//------------------------------// // Royal Pain (Edited) // Story: Night Day Harmony // by Bass Blitz //------------------------------// Peace had found Canterlot again when Shining Armour and Princess Cadence got married after the Changeling invasion happened. After the wedding party had finished, the next day Princess Celestia had ordered her Royal Guards to help the citizens of Canterlot in rebuilding the damaged homes. Now usually Royal Guards had no problem with these types of things but there was always one guard that did. “Ah why the hay do I have to help with this clean up!” A male white Pegasus whined. “Because the Princess ordered us to help the citizens so stop complaining Shine” replied the guard next to him. Shining Steel turned to the unicorn, staring daggers at her while still complaining “I know the princess ordered us to do this but why me? yesterday I was finally recruited into the royal guard then get attacked by some pony shaped insects and my first order is clean up duty and your telling me to calm do…!“ “hey Shine, cut the whining and get back to work!” Yelled a grey Pegasus mare, furious at her new recruit for not working. “Yes Commander Derpy” replied Shine while taking a breath and getting back to work. As much as Shine hated to admit defeat there was one thing he had learnt the hard way in training school and that was never piss off the Commander. As the Celestia’s day was nearing its end and Luna’s night making its way to the sky, the repairs had nearly been completed and when Shining Steel was about to finish his area, he saw something moving up above into the early night sky, but he couldn’t see it very well, mainly because it was dark but also because it was quite fast. As he was about to take flight to find out what exactly what it was he saw but he was quickly stopped by his Commander who was giving him the dead eyes. “Just what do you think you’re still doing out here at this time?” Derpy asked while trying to hold the Pegasus down. Shine had completely forgotten that the Day Guards were not supposed to be out when the night came. He quickly retracted his wings and replied in a nervous voice “I-I was just f-finishing my duty when I saw something in the air. I was about to go and investigate but you stopped me." Derpy in response just rolled her eyes and said “It was properly a bat, but right I want you to return to the palace and await further orders.” “Is that a request or an order?” Asked Shine rhetorically with a goofy grin on his face. Derpy’s motionless face started to turn into a frown. Luckily Shine knew exactly what that face meant he quickly took a pace backwards. “Never mind” he said while covering his precious belongings. Derpy couldn’t help but giggle at Shining Steel’s reaction, so she decided to leave him be for now and head on back to the palace. Just before Shine was about to do as he was told and head on back into the palace, he ended up getting a cold shiver down his spine, giving him the feeling that he was being watched by something. He turned to see what it was that was watching him, but instead saw nothing. So he just shrugged and flew back towards the palace. What he didn’t see was that he was indeed being watched from a dark alley. The figure cautiously came out if it’s hiding place, grinning as it saw Shining Steel heading towards the palace . “Oh, so that is what a Day Guard looks like. Well they don’t look like much to me,” said the mysterious pony as it faded back into the darkness. When Shining Steel had arrived at the palace gates he still couldn't shake the feeling that out there in the darkness that something was still watching him “Hey Shine get your shiny flank in here now!” yelled Derpy from a distance. Shine, snapping back into the present, quickly trotted towards Derpy who was waiting for him, tapping her hoof against the floor in impatience. “What is it with you today?” She asked. “I know that you were complaining about your first order from the Princess but lately you have just been staring into space. What’s wrong?” But all of what she had just said to Shining Steel was wasted for he wasn’t even listening to her. Shine, still staring at nothing in particular, recoiled as a hoof hit against the back of his helmet. Hard. “Oww pony feathers!” He took his helmet off revealing his banana coloured mane and started to rub the back of his head and looked up at Derpy whining “What was that for?” Derpy just rolled her eyes in annoyance and stormed off leaving the confused Pegasus behind. Quickly, he rubbed the pain away so that he could try and catch up to her while a few minutes had past looking for her he finally found her walking through the main corridor “Hey Derpy wait up” he called, she turned to look at him then turned away. “Ouch, cold shoulder,” he thought to himself. Then an idea came to his head as he called out to Derpy once more. “Fine then, I will leave you alone, I was only going to ask you if you would like to join me in going to the bakery to get some Muffins but I guess you’re just too busy.” The word ‘muffin’ made Derpy stop in her tracks, and if there was one thing Shine had heard about his commander, is was that she couldn’t resist muffins. Shine then just turned around and started walking away while calling back “Well see you later Commander” Shine started to count in his head. 3-2-1… “WAIT!” Yelled Derpy as she quickly ran to Shine’s side. All Shine could do was laugh at how easy it was to get his commander to follow him and how red her cheeks were becoming. “Huh, so now you want to come with me?” Shine said with a grin Derpy just looked at him for a second then turned her head the other way while mumbling “Shut up.” As the two approached the royal bakery they were stopped at the sound of a mare yelling at somepony “How many times do I have to tell you? I’m not letting you help out in my barky! Remember what happened last time you tried to give me your assistance?” “Oh come on now don’t tell me you’re still mad about that. It was a simple mistake,” replied a stallion “A simple mistake! You ate all of my freshly baked cakes that I worked on yesterday morning!” Yelled the mare, obviously furious at the stallion. “Wait! It’s not my fault, really. I swear the cakes were whispering to me, begging me to have a taste and before I realized it, I ended up eating them all. Oh, they were delicious by the way,” he replied. After listening to the argument for a while, it finally ended with the stallion storming out of the kitchen. He was a blueish-green Pegasus with blue eyes, red mane with orange stripes and his cutie mark was a flame with wings on the side. As he was about to take off he took notice of Shining Steel and Derpy staring at him he smiled at them and warned them, “Be careful I think she’s a bit mad,” then he took to the air and left. A few moments later the mare exited the kitchen. She had a golden coat with bright yellow eyes, cyan mane and her cutie mark was a cupcake. She saw the two and she quickly started to turn a bright shade of red in her cheeks and looked at the floor. “Oh my goodness, sorry if you had to hear that,” she explained to the duo. Derpy just replied “That’s quite alright. I take it that everything is under control now,” The mare looked up at Derpy and gave a quick nod “Yes it is now! Oh sorry where are my manners? My name is Sugar Bliss, how may I help you” Before Derpy could order Shine took over “We would like six blue berry muffins please and with butter” Derpy just looked at Shine with her classic confused face. “Six blue berry muffins with butter ok that will be 8 bits thank you.” Sugar Bliss said as Shine reached into his saddle bag and picked out 8 bits and handed them to Sugar Bliss. After she took the bits and disappeared into the kitchen, Shining Steel noticed that Derpy was watching him “What?” He asked his commander. “How the hay did you know that my favourite type of muffins were blueberry?” She asked back. Shine just smiled “I didn’t.” Derpy frowned while hissed “So you were just going to order without asking the mare what she would like?” Shine’s smile just grew bigger. “Sounds just about right,” he said as he couldn’t suppress the laughter any more. Just as Derpy raised her hoof to hit Shining Steel in the head but the moment was quickly interrupted as Sugar Bliss came out of the kitchen with the bag of muffins “Sorry for the wait you two” she said whilst handing the bag to Shine the two gave a quick nod and began to leave but not before Sugar Bliss called out “Thank you. I take it I will see you two some other time?” “Yeah till then!” Replied Derpy. When the two had finally found a spot to sit in the palace and began eating their muffins. Shine couldn’t help but grin at the sight of his Commander and think to himself about her. ‘Wow, who would have thought that the great and powerful Commander Derpy Hooves would look so adorable while eating muffins’. He continued watching Derpy happily eat her muffins. But whilst he watched her he took noticed that something unusual was going on in Derpy’s eyes. He saw that her right eye started to trail off in the opposite way that the left eye was going, “Derpy, is there something wrong with your right eye?” She quickly looked up at him with a confused look on her face. “What?” “Well to me it looks like your eyes are going walled eyed,” exclaimed Shine. In shock Derpy quickly stood up and turned the other way while mumbling “Oh hay. Why now? Why the buck now?” Concerned for his commander, Shine approached her and laid a hoof on her shoulder and asked “Are you alright Derpy?” In a quick response she looked at him then hung her head down “I’m fine!” she barked “But don’t you bucking dare tell anypony about this for if you do I…I will—!“ “whoa, whoa, hey Derpy it’s alright I promise that I won’t tell anypony on how adorable you look when you’re eating and that your eyes are wall-eyed,” he said in a calm voice, but realizing what he just said to his commander his cheeks started to become bright red. Derpy looked up at him and started to blush as well. “W-what did you just say?” Derpy asked nervously Shine ended up lost for words “I-I-I w-what I was m-m-meant to say was um that you….” Derpy just giggled and said “Alright, alright, I know what you meant but just to make sure you don’t break your promise, I’m going to make you do the Pinkie Promise” Shine just gave her a confused look “The Pinkie what now?” Derpy just looked at Shining, who was looking at her in confusion “Wait, don’t tell me you haven’t heard of a Pinkie Promise” “Well let’s just say I haven’t” replied Shine. Derpy did another one of her giggles while saying “Repeat after me; cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” Shine just raised an eye brow “And if I don’t want to do that?” He asked Derpy just gave an evil grin and answered “Oh, if you don’t then I can do another way to make sure you won’t break your promise by kicking you were it hurts” Shine gulped as he instinctively protected his weakness. “Fine, I will say it. Cross my heart hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. There happy” “Very” she replied. As the two finished their muffins and said their goodnights, Shine was still a bit confused on what the hay a Pinkie Promise was, and for that matter what it meant and should he have gone for the other option but quickly shook that idea out of his head knowing that even though Derpy isn’t an earth pony she can sure as hay puck one hell of a hit. As he was halfway to the barracks he had another cold shiver run down his spine. ‘Why is it that I keep having these damned cold chills.’ He thought yet whenever he looked around to see what is was that might have been watching him but still saw nothing. So instead he decided that he would walk back to the barracks so that he could get at least some sleep, considering Derpy was giving him orders all day and because he was tired from the clean-up. When he arrived in his bed in the barracks, he started whining in his head about how he didn’t finish his area and that he would have to wake up bright and early tomorrow in order to complete it. But right now he just sunk in deeper into his bed in an attempt to help him sleep quicker and prepare the events that he will have to put up with the next day.