Guardian of the Night

The weeks that followed passed without ceremony, and Princess Luna thanked her lucky stars that the Cutie Mark Crusaders’ idea for a celebration had vanished. Luna was busy enough with winter on its way, and the last thing she needed to add to her list was a large event. In addition to raising the moon and looking after the dream world, the Princess of the Night was a guardian of the creatures of Equestria. Especially the scary, misunderstood ones.

It was a little-known fact that lots of the beasts and creatures were spooked by the idea of winter. Animals ranging from the cragadiles to the cockatrice would sense the impending snowfall and begin to frantically take shelter in caves and burrows throughout the chilly lands. There were always a few scuffles over territory, but over the moons, Luna had become an expert at sorting them out. Most of the time.

This moon, however, the shifting of the seasons had been smooth sailing until tonight. Luna had just returned from her nightly rounds around Canterlot after setting the moon in the darkened sky and consulting her Royal Dream Register. As she entered her quarters, Luna immediately noticed a signal on her special map. It was a massive three-dimensional projection, which appeared like a miniature version of Equestria spread out across a table. She’d created it with the help of Star Swirl the Bearded when Luna was just a young princess in order to keep ponies and creatures everywhere safe. It was her way of seeing the whole kingdom at once.

Princess Luna trotted around to the other side of the map and bent down. There was a situation that needed Luna’s attention in the swamplands. A tiny figure of a lion creature with dragon wings appeared next to a beast with the heads of a snake, a tiger, and a goat. A disturbance between a manticore and a chimera!

“Castor! Pollux!” Luna called out across the room to two snowy-white owls perched on either side of her bed. “Please watch over Canterlot while I go attend to this urgent matter.” The owls cooed and flapped their wings in acknowledgement, flying over to their window perches on opposite sides of the tower and setting their yellow eyes on the terrain. Princess Luna nodded her gratitude and trotted over to a hutch in the corner. She quickly gathered some tools and gave her pet opossum, Tiberius, a little pat on the head. “I shall return soon.”

Luna took off into the darkness toward the swampland, her saddlebag full of sweet apples and ricotta cheese. The princess flew through the chilly night air with her beautiful dark wings outspread. And as the wind whipped through her mane, she felt a surge of exhilaration and excitement through her body.

As soon as Luna landed near the site, she spotted the beasts. There were four manticores—a family of two adults and two corelings growling at the chimera as it circled around the nest they’d hastily built. The creatures growled and lunged at one another, engaged in an intense standoff.

“Thissss issss our ssspot!” hissed the green snake head of the chimera. “Get lossssst or elssssse!”

“Grrrrrrr!” growled the largest manticore, presumably the father of the clan, as he stood up on his hind paws. He spread his fiery-red dragon wings wide and let out the loudest roar Princess Luna had ever heard! It echoed through the Everfree Forest and beyond. Hopefully it hadn’t woken up the entire village of Ponyville.

“IT IS WE, PRINCESS LUNA OF EQUESTRIA, GUARDIAN OF THE NIGHT AND PROTECTOR OF CREATURES SUCH AS THYSELVES!” Luna bellowed at the group. “WE COMMAND YE TO STAND DOWN!” She shot a blast of incandescent white magic from her horn. The light illuminated the entire swamp and enveloped the beasts. As soon as the magic touched them, all the creatures instantly calmed. They sat down in a haze, blinked their eyes, and then turned their heads to face Luna.

“Good.” The princess straightened herself and trotted over. “Now, what seems to be the problem, dear citizens?”

After an hour of negotiations (over which beast got to reside where for the winter season), Princess Luna was finally able to resolve the issue with a civilized discussion over a shared feast of sweet apples and ricotta cheese. Actually it was mainly apples, because the goat head of the chimera ate the majority of the cheese in one bite. But nonetheless, Luna’s ability to speak and understand manticore, plus her ability to reason with the two parties, had led them to an agreement.

In the back of her mind, Luna even dared to hope that maybe the creatures would become friends by the end of winter.

“Friendship,” Luna accidentally said out loud, startling herself. “Oh! That reminds me—I must away. I need to make sure everypony in Ponyville is safe in bed and dreaming soundly.…” The princess lowered her front hooves in a deep bow, showing her respect for the chimera and the family of manticores. They bowed back. Then Luna was off, disappearing into the sparkling night.