Later that night, Shining Armor was seen returning to his own home with his wife and daughter, seeing their smiling faces has always relieved the stress of a hard day. And he was going to need a lot of premature smiles and hugs to help him prepare for training. Shining Armor was also mildly nauseated from the fly back to his palace, due to still having an issue with air sickness. When he landed in front of the palace, he teleported himself inside to avoid making too much noise in case Flurry Heart was asleep. (He also wanted to quietly go to the bathroom and pass the air sickness without being noticed…) Once he teleported out, Cadence was seen outside the door, waiting on him. “Lemme guess, still airsick?” She asked jokingly.
Shining tried to deny that, he looked embarrassed by the subject, even though it is something that is practically common knowledge and something Cadence is used too. “Huh, no! Why do you always ask me that?” He tried to deny until his stomach grumbled again and he put his hoof on it to help subside the nausea… “Oh what’s the use?” He said as he rushed back into the bathroom quickly… Making Cadence chuckle.
When Shining came back out, looking flustered, Cadence dropped the subject quickly. “So how was the first day of Royal Guard training?” She asked as she stood right next to him, “Do you think you’re going to get those 50 bits again?” She asked confidently.
Shining exhaled in relief, thinking he got all the gunk out of system, then nodding to his wife, “Oh definitely. I already know the perfect gift I’m going to get you with it!”
Cadence blushed when Shining excitedly told her that, “Shining, you get me a gift every time, you deserve a reward for yourself, you do all the work.”
“Hey seeing my wife happy is my reward.” Shining said as he nuzzled his muzzle against Cadence’s, both of them blushing.
As they were about to kiss, they heard something that sounded like banging, but it was in a disturbing pattern, sounding like BANG, BANGBANG BANGBANG!! BANG, BANG!!! The two both looked worried, not because there was a loud noise that startled them, but because they were worried Flurry Heart would wake up and start crying… “I better go and make sure Flurry Heart doesn’t scream, it took me an hour to get her tucked in!”
When Shining Armor was alone, he noticed the loud banging was coming from the front door of the palace, which had him concerned because he usually had night guards. He reached over and grabbed an axe from one of the decorative knights on the walls and made his way to the front. “Whoever you are! You better not hurt my family!” He said as he slowly reached the door.
When Shining opened the door with the axe pointed out, he prepared for a surprise attack, however, he was surprised to find the periwinkle coated pony holding a small white flag? The two guards watching the door looked over and nodded in agreement with his waving. “He checks out Sir, he wishes to see you.” The brown guard said with the grey one nodding along.
Shining looked a little confused, as this was rather unorthodox, but he just nodded and allowed him in, “Uh, sure I guess?” He said as he allowed him in, wondering why the guards would give in like that. Something about the guest seemed familiar, his fur color was similar, he was largely bulky, having a fit that would work very well for the Royal Guards honestly. “What can I do for you?”
The earth pony pocketed the flag and looked a little nervous, like he was afraid to speak, “Well… I’m not sure if you remember me, but I did a lot of bad things to back in grade school…” He said as he awkwardly looked down and scratched the back of his mane.
Shining then started trying to remember what his school life was like, he didn’t have that much rivals or enemies, he really only had one enemy… And Shining doubted that was him, It couldn’t be. If there was one thing Shining could remember about that pony, it was the cutie mark of a massive golden shield. Shining hoped that was not him with his hooves crossed in his head. He leaned over and noticed his cutie mark was… A large golden shield, “...Buck Withers?” He asked in shock, dropping the axe in surprise.
The stallion only blushed in nervousness and nodded in response, “Um hum, after all these years, this is me.” Buck didn’t seem enthusiastic about being there, he seemed almost bitter in his tongue. Despite the disdain and nervousness in his voice, he looked like he was doing well for himself, he was well dressed, well groomed, and looked like he was in great shape.
“What are you doing here? ...All the way out in the Crystal Empire?” Shining became curious, because that seemed like a drastic action for Buck, as casual trips to the Empire are not cheap or easy. He must have gone out of his way to come here.
Buck grunted initially, he did not seem like he wanted to be there either. “As you may recall, I have a bit of an rage problem and my ego has been said to be the size of Canterlot?”
Shining scowled as he remembered those examples, not yet being pleased by the surprise visit, “I’m aware, you said I didn’t deserve a happy ending.” He said as he impulsively kicked the axe away, to keep him from picking it up and swinging it.
“Well, I realized they were problems, so I decided to take anger management and therapy to get better.” Buck then looked embarrassed at admitting that about himself, there was clearly a tone of bitterness in his voice.
Shining was surprised by that answer, though it did seem to explain his out of the blue appearance. “Really? That’s good I guess, but what does that have to do with you coming here?”
Buck then pulled out a binder from his bag and opened it up, there was a paper sealed inside it numbered 1-7 on the side, with Xs over 1-5. “She put me on a seven step program, and step six is to make amends with those I have wronged in the past… Including ‘nerdy colts’ and ‘dates I flipped out on’, and as much as I don’t want to do this, I need to get on good terms with you and… Cadence…” He still sounded bitter in his voice, but once he mentioned Cadence, his tone slightly shifted, sounding a bit more morose.
Shining didn’t look like he wanted that to happen either, he clearly still seemed spiteful towards Buck, but he could tell he was trying to improve himself and he couldn’t just tell off a pony working to improve. “Oh, well, I’d love to help but I’m gonna be busy the next few weeks, I’m training three new cadets to be Royal Guards.” He said hoping that would get him out of that.
“Then I’ll just stay till you’re done, or maybe come with you on training. I need to do this.” Buck said adamantly.
“Yeah but I don’t think…” Shining tried to say but was cut off.
“You’re not getting out of this.” Buck interjected as he opened the binder back up, and took out a certain document. “I have this warrant signed by Princess Celestia allowing me to stay until I feel we have amended.” He said as he took the document out, pointing to the seal of approval on it.
Shining looked more surprised by that, passes like that are not easy to come by, and they are very expensive. It looks like Buck was being serious, “Well… That looks real. Plus I’ve seen how bad your handwriting copying is when you tried writing your own fake tardy notes in class.” He said as he took the warrant. “Fine… I guess you can stay here. But I will put my three cadets first.” Shining sighed, he clearly did not want to do that, but he had no choice.
Cadence eventually returned to the main room with the two stallions, looking flustered, clearly having to wrestle with Flurry Heart to get her to go back to bed. When she looked over, she was surprised to see who was standing with her husband. “What the…? Buck Withers!?” She seemed to remember him much stronger than her husband. “What are you doing here?” She asked looking visually anger seeing him.
Buck just rolled his eyes and grunted, “Look I’m not explaining this again, I’m in therapy, therapist is making me amend with everypony I wronged, and I put myself in six months worth of debt to get Celestia to approve my staying here!” He clearly was not happy seeing Cadence either, though he was more openly bitter with her. “I’ll find the guest room myself.” He said as he dropped the warrant and walked off alone.
Cadence looked down at the document and looked over at her husband, “Do you think it’s weird that he just showed up out of the blue like that?” She asked in suspicion, “I think he’s up to something, why did you even let him in?”
Shining pointed to the warrant, “You see that, Celestia approved him staying here, I couldn’t say no.”
“You know Celestia’s law isn’t valid in the Crystal Empire right? We could have just voided that thing ourselves.”
“Shining scratched the back of his mane thinking about it, “Yeah, but if he wants to change, I can’t just abandon that. That would be like giving up on my Cadets.”
Cadence was clearly not happy with her husband’s decision, “Well he’s your responsibility then! I don’t want to be anywhere near that brute!” She yelled as she just walked off, clearly angry with her guest being there.
Shining sighed to himself as he thought about what he had gotten himself into. Was this pony really wanting to change? Why didn’t he give them any warning? That was too much for him to worry about, so he just sighed and decided to go to bed. He needed to wake up bright and early to train his new cadets, that was his top priority.