//------------------------------//
// The Promises We Make And Paths We Take - Departures 
// Story: The Guard And His Sword 
// by Himntor 
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The morning came too early. All the anticipation had me up at the crack of dawn, and try as I might, I couldn’t fall back asleep. So I opted to go outside and do a number of stretches and exercises, then went back inside and tried to distract myself with a book. That didn’t seem to help pass the time, with all my thoughts diverting away from what I was reading and to the trip. Why couldn’t I just focus and keep it off my mind until the time came around? Uagh!
No, I wasn’t going to let this happen to me. I could control my thoughts and emotions. I—
Bang, bang, bang, bang.
What the…? Who was pounding on my door this early in the morning?
I opened the door to find Katana standing outside, looking oddly distressed.
“Swordulan, thank Celestia you’re up,” she said. So, was she not upset at me anymore? “Are you busy at all today?”
I blinked. This must have been serious. “Uh… kind of. What’s wrong?”
“It’s Stonehenge, I think I found him, or at least where he is. But I need your help, I think he’s in trouble.”
I gaped. “You found Stonehenge? How… where!?”
This couldn’t be happening, especially now of all times. After Stonehenge had washed out of the Royal Guard and I joined up, I had thought about trying to find him, but I never had any time. I probably could have tried something once I got the rank of Lieutenant, but that thought hadn’t occurred to me… until now anyway.
“He’s hiding somewhere in the Crystal Empire,” Katana said. “I don’t know all of the details, all I know is that he fell into a bad crowd and managed to make them really mad, so now he’s on the run. I need your help to find him, I have to know he’s safe.”
“Well… sweet Celestia, I… I can’t help you this second. I have to finish up some work, but I’ll be in the Crystal Empire later today, I can meet you there.” I didn’t want to though, and a part of me hated myself for it.
“You were already going to the Crystal Empire? Why?”
Ponyfeathers. Do I tell her about the date? “Shining Armor wanted to see me about something. Maybe he can help find Stonehenge too.”
“No, I don’t want anypony else going after him. It might make things worse. Just meet me at The Crystal Horseshoe, alone.”
She trotted out the door and flew off, just like that. I sat down on the floor and stared at the wall, wondering… why in Equestria did I lie? Royal Guards don’t lie like that. Did I even plan to help search for Stonehenge? I… why don’t I want to help find him? He’s my cousin! Family! And I wanted to bring my family back together, yet… I also really want to go on this trip with Summer.
I couldn’t think about all this. There was work to be done, and so to work I went. Without my sword, I took the train to Canterlot, though I heard Pinkie Pie in the distance shouting the strangest thing I’d ever heard her say.
“This is the most daring dare anypony ever dared dare another pony to dare!”
So… how dare somepony dare another to dare them to a dare and it was quite daring. But, what was the dare? How dare they not tell everypony?
Ohh, this morning wasn’t taking it easy on my head whatsoever. Paperwork. That would take my mind off things, glorious paperwork. I can just smell the paper, the ink, the scent of organized cleanliness in my office.
Celestia help me, I’m looking forward to paperwork.

An hour later, I sat in my office staring at a sheet of paperwork, and my eyes were glazing over. What was Katana up to right this moment? What sort of trouble is Stonehenge in? Why in the Crystal Empire of all places? Maybe I should cancel the date… but what would Summer think? She’d probably understand, it being family and all that. Though Stonehenge had barely been part of the family over the last couple years. He’d made himself so scarce none of us knew whether he had been alive at all.
Am I trying to justify not helping?
No! The date will go on because Shining Armor can help. I’ll leave everything to him and it will all work out just the way it’s supposed to. Everybody wins.
“How’s that paperwork coming along, Lieutenant?” Captain Morningstar asked from behind, nearly making me jump out of my hide.
“Oh, Captain, it’s getting there,” I said uneasily.
“Really?” He peered over me. “Getting there? It hardly looks like it has got going. You’re usually quick with this, is something wrong?”
I put the paperwork down and slouched back in my chair. “My mind has no desire to focus on anything for more than five seconds.”
“Flying through storm clouds? I understand, you’ve got quite a trip coming up.”
“It’s not that,” I sighed. “Well, I guess some of it is, but I’m worried about my cousins. They might be in serious trouble over in the Crystal Empire.”
“They? I thought you only had one cousin.”
“There’s Katana and Stonehenge. Stone’s an ex-guard who disappeared a couple years ago. Now it seems he’s shown up in bad company.”
“Is there anything I can do? I can send word to Shining Armor.”
I shook my head. “I’ll talk to him about it myself. Don’t worry about it. I’ll get this paperwork done too.” I took a deep breath and rubbed my head. “Hopefully.”
“Alright then. You just take it easy.”
“Yes, Sir.”


*


 

What should have only taken me half an hour to finish took two hours. Ridiculous, but at least it’s done. After another couple hours of wall patrols I retired for the day and went home to prepare for the trip. Having to do so much back and forth between Ponyville and Canterlot on the train made me miss my sword. It was going to be awful being without it.
The feeling of butterflies began to mount as I put away my armor. I didn’t need much for the trip; a small suitcase containing a decent amount of bits, my tuxedo—just in case—and something warm to wear. No reason to worry about food, though lunch sounded nice right now, so I prepared a pineapple and ate it on the way back to the train station.
It was just before four in the afternoon when I arrived at Summer’s house, right on time. I raised my hoof to knock on the door, but it swung open right then, and I nearly smacked Summer in the head.
“Oh! Perfect timing,” she said, levitating two suitcases next to her. “You got everything ready to go?”
“More or less,” I said. “Anything you need me to carry?”
Summer levitated her large suitcase to me. “That would be great.”
The thing was nearly twice as big as me. I levitated it onto my back along with my own suitcase and kept them balanced with magic. My legs whimpered. “Whoa-kay. You sure you got everything?”
“Yep!”
I slowly turned back to the street. “Grrrreat, let’s go.”
Summer bounced out the door with her suitcase, grinning. “Ah, I’m so excited!”
“Meee too.”
Honestly though, I was terrified. Katana was at the Empire, and I had lied to her. How was I supposed to meet her at the Crystal Horseshoe and keep Summer out of the loop? Maybe I could get Cadance to keep her occupied for a bit, or maybe… I just didn’t need to meet with Katana. I was going to have Shining Armor help me find Stonehenge anyway, so there was no reason for me to help. Shining Armor’s stallions were a capable bunch.
Uagh, but there were so many ways things could go wrong! Katana could mess things up in all sorts of ways, and, and… I pushed the fears to the back of my mind and set my mind on getting to the train station. I could worry about finding Stonehenge once we were settled in the castle. We were shortly onboard a train and headed for the Empire, sitting together and watching the landscape fly by.
“Equestria is so beautiful, I wish I got out more to see it,” Summer said.
I nodded shortly. “It’s pretty dangerous in some places too,” I said, remembering a number of the monsters I’d encountered. “I found a hostile dragon in Hollow Shades not too long ago.”
Summer looked back at me with skepticism. “You say that like you were merely taking a stroll in the park.”
“It was a strange night. I was trying to sleep, the dragon wanted the crystals in my sword, the crystals decided they didn’t like that, so they blew up the dragon.”
The look on Summer’s face was a mix of shock and fear. “The crystals blew it up?”
I shrugged. “Or teleported it somewhere else, even into another dimension for all I know. Not sure.”
Summer hesitated. “Do you have your sword with you now?”
“No, I left it behind with Discord.”
Summer gave me a dry look. “Alright, now I know you’re messing with me. Nopony says something so ridiculous with that amount of deadpan.”
Oh right, I never told her about my sword. Now it was starting to occur to me just how much larger than life all of that was. “Uh… well, that is where I left it actually. It was acting strange, and I thought it might be too risky to take it with me, and… it’s a long story.”
“Well,” Summer glanced out the window, “we have some time, and I love an interesting story.”
Ponyfeathers, I am a terrible storyteller, but at least it was something to keep my mind off of Katana and Stonehenge.
I took a deep breath. “I guess it began all the way back when I joined the Royal Guard…”