My name is Starry Night.
I am a magical researcher by hobby.
I am legally 18 years old.
Physically, I'm more like 25.
My greatest achievement, in my opinion, would be figuring out how to go supersonic without the Rainboom.
But today, today was something different.
Today was the day I changed the way ponies thought about magic.
At least, I would try.
I formed the magic around me. For the past several years, I had researched magic. Earth pony magic, unicorn magic, and even pegasus magic when I could. Every bit of information was useful.
For you see, today I was attempting the impossible; the unthinkable. All respectable magical scholars would shudder if they knew what I was thinking.
I was attempting levitation.
I am not a unicorn.
I gathered the magic around me, mimicking the way I had seen Twilight do it on so many occasions before.
And I lifted the book in a faint blue glow.
I almost lost control for a moment in surprise.
But I still held on.
The magic, however, did not like being treated like this. It seemed to struggle with me, trying to break the form I had so carefully crafted.
I forced it back into place.
I'm doing it.
Of course, that was short-lived.
"Hi, Star!" It was Twilight.
The book exploded in my face.
It was a Daring Do book, so it probably enjoyed it. But I still wasn't particularly pleased.
"Oh, sorry. What were you doing?"
The thought of my success mollified my irritation.
"I did it, Twilight, I finally did it."
"I reproduced unicorn levitation."
Shock, worry, then determination.
"But that's impossible!"
This was a normal reaction from Twilight that I had expected.
The problem was, her tone did not match her emotions.
The problem was, I knew she was lying.
The problem was, I didn't particularly care.
She probably just already knew that it was possible, since she knew so much about magic.
She probably just didn't want to spoil my discovery.
But she did tell me not to try it again. It was quite unstable, and very dangerous. Unicorns did not accidentally explode the items they were trying to carry.
It was unusually difficult as well, so I was happy to refrain from trying again. I had proved my point, though.
Although each kind of magic was different, they could mimic each other given enough effort.
Onto my next project. I looked at my notebook of impossible tasks, flipping to a random page.
Find a way to fly without flapping any wings. At least, physical ones.
This was fun.
I walked back in from the balcony back into my room in Twilight's castle. Back to work again.
But something bothered me again. It wasn't really work, was it?
At breakfast the next day, I voiced my concerns to Twilight.
"I still kind of feel like I did when I was a colt, being taken care of by you. I just feel like I'm taking advantage of the fact that you're a princess now. I don't have to work, technically, but I feel like I need to do something to help out."
"You're doing magical research. That's helping. Think of it as working for me."
"No, not really. That's a hobby of mine, but does it really help you at all? I determine all of my projects, and none of them are for your benefit. I need a real job. I don't want to leave the castle, but I want to pay rent to live here. Pay for my own food. Something. I need a job."
Twilight got a funny gleam in her eyes. Magic works in strange ways.
"I think I might have an arrangement that will help us both."
"What?"
"Celestia has been pestering me for a while about something, but I've been trying to avoid it. This castle is almost as big as the one in Canterlot, even though it doesn't look like it from the outside."
"Yes, that's because most of it's underground. I already know that."
"Well, Celestia's been pressuring for me to get a staff."
"A wooden pole?"
"No, of course not. Ponies to run the place. But especially a guard."
"Oh."
"She was especially insistent on the guard. In fact, I got a letter about it today. I almost wish I could put a spam filter on Spike."
I chuckled, remembering how Celestia probably wished the same thing. There was this one particular instance where Spike got the hiccups too close to a pile of parchment.
"But the point is, I might be able to satisfy both you and her without changing much."
"Congratulations, Starry Night, you are now one of my personal guard."
"What?"
"Or rather, the entirety of my personal guard. Celestia didn't specify how many I had to hire."
I was still trying to wrap my head around the entire thing.
"Well, it's perfect. You don't have to move out, I can pay you officially, and Celestia can get off my case about the whole thing."
"But how am I qualified to be a guard?"
Twilight sighed. "You're actually perfect for the job."
"In what way?"
"You can fly faster than the speed of sound."
"Well, yes. But--"
"Silently."
"Okay. But--"
"You can see through walls."
"You may have a point. But still--"
"And you can shoot lightning from your wings."
I remembered that particular experiment. Rainbow Dash was still freaked out about that prank. It was too easy.
"All right. You win. As long as I don't have to do drills or something."
Twilight grinned. "You're the Captain. You decide whether you force yourself to go through drills."
"So nothing has changed?"
"Pretty much. The only thing I insist on is that you wear armor."
"But you said that I would come up with the rules."
"And I still outrank you. You're wearing armor."
I sighed. "All right."
"Don't look so glum. I already made special armor for you. I'm sure you'll like it."
"You already had it made? You had this planned, didn't you?"
"Actually, I planned to give this to you, anyway. It's a very interesting magical artifact."
She walked into her bedroom.
"Wait here."
I heard her rustling around in her closet. She came back out, holding something in her hoof.
It was a torc, similar to the ones that Celestia and Luna wore, and to my shock, I saw my cutie mark, made of three yellow gems, in the center.
It was clearly full of magical energy.
Then I noticed that she was very careful to hold it in her hoof, something she almost never did.
"Why are you---?"
"Holding it in my hoof? Because trying to levitate it causes a huge magical backlash."
"What is it?"
"Your armor."
"What?"
"This here is a bonded artifact. I actually have been making it for a while now. And recently, I've decided that I should finally give it to you. By the way, it's just one gem cut to look like three. I didn't actually find three gems of the same type."
I knew what a bonded artifact was. I knew that quite well.
"But gems of that quality are almost impossible to find! Why would you do this for me of all ponies?"
She struggled with that one for a bit. "Well, I thought that you would be the one that could put it to use the best. When I found this gem, I just couldn't think of another that could use it more. I already have something similar, although I don't wear it that often anymore."
"And another thing - how is this considered armor? It's just a torc."
"Well, put it on, then."
I lowered my head, and Twilight helped me put it on.
Immediately, the gem flashed with a bright light, and it started taking my magic. Rather forcefully.
But just when I was starting to get worried, it stopped.
Armor in the same color as the torc, spread out, covering almost my entire body, even the front edge of my wings.
Well, I didn't really know what color the torc was, but the magic was the color of silver, or maybe white gold.
I moved around experimentally. Surprisingly, it barely hindered my movement at all.
"Wow. That was strange."
"It looks pretty good on you, too."
"Couldn't you have at least warned me?"
"I told you it was armor."
"I mean, about the colossal magic drain?"
"Oh, right. I forgot about that. But as you can see, the armor is actually made from your magic. And no, it doesn't hurt you if you are hit. I got the idea when you first started using that air shield thing. But this armor right now, it's a lot stronger than the normal Royal Guard variety."
"How strong is it?"
"I could probably attack you right now with my full power, and you'd only get some light bruising."
"Wow."
"But it fails under prolonged attack of that sort. You aren't immune. But the armor is protected in other ways. As you already know, it has an enchantment on it preventing it from being levitated. That protects you from levitation as well. Although, most ponies can counter levitation just by concentrating a bit. But it could be crucial time. That enchantment is standard to Royal Guard armor. But this also has enchantments that prevent foreign teleportation, most varieties of mind manipulation, among others."
"How long did you spend on this exactly? I thought that bonded items had to be enchanted by the person they were bonded to anyway."
"That's why it took so long. I had to take some of your magic while you were asleep. It was replenished anyway by that sleep. But it took more than ten years."
"But why not just tell me about it?"
"It was a surprise. But anyway, you do have some work to do. I'm sure Celestia won't be satisfied with one guard, so I'm giving you the authority to hire and train new ones. But I want to make myself very clear: I don't want hundreds of ponies running around here. I don't want an army. The maximum is fifty, but I would prefer somewhere around twenty or twenty-five."
"Why the sudden change of plan?"
"I just realized something else. Of course, I can protect myself, the princesses know that. But I've started to realise something else. The other Princesses allowed be to be myself for a while, to let me get used to the position so not to be a shock. But now they're expecting a bit more. I now have to maintain a public image, unlike before. News is finally spreading about a new princess, although Celestia kept it a bit quiet at first. If ponies see me without a guard, it won't matter whether I need one or not. They'll think I'm being careless."
"So you're deciding to do what Celestia's been pestering you to do from the beginning?"
"Not quite. I am hiring a guard, but only a small one. I am hiring staff for the castle, but only to provide for the new guards that will be living here. I am doing what is necessary, but I am going to change as little as possible. I don't think Ponyville could take such a sudden change."
"But how am I supposed to train anypony? I have absolutely no experience."
Twilight tossed me a book.
"Then you'll just have to learn, won't you?"
I looked at the cover.
Royal Guard Training Guide
What was that doing in her library?