Now my dears, You may wonder how I deal with the omnipresent stress of being me. Ponies, gryphons and many others come to me with queries and questions all day. Most I see are opportunistic thieves garbed in the modest clothing of a noble asking for another object to temporarily quench their thirst for riches. To be perfectly honest with you they scare me slightly. Knowing that there are some in this world who are devoid of caring for others but themselves. But, in a growing society that is to be expected and so I never let my mask of indifference slip.

Years of this and other problems slowly take their toll on me and my so called everlasting patience. Yet, I do get some brief respite. Occasionally a weary traveler or farmer with nothing to give but pure honesty and determination seeks audience with me for guidance. If I can help them it makes the candle of my mind burn brighter for a while.

But sometimes that is not enough. Although I have lived many years and seen many things I still am, at heart a normal and functioning pony. Visiting friends (of which I have few) is a welcome break from the unrelenting responsibility of being a ruler. I love all creatures, whether pony or not but some have a special place in my heart.

But another thing I love doing is playing pranks. I know, surprising isn’t it? Perhaps not. Everyone has a guilty pleasure and apart from a delicious gâteau now and then, fooling the more gullible or teasing with fears is mine. So, this brings me to the crux of my story. Let me take you back to the day where the idea first came to my mind. It was a particularly troublesome day and I had just finished the last meeting I had scheduled...

As the light caramel tail of the gryphon I had just finished talking to disappeared behind the ivory doors leading to my throne I sighed and ever so slightly sagged. Just another problem. He wanted access to a particular stretch of ground to use for hunting. But this in turn would make any nearby ponies weary of the hunting gryphons. But the gryphons would become even more problematic if they weren't given access. It just kept going round in circles until they reached an impasse.

“Ready for the after court revitilizer, Princess?” Asked the unicorn guard standing next to my throne.

I looked towards his sympathetic smile and responded with one of my own. He had suffered through the same long hours I had and his comforting visage was enough to bring me out of my small pit of depression.

“Yes please, two slices of a victoria sponge cake on two plates would be nice.” I replied, straightening myself up.

“Expecting company my Princess?” The guard questioned me.

“Something like that yes” I vaguely replied.

“If you would excuse me I’ll go and oversee the preparations” He said.

I nodded and he took this as a time to leave. A good thing about being a princess was the unquestionable loyalty I had gained from my guard. You can scare or force them into obedience but kindness and loyalty of others is gained.

After only a few minutes the guard who I had sent returned with the tray of delicacies held in his magical grip. he looked around for a second and gave me an amusingly confused face.

“Who is to be your company, Princess?”

“I think you know” I replied. I conjured a small table and two chairs, one much larger than the other into the space between us (Discord is not the only one who can create objects from empty air) “Please sit” I gestured to the smaller chair while gently taking the tray full of cake from his grasp and gently setting it on the table.

As expected, the guard began stammering something about not being worthy and how he didn’t want to offend me. I let this continue for a bit (Just for a bit of fun). Finally, I raised a alabaster white hoof and he immediately was silent.

“Don’t have any misconceptions about what I am trying to do, you stood by my side in that frankly torturous spectacle and did not complain once. You have probably heard the saying Under every guard there is a good pony, the same applies to me. At heart, I am no different from any other. So please,sit.” I said in my most comforting voice.

He still looked unsure. So I decided to help him along. I repressed my magical aura and buried it deep inside myself. I guessed it was my unnatural size that could be intimidating him, so I made myself a bit more approachable. I could feel my body shrinking as my wings dissolved into my back. My mane stopped flowing and lost its colour as it fell down onto my face, now a virulent shade of purple. My horn also shrunk but didn’t disappear. My transformation complete, I moved my mane out of my eyes and shrunk the chair I was sitting in until it suited my new size.

I looked back at the guard, he was now looking at me with curiosity and more than a little bit of horror. “See? I am now no more than you. So please, sit” I repeated.

This must have broken the guard away from his stupor and he slowly approached me and sat opposite. It didn’t look like he was going to talk so I started off the conversation.

“What is your name my dear? I can’t really go on knowing you as guard now can I?” I queried while using a fork held in my magical grasp to spear a small chunk of the attractive victoria sponge in front of me.

“S-Senton Aurorae” He stammered, still in disbelief about where he was.

I raised an eyebrow.”An interesting name.” I pondered.

I noticed he had not touched his cake. “Is it not to your liking?” I asked motioning towards the cake.

Senton quickly replied “N-No it is it’s just that um...”

It did make me inwardly chuckle, how the guards were all warm and confident ponies until taken out of their comfort zones.

“Do not worry, please eat” I said.

Not wanting to disappoint me, Senton took up a fork and speared himself a piece of cake from his slice. I waited until he had finished eating until I asked my next question.,

“So, Senton. Tell me why did you join the guards…”

I shall skip over the rest of that conversation for time. To summarize, Senton grew a bit more confident and stopped stuttering after a while and we had ourselves a marvelous time eating cake and chatting together. It is rare I can do things such as this and I will take every opportunity.

But you may be asking “why do we need to know who Senton is?”. Do not worry, he will be a vital part of the story later on but now we go to when I had said farewell to Senton and prepared to meet my sister Luna.

As I finished stacking up some papers in the hall where my day court had taken place, I felt a slight but unmistakable presence behind me.

“Hello my sister” I said warmly turning around to see the dark body of my younger sibling. ( to clarify, I had now returned to my normal size)

Luna merely grumbled a reply vaguely akin to a hello. I noticed she looked tired and worn out. There were bags under her eyes and small twigs in her starry mane. She looked like she was about to fall asleep

“Luna?” I questioned.

She snapped awake “Yes, what is it” She asked.

“What happened, are you hurt? Who did this to you?” I asked. (To be honest I was very overprotective of Luna on occasions.)

“Hm? Oh yes. Unfortunately there were many bad dreams stalking the night yesterday. It took thee a long time but I eradicated them quickly enough. However I didn't get as much sleep as I would like”

“Any reason for them?” I asked

“Yes, I had forgotten prithee that spider eggs all over Equestria are hatching. Many are having some difficulties with them. It is a shame that so many fear them, I believe they are beautiful creatures”

“Yes they are, but you can’t blame ponies for fearing them. Many have irrational fears.” I said as I used my magic to comb her mane clean of all the debris that had collected there.

“I know,Tia.”(Yes, we are a bit more informal towards one another when alone).” But I did find something interesting,I saw Loyalty suffering from one of the nightmares.

“Really?” I asked. Honestly, I was surprised. Rainbow Dash gave a very good impression of being fearless.

“Yes...Rainbow Dash was being chased by a limpond redback of massive proportions and was unable to use her wings and speed to escape.” Luna replied.

I stopped combing through Luna’s mane. She looked back up at me. “Problem?”

“No,no there isn't. Well I must bid you goodnight sister” I said as I gave her a quick hug and swiftly exited. Luna was probably a bit confused about my sudden exit but didn't say anything. What she didn't realize was that I had now found the perfect way to alleviate a bit of stress. And I knew exactly who could help me. Returning to my quarters I quickly wrote a missive and gave it to the nearest of the castle staff asking them to deliver it to a certain Mr Senton Aurorae. I had a niggling feeling this was going to be very worthwhile in the long run...

Author's Note

I will continue this. But I've been away from writing for a while due to illness so this is just a bit of warming up. Have an awesome day everyone!