Shining Armor was having a bad day.
This was not unusual. Every day of the Summer Sun Celebration, including the week beforehoof for the preparation of the festival, was a bad day for the Royal Guard. Especially for their captain.
The entire year, the nobility of Canterlot was satisfied with having the most elite guard of all of Equestria stay in the background like very fine adornments, only becoming aware of them when it became necessary to educate a particularly rebellious offspring and the academy of the Equestrian Border Force seemed too common.
However, as soon as there was not even a month between the nobility and the Summer Sun Celebration anymore, the stallions and mares in the golden plate-armor transformed from a welcome accentuation in the background into a bullseye for critique and a magnet for dissatisfaction.
All of the sudden, the nobles decided that the armed guards of Canterlot were insufficiently equipped, that their training was lacking, that mares were underrepresented, that stallions were underrepresented, that there were more pegasi than unicorn, that there were too many unicorns and not enough earth ponies, that the earth ponies should be taken out of the recruitment roster and so on and so forth.
It was a charade the Royal Guard was well familiar with, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t get annoyed by it. As soon as the nobles would start their complaints, voices would grow loud among the guards as well, that they should not put up with this, that they should demand higher payment from the nobility and that they should have their authority expanded. Especially the last two years there had been heated discussion amongst the guards, with the Night Watch slowly growing out of its desolate state for the first time in 1000 years and demanding a more active role in the protection of Canterlot as well.
In the end, everypony complained, and sooner or later, any complaint in any form found its way into Shining Armor’s hooves. It came to no surprise then, that most of the former Royal Guard Captains quit immediately after the passing of the Summer Sun Celebration, and Shining Armor found himself pondering the possibility of retirement as well.
In the end, though, the white stallion ditched the idea, like he did every year. After all, what did three weeks of stress amount to, compared to peace for the rest of the year? Well, apart from the occasional invasion through changelings or liberation of a long-lost empire from an evil tyrant, but those were at least problems you could resolve with blunt force, you could meet them head-on and they were done with and didn’t show up year after year.
Still, to not antagonize the entire upper class of Canterlot, some issues were addressed every year, most of them minor and easy to fix. In fact, it was such issues that Shining Armor was attending to right now.
Wearing the full armament of the Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor was trotting down one of the countless corridors in Canterlot Castle, behind him about a dozen guards, following silently as their captain issued orders. “...and I want more guard presence at the train station. Iron Glare, Crushing Hoof, you two take care of that. Grab Level Head’s patrol on the way there, that should be enough.”
Upon receiving the orders, two stallions immediately split apart from the group and disappeared into one of the many splitting hallways, diving into the labyrinthian castle. Neither looking back nor waiting for confirmation, Shining Armor continued to give out orders. “We also need more ponies of the Night Watch present at Ponyville. Emerald Blade, take Ice Shard and Singing Wind with you to their barracks. Look for Colonel Nightly Whisper, she is more likely to listen than Captain of the Night Watch, Old Crow.”
Once again three guards headed out, two mares and a stallion, without saying another word, to fulfill the orders they had been given.
“Thunder Axe, Snow Mountain, I want you to—”
“Captain!”
Shining Armor halted in his trot, blinking confusedly as he looked down the corridor. The guards behind him stopped as well, not quite able to suppress their curiosity with their training as some of them craned their head to the side to look past Shining Armor.
From the other end of the hallway, sliding around the corner, came a pegasus guard. He provided quite a picture of distress as he ran down the corridor towards the Captain of the Royal Guard, his wings half opened and sometimes fluttering slightly as large beads of sweat were running down his body. His nostrils were flaring, his eyes wide open so that the despair was easy to spot in them, especially after he had come so close that he had to ram all four of his hooves on the smoothly polished marble floor, and even sit down on his rump to avoid crashing right into the gathering of ponies.
A few of the guards had already sidestepped, afraid of the possible collision, but Shining Armor kept his cool, patiently waiting for the pegasus to reach them while he tried to remember his face. As Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor tried to remember his subordinates, but with about 10.000 ponies under his command, that task was impossible. Nonetheless, Shining Armor tried and even if he was nowhere close to remembering all of his guards, he at least recognized almost always one in a patrol.
This one Shining Armor recognized even on his own. It was Swift Wing, one of the two most unlucky stallions to ever join the Royal Guard. He normally was placed at the door to Princess Celestia’s observatorium, to minimize the possibility for him and Fire Ember to do any damage.
“Swift Wing. You’re not on your post,” Shining stated, withholding any kind of critic in his voice. It’s not that he was soft-hearted when it came to his subordinates, but he did trust his instincts, and his instincts were telling him that Swift Wing had something important to say. The fact that the pegasus would have to run through almost the entire palace to get to where they were now was also quite effective in gaining Shining’s curiosity
“No…Sir,” Swift Wing wheezed, desperately trying to regain his breath and rise back up on his shaking legs at the same time. Unfortunately, he found out that only one thing at a time was possible, upon which he remained sitting on his flank, prioritizing gathering air above assuming the proper posture.
“Sent ahead…by…Fire Ember,” he proceeded to explain, still gasping for every bit of air he could gain as he tried to keep his gaze focused on Shining, whose stoic expression was now slowly turning into a worried one, as Swift Wing started to sound like he would fall unconscious on this very spot. “Su—…supposed to…warn…you.”
“Warn me?” An uneasy murmur wandered through the guards behind the captain, but Shining ignored it and fixated on Swift Wing, his brow furrowing in confusion and alarm. “Warn me from what?”
“the old…billy goat…coming…to…you.” Swift Wing practically had to squeeze out the last ‘you’, before really collapsing on the floor in a pile of shivering muscles and frantic pants. Upon hearing ‘billy goat’, the murmur of the other guards grew even louder, but their captain didn’t call them to order. He was too busy just staring at the pegasus lying in front of him, his eyes slowly widening in disbelief. The billy goat? Here? In the middle of the day? What was going on?
“Ah, Captain Shining. I see you have been found by my other guide.” Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard, Protector of Canterlot, Evictor of the Changeling Swarm and a pony who had helped quite a deal in the liberation of the ancient Crystal Kingdom, had seen his fair share of adventure, dangers and villains, even before his wedding. Yet everytime he heard Stone Quill’s voice, Shining had to suppress a nervous twitch in his left ear, as well as the urge to cast a protection spell around him.
“Magister Stone Quill. What a surprise,” Shining answered surprisingly smooth, suppressing his disbelief and surprise with professionality, as Stone Quill casually stepped out of a forking hallway and in front of him, Fire Ember gingerly following the spectacled unicorn.
“Please, let’s not do this charade. It would honestly shock me if Swift Wing had not run ahead to warn you of my coming instead of actually finding you for me, as he claimed to do.” As always when Shining Armor met the unicorn, he could not help but examine him, although some ponies would call it ‘eye him suspiciously’.
The old magister looked as always. His maroon coat was as strangely vibrant in its color as always, even though there was more than one streak of gray in his blonde, curly mane. The goatbeard, through which Stone Quill had earned his nickname, didn’t fare any better in the color department, but its growth at least seemed to be kept in check by its owner, unlike his mane that looked like it hadn’t seen a comb in years. His eyes were still of the same forest green color while they looked through his half-moon glasses, regarding Shining equally suspiciously as he looked at Stone Quill.
“Well, he tried, but as you can see,” Shining Armor said, pointing at the still wheezing and shaking Swift Wing in front of him, “he just arrived. So I am yet quite unprepared for this meeting.”
“Really? Poor lad must’ve gotten lost in the castle hallways. It is quite labyrinthian.”
“Quite.” Everypony, including the guards behind Shining Armor, knew that this was completely untrue. Not a single guard was left alone in Canterlot Castle until they had proven that they knew the blueprints of it like the inside of their hooves. This left only two options. Either Stone Quill had used magic to fiddle around with Swift Wing’s sense of direction, or the old magister had taken advantage of his understanding of the unicornian nature of the castle and taken a magical shortcut. Right now, Shining found either possibility just as likely.
“Anyway, disregarding the navigational skills of my subordinates, was there something else you wanted to talk to me about?” Here it was, the one-million-bits question. If the complaints of the nobles were comparable to a fly buzzing around your ears and at worst to a mosquito bite, then Stone Quill’s attention was the wasp sting that made you find out you were allergic to them. Lethally so.
“Well, it is less of a talk and more of an inquiry,” the spectacled unicorn explained, summoning a scroll out of seemingly nowhere. A hushed wave of astonished murmurs went through the guards. Everypony stared at Stone Quill in amazement, except for Shining Armor.
Apart from his sister being Celestia’s protégé and the Keeper of the Element of Magic and him being married to an alicorn princess, Shining himself was also quite a capable practitioner of the arcane arts. Seeing somepony pull an object out of an extradimensional pocket was therefore nothing new and shocking for the Captain of the Royal Guard. there was, however, one thing crossing his mind upon seeing it: Showoff!
If Stone Quill could read Shining’s thoughts from his expression, the old magister didn’t show it. He returned his gaze to the front and levitated the scroll towards the captain. “Care to explain this?”
Shining blinked. That wasn’t quite what he had expected. Normally, the old magister had no problem whatsoever delving head first into his complaints and addressing what concerned him directly. “I’m not sure I follow…,” the Royal Guard Captain carefully answered. Stone Quill didn’t even try to hide his annoyed sigh upon this reaction, before levitating the scroll even closer to Shining, almost shoving it in his face.
“The content of the scroll. I want you to explain it to me.” Now Shining was hopelessly lost. Stone Quill asking somepony to explain something to him? Something that was written even? The world must’ve turned upside down for this to happen.
Shining almost asked a second time, but a look at Stone Quill’s expression told him that the magister had no intention of prolonging this question-answer-game. So he silently took the hovering scroll out of Stone Quill’s magical grasp, opened it and began to read. As Shining progressed, his eyes began to narrow and halfway he stopped and looked up from the scroll towards the old magister, his confused expression now changed into a wary one.
“I’m still not sure I understand. These are the security protocols for the Summer Sun Celebration I wrote up, but-,” Shining began, to be immediately interrupted by Stone Quill.
“I know what the contents are, Captain, I want you to explain them to me. Because from where I stand, all I read when I open the scroll is rubbish.” So that was what all of this was about. Shining almost sighed inadvertently in disappointment. He had expected a little bit more from Stone Quill.
The old magister had been more than once the singular reason for a ruined week for the Captain of the Royal Guard, but seldom had any complaints or addresses from him been irrelevant. At least until now. Age seemed to catch up with him. The spectacled unicorn had been there for as long Shining could remember, even though he barely looked the part. In fact, if anypony would’ve been allowed to guess Stone Quill’s age, most of them would have put him somewhere in his sixties.
“As I have told the nobles as well, while we are making an effort of protecting everypony during the Summer Sun Celebration, we will not neglect nor forget the elevated position Equestria’s nobility occupies-” Once again Stone Quill cut in.
“Really? Then I suggest you revise your schedule, because right now all you will achieve is complete anarchy through lacking security.” Shining blinked confusedly and furrowed his brow in mild irritation. Yet he kept his tone was civil while he rolled up the document.
“I beg to differ, Magister Stone Quill. The placement of the guards and distribution of the shifts has been chosen with utmost care. Of course security is open to changes, should the need arise, but it has been agreed by all Captains of the Equestrian Defense Compound that this is the optimum.” Actually, Old Crow’s blessing had come in a little later than the other three, but it had been nothing Shining hadn’t been able to solve without a private discussion with the Captain of the Night Watch.
The collected approval of all military leaders in Equestria didn’t impress Stone Quill. “You must be kidding, Captain Shining. Two ponies per patrol? Six patrols per shift? No guards at the entrances? This isn’t protection, it’s a joke. The minimum would be at least two guards at every cross-road, four ponies per patrol and ten patrols each shift, not to mention extra security at the gates. And what is it with the lack of precautions against gryphons?”
Now Stone Quill was really trying Shining’s already stretched thin patience. The Captain of the Royal Guard already had too many issues at hoof, now this old librarian wanted him to overthrow the entire preparation for the Summer Sun Celebration, just a few days before the festivities began?
Shining suppressed the urge to snap at the old stallion as he answered. “Wouldn’t this be a little excessive? If we were to apply such tactics then there wouldn’t be a place left at the Summer Sun Celebration without visible guard presence.”
“Exactly.” This time, Shining did lose control over his face as he just stared at Stone Quill dumbfounded.
“You actually want that?” This time it was for Stone Quill to change his expression, though his lifting his eyebrow barely an inch wasn’t quite as radical a change as Shining’s disbelieving look.
“Don’t tell me this is exactly what you tried to circumvent with the deployment of a magical disturbance-detection-field? By the way, quite a crude execution you’ve planned out there. I could easily tell you ten ways to counteract the field just from the top of—”
“Right, thank you for your professional input,” Shining quickly interrupted. He had difficulties wrapping his head around this. Sure, a pony like Stone Quill might be out of touch with social interaction, but demanding standards that were nothing short of military suppression? Age must have taken a greater toll on him than Shining had originally believed.
“Then I hope you will act on my complaint as soon as possible?” Of course not!, was the first thing that shot through Shining’s mind. The three words already trembled on his tongue before he regained his composure, just in time to not shout down the magister’s question.
It was self-explanatory that Shining could not and would not let the equestrian ponies experience the atmosphere of a police state right at the Summer Sun Celebration, the very day they celebrated the benign rulership of Princess Celestia. On the other hoof he knew that Stone Quill wouldn’t just give this up if he got a negative answer. The old magister was quite persistent and right now, Shining just didn’t have the time to deal with Stone Quill's prolonged attention.
“We will look into it,” Shining finally answered, though in truth all he looked into right now was the possibilities how to get Stone Quill off his back as fast as possible.
Unfortunately, Stone Quill wasn’t satisfied with this answer. “I get the feeling you don’t take my complaints seriously, Captain. Need I remind you of the importance of adequate security during such a festival?”
Shining closed his eyes, immensely concentrated on not letting out an irritated sigh as he silently counted to ten. Unfortunately, when he opened his eyes, Magister Stone Quill had not turned into empty space or suddenly thought of a dissertation he needed to tear into shreds. He was still standing on the very same spot, still wearing the same poker face of condescending impatience und seemed still as unlikely to go anywhere the next minutes than before Shining had closed his eyes.
Now that irritated sigh did slip from the captain’s tongue and he rolled his eyes, before looking straight at Stone Quill, no longer wearing the mask of false civility, and let the magister see his true face, one filled with annoyance and exhaustion.
“Look, Magister,” he began, his tone less formal. “I will not implement the changes you suggest, no matter what you may say. There will be no extra posts at every crossroad, no doubled shifts, and most certainly no extra security precautions against members of other species. The Summer Sun Celebration is second to no other holiday in Equestria and I’d rather be moonsent than ruin it for anypony. The security protocols will stay as they are, and I will decide if and when changes need to be made. Not you, not Old Crow, nor anypony else. Understood?”
It was liberating for Shining to finally tell somepony how he really thought about all their nonsensical complaints and petty political machinations. Catering to the nobles’ ridiculous and sometimes even insane demands was not something he, as the Captain of the Royal Guard, should worry about. He was Canterlot’s protector, not its nobility’s errand boy, and if that was something Stone Quill could not accept, then tough luck!
Yet there was no anger in Stone Quill’s expression, not even a hint of annoyance or frustration. Instead, a small suggestion of a smile snuck around the corners of his mouth and a mysterious, satisfied gleam danced in his eyes.
“I see,” was all he said, observing Shining’s defiant figure. “Then I suppose there is nothing that can be done about it.” Confusion lit up in Shining's mind, and then bloomed into suspicion. Nothing that can be done about it? What was this old codger playing at?
Stone Quill didn’t tip his mitt. He just took the scroll from Shining’s magical grasp and let it disappear into the void he had conjured it out of. He had even already turned around before Shining, against his better judgement, spoke up again.
“That’s it? You search me out in the middle of Canterlot Castle, insist that I change the security regarding the Summer Sun Celebration and the next moment you just drop it?” Although they didn’t say anything, Shining could feel the astonished stares of his guards. He couldn’t blame them. He didn’t really know himself what he was trying to accomplish. Throwing away the chance to have Stone Quill off his back, just out of disbelief? A Captain of the Royal Guard should have more restraint than that.
Yet Shining knew that, if he did not confront the magister about this now, it would not let him go. Stone Quill never changed his opinion and most certainly not to make life easier for others. There was something else. The feeling of suspicion grew stronger when Stone Quill turned his head towards Shining, a glimmer of smug satisfaction hiding behind a mask of surprise. “Is there a problem with that, Captain?”
Shining opened his mouth, but closed it again as the right words would not form. No, of course not. There was nothing wrong with a solved problem. Still, Shining couldn’t help but be suspicious. Something was not right with this scene and the longer Shining Armor thought about it, the stronger the feeling got. He just could not put a hoof on it.
“I just find it curious you suddenly find the preparations of the Royal Guard for the Summer Sun Celebration interesting after all these years, that’s all.” For a moment, Shining thought to have found a weak spot in Stone Quill’s poker face, until he realized that it was confusion and not nervosity that wandered across the magister’s expression.
As it turned into comprehension, Stone Quill answered. “That’s because I have been put in charge of organizing the Summer Sun Celebration by Princess Celestia. It’ll be temporarily my duty to complain about many things. Therefore, I’m sure we'll be talking again very soon, Captain Shining Armor.” As Stone Quill finished, he put a smile on his face, though the word ‘smile’ could only be used in the loosest meaning possible. It certainly wasn’t a smile that would put crying foals at ease, or at least not out of happiness.
Shining Armor had to fight down an onrush of uneasiness, but it was not because of Stone Quill’s predatory smile. It wasn’t even the prospect of having regular run-ins with the magister. What really lay heavy on his mind was the fact that Stone Quill was chosen at all. Calling it a shocking revelation wasn’t an exaggeration.
Since Shining had known the magister, he had never taken up a function of any importance. In fact, nopony was really sure if Stone Quill held any important position to begin with. He just stayed up in his tower all day, and when he did leave his chamber, it was for brief visits into the library. What’s more, he only left his study during the middle of the night, causing him to be even more of an enigma. The only reason Shining Armor was even aware of him was because of the two guards he had stationed at his chamber’s entrance. He would slip his mind more often, however, were it not for Celestia’s regular visits. Anypony that had the attention of the Princess of the Sun had to be important, after all.
Stone Quill’s true identity was a question without an answer, and that troubled Shining. Being surrounded by nobles most of the day meant you gained the ability to gauge their agendas and, if necessary, use these to manipulate them for your own goals. Stone Quill had seemed to lack any kind of agenda whatsoever.
Yet now he was in a position of power and started to play games of which Shining did not know the rules. The white unicorn didn’t like it. Still, he would play along. For now. “I see. That does indeed explain your curiosity. Then I hope, if there are further problems, you will come to me just as swiftly as this time as well, Magister Stone Quill.” The expression of the Royal Guard Captain didn’t match the polite choice of words at all, but Stone Quill’s smile didn’t waver. It reduced to a smirk, though, as Stone Quill nodded at Shining Armor’s words, still an unexplainable spark of contentment dancing in the magister’s eyes.
“Of course, Captain. Now then, if there isn’t anything else, I still have many—”
“Magister Stone Quill!” A voice boomed through the hallway like furious thunder, freezing everypony immediately where they stood. Every guardspony instinctively stood at attention, their hooves clicking together in perfect unison and in the very same moment, they raised their noses towards the ceiling, the pegasi among them straightening their wings with a trained motion.
Even Swift Wing, who had been lying on the floor up till now, jumped up immediately at the sound of the voice, though he immediately regretted it when his blood wouldn’t reach such height as quickly as his head. It was his luck that Fire Ember swiftly rushed to him to support his side, keeping him standing.
Only Shining Armor and Stone Quill had not turned into a living statue upon the sound of the voice. Both of them had turned towards the end of the corridor, from which the voice had come from, so Shining could not see Stone Quill’s expression, yet he felt that something about the spectacled unicorn had changed. The Royal Guard Captain could not tell what it was, but he certainly did not feel the smug satisfaction emanating from Stone Quill, like it did just one moment ago.
Still, Shining would have to forget about the magister for now. There was something else that demanded his attention as the Captain of the Royal Guard. Swiftly, he stepped up, passing Swift Wing and Fire Ember, before entering a position of attention himself, raising his right front hoof to salute the pony who walked down the corridor with graceful steps. Yet the surprise visitor seemed to only have eyes for Stone Quill.
“We wish to speak to you, Magister Stone Quill.” Shining could almost feel the ice in the voice and he had to suppress a shudder. It was a tone he never would’ve expected to hear from this pony, but apparently he was not the only one on whose bad side Stone Quill got. Yet the old unicorn remained unreadable, neither fear nor his usual smug expression on his face.
“Well, this is something I wasn’t expecting,” Stone Quill spoke under his breath, before addressing the visitor. “How can I help you, Princess Luna?”