//------------------------------//
// The Captain 
// Story: Punch-Out 
// by Poetic Justice 
//------------------------------//

	As the door is pushed open, you see none other than Princess Cadence sitting on the desk in the center of the room, facing away from the door. She was wearing a yellow tank top and jeans. Her wings were folded behind her, they were almost as large as her body. Shining Armor was sitting in his chair. He had the guard's plate-metal on, covering his shoulders and upper torso. The very familiar open-faced helmet was missing. Shining Armor was leaning on the desk, his arms resting on the desk and supporting his head. He had a large smile on his face as he spoke to his wife. The smile quickly left his face as his eyes went from his wife to you.

"What do you want?" Shining Armor quickly stood up, trying to present himself much larger than he actually is.

"Nurse Redheart said you had a file for me." You said. Cadence's eyes meet yours. She smiled at you. You smiled back and gave her a small wave.

"Show the princess some respect, human."  Shining Armor said as he dug through a large stack of papers from 

The way he said that. Human. Like it was meant to be an insult. Other than you, were weren't sure what he meant when he said "respect". You made it fairly clear that you didn't bow to any of the princesses. You weren't sure why, but you felt that bowing to an authority figure of another dimension that has done very little for you to this point wasn't right. Celestia and Luna accepted this. You never met Cadence, so maybe she did take offense to the lack of a bow. If she was, she didn't show it nearly as much as Shining Armor did.

Shining Armor pulled out a large file from the stack of papers and placed it on the far end of the desk. "You may take it."

Don't talk to me like I am one of your soldiers. You wanted to say something like that. You wanted to put this guard down. However, the princess still had her eyes on you. You didn't want to put her in the middle of a fight between you and her husband. You swallowed your pride, just this once, and approached the desk. You picked up the file, both Shining and the princess had their eyes fixed on you, both for very different reasons. You had to hold the file with both hands, it was so large.

You flipped through the file. There were many pages of side-notes, giving the math and how you measure up with the average stallion physique. Overall, you were above-averge in all fields. A smile grew on your face as your eyes looked through the numbers. You hear Shining Armor clear his throat.

"Are you done yet?" He asks you. Cadence quickly hit him on the shoulder. Not hard, but enough to make him flinch.

"Yea, I'm pretty satisfied." You say as you put the file back on Shining Armor's desk. He put his hand to his mouth, covering his laugh. "Something funny?" You ask.

"You're satisfied?" He asks in an amused tone. Your eyes quickly dart to Cadence's own. She had an expression of confusion, similar to the guard's when you pulled out the baton for the first time. "I don't see what's satisfying about being the inferior species."

You heard the sound of a glass vase shattering in your head. Cadence was quick to shout Shining's name and deliver another hit to his shoulder. Although you're sure she didn't mean to actually hurt him, Shining Armor winced in pain for a second. They went back and forth, you didn't know about what. That word just echoed in your head. inferior. Also meaning weak. Weak. Weak. That's what they used to call you. That's why you started Mixed Martial Arts. Inferior. Mentally inferior as well as physically. You turned around and headed for the door, still stuck in the loop of thoughts that plagued your mind from that word. You think you heard Cadence shout your name, but you paid no attention to it. Shining Armor also yelled something, but that's definitely something you would ignore, even if you weren't already pre-occupied with your own thoughts.

On your way to the tower, you came across the gym. The guard from earlier has, thankfully, left the gym. In the corner of your eye, you spot the large sandbag hanging by a chain. You never used it before, but there it was now, almost calling your name. You stared at it for a while. You've never seen it used, and could see the layer of dust from across the room. You step forward, but you're thrown back when you feel a hand on your shoulder.

"Hey." You turn around to see none other than Princes Cadence. You look behind her and down the hallway, expecting Shining Armor to be right behind her. Much to your surprise, he was nowhere to be found. "You know he didn't mean what he said, right?" She continued.

"Yea. I understand." In a way, you did. Shining Armor had to constantly put on a figure of power and intimidation so those below him, namely the Royal Guard, would respect him. Of course, you didn't know if that was the real reason, but it made you feel good to have some explanation. "Don't worry about it, Princess. I'm sure he's just stressed." You don't know what it was. Defending Shining Armor was something that you never thought you would do. There was just something about the princess that stopped you from doing anything hostile. 

"I'll talk to him." Cadence added.

"No, no. It's quite fine."

"But-"

"Princess. Trust me. It's fine." Your voice had a significant  spike in confidence at that statement.

"If you say so." With that, the princess turned and made her way back to Shining Armor's office. She did stop to say something over the shoulder. "Hearts and Hooves day is coming up." She said.

"Yea, I suppose it is." You knew it was a parallel to Valentine's day, but other than that, you were clueless on what it was you were supposed to do. You figured you'd take in the scenery and mimic what the ponies did next year.

"You should ask her on a date." Cadence smiled and made her way to Shining Armor's office.  Leaving you with dinner-plate eyes, and stunned silence.