//------------------------------// // It's The Little Things In Life That Count // Story: The Night Guard - Night Mares // by Georg //------------------------------// The Night Guard - Night Mares It’s The Little Things in Life That Count With only a few hours of sleep snatched around lunch, Princess Luna fought a yawn as she stood on the reception platform of the Grand Celestial Skyport with a formal dress contingent of guards for her sister’s evening return to Canterlot. Even without any pegasi, who were in short supply due to messaging duties, it was exactly what a Princess deserved upon landing, instead of Celestia’s tendency to treat an official trip as just some excuse to escape the castle for a few hours. A rank of proud unicorns with readied trumpets lined the back of the official display, with a long red carpet flanked by two lines of perfectly groomed earth pony guards leading up to the Princess of the Moon, who still might have rather have still been in bed or somehow been able to sleep through the ceremony like her pet opossum, Tiberius, snoring gently in her mane. Still, it was only proper to show her sister that she was fully capable of handling the responsibilities of the Day without anything having caught on fire. Much. “She’s certainly taking her time,” muttered Luna. “I’m sorry, Your Highness,” whispered Specialist Grace out of the corner of her mouth. “The Outer Perimeter patrol probably caught them during the outbound leg of an extended sweep. I’ll check to see how close they are now.” Holding a hoof to the side of her helmet, Grace’s horn glowed a faint green. “Skeet, this is Iceberg. Moon Cheeks wants to know the ETA on Sunstroke and Milkmaid.” A faint crackling voice coming out of the helmet earpiece could just barely be heard in response. “Copy that, Iceberg. Mare Force One has cleared the inner marker and should be visible in a few moments. Milkmaid has the copilot position next to Cap.” “Iceberg copies. Good work and out.” Grace looked up at Luna and nodded. “They should be landing in just a minute or two.” “Thank you, Specialist Grace.” Luna remained in her relaxed ‘Royal Patience’ pose with just the smallest wrinkle in her bottom lip for nearly a minute before asking, “Moon Cheeks?” Grace looked back at her princess with an upraised eyebrow. “Guard code handles. I thought you knew.” “Well…” Luna pursed her lips. “No.” With a quick glance at the incoming Celestial Phaeton and the spot of pink and orange in one of the driver positions, she bent down and whispered, “So what are the rest of their ‘handles?’” “Well, Princess Cadence is Love Bug, Twilight Sparkle is Egghead, and Shining Armor is…” Grace paused for a second. “Shining Armor. He doesn’t have much of a sense of humor about the concept.” “Harumph,” muttered the Princess of the Moon, Diarch of Equestria, and recently voted Second Hottest Princess in Equestria. “Seems undignified,” she added, while trying not to think of the long, sweaty photography session she had endured in order to be featured in the magazine article. “Well, it’s better than what Celestia used to be called,” whispered Grace, keeping an eye on the descending chariot as it settled in for a landing. “I can’t imagine who originally suggested ‘Hot Plot’ for her handle.” Now Luna had to suppress both a yawn and a most unprincess-like giggle as the Celestial Phaeton touched the landing platform. Almost the moment the wheels touched ground, the blur of rapidly-beating wing propelled a small blue colt up out of a strange restraint that had been buckled to one of the seats. With a rebound off the bottom step of the chariot, he skidded to a halt at the bottom of the red carpet and looked around while his mother struggled with the straps to her harness. There was a distinct and highly subtle exchange of knowing looks between the stallions in the honor guard and the trumpeteers, followed by a perfectly timed salute from the earth pony Royal Guards lining the carpet and a blare of trumpets playing the fanfare from ‘Hail, oh Glorious and Radiant Sun’ at full volume for the disembarking dignitary (Size Small). The little colt staggered back with a look of pure fascination, a growing grin on his face as his ears perked up, and he began trotting down the red carpet, his nose up in the air and his hooves prancing with joy. His path was anything but straight as the stern saluting stallions to either side distracted his unsteady steps, but in a matter of moments, Standing Water came to a halt in front of Her Lunar Highness, his bright blue eyes looking up with growing reverence. “Princess,” he breathed. “You are just the cutest little thing,” purred Luna, scooping the little colt up and giving him a nuzzle. “Yes, you are. Did you and Auntie Celestia have fun in Fillydelphia?” ‘Auntie’ Celestia stood calmly at the other end of the red carpet, looking at the back sides of all of the honor guard lining the sides of the red carpet. Admittedly, it was not a bad view for a single princess, but there was protocol to be followed despite the rising glow of happiness that threatened to spill out all over the place as she observed their reactions. Each and every single one of the supposedly grim guards was grinning (or at least she supposed the earth ponies lining the carpet matched the expressions of their unicorn companions, since she could only see their tails), with an expression that indicated memories of their youth, of days spent in cardboard armor with twigs clutched between their jaws in the defense of Equestria and their back yard. It was a heartwarming moment that Celestia allowed them to soak up before reluctantly clearing her throat to get their attention. Twice. “Ten-HUT!” Corporal Capricorn’s voice rang out across the landing pad, and all of the guardstallions abruptly stopped their amused observation of Princess Luna tickling Standing Water’s tum-tum and returned to their proper salute. In the background, the trumpet’s rather ragged start of ‘Hail, of Glorious and Radiant Sun’ stabilized after a few notes, and Celestia proceeded along the carpet as planned, even if slightly delayed, with both Specialist Thermal and Corporal Capricorn marching along behind in perfect lockstep. “Hello, Luna. Did anything happen while I was gone?” The smile that she had been fighting won the battle, and she could not help but grin at the way her sister was tickling the little colt on his tummy and the way Standing Water was lapping up the attention, even with Luna’s opossum Tiberius having climbed to the top of her head to observe the scene with sleepy eyes. “Other than a positively exhilarating game of Find-The-Colt, it’s been terribly quiet, Celly.” Luna took advantage of the little colt’s distraction at the presence of Celestia to blow a hefty raspberry on his round little tummy. “Well, it’s nice to hear you have things well in hoof, Luna. I suppose I could turn in early this evening, if you don’t—” “Oh no you don’t, sister.” Luna boosted the little colt up and perched him on her back just between her wings, which made him bounce on his new transportation and giggle as Luna’s pet opossum made faces at him. “There are still several hours before sunset, and I intend on catching a nap before facing my Royal duties. Until this evening, my sister.” The Princess of the Moon turned and trotted a few steps with the giggling colt on her back bouncing in place before she paused and looked back with a mischievous grin. “Go on, Standing Water. Fly to Mommy.” Luna bounced the little colt a significant distance up into the air, allowing him to use the altitude to glide over to Specialist Thermal and wrap his little hooves around her neck with a glad cry of “Mamma!” “Dismissed, Specialist Thermal. It’s been a long day. Go get some rest.” Luna winked at her sister as she trotted off, leaving Celestia to shake her head. “Princess Celestia?” Specialist Thermal struggled to look up as Standing Water climbed to the top of her head to wave at the departing Princess of the Night with Specialist Grace following right behind. “Um. He didn’t sleep on the way back, so if I go put him down for a nap now, I should be able to feed him before I’m on duty this evening.” “Unnecessary, Miss… I mean Specialist Thermal. Go ahead and take tonight off. I think you deserve it.” “No.” Thermal got a good grip on her little colt and pulled him off the top of her head, cuddling him into a warm hug. “The Guard is short-hooved this evening from Feather Flu and extra courier duties. I’m needed in the communications department.” She paused with a rather nervous look at Celestia. “If that is acceptable, Your Highness.” It took effort to ignore the intense non-attention she was getting from the attending ceremonial guard stallions as each one of them exerted their full willpower into non-looking and not-listening in Celestia’s direction. There was really only one thing she could say. “You’re right, Specialist Thermal. We all must do our part. Dismissed. We’ll see you at work this evening.” Celestia’s eye swept up to the rest of the attentive ceremonial guards, before she turned in a graceful pivot and returned to her remaining Royal responsibilities. As she strode through the corridors with Capricorn trailing along behind, she remained silent other than to greet others as they passed and to pass along her congratulations to the staff for their assistance in the search for Standing Water. She had been present at so many of the cataclysmic events of Equestrian history, either as an instigator or a simple witness, and not a single one of them shaped the world as much as the little things in life. An infant alicorn with a smile as brilliant as the sun looking up at her from the side of an old bitter unicorn whose heart had been freed by the magic of love. An ancient dragon, aged and wise far beyond measure, who had seen the birth of the race of ponies and so many of Celestia’s own ancient span of years until he crawled into a well-treasured cave to sleep away however many centuries of life he had remaining. A young filly’s face as she discovered her cutie mark in Celestia’s School for Exceptional Unicorns. A Quilinese dragon defying his father’s wish that he rule the land as a successor, but instead bending his fate to become master of a distant monastery where thousands had learned the magic of harmony at his gentle tutelage. The small notes she wrote every year to countless young ponies and the small ones of other races across Equestria, calming their fears and correcting their foalish misconceptions. There had been a look of understanding on the faces of every single guard at the landing pad that had almost made an audible ‘click’ to her ears when Thermal had turned down her well-earned day off in order to return to work. Every one of them had been in a similar (although male) situation, fighting off a sniffle or a sprain that could have justifiably been used to warrant a day between the sheets instead of at work, and the young pink pegasus mare had done just what they did in that situation. She had ‘sucked it up’ in order to guard the princesses, and not with some attitude about sucking up like the Royals did every day, but putting her own cute and highly energetic interests behind that of taking her place in service to the Princesses. It gave her a nice warm feeling inside as she thought of the dedicated young mares who would begin their training in the Academy in a few short months, taking their own places next to the loyal stallions who had guarded her for centuries and being treated as equals instead of lessers. From such small steps did mighty mountains grow. It had taken forever to get Luna’s Nocturne accepted into the Royal Guard, a massive battle of wills that had been fought a single step at a time until the sight of a bat-winged and golden-eyed guard around the castle shadows had been not only expected, but anticipated by any pony who was frightened by the night. The longest of journeys could only be traveled one step at a time, and there was one last step she had been wanting to take for a long time, but no longer. Once she reached a quiet section of corridor with nopony in the immediate vicinity, she stopped and turned to her silent guardian with a smile. “Nice work, Sergeant Capricorn,” she said with an added nod. “I’m only a corporal, Your Highness,” he replied with a baffled expression. “Not any more,” said Celestia as she turned to begin walking again. The journey at times seemed to have no beginning or end, just steps, and although this particular step had worked far better than she had hoped, there were still many, many steps left to take in the future.