As a Part-Time Princess

by RemainAtto

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Second Person, Romance
Length: 1515

Stop stopping me, you empty-headed guard.

Another tricky night with your unpredictable princess—Princess Luna. You're not a night owl but still, you got out of bed and tried to check Princess Luna out. In the passage to her room, you met your aim by accident. She seems not so well as usual, but still full of anger to see you trying to stop her from doing her... things. With a sound of the broken window coming out, you had to leap out with your princess, going into the boundless night.
Maybe your promotion dream can go aside for the moment now.

Published 2020-08-06 15:40:00 UTC
Last updated 2020-08-06 15:40:00 UTC

Prologue: Into the Night

Another quiet night in Canterlot. You could've had a better mood if it's not because of your worries inside. As a normal royal guard, you actually needn't worry that much. There's two princesses, six powerful elements bearers, who needs royal guards in deed?—But still, for you has found something weird about Princess Luna, you decide to do something more important. She has been back for a quite long time, and you thought she's doing well, but things didn't go that way recently, just, recently.

After that corner no far there's still a long passage before Princess Luna's room. It's a little inappropriate for you to see Princess Luna at night, but you have Princess Celestia's permission. So... who cares? It all happened like a dream. Right now your life is like a game, playing "hide and seek" with your seems stone-cold princess. You could've scored more if it's not a midnight activity.

Maybe you're turning into a batpony for this? Huh, you wish.

Nearby the corner you hear something moving on the red carpet. The sound suddenly disappears and this brings your alarm. "Who's there?" You ask loudly.

"Ssssshh! You'll bring other guards! Stop making your stupid noise and be quiet for once!" A ball of magic wraps you and drags you to the other side of the corner. It's Princess Luna, who's just trying to escape from the palace again.

"But your highness, what are you doing here in the middle of the night?" You ask flatly. Same old scene again.

"Ahhhhh! Would you just leave me alone? Tantabus will handle those dreams instead, so I'm free to do whatever I want. It's not your working time, go to your bed." There she goes again, complaining but with no threatening.

"Where're you going?"

"Alas... I'm going out, out of the palace.” It's like doing rehearses, you all know the dialogue but still repeat those words again.

“Where?”

“Excuse me? Are you ordering me to answer?"

"Nope! I was..." You get nervous.

"Hum, I bet you not. Look, I'm the Princess of the Night, you sleepless wondering 'where's the toilet' guard know what time is it now? Yes, it's midnight. Which means, yes, I'm in charge at the present. Is that enough?"

"When will you be back?" You didn't get scared by her false threat. She's really strange these days, doesn't seem like a certain leader of Equestria. You once thought the Voice was the worst thing even she had, but now it seems letting her get used to the modern speaking way is a rather bigger mistake.

"I'll be back... soon. It's not your duty to worry about my personal life. I've always wondered how brave you can be to give me so many hard times facing a fearless pony like you. But this time please just... leave me alone. Wait, did you hear that? Somepony's coming! Quick! Make them go away! "

You get pushed by your dear princess's magic, crashing onto two batponies near the corner of the passage. You quickly explain the idea of "you're now urgently on patrol in this area". They believe your bullapple and turn back and walk away. You loose your breathe and find that unbelievable princess has already disappeared. She used to be a tender princess for scared little foals and fillies in bad dreams. Well, she still is but... recently more upset with something else. Since the last time like you caught her laughing with the Voice while reading superficial comic in the Royal Library on that night, or you caught her laying on the floor in the Royal Baking Room tearing innocent yesterday doughnuts apart, you've been praying for a quite long time that you can still live with all of your body parts. As a well-behaved guard, with a pretty close chance to get promoted, you certainly want nothing gets out of control because of you—after all, that's your duty as well.

Hey, why there're batponies?

Over the last one month, you gradually discovered another side of Princess Luna. While walking around to find your troubled princess, you start to recollect the days of how you and the Princess Luna became more-like-enemies friends. Well, it all happened for you're a quite considerate pony. Although you knew how awkward it was to catch your noble Princess laughing or tearing doughnuts in the middle of the night, you didn't express any surprised feeling. But unlike other emotionless guards, you turned on a shallow smile while frowning a little. "Princess Luna, are you alright?" You said sincerely. She then loosed her nerves and simply vanished away, like a common filly outside, without temper or royal manners, many times. 'Maybe she's going through something.' You don't like to think too deep.

"For my sister's sake!"

You hear a familiar voice coming from the back of the dark curtain that hangs on the big french windows at one side of the passage. You flap your wings to silently get close to that voice. Slowly unwrapping the curtain,you find that that frustrated princess is banging on the glass hopelessly. It seems her magic can do nothing to the well-designed protective window. Haven't seen it manages to blind those intruders' magic before, so strange.

Don't know why, you start to feel pity for Princess Luna. Maybe you should turn a blind eye to her crazy actions?

"Princess Luna, do you need help?" You ask.

"What? You want to help?" Luna stops and questions. "Aren't you here to stop me from doing whatever I want again?"

"I've made my mind." You shake your head and give a bitter smile. "Even if I have the rights to prevent you, I've already let you mess the library and the baking room and the garden up for many times without really managing to stop you. And besides, it's my duty to listen to you as well."

"Fine." She raises her eyebrow and points at the glass. "break it for me."

"Well, my duty is to protect things. Not to..."

"BREAK IT."

You can see nightmares in Princess Luna's eyes. "Yes, your highness." You salute and step back, then quickly dash onto the window—

"Wait!"

It's too late. The sound of you break the glass has already begun to echo in the grand passage. It causes more noises soon, and the noises you can tell are hoofsteps and whispers.

"You fool!" Luna shouts and jumps out of the passage. "Come with me!"

"But..." You hesitate.

"What? You want to be caught and be punished?" The sound of the hoofsteps is getting louder and louder. And the shadows of ponies in armor are reflected on the white wall. The time seems frozen, those talking are infinitely growing, and those shadows are hard to tell moving or not. But one strong feeling gets you—they're coming.

"Fine." You close your eyes and jump into the night with your princess. As you two fly away, you turn back to see those in the dark royal guards wondering what happened. You hope they'll never discover the truth, you sincerely do.

This night in Canterlot is a little cool with the late summer breeze. In Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, despite it's late in a day, many magical neon lights are still silently burning on the streets. Most of them come from the shopping streets, while the most important part of the night should be darkness and moonlight in thin haze. You see Princess Luna leading the way, sighing a little when seeing those bright lights.

'Is she upset with those lights?' You wonder. "So... your highness, where are we going?"

"Can you keep secrets?" Luna turns her head and icily stares at you.

"Without doubt, yes, I can." You shiver a little.

"You're a spy from my sister," Princess Luna murmurs. "Who am I to trust you?"

"Well, you let me escape with you. That meant you trust me."

Princess Luna doesn't make response. She turns her head back and keeps on flying. You just realize that she knows you have Princess Celestia's support. So why she has never talked about this? And why she can't use magic to get out of the palace? You're too tired to think. You take the morning shift. It's been a while for you to have not enough sleep...

"Here we are." Princess Luna suddenly says. She dives without telling you. You can only quickly follow. After crossing some thin clouds, you find yourself land beside a small lake that seems formed by the waterfalls on the mountains. There's a cave with a pony-made campfire at the entrance. But it's actually unnecessary, for the moonlight is already bright enough for you to see the ground and the blue lake clearly. Princess Luna is gone, your intuition tells you that she wants you to rest here, while she goes to do her business. She still doesn't trust you.

Anyway, you walk into the cave and lay beside the campfire. The warmth soon wraps you and lifts you into your dreamland. Finally, apart from the depressing palace, a sweet dream arrives.