Ponyville, 2 days before the wedding rehearsal.
Shining Armor ran away from the Carousel Boutique, concluding they would not listen to anything he had to say about Discord. Not Twilight, not Spike, not the rest of the Mane Six, and not even Cadence would even pay him any attention; they were all too busy with the wedding planning to even realize that Discord was manipulating them.
However, Twilight, his little sister was what was worrying him the most. He had seen her drink that chocolate milk of Discord's. He had learned in the Canterlot library that Discord's milk could have various effects, depending on what his intentions were, and he was sure the Draconequus's intentions were to... well, he didn't really know what he was planning, but whatever it was it was nothing good. Apparently, it had something to do with Twilight.
"Twiley..." The stallion thought in sadness.
After Twilight got married, perhaps she would no longer consider him her BBBFF at all, with Discord being her husband and all that. She and Discord would probably start a family too soon, with Discord's nature, he would not even be surprised if they had more than one baby.
But it was not only Twilight getting married that had him so sad; all of this matter of the wedding had brought memories out to the surface, memories he had hoped would not come back at all. He had hoped they had been buried in the back of his mind, never to resurface again, but he was all wrong. He started remembering her...
Canterlot, 6 years earlier.
It had been a week since Twilight had been relocated to Ponyville, and it was unbearable. He was sure Twilight would be living all alone on an abandoned building without her big brother to look out for her. He wanted to go with her, but he had his duties as Captain of the Royal Guard, and he couldn't simply go to another location just like that. Shining Armor sighed sadly as he kept flipping channels in his T.V, trying to keep Twilight out of his mind, but it was no use. Everywhere he looked, anywhere he went, there was always something that reminded him of Twilight... and that slapped in his face that she was gone.
Finally, when he got bored of changing the channels, he set the remote aside and started watching a documentary about dragons. Seriously, they needed to top documenting dragons when, in reality, nopony had any interest in dragons, unless they wanted to know about ways to avoid and drive them off. However, as he was about to turn the T.V off, suddenly a News Broadcast appeared on the T.V. replacing the documentary briefly -something for which he was very grateful- and the camera switched to what appeared to be a giant tank in the Royal Canterlot Animal Shelter. In the tank, something called his attention: it seemed to be a dragon, but not the stereotypical dragon everypony knew about. This dragon was medium-sized, and instead of scales, it seemed to have slippery, soft skin like a pony, and her colors were of a familiar tone of pale, light grayish mulberry. He had seen that color before... It also had four fingerless flippers, and its eyes were of a moderate violet. Running down her neck and back was a moderate sapphire blue straight mane with moderate violet and brilliant rose streaks... or at least it seemed like a mane.
Next to it there was a female unicorn with greenish blue coat and her mane and tail were of a much darker tone. Her cutie mark was that of a fish. Next to her hooves there was a bucket with fresh fish meant for the aquatic dragon.
"This is Twilu, a rare specimen of Purple Arvial found in the icy waters of the Frozen North. she was found in the coasts near Manehattan, and was immediately brought to Canterlot to recover. But without a mother to nourish her, I'm afraid she has lost the will to eat," The mare lifted a fish from the bucket and offered it to the arvial, "Come on, honey, eat."
But the arvial simply looked away in sadness, not bothering to look at the fish.
Shining Armor stared at the arvial for a very long time before the news flash ended and the documentary was back; for some strange reason, she reminded him of Twilight, mostly because of her appearance. There was something in the back of his mind that told him to go to the Animal Shelter and look after the dragon, or at least get to meet her.
The next day, he did. He woke up early, and set out for the Royal Canterlot Animal Shelter. He didn't have to present for his rounds until midday, so he had all morning to see the Arvial. Once again, he was reminded of Twilight almost anywhere he looked, when he caught glimpse of the places they used to hang out and the abundant libraries around town. At last he made it to the Animal Shelter, and asked one of the caretakers to take him to the tank where Twilu was kept. When they got there, the same pony from the T.V was there, once again trying to make the arvial eat.
"Excuse me," he called out for her, calling her attention, "I'm here to take a look at the Arvial."
The mare sighed in sadness, "Thank you for your concern, but I'm afraid she won't budge. She is way too depressed, and if we don't get her to eat, I'm afraid she might die of starvation."
"May I try?"
The mare nodded, "Alright, but don't worry if she doesn't approach at first. She is not comfortable around strangers."
Shining walked closer to the tank, just where Twilu was floating; indeed, due to her not eating, she was looking rather thin, unlike the slightly chubby Arvials he had seen in books. Her skin was dull, and her streak of hair was starting to look opaque. As soon as he got closer to her, she tried to swim away, but out of sudden swam closer to him after examining him a little more, as if she had seen him before. Shining Armor guessed that what she needed right now was someone who to turn to, someone to take care of her; she was still a youngling, after all.
"Hey, girl," he smiled, "My name's Shining Armor. Don't worry, I'm not going to harm you, i think you're cute because I like lilac.
He ted his magic to offer some fish to the young marine dragon and, much to both his and the mare's surprise, she accepted it and swallowed it whole. The marine researcher approached the two with complete astonishment.
"I can't believe it!" a smile appeared on her face, "You're the first pony that got the poor thing to eat. Captain, I know you are busy, but wouldn't you mind coming to see her daily?"
Shining gave the young Arvial a glance, and noticed she was staring at him with curiosity in her violet eyes; those eyes reminded him a bit of Twilight. In fact, the arvial herself reminded him of Twilight Sparkle. Besides, Princess Celestia had told him that he needed a hobby to stop thinking so much about Twilight for a while.
Shining spoke as he patted the Arvial's back, "No, I don't mind."
Shining Armor returned to the present with a sigh. He had not thought about Twilu for a long time, not since she had been returned to the ocean. But right then he could not lose time thinking about the past, he had to think of the right time to tell Twilight what he found out about Discord. The only problem, wherever he attempted to speak with Twilight, Discord or somepony else would interrupt them.
And besides, he needed some help. And he thought of a certain pony who would listen.
Only she wasn't a pony at all.