. "Oh, this is Snowball. For some reason this bird keeps following me. The good thing is, it always listens to what I say. I kinda like her, she is persistent like I am." I giggled a little after saying that. The others just stared at me awkwardly. "Is something wrong?" "Nothing at all ma'am. We just..." "We have never seen you laugh before." He came straight out with his answer. I like that about a few others. They were straight-forward, no beating around the hay. "Don't say it out loud like that, she may get mad at us or something." Again, I giggled again. "You have a big imagination. I was always waiting for one of you to be candid with me. Why do you think I always asked how each of my courses were? Thanks to your other friend, Silver Stars, I guess I should make them a bit lighter than I used to." They were muttering to themselves. It would annoy me when they did that. "Attention!" Immediately they stopped and stood straight up. "You five, are going to help me with something. Have you heard the news of what happened in Ponyville?" "No ma'am!" Speaking in unison. It would be funny if they jinxed each other. "Then I will get you caught up. When Princess Luna, the captain, and I arrived at Ponyville, I was separated from them by one of the locals who lead me to the ponies I was to interrogate. Upon my arrival to the town square, I was given horrible news. Our beloved princess has gone missing." I instantly heard all of the gasp. They lost their posture which was kind of important for a guard pony. "I was going to search for her, but the mayor gave me a letter from the princess. It asked the mayor not to let me chase after her. I don't know the reason to why she would send this letter. All I can say for now, is that you will return with me to Ponyville and collect clues to search for our princess. Is everything I said clear?" "Yes ma'am!" They had regained their posture and were back to normal, straight-up positions. "Go get yourselves ready for the search. Ponyville is only a half an hours travel from the palace. When you are ready, meet me right outside the entrance of the palace. Dismissed." Upon saying that last word, they left. I sat down and sighed. "How will I explain the situation later on? They will listen anyway, at least I hope they do. Ugh, now isn't the time to worry about anything, I'll just go wait at the entrance." I walked out of my room closing the door. I thought of the guard who was still in the medical ward. I thought of it to be a good idea to go and visit him. I walked up to the door and greeted one of the nurses. "Good afternoon nurse, may I visit Silver Stars?" "Go right in Miss Night. He was telling some of us about his times during his training. You really shouldn't put them in those tough positions. It would make anypony go crazy. However, he seemed to enjoy talking about it. Oh hehehe, sorry for keeping you here long enough. Go right in." I held open the door for me to go in. "Thank you." I said with a nod. I walked past all the empty beds focusing on Silver. As I approached, I started with a greeting. "Good afternoon Private Silver. How is your shoulder doing?" "I wish it would heal faster. The nurses are doing all they can, but they say I won't be out of here tomorrow. I wish I could somehow heal faster and help you." "Don't worry, it's better to take your time than to hurry and have something bad happen again. My new friends taught me a few things while I was away. Appreciate that you didn't hit you head on the tree. Who knows what would have happened." "Yea, I guess you're right, like usual. Permission to ask a question?" "I said yesterday that you could speak freely anytime." "Again, sorry, I forgot. My memory isn't a great as other stallions. May I ask how a big change in your attitude came from?" "What are you talking about?" "You were always a little, serious, for lack of a better word. Never showed a smile, never laughed, never wanted to talk, and now you are willing to speak freely with one of your recruits. What made you change so much?" I had to think for a moment. I didn't realize that I had change at all. When he mentioned it, I realized I wasn't acting like my old, serious self. I was more open to others. "Well, I guess I learned more than I thought from my new friends in Ponyville." He rose his eyebrow again. "In Ponyville, ma'am?" I giggled at that a little of course. "Not all pony folk are like we thought. The ones I have met in Ponyville were much nicer and not snobbish like the ones here in Canterlot. I just wish all ponies acted like that. Do you know who the owner's of the Elements of Harmony are?" "According to the stain-glass windows, six ponies are the owners. One was a purple unicorn, one was a pink earth pony, one was a orange earth pony, another was a white unicorn, one was a light blue pegasus, and the last was a yellow pegasus. I only know that the purple one represents the Element of Magic, but they all look just like regular ponies. I heard a rumor that they were all from Ponyville and the purple unicorn was Princess Celestia's protege in the magic school. "Did you say Princess Celestia's student was the Element of Magic? I know who that is, do you know a pony by the name of Miss Twilight Sparkle?" "She is the Element of Magic? I never knew, she would usually talk just like every other pony I met." I scratched my head a little. "Well, I really came in here to inform you that I was going to be heading to search for Princess Luna with the other five recruits. But thank you for telling me who the Element of Magic is, I'll be sure to keep that in mind when I meet her next time." He looked at me with wide eyes for a few seconds, then turned his head a sighed. "Something a matter?" "I never thought that the princess would go missing. No matter how many times I thought that maybe once she would, but I always doubted it. Now I know not to doubt everything I think of." "Well, I know you may have more to say, but I must get to the palace entrance. The others should be waiting there by now. I will tell you the whole story when I get back, you have my word on it." I held out my left hoof to shake his. He shook mine and I left for the entrance. As I walked, I felt like Princess Luna was walking right beside me. The only thing I knew that was with me at the moment, was Snowball who sat on my back. Why could I feel Luna walking right beside me? Then, as I reached the entrance, I stopped. I felt her presence come next to my ear. I could hear those words from days ago. The one's Luna had told me before we left for Ponyville. This time, I didn't let it get to my head. I focused on the current situation and went outside to greet the rest of the team. "Are you ready to head out?" "Yes ma'am, we are all ready." "Then let's get to Ponyville and search before nightfall." The recruits took off towards Ponyville. I stayed behind for a moment looking at the ground. What is this feeling that I am leaving someone behind? Now isn't the time, I must focus on finding the princess. I took off of the ground, holding onto this new feeling. I will come back later to find out what it is.