Blue Moon stood at his post, unflinching, still as a statue. The only way to tell him apart from a stone duplicate was his sky blue coat and purple/ black streaked mane. He blinked his brown eyes as a fellow guard walked by, nodding respectfully as he passed. He then returned to his former stance, staring at the same spot on the opposite wall that consumed his attention once more.
"Blue Moon?", a voice called out his name, sending chills down his spine. He spun in place and saluted, the sea-green eyes of Princess Luna staring back at him. Her star-filled mane flowed, a nonexistent breeze causing it to ripple as she continued to look over her personal guard.
"Follow, Sergeant Blue Moon of the Night Guard", her voice was calm as she turned and started down the corridor, leaving the guard to close the door to her bedchambers, a white aura enveloped his horn as he did so. He then turned to follow the Princess of the Night.
The two of them walked through the castle, Luna in the lead with Blue Moon close behind, his eyes trained on nothing in particular. Suddenly the Princess spoke up, "Blue Moon, do you enjoy the night?", the alicorn turned her head to glance at the guard over her shoulder, a tiny smile graced her lips.
Blue Moon thought for a moment before answering, "Why, yes your majesty", his answer was short and formal. Being a royal guard meant that he really wasn't supposed to have an opinion, being that it might influence his judgement.
"What about my night do you find admirable?"
Now the blue unicorn was worried, "have I done something wrong?", his mind raced to find a suitable answer to the princess's question.
"The moonlight has always, ah, comforted me, Princess", his face remaining stoic from months of training. Although behind his disguise, his mind was in a panicked frenzy, "Why is she asking me this, it's highly against regulation!".
The Princess of the Night stifled a small bout of laughter at the guard and turned once again to her guard, "At ease soldier, you need not worry of consequences. I just thought that", she hesitated for a second as if choosing her words carefully, "I might get some fresh air". She quickened her pace to a slow trot as they reached the castle gardens. Tall hedges marked the entrance to the maze and statues of ponies were placed in seemingly random positions, each in different poses of grace and beauty.
"These statues were once ponies that were... Familiar to Celestia and myself, some were great friends, others were simply artists and inventors who contributed greatly to Equestrian society", she turned once again to her guard, "Care to enter the maze with me Blue Moon?", a spark of starlight shining in her eyes.
"Yes, my Princess, it is my duty to-", he was silenced as a sigh escaped the alicorn's lips, "Blue Moon you need not follow me if it is not what you desire, I am giving you a choice", she looked at him with sympathetic eyes, "I was banished for a thousand years to the desolate surface of the moon. When I returned and was purged of darkness, I noticed that my traditions had passed on and so it was required of me to... well... Let them go and try and adapt to the new world that I called my own", she sighed once more and glanced over at the maze entrance before turning back to the guard, "So I will ask you again, Blue Moon. Would you like to accompany me?".
The guard took a deep breath and looked down at the grass beneath his hooves, a grin finding it's way onto his face, "I- I guess that I could come with you. On my own accord of course".
The princess smiled, a warm sight to behold in the cool of the night, "Then follow Blue, may I call you that? As a... As a friend?"
The Princess led Blue Moon through a series of twists and turns, taking them deeper into the maze. The guard noticed that Luna had livened up quite a bit, trotting around almost as if she were a filly exploring the bushes in her backyard. Of course in her perspective, the castle garden technically was her backyard. He smiled to himself as she bounded back and forth in the hedges, all the while watching to make sure that the Princess didn't wander too far ahead.
Suddenly a fit of giggling erupted from the bushes beside him and a dark blue hoof tapped Blue Moon lightly on his shoulder, before retreating back into the bush.
"Tag! You're it!", the Princess' delighted voice called from the hedge beside the guard.
The guard stopped, a bit confused on what to do at first, "Isn't this a game for little fillies?", the princess's voice called to him from the bushes, interrupting his thoughts. He grinned, dropping his bulky armor and jumping through the bushes to his right. throwing all formalities to the wind, "Ready or not, Here I Come!".
Blue Moon fell through the wall of vegetation, barreling into the princess, knocking them both to the ground. They rolled a few feet together before Luna smirked and flashed away in a spark of blue light.
"Going to try harder than that, Blue", the princess's voice seemed to come from everywhere at once, leaving the unicorn in question to turn aimlessly in circles as he tried to find the source of the voice.
Then Blue Moon remembered a spell, taught to him in the first days of hoofcamp, where he was trained to be a guard. "Okay, ready or not, here I come!".
He closed his eyes in concentration as he focused his magic on the spell, the glow from his horn glowing brightly until he heard the voice again, booming from all around him.
"I doubt you will find me, Blue. No matter how hard you look I will stay-".
The night guard's spell exploded in a ring of blue magic, spreading outwards and seemingly determined to find the true source of the voice. It lashed out and Luna gasped in surprise as the guard was immediately teleported into her , once again throwing them to the ground. This time Blue Moon stood over Luna, panting at the effort of the spell, "Found... pant* pant*... you", he answered simply.
Luna struggled underneath him, trying in vain to push him off. Finally, an idea crossed her mind she looked up at him and lowered her eyes slightly, lightly running a hoof down his foreleg, "You know ,Blue, even for a guard, you are in excellent physical condition", she fought back a laugh as the blue unicorn tensed at her touch, "Well, I didn't- I mean- It wasn't... Uh...", his stammering reply finally broke Luna's struggle to maintain a straight face, and she flopped over in the grass, laughing uncontrollably before sitting back up and smirking at Blue Moon, "This time no magic", and in another flash of light, she was gone. Leaving Blue Moon to stare at the spot she had just been in, his mind was trying to recollect most of the most vital memories from it's princess-related meltdown.
What just happened?
Luna stifled another giggle as she watched the guard patrol right past her for the hundredth time in a row. He was undoubtedly lost, nopony walked in circles that many times in a maze.
She thought as she watched for his one hundred and first round of his seemingly endless route through the hedges. What did Blue Moon really mean to her? She saw him every day and he was almost always close to her side, although, it is his job as her royal guard. But then, back in that moment, lying under his sturdy frame, her mind had been flooded with a warm feeling, and a shiver had run down her spine. Nothing like that had happened before. She kind of got the warm feeling when being around her Ponyville friends, or around Celestia, but never with anypony like Blue Moon. Also, the idea of how to get him to move was... Strange. She realized that she could've just told the guard and he would've moved by himself.
Then she realized that she hadn't seen him walk back around his hedge again.
Has he wandered off, deeper into the maze?
She stepped out of the bushes she was hiding in and looked around for his blue coat.
She was halfway down a particularly long path in the maze when she was suddenly tackled by a pair of unseen hooves.
"Hah! Now it's your turn to look for me!", the blue satllion standing over her once again laughed to himself as he watched Luna slowly try to calm down from her panic attack. "That wasn't too much was it?", his face formed a small concerned frown when he realized that Luna wasn't calming down. Her eyes were wide and her breathing came in quick shallow pants, "A- Are you alright?".
"Y-yes Blue Moon I am fine", she gave him a nudge and he backed up a few paces to give her space.
"Princess, er, Luna, is everything alright?", his eyes narrowed slightly, and he took a step forward, "i- if there is anything that I can do for you I still am a royal guard"
Luna smiled faintly, "No, it's just that I... Haven't had an experience like this in over a thousand years. I'm just so glad that somepony agreed to share it with me", she paused and then looked down at her hooves when she realized she was staring, "We are friends right?".
"Well, yes, I believe we are. Why?", the guard sat down on his haunches as he patiently awaited her response.
"Well... I... Nevermind, it is not important", a sly grin slowly reappeared on her face, a devious spark flashed in her sea-green eyes.
"Boop", she quickly darted forwards and tapped Blue Moon on the muzzle before turning and galloping off, her star-filled tail flying out behind her, "Got you again!", she called as she disappeared around another leafy corner in the maze.
The blue guard shook his head and called after her, "Hey, No fair!".
