//------------------------------// // Chapter Twelve: The life of Gleaming Shield // Story: How to train a Princess // by Foal Star //------------------------------// Gleaming Shield sat down with her friends in the dark gloomy tower at the small circular table; the white-coated mare took a cup of tea as she took a few sips. She looked up and explained, "I'm going to try to do my best to talk about the most important details of my life…so I won't go over every little thing." Sunset slammed a hoof on the table and shouted, "just tell us! Don't leave us in suspense!" Winter's cheeks flushed pink as she bowed her head and whispered, "yeah, just tell us everything you remember…" The white-coated alicorn took another sip of tea and then gave a long-winded sigh as this was going to be a rather long tale. "Alright…the first thing I honestly remember were bright lights." 25 years ago… Gleaming Shield woke up quite suddenly as she was trying to gauge her surroundings; there were bright lights all around her. The random hospital objects seemed to be bigger than her. The chubby white-coated filly tried to move her limbs, but they weren't responding to her movements. Her hooves felt jelly; she wanted to kick them about, but they seemed to not do what she wanted. The filly laid her head back and thought things over for a second, for what felt like forever she was stuck in a viscous fluid that surrounded her, she was clearly in another mare's womb…but…she wasn't alone; there was a colt there with her. They held hooves and listened to their mother's heartbeat. After that, things were a blur, a lot of screaming, crying…The filly was somewhat confused as she sat there thinking about things…for some reason, she couldn't remember the name of the colt that was with her in the womb. Gleaming paused and took a second to understand where she was, the white tiles, the glass window across the room; this had to be a hospital. Looking down at her stubby body once more, she must have just been born. The small white-coated filly turned her head and saw there were a few other ponies in the room with her, an older violet mare, with white and purple striped mane, a night blue-coated stallion with gold eyes and a dark blue mane, and a dull-looking brown coated stallion in a white coat with a stethoscope around his neck. The blue-coated stallion looked down at the filly with a look of surprise and awe. "An alicorn!? How is this possible!" The doctor looked awfully confused as he scratched his head. Gleaming was lifted up by the magic of the stallion she kicked and cooed, feeling the cold air hit her naked body making her shiver and whimper. She didn't realize that being outside her mother's womb being so warm that outside would be so cold. But the doctor was quick with his observations, placed a cold stethoscope on her chest, put a light in her ears; he then wrapped her back up in a fluffy pink blanket and placed down in her bassinet as she continued to reply. "I have no idea, she's healthy, and her vitals are good...I mean, other than that, there's not much else I can say in regards to her species." The violet-coated mare trotted over and dawwed at the filly below. "Oh, why does it matter if she's an alicorn? That just means she's that much more amazing!" She took Gleaming into her hooves and nuzzled the filly close to her face. The filly couldn't help but kick and giggle as she was being smothered. Night Light came over with a smile as he looked at his new daughter. "Yeah, your right; she is rather adorable…I just can't believe it!? An alicorn filly…what do you have an alicorn princess in your family tree?" Twilight Velvet rolled her eyes at the comment and scoffed, "I doubt it; most likely you had one." She then noticed across from her another baby pony, this one the white-coated colt with her back in the womb; he was wrapped up in a blue blanket sleeping peacefully with only a wisp of blue for a mane. When Gleaming recognized the colt tried to shout at him but nothing, but babbles came out, and it was all coming to her, that other foal had to be Shining Armor. But her gibberish seemed to elicit no response from her twin brother. She decided to look around a little and recognize some of the other ponies. The older mare Twilight Velvet was her mother, the blue-coated stallion was her father, Night Light it all came to her quite suddenly. Luna sent her back in time to live her life as a foal! As the alicorn realized she was just born, this would be her new life being the twin sister to Shining Armor. The white-coated alicorn went and poured herself another teacup as Sunset and Winter were silent and rather astonished. at the story so far. Sunset was the first to say something and whispered, "wow…you actually remember your birth?" Gleaming shook her head as she continued to explain. "No, not really; like I said, it was all a blur until much later." Winter was a bit confused and asked, "before you continue, you actually remember yourself being a foal?" The alicorn princess cheeks flushed pink as it was rather embarrassing but she did explain her situation once again, "Remember Luna took my consciousness and placed it into its own body. So yes, I was self-aware for most of my filly years. I'll skip most of it as it's either embarrassing or not important. In fact, next, I'll explain how I first met my version of Princess Celestia." 20 years ago Gleaming was shaking all over as she stood in one of the towers that made up Canterlot palace getting ready for her test. The little filly was there to take the test to see if she will enter Celestia's school for gifted unicorns. Gleaming knew deep down magic was never a strong suit of hers,' but she felt compelled to at least try to see if she could get in. On the other hoof, she'll maybe be able to see Princess Celestia herself. A purple dragon egg was pushed into the room on a cart as one of the angry-looking proctors, a mare, glared at her and snapped, "alright, Gleaming Shield is it!?" "Yes!" The young princess squeaked out as the proctors all looked over at her as the mare waved a hoof and snapped, "proceed hatch the egg." The little filly gulped as she lit her horn to try showing her skills; all she could muster was a few sparks. The ponies frowned and mumbled to each other as they wrote down notes as the filly rolled her eyes. "I already told all of you that my magic isn't that powerful, and I didn't want to join this school." Before the proctors could do anything, the little filly placed a giant shield on the proctors as she ran off and squealed, "Sorry about that! I'm going to find Princess Celestia!" She ran off as the proctors banged at the magical bubble shouting at her as her parents ran after her. The filly just laughed as she ran through the halls and squeaked as she ran right into a tall white-coated alicorn. Gleaming looked up and saw that it was none other than Princess Celestia standing over her. The princess of the sun looked down with a smile. "Hello there! It's good to see you Gleaming!" Gleaming gulped she was super nervous but the filly didn't have a lot of time before the other ponies reached her so she quickly stammered, "Hey, just wana say hi! Also, wana ask if you can teach me how to be a princess?" The proctors (who all seemed to come down the hall after the shield dissipated) the princess of the sun held up a hoof making all the ponies pause as she replied, "I guess you didn't have a lot of magical talent, which is fine, Instead why don't I give you private lessons, and I can give you tips on being a princess." "That would be amazing! Thank you!" Gleaming Shield squealed; she couldn't believe that she would get solid advice on being a princess from Celestia herself. The little filly skipped off after her parents, who both quickly bowed, gave their apologies, and skirted off after their daughter. After a very scolding from her parents, Gleaming came back home, slipping into her room, looking rather cheery with herself as she went into her room. Inside was a rather quaint room with two beds on either side one had posters of comic book superheroes and stacks of comics on his bedside. The other had mostly Daring Do posters and Daring Do novels. Shining was reading one of his comics as he looked over at his sister and asked, "you back already?" The little white-coated filly gave him a smirk and chirped, "yep!" Shining now had a smirk on his face as he asked, "so you passed?" Gleaming already had a feeling her brother knew the answer to that question. Still, she decided to just exclaim proudly once more. "Nope!" Shining burst into laughter as he closed his comic and snickered, "of course not, but I have to ask, did your plan to convince Celestia to teach you how to be a princess work?" "Yeah, it did! Instead of magic lessons, I'll be getting princess lessons!" Gleaming squealed in delight; she was so happy her plan worked. As she plopped right onto the bed, sitting across from her brother. Shining looked at his sister with a smile on his face. "Well, it seems you got something out of it…though…from the shouting downstairs. I assume you're grounded?" The filly's cheeks flushed pink as, despite her plan working rather well, her parents were still furious with her as she admitted, "yeah…well…I had to place a magical shield on the proctors." Shining laughed, even more, rolling on his bed; the colt shook his head and continued, "wow!? You actually did that?" Gleaming couldn't help but snicker behind a hoof as she explained, "yeah, it's true, trapped them good you should've seen their faces." The colt looked back at his sister with a smug grin and shouted, "wana have another shield contest?" "Oh, buck yeah! You are ready to lose again!" Gleaming snapped as she slammed a hoof on the ground, and then they both lit their horns and produced bubbles around each other. The other mares burst into laughter and tears upon hearing Gleaming's next part of her story. Sunset poured herself some more tea she decided to ask. "So, what about when Twilight was born? You witnessed that?" Gleaming shook her head and replied modestly. "Sadly, not the moment of her birth, but my brother and I visited her in the hospital multiple times. To be honest…the moment that I most remember was when my brother and I snuck into her nursery one night." 19 years and a few months ago… It was a long quiet night for Gleaming Shield; she was staring up at the ceiling; she shared a room with her twin brother. She had to whisper under her breath, "hey, Shining you awake." The colt whispered back to his twin sister. "Yeah, I'm awake." "Hey, wana go see our new baby sister," The little alicorn squeaked hoping he’ll say yes. “Oh heck yeah!” Shining Armor exclaimed rather excitedly the two were both rather excited, waiting for their parents to go to sleep so they could sneak over to the baby's room to see their newborn sister. They both then slowly crept out of their room and headed to the nursery and peered over the top of the crib, and there was a tiny purple filly. She was so small and cute, suckling on a pacifier tucked under pink sheets. The little colt smiled down and placed a hoof over his chest. "Hi, my name is Shining Armor." "I'm Gleaming Shield! And I'm your big sister!" the filly quickly cried out. Shining ssshhhed her as Gleaming placed hooves over her mouth. Right she didn't want then turned to the filly. "Sorry, she can be quite rude sometimes." "Nah, uh, your rude." Gleaming snapped, getting rather angry at her brother, making a wrong impression of her to their new sister. Shining rolled his eyes. "Anyways, were your older siblings, and at the very least I'll protect you." "Yeah, me too!" Gleaming chirped with her eyes aglow, the filly seemed to give a slight nod as the two foals quickly ran back to their bed, and they snuggled under the sheets. Later that night Shining Armor under the blankets whispered, "hey Gleaming let's make a pact." The little princess alicorn thought about it for a second as she looked into the dark void towards her ceiling. She couldn't help but think about how frail and small Twilight was and whispered, "yeah, that we'll protect our new baby sister forever and ever." "Yeah, until the end of time." Shining yawned as he snuggled under the sheets Gleaming just stood awake staring at the ceiling as she couldn't wait to be Twilight's big sister. Gleaming's friends both were tearing up, making the mare squeamish and cry out. "hey, stop that!" "What, that was so cute!" Sunset wailed and started to ball her eyes out as Winter rolled her eyes and the goddess turned to Gleaming and asked, "why don't we skip to when you got your cutie mark? That must be one heck of a story." "Oh yeah! You have to tell us!" Sunset snapped, slamming a hoof on the table. The white coated mare rolled her eyes and sighed, "fine, but I'll just say it's more embarrassing than it is interesting…" 18 years ago... "Gleaming you ready for school!" "In a minute, mom!" The white-coated mare shouted back as the little white-coated school filly was getting her mane finished combing out the knots growling to herself. It's been about five years since she was reborn into her new life, and at the moment, she was trying to get ready for school. Shining ran over into the bathroom and shouted, "Come on, Gleaming, your gonna make us late!" "Oh, like you care, you're the one who slept in." The filly snapped back, making Shining wince as he mumbled under his breath, "whatever, let's just go, your mane looks fine." "Hmmph, fine, but you owe me for waking you up." Gleaming chirped back as she booped him on the nose. Shining wrinkled his muzzle with a pout. "Fine, as long as you don't do anything crazy or embarrassing...I don't understand why you have to brush your mane every morning?" "Ugh, you have it easy; you're a colt." She finished doing what she could before taking up her saddlebag and heeded off with Shining down the halls and headed to the kitchen. As they came to the kitchen, they saw quite a sight; two saw a baby Twilight Sparkle babbling and kicking and screaming at Night Light covered in foal food trying to feed her. Twilight Velvet placed two bowls of cereal on the table. "Come on and eat your breakfast; you're already late, so hurry up." The two quickly ran over and gobbled down their meal, then the mare came by and gave both of her foals a kiss on the forehead, as the twins shouted, "bye, mom! Bye, dad!" "Bye, kiddos!" Their parents shouted back as they ran out the door for school. Later that day, the two foals were at a playground for recess; the two ran around the playground, racing each other. They then spotted a big, rough-looking colt bullying some other foals shouting that he owns the playground. Gleaming looked over at the colt and growled under her breath, "Iron Mace, that jerk, and he's supposed to be a royal guard when he grows up?" "As, if more likely he'll grow up to be a bully!" Shining exclaimed as he puffed up his chest. The filly wiped the sweat from her brow. "We need to stop him! I'm tired of him picking on every foal and getting away with it." "Right, but how? We can't beat him up?" The colt asked as his sister rolled her eyes. "Seriously, why do colts always want to get physical? We can make magic shields. Let's trap him!" Shining Armor smirked as he exclaimed, "right, let's give him a timeout!" The two waddled over as Shining struck his chest out and shouted, "Hey Iron! I think we all had enough of your bullying! If you really are going to be a royal guard one day, this is definitely not how you should act!" The colt hopped down and stomped across the padded yard. "Oh yeah, make me stop! Or you're going to let your sister fight me!" "maybe I will!" The white-coated filly snapped; this got the colt to lower his horn and ran at her. Gleaming then gnashed her teeth as she braced herself to be tackled. The little filly then lit her horn, defending herself and her brother. Iron Mace slammed into a magical shield and fell backward, groaning as Shining smirked as; he lit his horn and created a magical shield over the bully, making him cry as he rose up and smashed his hooves against the shield. "Hey, let me out!" Shining Armor stomped over and snapped, "no, not until you promise to let every foal use the playground." Iron Mace gritted his teeth as he kept slamming against the magical shield, unable to breakout. He wasn't going to let these two. "Fine! I'm gonna tell my mommy, and you two are gonna get in big trouble!" Shining dissipated, the shield and Iron Mace ran off as every foal started to cheer and ran towards the playground shouting thank yous at the two foals. The colt gave a sigh as he rubbed a hoof over his mane. "Ya know we probably gonna get in big trouble." "So what? He was a bully, and he needed to stop-" The white-coated mare paused as she saw Shining's Armor cutie mark was now on his rump. "Your cutie mark! You got it!" "What!?" Shining cried out as he turned towards his rump and gasped, seeing the blue shield and the starburst printed on it. "This is so cool!" He turned to his sister and pointed a hoof at her rump. "Hey! You got a cutie mark too!" Gleaming turned her head to see her mark was similar to her brother's, except her shield had a pink tiara in the middle of it. "Yeah, I did too! This is so awesome!" Shining gave a salute to his sister and replied, "looks like we're one step closer to being royal guards." Gleaming beamed a smile of pride back at her brother and saluted back, "yeah, one more step towards our dream." The white coated alicorn princess finished her tale as she took another sip of her tea as she finished, "so yeah, that's the story…" Sunset eyed her and asked, "that's it? I was hoping for something more interesting?" "Told you, my life wasn't that interesting; I mean after that it was mostly just school, getting into fights with Cadance over trying to be Twilight's big sister, getting into the royal guard climbing the ranks…and there were also Celestia's private lessons were either boring or embarrassing…" Gleaming sighed as she shoved a piece of cheesecake in her mouth. Somehow the princess rubbed off her addiction of cake onto her. Even Luna has teased she was basically Celestia Jr. Sunset eyed her mare friend and asked, "were you at your brother's wedding?" Gleaming was caught by surprise by the question as she spat out some of her tea and cake then grumbled, "yeah, I was, now that was an exciting story." about a year ago... Gleaming Shield was looking up as the magical shield with an army of Changelings fluttering above. She was scared, fearful not for herself but for the dozens of civilians cowering around her, shaking all together like leaves in a storm. The mare knew her brother's magic was waning, and she knew that the shield was going to collapse. "Alright, everypony, stay close! Royal guards create a boundary around the guards! I'll create another shield around all of you, but if they break it, you'll be the last line of defense! Your job is to keep these ponies safe, is that clear!" "Yes, princess!" The other royal guards shouted, all shaking, looking somewhat terrified but holding onto their spears, ready for anything. The shield did disappear above them, and everypony around her started to scream! But Gleaming was fast, placing another magical shield on everypony around her. She stood firm, glaring at the changelings; she wasn't going to let anyone of them hurt the civilians or her fellow guards. The changelings came swarming over them, smashing their hooves against her barrier. She stood her ground with her shield overhead and kept them all safe within her magical barrier for as long as she could. Every hit on her shield started to make her shake all over, with her head starting to ring. Then there was a giant explosion that rocked the area, and soon the changelings began to flee with Gleaming standing there panting with a tired smile came over her face. "We…d…di…did it…" Completely exhausted, Gleaming Shield couldn't hold herself any longer and collapse to the ground. Winter and Sunset were now on the edge of their seats straing right at the alicorn princess. Gleaming saw their astonished and worried expressions realizing the story was left sort of on a cliffhanger and quickly added. "I mean, I lived, of course! Spent a few days at the hospital…and begrudgingly learned Twilight and her friends saved our rumps again, that's about it." The two mares gave sighs of relief as Sunset shook her head. "You and Shining are the same, suckers to the end that'll be the death of you." "As if! I knew my limits and held myself rather well!" Gleaming snapped back, making Sunset roll her eyes. Winter, on the other hoof, whispered, "so…um…were you crowned as a princess?" The white-coated alicorn turned to the goddess of winter and chirped, "yep! I am the princess of Guardianship! The ceremony wasn't anything spectacular… I gave a speech and then had my helmet replaced with a tiara…" "Oh, you didn't wear a gown!? You wore armor!" Sunset cried out, somewhat surprised. "Oh, shut it! I was also replacing my brother as captain of the guard! Wearing his armor was more appropriate!" Gleaming snapped back getting quite irritated with her marefriend Sunset who was starting to get on her nerves. "Alright, fine, anyways…what about it? You sound like you're keeping something from us?" Sunset Shimmer asked with a suspicious tone. Gleaming grumbled under her breath despite her and Sunset having made up and rekindled their love; she then snapped, "fine, it was just a good memory. I'll just explain what happened." A few months ago The next few months go by; after defeating the tyrant Sombra, she was now standing in front of a mirror wearing purple-plated armor. She was there standing tall, looking quite proud of herself, not only in helping to stop the Changeling invasion but supporting her brother and his wife in their expedition in defeating the spirit of the tyrant Sombra. Her brother was now the prince of the Crystal Empire. She was going to be crowned as the princess of Guardianship. This was, in fact, the day she will take his place as the captain of the guard. She was pretty proud of her accomplishments and felt as if everything she was ready to go for her big day. Then she saw her brother slowly come in and strode over as her eyes went wide in surprise; she turned around and shined a smile at Shining and spread out her hooves. "Hey! I didn't think you would come!" She gave him a big hug, and then he took a step back as he admired the armor on his sister with a smirk." It suits you…I thought you would be wearing a dress?" "Well, I thought about it, but I felt this would suit me better; I want to prove I'm ready to be the Princess of Guardianship not just as their princess…but as their protector." Shining gave his sister a salute. "Well, good luck!" "Yeah, you too!" Shining’s twin exclaimed and saluted back; Gleaming Shield stepped forward as Celestia came around. "Just look at you!" Gleaming cheeks flushed pink as she came over and hugged the princess of the sun as they both wrapped their wings around each other and they held the embrace for sometime. "Thank you for coming as well." Celestia looked down at her student with a warm smile as she applauded her. "Well, you did a lot to get here, and you definitely deserve this, and might I say you look impressive." Gleaming nuzzled into Celestia and whispered, "thank you for being my mentor…" She then rose up, wiped the tears from her face, and followed the princess of the sun out onto the balcony to deliver her coronation speech. "So, what about the speech?" Sunset asked, being a bit peeved. The princess of Guardianship scratched the back of her mane realizing she had forgotten most of it as she explained, "oh, it was just super long and boring; it would take forever to remember everything I said. I'm sure Twilight wrote it down; you can ask her when you meet her." Winter's cheeks flushed pink as she whispered, "so…um, I have a question? Why did you send your consciousness back in time?" Gleaming looked down at her teacup for a bit of bit before she whispered, "it was because I was living inside Shining Armor's body and for me to have my own body I had to live my own life…I don't know how Luna did it all…but in the end, it was a well-lived life, and it was worth it." She turned to Sunset Shimmer and Winter and replied sternly. "What I realized in the last twenty-five years is that my life has taught me a lot of lessons. One is that no matter which some pony is in trouble, and we can stop it, we have to do so. I hope you both feel the same." They both nodded in agreement as Sunset looked over at Gleaming; she opened her mouth to say something but then promptly closed it before asking, "so…um…you have a plan to stop this fake Lauren Faust?" "Yeah… it's simple, really, and if we do it right, not only will we stop the brainwashing and free the other teachers. We can make a better school for young princesses now listen closely." Gleaming chirped, the three huddled around the table discussing their plan to save the Princess Academy.