The snowflake danced back and forth. The almost non-existent breeze letting it drift slowly toward the window pane it was about to stick to. There were millions like it all around, adding bit by tiny bit to the soft pile of snow that was covering the castle, its courtyards, and all of Canterlot beyond. From the west wing, one could even see the hills and meadows also covered.
She would have preferred to be looking out of her window on that side of the castle rather than this one. The view was so much better there and she could even spot the snow-laden dots that were the buildings of Ponyville far away. Hard to see due to the distance, but magical magnification lenses were easy to cast. She was getting bored watching the snow fall, though. Yes, it was beautiful but it also snowed yesterday and the meeting with the monarch of the changelings had been delayed because of it.
Chrysalis was the final piece of the puzzle she needed. If she could negotiate a favorable deal with her then the Grand Pact would practically be sealed. The ponies would be at the heart of a peace and trading treaty that spanned every race known in the modern era – and some recently discovered too! But this might end up being the hardest deal to close. She had plenty of experience but there was more underlying animosity towards changelings than there was towards any other race and it was not only the ponies who felt that way.
She would have to use more than a couple political manipulations to get the dragons and griffons to sign off once Chrysalis was in the Pact…
“Tempest!” she called out towards the door to her lounge room, but without looking towards it. She continued gazing out the window, watching the snowflake that had landed on the pane melt from the heat of her breath.
The door opened and closed as she expected it to. Hooves clopped lightly on the luxuriously carpeted floor in spite of the weight of the armor she knew the pony in question was wearing. A pause. She still didn’t look behind her to see who she knew was there. The pause was no doubt the time it took the expertly-trained mare to bow.
“My queen,” came the husky voice of the veteran guardmare.
“You’re bored aren’t you?”
“Never in your presence, my queen,” Tempest Shadow smoothly replied.
That is when the snow-gazing purple alicorn finally turned around. Her matronly features were mature but not old in the slightest. She was still as youthful in heart as she had been when the crown had been passed to her by a weary Queen Celestia and Queen Luna. Though her long slender legs and enormous wings were much like Celestia’s, she had only recently started using a more motherly tone towards her subjects. Except for her chief bodyguard before her. She considered her a close friend, trusted her with her life, and respected her more than any warrior – even Marshal Dash.
A sly smile came to the queen’s lips. “Do I...excite you then?”
At that, Tempest’s practiced bow faltered. Her face flushed and her eyes took on more life than she usually allowed to break through her skilled deadpan bodyguard expression. “I...uh! N-no, of course not, my queen! I mean, uh…!”
“Just ‘Twilight’ please,” the queen giggled. “We are alone. I’m sorry for flustering you, but it is really hard to resist every now and then. It makes me feel as if other ponies can still see me as a mare rather than an unreachable goddess.”
Tempest’s face soured but she tried to hide it and steady her bow. “Please do not tease me, your highness. I beg you. If you wish for companionship, you could choose from any number of-”
“Oh, would you stop bowing already?” Twilight insisted in almost a laugh.
Tempest lifted her body but kept her gaze from Twilight herself. Instead, counting the tassels on the rich red rug beneath her. “What is your need, my queen?”
Twilight’s hooves clopped almost soundlessly against the plush rug as she came face to face with her personal guardmare. She lifted Tempest’s gaze gently to meet hers with the tip of her hoof, unadorned by the royal regalia she kept sparkling by the crackling fireplace. “Just some friendly company to pass the hours. I was informed it would be at least two more before my latest guest will arrive. I have already sacrificed my Hearth’s Warming this year to forming this Pact. I do not need to suffer it alone as well.”
The scar-faced guard blushed but knew she could not look away from her queen like this. Twilight’s shimmering orchid-colored eyes seemed to pierce into her very being. She was beautiful. So beautiful. Taller than her with that unique alicorn monarch physique that only a few possessed in this world. The massive wings with the rainbow-colored feathers fluttered against Twilight’s sides like they always did when the queen was safe and happy. She may have been the leader of ponykind but there were still things about her that were foal-like...unchanged from the earliest years Tempest knew her. Back when she had been a mere recruit in training and Twilight was the heir apparent.
“I c-can t-tend the fire for you, my queen. If the warmth is to your liking,” Tempest stuttered in an attempt to move away so the Twilight would not question her about the blush.
“I am quite comfortable, thank you,” Twilight smile turned to a playful grin. “Though it would seem you may be warmer than you’d prefer?”
“Your comfort is my desire,” she quickly replied. No, Tempest thought to herself, she knows how I feel. Will she only mercilessly tease me or is this the chance I’ve been dreaming of for years…? Oh, who am I kidding? She likes me but not in that way. I’ll never-
Twilight’s hoof fell from Tempest’s chin and her grin faded a bit as she watched her favorite guardmare pretend as if she was not having an intense inner monologue right in front if her. She kept from sighing and instead ushered Tempest towards the room’s large bed of cushions situated in front of the fireplace. Her rainbow feathers spread out from one of her wings to envelop Tempest from behind to guide her along. The poor guard was clearly absent-minded.
The queen laid into the cushions. Candles and magical lights were all around the laying area and about the room to make it bright and cheerful in spite of the moody weather outside. Warm and cozy just as she liked it. Well, perhaps calling it bright would have been a bit much. A clear sunny day could be called bright. The candles and mage lights cast a slightly different and much more dim glow to the room. But it was familiar and calming. Plenty enough to see by but still...romantic.
“I may not have any special somepony – or somecreature,” Twilight said aloud. Her inner thoughts made their way out of her mouth. She had been bored, so even if this meant voicing her vulnerable feelings then...well, she didn’t mind. As much as she enjoyed teasing Tempest, she knew the guard did not harbor any serious feelings towards her beyond her duty. Their personal relationship had been one of friendship growing up – or at least that’s how she thought Tempest viewed it. “But I’ve always been a romantic at heart. I treasure moments like this. The flickering light of the fireplace on a snowy day and the comfort of a beautiful mare...”
If Tempest’s face had reddened before then now she might as well have become a tomato. “I-I-I...m-my queen!” was all she could say.
“Oh, don’t mind me,” Twilight giggled again. “I would never demand anything improper of you. True romance is freely obtained. The freedom to speak and act as one truly desires, not bound by oaths or expectations but rather by the unwavering desire to be together...to stay together until the world crumbles beneath us.”
The guardmare brought her forehoof to her breastplate. The thick metal armor had Twilight’s insignia upon it as well as her personal seal and protection enchantment. It protected her almost as much as she protected Twilight in return. It was true of all of the queen’s bodyguards, but this armor was different. The captain of the royal guardmares had a set of armor like no other. It was fashioned from a midnight black metal stronger than any other and enchanted with spells Twilight herself renewed on occasion. The Queen’s Stars on the breastplate were etched into it with rune stones from Unicornia’s Grand Mage Starlight. They sparkled in an ocean blue and celestial magenta like twinkling stars on a clear midsummer night.
“Would you rather be bound to a lover by the rules and expectations of society or choose day by day to be by your lover’s side merely because you wished it?” Twilight continued.
Having ground herself mentally in the very armor she wore, she replied. “By lover’s freedom, of course, my queen,” Tempest said coolly. Her feelings may go unrequited by a queen who only sought amusement by teasing her personal guardmare, but then so be it. This was her freedom. That she was allowed to encase her very body in the armor of her love. It meant that she could settle for merely serving by her love’s side for the rest of her life – her feelings never realized or returned.
“And what of the impossible love?” Twilight asked, her serene gaze fixed on the dancing flames of the fire. “The one never to be returned? The one who’s consequences prevent it from ever being given a chance? Whether it be society’s fault or just that of the beloved themselves?”
To this, Tempest did not hesitate in the slightest. Her hoof pressed ever more firmly into the breastplate that gave her a part of the comfort she longed for in her queen. “It is better to leave it be, lest the happiness of living alongside be lost to the despair of living alone.”
Twilight beamed. Her joyful expression changing the mood all on its own as she shifted towards Tempest in giddy delight. “You read the book I let you borrow!”
Tempest tried and failed to prevent the smile from coming out onto her otherwise well reserved face. And she had just finished recovering from the blushes and shocks too. Whenever Twilight’s teenage glee came back out due to her book obsession, it warmed Tempest’s heart. She liked seeing her so happy and unburdened by the responsibilities as queen – a throwback to their earliest years together when neither of them felt so confined by their duties.
“Of course I did,” Tempest finally let her guard down a bit. Giving into the moment was too great a temptation. To relive the days she longed for. To relive those moments when it felt like she could confess her love and maybe...Princess Twilight would say she loved her back. “You only recommend the best of the best these days. Not like back when you wanted me to read everything that you did and my to-read pile could fill two rooms.”
“Love’s Embrace was the most heart-melting story I’ve read all year,” Twilight nearly squealed with excitement. “Star Sonnet is the most incredible author I’ve read to date! Wind Dream and Rainsong’s romance was just...oh my gosh! And it’s the first pegasus and hippogriff love story I’ve ever seen! She revealed at the last author’s conference here in Canterlot that her upcoming epic involved a destined love between a unicorn and a kirin! It was not even that long ago that we declared the official treaty with the Kirin Commune. And already there is love in the air…!”
Tempest watched fondly as her queen giggled and squealed as she enthused about the one thing she never lost excitement for...books. Of course, the categories had changed over the years. She had preferred more “practical” and “useful” books when she was younger. Ones that taught her sciences and magecrafts. Politics and cultures. With enough years behind her now and experience to match her booksmarts, the interest in practical learning had waned. There just simply wasn’t that much left that she didn’t already know. At least regarding things that actual books existed for. Romance novels, on the other hoof, offered the queen an escape into the romantic fantasies she felt were beyond her reach on account of her royal obligations.
Tempest and the royal maids were among the few who knew of her love novel habit. And Starlight too, but the Grand Mage didn’t care much for the fantasies on account she had a real lover in her life who was rather high maintenance – as unicorn showmares often are. But now that it had come to this, what happened next was inevitable. Once the queen got excited about her reading habit-
“Soir!” Twilight called out.
Just as quickly as Tempest had arrived when summoned, a white Earth pony with a blond mane entered. She was dressed in an elegant and somewhat elaborate royal maid’s uniform. “Yes, mistress?”
“Tea!”
“Your current read, mistress?” Soir Soleil, the queen’s head maid asked in follow-up.
“Oh, yes, of course. Thank you,” Twilight nodded happily.
Noticing Tempest by Twilight’s side, Soir’s mind picked up on the situation. “Might you prefer the Apples brand mulled cider instead, mistress?”
Stars lit in Twilight’s eyes. “Yes! Oh, yes, totally!”
Soir couldn’t help but give a short giggle at the queen’s use of the word “totally.” It was ample indication that her mistress was both content and that Soir was exceeding her job’s exception – even if that was actually a commonplace occurrence for the head royal maid. Honestly, she could have been paid nothing and she would still adore this job. She was, after all, the only mare in all the world who had the privilege of tucking her highness into bed every night, brushing her mane in the morning, and serving her every meal.
It was no effort at all to tend to the errands. In short order, Twilight had her book and cider. And in turn, Soir received a hearty thank you and a warm full-wing embrace from the still overly-excited queen. Soir waited until she had left the room to let her eyes water up from how happy it had made her.
Tempest had also been given a mug of warm cider, but it was not the delicious drink that warmed her spirits but rather Twilight beside her. The alicorn had nudged closer to wrap a wing around the guardmare so they could both read from the book.
“So one of my favorite parts so far was here when Wind Dream asks her if...”
Tempest listened to her queen intently. But as fun as it was to talk about Love’s Embrace, the real thing was far more enjoyable. Hearth’s Warming this year seemed to have turned around. Perhaps, there would be more special moments like these to share with her on this important holiday even if only in the years to come. But for now…unrequited or not...
She was in her love’s embrace.
