Ms. Glimmer and the Do-Nothing Prince

by scifipony

27 — Public Nightmares Part I: Morning After

Day 600

You would have nightmares, too, if you knew the countdown to the end of the world.

I gasped awake, cringing. The green nightmare faded so quickly, only the drowning sensation of breathing liquid, floating in a world of deep green, remained.

Pony legs grasped me, fore and rear, pressing into flesh and impeding circulation where I lay upon them. Perhaps the ones hugging my rib cage had prompted the dream by restricting my breathing. His regular breath ruffled the fur on my neck. It helped that Blue-eyed's bed was soft and cushiony, and that I'd pushed pillows into pressure points. My stomach and flank were only medium plump compared to most mares. Thanks to my training, every other part of me was toned and hard, which made me less attractive. In Blue-eye'd case, every part of his warrior-trained body was hard—

I grinned. Not necessarily bad...

Except when your partner insisted on holding you in his sleep. Much plumper Sunset was a vastly superior bedmate in this respect, and at least she let me hold her. I did not sleep as well as I could have, despite the fuzzy nonsense feeling of being protected.

He didn't call anypony's name, not even mine, but I figured I slept with the ghost of Sharp Tongue or Dancing Water in his bed. I wondered which demanded being held, or whether both had. Then again, it could be the having loved-and-lost that made him clingy.

New rule: Don't remind your partner of his past filly-friends. I preferred that aspect of the previous night. We'd slept separated. More like fallen apart exhausted. Of course I'd not slept long with him—a half-hour I figured—which meant I'd not gotten the full sleeping-with-a-bedmate treatment.

As if I'd heard a sound, my eyes went to the crack between the draperies. Blue and a bit of orange. Now? I thought.

The sun team raised the sun. The surge in brightness moved so fast, it mimicked somepony shining a spotlight at the window.

With months attending classes at Celestia's, and weeks back on my early morning training and exercise routine, I'd developed an internal rhythm. After centuries, Celestia had one, too. When she had told me, "Sometimes, I sleep in," it was likely another psychological tactic.

I pulled free of the stallion's grasp. I shimmied away and slid backward until my hooves touched the rug. I backed out of the room until I stood in the doorway. Funny how all attitude and worry slipped from a pony's face when they slept.

Him. Sunset Shimmer.

Unless dreams disturbed them.

I smiled and rotated in the hall to face the great room.

I stopped at 90º, peering into the bathroom. Leaning against a travertine wall, blocking the view of a sink and a large tub behind, under blue tarnished bronze sconces that remained dark, in a room wanly lit by a blue skylight...

Periwinkle mane. Green eyes. Pink fur.

I flinched.

My reaction time from zero to cast exceeded a second. Had I been protecting Carne Asada from an earth pony or pegasus, I'd have a knife plunged into my heart to the hilt and my employer would die next. Singe was not an assassin. She was a unicorn, with a uniquely combustible name. Were she my assassin, I'd have found the oaken door and the doorframe blazing, and likely my mane catching fire.

My Shield appeared in a quarter arc in the silence between us like solidified blue-green smoke, scintillating with faintly popping sparkles. Her horn remained unlit.

She shouldered herself upright, then sketched the slightest of curtsies. "Ms. Glimmer."

"Good morning to you, too." I realized my heart raced. I put a hoof to my chest and felt it stutter.

She stated, "I protect the prince."

I nodded.

"I've done so for 10 years and I am his bodyguard."

I thought about her behavior during my knockdown fight with Brawler, then about our standoff at the townhouse. I saw hints of a long-standing working relationship. I said, "I am beginning to believe that's true."

"I won't let you hurt him."

"The other day, you let him fight—"

She surged forward, rearing, pressing her forehooves into the glowing apparition. Sparks flew and her horn had lit. Her hooves glowed dull red as she pushed forward; I felt pressure in the spell feedback. "He was playing with you." She shook her head. "You do not get to do the same with his heart."

"Or?"

Sparks sputtered off her hooves and blackened horseshoes. Our eyes met. We locked into a staring match. We both had to blink; physiology. Neither of us looked away.

The edge of her right hoof melted into my side of the shield. I smelled hot iron, felt oven heat, as cracks spread in the spell apparition.

"You love him," I stated. Hours before Firefall disappeared, she'd stated, You're getting emotionally involved. "You're envious."

She blinked, not looking away. A half-smile grew. "Not envious, but I do love him."

"I am not marrying him. I don't own him. I won't interfere if he chooses another." Would I not? I took a deep breath. Might depend if he excluded me, but I didn't know. No stallion had excluded me in favor of another, not yet.

Her tone lowered. "Your attitude is what I meant by not hurting him." Her hoof poked through near my muzzle and the hair on my nose started to crinkle.

"I don't intend to, but we're only ponies. I understand he is fragile." Aren't we talking about ourselves here, Singe? You and I? "I don't hurt ponies. I try not to, anyway. I certainly don't 'play' with them, unless they give me permission to hit them, or they hurt ponies I'm protecting."

She thought about it, then nodded. She stepped back and her horn dimmed. Her front hooves clicked on the tile. Anger left her face, but she watched me.

My Shield remained crazed like old pottery. With a hole in it! I dispelled it and smiled. "I think I like you." Nifty spell, too!

"Huh?"

I turned toward the great room, adding "Feel free to criticize me when I do something wrong or act stupid. I'm new to this friendship thing, almost as new as I am to the princess thing. Love?" I sighed, feeling my heart opening as I thought about her unabashed loyalty, that she might be mistaking as the L-word, but I respected it. "I won't learn something about myself, if you don't. Consider it a royal order."

She sputtered as she followed me.

I said, "You'd better keep your promise."

"Promise?"

"To protect the prince. He's now one of the ponies I protect. It won't end well if you don't."

Through the three-story windows to the south, I saw something I hadn't yesterday. It wasn't as if I hadn't seen drawings. I had learned about them when Carne Asada had admitted she had sold keels to the Prince of Storms from her cloaked operation in the Baltimare Ship Yard. The fight arena where I'd won my championship prizefight had a decade before been a dry dock for airships, so I understood the enormous scale.

"What's a navy airship doing floating near Canterlot?" No mistaking the outline of the Equestrian flag on the gas bag.

Comments

[Orangemann]

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[scifipony]

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