The night Twilight Sparkle became a Princess, Swift Light cried herself to sleep. Now there was another barrier between Swift and her beloved. There’s no way a special pony like her would even look at a nopony like me, much less love me back, she thought. Besides, she’d think that I was only interested in her for her status as Princess, not for her as a mare. Even when Twilight had been ‘marely’ Princess Celestia’s protégé, she probably had more marriage prospects and love interests than she could count, all of them from ponies far more 'appropriate' than a mere guardpony. Now that she was a Princess, and the circle of acceptable partners has shrunk even more, she was hopelessly out of reach.

Swift Light had been a new recruit to the guard when she first saw Twilight. So beautiful, so divine, so lucky. A cream colored Pegasus, she was the first mare in her family to make it into the Royal Guard. The day her unit was presented to Princess Celestia for review was the first day she saw her. One look and Swift Light knew that there was room in her heart for nopony else. Not even bedding the other filly foolers on the guard could get her mind off of Twilight.

She worked her tail to the bone, eventually landing her dream position as an endurance flyer for the Information Service. She could travel all over Equestria, delivering critical communications to far off locales. She had seen Manehatten, Apple-loosa, even the Crystal Empire. But her mind always came back to Canterlot and the beautiful, wonderful, utterly unattainable Princess who owned her heart.

“Hey, Swiftie,” said Ambush. She and Open Order had swung by the Skydancer, a tavern popular among the guards, to pick up Swift Light. “Come on. I scored a case of Apple Family cider and we’re going back to the barracks to play some drinking games.”

“How’d you pull that off?” asked Swift. Apple family cider was hard to get a hold of here in Canterlot. Swift wondered who Ambush had to murder to get a whole case’s worth.

“Open Order slept with the general’s daughter,” Ambush explained.

“Funny thing is, I’ve been trying to boink her for months,” said Open Order. “I was on the verge of paying her for the privilege. So not only does she come to me first, but when I told her I wanted the cider in return for acquiescing to her request, it’s like I got rewarded twice for doing a favor I would have done for free.”

“I’m not in the mood right now,” said Swift. She had been feeling particularly down lately. She seemed to run into Twilight everywhere lately. The Skydancer seemed to be the only place Twilight might not come.

“Come on,” said Ambush. “We need an even number of ponies. If you don’t, I’ll tell everyone whose name you were moaning the last time we made love.”

“You wouldn’t dare,” Swift said. Ambush grinned mischievously. “Fine. I’ll go.” There was no way she could afford to let the others know she was in love with Twilight Sparkle. She’d never hear the end of it.

As they left, one of the stallions said to them, “You ladies looking for someone to keep you company tonight?”

“Sorry,” said Ambush. “But we’re filly foolers.” To drive her point home, she kissed Swift, right then and there. To Swift’s eternal horror, who should walk in at that exact moment but Twilight Sparkle? Swift never got to find out what Twilight was doing there, slumming among the soldiers, for when Ambush broke off the kiss, she dragged Swift out of the tavern. No! she screamed inside. Not when I'm so close! She could feel fate laughing at her.

Twilight couldn’t believe her eyes. There was her special somepony, there at the Skydancer! And she was kissing another mare! She did have other partners. Twilight wouldn't normally go to a guardpony hangout, but AJ had told her to do a little ‘slumming,’ as she called it, to help cheer her up. Twilight couldn’t tell her why she was feeling so morose. AJ wouldn’t understand what it was like to want the one thing you couldn’t possibly have more than anything in the universe.

But of all the places that she could have gone, why did she have to go to the same place as the mare of her dreams? Why did fate have to taunt her like this? In an instant, the mare was gone, dragged out of the tavern by the other mares. Who knew if there would ever be another opportunity for them to be this close?

Twilight had first seen the mare a few years earlier, when Princess Celestia took her to review a new unit of guardponies. A cream colored pony caught her eye and it was love at first sight. There was no real reason why she would stand out, but she, she, would steal Twilight’s heart and refuse to give it back. Her duties and later life in Ponyville would prevent her from meeting the mare of her dreams. Twilight considered herself lucky she was able to find out the mare’s name and repeated it to herself often, to help keep the image of her beloved sharp in her mind. Swift Light, Swift Light, Swift Light.

Several days later, standing on a balcony, Twilight looked down at the guardpony she loved. Swift Light, she thought. A perfect name for a perfect mare. She looked so beautiful in her armor, the way the sunlight glinted off the burnished metal, the way it showed off her cute flanks. I can have anything I want, she thought, except for the one pony I actually want.

There’s no way a special pony like her would want somepony like me. She’d only think I was toying with her, leading her on, only to dump her when somepony ‘appropriate’ came along. Twilight couldn’t hurt another pony like that, but would her beloved know that? The mare had at least one other partner. She probably has more options than she could shake her tail at. Anypony would be lucky to have one of Equestria’s elite guards as their Super Special Somepony. Unfortunately, anypony seemed to exclude her. And now that she was a Princess, fate mocked her again, for who would approve of her having a love affair with a guardpony?

Twilight watched as the guardpony took a messenger bag from a fellow guard, salute the other pony, and take off. Twilight watched her beloved fly off into the sunset. When would she come back? What stories would she have to tell? Why did such a wonderful, beautiful and elusive pony have to steal her heart and leave her bereft?

That night, Twilight went to her room and cried herself to sleep.

Author's Note

I don't know why, but I'm a sucker for mutually unrequited love.