//------------------------------//
// We arrived 
// Story: With Heart and Sword 
// by FALG 
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This was the second day since everything happened.

I woke up around midday, we were about to get to Canterlot, but I had time to eat something in the eating wagon.

Fluttershy slept next to me, I wrapped us with the bed's blanket during the night; I felt her body enlarge and shrink with every breath.

I got out of the bed quietly to not wake her up, and headed for the eating wagon.
I just had some carrots, I wasn't very hungry, I was still nervous of what happened last night.
That kiss, was the most tender I ever had; I was starting to fall for her.

As I said before, I had several marefriends; but there is another thing, I had fallen in love with some of them, but the feeling wasn't always mutual. There was also another mare I fell in love for but we've never been coltfriends, we just acknowledged we liked each other (in the end she liked me too).
When I heard she had another coltfriend, I entered into a very deep depression; it took me a while to get over that.

I ate half of my meal when Fluttershy entered the wagon, I couldn't suppress the need to give her a smile, which she returned with one of her own. She went to the food bar and came to my table with some soup.
"Morning" I said to her "how did you sleep?"
"Um, fine, how about you?" she asked back.
"Fine too" I simply answered.
"Why didn't you wake me up?"
"Sorry, but you looked so beautiful while sleeping."
I think she got back to her shy self, because we didn't talk for the rest of the trip; we were still a bit nervous about what happened last night, besides we had nothing to talk about.



Canterlot was the same as when I left (well, only two months passed).
We headed for the castle; when the guards on the entrance asked us who we were, I told them that Princess Celestia was expecting us and gave them the parchment Twilight gave me. They let us in and an usher lead us to our rooms.
My room was wide, with a bed on one side and a desk next to a wardrobe on the other; near the bed there was a bedside table with a lamp onto it.
I threw my bags on the bed, laid down for a while and started to think.

What was I supposed to do know? What made this light appear on my rear? Did it have anything to do with Fluttershy or not? And most importantly, will I still be here? I already lost a day with the trip, so there were six days remaining until the week was due.

I heard a knocking on the door, and Fluttershy entered:
"Uh, hi, sorry to bother you" she apologized.
"Don't worry, what's up?" I asked her.
"I was just about ask you that, what are you going to do now?"
"Well, there's somepony I know that I have to say 'hi' to, you don't have to come with me." I told her while leaving the bed.
"Oh, okay" she said a bit sad, while leaving the room.

I left and headed for the barracks.



The place had dozens of ponies in it, earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns alike. Some were talking with each other, and the rest were training with dummies or with sparring partners. It was a place were the sound of metal blows was constant.
There was a white stallion training separated from the other ponies, he was the one being trained under my father's teachings, he was...
"Shining Armor!" I called.
The stallion looked at me, and smiled.
"Flare! Long time no see pal, how's it going?" Shining asked.
"I could be better, but yeah I'm fine; how about you, how was your honeymoon?"
"Oh fantastic, I wouldn't change it for the world."
"I'm glad you enjoyed it" I told him.
"Thanks friend"

As I said, Shining Armor was the pony that my father was training; and now he was the Captain of the Royal Guard, and as such he didn't only have command over the guards, he also had power over the whole army. And he used to recur to my dad whenever he needed advice, help or has to be replaced for some reason (like when he went for his honeymoon).
Since he was trained under my dad's tutelage, we eventually became friends, and from time to time sparring partners, but he always won since we both fought with the "power" style of swordplay (which was my weak point when used as a first resort); I never fought him in my own style.
Many times I had hard feelings for him for taking the role of Captain when my dad had intended to give it to me, but after some minutes they would go away; it is hard work to be Captain of the Royal Guard, and I hated hard work. Besides, I really wasn't into it.

Back to the story, Shining noticed the light on my rear.
"Say, what's that on your flank?" he asked me.
"Oh, well, that's the main reason I came back from Ponyville." I said, and I explained him the whole situation.
"Whoa, pal that's terrible" he said.
"Yeah it kind of is, still I don't think I would get more information from the castle's archives" I concluded.
"I'm not sure about that, maybe you can find something else".
"I am not wasting another day just to know 'something else', I just have to wait for an event similar to a recent one."
"So, you are going to wait until somepony wants to rob you?" he wondered.
"I don't really know Shining, I really don't."

"Do you know when my dad comes?" I changed the subject.
"His job starts in around an hour but he comes earlier" Shining said "you're gonna tell him about this?"
"Well, I can't hide this from him, he is my dad." I said
"Yeah you're right. Well you can wait here if you want or grab a dummy for some practise if you wish." he suggested
I opted for the second, luckily I brought my weapons with me, as I always did when visiting the barracks.

There were two kinds of dummies, the standing ones, and the spinning ones. The former were ideal for hitting accuracy, and were the most used in the barracks; they were a standing stick wrapped in hay.
The latter were designed for speed and reflex, and were barely used; they were a bare stick, with two more coming from it's sides: the stick on the right had a sword tied up, and the left one had a circular shield. Behind the sword there was a similar shield, and vice versa.
The spinning dummies had a mechanism which made them turn when hitting the sword or the shield, if somepony hit the shield it had to block or dodge the sword; and if the sword was parried it had to push the shield back.
If chained right, one could be lead into an infinite loop of hitting, blocking, parrying and dodging; until the pony stepped back out of exhaustion. The real purpose of this dummy, was to test how long could somepony could last in the loop.

I went to the spinning dummies, and grabbed my sword with my mouth, and started practising for half an hour.
From time to time I stepped back to catch some air, and headed back to keep the chain of hits, both with my sword and my front hooves.

The doors of the barracks opened again, and a fully grown colt entered, which I haven't seen or heard anything from this last two months.