Freedom Fighter was not happy.
He thrived in combat situations, life-or-death missions, and desperate battles. To be in a civilian community for so long, with nothing to fight, and expecting him to act cheerful, and happy, and content, was grinding on his warrior psyche. With each passing day he grew increasingly agitated at the lack of threats to fight. He hid his agitation under his armored cowl the best he could, however.
Which led to the next problem he had. It was only because of Noble Blade's command that he made his eyes visible. This was uncomfortable for two reasons. The first was that he knew his red eyes would scare the others rather easily. For some reason these particular ponies were overly sensitive to scary things.
Second, he never liked showing skin-- or visual organs, as the case might be. He was always careful to never take his suit off when not in the company of the princesses or his fellow Guardians. Only they had seen him under his cowl and suit. And he had made them swear an oath of secrecy to never tell a soul what he had looked like.
Couple that with the hard, straight-backed chair he was now sitting in, and the awkward presence of Princess Twilight, and Freedom Fighter was just an inch away from snapping and laying waste to everything not attached to the floor with his staff.
The reason he and Twilight were in the throne room-- along with Noble Blade and Firestorm-- was because ten minutes ago, at three thirty, Spike had burped up a letter from Princess Cadence. The letter had said that she, along with Shining Armor and Flurry Heart, would arrive in fifteen minutes by teleportation.
With time to spare, Freedom Fighter decided to talk with himself again to pass the time. 'Hey,' he called to himself in his mind. 'You in there?'
I'm always in here. You don't have to ask that.
'So...whaddaya want to talk about?'
I dunno. You tell me.
His red eyes traveled over to subtly look at Twilight. He gave an imaginary whistle. 'She's really pretty, you know that?'
Yeah. I'll agree with you on that. But I don't know...
He turned his head to the side as if something had landed on his shoulder. 'You don't know what?'
You think she's interested in you? his other voice replied. At the moment, things are a bit...sketchy.
'Sketchy?'
You did pull a knife out in her presence earlier today. What do you think she thinks of you right now? Probably as a psychopathic murderer or something.
He shrugged. 'She's probably right.'
Wait, you agreed with me? I'd have thought you would put up a fight.
'Well, I am a murderer. As for the question of psychopathic, however...'
You probably are. You enjoy it when others suffer.
'I only like it when bad ponies suffer. If any harm were to come to Noble Blade, or Twilight, or heck, even Firestorm...'
Firestorm?
'When he's not making obnoxious comments, I mean.'
Ah.
There was more silence in his mind.
'So what about Twilight?' he continued.
Don't count on her ever liking you.
His head jolted backwards. 'What?'
She's probably got other interests than you anyway. Besides, she's a princess. Dating princesses never ends up well. What makes you think you'll succeed when all you're interested in is killing monsters?
It made him stop and ponder. Was he right? His other voice did have a point. The chances of Twilight being interested in him were slimmer than Fleur de Lis's waist.
Hey, good joke there.
'Thanks,' he replied uncertainly.
They all looked up as a loud pop filled their ears, and suddenly there was Cadence and Shining Armor, who was pulling a rolling crib with Flurry Heart in it.
Twilight immediately got out of her seat and approached Cadence. They then started bouncing up and down as they did their ritualistic greeting. "Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!" They shook their flanks in the air.
Freedom tried to ignore the motions her flank made but failed. It was remarkable-- even his other voice had nothing to say.
The other Guardians were trying hard not to say anything, but their faces said everything their words failed to say. Both of them wore quizzical looks at the odd manner of greeting between Cadence and Twilight. But when Cadence turned to address the Guardians, Freedom Fighter got out of his seat and bowed respectfully. Noble Blade did the same. But Firestorm bowed with a flamboyant twirl of his hooves, then flung himself at Cadence's hooves and started to grovel, making unnecessary kissing noises.
Cadence just rolled her eyes as if this was normal behavior out of Firestorm, and said, "Oh, please don't bow, any of you." She looked at Noble Blade. "Especially you, Noble. You're my nephew, and nephews never bow to their aunts."
"But I bow not to my aunt. I bow to a princess of Equestria."
"Well then, as your princess, I command you not to bow. How's that?"
"I think that works." He sat back in his seat at the table, which just so happened to be Fluttershy's seat. Firestorm sat back in Applejack's seat, and Freedom Fighter went back into Pinkie's. "So, Aunt Cadence," he looked towards Shining Armor, "and Uncle Armor," he addressed respectfully. "What is the intent of this visit?"
"Do I need a reason to visit my favorite little sister?" Shining Armor asked, rubbing the top of Twilight's head playfully. "Great news with Flurry Heart, by the way: she took her first steps yesterday!"
"She did?" Twilight exclaimed. She then came over to Flurry's crib. "Did you weawwy take youw fiwst step? Yes you did, Fwiwwy! Yes you did!" She excitedly made faces at Flurry. Flurry giggled and made a grabbing motion for Twilight's face, which she pulled away from just in time.
"Sheesh," Firestorm said. "We manage to rescue a princess from the Noxxa? Oh, you-you get a little pat on the back. But-" He melodramatically gasped. "O. M. GOODNESS! She can now walk? Everypony loses their minds!"
"That reminds me," Shining said, then moved next to Firestorm. "I'd like to thank you from saving my sister from those monsters. That was a true sign of heroism shown, and it means everything to me seeing her alive."
"Oh, 'tis nothing, Shiny," Firestorm waved him off, speaking in an overly posh accent. "I didn't want to see her die either, you know."
"Why? You've never seen her before. Have you grown close to her?" Shining Armor asked suspiciously. "Like, that kind of close?"
"What?" Firestorm laughed. "No, no. It's because if she had died, Celestia would have fired me. And I mean that literally: I speak from experience here." The rest of the room looked at him strangely. "Plus, you know, honor and courage and friendship and stuff like that." He waved a hoof lazily and propped his legs up on the armrests.
"I see where your priorities lie," Noble observed distantly.
"How's civilian life treating you?" Cadence asked innocently.
Freedom Fighter stood up abruptly and did a very long, very agitated rant in sign language.
Cadence watched him attentively, and when he was done she said, "I'm sorry you feel that way. I think you just need to vent, is all."
Freedom wiped his brow to indicate relief, then sat back down.
"Well, I'm actually enjoying it," Noble put in. "I never liked taking life in my service, but this way, I don't have to kill. I can just stay and live a normal life and make new friends and..." His voice trailed off.
"And what?" Cadence asked with a smile.
"...and find something that goes... beyond... friendship," he mumbled.
"What do you mean?" Shining Armor asked him.
"Like a, um... a... crush?"
"What was that? You sounded a bit like Fluttershy there." Firestorm laughed knowingly.
At the sound of her name he blushed a little and said, "A crush!" He almost instantly regretted saying it.
"And who is this for?" Cadence asked sweetly.
Noble sighed, then jutted out his rump and gestured to his sword-and-butterfly Cutie Mark, then at the butterflies above him on the seat he was in. "Guess," he said.
There was silence for a moment.
"Well, congratulations, Noble. It's wonderful that you're opening your heart to love. And to such a perfect mare for you, too. She's kind and gentle-" Cadence began.
"-And sweet and caring, I know," Noble said quickly. "Listen, not only am I absolutely infatuated with her, but- get this- she thinks I'm handsome! What do I do now?"
Firestorm whistled in surprise. "Mares like you? I can't believe it! You just don't strike me as the attractive type." He made a frame with his hooves and looked at Noble through it with one eye closed.
Noble gave him a look. "You too?"
"What do you mean, me too?"
"I just talked about it with Freedom Fighter this morning, and he made it clear that I wasn't attractive at all."
"That's got to be the first time he's been right this week."
Freedom fixed him a murderous look, narrowing his scarlet red eyes at him. Firestorm instantly sat lower in his seat and squeaked, "Sorry."
"Is she the only one?" Cadence asked, amused slightly.
"What do you mean? Is she the only one I'm interested in, or are there other females interested in me?"
"I mean, are there any other ponies into you?"
Noble sat back. "Well, I highly suspect Rarity is going after me as well. And..." He gave Twilight a sad look. "And Twilight confessed that she had a small crush on me as well." He chuckled. "Then we found out I'm part of her sister-in-law's family."
"Imagine that." Firestorm chuckled. "And Twilight's okay with this?"
Noble Blade and Twilight looked at each other. "Well, I can see how we might pair well together. But I'm afraid... she's just not my cup of tea."
"I know," Twilight said. "Just... be happy with Fluttershy. That's all I ask."
Freedom Fighter watched all of this, trying not to be mad at Noble Blade for attracting Twilight without even trying.
Well, at least she's not taken.
'Yeah...' he thought somewhat depressingly, knowing his chances of being with her were smaller than Griffinstone's GDP.
Hey, nice one.
'Thanks,' he replied again.
There was more silence. Then-
"Well, I'm glad we have that cleared up once and for all," Firestorm said. "So she likes you back... for some weird reason. What's the status between you two?"
"...I asked her out..."
"YOU WHAT?" Firestorm exclaimed, flapping a foot in the air. Freedom Fighter pretended to drink something, then spat out the imaginary liquid to indicate surprise.
"We talked for a bit and we said some things to each other this morning- " he began, but Firestorm cut him off.
"What kind of nice things?" he asked suggestively, wiggling his eyebrows.
"You don't want to know and I don't want to tell you."
"How in Equestria did you even get a date with her in the first place?"
Noble replied slowly, "I just asked her out. Why do you ask?"
"I thought it'd be more complicated than that."
"This isn't calculus. You just ask her- face to face."
"What if I followed the girl I wanted to ask out around all day, poking her and interrupting her every movement?"
"Then you're a white-livered weakling and lose any mark of a stallion."
Shining Armor laughed.
"Good job, Noble," Cadence complimented him. "You asked her out with almost no problem."
"Thank you, Aunt Cadence. I have one question, though. When I'm around her, I know not why, but it seemeth as though mine courage faileth me and mine body locketh itself in place. It confuseth me greatly, for not even in the most dangerous battles have I felt such fear. Thou art the Princess of Love, and so I must ask: is this natural? Or is mine courage a mere sham?"
Firestorm grunted in annoyance. "Pick a speaking style and stay with it!" he muttered.
Cadence smiled at Noble Blade. "When your body does that," she told him, "That means she's the one you can take a chance with. If that doesn't happen with any other mare you've ever met, she's the one for you. It does not diminish your courage in the slightest, Noble Blade. You are still the same nephew I have that has defended Equestria from countless threats."
"So my courage is not a sham after all?" he replied hopefully. Cadence smiled at him.
Inside Freedom Fighter's mind, a fierce war was being waged at the mention of Cadence's words.
Twilight doesn't feel that way towards you, and you don't feel it towards her.
'But I still want to be with her!'
And what, you think she wants to be with you? Look at yourself. A disguised, scary, demented liar and murderer. That's all you are. All you ever will be.
'Am I not a living creature? Can I not feel? Can I not pursue who I want?'
You can pursue her, but you'll never get her. She can do much better than the likes of you. She doesn't want you. She never noticed you. Why would she? Even if she has noticed you, she's probably scared of you. And that's your own fault. Why else do you think she doesn't want to be in the same room as you?
'Because she'd feel nervous around a crush?' he asked desperately. He knew, however, that it was false.
You are nothing to her. And she will never love you.
Freedom Fighter stood up abruptly, signed something to Noble Blade, and left the room, slumped down a little.
"What? Where's he going?" Twilight asked Noble Blade as Freedom Fighter disappeared.
Noble replied, "He told me he needed to excuse himself. He said he needed to cut something until he felt better." He shook his head. "I don't know. He's like this whenever he's having these really intense conversations inside his head. I don't really know what's going on inside him-"
But before he could finish, the Cutie Map suddenly appeared on the table, eliciting a gasp from all assembled. From the top of the window in the room, two Cutie Marks flew in and started to circle a spot on the map. Rarity and Rainbow Dash's Cutie Marks circled around the ruin of the Castle of the Two sisters.
But something was wrong. Another Cutie Mark was circling with theirs. And it wasn't any of the girl's. It was-
"AAAAAAAAUGH! WHY IS MY BUTT DOING THAT?!" Firestorm screamed, gazing wide-eyed at the flashing Cutie Mark of a fiery X on his flank.