A Night Guard's Love

"Ah, Flare. Are you coming to our picnic today?" Rarity asked the yellow and crimson alicorn.

"You bet I am. Haven't gotten a chance to talk to everypony in a while." She answered. "Lead the way. I really need to get out more."

The two went to the edge of New Canterlot, where the rest of the Elements of Harmony waited.

"You know, Applejack. Your pie never changes how good it tastes. It's always like it's new." Fluttershy commented.

"I'm going to say, 'I agree,' because that makes the story sound cheesy!" Pinkie screamed. "I AGREE!"

"Story...? Whatever. Thanks Y'all, though." Applejack dug into her pie.

"Speaking of stories, Flare, you never told us much about yourself. You always hinted that you had something to do with Nightmare Moon, though."

Flare, who was off to the side, sighed. "No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Come on!"

"No."

"You can trust us! We're not going to, you know, tell the world what happened, you know."

"Right..." Flare looked up at them and gave them a raised eyebrow.

"Come on, cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Twilight muttered.

"Alright, alright..."

A young bat pony colt made his way into the archer classroom of the Equestrian Guard Academy. His cutie mark was a ninja star. It didn't really make him stand out; most of the class consisted of bat colts and fillies with weapon cutie marks. All except for a single alicorn in the back, who's cutie mark had a pheonix in it.

"Okay, everypony. Today we have a new student here. His name is Glaive. Everypony say hi."

"Hi!" The class chorused. All except for the alicorn.

"Your desk is next to Solar Flare. She's the alicorn there."

Joy.

Flare sighed as Glaive slumped down next to her. When she asked for Celestia to put her into an archery class, she meant an actual archery class, not like one of those crappy tutors where they couldn't even hit their own target.

"This is bow. This is arrow."

Very, very, very crappy. It took awhile to convince Celestia to allow her into the class; she considered magical education to be more important for Flare. Of course, Celestia would outmanuver her.

"This is quiver. It is big ass bag for arrow."

Ugh. Might as well read something about Dark Magic.

Glaive watched as Flare slammed a big book on her desk and flipped the pages using levitation to the bookmark.

"Excuse me, Miss Flare. I happen to be talking here."

"And, Ms. Longbow," Flare said sweetly. "your lesson is a slight bit too primitive for my liking."

"You appear to be lacking in respect."

"Look who's talking." Flare spread her tiny wings. "Now I suggest you claudas foramen pie."

"Wha-?"

"Shut your pie hole."

"Very well...then..." The mare shot Flare a dirty look, but she knew that the alicorn could really do anything she wanted.

Recess. The golden ten minutes of the day for schoolfoals. The savior from the boredom in class. The-

Okay. I think you get the point.

While it was recess for the archery students, Flare was heading back to the Canterlot Castle.

"Flare, wait!" Glaive was galloping up behind her.

"What is it that you want, scrub?" She didn't even bother turning  around to look at Glaive.

"To be friends."

"Friends? Ha. All the friends I had always wanted something for their personal gain."

"I just want to know why you're like this."

"Like what?"

"Like an arrogant, prissy, grade A bitch."

Flare shot him a glare, and Glaive lowered his head.

"It's true."

The two came to the castle. It was made of gleaming white granite, with massive tapestries of suns and moons hung all over the walls.

"It's the same reason I don't bother with friends. All my life, ponies only want to exploit me."

"Wow. That must be tough."

"Yeah.  So will swimming in the moat." Flare flung Glaive into the water.

"Wait, so you, um, sent a colt into a moat? If you don't mind me asking, of course..." Fluttershy asked with wide eyes.

"Yes, he nearly bought the farm with that one." Flare sighed. "Can we just continue with the story?"

Princess Celestia watched as Flare came back to the castle, and almost thought she had a friend with her. That was crushed when the little red riding hood shoved off the poor pony.

As soon as Flare got back to her room, Celestia teleported in.

"Flare, why did you-"

"Push that colt? He's not different than any of the others."

"I eavesdropped into your conversation. He actually cares about you."

"As if. He was obviously trying to get some of those G.I. Mustang things."

"They're called action figures, and he doesn't seem like the lying type."

"I know more about those types of ponies than you, mom." Flare brushed by the bigger alicorn and dropped off her bags on her bed, then flopped on it.

Celestia brushed a lock of Flare's red hair, then placed a wing over her body.

"If only you knew..." Celestia muttered. After a moment, she began to hum softly.

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"Not another step. Did you really expect me to sit aside while they all basked in your precious light? There can only be one Princess in Equestria. And that Princess will be me!" Luna slammed the podium, and cracks destroyed a back wall, revealing the sun. She raised the moon, covering the sun.

Black energy wrapped around the blue alicorn, and when it released, Nightmare Moon stood in replacement. She blasted a statue of Celestia and created a big hole in the ceiling.

Celestia dodged a laser. "Luna, I won't fight you. You must lower the moon. It is your duty!"

"Luna? I am Nightmare Moon. I only have one duty now, and that is to destroy you!" She fired another bolt, and Celestia took off. "And where do you think you're going?"

It quickly became a dogfight then. A one sided dogfight, at that. After some heavy manuvers, Moon hit Celestia, causing her to fall back into the room they came out of.

"O dear sister. I am so sorry. But you have given me no choice but to use these." Celestia grabbed the Elements of Harmony, and they began to spin around her.

Nightmare Moon fired her laser against the Elements of Harmony. Yellow and blue lasers met. For a moment, Moon held out. Then, it hit her.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..........................."

The light enveloped around her, and it brought the younger sister to the moon.

"Dear me, darling. She had a dream about Nightmare Moon?" Rarity asked as she sipped some tea.

"Yeah. I didn't know that at that time, but, well, that pretty much ended our relationship."

"How? Something that small?" Fluttershy muttered.

"Small things, over time, can knock dominoes that progressively get bigger and bigger." Flare sighed. "You know how I always mentioned something that I did to Celestia?"