Just a day in Equestria

by dave89898989

45 - A fallen Princess

“Good morning young Electric Blue,” Princess Celestia greeted me as I crossed the courtyard from the entrance.

“Good morning, Princess. My duty is to serve you and be your protection, as well as the rest of the castle and its inhabitants. How may I be at your service?” I rehearsed an improvised statement of my role.

She chuckled. “Very good. The royal guards’ chambers are over at the end of the left wing. You can take a set of armour, specially made for the first female guard to defend Canterlot castle.”

“I...the very first guard mare?” How come I would become the first? I suppose not many mares feel it as their place to be a guard and risk their lives in a way. I just hoped that had to be the case and not some sort of equality issue.

Celestia bowed her head in agreement with the strange news to me. “That is correct. Now your job is fairly simple - survey the castle inside and out daily, checking for any damages or environmental hazards, check out the local populace every week, and cater to the Princess’ every whim. I fully understand that you’re as strong as any other guard here, so I won’t make your tasks any easier than the others’. I expect you to be timely as well, and record a brief report fortnightly, explaining the happenings of life in the castle and outside events.”

“Understood ma’am, I’ll get to work right away,” I asserted as I directed myself to the guard chambers.

The armour made for me looked similar to the standard, apart from the thinner body armour with the curled spikes pointing straight down instead, and the whole platinum colour scheme, with the normal blue star on the front replaced with a green cross made up of arrow-heads pointing towards each other. The helmet had a shortened neck guard, and the crest also had a dye of green instead of blue. Anklets unique to me adorned each leg, decorated with a wave-like pattern flowing around the rings. The hoof guards I wore covered slightly more of my legs too, with the crown-looking spikes reaching further around. I definitely carried a lot more weight after putting on all of this, but the worth of making myself part of a group of protectors felt significantly important.

I began patrolling the floors of the bastion overlooking Canterlot, looking for any fragile bricks lining the walls and flaws in structures or pillars. I noticed that this role hadn’t been laid on my shoulders alone, as the other guards walked around the halls as much as I did. The expressions on the stallions’ faces showed a serious, but spiritless disposition. Of course this line of work didn’t involve entertainment, so I could imagine nothing good happening over the time I would be making use of my talents.

Crime never struck anypony as threatening because of the all-time low it remained at, nopony needed protection in that sense too. The only place that needed to be fixed took the name of Fillydelphia. The heart of criminal activity resided there, to say the least. The castle walls had been built perfectly, so structural damage wouldn’t be a problem in many a hundred year. It almost felt pointless to be looking around the fortress.

The usually fast day I would have turned itself into one of the slowest I’ve had in a while now. I passed Princess Aora every now and again with a smile aimed towards her, but she wanted nothing to do with me. Why the sudden cold shoulder? Did Destiny let her know about our situation? I assumed so. Surely Aora would be able to maturely make sense of it though? Maybe Destiny told it in a fabricated way. No, I don’t want to think anything bad against her.

I wondered about Destiny’s progress at the Wonderbolt camp as I examined the foliage in the outside gardens, hoping she had gotten as far as me with employment. Her flying skills could compete with the best, rivalling even Rainbow Dash’s speed and tenacity. We were best friends because of our extreme amounts of determination when it came to anything we did. I reminisced battling an ogre in our foalhoods, with Destiny circling around the giant’s head and taunting it, while I put my strength into taking it down through kick after bludgeoning kick. This ogre planned to terrorise Ponyville back then, so we got together and defended the town. Being licensed Professional Adventurers, it became our duty to do that sort of thing; by going out into the foreign wilderness together and exploring, as well as defeating monsters on the side, whatever the mayor and townsponies assigned to us. Every colt and filly out there aspired to be us or be with us at some point or another because of our sheer power and courage. But then the day came when the fire ravaged the forest, so we had to disband.

The town of Ponyville blamed us two for starting the wildfire, but we downplayed the claims. It turned out to be Glais, back before all the drama happened. He sent a warning to me to get out the world of Equestria and back to Earth so he could dispose of me. He knew Destiny was close to me so he threatened to kill her on numerous occasions through talking inside my head. I couldn’t take the constant whispers, so Destiny and I had to part ways for a time. She made her way to Appleoosa, forgot all about me, and vice versa. The connection of the Paopu fruit lost its strength and needed to be renewed, as our friendship revolved around that special item. I stayed in Equestria, but then the total blank spot happened where control had been completely taken from me. Rose obviously must have killed Glais at the point where I arrived in Ponyville by cart ride. The first few days of my second half of memories seemed so strange to me, in ways I couldn’t explain.

After that casual introspection, I congratulated myself for the thorough look around the castle for flaws. Nothing interesting had appeared to me along the way. As expected, perfectly built. What could I do now? The sun still loomed high in the sky so the time to go home would not come for a while yet.

“Hey, what are you doing standing idly by?! Get to work, please!” A stallion older than me ordered as he noticed me leaning up against a cold marble pillar.

“I can do what I want, I’m a general you know,” I answered coolly, making the more mature guard take a step back.

“Oh, sorry miss, you can go about your business.” He clearly looked shocked at the reply of my military rank.

I shook my head and smiled. “You are right though, I am not doing anything right now. What else can I do around here?”

“Uh, well…”

I wanted to reassure the poor fellow. “Don’t worry, you’re not my subordinate, you’re just as equal as me. What is there to do?”

The stallion thought about what needed to be done around the castle. “Okay, there are unmade beds in various chambers, a pile of unorganised books and scrolls in the library, and the Princess’ lunchtime is coming up, so the food needs to be delivered to them.”

“Aren’t there other guards to do these things as well?” I asked.

“Oh yes, but you can do just one of the tasks if you want.”

“If it helps pass the time…”

The days passed in my job as a royal guard, and I eventually become settled in the monotonous schedule that I went through during my hours and time sped up for me. Despite the lack of crime or war and such, the castle felt particularly high security. I suppose it’s good to be prepared with our tight system and protectors.

In the evenings the other guards and I got together, had donuts and coffee and shared stories of our personal escapades. The colts were attracted to my war history, and came to respect me highly, thinking I had been a real heroine. I obviously left out the parts that I didn’t feel too proud of, and I didn’t feel that heroic either. The Princesses and the military picked a good general, they kept saying to me. Some even wished that my barn door didn’t swing the other way; which I could only laugh lightly at. The guards looked up to me as a role model and a brilliant fighter, but I told them that they didn’t have to do that, as they had to be better than me, even though I appreciated the compliments.

On one regular day, I received an urgent message from Princess Celestia to come an see her. I had been hurrying from my home to the castle as quick as I could. This important business couldn’t wait, especially when it involved me in a big way.

I opened the door to Princess Opare’s chambers. Everypony who lived in this fortress had crowded around her bedside. Her breathing sounded uncomfortably heavy.

“Princess Opare! Are you alright?” I worriedly asked my ancestor.

“Yes, I am quite fine-” she said, being quickly interrupted by a hacking cough.

“Please, do not try to sit up,” one of the nurses who had been brought in told the ruler of the sunset.

“What’s going on here?” I enquired, the apprehension climbing through each passing second.

“Blue, come outside with me for a moment,” Princess Luna offered me. I followed her instruction with care.

We stood on that frequently visited balcony which overlooked the towns. The time of dusk had approached, and the sun lowered itself ever so slowly downwards.

“Now, this is going to be hard for me to say. But there comes a time in everypony’s life when they reach their peak. The flame cannot keep burning forever. Now Blue, you may not have known her that personally, but I have; since I was a young foal. She taught me everything I knew, and told me stories of her travels back in the days of old. Opare is a mother, a big sister, a friend to me. She tried her best raising me and Celestia along with Aora, and I couldn’t thank her enough for sticking by us for all those years. She even went to the moon when I was banished there, just to give me the protection I needed against the darkness. She sacrificed her soul for me until I came back to reality thanks to the elements of harmony. I selfishly traded it away to return to Equestria in the new form that the darkness had forced upon me. I will always regret that day, even when Opare had gained her soul back. And now...she’s dying...while I still have many things to atone for. I want her to be proud of me before she departs…” Luna finally lost control of her collection and broke down quietly.

I had been recovering from reeling when finding out what Opare’s status showed us. I formed a sentence from my quivering mouth. “But, Princess, she is proud of you. More than you could ever imagine. You were her prized student, and you felt like a daughter to her. You mean the world to her, do you know that? She told me each time about you when I was in her company. She can leave this life knowing that the world is in capable hooves. We may not be directly related to each other, but we are family, and we’ve stuck together. Now’s the time to be strong, because the last goodbyes are here.”

I wiped away the tears from Luna’s face as well as my own, and she tried to control her breathing to talk again. “Thank you for telling me this, Blue. I doubted my expectations through Opare’s eyes always, and I’ll have to thank her when we go back inside, for everything.”

We returned to Opare’s side, comfortable in this new solace of togetherness. All of us just sat there for awhile, in silence, holding hooves, eyes closed. None of us wanted to let this moment go. I opened my eyes for a second, and streams of tears had formed on everypony’s faces. There were only thoughts of the past and our interactions together flowing in our heads; nothing more. I closed my eyes once again and remained in silence. The sun’s last few rays warmed my body as they passed by the window slowly, keeping the comfort of this circle from corrupting into a feeling of rage and a want for vengeance on the world. This became a time of passing, and I had to come to terms with it, like a strong pony. The pony I had never been. The thought of death didn’t come to my thoughts until now. It brought me back. All those people I wronged. All that murder. I would never be truly forgiven until my own day of reckoning, where I would be set free. My actions and self would dissolve into time’s unrelenting rivers. I would be forgotten and nopony could truly need to discover me in the future. The point of leaving my mark as a good pony seemed pointless as I pondered on and on about the ultimate insignificance of my being. Why I existed with a purpose and survived for this long astounded me.

I felt my hoof unlink and then gain back the hold in a steady movement. By glancing to my left I noticed that Destiny now sat next to me. She shook her head slowly as I noticed her quivering lips. I controlled myself at that moment. No outside interference of our bickering should be needed at that moment. Princess Aora looked at Destiny and then me with a furrowed brow. This moment had to lead to a discussion later on, but now the time brought us to focus on the moment happening.

“Everypony, thank you for coming here this evening,” Princess Luna spoke softly after the minutes had passed. “Like I have said to miss Blue, this will be a hard time for all of us. Now has come the time of Princess Opare’s departure, one of the greatest rulers of Equestria, the closest thing I’ve had as a mother, another sister, and a best friend. She was my tutor since I was a foal, and now it is the moment to say a final goodbye to the one that protected, raised and cared for me with the best of her abilities, and far surpassing anything that I could ever do, in body or mind. Thank you for everything that you have ever done for me and everypony else.” She stumbled with her last words at an extreme level at this point. “And goodbye, mother.”

“Goodbye, mother…” we all followed in a melancholic unison.

Opare lifted her hoof weakly and beckoned me closer to her. I moved into better hearing range for her private whispers. “Blue...the stars...they’ve told me...something evil is coming…for us...for you...you must...surrender yourself to them...immediately when they appear...I’m sorry…”

I took a step backwards in sheer horror of her words. The situation sounded too dire and serious for it to be taken lightly. I got close again and spoke, trying to keep my voice in a normal enough tone. “Thank you, Princess Opare. I know the times we have had are short, and I have always wished that we could’ve gotten more time together. Maybe in the next life we’ll share our knowledge and experiences. I’m sorry that I have not been a better pony in your eye, and I am trying my best to become morally desirable. I will protect the castle as you did in your reign, and I will make sure Equestria stays the best it can be for you and for everypony. Goodbye, mother.”
After we all had our final words with the ruler of the sunset, Aora requested that she be with Opare alone for a while, and we allowed her. For the intermission I took my time to speak with Destiny. Her being here felt strange, but at least she appeared for Opare to pay her respects.

“Destiny, I’m glad that you’re here for Opare. I began to think you weren't going to show up,” I said with a lingering hope from before.

“Of course I would've come. I'm not heartless enough to not visit her.” We shared a weak chuckle.

Even though that brief moment of happiness between us sparked, it sent our emotions back downhill into an awkward standing around. Things still stayed difficult between us, but the bond would slowly gain strength again. She lost all the trust in me and it had to be difficult to get it back after what I said to her. The news came way too late for her, and she understood too well.

“So...how have you been?” I asked my pegasus ex-companion.

“I’ve been fine. You?” she asked back in a cold tone.

“Well, I’ve got myself a date coming up, and I got a job as a guard working here. I’m moving up in Equestria!” I laughed. Destiny didn’t laugh with me, just gave a struggle of a smile.

“That’s...good.”

“Is there something on your mind, Destiny?”

“Later.”

“What do you mean, later?”

“I mean, we’ll talk about it later. Now’s not the time, alright?”

“Alright, sorry Destiny. This is hard for us all.”

And true that statement proved. Aora opened the door to Opare’s chambers once again, and walked out, staggered and crying. We gave her our support by moving close and hugging her. The white veil adorned the princess of the dusk’s face now. The story had come to a close. Opare existed physically no more, only her soul would live on. The sight got to me and I began to wail and sob uncontrollably. I couldn’t take the crushing sadness of today’s events and so I left shortly after.

My foster parents arrived at my home before I got back, so they took the liberty of going inside and making themselves at home. I didn’t mind because that’s what I wanted them to do. I had cried all the way home, still continuing until my eyes burned and my head pulsed painfully, but I couldn’t stop. Thunder Hum and Zap Flower asked me what the matter had been, but I felt in no shape to answer. I laid face down on my bed, drowning myself in the sorrow of passing. I took a week off because of grievances, even if it happened to be after my first day. I just couldn't gather the strength to do anything, it affected me too powerfully like never before. This came to be the beginning of my understanding of life.