//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Ghost Lights 
// by Winston 
//------------------------------//


Ghost Lights

Chapter 1










It's a funny thing, I don't really get to talk directly to my employer that often. It's not that she's cold or aloof. On the contrary, she's really very likable as a pony. There's just something of a difficult social position to being a princess.

Formality. Nobility. Only consort at the top of the stratum, be that icy sculpture nopony can touch, and wear the mask that royalty wears. All these are demanded of her.

I think some ponies would die of shock if they ever saw Princess Twilight break ranks to speak directly to somepony like me. Her relationship with Captain Rainbow Dash has been difficult enough through the years to get some ponies to accept, and Dash is an officer. For her to waste even a breath talking with something even lower, a common enlisted pony? Unthinkable. Just unthinkable. I can practically hear monocles being dropped indignantly into fancy little teacups with haughty but hushed exclamations of, "Well! I never would have thought!"

The difference between the princess and so many others, though, is that she understands this pretentiousness for exactly what is. Sometimes when I can tell she's feeling exasperated with all this nonsense, she gives me a clever, knowing smirk, in those moments when nopony else can see it. When she does, I know that she's looking right through whoever is trying to impress her with fancy titles and expensive clothes. I think that her clarity, seeing all ponies simply as real ponies instead of being enamored of this masquerade of caste and status, often gives her something of a secret edge over some of the stuff-shirted diplomats and aristocracy she deals with in her court.

Still, though, it's a weapon that can only work if certain appearances are, at least superficially, kept up. Thus it's not every day that Princess Twilight decides to have a personal one-on-one conversation with most members of the guard.

It happened today, though, on the afternoon shift, getting later toward the evening after most of the diplomatic and administrative business going on in the palace was finished up. The princess found me in one of the hallways, during one of the uncommon times she was alone and not flanked by administrative staffers hanging on her instructions. It seemed like an occasion she'd been waiting for. She called me over to herself and asked me to follow her, then headed to one of the quiet viewing rooms off in a less-used side area of the palace.

She closed the door after we entered. It was just the two of us. The large bay windows opened out to a spectacular view of the palace garden, and the princess walked over to those windows and looked out. She waved me over to stand next to her, so I did.

"How are you doing today, Sunburst?" she asked, smiling in a friendly way.

"Just fine, Princess," I answered her. "Yourself?"

"Oh, you know," she said in a casual tone. "Same old, same old. Princess stuff of all the varied kinds to deal with. Not bad, though, all things considered."

There was a brief silence before she continued on. She had to have brought me here for something, so I waited patiently for it.

"How long have you been a guard for me?" she finally asked. "It's been a while, hasn't it? Out of all my guards, you're one of the ones who's been here the longest."

"Twelve years." I nodded. "I suppose almost thirteen, total, when you count that first stretch I was here."

"So you've been part of my guard for almost the whole time Azure Sky's been here as my student..." Princess Twilight continued. She smiled wistfully to herself, gazing away in thought. "I remember when you were reassigned from your first tour here and you left for special duty. It was to go do a second tour on the Seawall, right?"

I was a bit impressed. I didn't think she would remember and personally keep track of where individual guards went next after they moved on from their tours. "Yes, Princess," I answered her.

"Mmm." She nodded briefly. "I remember she was sad to see you go. I also remember how thrilled Azure was when you requested a second posting here with the guard. I remember her as a little filly squealing with joy in the hallways when she found out you were coming back. You've been here with us ever since and she's always thought quite highly of you. The two of you have sort of a... unique friendship, don't you? It seems to be something pretty special."

I wasn't completely sure how to tread in answering this question. Princess Twilight is the princess of friendship, yes, but at the same time guards aren't typically supposed to have what would be perceived as particularly close special relationships with other ponies who are part of the palace staff and household. "I don't know about it being particularly special, Princess," I said. "I mean, yes, though, we're friends. I've always liked her and it's been rewarding to be able to be around and watch her grow up from a little filly into the young mare she's turned into."

I thought about Azure Sky, her image familiar in my mind - the white coated unicorn with a powder-blue mane and tail. I considered how that image had changed over the years, how she had grown from a scrawny, squeaky-voiced little filly to the beautiful young adult she was now. I remembered her as a blank flank, and then how she'd gotten her cutie mark not long after I'd first gotten here, an amethyst crystal with stars representing magic surrounding it.

In that moment, watching her grow up struck me as something extraordinary, as magical in its own right as any unicorn's spell. For many years I'd seen her following the princess around the palace, learning and sharpening her already formidable talents and the sheer scope of her magical abilities growing ever larger and more refined. Some of what she can do now is truly incredible. She's poised for a limitless career in any field of magic she wants.

"It is something, isn't it? Where do those years go?" Princess Twilight sighed, almost as if she could read my thoughts. "Well, I'll get to my point. She... if something was up, would she tell you about it, do you think?" Princess Twilight turned away from the window and looked at me with questioning eyes.

"I'd like to think so," I said with some hesitation. "But I guess you can never be one hundred percent sure. Everypony's got their things to deal with that sometimes they prefer to keep private. And anyway, I'm just a guard. To be honest, I wouldn't expect to be the first pony she'd come to with a problem - I'd think that would be you. Why do you ask? Do you think there's... something up? Should I be watching out for her in a particular way?" I started to feel concerned.

"I..." Princess Twilight seemed uncertain. "Y'know, I don't know. I would also like to think she could tell me anything, but I have to admit that's not always realistic. I was the student of a princess myself when I was young. We were very close and I had - actually, still have - a lot of trust in her. I've tried to make it that way between myself and Azure, also, but even so, in some ways there can't always be a completely evenly balanced perfect openness between student and teacher. I know that some things were very hard to talk about with Princess Celestia when I was a filly. There were always certain ways I'd be scared of disappointing the ponies I looked up to, if I felt like they wouldn't approve or they wouldn't understand."

The princess started pacing in place a little bit, absentmindedly. I think she was a little lost in her thoughts. "Now that the horseshoe is on the other hoof, I know that fear was mostly unfounded, but I also know that maybe it's still going to be there for Azure. It's not like it's really something anypony can help. So I guess I was hoping that maybe she might have at least opened up to somepony else if there was something she felt like she couldn't come to me with."

"Well, I'm afraid she hasn't said anything specific, Princess, no," I replied. "Honestly, I really hadn't noticed anything myself. Come to think of it, I haven't actually really spoken to her in quite a while."

"I see," she said. "Well, thank you, anyway."

"Of course, Princess." I nodded. "To be of service is what I'm here for. If... I may suggest, though?"

"Of course you may." She nodded back to me.

"This might sound painfully obvious, but if you think something is bothering her, couldn't you just be direct and ask about it?" I inquired. "Sometimes it works. Sometimes ponies really want to say something, but it's hard to break the silence and just come out with it. Maybe they just need... well... you know. That little nudge." I turned and looked out the window into the garden, where a large rosebush grew nearby. It was in bloom with shapely, luscious red roses, the same kind I'd strategically left behind in a fateful bouquet on Captain Rainbow Dash's desk a dozen years ago when I left guard duty for my second tour at the Seawall.

"Yes." The princess followed my stare and looked at the roses. A smile, as if inspired by a now long-distant but thoroughly joyful memory, slowly formed on her face. "Yes, I suppose you're right, and you would know a little about that, wouldn't you? Me and Captain Dash are still grateful to you for every day we can be together."

"As I've said, it was just doing my duty the best I knew how," I said. I always get a little embarrassed every time this gets brought up again. Not that I don't indulge myself in still feeling a little pride in it at the same time, admittedly. I think that being as solitary as I am has the side effect of inclining me toward being a little self-centered sometimes.

"Still, thank you," the princess said. "I'll try it your way and just ask Azure directly, yes. I suppose I should have just done that in the first place. Well, dinner is in an hour or so. That would seem like an opportune time, assuming she shows up for it and isn't too busy studying or experimenting. That's always sort of anypony's guess."

That's true enough. Aside from the fact that for the last two weeks she seemed to have been fairly isolationist and shut in her room most of the day, Azure's studies just generally tend to be unpredictable. One day, random objects could be teleporting in and out of the palace hallways. The next, a wave of rainbow-colored magic could suddenly surge through the palace grounds without warning, with only a mumbled cryptic explanation about 'losing containment and accidentally letting the singularity get a little out of hoof'. Then everything could be quiet for the next week (or month, nopony could ever really say) until the next series of experiments began.

In the end it's always mostly harmless, but for the guard, the unexpected disturbances sometimes make things bizarre. Princess Twilight tolerates it all in the interests of allowing Azure free reign to develop as a mage, though, so we mostly do as well.

Mostly. Not always perfectly, but mostly.