Twilight knew she should stop staying up late at night. Lying on the not so comfortable wooden floor surrounded by thick magic books and scrolls in different fields of studies.
Her eyes were heavy and her body begged for rest. But the alicorn ignored her tiredness and tried to keep reading her thick book, the room was light by just candles gave the place a sleepy atmosphere. Spike had tried to take her to her room several times, but had failed as always, to get Twilight out of her studies was almost impossible, only she gave herself permission to rest, something she had not done since the acquisition of her new 'princess' title.
This new responsibility had led her to the conclusion that she should put more effort into her studies and should do more in her research about magic in all possible fields, if that was not enough, having wings made her study the magic involved with the Pegasi, investigating how they were able to walk on clouds, what gave them the ability to manipulate them, the process of creating storms, rainbows and more.
Apart from her studies Twilight had to learn to fly and exercise full control over her wings.
Rainbow dash had tried to teach her to fly several times but a Pegasus, who naturally had the ability to fly, which had the opportunity to practice for years since childhood, was not be able to understand that flying was something complicated, strange and almost impossible for a pony that had been a unicorn since birth, in other words, a pony that didn’t feel flying a natural thing.
Rainbow was not the most patient for the task, so she stopped trying to teach Twilight.
Twilight had stopped reading her for a while now, her eyes just followed the words without reading them and her head slowly fell down, letting it rest on her thick book.
Strong heavy whooves alerted Twilight who immediately went back to reading her book.
"Princess! What are you doing awake at this hour, you must rest!" The Pegasus stallion said with a gentle but authoritative voice.
"I still have one chapter more, it'll end soon, I promise," Twilight said in a tired voice, not bothering to look at her companion.
The stallion frowned; shaking his head he stood in front of the great book that Twilight was reading and kept insisting.
"Princess, your health is more important than any study, if you continue like that you could get sick, you can continue with the chapter tomorrow okay?"
Twilight let out a big sigh, looking up she found the big orange stallion stripped of his golden Royal Guard armor, exposing his messy blue mane and muscular body covered with old scars hidden in his orange coat.
And then she pouted.
"You should not worry so much for me, I've done this a long time and I never got sick," she protested.
The guard looked at her with worried eyes.
"Princess..."
"Stop calling me princess, it is still very weird for me and you’re not wearing your armor and I’m not wearing my crown, so there is no need for titles-."
The Pegasus let out a big sigh, ignoring Twilights obsessive study habits, he placed his hoof on Twilights book and pushed until it was out of sight.
"Hey..." Twilight protested, rising suddenly, sleep making her wobble on her legs.
The stallion held her preventing her from falling, his wings protectively wrapping her smaller body, gluing her to his chest.
"See? You cannot even stand properly, your body is asking for rest," he said.
"But..." Twilight resisted his logic. Failing miserably in the process.
"Armor or not I am your royal guard and is my job to protect and assist you in whatever you need, you need rest and like it or not. It's my job to keep you safe, and making you sleep at a decent hour is part of my job too," he replied.
The Pegasus instinctively raised his hoof fixing part of Twilights messy mane. She blushed at the gesture and let out a big yawn.
Flash Sentry smiled warmly and placed her in his back, Twilight let herself to be carried to her room without any complaint. She surrendered herself to fatigue, she felt herself being gently placed in her bed and wrapped in a blanket.
"Rest princess," said the stallion heading back to the stairs, promptly disobeying Twilights wishes.
"Flash..." Twilight said opening her eyes.
The Pegasus turned and sat at the foot of the bed.
"Is it hard being a royal guard?" She asked sleepily, yawning at the end.
"Well sometimes it is and sometimes not, to stand hours at a place doing nothing sometimes becomes boring, training is hard and tiring, fighting with hydras, Timberwolves and some other weird creature gives you wounds but in the end I would not change it for anything, because I know I will protect others."
Twilight listened carefully.
"Ever thought of leaving your responsibilities and just do what you want?"
Flash thought for a moment, then gave a small satisfied smile.
"No... my decisions and actions have taken me through pain and fatigue, but also gave me happiness and satisfaction with myself. I like to be useful and necessary for the princesses and for you, after all I wouldn’t have accepted being you’re personal royal guard if I wouldn’t have wanted to."
Twilight smiled.
"And I wouldn’t have wanted any other guard."
"I wouldn’t have wanted any other princess," replied the Pegasus with a warm, gentle smile.
Twilight closed her eyes and drove herself to sleep. Flash contemplated the beautiful mare for a few more minutes and then nuzzled her mane.
"Rest... my Princess."
He slowly went down the stairs in silence
Twilight smiled opening her eyes for the last time, taking one last look at the handsome, orange stallion going down the stairs.
"Rest... my Royal Guard."
Flash fetched his armor and stood at his post, in front of Twilights door. He was not able to take his smile off of his face.
"Oh Celestia… what have I gotten myself into?" Asked the tired Pegasus stallion to himself.