The Grass Ain't Always Greener

by WorldWalker128

Canterlot Upper District - Shining Armor 2

(Sixteen days after last SA chapter)

"No! Unacceptable! I absolutely refuse to let you do this!" The fat, stuffy, and well-dressed noble shouted as several members of the royal guard paraded through his living room with his disassembled bed frame, emptied armoire, and the banister of his steps. The portly stallion placed his tubby body in the entrance to his home and glared at the guards in front of him. "You all put those back where you found them at once!! And unscratched! They cost me more than you get paid in a month to buy!"

"What's going on here?" Asked a young and tired voice from outside the noble's home. The noble turned and breathed a sigh of relief.

"Captain, your stallions are stealing from my home! Nearly half of my furniture has already been carted off, and they are even going so far as to take my bed frame!"

"I see. I suppose you didn't read the royal notice, then." Shining Armor replied, blinking and looking disinterested.

"Royal notice? What royal notice?" The noble asked, blinking in confusion. Shining Armor took a breath and with the air of one that had repeated the same quote multiple times in one hour (and was not pleased to do so) recited the most recent decree.

"'All non-essential sturdy wood is to be used in the construction of the rooftop walkways.'" Shining Armor pointed at his guards holding the furniture and banister in the noble's house. "What they've taken is what's made of wood and is superfluous in your house. They won't take your mattress or rugs, or silver and glassware. They won't take your bits, and they won't take your clothes. In short-" Shining cleared his throat as the noble opened the mouth on his increasingly outraged face to protest again. "In short, they are taking exactly what they've been ordered to take, and nothing else. If you have a complaint-" The noble opened his mouth a second time, this time raising a hoof. "I suggest you keep it to yourself, because judging by your flab you've probably never done a hard day's work in your life!" Shining Armor's face hardened into a fierce glare. "And my patience with you arrogant, self-important and pompous plotholes is wearing thin!" The noble swallowed and took a step back. "Now, if you'll kindly stay out of their way, they'll finish their job, and leave you in peace. Good day."

Without waiting to see what the flustered noble did, Shining Armor turned away and continued walking down the street, sighing as he went. He'd already needed to repeat that line close to twenty times today to the populace, and he was more than tired of it. Why couldn't we have saved the populace of the Lower District instead? He mentally chided himself a moment later for it. He'd been both raised as a colt and instructed as a guard to value all life and not just the lives of those that he preferred the company of. Much as it annoyed him to admit it, the nobles fell into that category as well. They may have seemed to be little more than mouths to feed that did nothing but spout complaints in return, but they were still citizens.

Shining Armor placed a shod hoof to his forehead just below his horn and sighed. "Sometimes I think I'd rather be a Pegasus out scavenging the countryside than here dealing with the public!" The flap pf leathery wings approaching followed by the clop of four hoofs touching down behind him gave him no relief. He had a good idea who it was.

"Good day, Captain!" A cheerful female voice greeted, accompanied by what he knew would be an exaggerated salute. "You're looking grumpy as ever, sir!"

Shining Armor sighed again and lowered his hoof to the ground, turning to address the smiling Bat-pony mare. A small part of him appreciated her efforts to cheer him and the other guards up, but at the moment the rest of him really wasn't in the mood. When did I become so irritable? he wondered. He then recalled the current day's events stacked on top of all the rest of the things he'd had to put up with over the last year. Now he understood.

"Hello, Gale Rider. Report."

"Yes sir! Thirty two Shamblers destroyed so far today with the inward migration of undead from the outside numbering twenty nine! Outward progress on the rooftop walkways from the Upper District has reached the third block out, with twenty one buildings total now accessible to non-fliers! Window screen is being used to prevent the drainage of the dirt being used to coat the rooftops through the rain gutters during scheduled raining, and the teams of volunteer Pegasi are returning from the surrounding farmlands with more fresh food a well as seeds to be planted in the gardens, and a few medical supplies from the farm houses. Also, Princess Luna has decided that the idea from Wind Whistle to use clouds as a mobile platform to impale Shamblers will be put into action."

Shining Armor found himself smiling. Finally, some good news!

Gale Rider gaped wide-eyed at the young Captain. He was smiling! The playful poke she'd given him a few weeks ago had only been partly a joke. Smiles in general were a rare thing, but the captain had barely given more than a ghost of one in a long time. Sadly, it was short-lived, but still, it had been there. This proved the there was still more of him left inside than duty.

"So what's the bad news?" Shining Armor asked. There was always bad news to accompany the good. That was just how reports seemed to work these days. Gale Rider sighed and frowned.

"The nobles are threatening to riot if we continue to take their belongings to use to build the walkways. Fancy Pants and his wife are trying to calm them down, but it's not working." Shining rolled his eyes and made a face of disgust.

"They're going to waste food throwing it at us because they're unhappy? Seriously?"

"Even they aren't that stupid, thankfully. No, they're threatening to start throwing our people over the walls and down the mountain." Shining scowled.

"They do realize that the Ponies they're threatening are armed, trained, and looking for a valid excuse to beat some sense into them, right?" Shining had not been the only one putting up with their foolishness.

"Not just our guards, unfortunately. The Lower District Ponies and the tourists are tired of putting up with them, too. Sir, if it was only our people who were being harassed I wouldn't have mentioned it because we know better, but the others have been treated like dirt far longer than we have by the Fatties, and have been warning us that their patience is wearing thin. If push comes to shove, it may go south very quickly."

"Wonderful." Shining said sarcastically. "The first war Equestria might have in centuries, and it's going to be fought during an apocalyptic situation, and by the civilians and civil protectors, no less! Any idea how we can stop it short of going to the royals?" Getting the royal sisters to stop it would certainly be effective, but it felt too much like a child running to its mother because of a fight between two older siblings.

"Other than returning the furniture that we've been ordered to take?"

"Wonderful." Shining said again, feeling a headache coming on. Not for the first time today.

By the time Shining Armor and Gale Rider arrived on scene multiple ponies and others were being carted off to their infirmary and both the dissemblers that had taken part in the very one-sided brawl that had broken out and a large number of rioters were being arrested while others were fleeing. Looking from one side of the scene to the other, Shining Armor felt his headache getting worse.

"Do I even want to know what happened here?" he asked a group of guards escorting a female Gryphon missing several patches of feathers that passed nearby.

"The Fatties got exactly what they've been asking for!" the black-eyed female Gryphon responded, looking smug and flexing her cuffed talons.

One of the earth pony guards frowned at the Gryphon and explained where the fight had started as well as who ended it.

"No one was killed, but there are several on both sides that will need medical attention."

Well, there goes today's scavenged medical supplies. Shining Armor shook his head, frowning.

"Have the royal sisters been told about this yet?"

"We sent a messenger fifteen minutes ago. If they don't know yet, they soon will."

"Good. Hopefully it will be Luna who shows up and not Celestia." The guard tilted his head in confusion.

"Sir?"

"I never thought I'd say this, but Celestia is too forgiving. This plague could very well mean the end of our species, and we're fighting each other instead of the undead. This cannot be let go with only a rap on the fetlock."

It was luna that arrived, and the punishment she meted out was indeed more than a mere scolding. She offered them an ultimatum: either those involved pulled triple the work load of what passed for the daily activity of the Canterlot citizen in these times for the next month, or they would be teleported outside the safety of the stone walls with only a single weapon each to defend themselves and would not be allowed back in for the same amount of time. It was a punishment that Celestia only allowed because both of them doubted any of those being punished would be daring (or stupid) enough to take the second option.

They, and the whole of their colony were shocked to find out, however, that there were some willing to risk life and limb outside! Twenty six chose to be placed outside the walls. Of those twenty six, only four of them were ponies, and all four of them were Unicorns. When they were asked why-

"-in the name of all creation, why do you feel that that is the better alternative?!" they replied that while it was indeed going to be dangerous that nearly all of the Lower District had yet to be looted by them and there was probably an abundance of canned, bottled, and packaged goods that could be scavenged.

"And really, who better to go out into that Shambler-infested place than those that can't be turned into one of them?" the same she-Gryphon that had spoken to Shining Armor earlier added with a shrug. "Besides, it gets us away from the Fatties."

Though the princesses did not like it, their choice had been made, and after giving them their promised weapons, sent them outside the following morning. There were many well-wishers amongst those that had gathered to watch them go, but there were many more who though them insane, or just plain fools.

"They're marching to their deaths." One frowning nurse declared. He shrugged. "But, it is their lives. The princesses tried to give them a way out."

"Well, they're not wrong." A Minotaur called down from atop one of the rooftop walkways as he carried materials to the building across the street. "Most of the time when our scavengers go out prospecting they leave the city entirely. The Lower District is probably a proverbial goldmine of supplies for anyone bold and skilled enough to reclaim it." He paused a moment to watch one of the Unicorns swish her weapon and decapitate a Shambler that had gotten too close to her. The head rolled across the ground and came to a stop at the sidewalk as the rest of the body crumpled to the cobblestones. "But you're probably right, too. It doesn't take a pair of wings or binoculars to see all the bodies roaming around down there."

Shining Armor stood behind one of the metal gates, watching their progress until they had moved around the bend and out of sight, a slight twinge of envy prodding at him. This was his city. This mountain was where his grandparents were buried. This place was a sanctuary from the Tartarus Equestria had become. And now, he finally realized, this place was also his jail cell.

Turning about, he marched back up to the castle to begin planning in earnest the taking back of his home from the undead.

Comments

[AlternateTime]

I think that you may have skipped over a few lines.