Shining sighed as he adjusted his bow-tie. This was ridiculous, all of this really. Why he had gotten wrangled into being the head speaker for the yearly Soldier’s Ball was beyond him. Really, despite all of the papers and posters all around Canterlot calling it a celebration for those who laid down their lives for Equestria, the entire thing was just a disaster waiting to happen really. Shining honestly hated parties like this, frankly because almost always somepony snuck in spiked drinks and then everypony got drunk and raucous. Last year alone, he’d heard rumors somepony had snuck into Celestia’s private quarters and had… Er, relations with a pegasus mare. Surprisingly, Celestia had laughed this off when he had informed her of this. She had remarked drunk stallions would be drunk stallions, always letting themselves loose and having a bit of fun. All the while, Celestia was smirking throughout.
Now that Shining thought about it, he idly wondered if Celestia had made up the story herself just as a joke. If he was to voice his own opinion on that, he couldn’t honestly imagining her doing that as far as he knew, she didn’t really possess a sense of humor. The other option was, she had disguised herself as a pegasus mare and let a Royal Guard spend some alone time with her. Shining balked at that possibility as well, because the idea of Celestia having a one-night stand with anypony was… frankly ludicrous really. He then allowed his thoughts to drift to the strange stallion he’d met in the dungeons below Canterlot Castle.
“You know, I’ve always wanted to say this, but take me to your leader,” The Doctor remarked before chuckling at his own joke and the irony of it all. “Honestly, I must have words with him or her. Taking me captive with no trial? Rude!” He sing-songed.
“Actually…” The unicorn answered him. “Only reason you’re locked up is because of possible insanity. A danger to everypony all around you, if what Mr. Rich had to say was correct. You’re trouble, simply put.”
The Doctor chuckled.
“Trouble's just the bits in-between! Besides, you don’t know who I really am do you?” The Doctor asked. “For all you know, I could be a humble pony. But then again, you could ask am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy? Right old misery? Life and soul? Right-handed? Left-handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor or a liar? A nervous wreck?”
“You’ve got a mouth on you, that’s for sure,” The unicorn deadpanned. “And you keep on digging your grave deeper. For all we do know, you could be right. You could be a liar or a traitor. I know you are a “Right old misery” as you put it, that’s for sure.”
“You know you’ve gotten it all wrong, right?” A female voice remarked as an aura of light blue magic readjusted his bow-tie to the correct manner of wearing it. Shining turned and he saw his marefriend since his high-school days, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or Princess Cadence as she preferred everypony call her. Shining smiled in a rather dorkish manner as she kissed him. He honestly didn’t know how he landed himself with such a beautiful and kind-hearted mare. “If I didn’t know better,” Cadence remarked as she fixed a rose to his light blue tux. “I’d say your mind was focused on something other than the ball.”
“That’s… That’s not… Okay, well it is true,” Shining stammered out as he tried to wrangle himself out of the mess he’d walked into. He tried to turn on the charm. “Maybe it was because I was so transfixed by your beauty?”
Cadence rolled her eyes at the corny line and how obvious of a lie it was.
“Please, you didn’t even notice me until I walked in here and adjusted that tie of yours.” the Princess of Love responded and raised an eyebrow.
Shining flushed red in embarrassment, she’d caught him. She always did. As much as Shining liked to believe he could hide his problems from his marefriend and deal with them himself, that wasn’t really the truth was it?
“You’re not worried about the Ball or your big speech are you, because honestly, you could have somepony else take over for you if you want.” Cadence suggested and Shining sighed.
“As much as I’d like to do that, this is my responsibility, and I can’t just hoof this off to somepony else as much as I’d like to.” Shining replied.
“Then what’s the matter, if it’s not cold hooves?” Cadence asked curiously.
“Okay… It’s like this,” Shining began. “You know that strange stallion who crashed into that cafe in Canterlot a few days back?”
“Hard not to be aware of him,” His marefriend replied. “He’s been the talk of the town amongst the upper classes. I heard Jet Set and his wife Upper… Oh, I can’t be bothered to remember her name mentioning about how much of a show-off he was. Swan Song on the other hoof remarked he was a charmer.”
“She wasn’t even there when he crash-landed!” Shining remarked in disbelief.
“No, but her niece, you remember the one, (Shining grumbled something rude, oh he remembered her alright. She was the guard he had to chase all around the compound just for getting a little too frisky with his little sister) is in the Royal Guard and she met him while delivering food to the prisoners and apparently had a little chat with him. Told her auntie all about him,” Cadence explained.
Shining groaned and hung his head as Cadence patted him on the back with a hoof. Was it really so hard to keep a secret nowadays? “So, what’s the big problem you have with him?” she asked. Shining sighed.
“It’s just… something about him rubs me the wrong way. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I didn’t get to my position without being careful after all,” Shining explained. Cadence arched her eyebrow even further. “Okay, okay it was more than that. He basically said if I saw anything strange or even slightly out of the ordinary even to just come to him and he’d be able to lend a hoof.”
“Nothing wrong with being a Good Samaritan.” Cadence commented helpfully as she ran a brush through Shining’s dark blue mane. The stallion in question wasn’t even bothering to put up a fuss or protest as he knew it would be hopeless to do so.
“Yeah, I suppose…” Shining trailed off. “But, there’s just something about him I can’t trust. I mean, he fell out of the sky. How do we know if he came to Canterlot, and Equestria in general, with good intentions?”
Cadence sighed to herself.
“Shining, even since the incident with Boltstrike, and yes, I know how much you hate his name being mentioned or even brought up, but I have to in this case, you’re slow to trust ponies,” She began, even as Shining growled to himself at the mention of that hated name. “But trust me in this case, I think this “Doctor” is one of the good ones. Maybe he’s no angel, but from the sounds of things, he does genuinely want to help ponies. So, just give him a chance.”
Shining, after a few seconds that must have seemed like minutes, finally let out a sigh. “...Alright, I’ll try.”
Cadence smiled as she kissed him on the cheek.
“Good, that’s the Shining Armor I know,” she complimented before she gave him a light shove. “Now get on out there, all of those ponies out there are all waiting on you. Wouldn’t want to disappoint them, after all.”
Shining was greeted with a roaring sound of applause from the assembled Royal Guardsmen and various nobles as he finished his speech. When nopony was looking, and he had his back turned he pulled out a handkerchief and wiped away sweat from his brow.
“Hardest speech I ever had to give in my life,” He thought to himself. He hated being put in the limelight like that. It was unavoidable when you were the Captain of the Royal Guard, but that didn’t mean you had to like it. He was honestly surprised he didn’t faint from pure stage fright half-way through. Shining tugged away at his bow-tie as he stepped off the stage. “Now, I just gotta find an excuse to get out of here and change out of this penguin suit. Faust above, it’s hot in here. Damn thing’s starting to chafe certain… parts as well. Honestly, who designed this thing?”
Soft piano music played in the background from a recording crystal that had been set up. It was an old song, called “Solace” if Shining remembered correctly. He had Cadence to thank for that. She had introduced him to much older tracks that her aunt, Princess Celestia enjoyed. Personally, Shining prefered 80s power ballads (Something he got no end of teasing from his fellow guards about) but that was just him.
“Good speech you gave,” A pale blue stallion with a dark blue spiky mane commented as he walked up, wearing a blue vest pinned with medals. Soarin’, second in command of the Wonderbolts, if Shining remembered correctly. He’d only met the stallion a few times before in passing. “Honestly, I have to say, your best yet.”
“T-Thank you,” Shining replied as he took a shot of bourbon to calm his nerves. “So, what about the music huh? Good choice?”
Shining mentally slapped himself upside the head. “Idiot! Worst icebreaker ever.”
“Eh, not to my liking really. Bit of a snoozefest if you ask me.” Soarin’ replied.
“You sure you’re not saying that just to keep from angering your boss?” Shining asked as he downed his glass. Now that was a name he could remember. After all, what pony hadn’t heard of the Captain of the Wonderbolts, Spitfire?
“No, I honestly hate it. Seriously, if I was in-charge of the music, rock and roll all the way. Gets ponies up and moving,” Soarin’ remarked and Shining chuckled in response. “This though... “
Shining nodded in agreement as Soarin’ trailed off.
“With you there bud. I suspect the only reason this music was picked was so that the more… conservative nobles at this function wouldn’t be ticked off.” Shining joked and Soarin’ laughed.
“Oh, can you imagine the complaints we’d get if somepony picked something out like “Trot this Way” or “Tainted Love?” the Wonderbolt remarked.
“Or worse,” Shining piped up as he began to laugh himself. “These hooves are made for trottin’”?”
“Oh, there would be complaints alright, but we’d probably just be sitting here laughing our own asses off,” Soarin’ stated. “Those nobles, if you’re asking me, really need those sticks removed from their backsides.”
“Amen to that.” Shining said as he and Soarin’ clinked glasses.
Outside:
Meanwhile, in the Royal Canterlot Gardens outside, Flash Sentry, along with another guard were moving a statue into place. Flash, every time he looked at the statue just shuddered. He didn’t know why, it was just a statue of a pegasus after all but something about it just felt… wrong.
“Something on your mind, Flash?” The guard, a greyish unicorn asked.
“Just that statue. I don’t like it, not one bit.” the orange pegasus replied.
“Can’t say I blame you,” his fellow guard said before he leaned in closer. “Between you and me, gives me the creeps as well. Dunno why Celestia wants this thing in her gardens, but if you ask me I think this thing should be locked up where nopony could see it ever again.”
“You can say that again,” Flash remarked. “Even creepier than that statue of that mixed match chimera serpent thing on the south side.”
Flash took another look at the statue, which had its forelegs over its eyes, almost as if it were weeping. He shuddered again as the unicorn guard lowered it into place with his magic. Was it just him, or was that statue watching him?
Flash turned away and trotted off, really wanting to leave the statue be as soon as possible. Just then, he heard the sound of what sounded like stone being moved and turned his head back and saw the unicorn guard missing. And then there was the statue, completely removed from its plinth. Flash sighed to himself as he looked skywards.
“Oh boy, how am I going to explain this one away…?” He wondered.