Recollections
Shining Armor lounged on one of the half dozen seating cushions that where tossed around in Cadance’s room at the top of the aptly named Love Tower, one of Canterlot Castle’s tallest structures. It had become progressively difficult to maintain the shield over the entire city over the course of the week, and he was eager to relax and spend a little time with Cadance before reinforcing his spell for the last time that evening. Leaning back, he started to count the tiles on the ceiling, his tired eyes becoming more and more difficult to focus on the room around him. I’ll just wait here till she gets back. She said she would meet me here with a surprise after she finished her meeting… he bolted upright as the door to the room slammed shut. To his surprise, the room was dark now. It had to have been hours since he sat down, had he fallen asleep?
“Oh Shining Armor! Where are you?” He heard a click, and he jumped a little as light filled the room. I forgot they added those electric lights to the private rooms.
“Hey, Cadance! I was waiting for you, I thought you’d be back before dark…” His eyes went wide, as he became fully alert. “The Shield!” he cried as he rushed out the door.
“Shining!” Cadance scowled. “What are you doing?! I just came back! How could you run out on me like that?”
Shining Armor looked back inside at his bride-to-be. “Sorry Cadance, but I need to reapply my shield spell to the city. I missed my window earlier, the shield could fail at any time!”
“Fine. Hurry up and come back inside, I want to show you something.” Shining armor sighed.
“Yes, dear. This will only take a second.”
Looking up at the bubble of magic surrounding the city, he pointed his horn at the very peak. Reaching into his magic stream, he held the shield spell in his mind and focused on redirecting the magic that flowed throughout his whole body out through his horn, with the spell acting as a filter that manifested the desired effect. His horn lit up as magic shot up into the top of the shield, causing the entire thing to ripple for a second before settling back into the smooth sphere it was supposed to be. Smiling, Shining Armor took a moment to look for weak points in his spell.
“Shining! Come On!”
“Coming!”
Inside, Shining Armor saw Cadance laying sidewise on her bed, her hind legs dangling just off the edge as she propped up her head with her for hooves, looking down at an open book. She patted the bed beside her without looking at him. He jumped from the doorway directly onto the bed, bouncing both her and the book into the air.
“Eek!” She reflexively beat her wings and floated above the bed, frowning down at him. “What was that for?”
“Oh, lighten up Cadance! We haven’t seen each other at all this week! Come down here and snuggle!”
“Right. We haven’t seen each other, have we?”
She huffed and slowly lowered herself down onto the bed. As soon as she hit the sheets, Shining Armor wrapped her in a full body hug and nuzzled her. “I believe you promised me a surprise?”
“I did.” she reached over and slid the book over in front of them. Flipping it open, she revealed its contents: A bevy of pictures of a much younger Shining Armor, dressed in his cadet uniform.
“My mom’s scrapbook?” he flipped through the pages, glancing at the memories contained within. “This is your big surprise?”
“No, I got this so that we could sit here while you talk about yourself for hours! Surprise!” Cadance gave him one of the most insincere smiles he’d ever seen, which was weird, because even when Cadance forced a smile, which was rare, she could do it much more convincingly then most ponies Shining knew.
“Oh. Uh, okay. If that’s what you want. I mean, you already know pretty much everything about me that matters.”
“Well, yes, but I want to hear it again! From the pony that I love most! Leave nothing out!” Flipping back to the first page, she pointed to a young Shining Armor standing at attention looking off at some indeterminate point. “I assume this was your first day as a recruit?”
“That one was taken the day I left for the academy. I was about to leave the house for the train station when Mom insisted she get one more picture in…”
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
“Aaaaannnnnddddd I think that’s the one! Okay, Shining, you can move now!”
Shining Armor let out a sigh of relief. His mother had been trying to get the perfect picture for almost half an hour, which had cut into his attempt to get ahead of schedule. He still had a couple of stops to make before heading over to the Canterlot train station, and now he wasn’t sure he would have enough time for everything.
“Thanks mom. Well, if we’re finished, I really need to get moving. I have to make a couple of stops on the way. I’ll meet you there.” He heard a little giggle behind him.
“Why such a hurry, BBBFF? Going to see somepony special?” He turned to see his sister Twilight standing with Spike, who was struggling to hold his saddlebags off the ground. She levitated them out of his claws and onto her brothers back, making sure they were secure. Shining Armor just grinned.
“I have a couple of places to go, Twily.”
“None of which involve answering my question, apparently.”
“Maybe he’s too scared to go by himself, that’s why he needs a foalsitter.” Spike teased. Twilight Velvet laughed at her younglings antics.
“Now, now, Twilight, if Shining wants to play shy, we’ll let him. After all, we can always get the story later from a certain somepony, right?” she winked at her children. Shining blushed as Twilight and Spike cackled at their brother’s expense. Velvet embraced him and whispered to her eldest son “Don’t worry about them, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to get back at them in the future.”
Slightly less mortified, Shining Armor hugged his mom and left the little townhouse where he grew up. It was a little two story, three bedroom, one bathroom house, with a floor plan and color scheme that was exactly the same as dozens of others in Canterlot; but to him, the little wooden house addressed #0002 Tim Buck Trail, Canterlot, would always be home. He took a deep breath and stepped into the busy street, moving purposely through the crowd. It was rush hour in the city, and he knew that his first stop would already be crowded when he got there. After all, Joe’s Donuts was one of the more popular breakfast restaurants in the city. Unfortunately for Shining, his intuition was spot on. The little shop had a line out the door. Deciding he needed breakfast more then he needed to make his next stop, he decided to forego the Flaxseed Jerky he was planning to stock up on and stepped into the line. To his surprise, as soon as he was inside the door, he saw Old Joe point to him and wave him to the countertop. Cutting past the line, he was even more surprised when Old Joe Dropped a paper bag with a half dozen chocolate cream donuts onto the counter in front of him.
“There ya go, Shining Armor! I packed them up fresh this morning for ya.”
“Thanks Joe. I guess it wasn’t hard to figure out what I would order, right? Let me get you your bits…”
“Take your donuts and git, boy, can’t you see I’m busy here?”
“But Joe-,“
“Don’t give me any lip, boy! You think I can’t afford to do something nice for one of my best customers these past five years? One who’s joining the Guard? I know from my time there that they don’t provide creature comforts like donuts. In my day it seemed getting good food at all was too much trouble. Just promise me you’ll visit often after you get back, or at least bring your siblings here for a treat and you’ll more than pay me back.” Without waiting for a reply, the Old Stallion returned to the register and took the order of yet another impatient pony. Shining Armor sheepishly tucked the donuts into his saddle bags and left in high spirits. Seeing how procuring his breakfast had gone much quicker than he had anticipated, he decided that he had time to pick up some of his favorite dried snack before heading to his last stop, He just had to skip his normal banter with the shopkeeper.
The jerky store was several blocks away from the donut shop, and Shining had more than enough time to eat his breakfast while walking. The mare who owned the place had taken it off the hooves of some crank who was old before his time and had built up a reputation as a particularly unpleasant character. As a result, when she’d purchased the store and the old man’s secret recipe, she’d hung a sign outside that read “Under new management. Get the same great jerky without the Jerk!” Most of the time, Shining would pretend to wonder aloud just how truthful the advertisement was, and the mare would pretend to scowl and say he could keep his bits and his hungry belly to himself, where upon Shining would beg and pled and haggle until they settled on a price that was, coincidently, the same as the listed price. Today, however, he approached the counter silently, bits at the ready.
"Morning, Shining.”
“Good morning, Mrs. Flaxen.”
“Why you’re a polite pony this morning! Your mother finally straighten you out?”
“Just busy, I’m afraid. I’m off for the military academy.”
“I know you are. In fact, your friend who was in here earlier left you a note, though he seemed to think that you would be here later then now. Said you’d be running out the door trying to catch a train.” She handed him a note and a small sack of jerky.
Shiny Boi,
I knew you’d be running late today, so I took the liberty of saving you a hassle and paying for your food in advance. You better make the train, I’m going to be stealing from your stash onboard. – Barrel Roll
He dropped the note in the trash and stowed the jerky. “Thanks Mrs. Flaxen. For once he’s not 100% off, I am in a hurry.”
“Well, come back safe alright? It’s not often I get to practice my haggling anymore, you Canterlot ponies are too easy, just paying what’s on the sticker.
“If you are practicing, I’d expect you to get better at it after all this time.”
“Who says I’m not getting exactly what I want each and every time?” Flaxen’s eyes gleamed. “At any rate, take care, Shining!” He waved goodbye as he trotted out of the store and down the slightly less crowded street. His last stop was not on the way to the station. In fact where he was going was almost half as far again from his house to the station, but it was by far the most important stop on his list. Why she’d wanted to meet in the castle gardens, Shining had no clue, but he had a pass token and was on the list of trusted ponies, so getting in and out quickly shouldn’t be an issue.
Coming to the entrance to the castle grounds, Shining gave his name and pass token to the guards outside. They checked his name and description on the list, then took his token and waved him through the gate. Once inside, Shining picked the pace, searching for his target. After several minutes, he finally found her.
Two ponies, one light blue, the other pink, sat together in the garden, both hunched over the same unseen object sitting on their laps in front of them. One of them was a Pegasus with a lithe build and prim wings, the edge of a small camera cutie mark on her flank. The other was Cadance, the graceful Alicorn princess of Love. Very aware of the unseen guards watching his every move, Shining Armor walked up silently behind the two mares until he was close enough to hear them whispering to each other, then cleared his throat.
The two winged mares spun around to look at him, and he relished the gleam in the eyes of his crush as she saw him.
“Shining!” exclaimed Picture Perfect as she half tackled, half hugged him. He laughed as he deftly caught her using both his body and his magic to redirect the force of the blow and spin her to a stop. “I’m so glad you could come! The princess and I finished our photo shoot about 20 minutes ago, I was hoping we could talk before you left for the academy.” She turned back to Cadance and bowed. “With your permission, Princess, if there’s nothing else you’d like done, I would love to see my friend before he leaves.”
Cadance smiled at the pair of young lovebirds. “No, that’s quite alright, Picture. I have more than enough for today, and I certainly will not interfere in your plans with your “friend” before we send him away for months. Perhaps you can bring the developed photos to my room this weekend?”
“That would be fabulous. May I have a token?”
“Of course.” Cadance held up a hoof and focused intently on it. As her horn lit up, a swirl of magic began to spin tight circles just above it. Then, with a small pop, a silver coin slightly larger than a bit that shimmered with magic fell into her hoof. Cadance smiled, then leaned in and whispered “Picture Mary Perfect.” The surface of the coin rippled for a second, then reformed with Picture’s full name engraved around the edge. Cadance handed the coin to Picture, who went to tuck it into her saddlebags along with her equipment. Then Cadence turned to face Shining. “Hello Shining Armor. How is Twilight?”
“She’s well, your majesty. She misses seeing you as often as she did when she was a little filly.”
“I miss her too. She understands why I don’t visit often anymore, doesn’t she?”
“Of course she does. Apparently though, she did try to argue with Princess Celesita that her edict regarding you only sitting for foals who don’t have their cutie mark yet was, well, let’s just say she thought it was foolish. I swear, I think my sister could convince the Princess to make her Royalty, if Princess Celestia doesn’t banish her first.”
“I don’t know if will make you feel better or worse, but I know Celestia feels the same way.”
“It doesn’t, but thanks for trying.”
“Anytime.” Picture Perfect strode over to stand besides Shining, her saddlebags bulging. “Ready to go?” he asked.
“Yep.” Picture Perfect smirked at Cadance. “By the way, Princess, I going to make sure to bring my picture of Twilight holding her sign she made for me that says Perfect is Best in bold lettering this weekend.” Cadance smiled. Not a happy smile, more that of a prankster who realized that somepony was about to wander into their trap.
“Now, Picture, You know Twilight would never betray me.”
“Who knows where her loyalties lie? All I’m saying is that it’s going to happen.” She turned to Shining Armor. “You would know. Who’s her favorite sitter?”
All of a sudden, Shining felt very uncomfortable around two ponies he considered his friends. “Umm… I don’t think I should get involved.” The problem was, Cadance was Twilights favorite sitter, hooves down, not even close. Not that Picture was bad sitter, but she’d started sitting for Twilight when she was older, and not nearly as frequently as Cadence had when Twilight was younger and his parents had full time jobs. But if he said that, Picture might be mad he didn’t back up her assertion. On the other hoof, it was a bad idea to lie to somepony who would technically be his boss, and would certainly find out the truth eventually.
He noticed Cadance was looking at him with an intensity that strangely intimate, like she was looking into his soul. Then she sat up straighter and looked him in the eye. “Don’t answer that, Private Armor.”
Picture Perfect was flabbergasted. “Hey! You can’t tell him what he can or can’t say! According to the Foundational Decree, not even a Princess can compel somepony to speak or not speak outside of legal proceedings!”
“Ah, but there is an exception for ponies entrusted with the secrets of the Crown, and as a guard, Shining Armor technically falls into that category. I can, as his commanding officer, order him not to speak so as not to jeopardize his relationships. Both that between his Princess, and that of his “Friend.” She looked Picture. “Tell me, who should he agree with, You, or Me? His Boss, or his Special Somepony.”
Picture shuffled uncomfortably. “Well, I guess when you put it that way…” She looked up. “I don’t need his help to get that picture anyways. I’ll bring it on Saturday.”
“You do that.”
From behind Picture Perfect Shining mouthed a silent “Thank You” to Cadance. Then he touched Picture’s shoulder and started walking to the exit. She walked beside him in silence, the two close enough for their flanks to brush against each other. After leaving the grounds, Shining broke the awkward silence. “Hey Picture?”
“Yeah?”
“I was thinking on my over here… I’m going to be leaving everyone except Barrel Roll behind when I leave. I was hoping that you wouldn’t mind if I wrote a letter to you every week? I don’t need a reply to all of them, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn’t bothering you.”
Picture mulled over what Shining Armor had said. “I don’t know Shining, I don’t think I can cram in an essay every week into my schedule. My photography business is really taking off, especially with the all the work I’m getting from the Princess recently. I just don’t think I can handle a long letter every week.”
Shining’s heart sank, his mouth suddenly dry. “I understa-“
“Maybe if I set a few conditions, I might, might read them.”
“Really?”
“Let’s see, they need to be kept short. Real short. Let’s say 250.”
“Words?”
“Letters.”
“What?”
“And every message needs to be sent by Dragonfire, no Airmail.”
“Picture, it costs-“
“And when I decide to respond, you need to message me back within an hour, or I won’t bother reading them anymore, got it?” Shining Armor rounded angrily on his friend.
“If you’re going to demand I treat you like you’re-“ He stopped when he saw the expression of barely contained laughter stretched across her face. “Oh.” His ears flattened and his face flushed, embarrassed at not seeing through the teasing. They stood nose to nose for a few seconds, looking at each other. Then she smiled and touched his shoulder.
“Shining, I would love anything you sent me while you are away. I don’t mind at all.”
“You’re certain?”
“Of course. I do have one condition, though. For real this time.”
“What is it?”
“Promise me you’ll read all of my letters to you.”
Shining Armor gave her a goofy smile. “I don’t know, Perfect. I’m going to be really, really busy with drills and training- “She punched his shoulder. “Ow! Fine, if you’re going to beat me otherwise, then I’ll do it, I guess.”
“Perfect.” She started a brisk trot towards the Canterlot Station. “You still going or what? It’s almost time to board!”
“Yeah, I’m coming.” Shining took a deep breath, the city air somehow seemed just a little sweeter today. Then with a spring in his step he ran towards his destiny.
************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************
Shining Armor looked over to Cadance, who was preening her wing feathers. “You knew at the time, right?”
“Of course I knew, darling,” she purred, “I always knew how you felt about me.”
“What? No, in the garden, you knew that technically ponies aren’t considered Guards until they sign their Oath at the Academy, right?”
“Oh, that. Of course.”
“I wasn’t sure if you knew that at the time, but I wasn’t going to speak up and ruin my excuse not to say anything.” Shining Armor rolled over onto his back, looking at his fiancee. “I’m curious, why did you stop me from speaking that day?” Cadance looked away, her mane hiding her eyes, her lips pursed as she thought about her answer.
“I wasn’t certain you would say I was the best, and I didn’t want to risk being embarrassed in front of my crush, so I decided to play it safe and keep you from answering at all. That way, everypony could save face.” Shining nodded.
“That makes sense.” He was closing the book when Cadance surprised him by reaching over and blocking him.
“We only covered the first page! There’s so much more to go over!”
“It’s late, I still have my regular duties in addition to maintaining the Shield. Why don’t we turn in for the night?”
“Please, let’s just go over a couple of pages, then we’ll go to bed.” She fluttered her eyelashes at Shining, who felt his resistance melting away.
“Okay. A couple of more.”
Shining settled into the soft mattress of Cadance’s bed and sighed. He had a feeling this was going to be a long night.