“The Changing of the Guard”
Chapter 1: Retirement
I have often dreamed
Of a far off place
Where a Hero's welcome
Will be waiting for me
To most of the ponies of Canterlot, it was a day much like any other.
Above the city, Celestia’s Sun hung high in the sky, its golden visage glowing warmly in the sapphire blue sea that surrounded it without a single cloud marring the perfection; surely it was a point of pride for the Canterlot weather teams to make a day such as this. All about the Capital of Equestria, ponies went about their daily business doing whatever it was that ponies of such high importance did. Some surely were on their way to or from their work while others were simply out socializing or showing off their latest purchases to fellow status seekers. Others still were simply enjoying a gorgeous summer day without a care in the world.
For one stallion, however, the majesty of the day was irrevocably lost.
His name was Shining Armor, husband of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza and Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard amongst a smattering of other titles; a minor noble by birth, a prince by marriage and one of the most respected of all stallions in Canterlot.
On any other day, he would have been out enjoying the weather with his family or find himself busy on the drilling field with his fellow guards. Perhaps he and Cadence would be having lunch while their children talked about their latest adventures or he would be teaching his newest recruits the proper way to hoof a spear or take down an enemy bare-hoofed. Perhaps he would share some fresh juice with one of his lieutenants after training while they shared stories of their various battles and the scars they took from them. Yes, on any other day, such things would be in his thoughts, happy but focused and ready to do his duty both as friend and captain.
But today was not any other day and it was not a day for happy thoughts and reflections. Today was a day that demanded solitude, because it marked the final day of something that he had been putting off until the very last minute of its passing and now found he could put off no longer. Today, despite the protests of his wife and others, he wanted to be alone and as far from any familiar company as he could be; ironic considering his destination.
Looming before him, gleaming gold and white in the afternoon sun lay the towers of the Guard Headquarters. Normally, he would have found comfort here, for he knew the building and its surrounding grounds like the back of his own hoof. Quite literally, he reflected, the building was his home away from home as he had spent the better part of his life there in one capacity or another. There was not an alcove he had not laid eyes on nor room or hallway within that he had not spent at least a few minutes inspecting. No, the most well built and fortified building in all of Equestria – only the Royal Palace rivaled it in terms of defensive enchantments – held no secrets from him any longer.
That thought should have been a comfort to him. The first thing he should do would be to stride into the parade grounds with all the confidence of years of experience while he watched the recruits perform their chores and inspected the seniors – so close to graduation and their coveted armor! – as they performed drill after drill until they were as perfect as could be beneath his critical gaze. After that, perhaps he would take a stroll through the hallways looking for stragglers and lollygaggers; perhaps finding a young couple who had thought to skip out of drill for some “quiet time” in an empty room. That last thought made him chuckle despite his melancholy; memories of similar interludes shared with his wife causing his lips to curl into a wane smile as his fur bristled slightly. But as quickly as the thoughts appeared, they faded when he stepped through the gatehouse and surveyed the scene before him.
Sure enough, all around him cadets sparred and trained, shouting at practice dummies and each other, some armed, some not while veterans called out orders and critiqued performances. Everypony that spotted him raised their hoof in salute and he returned their gestures before moving forward, the soft click-clack of his hooves upon familiar flagstones like a formal marching drum as he approached the double doors which separated the parade ground from the interior. For so many years, when those doors opened to reveal the short, darkened hallway within what waited to receive his return like the legs of an old friend's embrace or the softness of a warm blanket on a cold day.
Today, it felt more like the approach to a morbid gallows that would strangle the life from his body.
Approaching the steps, he paused for a moment, his keen mind blocking out the sounds around him as he stared at those doors. Every member of the Equestrian Royal guard passed through those doors hundreds – if not thousands – of times in their tenure, but they were not merely a physical barrier for the protection of those inside; far from it. Called The Thirty Steps into Shadow, it was the last test every guard was required to pass before receiving their armor.
So-named because it took exactly thirty steps to complete, the test began with the recitation of the Passage of Service and ended when the pony stepped out from under the sun and into the darkened corridor beyond. Of course, the test was purely symbolic and made use of the hundred hooves long, windowless hallway beyond the doors to allude to the darkness that all guards were required to face in order to keep Equestria safe. No pony knew exactly how the tradition had started, but according to what they had all been told, if their hearts were not dedicated to the guard or if they faltered in either the oath or their steps, the darkness would expel them from the keep and never again allow them entrance.
Like all guards, Shining Armor, had no idea if such a curse was real or not as he had never witnessed such an expulsion, but he recalled his own trail as if it had happened only yesterday but tried not to think about the one he would face later on. The great doors sung both ways, after all, and thus as there was a trial of entering, so too was there a trial of leaving. Placing his hoof upon his chest, he closed his eyes and spoke clearly.
“I, Shining Armor of House Sparkle, stand before you a colt with hopes of becoming a Stallion. Let those who stand by my side now bear witness to this, my last trial as a cadet and my first steps as a guard of Equestria and of the Royal Line. These thirty steps I now ascend. By the Strength of the Sun and the Grace of the Moon, I now ask you judge me worthy. To the Royal Guard of Equestria, I pledge this day my service, my life, my honor and should it be required, my death as well. In the name of the Princesses, let me always be true.”
The words fell from his tongue as readily now as they had then, and as he began to slowly climb upwards, he found he could no longer see the doors, but rather only what had lead him there once more.
------Five Weeks Earlier------
The room into which he entered was one that every guard knew of and yet one they all refused to speak about except in the most hushed whispers.
To hear the words bantered about by recruit and veteran alike, it was a room not unlike the pits of Tartarus themselves. A room whose walls were saturated by the smell of brimstone, where pony sat in judgment of pony and ancient devices from the Discordian War waited in plain view to slay both the body and soul of anypony found wanting by their accusers. A room of bloodstained walls serenaded by the tortured screams of traitors and heretics.
Or so the legends said.
In truth, it was none of these things; just another room high in the Southern most tower of Canterlot Castle at the top of a spiral staircase consisting of one-hundred evenly spaced steps of white marble. Inside were not the pits of Tartarus, but rather a simple room decorated in red velvet carpeting and adorned with banners depicting the three tribes of Equestria; each one hundreds of years old but as pristine as they day it was woven. The images depicted were so life-like, that it almost made it appear as if six ponies, not three, waited patiently around their table of polished Everfree darkwood.
To his left, a violet-eyed earth pony mare with faded blue fur and a mane turned almost snow-white with age, her cutie mark depicting an open book with a quill poised to begin writing.
To his right, a unicorn stallion of burnished gold fur with a mane of deep crimson streaked with grey, his cutie mark a mortar and pestle whose deep brown eyes seemed to bore into him.
In the center, a grey furred Pegasus stallion with a mane even whiter than the mare’s and thick rim glasses that all but obscured his eyes and by the look of his wings, he had not seen flight in decades. He was the only one whose cutie mark was not visible.
Taking hold of the doorway with his magic, Shining Armor pulled it closed and let the crystalline aura from his horn fade as he trotted before the table and gave his best salute before standing at ramrod straight attention, head high as he removed his helmet and tucked it gingerly beneath his left foreleg. The silence in the room stretching out for what seemed like an eternity as the Chancellors studied him.
They were critical to be sure, but no more so than he was already used too. True, he was no longer the spring stallion he once was, but he was by no means a broken old nag either and had kept himself in perfect shape over the years. His limbs were as strong as ever and his trunk still hardened muscle from years of training and discipline, his eyes sharp and his ears folded back patiently. Truthfully, the only signs of his approaching age that anypony could seem to find were the slight dulling of his once pristine white coat and the slight fading at the bases of his proud blue mane and tail.
Finally, the pegasus stallion cleared his throat and began to speak.
“Shining Armor of House Sparkle, Prince of the Crystal Kingdom and Captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard,” he began. “We, the Royal Equestrian Advisory Council, by the the grace of the Princesses of the Sun and Moon welcome you before us this day. Please, be seated, captain.”
“With Respect, Chancellor Skylark, I would ask that I be allowed to stand.” He countered.
“As you wish, Captain Armor,” He said in response. “You are aware of why we have called you there today?”
“I am,” he replied.
The Three of them looked to each other and nodded, the Earth Pony reaching to the side and pulling a small satchel onto the table from which she removed a scroll and began to read.
"Captain Shining Armor, graduate of the Royal Military Academy at fourteen summers of age. Top of your class upon graduation and cited by multiple instructors, sergeants and lieutenants for exceptional prowess in defensive and offensive magic as well as hoof-to-hoof combat techniques. Recipient of the Bronze Horseshoe, the Silver Horn, Distinguished Service Medallion and the Crystal Wing amongst others," she read aloud. "Also, the recipient of the Order of the Tilled Field, the Order of the Hurricane and the Order of the Platinum mantle... making you the only pony in the history of the Royal Guard to ever receive all three of the Founders Medals."
She looked up to him for a moment as she read these achievements but when he said nothing, she continued.
“According to our records, you have served the Equestrian Royal Guard for almost fifty years and have spent over forty of those years as Captain, which also makes you the youngest in its history. Further more, you have served with exceptional distinction far beyond even the citations I have stated and the list goes on for quite some length of parchment. But you know all this better than I do, Captain. In all my years, truly, I have never seen such an impressive record as this.”
“Thank you, Chancellor Bookkeeper.” He replied but otherwise kept silent and still. He knew very well were this was going.
She nodded to him as the Unicorn inclined his head towards Shining Armor and began to speak his own piece. “Captain, there is much to respect about you and your career and it would do you a great disservice to sugarcoat the reason for this meeting, so let us speak plainly. In four weeks, you will be sixty-five summers of age and by both Celestial and Lunar laws, the mandatory retirement age of all royal guards is sixty summers of age. Captain, we have bent the rules for you for nearly five summers in hopes that you would step down voluntarily and appoint your successor as you were so appointed, but that has obviously not happened. We have done this for several reasons, the least of which is to honor your achievements and to prevent ourselves from depriving the guard of a beloved commanding officer; but, having said that, Captain, we cannot bend the rules any longer.” He paused for a moment to catch his breath before adding, “Do you wish to say anything before I continue, Captain?”
The moment that he both dreaded and desired fell upon him in that instant, the time he could lay out his case and hopefully convince – or plead – for more time, if only just a little. He had rehearsed the words he would say with his wife and sister, had practiced them in front of the mirror for weeks, but now found he could not speak them. The words sounded hollow, flat and unimportant, the very thought of them leaving a taste not unlike soot in his mouth as they refused to be articulated. After a long pause to gather his thoughts, he simply shook his head.
“I have nothing to say, Chancellor Arcanix, other than 'thank you,' for what you have done for me these past years.”
“That is… well… unexpected, and very noble of you, Captain Armor,” Bookkeeper said slowly, a hoof whipping an unbidden tear from her eye as she did so. “Most ponies who come before us…” she shook her head, unwilling to continue.
Chancellor Arcanix nodded. “We thank you for your candor and for your service to Equestria Captain Armor, but as I said, we can bend the rules no longer. You stand before us in perfect health and with all of your faculties still your own, we recognize that, but time waits for nopony and we cannot take the risk that you will become a liability for your troops because of your age. Especially not after the exemplary care you have given in your tenure. Thus, it is with my deepest condolences and regrets, that I must ask for your resignation.”
Such a simple statement it was, composed in essence of only six words in its entirety. But each of those words carried wtih it weight than a thousand battering rams and he felt each one slam into him with a force he could scarcely imagine. The Chancellors did not see it – at least he thought they didn’t – but his body tensed ever so slightly at the words. Those six words echoed in his mind for what felt like hours as they simple phrase strove to rob him of his life's purpose. He had expected them, feared them, even welcomed them on some level, but to hear them said so plainly left him momentarily dumfounded. When he could finally speak again, he could see in their eyes that his response was not what they had expected.
“Will I be permitted to appoint my successor, as per Guard tradition, Chancellors?”
Momentarily taken aback, the chancellors looked to each other for a few heartbeats before finally, Skylark nodded. “Of course, Captain. We would not dare interfere with such a tradition when there is no cause for doing so and would welcome you to perform the Changing of the Guard as is your right. Do you have somepony in mind?”
“I do, Chancellor,” he said. “Lieutenant Ocean Mist, a Pegasus pony from the second company. She has proven both her competence and judgment on multiple occasion and I believe her to have the respect of all the ponies under her command. I would thus nominate her to ascend to captaincy upon my… resignation." The last word almost made him choke, and the formal speech made his throat burn, but he would show them nothing less than the perfect soldier.
“Your nomination is duly noted, Captain Armor, we will of course perform the standard competency investigation, but we are certain that your recommendation and judgment are sound. How long will you require for this action, Captain?”
With a deep breath, he steeled himself before speaking. “I would ask, Chancellor, that I be allowed to retain my position Captain until after my fifty-fifth birthday. If it is permissible, I would like to perform the Changing thirty-five days from now.”
“You’re asking us to make another exception?”
“No, Chancellor, I’m asking that you do me one last honor and let me leave the guard in celebration of my life, rather than anticipation of an unknown future.”
Before Skylark could speak, Bookkeeper turned to him and nodded. “You make a reasonable request, Captain. I believe I speak for all of us here when I say, we will have no trouble granting this to you for your years of loyal service.”
“Thank you, Chancellor Bookkeeper.”
“Have you anything else to say, Captain?” asked Skylark.
“No, Chancellor.”
“Then you are dismissed, Captain. Though I wish it were under better circumstances.”
“Thank you Chancellor."
Replacing his helmet, Shining Armor saluted smartly once again and departed. The soft whisper of "so do I" unheard by the Chancellors as the click of his hooves drowning out his words.
------Present Day------
When he left the room, the words had echoed in his mind worse than when he had heard them and had haunted him ever since that day and it seemed like so much had happened in a time span too short to contain it all. His birthday had come and gone as it did every year and was celebrated by both friends and family alike. He had spoken to Ocean Mist and sat on the review board with the chancellors that verified his recommendations of her competence. Veterans had asked him to stay, his family had talked about getting him a position as a chancellor on the advisory council, his wife had talked about taking a trip to get his mind off of things and many other such ideas had been bantered around. No matter what happened though, he could not get the words of the Chancellors to leave his mind.
The words that had, effectively, stripped him of his purpose in life.
That meeting had been five weeks ago but it may as well have been a lifetime and as the memory bled away to the present situation, he found himself standing outside the door to his office, his name written upon its nameplate in gilded lettering. Apparently muscle memory had brought him there as he mused over his fate. It was not an uncommon way for him to travel during trouble and so he usually thought nothing of it, but under the circumstances, it felt as if even the Keep itself was trying to hasten his departure.
With a sigh, he took hold of the door with his magic and swung it open, trotting forward with his head low and his ears folded back.
“Let’s get this over with…” he said to himself as his magic pulled the door closed behind him.
Where the crowds will cheer
When they see my face
And a voice keeps saying
This is where I’m meant to be.