Changing The Lunar Guard

I tried to listen to Crystal. I really did. I just couldn’t focus. Only moments ago, I had beaten down two royal guards in front of Princess Luna and been sent to the room given to me. All I could do was sit down and think about what punishment I would get. That and try to listen to Crystal.

“So I turned into this MASSIVE dragon and was like ‘RAWWWR’!” Crystal jumped on the bed to emphasize the roar. I was still only half paying attention. “That’ll teach the mean griffon to call me uncool. Hey, are you even listening!?”

“Uh, yeah sure.” I lied.

“What did I just say?”

“Something about a dragon being uncool?”

Crystal grunted. “Close enough. So why are you so mopey anyway. You were awesome back there. Like a ninja.” She started flinging her arms around like she had a pair of nunchucks.

“You’re kidding me right. We, uh, I just beat up two of Luna’s guards. Do you have any idea what kind of trouble we’re in?”

“None whatsoever. If we were in trouble, we would have been sent to jail.”

“I highly doubt that. This is a princess of Equestria. Who knows what she could do? She could send us to the moon for all we know.”

“That happens one time and suddenly it’s some common punishment.” Crystal mumbled. “Anyway it doesn’t matter because we aren’t in trouble.”

“Why aren’t we in trouble? Actually, what were you saying about being sent to the moon being common punishment?”

“We aren’t in trouble because they would have to charge us with something. We haven’t done anything wrong.”

“How about assault, on one hoof.”

“Self defence. Trust me, I know.”

A new voice filled the room. “What doth thou know?”

Princess Luna was standing in the doorway. In my mind she was wearing a black cloak and carrying a scythe but I’m sure that was just my imagination. One word from her and I could be executed or worse. I tried to prepare myself. The window was closed and the Princess was blocking the only other exit. I was trapped.

“Self defence!” Crystal said enthusiastically. “No wait. Yes. Self defence. Or kind of self defence. Not at all really but Nighty here knows all about it. He was a guard back at the hive.”

“Thou were Nightfall? That doth explain a great amount. We actually came here to discuss thy actions and that is a big piece of the puzzle. But there are still things to discuss and our sister is insisting that I make a decree here.”

“Oh oh oh oh ho.” Crystal was bouncing around the room. “What kind of decree? Like bananas are only to be eaten on sundays? Don’t tell me. Let me guess. Bowties are cool! That can’t be it, they have always been cool”

Normally I would have stopped Crystal at some point but I figured the longer she talked the more time I had to live. I tried to keep quiet and just let Crystal distract as long as possible.

“No, Crystal. We just need to reinforce the severity of what thou have done. Two highly trained members of the Royal Guard now lay in the infirmary thanks to thy actions. This leaves me with no personal guards and two ponies I am furious at.”

“Uh Luna. We aren’t Ponies we are Changelings. See Pony, Changelings, Pony, Changeling.” Crystal kept changing into somepony and back. Trying to prove her point.

Luna seemed amazed for a second. The green flames coming from crystal lit up her face well. “We did not know thou could change shape. We knew thou were called changelings but we did not think it meant you could change to this extent. However, we did not mean to give the impression that we are aggravated at thee. I am aggravated that two royal guards would ponynap somepony. Especially if that somepony is of a species that was previously unheard of. They will be dealt with severely. Which brings us to our second problem. We wish that both of you to replace those two imbeciles as my guards.”

"Did I just hear you right? I thought you just asked us to be royal guards."

"Of course we did Nightfall. We need the best and thou already managed to defeat the previous champions."

"That would be SO cool. Me and Nighty acting guard-like and stuff. It sounds awesome."

"But Luna. Why us? We only just arrived and ..." I trailed off. I couldn't think of anything else.

"I already said thou are the best. Also I like the idea of having guards that could change into dragons at will. It will make 'Tia so jealous."

"This is going to be absolutely amazing! Just one question Luna.”

“Feel free to speak thy mind Crystal.”

“How do you be a guard?”

It was starting to get dark. The sun had been reduced to an orange arch in my window and I started to feel a little more comfortable. The sun didn’t bother me but the darker it became, the more I was reminded of home.

I was still in my allotted room, sitting on my bed.  Luna requested we start our training at night because of her regular sleep cycle, so I still had a few hours to kill before training started. Crystal had gone back to her room to “prepare” whatever that meant so I was left to my thoughts and the little piece of paper that Luna had given me.

All that was on the paper was directions to somewhere in the castle. Luna hadn’t bothered to mention exactly what we would find. It had already been a substantial amount of time and I had been bored almost from the start. Eventually my boredom and curiosity took the better of me.

I started to follow the directions I had been given. I walked down the corridors of the castle becoming even more bored of the endless amounts of plain wooden doors. All the doors looked identical giving no indication of what may be inside. I knew ponies came in many shapes, sizes and colours but every door had a clone of the standard issue white guard beside it.

Eventually I came to a set much bigger doors than the rest. It seemed out of place looking several times older than all the other doors and oddly with no guards beside it. With it towering above me I hesitated for a second and looked at my list of instructions. ‘Step 13:  Pass through the big doors (you’ll know them when you see them).’

As I passed through the doors I found myself smiling. The hallway I had entered was very dark and lit by torches hung on the walls. These hallways had stone that, unlike the stone on the other side of the door, looked almost falling apart. Cobwebs littered the ceiling and overall made the whole place look more like a cave. It felt like home.

Time flew by as I finished following the directions. I had been guided to the only door in the dark hallways that seemed to have a light on inside. In fact it was just about the only door I could see in the hallways. I checked my instructions one more time and started to open the door. I quickly stopped myself as I heard voices coming from beyond the door.

“YOU MADE THEM YOUR ROYAL GUARDS!”

“Thou seems mad sister. Perhaps thou needs some time to cool down.” I recognized Luna’s voice.

“Calm is the last thing from my mind Luna! What were you thinking when you made them guards!?”

“We were thinking that they would be perfect replacements for the pathetic excuse for guards we had previously.”

“Did you even think that maybe they have a home to go back to? Maybe they can’t be your guards.”

“I spent the afternoon discussing it with them. They accepted.”

“I can’t believe that they just decided to be your guards and not return to wherever they came from.”

“The female, Crystal, told me that they were ejected from their hive. The couldn’t return home if they wanted to.”

“THEY’RE WANTED CRIMINALS! WHY LUNA?”

“They didn’t say.”

“And you let them become guards anyway. They should be lucky that they aren’t wanted criminals in Equestria.”

“To be fair it was not their fault that those guards kidnapped Crystal.”

“I guarantee you Luna. This will not end well with those things as your guards.”

“You also guaranteed us that the previous guards were some of the best in Canterlot.”

Instead of a response I saw a flash of bright light come from under the door. “Typical ‘Tia. Magic away when things get serious.”

I took a second to weigh my options. I could either head back to my room or enter the room. I entered the room. I was expecting guards quarters or a training room. What I found was a rather large bedroom. Across the room from me was a large telescope in which Luna was looking out of.

“What’cha lookin’ at.” I jumped. Crystal had said that rather loud and I hadn’t even realised she was there.

“Nothing much.” Luna replied. “Just trying to correct a few things that my sister managed to mess up within the past thousand years. She had an entire shelf in the library dedicated to star maps and she still managed to misaligned most of my constellations. But on to business.”

“Business like me becoming a ninja. I can’t wait!”

I rolled my eyes. “Crystal. We already told you that being a guard does not mean you become a ninja.”

“Awe. But I spent almost an hour reading about them.”

“We have to agree with Nightfall here. As per our sister’s request, most of your time will be spent by our side.”

“Wait.” Crystal spoke. “If most of our time will be spent with you. What will the rest of our time be spent on?”

“Looking menacing of course. This is actually the reason I brought you both here. I am hoping that if you look like ponies, then maybe our sister won’t be so against the idea. Seeing as her reaction was already worse than I thought it would be.”

I felt  little nervous. I almost didn’t hear what Crystal said.

“But princess. Nightfall hasn’t actually transformed yet. He would be learning the skill from scratch.The first time I transformed I was going for a parasprite and I ended up a fly.”

“Thanks for telling us Crystal. One second.” With a small puff of smoke, some popcorn and a comfortable looking chair appeared behind Luna. “Okay try transforming Nightfall.”

I started to try transforming. I focused on what I wanted to look like. I clearly remembered a guard. Bright white coat. Shining blue mane. Golden armour. I had the image burned into my mind. I concentrated as hard as I could.

“Mind if I have some princess?” Crystal asked.

“Not at all, help thyself.”

Green flames passed my body. I could feel my shell turning to flesh and fur. I didn’t expect it to hurt but as I grew in size slightly it felt like I was being stretched. As my chest turned to metal it hurt even more. Trying to become the armour was a bad idea. Finally the flames passed above my eyes. I could see differently, my new eyes seemed to dislike the light but once I was able to focus I could see Crystal and Luna.

They were laughing.