Changing The Lunar Guard

Brightness surrounded me. It was far too bright. Closing my eyes, I tried to filter out as much light as possible. I had no luck. No matter how tight I shut my eyes, it was still impossibly bright. It took me a moment to realise that I felt like normal. Based on my previous state of being near death, I had either recovered or was dead.

I slowly sat up in the bed I was in. Not dead. The room was far too boring to be heaven and was way too sterile to be hell. I felt disappointed. I felt like I deserved the punishment that had been given to me by Hellraiser and I had been so ready to die that everything just seemed meaningless. And when I looked at the circumstances, it kind of was. Everything I had lived for was gone.

I no longer had a home. I had never had any experience outside the hive and this world of pain had unexpectedly been thrust onto me. Even if I was able to somehow make it out of this place, and somehow managed to find the hive, I would be killed on sight. Not that it mattered anyway. I was sent to die, and that is what I planned to do.

I no longer had any friends. My only true friend had died beneath me. If only I had listened to her, then I wouldn’t be worrying about what was to come. I wished I could see her again. And I would. If I could find a method of death.

I no longer had purpose. I had been hatched to defend the hive and now I would never see those dimly lit hallways again. Even if I wasn’t meant to be a guard, which had been the purpose of my broods hatching, what was I supposed to do? I had no special talents. I had been wandering around, protecting the same corridors all my life and I was the exact same as everyone else hatched with me. None of us had any ability to adapt. Somewhat ironic coming from a changeling. My inability to adapt was also hurting me directly. I couldn't think of a creative method of suicide.

I got up to look around the room. If I could find a shard of glass or some sharp object, then it would end quickly. I had no such luck. The entire room was clean with nothing in it, except the bed I had been in earlier, and a shelf that had nothing on it. The door was locked and I started to get annoyed of the unnaturally beige wallpaper the covered all of the walls. I even tried breaking the window, from which the blinding light was coming, but it must have been made of some enchanted material as it didn’t even crack.

“You don’t even know what they are!” A mare’s voice came from beyond the door. I got up and put my right ear next to the door and tried to listen.

“They were injured! What were we supposed to do?” Another female voice appeared.

“Not bring them to the castle.” The first mare sounded condescending.

“The hospital was across the city.” The second mare defended.

“Where do you think the doctors came from?” The first mare sounded agitated.

“What doth thou have against these creatures?” Doth?

“Why do you insist on keeping them here in the castle.” The mare’s voice seemed to louden.

“Are thou not curious why they are here?” The second mare still seemed defensive.

“I would be less curious if they weren’t in the castle. As for now I am worried about the safety of everypony that lives here.” The first mare seemed angry but still somewhat calm.

“We win.” The second mare chuckled.

“What?” The first voice seemed slightly confused.

“Thou did not respond in the form of a question.”

“Would you stop being so childish.” I swear I could hear an eyeroll.

“Childish? Is moving the sun to scare thy student considered ‘adult’?”

“I was trying to teach her a lesson.” The first mare suddenly seemed defensive.

“Sure thou were.” A second eyeroll could be heard.

“Can we return to the issue at hoof?” The first mare obviously changing the subject.

“Fine. Give us one reason that we cannot simply wait and see what happens with these creatures.” The second mare seemed very serious.

“Because... Because...” I heard some hoofsteps leading away from the door.

“Why sister?” The hoofsteps stopped.

“Because the last time the last time I waited, I...“ The voice trailed off.

“What is it sister?” I almost couldn’t hear her voice.

“The last time I waited, I lost you.” I heard some crying but I couldn’t tell who’s voice it was coming from.

“Nothing like that will happen sister. I assure you nothing, absolutely nothing of the sort will ever happen again.” The second voice comforted.

“I’m sorry for bringing that up Luna. I just can’t lose you again.” The first mare replied.

“And you won’t sister.” I could hear some more hoofsteps. I couldn’t tell if they were getting closer or farther away from the door.

When the door handle started to turn, I didn’t know what to do. I felt like I should be hiding but I didn’t see any point. With any luck, my appearance would scare the mare coming in enough to, maybe, put me out of my misery.

A strange blue mare entered the room. Or at least I thought she was strange. I had never actually seen a pony before. Sure I had studied their culture as a hatchling but I didn’t remember seeing anything about their manes looking like the night sky. For that matter, this one seemed a lot larger than I had been expecting. I was told they were about changeling size but that didn’t seem so.

“Oh, so thou has awoken.” The mare said. “It seems we have underestimated thou ability to recover.” I just stood there, staring at this mare. I felt like I should do something but I couldn't decide whether to make a break for it or try to talk to the pony.

"Oh we forgot to ask. Can you understand us?" I was going to answer her question but I couldn't find the words. Something about this mare made my thoughts silence.

"This creates difficulties. Perhaps something of thou may be found in the library." The pony started to leave.

"No wait!" I blurted out. I didn't know why but I didn't want her to leave. Maybe it was because she wasn’t afraid of me. Maybe it was because she seemed to care about me. Or maybe it was because her mere presence in the room was giving me strength.

She stopped in her tracks. "Why did thou not respond when we questioned thee previously?" I didn't know. Again, I couldn’t find any words. She turned and looked into my eyes. I could see that she was both curious and annoyed by my non-vocal response. “Why do you appear to act like stone while seen?”

“I...I...” No words came to me.

“Or was it the sight of our flank that got thee speaking?” My hooves felt like they were made of ice. I wanted to hide or even to avoid her gaze but I just couldn’t move.

Her patience was starting to waver, and she started to pace. Her hooves made almost silent taps whenever touching the tile floor. As she made circles around me, I could almost feel her annoyance turn to anger. It was a slow process that seemed to take forever but I could see her temper rise. The sounds her hooves made seemed to increase exponentially. The more her anger increased, the less I dared to speak. She was running out of patience and I could feel her rage bursting at the seams.

“GAUH! SAY SOMETHING OR WE WILL HAVE OUR GUARDS TAKE THEE TO OUR DUNGEONS!” I said nothing. I was too scared to.

“GUARDS GET IN HERE!” She stood there for a second and we were both looking at the door. Nothing happened.

“We said GUARDS GET IN HERE!” Two smaller white ponies with golden armour and blue manes scrambled into the room. They were about the size I was expecting for a pony. This raised a few questions about the mare in the room but I didn’t have time to put words to them.

“What do you need your highness?” Both of them bowing.

“Nevermind, both of thou are fired. Find somepony to replace thee on the way out.”

“But Princess!”

“WE SAID OUT!” Both the armoured ponies left the room in the same manner in which the entered. I giggled.

"Great guards you have."

"Those two weren't fit to guard the... Did thou just speak?"

"Uh, I guess I did." I scratched the back of my head for no other reason than I could think of anything else to do.

"Took thee long enough. Now, doth thou feel up to answering why thee would not respond to our earlier questions?”

“It was mostly just fear.”

“Ah, being in a strange land can do that to a pony.” I started to relax. It seemed odd to me. Within a matter of moments this mare had me from thinking about suicide to being somewhat comfortable. “Oh, we almost forgot. Our name is Princess Luna but please call us Luna.”

“Okay Luna. Our name- My name is Nightfall.” Luna giggled. A small foalish giggle as if I had uttered a joke. “Uh, is my name funny?”

“No, its just uh, no.” She started looking around awkwardly as if desperately looking for an alternate . This was made even more awkward by me somewhat staring at her. After a moment she finally looked back at me and suddenly had the look of “I just had the best idea”.

She strangely looked up, paused for a moment, then back to me. “We thought there was supposed to be an illumination device above somepony’s head once they had a brilliant idea. Anyway our sister would kill us if we did not ask this. What exactly are thou?”

“I am a changeling.”

“Odd, we have been doing an extensive amount of all the history of all cultures surrounding and never once have we come across even a mention of a changeling.”

“That would be because we are a secretive race. Within my knowledge very few changelings actually leave the hive.”

“Well that should suffice my sister for now. We have some other royal duties that we must attend to. Goodbye Nightfall.” The princess left the room.

The feeling of darkness slowly crept back into my mind. It started with little seeds. Seeds like missing Crystal. Seeds like missing my warm cocoon. But like all seeds, these feelings grew.

The feelings of guilt were the first to bear fruit. I was responsible for the death of my only friend. I was responsible for her staying in the hive and I was responsible for dragging her to her fate. All I wanted to do was crawl into my cocoon and die.

I wished. Even my cocoon was a long ways away. The best I could do was crawl into bed and cry. I didn’t feel like crawling into bed though. I felt like wandering my halls of the hive. My halls were the barren almost forgotten halls. Nothing came down those halls and they were too far from any entrance to have any intruders in them. I had a rather nice time guarding them but now all I had was a dull beige room.

I still couldn’t shake the guilt. If only I had left with her when I had the chance. If only I could have stopped her from trying to save me. It was my fault that I had let her secret slip and my punishment was justified for betraying the hive. If only I could see her again. I would jump out the window to see her again.

The window suddenly became my center of attention. I could see something I hadn’t noticed before. A latch at the bottom of the window was keeping it closed. All it would take was a little magic and the ground was waiting for me. Cheering for me to do it.

I was at the window. I was lifting the latch. I was on the window sill. I was staring at the ground. It seemed so inviting. Like it wanted a hug. Oddly enough I had no second thoughts. No voice at the back of my head telling me not to. It was just me and the ground. I closed my eyes and began to lean forward.

“WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING!” I recognised the voice. It was her voice. As quickly as I could I spun around and saw Crystal in the doorframe. The next thing I knew I was hugging her. She was alive.

“Crystal, I thought you were dead. I’m so glad you’re not.” I was so glad to see her again. Seeing her was like a dose of sugar. I felt like bouncing off the walls and celebrating.

“Didn’t Luna tell you I was okay?”

“Not a single word.” If only she had. It would have saved me a lot of guilt.

“I’m glad she told me about you then.”

“I’m glad too.” I was extremely excited but glad just seemed to fit.

“So want to explore the castle? Luna said we could.”

Castle? “What?”

“Do you know where we are?”

“Not a clue.” I hadn’t really asked and I hadn’t had any experienced anything outside the hive.

“We are in Canterlot Castle. You must have seen on any visit to.. Oh.”

“Oh what?” I knew the answer but it was best to let Crystal to finish her train of thought. It was far too easy to distract her.

“Forgot you aren’t, uh, weren’t a scout like me. Everywhere in Equestria and any surrounding areas, you can see Canterlot Castle. It’s amazing!”

“And you want to explore?”

“I’ve been in the castle before but it was always disguised as snobby ponies. Not that being snobby isn’t fun. This one time, at the Grand Galloping Gala, I was disguised as some prince and I had a competition with myself to see how rude I could be. I completely ruined his reputation and made a mare absolutely freak out at me. It was awesome. So can we go explore? Please?”

“Fine.” No sooner than when I spoke, we were out in the hallway. The bright stone and the windows contrasted greatly with what I had know in the hive. The entire hive is underground, lit by glowing green stones so it has an eerie feel at all times.

As we wandered aimlessly through the corridors, I started to take in how big this castle was. The walls were lined with doors. It seemed impossible for all of these doors to lead to individual rooms and not have most of the furniture with to be covered in endless amounts of dust and spiderwebs.

“And that’s how I got Celestia’s addicted to tea!” We laughed. I wasn’t really participating in the conversation but Crystal had always been much more talkative than me.

“Then there was the time I impersonated a dragon..”

“I’ve heard this one before.”

“Aww but I like this one.” She sounded so disappointed. I swear I saw a tear come from her eye. She was too good at acting.

“Okay tell it.” I said with a grin. I knew that’s exactly what she wanted me to say but her stories were always pretty funny.

She said nothing. I stood and looked around. Nothing. Nopony was around. I couldn’t hear a single hoofstep nor a screech of a door closing. I was alone again. I started desperately looking down the halls. Nothing still. The halls were barren. I was ready to give up.

“You think we lost the other one?”

“No, now shut up or it’ll hear you.”

The voices came from beyond the door to my right. I slowly approached the door. With one swift movement I kicked the door down. Standing in the middle of, what looked to be, a bedroom stood two white ponies with blue manes. One of them was holding her mouth to prevent Crystal from speaking.

“See what you’ve done!” The one not holding Crystal slapped the other. “Now it’s found us.”

“How is it my fault?!”

“How is it not your fault?!” The pony turned to face me. “However now that you’re here you’re going to give us information. Otherwise this one gets it.”

“Let her go.”

“It’s a girl? Well then, you answer our questions or else your little mare friend here gets it. First of all, which one of you cost us our jobs?”

“Were you Luna’s guards? If so that would be me.” I was stalling, I just need some time to think.

“Is that so.” he looked at the other pony. “Take care of the girl, then help me with this one.” With a great bout of strength he lunged at me.

A huge mistake. I merely dodged to the left and let him faceplant into the floor. I was then left to take on his partner. He tried to defend himself but, with one of his hooves occupied with Crystal, he was left to my mercy. With a thud, the wall was hit with the second pony.

Both got up rubbing their heads. They started to circle Crystal and me. Crystal was still too scared to move. I had to defend her but I couldn’t keep them both in my sights. They just kept circling looking for an opening.

In an instant everything changed. Both attempted to attack, one went high and the other went low. The one that went high had jumped and was attempting to crush me with his knee. The other was trying a slide tackle. They made it almost too easy.

With one swift movement, I pushed Crystal out of the way and lept into the air. Crystal was just of the way of the flying knee and I was able to narrowly dodge the slide tackle. By the time they realised they had missed their targets it was too late.

The collided in a mess of flailing limbs and screams of pain but it wasn’t over. I was still in the air and had just enough time to buck whichever one was on top in the face. I stood there, looking at the heap of flesh. I let a grin come to my face.

“WHAT HATH HAPPENED HERE!?” I turned around to see Princess Luna standing in the doorway. My grin was gone.