Lockon Astros and his new adoptive mother, known to everypony else as Princess Celestia, were currently in the Canterlot Cemetery. They were currently in the process of burying the bodies of Lockon's birth parents and his beloved older sister, Sapphire.
Lockon had personally requested that they be buried beneath the huge oak tree that stood in the center of the cemetery. Celestia took his request to heart.
After all three bodies were recovered, they were cleaned and healed of all scorch marks, but that was the only thing that could be done for them.
Before the coffins containing their bodies were sealed over top of them, Lockon placed a bouquet of blue roses each within the grasps of his beloved parents and older sister, all the while with tears streaming down his face.
Each of the three caskets were then lowered inside the freshly dug graves, which were then sealed and decorated with the properly labeled tombstones, all three of which sat next to each other side by side with the following names:
Star Sapphire
Jade Glimmer
Sharp Shooter
A lone tear escaped Lockon's eye as the graves were sealed, all the while Celestia laid a comforting wing over his shoulder in condolence.
They then headed back to the castle, where Lockon would spend what would seem to him like the remainder of his life.
Several days later…
"Nine hundred ninety seven, nine hundred ninety eight, nine hundred ninety nine, ONE THOUSAND!" Lockon strained through his mouth as he finished his wing-ups.
These were now a part of his new self-assigned training routine, which he had taken it upon himself to do as often as possible to stay in tip top shape for the day when he eventually tried out for the Royal Guard.
Then he immediately jumped up from his wing-up position to break into a fast gallop onto the start of the obstacle course used by the earth ponies and unicorns in the royal guard. At the moment, he was the only one on the course.
The course consisted of three high fences to jump over as well as three pits to jump across. It was in the pattern of fence, pit, fence, pit, fence, and then pit, with the fences increasing in height after each one with the pits increasing in length as well.
He jumped over the first fence and the first pit no problem. The second fence and second pit were each twice as high (or long) as the first ones, but Lockon still cleared the first two just as easily as the previous ones.
The last obstacles were the most difficult ones because they were three times as high and as long as the first set of obstacles. Lockon, however, was not a pony who backed down from a challenge.
He cleared the fence without even so much as bumping one of his hind legs on the top of the fence as he completed the jump over to the other side. The pit that followed was almost one hundred feet long. Hardly anypony ever made it across without using wings or magic to save themselves at the end, but Lockon leapt all the way across in one bound using nothing but his hooves.
"Yes! Nailed it!" He exclaimed in accomplishment after clearing it. He did not use his wings or his magic for two reasons. Firstly, he was still getting used to having wings at all and thus he did not even start learning how to fly yet. He suspected that he only flew out of instinct more than anything else his clash against the changelings on the night he obtained them.
Secondly, he also figured that when he finally became a royal guard, there were going to be times when he would not always be able to use his wings or magic. He did not use any magic or wing power on the obstacle course because he was training himself to the point where he could be confident enough to rely on his hooves alone in certain situations.
After that, Lockon trotted up to a different area where he came up to a bunch of large boulders. Each of them was at least double his height and weight.
Lockon then jumped ten feet into the air before bring his front hooves down on top of the first boulder, instantly smashing it to pieces.
Then he gave the closest intact boulder a powerful buck, producing the same result.
The last boulder that was still intact, Lockon used his magic to throw straight up into the sky. Soon afterwards it started to fall, dropping straight towards Lockon.
But Lockon was ready, for just before the boulder got within ten feet of him, he spun a full 180 degrees on a bit and drove his right front hoof into the center of the boulder, instantly shattering it, all the while not even suffering so much as a single scratch.
"Whoa." He gasped in sheer awe at the amount of physical power he just unleashed upon the boulder. "How can this even be possible? Even for an alicorn, this kind of strength seems pretty freaky. Then again, it might give me an edge in hoof to hoof combat."
Then he headed off to the targeting range, where the unicorn royal guards would polish their aim with attack spells. In the middle of the area was a special device that launched shooting disks into the air and then reloaded itself using magic.
Lockon positioned himself a few yards away from the device, before shouting "PULL!" at almost the top of his lungs.
The disk launching device then glowed with an artificially created magical aura before adjusting its angle, reloading and then launching several disks at once into the air.
Lockon charged his horn with his sapphire blue aura, before firing a quick succession of attack spells, all of which had hit their targets and leaving no traces at all.
This continued on for at least half an hour. Lockon had hit every single target that was launched. "Activate bull's-eye blitz mode." he suddenly said. The device then started reloading disks, but these were different from the previous ones.
Instead of being solidly colored all over, these new disks had black rings on them to make them look like targets, all the way down to the bull's-eye mark. The disks were also built to withstand immense damage, and would only break in a way where it just loses the piece of itself that the attack spell that struck it struck.
These new disks were loaded into the device, and then launched in rapid succession at various angles in all sorts of directions. Lockon just smirked in response to this as he fired attack spell after attack spell at each target patterned disk that was in midair, while turning at pace to match that of the launching mechanism.
He still hit every single disk before they even touched the ground. When he collected the disks to inspect them, he saw that every single one of them had a circular hole in place of what should have been their bull's-eye marks.
'Sweet Celestia!' Lockon thought to himself as he saw the results of his target practice. 'I knew I was good at this sort of thing, but I never even imagined I could be THIS good.'
Lockon then disposed of the disk fragments from his shooting session, and then headed back inside and towards the castle throne room.
He got there to find Celestia and another mare with her, but this other mare was unfamiliar to him. She looked to be about a year older than Sapphire was. She had a pink coat and a mane and tail that were dark-velvet with moderate-rose and pale-gold streaks. Her mane was tied up into a ponytail and her eyes were the most beautiful shade of amethyst purple Lockon had ever seen. The main clincher however, was the fact that this mare was also an alicorn.
"Ah, Lockon." Celestia acknowledged him as he walked towards her throne upon which she was currently sitting. "Glad you could make it. How was your solo training session?"
"It was pretty good." Lockon answered her. "I successfully leaped all three walls and all three pits. I am a little surprised at my own physical strength now that I am an alicorn, seeing as how I broke a few boulders with my bare hooves, one of which I only needed one punch to do so. As for my shooting abilities, they have not rusted at all. In fact, I even did a session with the disk launcher on bull's-eye blitz mode, and I hit the bull's-eye on every single target. I still can't fly yet though."
"Well," Celestia responded. "I know somepony who could definitely help you out with that."
Then she turned her head to nod at the mystery alicorn, who then walked forward with a sincere smile on her face.
"This is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza." Celestia continued. "She recently became an alicorn not that long ago. She is going to be staying in the castle now as well. I thought it would be a good idea for you two to get to know each other. If it's not too much trouble, would you be willing to show her around?"
"Not a problem, Princess." Lockon said in reply before turning to Cadenza. "I can even start right now, if that's alright with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza that is?"
"It's perfectly fine, Lockon." She responded as she trotted down the throne steps to join him. "And please, call me Cadance."
"Alright then, Cadance." Lockon replied as they both turned toward the throne room doors. "Let's get this tour started then."
Lockon then began giving Cadance a tour of the castle layout, from the bedrooms to the royal guard quarters, to the kitchens and dining halls.
When they stopped for a moment, Lockon got a good look at Cadance's cutie mark. It appeared to be a crystalline heart that was a mixture of diamond and sapphire blue in color, with two golden branch-like things on either side of it.
"So Cadance," Lockon began, "before I show you the training area for the royal guard, I just want to know, how exactly did you become an alicorn?"
"Well," Cadance began to answer him, "before my ascension, I was just a normal pegasus who was found as a baby in the woods by Earth ponies. They took me to their village and raised me as their own."
"Then one day, this evil enchantress named Prismia cast a love-stealing spell on the village." Cadance continued. "She even boosted the spell with this necklace she always wore, which amplified the evil and jealousy within her own heart."
"I could not let the ponies I loved have their love for each other taken away from them like that." Cadance continued. "So I went and confronted Prismia. Luckily for me, her necklace also amplified the power of my love, which allowed me to defeat her. After Prismia changed her horrible ways, I was surrounded by magical energy and transported to this bizarre place. The next thing I knew, I had a horn on my head and I was meeting Princess Celestia, who then offered me to live in the castle with her as her adopted niece."
"My special talent has always been my amazing ability to spread love wherever I went - settling conflicts and bringing ponies of all kinds together." She pressed on as they got to the royal guard training area where Lockon just finished not too long ago.
"Now I understand why Princess Celestia made you a Princess as well." Lockon smirked slightly in understanding. "Skills like that should come quite in handy in the political aspect."
"What about you, Lockon?" Cadance asked him. "What's your special talent?"
"Well, Cadance," Lockon answered her, "my special talent is firing attack spells from long distances. I figure they could use that kind of talent in the Canterlot Royal Guard. In fact, I actually just finished a personal training session in this area not too long ago. I don't usually like to boast, but I actually cleared all six of those pit/wall hurdles in one bound each, smashed a bunch of boulders to pieces with my bare hooves, some with only one punch, and blasted apart attack spell target discs all in one shot without missing. And that was all after completing 1000 wing-ups."
"Wow, you really want to become a royal guard, don't you?" Cadance responded with an almost teasing smirk.
"Are you kidding?" Lockon replied. "It's always been my dream to be in the royal guard."
"What I don't understand is why an alicorn prince would want to be in the royal guard." Cadance responded in a confused manner.
"That's because I am not really a prince, Cadance." Lockon answered her.
"An adopted son of Princess Celestia who is self-conscious about his royal title?" Cadance said in a surprised tone, causing Lockon to tense up and freeze immediately afterwards. "My, what are the odds?"
"Whatever gave you an idea like that?" Lockon said in a slightly concerned manner.
"I could see it in your eyes while you were talking to her." Cadance said with a playful smirk. "That is the kind of look I see somepony get whenever they view somepony as a second mother or whatever."
"Which raises one question." She continued. "Lockon, how did you become her adopted son?"
"I'd rather not talk about it." Lockon answered her in a more depressed tone. "It's something much too painful for me, especially since it happened less than a week ago. The only way I can help you find out is by showing you. Follow me."
Lockon eventually led Cadance to a certain oak tree in the middle of Canterlot Cemetery. Once Cadence saw the three headstones, she became confused, but had a very good idea of where this was going.
"Were these dear friends of yours?" She asked in a worried tone.
"No." Lockon answered her. "These three ponies…are my parents…and my seventeen-year-old sister."
"Oh my gosh!" She cried in exclamation. "I'm so sorry, I didn't know. How did they die?"
"They didn't." Lockon answered her. "They were…they were…I can't even say it…"
Unknown to Lockon, Cadance used a spell to look into his heart and mind at the same time. What she saw brought her on the verge of tears as she gasped.
"You poor thing." She said as she wrapped her wings and hooves around Lockon in a comforting and consoling hug. "To have your entire family taken from you like that. I had no idea fate could be so cruel and unfair to somepony."
"You don't know how lucky you are Cadance." Lockon said with tears streaming down his eyes. "You might not have had any biological family to begin with, but at least that means you didn't have to go through what I have been through just less than a week ago."
"You should not have had to go through something like that either." Cadance said while tears were steadily streaming down her face. "Nopony should."
"I know." Lockon replied. "And that is one of the main reasons I want to join the royal guard as of now. To make sure that nopony else ever has to go through what I did. Of course, I'll never be able to do that if I can't fly yet. The most I can do with my wings is use them for wing-ups or hugs."
"Well, I can help you out with that if you want, Lockon." Cadance enthusiastically offered. "I was born as a pegasus so I know all about flying. I can teach you if you want."
"Really?!" Lockon asked eagerly. "That's awesome. I can't wait to get started. You know Cadance, I think we might actually end up becoming the best of friends."
"I couldn't agree more." Cadance chimed as she led Lockon to a place where she could easily teach him how to fly for the first time.