Royal Relations

by DamagedQ

Chapter 4 - No Más, No Más

“Great, follow me,” Shining Armor chirped. Some of the guards began making their way out, while others stayed and watched, still curious about the prince.

Shining Armor showed Spry around the barracks with a short summary of most things, somewhat intriguing to the young prince.

“This looks very similar to the barracks in Makuria, but admittedly a little better constructed,” the prince commented after a few moments.

“Thanks, I suppose. It’s not very usual for a prince to know his barracks very well,” he replied, surprised.

“Well, I train with the guards a lot. My father says it’s good for me, and it’s kinda fun, anyways,” he replied, still staring straight ahead while walking with the captain.

“Really now?” he replied smugly. “Then we’ll have to see which one of us is better sometime.”

“I suppose we will,” Spry responded with the faintest hint of a smirk.

“It’s a deal then,” Shining Armor told him. “Well, it’s just about five thirty, so what do you say we head on over to the dining hall?” Spry nodded his agreement before they went off.

---

“Luna, have you seen the young prince?”

Luna turned to her sister, “Spry? No, I have no idea where he is.”

“Well, we’re just waiting on him and Shining Armor,” Celestia replied. “But I suppose everyone did get here a bit early, so they have some time.”

King Brisk squinted his eyes in an inward pout, upset that his son was the cause of some disturbance, no matter how small of one it was. His mood lifted, however, when the two doors across the room opened to reveal the two missing people.

Everyone was already seated and most of them were busy conversing with one another. Celestia was seated at the head of the table, and everyone else was lined up on either side. Two seats were left open for Spry and Shining Armor.

The prince and captain split ways, as their reserved spaces were on opposite ends of the table, the former of the two getting curious looks from everyone he had not yet been introduced to. He took his seat in between a fair-skinned, pink-haired pegasus and another girl with curly, darker pink hair.

He had convinced Shining Armor to let him drop off the books in his room before they went to dinner, and he agreed, following him the entire way. Spry, of course, never let him see the true identity of the books he had in his possession.

He noticed the order in which the attendees were placed seemed to be from more composed –starting with Celestia- to less mature, based on the way in which everyone was conversing. In his current situation, Spry felt as though he had been tossed into the kids table with several hyperactive, young girls. Spry looked to the one person near him that he recognized, the girl from the library. The pink-haired girl next to him gasped rather conspicuously when she saw the prince. Spry winced uncomfortably and leaned away from her just a little, refusing to acknowledge her presence by looking at her.

“Hey Spry,” the purple-haired unicorn chirped. “How’ve you been?”

“Hello, Twilight, I’m doing well. I presume you’ve been doing alright since our previous encounter?” he asked while keeping his emotionless stare.

“Yes, of course,” she replied happily. “These are my friends Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity.”

Spry looked to each one as they were introduced, committing their names to memory for later.

“Howdy.”

“H-hello…”

“Sup?”

“Hi!”

“Why hello, darling.”

“I’m pleased to make your acquaintances,” he said softly, keeping his emotions hidden behind a straight face. There was a short pause before anyone spoke. It was the girl with the impossibly-colored rainbow hair.

“It’s sure doesn’t look like it,” the tomboyish pegasus commented, looking away a little bit. She was immediately nudged and reprimanded by the pale, purple-haired girl next to her.

“That’s no way to treat a new friend, Rainbow Dash,” she growled, “Especially a prince.”

“I’m sorry… It’s my fault,” the prince said barely over a whisper, looking anywhere but at the girls he was addressing.

“See, Rainbow. He’s not mean, he’s just shy… like Fluttershy,” Applejack said, holding back a snicker. Again he had been compared to the one called Fluttershy, and he still did not know why people found her so similar to himself. At least he had finally been introduced to her. He looked over to the girl who had been introduced as Fluttershy and examined her for a moment.

“Are you sure?” Rainbow Dash countered, “‘because it looks like he really doesn’t care.”

After a few seconds of being examined by the prince, Fluttershy flipped her hair a little and hid behind her long, pink hair. Spry realized he was staring and lightly grunted before he did the same, covering his eyes with his black hair and looking off to the side.

“Oh,” Rainbow Dash said in realization. “I kinda see it now.”

Spry and the girls looked towards the other end of the table when the elder royalty stopped talking amongst themselves. Princess Celestia, who was seated at the head of the table, stood up out of her seat and prepared to address the company.

“Hello everyone, we’re sincerely happy to have you all here tonight. For those of you who haven’t met our guests, here we have King Brisk Villanueva, along with his son, Prince Roí Spry Villanueva.”

Of course, she pronounced it perfectly… Spry thought to himself as his father stood as well and cleared his throat.

“Thank you, Celestia. And now a toast, to the very persons who invited us to their great country. To Princess Celestia, whose sun gives light to all the nations of the earth, and to Princess Luna, whose moon’s magic rays move the tides of the world,” he spoke in his slight Makurian accent. All of the elder royals responded in murmurs of agreement before lifting their own glasses and joining the king in a sip of champagne. Spry merely stared disinterestedly at them as they finished and talked cordially among themselves once again.

“Your father’s quite the gentleman,” Rarity told the prince.

“I suppose he always has been,” he replied softly and then sighed.

Several attendants, waiters, and other relating staff members suddenly flooded the room and began placing dishes of various Equestrian cuisines along the center of the table, careful to do their job both quickly and without fail.

Captain Shining Armor was the first who Spry saw to take a portion of something, soon followed by the young woman sitting next to him. Everyone else did the same, feeling that it was okay to take food after a couple others had done it first.

Two armored guards rushed in as the rest of the staff were leaving, causing several heads to turn their way. They efficiently made their way to Shining Armor before standing at attention.

“Captain,” one of them began breathlessly. “A prisoner escaped into the palace while being transported to a different cell by a new recruit. Actions are currently being carried out to apprehend him, but nothing’s been sent back yet. Do you suggest we put an alert out to the entire staff?”

“No,” he replied immediately before taking a brief moment to think, “There shouldn’t be any unneeded interruptions to this dinner. It’s barely begun. I’ll come with you for a moment. There mustn’t be any time wasted.”

The captain stood up and turned the guards before looking back to the table. “My apologies, but an urgent matter has come up that must be attended to. It shouldn’t take long.”

“It’s alright. Make sure the prisoner is dealt with,” Princess Celestia said dismissively.

“Spry, go with the captain and help out,” Brisk said suddenly, turning in the direction of his son.

“Yes, sir,” was all the prince said in reply, standing up and pushing the chair out from the table.

“Brisk, are you sure about this?” Princess Celestia asked immediately, “There’s potential for this intruder to be dangerous.”

“Spry can handle himself,” the king replied dismissively.

Spry stepped out from the table and turned to the captain. “Shall we go, then?” he asked politely. The captain nodded wearily and followed the guards quickly across the room. Spry followed leisurely, but remained close.

Before Shining Armor could get even halfway to the door however, it suddenly burst open as an unfamiliar man ran through them, dressed in black pants and a black shirt with a white number across it. Based on the man’s appearance and captain’s reaction, Spry deduced that it was the prisoner. With a shortened battle cry, the two armored guards were the first to rush at him, each from the same side. Spry turned his head and looked back at the dinner guests, thinking how inappropriate this situation must have been at the moment.

The intruder easily dodged as one guard flung himself through the air and countered the other guard’s tackle with a swift undercut to the stomach. With both guards on the ground, the room grew silent as everyone at the table watched intently. Celestia was astonished and embarrassed that something such as this would happen in the presence of visiting royals, but she remained relatively composed. The captain hesitated slightly, stopping to look at the intruder.

Spry’s expression, however, didn’t seem to change at all as he slowly shuffled over to the unknown assailant. The intruder looked at him crossly for a moment before examining him.

“What are you, some sort of bat?” he spat, ready to take him on. The unknown man bounced around, ready for a fight, as the prince stared at him with a straight face.

“Stop staring at me like that!” the unknown man shouted, becoming infuriated at the prince’s disinterested attitude. Spry considered for a moment the mental stability of this man.

“Ahh! I’m going to kill you!” he finally spat, charging at the young prince. Spry was nearly certain at this point that the man did not have everything right in his head.

What’s got him so worked up? Spry thought before easily side-stepping the man’s punch, almost causing him to stumble. He slowly recovered and looked back to the prince.

“Now I’m angry!” he yelled heatedly.

The prince sighed.

“What do you want?” Spry asked calmly.

“What did you say?” the intruder responded angrily, cooling off a little bit due to confusion.

“Why would you think charging into a room with both of your princesses present would be a good idea in your situation? Aren’t you trying to escape?” he asked, thinking of no logical reason for the current situation. If he ended up here, he most likely got lost on his way to wherever he was trying to go, and he was rather pugnacious, which indicated further towards an unstable mental condition. Either that or he was just immensely stupid.

“That’s none of your business!”

The man tried to charge him once again, readying a punch and aiming it straight at the prince’s face. He was nearly a few feet away from the prince, and the prince had made to sign of moving. The man drew back and hollered, ready to connect, before thrusting his fist forward.

The prince still did not move, keeping a steady and rather bored expression. The man was mere inches away from his face, putting nearly all of his weight into the strike.

The man pushed forward, punching the air and stumbling forward onto his stomach. Spry was now behind the man, still watching with his bored expression.

“What in tarnation just happened?” Applejack muttered to herself, astounded, breaking the silence at the table.

The man stood up and spun around as fast as he could to look at the prince.

“How did you do that?” he demanded, “Was it teleportation?” he yelled at the boy.

Spry gave no answer, angering the intruder even further. The man staggered to his feet and charged at the prince again. This time, however, he didn’t put as much weight behind it so he would stay on his feet if he missed. He did miss, and looked extremely shocked when he saw the prince blur out of existence in front of him. To those who couldn’t follow his speed, it was impossible to tell where the prince really was. He was sure his father could see through it, but he doubted anyone else in the room could; certainly not this prisoner.

The intruder caught something out of the corner of his eye and turned his head, just in time to see the prince’s foot heading straight for his face. He called out for a second before he was cut off by the kick and was knocked backwards several yards before basically rolling to a stop. The prince wasn’t too strong, but the force he was able to achieve by rotating his body by flapping his wings was immense, and enough to end the fight with one blow.

The prince landed from the kick before standing up straight. He sighed and walked over to the sprawled out body that lay about twenty feet away. The prince nudged him in the side with his foot, eliciting a tired groan, before bending over and picking him up.

He tossed the pugnacious intruder over his shoulder quite easily, which seemed contradictory to his seemingly frail stature, and walked back to the two armored guards, who had managed to recover during the prince’s short fight. The prince presented the body to the guards, who stared at him for a moment before eventually snapping out of their thoughts and taking the incapacitated intruder.

“O-Oh, right,” one of them exclaimed before snatching him up. Both of the guards carried the body out of the room, shutting the door behind them on their way out. Spry turned around, facing his father.

“You’ve been out of practice too long, Spry,” his father said in a disappointed drawl.

“Yes sir, I know. I’ll work on it tonight,” the prince replied softly with a curt bow to his father.

Prince Spry then returned to his seat at the same time as Captain Shining Armor. Shining Armor, feeling that the silence was getting awkward, decided to speak up.

“Remind me never to catch Prince Spry in a bad mood,” he chuckled, attempting to put humor back in the situation.

“I’ll say,” Princess Celestia said softly, but still in a serious tone.

He didn’t even use any magic, the princess thought seriously.

“Whoa, you have to teach me how to move that fast!” Rainbow Dash demanded, leaning over the table slightly to get closer to him. From that point, conversation slowly started up again, mostly on the elder side. Spry could hear many embarrassed-sounding apologies coming from the elder princess while Brisk insisted that it was of no consequence.

“Perhaps…” the prince replied softly. “I don’t know how well I could teach it… or how well you could learn it.”

Rainbow Dash sat back in her chair, but still looked at him accusatorily.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked indignantly. The prince stared at her for a few moments before replying.

“I came up with the technique myself. I don’t know if someone with anatomy so different from mine could perfect the same thing,” he explained, “At the very least, it would have to be altered to fit your body type.”

“I’ll have you know, I’m the fastest flier in Equestria,” Rainbow Dash boasted proudly.

“Even after what you just saw?” Pinkie Pie asked with a giggle.

Rainbow Dash faltered, “Yes, Pinkie!” she growled. Pinkie Pie ignored her friend and turned to the prince sitting next to him.

“Why are you so shy? We should throw you a party so you can make more friends!” she said excitedly.

This caused Spry to turn away uncomfortably and inadvertently face Fluttershy. Fluttershy noticed him and moved her pink hair in front of her face, hiding from the prince, but still looking at him with one eye. That, in turn, provoked Spry look down and blush, also flipping his hair over his eyes. They stayed like that for a few moments, only daring to look up at each other for milliseconds at a time.

Rainbow Dash couldn’t hold back a snicker. “This is hilarious,” she chuckled softly.

“Aww, that’s so cute!” Rarity cooed. “They’re exactly alike; they’d make a perfect couple.”

“Ah’m sure that’s the last thing either of them are thinkin’, Rares,” Applejack interjected.

Both Fluttershy and Spry were now looking down at the table and blushing brightly, with their hair covering the top halves of their faces.

“It’s okay, I d-don’t really like parties. Well, I’ve never been to one before, but based on my preferences, I doubt it would be a particularly enjoyable experience.”

Pinkie Pie stared at him wide-eyed for several moments until Spry felt the need to shift his gaze towards her. He immediately regretted doing so, however, because she couldn’t have been more than two inches away from his face.

“Gah!” he yelped, leaning away from her.

He accidentally brushed against Fluttershy, causing her to yelp and lean in the opposite direction. She leaned a little too far, however, and grabbed the unsuspecting prince for support. The prince, being somewhat of a lightweight, wasn’t much of an anchor and they both spilled backwards out of their chairs. They landed with a somewhat disruptive thud.

Several clangs were heard as the guests set their utensils down to look over at the two of them. They both awkwardly stood up and took their seats, Spry pulling Fluttershy’s chair out for her to be polite. He nonchalantly proceeded to sit down and stab a few pieces of lettuce from his salad with a fork before eating it, pretending like nothing had happened. The royals looked at him idly before turning back to their own conversations, forgetting about the strange occurrence.

The prince looked up for a moment to confirm that everyone had forgotten about it. He saw his father staring at him sternly for a second before turning back to answer a question of Princess Celestia.

Rainbow Dash chuckled quietly but uncontrollably, and Spry didn’t like how the tomboyish pegasus found humor in all of his mishaps. Next to Spry, the pink-haired pegasus managed to fix her hair and sit up straight again.

“Won’t you please stop laughing,” the prince requested, slightly flustered. Unfortunately, no one on the opposite side of the table had a chance of hearing him due to the general noise of their surroundings. He grunted lightly as he was ignored.

“Umm… excuse me, Rainbow Dash?” the shy girl asked politely, much louder than the prince was able to. “I don’t think Prince Spry appreciates you laughing at him. I-I mean, I’m sure you don’t mean anything by it, but…”

Rainbow Dash looked over to her friend in hopes of enlightening her on the funny part of the situation, but forgot about that when she saw how genuinely concerned she was.

“Oh… Geez Fluttershy, I’m sorry. I guess that would be kinda uncool if Spry got the wrong impression,” she said thoughtfully, mostly to herself. The laughter ceased and made some room for conversation, which Spry immediately regretted. He still looked over to Fluttershy in appreciation, though. The girl hid behind her hair and blushed again.

“So, Prince Spry,” Rarity gushed. “How is it being royalty?”

“It’s… okay, I suppose,” he replied, looking down slightly.

“What kind of answer it that, darling? Do you not simply love being treated like a prince?” she asked flamboyantly.

“Well, I’m not all that… accepted in my country. Appearances make a big difference there,” he said matter-of-factly.

“Oh, I’m simply devastated to hear that, darling,” she replied, looking crushed.

Why is she addressing me in such a tone? Is she mocking me…?

“Now that I look at ya, you do look kinda funny,” Pinkie Pie suddenly interrupted, inspecting him at an unreasonably close distance. “…and batty,” she added, prodding one of his wings. Spry twitched uncomfortably, but said nothing and kept his blank stare.

“Pinkie, stop that,” Twilight reprimanded. Spry then looked to her, realizing that she hadn’t spoken in a while. Twilight, feeling on the spot, quickly came up with something to ask him.

“So, what were you reading back in the library a few hours ago?” she asked curiously.

“… It was a mythology of sorts; although, I’m not sure why, because according to the book, it was proven to be true…” he replied in thought. “It had to do with a race of people whose bodies are composed entirely of crystal. It was rather interesting. Apparently, they’ve gotten a new monarch, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”

“Oh, really?” she responded, perking up a little. “You know, that’s her right over there. The girl sitting next to my brother,” she clarified. Spry turned his head and followed Twilight’s gaze. He saw the person to which she was referring, but the only male figure sitting on either side of her was Captain Shining Armor.

“Shining Armor is your brother?” Spry asked softly.

“Yeah,” she chuckled. “He’s captain of the Royal Guard.”

“So I’ve heard… I presume it’s a prestigious occupation,” he replied in thought, taking another bite of his salad, still looking curiously at the princess.

The princess caught their gazes out of the corner of her eye and turned towards the other half of the table, but it was Twilight she saw first. The princess smiled at her for a moment before turning to the prince. Her smile widened and she waved. The prince managed to change his poker face into a slight grin and gave her a nervous half-wave back. She seemed to get the message and she shook her head whilst chuckling to herself.

The prince turned back to the girls and listened to the sudden new topic of conversation. He must’ve missed the change of topic.

“I’m telling you, there’s no way that ravenous Blueblood is still walking around this castle,” the purple-haired girl argued.

“I’m pretty sure he would still be allowed in his own royalty’s palace,” Twilight reasoned. The prince ignored the fact that a new conversation had been started in literally a few seconds without his noticing, and he looked across at the conversing girls.

The conversation went on as the prince daydreamed rather than listening. It pleased him more; to stay in his own mind instead of getting involved with others who may be annoying, much like this rainbow-haired girl. He was generally an introvert. He stared at her blankly, but thought of her distastefully. She spoke while chewing, smacked her food, maintained a rather boisterous personality, and was generally loud and obnoxious. He didn’t know her very well, but he knew they weren’t going to have any sort of friendly relationship.

He shifted his gaze to the two sitting to the obnoxious girl’s left: the unicorn he met at the library and the blonde with a heavy country accent. The purple-haired girl was alright; she was intelligent, at least. The other didn’t seem as intelligent, but seemed nice enough. Spry really had no opinion on either of these two. They could be friends… or not. It didn’t really matter. Anything was possible, as he was going to be in Equestria for a while. His father had to leave after a few more days, but he was going to stay for at least the next couple weeks, probably.

Next he looked to his right. He saw the other unicorn, called Rarity, sitting next to Rainbow Dash across the table, and the girl sitting to his right with curly pink hair. The unicorn seemed nice, and he was able to deduce that she wasn’t mocking him earlier; she just spoke with a strange flourish. But Spry decided a long time ago that strange was good. However, she was rather winey and nosey. He had no opinion of her.

The boisterous, pink-haired girl was just as loud and obnoxious as the girl sitting across from her, if not more so, but she minded her manners at the table, and didn’t seem to have even the smallest bit of malicious intent. The prince didn’t really have an opinion of her either.

Lastly was the shy, pink-haired girl. He glanced over to her for a second and then looked down at the table, not wanting to make her uncomfortable by staring as he thought. Fluttershy was her name, and she was very much like Spry in many ways. There wasn’t much he knew to judge her by, but from what he could deduce, she wouldn’t be a bad friend. He could hang around her for a long time without the fear of her being talkative or annoying. She had some potential.

Spry started paying attention again when all six girls started laughing, somewhat accurately marking the end of their conversation. The prince stared at the girls until they finished. Rainbow Dash turned to address him, and he stared at her expectantly as she waited for the laughter to die down.

“So, can you tell me how you moved that fast yet?” she asked hopefully.

“It’s not something I can simply tell you…” the prince replied softly. “But…”

Rainbow Dash leaned towards him excitedly. He responded with an emotionless stare.

“…I’ll be practicing tonight if you want me to try to teach you,” he finished unenthusiastically.

“Really, you mean it? I mean, yeah! I’ll be there!” she replied excitedly.

“So Spry, how did you become so skilled in something like fighting? It seems rather… out of character for you,” Rarity said carefully.

“I suppose it could be considered unfitting for me,” he replied after a bit of thought. “It was merely a coincidence that I was a natural at fighting. Admittedly, I’m a bit lacking in physical strength, and you’ve already noticed my stature is small… but I’m all about speed. If no one can touch you, you can’t lose, and when I find an opening large enough, I can gain momentum with my wings and make effective counter attacks.

“That’s what I need to practice tonight. At the moment, I can’t easily go on the offensive. I have to stay defensive for a long time until I get a very large opening. It just happened to come quickly when you watched because the intruder was so inexperienced.”

“I don’t quite understand,” Twilight interrupted during the prince’s small pause. “You hit that man very hard and very quickly. How could you say that you need a large opening when your attack would have been effective in a very small opening?”

“Well, even though it’s extremely unlikely, if I were to miss, or if my opponent were able to dodge my attack, they would have ample time to make a counter attack. I get a lot of momentum when I attack, and it takes a lot of energy to stop mid swing if I miss. Anyway, that’s the problem I’ll be attempting to fix. I’m not yet sure how, but I’ll probably come up with something.”

“That other guy didn’t have time to see it coming, much less dodge it,” Rainbow Dash affirmed, “I don’t think there’s anyone out there fast enough to dodge it! Except maybe me, ‘cause I’m like the fastest flier in Equestria and stuff.”

Spry ignored her last comment and replied in a loud whisper.

“Trust me; there are people out there who are much better than I am.” He clearly spoke from experience, “I’m still completely outmatched by most of the captains of the royal guard in Makuria.”

Captain Shining Armor flicked his eyes over to Spry as he heard some of the words he had said. From that point on, he attempted to inconspicuously listen in on what the prince was revealing.

“Captains?” Twilight asked confusedly. “You mean you have more than one?”

The prince sighed when he realized he was going to have to explain the entirety of the ranking system of Makurian royal guard.

“There are exactly one hundred soldiers in Makuria’s royal guard. There are ten captains, and two lieutenants directly under each captain. Besides the two lieutenants, there are seven other positions under each captain. These positions are placed miscellaneously with no rank until they are promoted to lieutenant.”

Twilight, being the person she was, did the math in her head and found that to be exactly one hundred people. However, she raised an eyebrow at the prince once she thought for long enough.

“Do the ten captains share the responsibility of leadership then? Why does the top rank have ten positions to be filled? What would happen if there’s some sort of disagreement?” she asked as she continued to realize the different possible problems.

“There’s a colonel,” the prince said quickly before Twilight could ask something else. “There is one colonel that presides over all ten captains.”

“But then… would that not make one hundred and one soldiers?” Twilight asked thoughtfully.

Spry stared at her with a deadpan expression for a moment, but no one seemed to notice because it looked almost identical to his usual expression.

“He’s not really a soldier. Over time, the position of colonel has more or less become a position of royalty. It seems that the situation is very similar with your Captain,” Spry said, glancing over to the captain.

Slightly to his surprise, the Captain was looking straight back at him, listening intently. The prince showed no sign of it and turned back to the girls.

“I train directly under the Colonel. Much like the relationship you have with Princess Celestia. I believe he might visit for a short time if he gets the chance.”

“He couldn’t just leave the rest of the royal guard like that, can he? What if he’s needed for something urgent?” Twilight continued.

How can she have so many questions? Spry thought before replying.

“The captains will take care of anything. They’re usually the ones that make the decisions anyway, as a council. The colonel is there just in case of a tie. The colonel is also the only one who can authorize promotions or changing of positions throughout the royal guard.”

“So the colonel is just the brains behind the operations? Then why is there a need for a colonel when the captains can make decisions on their own?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at her egghead friend’s endless stream of questions. It seemed almost like a good-natured interrogation.

“Usually the ones that fight best on the front lines have a better mind for these kinds of positions. All of the positions are chosen either by the head captain, or if someone of a lower rank proves themselves to be a better fighter than their superior, usually through a battle.”

“So if the higher ranking officer loses in battle, then they switch positions?” she asked.

“More or less,” Spry said before the conversation was interrupted by several waiters and other kitchen staff suddenly appearing. They quickly took up the dishes that were already spread across the table and replaced it with all kinds of fruits and desserts.

“Yay, dessert!” the obnoxious pink-haired girl cheered. She then proceeded to shove an entire piece of cake in her mouth.

Why is she even here? Where could they have even found a person like this? the prince thought as he watched the pink-haired girl ungracefully devour an entire piece of cake in one bite.

For a few moments, the only noises were people getting and eating food. There was silence as Spry stared disinterestedly at the supposed Equestrian cuisine.

“You’re not going to eat anything?” Pinkie Pie asked curiously, eyeing the prince with suspicion. “It’s really, really good, I promise! All you’ve eaten so far is half a salad, and it doesn’t look like you’re very well fed anyways,” she said, causing almost every head on her end of the table to turn to her. Twilight looked ready to face palm, and everyone else seemed to just be watching curiously. The prince sighed and turned to her slowly.

“I’m not that hungry right now,” he said softly. “I’ll take your word for the excellence of it.”

“Aww, fine. But you’ll have to try some of my cake later. It’s the best in Equestria!”

“It’s a deal, then,” he said softly with no sincerity before taking another bite of his salad. The interest of the onlookers faded as they realized the prince had taken no offense at all to Pinkie’s statement.

The remainder of the meal went similarly; although, most conversations didn’t include Spry. When he wasn’t answering others’ questions, he preferred to sit back and listen to the girls’ conversations. He was even able to accumulate a decent amount of background information on each of them. He was generally pleased with how the dinner went, but still had little interest in the six Equestrian girls.

---

After the dinner, he went straight towards the barracks; although, he went leisurely so it took a little while. There, he found the somewhat familiar room from before. He also noticed an adjoining smaller room, like on office, separated from the barracks with a thick pane of glass. He peered inside and saw the captain sitting at a desk, writing on some documents. Spry dismissed it as paperwork and kept walking.

Next, he found an area that seemed to be for sparring, along with training equipment along the wall. He scanned the equipment, and the first thing that caught his eye was several swords. They were commonplace in any barracks, but there seemed to be two different types here. There were two barrels, one containing standard issue guard swords; a little beat up but in relatively good condition. The other barrel held just as many wooden swords, each of them worn out from use.

He skipped the faux swords and pulled one of the guard’s swords out of the barrel. It was curved, sharp steel, like a scimitar with golden hilt, matching the theme of colors the prince had seen from the Equestrian Royal Guard so far.

He had used a sword before, but was far from a practicing swordsman. He preferred to learn how to protect himself while unarmed, as that would be the case most of the time. Unless he carried a sword around with him all the time, he figured that practicing with one would be useless. However, he did consider it often, mostly due to the advisement from his mentor, Jury. The colonel often tried to convince the prince that it would be a very sensible skill for someone of his position. Spry decided he might take it up soon.

He put the sword back and looked further along the wall, finding some body armor, obviously for training, along with some real suits of armor. He lifted one up a little. He could barely do it; although, he was only using one hand. From the way it felt, he wasn’t sure if he could even move inside of one. Good thing he didn’t need to wear armor.

“So… um… hey Spry,” a voice said softly from the doorway behind the prince. The prince turned around to meet the visitor.

“Hello, miss Rainbow Dash,” he said softly.

“Heh… Just call me Rainbow,” she chuckled nervously.

Strange… she didn’t act this way at dinner…

“Of course,” he replied thoughtfully, in almost a whisper, “So you’d like me to try to teach you, is that right?”

“Yeah,” she responded a little more enthusiastically, “If you don’t mind, of course.”

“I haven’t got anything better to do, so I’ll try my best to help you,” he decided after a moment.

“Cool, so what’s first?” she asked excitedly.

A good question…

The Prince walked up to her in the middle of the room, pondering how to begin. He extended his own wings and looked back at them, remembering everything he did to move in quick, short bursts, like this girl wanted to do.

“You claim to be the fastest flier in Equestria, so I assume you have at least some basis for that claim, whether it’s true or not. You probably aren’t slow, is what I mean. I guess that’s good.”

The prince paused and thought again. Rainbow dash didn’t respond, but listened intently to what he was saying.

“Well, I guess the first move is to propel yourself as fast as you can with one thrust, and then stopping yourself with another thrust of equal force in the opposite direction.”

She looked bewildered for a moment, so he quickly tried to explain it differently.

“I suppose it might be easier to try it before trying to understand it,” he decided. “Just thrust as hard as you can with one flap and keep your wings back. Then thrust your wings forward when you want to stop.”

“Well, sure,” she replied confidently, “Sounds like a piece of cake.”

Rainbow Dash leaned forward and prepared her wings for a powerful thrust, glancing at the prince for a moment. She went forward faster than Spry imagined she would, but it seemed she had trouble stopping. She slowed down a lot when she flapped forward, but didn’t stop completely, stumbling straight towards the equipment lining the wall. Spry decided to let her try to catch herself, but he realized the swords in one of the barrels could be a potential danger, so he zoomed in front of her and caught her before she could reach them.

“Oof!” Rainbow Dash gasped as she hit the prince.

He flew forward as he caught the girl so he wouldn’t get knocked back as well before letting Rainbow Dash stand up on her own. She looked up with a slightly embarrassed expression. The prince didn’t react to it, as his attention was elsewhere when the light in Captain Shining Armor’s office went out and the captain stepped out and shut the door. When the captain glanced over, the prince looked back to Rainbow Dash and tried to help her with her current problem.

I wonder what they’re doing here, Shining Armor thought to himself as he continued to step out of the barracks.

The captain nearly jumped when he saw King Brisk leaning up against the wall just outside of the room, apparently waiting for him. The captain recovered quickly and walked a few steps towards the king. Brisk barely moved his head, rolling his eyes to the side to watch the captain.

“What’s on your mind, Captain?” he asked gruffly, but quietly enough so neither the prince nor the girl could hear.

“Nothing really, but… would you mind if I asked you something? About your son,” he clarified, slowly walking towards the relaxed king.

“Not at all,” he replied, “Was he bothering you?”

“No, nothing like that,” the captain replied quickly, “I was just wondering, where do those wings and teeth of his come from?” he asked curiously. The king closed his eyes and sighed, taking a moment to think.

“I can’t really say. He’s not related to me by blood, you know. I have no other heirs, I adopted Spry when he was ten or eleven years old. That’s how old he seemed anyways. It was always a mystery to him. We use the day I adopted him as his birthday.”

“I see,” the captain responded thoughtfully, “What made you decide to adopt, instead of marrying and having a child of your own?”

“…I suppose I should start from the beginning,” the king replied.

No more than a second later, a crash resounded through the barracks. The captain moved to get up before he decided that the prince could handle himself. He turned back to listen to the king’s story.

---

What just happened…? The prince thought miserably as he lay underneath a few suits of armor with a girl draped across his midsection.

I can’t keep catching her like this. She’s too stubborn to learn something new.

“That was a little better,” the prince lied, shoving away the piled up pieces of armor from on top of him. Rainbow Dash groaned and lifted her head up to look at the prince.

“How can you stop so well?” she pouted. “Is there some kind of secret or are your wings just that strong?”

The prince thought for a few seconds until something occurred to him. Colonel Jury did have him do a lot of exercises every day, claiming they had something to do with back and wing strength.

“Oh… strength training,” he mumbled.

“Strength training?” she asked curiously. “Like what?”

“Just pushups and pull ups,” he said, remembering the exercises his mentor always made him do.

“Is that what you did?” she asked skeptically.

“Yeah. Three or four hundred of each every day,” he remembered, “It’s not hard if you spread them out, instead of trying to do them all at once.”

“That… would explain it,” Rainbow Dash said softly. “You think I should do that?” she asked unpleasantly.

“You’ll probably have to if you want to move faster, but, umm… Rainbow Dash?” he asked nervously.

“Hmm? What is it?” She cocked her head in confusion.

“Could you, umm… get up, please?” he asked awkwardly, looking to the side and blushing slightly. Rainbow Dash blushed as well and stood up as quickly as she could, nearly tripping over one of the suits of armor. The prince stood up slowly and slid the jumbled armor up against the wall with his foot.

“Okay, let me give this one more shot before we call it a night,” Rainbow dash said determinedly before setting up for another try.

Oh, great…

“W-wait. Let me just stand over here first,” the prince decided before walking straight into her line of sight on the opposite side of the room.

“Geez Spry, you’re making me think I’m gonna crash,” she told him disconcertedly.

“It’s okay, it couldn’t be worse than the last one,” the prince replied candidly.

“Ha ha very funny, now get ready.”

The prince wasn’t joking, but he did as he was told.

She leaned forward and flared up her wings before looking straight into Spry’s eyes. The prince was shocked by her look of determination, but he was terrified by her setup. By the way she was postured, it looked as if she was ready to bust through the wall behind him. If she was having trouble stopping before, this was going to end horribly.

The prince barely had time to get out a syllable before the girl took off in his direction. He knew it was going to end badly when she was only a few feet away from him and still hadn’t slowed down.

Well… it was a good run…

Author's Note:

Longer chapter than normal
please comment if you have any criticism. Downvote if you want to, but I'd like to hear how I could make it better if you don't like something.