Regal Regrets

by Mewrilah

Restless Nights

The dead of night, a sight you are all too familiar with as you stare over the wall surrounding the castle, shades of blue cascading down upon the small village just west of the fortress you guard. A spear clenched tightly in one hoof, you raise a telescope up to your eye, balancing yourself with the cold metallic rod as you stare out into the distance…

No sign of any trouble…. You confirm to yourself, lowering the weapon and continuing your patrol, moving down the walkway atop this massive wall as you occasionally glance towards the vast scene besides you. Any movement you detect being only that of a small animal or bird running across the landscape and towards whatever unknown destination it may be trying to reach.

As you continue your patrol, your tedious job often times leads your mind to wander to other places… A terrible thing for a soldier to do, but something you did to pass the time. Night watch was usually a boring slog. Most creatures, few and far between, were often times the non-threatening types you had just seen. A small bird or rodent passing over a field of grass, darting from one bush to another or just leaving the nearby trees and taking to the skies like any average pegasus.

With that, you take a seat and use the open meadows as a sheet for all of your thoughts. You lean your weapon against your body, it’s golden rod and sharpened end gleaming in the moonlight and reflecting some of the puffy blue clouds in the horizon.

Staring out at the open field, you see different scenarios play out. A changeling invasion where you battle against wave after wave of insect like beings, Timberwolves charging like mad animals as their wooden heads pound against the cobblestone walls, and many others play out in your mind. Throughout each of these battles, however, one thing is certain… You are declared a hero as Ponies from all over Equestria rejoice your victories and shout your name loud enough for ponies in Manehatten to hear.

Among the celebrating are ponies such as the Elements of Harmony, stallions of different sizes and appearances, and even the Princesses themselves as they bestow upon you medals and honors of high regards. One in particular runs up to you with her forelegs stretched out wide, spreading her wings as she envelopes you in a hug and takes to the skies. Her radiant blue eyes are soft as she whispers to you, “Congratulations, Royal Guard” and places her lips around yours.

Your eyes shoot wide open at the gesture as you wrap your own forelegs around her curvaceous form, blushing violently as you return her kiss with your own, moving in closer to her as your wings spread open-

“You!” shouts a guard similar to stature as you, though slightly larger, catching you off guard as you fumble about with your weapon and salute him, your helmet apparently gone loose as the portion that should be covering your jawline now lazily droops over your eye. “Soldier, didn’t you hear a word I just said to you?!”

You blush and bite your lower lip, fangs poking and threatening to tear into the skin. “I, uh…” you stammer, searching for the correct words to address this… You notice the colors he’s wearing. Oh crap, a Captain! “No sir…” You squeamishly reply, sinking into yourself in embarrassment while the Captain looks at you with an expression of both raging anger and disappointment.

“You are relieved of your duties tonight, Soldier…” the Captain tells you as he shuts his eyes and shakes his head, “Truth be told, your shift ended about two hours ago.”

Sensing his disappointment, you fire off a salute to your commanding officer. Spear at the ready as it leans against your body while you straighten out your helmet to reveal more of your face. The act isn’t even so much as met with the same salute, and as you begin to move in disgrace towards one of the corner towers of the wall, your commanding officer extends a leathery wing in front of you, blocking you from proceeding further.

“Understand this, Soldier…” He begins, catching your attention as you turn to face him and are met with peering, glowing golden eyes. “You’re lucky your dozing off was caught off duty, otherwise I’d be putting in a report right now to have you transferred to guarding duty of The Princess’ Nephew, Prince Blueblood!”

A shiver runs down your spine at the thought of having to escort that royal twit anywhere. Well known throughout the Royal Guard, being Prince Blueblood’s personal guard was seen as a mark of shame and downright embarrassment. Often times it was seen as the point of no return, where you were either used by the royal flush as a personal chauffeur, a bodyguard he used against those whom he wished to either impress or show off, like some amazing or flamboyant pet, or as a butler ordered to fetch him something because it was too hard for The Great and Powerful Prince Blueblood to retrieve himself.

You gulp a bit of vomit down your throat, the message well received as you go pale, a reaction that is quickly taken notice of by your Captain. He looks as though he suppresses a chuckle and adds on, “Keep your guard up, or I’ll send your guard down…” and lowers his wing, still peering at you as you offer another salute and nervous smile. You go along your way into the blackened castle, thankful to simply be let off with a warning this time.

Travelling down the corridors, however, you begin to think to yourself about the Captain’s words. Not the way he phrased it, which sounded much more like a threat than a warning, but their overall meaning. It’s true. Over the past few weeks, your mind has been wandering to different places, constantly trying to distract both itself and you from what had transpired between you and the Princess of the Night herself. As you trot past her room, a smile crosses your face as you think back to when things weren’t nearly as bad. You were a tad bit younger, probably by about a few years, when you first met her. You had just enlisted into the Royal Guard when the two of you first met… face to face that is…

Princess Luna was no stranger to media attention at the time, which was almost immediately after her return to ruling alongside her sister, Princess Celestia. As you were new at the time, the position to act as her Royal Escort was entrusted to you. You had no objections to it, as such an honor bestowed upon you was something met with the cheerful squeeing of your mother and slaps on the sides from your father, and the cheerful cries of your village as they all welcomed you home, inspired to see that a Bat Pony was once again in the eyes of the mainstream again.

Something to that extent anyways… such titles no longer mattered to you soon after you and the Princess began speaking to one another.

Small inquiry's about what had transpired during her absences from throne were what Luna and your conversations usually fell upon. It was understandable, seeing as how part of the title “Royal Escort” usually involved partaking in these discussions. Later on, however, things quickly began to develop, blossoming into a friendship when Luna returned from Ponyville after the celebration of Nightmare Night. Unable to attend with her due to celebrations of your own, two other guards were sent to escort her to the small town. When Luna returned the following day, you found that she was more open and easy going than before, even proving herself to be quite the comedian around others.

One of her jokes immediately pops into your mind as you chuckle a bit, your gaze remaining on her door the entire time and lingering on for a bit. The smile that crosses your lips doesn’t remain for long and quickly fades, along with the rest of your sudden energy as your gaze meets the ground and your expression turns to that of sadness. Those were the good old days… You think to yourself with a small huff of breath, shaking your head of the thoughts and continuing on down the long corridor.

As you reach the barracks, you’re unsurprised to see the sun beginning to expose itself upon the horizon, it’s golden beams shooting out in every direction as it slowly brightens up the skies and pushes back the moon. A yawn escapes your lips as you watch this with heavy eyelids. It’s often times like these you begin to wonder what your life would be were you not a nocturnal creature, but rather a daywalker. These ideas never last too long or even come to mind that often, but when they do, they’re interesting thoughts for you to close your eyes to and help lull you to sleep.

When you reach your cot, you instantly begin to remove your armor. Starting with your helmet, you effortlessly remove the piece from your head, with the assistance of your wings, before throwing off your hoof guards. Once done, you move onto the more difficult portion; removing the torso piece. A series of unlacing material and ropes that hugs the armor piece against your body later, and you remove the heavy armor piece with quite a bit more effort, all the while, metallic clinks and clanks of the plating of your armor causing other Bat Ponies to become irate with you and demanding that you keep the noise down.

All of that done, you finally manage to lay your head against the cot’s pillow, thin from use of a period of years, but still comfortable enough to do the trick. As you look up at the white ceiling, your thoughts go in every direction. Firstly it's with the Captain, then your fantasies… of being proclaimed a hero!

And then finally Luna. “Luna…” you breath out before shutting your eyes and turning your head to the side, being teleported to the realm of dream…

---

For as much as you’d like to say your dreams are of even more countless battles, such is not the case now. In your dream now, you imagine yourself on the golden sands of a tropical beach, a pair of glasses protecting your photosensitive eyes as you look upon the shimmering crystal blue seas, seated in a beach chair. Dully, you lift your arm and raise a fresh mango to your face, sink your teeth into the juicy, sweet flesh, savoring each bite at your leisure. This was actually a nice change of pace, allowing your mind to wander like it did on your previous shift.

Before you never really focused on life outside your job. It all revolved around being a guard. Since you worked so hard to get to this position, enduring the training academy, studying hard for entrance exams, you didn’t want to make any mistakes that would squander it all. It was actually because you were at the top of your class along with the timing of Luna’s arrival, that you were picked to be her personal guard. It was through protecting her that you let your guard down.

You let out a sigh as another wave rolls in. You’ve been thinking a lot about her recently. When you were discharged, you thought you lost your job, but it was simply a transfer. You knew the reasons behind the relocation, but you were just glad you didn’t get kicked out of the Night Guard. You had been at the castle walls for a few years now, and through that time, became apathetic. This was nothing like guarding the Princess, namely in the sense that there was nothing TO guard.

With the Elements of Harmony defeating most major threats, the only usefulness guards like you provided were if there was a mass invasion. Even then, the threat would probably have to be blatantly clear considering the fiasco that was Princess Cadance’s wedding. If you weren’t asleep at the time - no need to dwell on what could have been.

With the Mango finished, you indulge yourself further by sinking your fangs deep into it’s core, sucking out whatever juices still laid inside the imaginary fruit before haphazardly tossing it away into the ocean. You lick your lips before continuing your surveying of the landscape, no thoughts coming to your mind aside from admiration for the gorgeous landscape. If such a place ever truly existed, with its cool air, salty scent, and warm temperature, you could imagine yourself easily fitting into a scene such as this.

Before long, at least with respect to your dream, your sense of adventure begins to kick in. Usually you reserved this for dreams of grand scale battles, however here your curiosity begins to grow as you survey the surrounding area. It’s foreign to you and demands your attention. To your right you see nothing except the same sandy ground with fresh and green palm trees, and to your left you see much of the same. It'd probably take too long for you to walk either side around the entirety of wherever you dream placed you, and would probably yield no results for the better of judging your location.

Your wings flap a bit, and before long, your attention turns towards the skies. Maybe that's the better option... you think to yourself.

Naturally you take your third option and speed up towards the sky. As you hover high above, you discover the island you're on isn't very large, probably no larger than a few miles all around. What’s interesting, however, is that what takes up most of the island itself is a courtyard and toward, both of which are circular in shape and have an ancient look to them, draped in mossy, sickly fauna and weathered from years of exposure to the ocean. From where you were located, seeing such a place would be next to impossible… yet if you were to move down the left side of the island, it would eventually result in you coming face to face with an old worn path.

Curiosity soon takes over as you are drawn to the courtyard of this ancient place. As you descend down back towards the ground, you find yourself heading towards the courtyard. Upon landing, you take a bit of time to admire this place. For as abandoned and forgotten as this place is, even in a dream state, you can see just how magnificent this place must’ve been in it’s prime. Browns and greens took refuge in the cracks and lines in between bricks, adjacent pony sized rectangular archways lead into the structure’s walls.

The grey floor beneath you was made of cobblestone, dead leaves from long ago blanket the ground while fresh green weeds sprout in between the spaces between each stone and join with the newly sprouting patches of grass. You were thankful to find that here, the stones were cool, as oppose to the burning heat of the sand back down the hill and on the beach.

Further investigation of these surrounding buildings would be a priority later. For now, you move further on down the trail, your attention on the enormous circular structure of the courtyard that you had seen before. As you move closer towards it, you notice that the day begins to transition to night rather quickly, appearing from almost seemingly thin air as you reach the entrance of this place.

As you reach the entrance, you are unsurprised to see that inside it’s almost pitch black, save for the illumination of a dull blue that shines through two rectangular holes cut through the back walls. You squint a bit before blinking a few times, your nocturnal vision finally coming back to you as you are able to see deep into the darkness.

Moving inside, you investigate your surroundings. Nothing interesting could be seen in this place except for a spiraling staircase up that wound up from here to the top, where presumably there would be an entrance to the top of this tower…

It doesn’t take much for you to levitate right to the top of this place. The beating of your leathery wings echoes around you as you continue upwards, the shadow you reflect against the walls giving you the appearance of a monster and the accompanying sound accentuates it. You scare yourself as you see your own silhouette before shaking your head, forcing yourself to ignore it as you turn your head upwards, where the dark blue of the sky cascades down the tower’s staircase.

As you reach the top, you land on the stairs leading towards a wooden door. It’s shape is rounded at the top, yet flat at the base like most other doors of it’s time, encased in stone while a ring of iron hangs loosely from the middle right hoof side of it’s face. Presumably this means you have reached the top of the tower, and as you open the door, you are surprised not to see yourself on top of a stone brick structure, but rather a room that vaguely resembles a study.

To one end of this place stands a small fireplace, a deep blue roof looking over the fire to help radiate heat throughout the rest of the room. Said fire had seemingly already been lit, and even in this dream, you can feel it’s comforting warmth radiate against your skin and face.In front of this fire lays a large purple and black carpet with a large black pillow, each end of it bearing a white crescent moon against a similar black background.

You notice a desk off to the side. It has the standard contents such as quills and paper, but what catches your interest is a heavy, time-worn book. While ancient looking, it is by no means unused. Next to it there is a fresh jar of ink and official looking quill to its side, unlike any other you’ve ever seen. Looking over the cover you see an all too familiar symbol. The flapping of wings behind you ceases the thought of opening the tome.

“It’s about time you showed up.”

Author's Note:

Here's an idea of the "island" you find in your dreams.

Comments

[TwilightnDash]

00000000000000000h
good, good.

[Lazydrill]

This felt odly relatable.