//------------------------------//
// Old Family, New Friends 
// Story: The Story of a Royal Guard: A Change of Seasons [OUTDATED] 
// by Himntor 
//------------------------------//

	The herd of Pinkies swarmed right over top of me, knocking me to the ground. I covered my head for protection as they bounced their way towards the center of town, shouting 'Fun!' the entire way. I stood back up and dusted myself off after they were gone.

"Pinkie Pie, what sort of trouble have you gotten yourself into now?" I asked out loud.

"What do you mean?" asked a voice from behind me.

I turned around to see Pinkie Pie, or at least another Pinkie Pie. "Pinkie... if you are the real one... what's going on?"

"What do you mean? The only thing I see going on is FUN!" said Pinkie while tumbling around.

"There are dozens of you stampeding through town. In my eyes that almost warrants the Royal Guard's interference. How did you... duplicate yourself?"

"The mirror pool, of course! What else could it be? Hehehe, fun!" Pinkie continued to pounce around, even over my rooftop.

"Um... okay. I hope you know what you are doing. I'll just be inside my house if you need me." I opened my door and slowly walked inside, making sure to keep an eye on Pinkie until the door was closed.

I let out a sigh, maybe today I would get some peace and quiet, the last few days had been filled with nothing but noise and action. I needed a break from my break, and I knew just what to do. I levitated my armor off the couch and fit it over my body, finishing with the helmet. I walked out the door and transformed my sword to fly on and took off into the sky.

I flew over the Town Hall building and overlooked Ponyville. In the distance I could see the mob of Pinkie's running about, but that wasn't what I was after. Instead, I set my eyes on the Ponyville Library. I flew down to it and knocked on the door. It was answered by Spike.

"Hey Spike, I came to drop off my sword for Twilight to study." I levitated my sword into Spike's claws. 

He looked down at its shiny plating and back at me. "Great! Twilight's been a bit busy lately with some new spells, but I'll let her know."

"Thanks, take care of it. I'll come to pick it up in two days." After Spike closed the door I walked off in the direction of the train station. There were some ponies I wanted to see today.

I arrived at the train station and walked up to the ticket booth.

"Ticket for the train to Manehatten," I requested.

The mare behind the glass pulled out a ticket. "Official Royal Guard business?"

"No," I pulled out a few bits to pay for the ticket. "Personal business."

The mare nodded and took the money. "Alright then. Here's your ticket, have a safe trip."

I levitated the ticket beside me. "Thank you."

I walked over to the rail-side platform and waited until my train arrived, which was only a few minutes luckily enough. I could begin to hear angry shouting from the middle of Ponyville and had no desire to be anywhere near it, so I quickly stepped onto the train and took a seat in the very back so I wouldn't attract too much attention.

The only other ponies that were in the back of the train with me was a young mare earth pony and her son who was a pegasus colt which sat across the aisle from me. I watched as the mother tried to get her son to calmly sit down, but the colt kept bouncing around the car excitedly.

I looked over at them both and smiled. "First train ride?"

The mother smiled sheepishly. "Yes, my son is very excited."

I nodded. "That's understandable, the train can be very exhilarating first time around, although I prefer air travel."

"Air travel? I've never been on one of those pegasus chariots or air balloons before. I take it you fly on them all the time?" asked the mother.

"No, I fly myself," I responded with a sly smile.

My answer garnered the attention of the pegasus colt still exploring the train. "You can fly? Are you an Alicorn?"

I chuckled. "No, I fly using my unicorn magic by using a special sword like a hover-board. I don't have it with me right now, but I can still do this," I took off my helmet and used my magic on it, flattening the plating until the helmet was just a flat piece of metal. I levitated it in the center of the car. "Would you like to try flying on it?"

The pegasus looked to his mother. "Can I Mommy?"

His mother looked at the flattened helmet nervously and back to me for confirmation.

"Don't worry, it's perfectly safe and I guarantee that you won't fall," I assured.

The mother nodded her head and her son immediately raced forward and climbed onto the helmet and I slowly levitated it up and down. "Wow! Mom look, I'm flying!"

His mother giggled. "I can see that, be careful!" She looked back at me. "My name's Iris by the way, this is my son Aster."

Iris had a peach coat with a light blue mane and tail, while her son had a light yellow coat with a bright blue mane and tail.

"I'm Sword Shield, nice to meet you," I introduced.

After I introduced myself I felt the jolt of the train starting to move out of the station. Aster stopped playing on my helmet and took his seat while I used my magic to restore the helmet to its original shape and fit it back on my head.

"Shield? Are you Lieutenant Shield?" asked Aster.

I looked at the young pegasus curiously. "Yes, I am, how did you know that?"

"Aster loves the Royal Guard, he likes to read about them in the newspaper, although they don't show up too often," answered Iris.

"They're really cool! They fight bad guys and keep everypony safe. I want to be just like a Royal Guard when I grow up," said Aster.

"I'm sure you'd make a fine Pegasus guard," I complimented. "They're great at flying over top of cities on patrol and are usually the first to catch the bad guys." 

"Oh..." Aster became fairly sad looking. "I can't fly. My wings don't work right."

"Aster has a rare disability with his wings which doesn't allow his wings enough strength or speed to fly properly. We've tried what we could but there's no treatment," explained Iris.

"I'm sorry. I've met another pegasus with a similar problem but not a disability, at least as far as I know. I'll say the same to you as I said to her; practice using your wings daily, work out to strengthen them and never give up. It may not let you fly perfectly, but I'm sure it will help." I gave them both a warm smile.

"Thanks! I promise I won't give up, Mr. Shield!" said Aster.

"Thank you for encouraging him, it means a lot coming from somepony in the Royal Guard," said Iris sincirely. "Are you being relocated to Manehatten? Oh, I probably shouldn't be asking you questions like that, sorry."

"It's alright. I'm off duty right now actually, the trip is for personal reasons. My parents moved here a couple years ago and I haven't seen them since." I explained.

"Oh, I see. You must be very excited to see them again! Why did you decide to wear your armor though?" asked Iris.

I shifted in my seat for a moment. "Its got... sentimental value." That wasn't the entire reason. I wanted to show up in my armor because I wanted to look strong, I wanted to try and make my father proud. "Yeah, I'm pretty excited. Well, anxious is probably a better word. Why are you going to Manehatten?"

"My husband found a better home for us there, we're very excited to see the new place, but we're also sad to leave Ponyville behind. It was such a nice town," answered Iris.

I nodded in agreement. I was finished talking so I turned around, watching the scenery pass by through the window. The rest of the train ride was relatively quiet from that point on, save for a few questions from Aster every once in a while. After about two hours of travel the train began slowing down and pulled into the station. We had finally arrived at Manehatten. 

I said my goodbyes to Iris and Aster and trotted on my way. Once I reached the outdoors I picked up a map of the city and began searching the streets of the right street my parents lived on.

I found the right apartment and walked in the main room. The place was above average, although not amazing, just as my parents seemed to like. I walked down the colorfully carpeted hallways until I found my parent's door. I knocked on the door and straightened my helmet and armor before anyone answered.

The door opened up and my mother's face came into view, looking no different than when she had left. Her face brightened up as she saw me, I tried to withhold a smile, but when my mother reached out to give me a hug I couldn't help myself.

"My boy, it's been a long time!" said Sacred as she hugged me, tears in her eyes.

"It's great to see you mom," I said returning the hug. "How have you been doing?"

My mother let me go and wiped the tears from her eyes. "I'm doing great, how about you? You haven't written or visited in years, we almost thought something had happened to you."

"I'm sorry I haven't visited, the Royal Guard has kept me very busy. I'm doing fine, I'm on a short break before I have to get back to work so I came to visit," I explained.

"Well that's wonderful, come inside." My mom walked back into her apartment and to the kitchen. I followed and sat down at the table.

It was a rather large apartment for just two ponies, there was plenty of space to walk around as there wasn't much furniture, even the table was just a small round table for two. There were a couple of bookshelves around the place with comfy chairs nearby for reading. The colors light green, yellow and white had the largest presence.

"It's a nice place you got," I commented.

"We've had to switch up apartments every once in a while, we've been in this one for five months now, we're hoping to stay this time." My mother walked over to the table and gave me a glass of carrot juice, which I heartily drank up.

"Your father will be home in just a few minutes, I'll bet he'd be glad to see you again. While we wait, how about you tell me what you've been doing lately?" suggested Sacred, sitting down at the table herself.

"Well, have you heard about the Crystal Empire?" I asked.

"Yes, it's quite exciting! A whole new empire and culture brought back in a day's time. I can't believe what the crystal ponies must have had been through, it must have been so terrible," answered Sacred.

"I'll say, I was one of the first ponies there, along with Shining Armor and Princess Cadance. There was something very wrong with that place when I was there. I can't really explain it. Tomorrow I plan on going back to see what's changed, and then I get back to work." As I finished talking the door opened and my father (Steadfast) walked in. I immediately stood at attention.

My father walked up to me surprised. "What are you doing here?"

Ouch, you hurt my feelings dad. "I'm on break, I came to visit, is that alright?"

"You should have sent a message. Actually, you should have sent anything! I haven't heard from you for over a year, and now you just decide to show up?" asked Steadfast slightly angry.

Sacred looked around awkwardly. "I'll... leave you two alone for a bit." She walked off and disappeared into another room.

I hardly notice her leave. "I thought you would like an update on how things were going from me personally, but maybe now I'm having second thoughts." I spoke trying to sound confident, but on the inside I could feel my stomach trembling.

"Well, what do you expect from me? For all I knew you could have been dead!" said Steadfast.

Something inside of me broke, something that was clogged had been loosed and the floodgates unleashed. The trembling in my stomach ceased. "And what if I was?" I asked calmly at first. "Would you care then? As far as I know, Dad, you haven't cared at all. Ever since I was young you've always said; 'Train hard! Learn to respect your superiors! Honor your parents and ancestors!'. I never wanted that, but I never asked you to stop. What do I expect from you? What anypony should expect from their father, someone to encourage and guide them through their life. But you never did encourage, did you? You sat there and weaved my path for me. I may still be a Royal Guard, and I may still enjoy it, but don't ever think I'm proud that you forced me into it."

"And don't you think I never helped you," said Steadfast.

I walked towards the door. "Oh no, you did. You helped me just perfectly, helped me to become the son you've always wanted... You should have had more children, because I refuse to be what you want." I opened the door and began to walk out when I paused and looked half back. "Tell Mom I love her, and goodbye." I shut the door behind me with my magic.

For a moment I stared at the wall in front of me. Nothing was coursing through my mind except for what I had just done. I had just given up on my family, on my father. I realized I hadn't been breathing, I quickly took a deep stuttered breath and exhaled slowly. I turned down the hall and began walking.

I kept on walking until I was back at the train station. I approached the ticket booth when I saw a couple of ponies sitting on a bench. It was Iris and her son, I had expected them to be a ways into the city already but they looked as though they were going back on another train ride. I walked closer and noticed that Iris was silently crying and her son was trying to comfort her. 

I walked up to them both and looked down at Aster. "What's wrong? Shouldn't you be getting to your new home?"

Iris sniffled and wiped some of her tears away. "Excuse me. My husband... we learned he wasn't able to pay for all of us to stay at the new place, not until he finished paying off his debts here in Manehatten. We have to go back to Ponyville and that's going to cost us too much. I don't know what to do."

Aster looked up to me pleadingly. "Can you help my mommy?"

I looked at the young pegasus and took off my helmet. "Yes," With my answer I use my magic to levitated out a sack of bits from my saddle-pack. I placed the sack of bits in my helmet and levitated it to Iris. "This is yours."

Iris took the helmet and looked into the bag to see how many bits were in there. She looked back at me sorrowfully. "I can't accept this, it's too much." 

Iris handed me back the helmet, but I refused, and instead pushed it back towards her. "You need it and you deserve it. Use the money to pay off the debt and pay for your home. The helmet is for Aster."

Aster looked at me with a bright and excited face. "Really? You're giving me your helmet?"

I nodded towards him. "You'll grow into it someday, and you can say it was a Lieutenant who gave it to you."

Iris smiled and more tears fell from her eyes. "Thank you so much, I wish I could repay you somehow."

I gave them both a smile. "The only repayment worth getting back is seeing you happy and at home. I have to go now, but I might come back someday to visit." I saluted them both and walked back to the ticket booth, ordering a ticket to the Crystal Empire on official business.

I walked into the back of the train once again and sat down, letting out a prolonged sigh. I felt the kick of the train as it started moving out the station. I watched out the window as Iris and Aster got up and left to see their new home. I hoped it would be worth it.

The train pulled into the countryside shortly and I let my thoughts slip from me. Everything seemed to have messed up so quickly, all I could focus on was seeing Shining Armor and Cadance again. It had only been a week since I last saw them, but I sorely needed a feeling of the old days. I felt as though my life was slipping away in just this short time.

But it wasn't in just a short time. This had been coming at me for a long time now, ever since the incident with Nightmare Moon. The guilt and regret was still gnawing at me even after three years, and every new problem seemed to increase the feeling.

As the train ride continued I drifted off to sleep. What I didn't notice, was one of the stars on my cutie mark disappearing.