It was a clear, warm spring day. Flowers were in bloom, birds were singing outside, ponies were out enjoying the weather, and Rarity and I were bickering like griffons.
“All I’m saying is that maybe you could at least try to appreciate what your staff does for you every day.”
Rarity blanched, rearing back slightly. “Excuse me?! I’ll have you know that I am a paragon of gratitude when it is deserved. Or didn’t I thank you just yesterday when–”
“This isn’t about me!” I yelled, face already slightly flushed with irritation. “You barely even acknowledge any of the maids and other staff that work for you all day, every day.”
She huffed and held her head high. “If I noticed them, they weren’t doing their job all that well, were they? A good maid
“That doesn’t sound very sweet or romantic…” Princess Sweetie Belle interrupted, looking up at Twilight with her ears folded back.
Twilight winced and looked down to the side, rubbing her neck. “It wasn’t, but it’s kind of necessary to understand the rest of the story.” She sighed. “Back then, we didn’t always get along as well as we do these days. We were still kind of getting used to each other, especially each other’s flaws. And we had a lot of flaws. You think your sister is stubborn and prideful today, but that’s nothing compared to what she could be back then.”
“I heard that!” Rarity’s voice called through the door, making both mares wince and giggle quietly.
“If I noticed them, they weren’t doing their job all that well, were they? A good maid should strive not to draw attention as she works.”
“Do you even know any of their names?” I frowned, punctuating the question with a tap of my hoof.
“I, well… not off the top of my head, but…”
I advanced on her, not willing to let up just yet. “Do you know the name of the maid you yelled at this morning? For getting one of your dresses slightly rumpled and dusty while working?”
“Slightly rumpled and dusty?” She put a hoof to her chest. “It was practically ruined, Twilight! Ruined!”
“You have closets full of them! Closets, Princess, that’s plural! And you left the poor mare terrified of losing her job over one dress?!”
“Yes, well, do you know how much that dress cost–“
“Do you?” I countered. “You probably didn’t pay for it, and you most certainly didn’t make it!”
“I… you…” Rarity stammered, then huffed. “I am the Princess! It’s not my job to do menial tasks like sweeping or sewing!”
“Well, maybe it should be! Maybe if you’d actually crafted something with your own hooves once in your life, you could actually honestly appreciate your outfits a little. And maybe then you could appreciate the work of your staff, too.”
Rarity floundered, staring at me with a red face before turning on the spot and stalking off, head held high. “T-this conversation is over.”
I blinked and stared after her, then groaned and ran to catch up to her. I might not have wanted to be around her right then, but I was still her personal guard.
“So… you made up, right? It was just a silly argument?” Princess Sweetie Belle gave Twilight a hopeful look. “I mean, you apologized to Rarity, she apologized and you went back to being friends, right? You had to!”
Twilight shook her head. “To be honest, I could be pretty stubborn too. And it didn’t help that the next day, Rarity started trying to avoid me at times. She spent more time than usual in her own suite and told me in no uncertain terms that I was not to enter her bedrooms at all until further notice. I tried to argue, of course, but she wouldn’t budge and used her full royal authority to make me keep out. But when she started to show up with bandages around her forelegs, unwilling to tell me what had happened other than that it 'wasn't my concern', I decided that my duty had to take precedence over her orders…”
I entered the main room of Rarity’s suite to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash sitting in front of the door to the Princess’ bedroom, playing cards in their full armor. As soon as they noticed me, Applejack stood up while Rainbow simply watched me with one eye, the other focused on her hoof as she casually slid it across the floor to sneak a peek at Applejack’s cards.
I looked at them both with mild surprise, but quickly shook it off and stepped up to them. “I need to talk to Princess Rarity.”
Applejack shook her head, standing squarely in my way. “No can do, Twilight. Lady Fluttershy ordered me to stay out here and make sure that nopony goes through that door. Including and especially you.”
I frowned, staring at her. “Seriously? Listen, Applejack, I don’t want to fight you…”
Applejack still didn’t budge, holding my gaze. “And Ah don’t want to fight you, Twi, but that’s what’s gonna happen unless you turn around and go back the way you came.”
I stared at her a moment longer, carefully choosing my words. “Applejack, please… This isn’t just about what I want. Protecting Princess Rarity is my duty, and I can’t do that if she doesn’t let me see her half the time. How would you feel if you couldn’t protect Lady Fluttershy?”
Applejack sighed. “Figured you’d play that card…” She pointed at Rainbow Dash, who was standing up now and stretching her wings. “That’s why Rainbow Dash’s here.”
“Wait… you mean the Princess actually hired you?” I turned to Rainbow with an incredulous look.
The pegasus just smirked. “Yep. Paid up front, full price, from her own pocket even if I understood that right.”
I took a step back. Rainbow was one of the best mercenaries I knew, and her prices reflected that. To hear that the Princess actually paid her from her own funds… it definitely put things in a different perspective and made me reevaluate just how much she didn’t want to see me. Either way, I knew that I had no chance at getting through that door, not with both of them standing guard, and I really didn’t want to fight them.
/\ /\ /\
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By the end of the third week after our argument, I was… tense. I’d hoped that maybe Rarity would calm down and let me be her bodyguard again, but instead the situation only seemed to get worse. At first it was still easy to track her down, even if she still made sure I wouldn’t set hoof into her bedroom, both with security measures, employing Applejack’s and Rainbow Dash’s help and outright ordering me to stay out. That she barely said a word to me at the times I did guard her hurt more, but I kept telling myself that at least it wouldn’t affect my duties; the king and his guard barely traded ten words a day that weren’t orders and replies.
But the longer it went on, the more time did she spend in her bedroom. Not just that, but she also started to figure out how to avoid me while in the castle. The breaking point for me was when I realized that I hadn’t seen more than the tip of her tail for over twenty-four hours. I knew that it was only a matter of time until one of us did something really stupid, and as her guard I considered it my duty to try my best and make sure it wasn’t her.
/\ /\ /\
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“Rainbow Dash. Applejack.” I looked between my two friends, both of them highly skilled fighters. I knew that in a fair fight I wouldn’t have much of a chance. Not that I wanted to injure them, but at that point I wasn’t above using violence to do my job. And I wasn’t above fighting dirty either.
Before either of them could say something, I teleported a rope I’d prepared right above Rainbow Dash’s head. It wasn’t easy, but I was determined and I’d practiced the spell sequence a dozen times before I went there to make sure it would work just as I needed it to. Compared to that first spell guiding the rope with telekinesis was a breeze, and only seconds later Rainbow was bundled up to her neck in rope until she resembled a caterpillar more than a pony.
“Hey, not fair!” Rainbow wiggled around a bit but quickly realized that I’d made sure she wouldn’t get out of there by herself.
Applejack glanced down at her, but quickly looked up to meet my gaze before I could capitalize on the distraction, stepping squarely in front of the door they were guarding and bracing herself. “Don’t do this, Twi.”
I shook my head sadly. “I’m sorry, Applejack. I have to see Rarity and at least try to talk to her. If I don’t… I might as well give up the position and go back to being a regular soldier.”
Applejack winced, but didn’t seem surprised. Instead she braced herself again. “Ah’m really sorry about this.”
“So am I.” I braced myself and called on my magic, grabbing Applejack's full body in it and trying to move her.
To my own surprise, Applejack was even stronger than I’d thought, using her own innate magic to hold onto the floor with all four hooves and actually holding her ground. I grunted and tried to push her backwards to have more leverage, but even then she didn’t budge.
“Fluttershy told me not to let you through that door, so Ah ain’t lettin’ you through that door!” Applejack grunted and lifted a hoof, actually trying and succeeding to push back against my magic.
“Yeah? Well…” I tried to push back, then suddenly jerked my magic the other way with as much power as I could. I’d hoped to catch her off guard…
What I hadn’t expected was almost two hundred pounds of earth pony and armor flying through the air straight at me. I just barely managed to jump aside, turning my head to watch Applejack bounce, slide and roll across the floor with a stream of expletives that only ended when she slammed into the wall at the other side. Luckily she seemed only dazed, but otherwise unharmed.
I quickly made my way over to the door before she could come to, finding it unlocked and pushing it open.
Only to find it slammed back in my face. Literally. I landed on my rump and rubbed my nose for a few seconds, then glared at the door and got back up. I could see the faint shimmer of Rarity’s magic around the edges, but at that point I didn’t even care about potential backlash anymore. I gathered what reserves I still had from the fight with Applejack and slammed the door open in one burst, stomping through the doorway.
“Your Highness! We need to… uhm… talk…?” I trailed off, staring at her.
Now, I’m only telling this to you and I don’t want you to pass this on to anypony else, even your friends. If Rarity finds out I told you this I will deny everything. But when I walked into that room, Rarity was… she looked…
She looked like a complete mess. Absolutely terrible. The worst I have ever seen her and probably the worst anypony will ever see her.
She was standing in front of some sort of work table, staring back at me and seemingly frozen in place. I vaguely noticed Lady Fluttershy standing to the side of the table and looking at me with a mix of surprise and concern, but my focus was immediately drawn back to the Princess.
Rarity’s eyes were wide and bloodshot with bags under them, like she hadn't slept in days. Her mane was tangled and frayed and her fur looked downright dirty instead of its usual pristine white. This was the same mare who slept with a small brush under her pillow so by the time she left the bed she would already look better than most ponies did all day, so seeing her like this only made me more aware of how much I had apparently messed up.
Even more concerning, her forelegs weren't bandaged this time and I could see all the small specks of blood they were covered with, going almost up to the knees. A streak of red went across her left cheek and I fervently hoped that she had only carelessly wiped a hoof across it… a thought that didn’t actually do much to ease my concern either considering her usual neatness.
Rarity blinked a few times, then smiled rather too widely, taking a step toward me and talking in a voice that was only melodious in much the same way a dodecaphony was. “Twilight! How good to see you! Well, not really, since I ordered you not to come in here… did I do that? I think I did. Anyway, you’re just in time. Tell me what you think.”
Her horn lit up with an unstable flicker and a dress was unceremoniously pulled from the table behind her back to hang in the air next to her. It was a long, layered mess of fabric that went from being almost white at the top into a light shade of green, cutting off in a wavy edge to reveal a second, turquoise layer of fabric which again cut off to show a third, purple layer. All of it had lines running through it seemingly at random and a few bits of various gemstones and crystals strewn across it even more randomly. Each layer also seemed to continually widen towards the floor, so much that the lowest part of it could probably have covered two ponies if they stood side by side.
The top ended in a comparatively narrow strip of fabric with a triangle pattern – suggesting that it was worn like a tube – and two wings of long, tattered white feathers with faint blue edges sewn into it. In front of it was a crest or possibly chestpiece made from pieces of what seemed to be thick, rigid turquoise fabric cut into leaf shapes, with more small gemstones sewn into it, though at least here they were placed in a somewhat regular pattern.
The bits of gemstone aside, it was a dress that I would have expected on the lower markets or maybe the sales bin of a boutique. After years of listening to Princess Rarity I could easily see all the spots where stitches had doubled over three or four times, leaving the thread visible even from a short distance. I could even see some loose thread sticking out in a few places. All in all I figured that it would earn maybe two silver Bits in downtown Canterlot, and a disdainful glare if one tried to sell it in the noble district.
“Well? What do you think?” Rarity’s left eye twitched and she pushed it a little towards me with a smile that was somewhere between hopeful and manic. I could see that she was holding the dress up by the neck, something that the Princess would loudly and repeatedly berate me for if I so much as thought about doing it. It was just another warning sign of the Princess mental state at that moment, and obviously it had something to do with the dress.
A quick glance at Lady Fluttershy showed that she would provide lots of sympathy and pity, but no help.
“It’s, uhm…” I swallowed and looked at the dress again, trying to find the right words. Saying something bad about it would likely only turn the situation for the worse, for whatever reason I couldn’t yet figure out. But telling an obvious lie would not hold up for long. Rarity knew that I was generally a quick learner and that she was a stubborn teacher (although she would never put it like that, of course) when it came to fashion. At latest once she’d had some rest, she would call me out on it. I had to understand more about the situation to resolve it, or at least mitigate the damage.
“It’s… nice? If I may ask, where did you get that dress?” I did my best to act casual, pretending to look the dress over again.
Rarity straightened up, with a triumphant grin on her face and a mad gleam in her eyes. “I made it myself. You said that I was incapable and unwilling to make anything with my own hooves, but here we are and there it is! Hah! Hahah!”
Oh. Oh dear. Apparently the situation wasn’t as bad as I thought, it was far worse. The small wounds on Rarity’s forelegs suddenly made perfect sense, the result of unfamiliar work and a slippery sewing needle. I could easily imagine that the Princess had actually used her hooves and foregone the use of magic just to prove her point.
While I considered all that, the Princess was apparently getting tired of waiting for me. “What are you waiting for, Twilight? Put it on!” She shoved the dress in my face without hesitation, but with a smile that was at least a two-hour nap away from being ‘cheery’.
“Me? Put it- hey!” I yelped as Rarity’s magic clumsily tried to pull the fabric over my head. I closed my eyes and did my best to hold still and assist with my own magic so that it wouldn’t snag on my horn or my armor. I always argued with the Princess to keep my armor on under any dresses she made me wear – a few rare times even successfully – but the fact that she hadn’t even asked me to take it off this time only made my concerns for her flare up more.
“Of course you, Twilight. Who do you think I made this dress for? Now don’t move, I almost…”
The last layer of fabric slid into place and I felt the crest settle against the chestpiece of my armor as the Princess trailed off. For a moment I considered if she had maybe fallen asleep on her hooves, until I opened my eyes and saw still very much awake, standing frozen again and staring at me.
“Your Highness? Rarity?!” I waved a hoof in front of her face, but only got some incoherent mutterings in response.
“I, uhm… I think I know what happened,” Lady Fluttershy spoke up. “You should maybe take a look at this.”
I turned my head just in time to see her push Rarity’s pony-length mirror into place next to Rarity, giving me a full view of myself, and I suddenly found myself frozen in place just like the Princess was.
The pony looking back at me from the silver-framed, ornate mirror was my reflection, but entirely different than I had ever seen myself. Probably most surprisingly, the armor I had been wearing was all but gone, completely covered by the dress. The few small bits that were not covered completely seemed integrated so well that for a moment even I wasn’t sure if they weren’t a part of the dress. Instead, the dress itself began to look like an armor, the rigid leaf-like parts of the chestpiece giving the impression of an armored peytral while the seemingly random lines and the smooth fabric of the dress itself made it almost look like an intricate plated armor.
Also surprising to me, I didn’t feel the least bit confined by the dress. The upper portions fit smoothly against my body without tugging or pinching me in any place, and walking a small circle confirmed that the lower portion somehow flowed out of the way of my hooves, making my hind legs barely even brush against the fabric as I moved.
As a whole, it was the perfect dress for me. While I would seem dressed for any of the festivities in the palace, it made me look like I had gotten into a fight on the way there and won, accentuating my scars and unruly mane instead of hiding them. I was a warrior and a guard, and this dress – the dress Princess Rarity had made for me – took pride in that fact and presented it for all to see. And with a blush I realized that it was the perfect dress just for me; I knew for a fact that the Princess had never taken my measurements, nor had anypony else in the last year (and certainly not with me wearing my armor), yet the dress fit me like a second skin… or second armor, as it were.
“Do… do you like it?” I tore my eyes away from my own reflection to look at the Princess, who had snapped out of her own shock and walked up to me. She had shrunk down a bit and was looking up at me hopefully, more vulnerable than I could recall ever seeing her before. The manic expression on her face was gone, but now I could see just how tired and exhausted she was.
“It’s… it’s perfect.” I blushed lightly, unable to find any better words. Something in the mirror caught my eye and I frowned lightly, looking at my reflection again. “One thing confuses me, though… why the wings?”
Rarity quickly pulled back, blushing and staring at the ground. “It’s because you’re my guardian angel.”
I blinked, not having understood a word of her muttering. “I’m sorry, what was that?”
“It’sbecauseyou’remyguardianangel,” Rarity squeaked, even quieter.
I tilted my head, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
“It’s because you’re her guardian angel.” Fluttershy smiled and stepped next to Rarity. “So they’re your wings.”
I saw Rarity give a barely perceptible nod, her blush deepening as I felt my own face get flushed with embarrassed heat quickly.
“I think I’d best leave you two alone for now.” Fluttershy giggled softly and stepped back, walking over to the door and quietly opening it just enough to slip out. We both watched, hearing Rainbow’s voice greet her.
“Well, what did she say? Did it work? What did you even do in there?”
The door shut with a quiet click, leaving us alone in the room, still staring at it and just barely hearing Rainbow’s voice muffled through the door.
“Come ooooon, Fluttershy, you can’t leave me hanging like this!”
We stood like this for a while longer in complete silence, before we finally turned our heads back towards each other, looking each other in the eyes.
“…it seems we are all alone now,” Rarity ventured.
“Indeed. And I doubt anypony will come in again for at least the remainder of this day,” I noted.
We stared at each other, unmoving but plainly both thinking the same thing.
Five minutes later I carefully hung up the dress before neatly stacking the pieces of my armor on the floor beneath it, then turned back to the bed where Princess Rarity was already sleeping peacefully, having been out like a light the second her head hit the pillow.
I glanced over at the door as I made my way over to the mare I was tasked with guarding. As much as the situation had frustrated and worried me over the last weeks, I still knew and had to admit even then that Rainbow and Applejack together would keep the Princess as safe as she could be. I knew that they would drive off any attackers, and was quite sure that they would also drive off anypony else trying to enter the Princess’ chambers for the next hours.
As I quietly slipped under the covers on the other side of the queen-sized bed, keeping a respectable distance to my Princess, I reflected on how lucky I was to have friends like them... and to have a Princess who had once again proven without a doubt that she considered me far more than a friend, and I her.
And as I closed my eyes and drifted off to sleep, vaguely aware of my Princess rolling over in her sleep until her back was pressed against my chest, I knew that despite all the objections and arguments the logical part of my mind brought up against it time and time again, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
