//------------------------------//
// 8. Friends in the Royal Guard Part 1 
// Story: Flurry Heart's Destiny 
// by Sabrewolf9 
//------------------------------//

The castle was much bigger then Shadow Hunter thought it would be, it looked smaller on the outside. The castle had many halls and doors that led to small dark rooms and bright rooms with lots of windows. He didn't know exactly what to do when he arrived there, so he just followed the lead of everypony else and hoped they didn't notice. However, Shadow knew he couldn't just stay with them all day or he would never do what his father asked of him. So, he quietly teleported when he was out of sight and appeared right outside the throne room to listen in on the princesses conversation. When who should he meet but the one pony he's trying to protect.

Flurry Heart had just left the throne room when Shadow Hunter unintentionally appeared right in front of her.

"Ahhh!" She screamed in surprise. They had almost run into each each other, if it weren't for Flurry Heart telaporting out of the way.

When Shadow heard the scream he immediately apologized. "I'm so sorry I didn't see..." but he stopped short once he realized who he was talking to.

"Flurry Heart!" He shouted with joy. He was so happy to see her.

But she just looked at him with confusion. "I'm sorry... do I know you?"

It broke his heart but he remembered who he was supposed to be. Oh yeah, she doesn't recognize me. He reminded himself. To her I'm just a guard. He then felt awkward for shouting her name and quickly made a cover up for it.

"Oh... uh no, you don't know me, I am just honored to finally meet the one and only Princess Flurry Heart," he said with a slight bow. "Forgive me for being a little over excited."

Flurry blushed slightly. It's not like she wasn't used to such a compliment, but it was just something about the way he had said it, something about him. However she quickly snapped out of her thoughts so she didn't seem rude by ignoring his apology.

"It's fine, I understand. It's nice to meet you Mr...?"

Shadow Hunter felt weird with her calling him Mr. but he just brushed it off and remembered to tell her his fake name.

"Hunter Woods," he said with a smile. "But you can just call me Hunter." He was happy she would at least be calling him by half of his real name.

"Okay, that's a nice name. Most of the guard's names that I hear are related to some piece of armor or weapon." She said laughing at bit.

This is great! Shadow thought to himself, I'm already different from the other guards to her. Then the same idea he had back when she visited him last hit him again. Just because she can't know who he really is doesn't mean he still can't get to know her as his disguised self. He actually thought it was better this way, because instead of Flurry getting to know the son of an evil king, she would be getting to know someone in the Royal Guard who helps ponies.

That's what I'll do. He thought, I'll just get to know her as Hunter Woods not Shadow Hun-

But his thoughts were interrupted by Flurry Heart. "Well it was nice meeting you Mr. Hunter," she said starting to walk away. "I'll see you later."

Before Shadow could say anything else she was gone. "Well first things first, I got to get her to stop calling me mr," he told himself. "And this is going to be harder then I thought."

And it was. Every time he tried to talk to her he was either interrupted by another guard telling him what to do or Flurry Heart didn't seem interested in conversation. He new why though, it was because she didn't know him.

It was like this every day.





"Woods!" The head guard yelled. "Stop slacking and pick up the pace!"

"Yes sir," Shadow groaned. They were doing running drills, and to be honest he wasn't the most experienced with running for long periods of time. He was exhausted and bored.

Ugh! How much longer is this going to take! Shadow thought to himself. We've been training for hours!

He had hardly gotten any time with Flurry Heart. Since he was still new they didn't give him any easy 'stand guard' or 'look out' positions, no they liked to give him the hard jobs. Shadow soon realized they liked to pick on the new guy until he earned their respect, and until that happened, it was a lot of training and a lot of going far outside the castle to look for threats. He endured it though, not that he had much of a choice because of his father, but he didn't mind as much, because he still got to see Flurry Heart.

"AND HALT!" The head guard shouted.

Oh finally! Shadow thought. We're done, and he was right, the head guard said the words Shadow had been waiting for.

"Alright break time everyone!" Yes! Shadow thought. "But immediately return to your posts afterwards."

Shadow wasn't upset about that at all this time, because this was one of the very few times he had a normal 'stand guard' job. Which meant he could see Flurry Heart.

"Hey Woods!" One of the guards yelled. "Don't forget your helmet!" He said mockingly as he chucked it at him and the hard piece of armor hit Shadow in the head.

The other guards laughed a bit but not too loud as to where their boss asked what was going on. Shadow just ignored them, he was a little embarrassed that he didn't catch it, but for the most part he was pretty good at shutting other ponies out and ignoring them so he didn't get mad at them.

Little did he know that was main reason they still picked on him.





Shadow now was at his post, waiting for Flurry Heart to pass by the halls. The other guards looked at him curiously, wondering what he was waiting for, he didn't tell them though, because he didn't want to get made fun of (well, more then he already was) for wanting to be friends with the princess. Was it just friendship though? He seemed to be awfully eager to see Flurry Heart. Could he have feelings for her? Maybe, but he just brushed these thoughts aside and told himself that it was only because she was his only friend.

Then finally he saw her approaching the hallway. He remembered to play it cool and not just jump out at her like he did the last couple of times, that certainly didn't get him anywhere with her.

She was getting closer and closer and Shadow could feel his nervousness growing. Although he wondered why, he had never been nervous like this before when he was Shadow Hunter to her, so why was he getting nervous now. Then it suddenly hit him, wait a minute, I'm getting nervous because I'm not being myself, I'm trying to be like every other guard. No wonder I don't seem any different, she became friends with Shadow Hunter, not a guard.

So when she passed him in the hallway he didn't say anything and just waved. I'll think of something later, he told himself and to his surprise she waved back. Which made him smile.

"Hey, what are you looking at?" One of the guards that was on patrol with him asked. Noticing Shadow staring at Flurry Heart.

Shadow's face quickly turned red and he averted his gaze. "W-What are you talking about? I wasn't looking at anything." He said nervously while rubbing the back of his neck unintentionally.

"W-Wait were y-you looking at the princess? The guard asked curiously, trying to hold back a laugh.

"Pfft-No, of course not," Shadow bluffed.

"Uh-huh, yeah right," The guard said with an accusing look toward Shadow. "You're about the worst liar I've ever seen."

"Well I bet you're not any better," Shadow replied bitterly, which surprised the other guard. He usually just ignored comments like that. He was surprised himself that he made a decent comeback.

"Look I don't want to start a fight, but I'm just saying, if you ever want to get good with the princess, just staring at her isn't going to do you any good."

"I know that," Shadow said while rolling his eyes. "But what do you suggest I do."

"Well if it were me," the guard took a second to finish his sentence. "I would set something up where it didn't seem like you ran into each other on purpose, as if it were a coincidence."

"That actually might work, thanks. But why are you trying to help me?"

The guard looked at him curiously as if he was trying to find the answer to that question himself.

"I guess you could say I hate to see people suffer... in any way."

"I wouldn't exactly call it suffering... let's just say I used to know her... but now we're strangers." Shadow had a longing look on his face that the guard noticed.

"Why don't you just tell her that?" the guard said, now curious about the situation.

"I wish I could, but it's not as easy as that." Shadow said with a sad look.

"Why not?"

"Because I would be putting her in danger."

The guard looked at him as if he understood exactly what he was talking about. "Oh, I see. It's hard being part of the Royal Guard when there's so many secrets to keep."

"You have no idea," Shadow said while shaking his head slowly, which made the guard laugh.

"Yeah I'm sure I don't. I'm technically not even officially part of the Royal Guard yet, I'm still in training."

Shadow looked at him surprised. "Really?"

"Yeah my parents got me this job, that's why I'm in such a good position for just starting out."

Shadow laughed, "yeah tell me about it, when I was first starting out I had to do the worst jobs possible."

"I suppose it is nice having a dad as part of the Royal Guard."

Shadow had a pleading look on his face. "What I wouldn't give for my dad to be in that position."

The guard looked at him curiously. "Why? What does your father do now?"

"Uhh...?" Shadow said nervously. "Let's just say he has his own line of work."

The guard didn't seem to take much notice of his nervous tone and simply shrugged. "Cool."

If you knew what he did you wouldn't think it was 'cool', Shadow thought to himself.

"So?" The guard continued the conversation. "What does your mom do?"

Shadow stiffened at the question and a sad expression appeared on his face. "I- uh... never knew my mom." He responded quietly.

"Oh," the guard was not expecting that answer. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your falt," Shadow said while staring at the floor.

"Not yours either."

"Yeah, I know."

"So what are you going to do to try and talk to Flurry Heart?" The guard asked enthusiastically trying to change the subject.

"I'm not exactly sure," said Shadow Hunter putting his hoof to his chin in thought. "What do you suggest?"

"Well, I happen to know that the princess likes to walk around the Royal Gardens on weekends." He said smiling.

"Really, that's great information, thanks!" Shadow said with joy, but then gave the guard a suspicious look. "But how do you know that?"

"I actually know the princess very well."

"Really?" Shadow asked in surprise.

"Yeah, but don't worry... we're only friends." He said with a smirk and wink.

Shadow's face became red. "What are you talking about?" He said quickly. "Why would I worry whether or not you guys were friends?"

"Yeah don't play dumb with me." The guard said with an accusing look toward Shadow. "I've seen the way you look at her. You can't hide it from me."

"Seriously I don't know what you're talking about." Said Shadow starting to get annoyed. "I just want to be her friend."

"Yeah sure, whatever you say," the guard said sarcastically. "What's your name by the way?"

By now Shadow was used to saying his fake name. "Hunter Woods."

"Well nice to meet you Hunter." He said while shaking his hoof.

"What's your name?" Shadow asked back.

"Midnight Shine."

"Nice to meet you too Midnight."

The head guard now came over to their area of patrol and noticed the two talking.

"Hey back to work you two!" He shouted with an angry tone. "Focus on your job!"

They both groaned, "Yes sir."