Setting Out
Chivalry
Celestia's sun was nearing it's apex as a young stallion marched his way to the royal library, giving distracted nods and greetings to the other unicorns along the way. His golden armor was standard issue, yet polished to a mirror shine. His coat was the dull grey that all unicorn guard shared, save for his short cropped mane and tail, which were an iridescent blue, having not yet earned his helmet. Pausing at the massive doors, he gave a small sigh, "Twily I'd expect this from, but I think she's starting to rub off on Cadence." He muttered, resigned as he opened the door and gave a passing nod to the mare at the front desk. Both of them knew exactly where he was going. Trotting up the stairs, he followed the well worn path to the private wing reserved for Court Sage. Without bothering to knock, he pushed the doors open with a slight bump of magic, revealing one of the greatest collections of knowledge in all of Equestria... in it's usual state of total disarray.
"Princess Mi Amore Candenza, your chariot is waiting." he called out formally, but not too loud. This was a library after all, as his sister often reminded him. His words seemed to take a few moments to register as a pink coated mare popped out from behind a large stack of books.
"W-What? already?" she looked worriedly around for a clock, the young princess' multi-hued mane had been pulled back into a messy pony tail, several hairs sticking out of place. Judging from her dazed expression, sleep hadn't been top priority.
"Five minutes ago, Featherbrain." The grey stallion prodded good-naturedly, receiving a blush and pout from the mare in return.
"Hmph, so insolent. That's hardly a way to talk to royalty." she shot back with her best haughty voice, though it was ruined by the bemused twinkle in her eye. It only lasted a moment before both broke into laughter. Shining began to telekinetically move some of the books aside so the young princess could stretch a bit.
"Seriously though, pulling an all-nighter before the Summer Sun Celebration? Surely your studies could have waited till a night you didn't need to stay up for." he said softly, passing an annoyed glance to the Court Sage's office. "I know Twi can be a taskmaster, but this is-"
"Shining," She rested a hoof of the stallion's shoulder to get him to turn to face her, offering a tired smile. "She didn't force me to stay up, I wanted to help. This was really important."
"What could possibly-"
"So it appears that's all the time we have?" Twilight's serious tone silenced the younger ponies. The office door opened, revealing an older mare with a purple coat, a pair of glasses balanced on the tip of her nose. While Cadence simple looked tired, her mentor appeared to be the very definition of exhaustion.
"Sis, what's wrong?" Shining Armor asked with a worried frown. His older sister was rarely found in such a dire mood, especially on the eve of her favorite holiday. Usually, Twilight would be knee deep in clip boards, micromanaging the whole affair to make sure Celestia's arrival was perfect. The fact she was staying home spoke volumes in and of itself.
"Well..." Twilight started, but found herself cut off by the young princess.
"Oh my gosh, Shining! There's a massive celestial event occurring alongside the Summer Sun Cel-" she was cut off in turn when a purple hoof covered her mouth. Blinking in surprise, she looked to Twilight, who offered her a tired smile.
"Cadence, my faithful student." She said warmly, using the term Celestia herself used oh so long ago. "Why don't you freshen up a bit? I'll explain the situation to my brother. I've held you up long enough as it is." she said giving the alicorn's mane a friendly tussle. Cadence looked torn for a moment before nodding.
"Okay..." she nuzzled Twilight lightly, receiving one in return. "I suppose I should try to put my best hoof forward if I'm going to be meeting with the citizens." she relented with a light blush. "I probably look like a mess."
"I don't know, I heard bed head is in this season." Shining snarked, chuckling as the niece to the ruler of the country stuck out her tongue like a little filly before trotting out the door. His gaze lingered for a moment, before he turned his attention back to his sister. Twilight motioned for him to follow, her magic lifting all the discarded tomes and filing them away with hardly a conscious thought. A casual show of force that would have left even the strongest unicorns panting wasn't even breaking her stride. Only a handful of books remained in a neat stack, the top book aged and worn, with a title known to nearly every pony...
"1000 years ago there were two princesses..."
***
"The Mare in the Moon... Seriously? That's an old mare's tale." Shining Armor rolled his eyes. For as smart as his sister was, she could really get wrapped up in the silliest things. "Nightmare Moon.... what's next? You're going to tell me we need to contact all the candy makers to work overtime to sate her cannibalistic desires?"
"Every piece of fiction holds an element of fact." Twilight said patiently.
"But you're taking the whole thing as fact!" Shining Armor groaned, bringing a hoof to his face. "Well, what did the Princess say about all this?" he continued, trying to meet his sister halfway on this ludicrous tale.
"It's what she didn't say that worries me..." Twilight trailed off a bit as she looked out the window.
"Huh?"
"She never said I was wrong. She just said that I've been studying too hard and could use a break this year. She told me to look after things here while she was gone... Something about the way she said that, the look in her eyes..." Twilight bit her lip and looked pensive once more. This piqued the young stallion's interest. No pony knew Princess Celestia like his sister did, and it was small details like that that any other pony would miss. It almost started to lend a bit of credence to this ridiculous idea. "If the princess wants me to stay, I can hardly refuse." Twilight continued. "So I arranged for a replacement, no pony would question my student Cadence overseeing things in my stead with my assistant Spike. And a princess can hardly go without at least one guard..." Twilight shifted her gaze a bit as the whole situation truly began to sink in.
"Wait wait. You set up this whole excursion?" Shining had expected a lot of things, but this was as close to devious as he'd ever seen her outside of April Foal's Day. "You actually went behind the Princess' back?" It was a hard pill to swallow, not an action you expect from Celestia's most loyal retainer. At Shining's comment she seemed to calm a bit and shake her head.
"Go behind the princess' back? Hardly." Twilight gave her brother an even look. "There's no way Celestia could not have known about this. The fact she didn't stop me..." anxiety crept back into her tone before she shook her head and took a breath. "If I'm right about this, Cadence and Spike will know what to do. I want you there to protect the citizens and help Cadence in any way she might need it." her tone was serious, keeping firm eye contact with the prospective guard. After a moment, she closed her eyes and forced a small smile. "If I'm wrong, then feel free to enjoy some quality time together." the smile grew more honest as her brother flushed brightly.
"Twily, you know it's not like that!" Shining Armor definitely didn't whine, royal guards never whined after all. "We've known each other since we were foals..."
"What? Friends can't enjoy quality time?" She replied innocently, giving a small giggle at his annoyed snort. "Now I'm sure Cadence is nearly done, so I won't hold you any longer. Just one more thing." Her horn sparked for just a moment, causing a corresponding spark to arc across his breastplate. All at once the grey drained from his coat, leaving him in his natural pure white coloration.
"Twi! What the hay?!" The now-white stallion looked over his coat with panic.
"Much better with out that horrible glamour."
"You disenchanted my armor?! The grey coat is part of the unicorn guard's uniform! Oh Celestia, Lt. Rockhoof is going to kill me..."
"Brother... That coat looks ridiculous on you. It makes you look like you fell down somepony's chimney." Twilight said with a roll of her eyes. "Besides, this is an informal trip, I don't want any citizens getting too worked up if this turns out to be nothing..."
"You better fix this when I get back." he said with small frown.
"I will, I will." she placed a hoof over her heart. "Promise."
"Fine," Shining sighed, trying to let go of his frustration as his sister leaned down to nuzzle his cheek.
"Just be safe, little bother."
"Alright sis." Shining returned the affection before breaking away and heading back out. He still didn't fully buy into this old mare's tale, but he told himself to at least keep an open mind.
"All ready, Shiny?" Cadence smiled cheerfully, looking much more awake. She had cleaned herself up, hair now hanging loose and baring the light scent of lavender. She had forgone the usual 'royal' accessories, likely at Twilight's behest to keep their visit as casual as possible. It worked well for Shining in any case, he always felt awkward seeing Cadence all dolled up that way. The natural looks suited her much better.
"Yup," he returned the smile easily and fell into step at her side as they made their way to the no doubt annoyed chariot team.
***
If they were annoyed at the delay they hid it well, giving polite bows at Cadence's approach. She waved off the formality as she usually did, motioning for the pair to stand up. It was something the alicorn had to get more and more used to over time, after all her royal blood was always immediately visible.
"Took you long enough." Came a rough tenor. Spike stood from his relaxed position under a nearby tree and stretched, trying to get the kinks out. He strode toward Cadence and Shining on two legs, head even in height to the two ponies. Around his neck jingled a silver chain with a purple gem in the shape of Twilight's cutie mark, his mark of office as the official assistant to the royal sage. He raised a clawed fist and bumped it against one of Shining's fore hooves, both males grinning. The Young Dragon was a few years senior to his pony friends, having grown up right along side the pair. Granted in dragon terms he was still considered a child having only sprouted his wings last summer.
"Twilight wanted to fill Shining in on our little excursion." Cadence said causally as she took her place in the back of the Chariot.
"The whole story, You know how Twi can be." Shining added with an exaggerated roll of the eyes, getting the dragon to snicker. They clearly couldn't talk specifics with the pull team around, but there would be time enough for that later on. Shining stepped in alongside his friend. The royal chariots were usually used for the much larger Celestia, leaving plenty of room for both, but not for the third member of their party.
"Will you be okay flying the whole way?" Cadence asked with a note of concern. Spike waved it off with a fang filled smile and a thumbs up.
"No prob, I don't get to stretch my wings enough as it is." Spike flexed said wings as a point. "Besides it'll be a glide most of the way, got some good winds today." he continued. The pull team nodded in agreement. It would be a fairly short flight in any case, the small town rested in the shadow of Canterlot.
"All right then, we're all set." Cadence said cheerfully.
"Yes Ma'am." Both of the pegasi spoke in tandem and started to gallop to gain speed, flapping their wings after the first few trots and taking to the air. Spike was only a step behind, powerful muscles slowly propelling him upwards in the wake of the chariot...
Next Stop, Ponyville.
Stats
Page generated in 0.013 seconds
Total duration
1,083 users online
1,888,489 hits today, 1,996,409 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
I like it. I was thrown off when it started, but then I realized what AU stands for(derp) but I think you executed it very well. I wanna see how it goes.
AU? Either way i likie. fc01.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/040/2/b/twilight_sparkle_seal_of_approval_by_ahumeniy-d4p69ku.png
Insert constructive criticism here. Keep up the good work and send me more things to edit so you can put up more.
You got me interested.
Please continue.
2385346 Yeah the brainstorming process of this story was... odd to say the least. The only characters 'relatively' untouched from the sweeping changes are the princesses(and I was tempted to do other wise) and a few of the secondary/background characters. once you really get rolling with "will if this pony is like this then what about -" it just keeps going :) Hopefully the rest of the new Mane cast will go over well.
Nice start. What were these AU's that inspired you
2560101 ahh, well first off was The Unexpected Love Life of Dusk Shine ... The concept of turning FiM into an anime-style harem romance story amused me at first and the set up was kind of interesting. Over time though the author's writing style and the randomness of many of the plot turns and character actions started to wear on me... This is what lead to Shining taking a lead part in MY story, and originally this fic was also going to be that harem style but as I planned things out the romantic hiijix got pared further and further down. Shining isn;t getting out of this without some attention but most of the cast just began to develop away from being settled into such a scenario... some of my original ideas could sneak out as non-canon shorts but meh, not worth thinking about at this point.
The other was Age Swap (That took ages to dig up and find) it was an alt-verse in the vain of most, mixing up becomes the elements of harmony. in this one it was a near flat age switch. For me I didn't like how some of the Characters came out and how they were connected... despite the cool premise everything just kinda felt flat to me... So I worked with Prosopeio to try and figure out how to make character 'pop' out more other then just being older...
heh I keep trying to avoid names but my Character tags pretty much sum up the major characters THOUGH there are several that play bigger points, it's not just the elements that make a difference after all. Hopefully you'll enjoy what character development I've given to the aged up characters and what character I give to the more background type ponies that make appearances :)
I believe you mean in and of itself.
Gratuitous Spanish much?
I think you mean senior.
I have a better offer; try off.
Anywho, aside from those and some occasional capitalization mistakes, I'd say ya done good.
I'm looking forward to where you take this story.
Sorry I took a while to get around to reading this. I didn't know about this story until today. Still, it IS pretty darn good. Excellent job on the exchanges, emotional content and future chapter set-up in all the right places. I particularly like how well you do keeping the characters in character despite the changes in the universe (especially Twi and Shiny apparently switching ages, but NOT roles). Well, on to the next chapter.