Curtains
Narrated by your British-accent-speaking, ever-cynical, Leaf Brambles. Captain of the Unicorn Division.
Twilight Sparkle. Ever since she came to Canterlot Castle, she’s been a thorn in our metaphorical side. Security has never been breached as many times in fifteen years as it had been with her here the past few months.
I’ve read about Starswirl the Bearded. Heck, the entire unicorn division has had to study some of his more… secret spells. I would tell you more but a lot of them are locked away due to national security. Nopony wants them to fall into the wrong hooves.
Twilight will probably exceed Starswirl. This fact alone makes me worried about the future of the Crown, and of Equestria as a whole. She could grow into one of, if not the most powerful archmage of Equestrian history - or she could end up like King Sombra, corrupted by her own ability and become the worst villain ponykind has ever known.
But right now, she’s just a filly. Her future will be shaped by those around her and I can only hope the right ponies are influencing her.
Princess Celestia had given Twilight her own quarters in the castle, not too far away from her own chambers. Naturally this meant we often went past it during our patrol routes.
It was supposed to be a quiet evening - only three Paragon were on active patrol duty, with three more on standby and the normal compliment of standard guardsponies. Ever since Twilight arrived...well, let me just say that she’s added a lot of ‘colour’ to our lives.
I was on my fourth and most likely final perimeter check for the evening. I had just passed Twilight Sparkle’s doors when I felt an odd tingling at the base of my horn. I halted, concentrating on trying to identify it.
Powerful flows of mana were swirling around me, almost completely out of control. It took a powerful counter-spell of my own to neutralise the errant cloud of magic in the air, giving me a chance to see where the source was leaking from.
My ears twitched and swivelled automatically as I tried to find the source. Every unicorn had a different way of ‘feeling’ magic. To some it was like a hum in the air, to others it thrummed like a tuned guitar. To me, I could hear the rustling of their magic as it brushed against the ambient air around me.
With a deep frown and a pang of worry, I swung around as I realised the magic was coming from Twilight’s chambers. Thorn or not, if somepony was attacking her I would beat them to within an inch of their life. Nopony hurts a colt or filly in my presence.
My magic slammed against the doors, the hinges creaking as they were almost ripped free from the force. My heart beat quickened, eyes widening slightly as the sight waiting for me pushed me into full on solder-mode.
Flames enveloped the entire chamber. Almost every inch was being devoured by an arcane purple fire. My lips curled into a snarl. What devious and sick creature would try to burn a filly to death?
With a roar and rearing my front hooves, my horn flared up into a magnificent corona. In seconds the blaze was sucked into a small ball near the tip of my horn before a counter-spell negated its existence entirely.
I stamped back down onto the ground, taking a deep breath before letting it out through my nose slowly. Even though my demeanor was calm, my heart pounded in my chest with rage towards whatever would-be assassin.
The sound of a small filly crying snapped me away from my rage. The scowl on my face faded away into a worrisome look.
I carefully made my way over to the bed to find Twilight Sparkle trembling and sobbing. Her fur was matted on her cheeks as the tears spilled from her panic-stricken eyes.
I levitated my helmet off to the side of her bed, trying to take on as sympathetic look as I could muster. “Shh...it’s okay, Twilight,” I tried to coo, which I admit I’m probably not very good at. “Nopony’s going to hurt you. The bad pony is gone now…”
At the very least, Twilight didn’t seem to be shying away from me. She sniffled a few times, her wide (and admittedly adorable) eyes riveted to me. “B - but...th - there was no bad pony…”
This made me pause. If there wasn’t someone or somepony that did this, then what happened? I came up to the side of Twilight’s still-smoking bed. A few cantrips snuffed out any remaining embers. “Who did this, Twilight?” I asked, gently sitting myself on the edge.
The filly looked away, before more tears welled in her eyes and she hiccupped a sob.
My own eyes went wide with a momentary worry. I removed the armoured plating from my front hooves, setting them next to the helmet, and reached out to her. “Hey now, I’m not going to hurt you. What’s wrong?”
She sniffed again, weakly wiping away at her cheeks. “P - promise you won’t be mad?”
“I promise I won’t be mad.” Of course I wouldn’t be angry. How in the stars’ name could I be angry at such an adorable face? I couldn’t care less how many times she’s breached security in the past or gotten away scot-free. Right now Twilight was a terrified filly who was almost burnt to death.
“It…” Twilight squeaked, before burying her face into the sheets. “...it was me…”
...And then I realised why I aptly named her the purple terror. Of course she started the fire.
The sound of her crying softly pulled me away from that train of thought. “Hey now, it’s okay. I’m sure it was an accident.” At least, I hoped it was an accident.
“I - I was dreaming about th - the Princess being attacked so I - I just threw fire at the bad pony!” Twilight managed to say between sobs. I gently pulled the filly into a hug, still trying to coo softly to calm her down. “I - I woke up and the curtains were on fire.”
Twilight broke out into a loud bawling again. Mentally, I rolled my eyes, but continued to hold her in a gentle hug. Her tiny little legs clung around my neck, giving me an odd sense of wanting to protect her even more.
It still boiled down to the fact that Twilight had set her curtains on fire. I have to commend her sense of duty towards the Princess, even if she was asleep at the time.
“Easy now, Twilight. There’s no bad pony, it was just a dream.” I felt very awkward as I gently stroked her mane trying to get her to calm down. It seemed to be working as her sobs eventually quieted down. She still clung tightly to me.
I had to admit...It felt a little endearing. I never had any plans for foals but now…? Who knows, maybe I could tolerate a little me running around.
“Miss?” I heard Twilight ask as she looked up to me.
“Yes, Twilight?”
“Do you protect the Princess from the bad ponies?” she asked. Her eyes with wide with curiosity.
I fought back the smirk that nearly spread across my lips, before nodding. “Yeah, I protect her from the bad ponies. All of the Royal Guard do.”
“Will you protect me, too?” she asked again. Those large eyes bore into me. As much of a thorn as she was, at least she was an adorable little thorn. One who probably could weaponize her cuteness if she really wanted to.
I cracked a smile. I could feel the warmth spreading through me - a genuine joy. “Of course, Twilight. I won’t let anything bad happen to you.”
She hugged me again before sliding back under her sheets. “What’s your name, miss?”
“Captain Leaf Brambles,” I answered. A flick of my magic tucked the sheets in around her. I would hate to move her right now. Perhaps I’ll wait for her to sleep before getting one of the night staff to help move her to a clean room.
“That’s a nice name.”
I nodded silently, not really in agreement but rather in acknowledgement of her statement. I never put thought into my name - I never had a need to.
“Could you tell me a bedtime story?”
I froze, my eyes locking wide as I stared at the wall for a moment. My smile turned into a nervous one as I chose my words carefully. “I’m sorry, Twilight, I don’t actually know any.”
“‘S okay,” she mumbled while closing her eyes. “The bad ponies will stay away with you here.”
I watched for a few moments more before carefully removing myself from her bed, putting my helmet and hoof-plating back on. Making sure she was asleep, I smiled again.
I turned to leave the room, before stopping dead in my tracks, the sense of panic and worry spiking up in me again. In all her regal magnificence, Princess Celestia stood by the door watching with a faint smile on her face.
‘Oh crumbs…’ I mentally swore to myself.
“How long?” I mouthed to her. How long had she been standing there? Watching us? Watching me?
Her smile grew knowingly, before she turned and left.
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you could have made it even more adorable if you got Twilight to try and get Leaf to sing Twi a lullaby, or even get Twi to hold Leaf's hoof or something, and have Leaf try and escape (or even fail to escape and have her wake up with all the guards from the paragon watching her).
but otherwise it was a good little chapter.
Dang it, I need to stop reading so many cute stories/chapters.
I think my heart has ascended into a spiritual form due to how many times it's melted.
Wow them guards sure are soft. I would have put out the fire and said be more careful next time.
What a nice cute chapter :)
Ahh, so cute~
Twilight has the entire Paragon wrapped around her little purpley hooves huh.
Thanks for not crediting me for editing.
And for not informing me that you were publishing more chapters.
6521306 I'm so so so sorry for not putting your name there >_<
I'm not sure how it slipped my mind like that. I'll be fixing this post-haste.
6522660
It's cool; I was in a foul mood last night. On the inside, I figured it was just a slip.
Dang! Why dose this chapter have to be so cute.
Please say there are more chapters coming.
Also.....
I know we have a Posh English pony but, we all know the counter to a posh person. An English CHAV or Scottish NED. Would be kind of hard for you to wright (if your not from Britain and are not used to our native slang) but also hilarious to read *one point if your going to try. English root, you will have a small amount of normal full sentences and the other half containing being more slangy and containing 1+ swear word. For Scottish 1+ every sentence, almost, and 99% of what we say is very cut down and slangy. Suggest watching a few videos on Glasgow to help with Scotland and London for England*
6557503
I'm glad you liked it, thank you very much!
Although...I think you might be missing something. Leaf Brambles has the same accent as Gordon Ramsay, which I know is not a very posh accent.
I can't exactly include all the...colourful words he'd use because of the 'E' rating this story has.
So go and re-read Leaf's segments and just picture a female Gordon Ramsay
6558886
Just read the chapters again and....
Thank you and I hate you
You have the picture of a female pony Gordon Ramsay stuck in my head and anytime I see hike it's all I can think of. Well there goes kitchen nightmares and master chef for the rest of my life.
On one hand, I was planning to write basically this, but not.
On the other hand, I'm glad I didn't bother, because this is delightfully wonderful, comedic and cheery all at once. It's an interesting cast. More!