Duty Calls

by Blue Tunes


Chapter 1

(A.N) Before we begin, I should explain something about the format of the story. This is presented as a diary or journal, each line space denotes a different journal entry, double spacings are evident where a large amount of time has passed between successive entries. Instead of just using human years, I thought that, similar to the idea of A.D and B.C, ponies may have devised their calender around some huge event, namely Luna's downfall (After Luna or A.L). This means that the first episode will have occurred in the year 1000. Secondly, the journal starts with Shining Armor as a foal. His spelling and grammar will improve as the story progresses I swear. (/A.N)

EDIT: Big thanks to ScubaDiverMan for his awesome fanfic reading of this story. Makes me feel all important :P

Duty Calls

From the Journal of the late Shining Armor, Captain of Princess Celestia's Own Royal Guard and Husband to Her Majesty Princess Cadence. 972-1034AL

This is a transcript only. Preserved for historical value by The Canterlot Royal Archive.


3rd of June in the year 977

Dear Diary. Am I ment to rite that?

Today was the best birthday evar. Ma and Da took me to see the [strike]animels[/strike] animals in the zoo and I ate a whole icecream by myself and I got so many presents! Ma gave me a new sweater and a [strike]majic[/strike] magik spinning top that goes up walls and the [strike]ceeling[/strike] [strike]celing[/strike] roof too! And then Da gave me a wood sword so I can be like a guardpony! He also got me this book to rite in and said I should rite about today. I liked Da's presents better then Ma's becos the sword is best but Da said I couldnt take it to skool. Ma and Pa are the best parents evar!

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18th of May in the year 980

Dear Diary.

Da was cleaning my room out yesterday and found this behind my closet. I must have lost it really soon after I got it because there's only one entry from three years ago on my birthday. Da said that it's a good habit to get into, but I don't have anything to write now, so I'll just wait until something interesting happens.

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6th of November in the year 980

Dear Diary.

Ma's pregnant. Da says that I'm going to have a little brother or sister in five months. I can't wait! I think I'll be a good big brother.

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17th of April in the year 981

Dear Diary.

The foal is coming tonite! This is the latest I've been allowed to stay up ever. Da says that he'll take me to the hospitel when it's all over. What does he mean?

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18th of April in the year 981

Dear Diary

We just got back from the hospital and I have a sister now. Her name is Twilight and she is very small and purple. I like my new sister. Ma says I have to wait until she's older before I can play with her [strike]thouh[/strike] tho.

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5th of December in the year 981

Dear Diary.

Twily just spoke! Ma and Da said it's too early for her to learn words, but I heard it. Twily's first word was 'Arma' but Da says that she was probably trying to say 'Mama'. I think Ma got angry at him after that because she made me go and play outside.

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12th of May in the year 982

Dear Diary.

Today was great because I made a new friend! His name is Blue Tunes and he just moved to Canterlot from Fillydelphia because of his Dad's work. We sat next to each other in class because neither of us really have any friends yet and talked about what we're going to do when we grow up. He wants to be a famous music pony, and he already plays an instrument! He showed me how to play the saxofone but I wasn't very good at it.

I also asked him if he wanted to come over and play soldiers tomorrow and he said yes! I can't wait for school tomorrow.

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13th of May in the year 982

Dear Diary.

Today was the worst day ever! Miss Sugarsweet said that me and Blue Tunes were making too much noise in class and gave us detention after school. Then at recess Loose Cannon and Hotrod started picking on us. Just because they're two years older than us doesn't mean they should be so mean. They called us names and then said we were gay, whatever that means.

Detention sucked, and when we got out is was too late to play and we had to go home. Then when I got home I asked Da what 'gay' meant and he got all serious and told me that I would always be his son. When I said I still didn't know what he meant he looked embarassed and Ma gave him a funny look. Grown-ups are wierd.

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22nd of June in the year 986

Dear Diary. (What is it with me and losing these things? It's been four years since my last entry!)

I can't believe I got in! I got a letter from the Junior Cadets camp and they said that I've been accepted for their two week summer holiday camp! I've only got one more week of school until I get to go! I told Blues about it and he seemed kind of sad that I wasn't going to be around for the holidays, but he said he was used to being alone. I feel kind of bad for leaving without much warning though.
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31st of June in the year 986

Dear Diary.

Today was the last day of school for the term, and even though Loose Cannon tried to call us names at lunch again it didn't work because we won't see him again for two whole weeks! Even better though, I'll be spending those two weeks on camp learning all sorts of cool stuff! I need to go pack my things, camp starts tomorrow morning after all.

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1st of July in the year 986

Dear Diary.

I'm writing this in my new dorm on camp. Today was really busy, I had to say goodbye to Ma, Pa and Twily (That girl is growing up fast!) before the sun even rose, and the carriage ride was so long and boring. But when I got here everything started happening at once. I was put into a 'squad' with two other unicorns, three pegasi, an earth pony and a griffin! I've never met a griffin before, but she seems nice. Her name is Val, which seems wierd, but she says it's a normal griffin name. I didn't know that griffins could join the guard, but when I asked she said she was here on an exchange, or something.

After we got put into groups had to listen to a bunch of retired guard ponies talk about their old careers. It was kind of interesting I guess, but after the first two or three it got really boring. After that we learned how to salute properly, which was fun! I didn't even know that there was a proper way to salute before.

Once we knew how to salute properly, the camp leaders took us on a hike, which was ok. Val was mad because she wasn't allowed to use her wings and had to walk. All the pegasi were also kinda angry about that but Sergeant Giltfeather, who took us on the hike and is also a pegasus told them to get over it and called them maggots.
I'm really tired now, I'll write more later.

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2nd of July in the year 986

I saw Val come back tonight with blood on her talons. When I asked her she said that all griffins eat meat, and that she'd just eaten a rabbit. I don't feel like writing tonight.

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3rd of July in the year 986

Dear Diary.

Val said sorry for scaring me last night. She said that she isn't used to living with ponies, and that she should have just stuck to apples, which she can apparently eat for a while. I decided that it didn't matter. If somepony someone needs to eat meat to stay healthy then that's their business and shouldn't change my opinion of them. When I told her that she went all quiet. I think I made a new friend today.

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4th of July in the year 986

Dear Diary.

We did marching drills today. I'm too tired to (The remainder of the text is illegible)

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8th of July in the year 986

Dear Diary.

The last few days have been exhausting, but fun. Every morning we do physical drills, and I'm getting better and better at them. Val and the pegasi do seperate training to us because of their wings, so I got to know the other unicorns and the earth pony in my group. The earth pony's name is Cold Rock, and he's a lot bigger than me. He doesn't say much, so I haven't really spoken to him. The unicorns fillies are twins, and look identical in every way. Their names are Starshine and Moonshine, and it's kind of creepy to speak to both at once, they look and act exactly similar.

After lunch we do marching drills, which are boring. Val said that sometimes she wants to rip the sergeant's throat out and shove it up his behind to stop him yelling at us. She laughs after she said it though, so I think she was joking. Griffin humor is wierd.

We also do night exercises, which are my favourite part of camp so far. It's all done with fake bows and arrows and plastic swords, but the idea is to do stuff like capture an enemy base, or save hostages. Our squad won last night for the second time against another group, so I think we're getting better.

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10th of July in the year 986

Dear Diary.

Training has been getting harder and harder this week. The instructors started teaching us basic hoof-to-hoof combat today, and I was paired off against Cold Rock. Luckily he's pretty slow, so I managed to keep up with him for the most part, even though his Da was apparently a guard who taught him some stuff about fighting. The sergeant asked me if that was the first time I'd fought somepony and when I said yes he gave me a funny look. Why do grown-ups keep doing that?

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12th of July in the year 986

Dear Diary.

Even though there's only three more days of camp left I feel like I've been here for far longer than that. Maybe it's the routine or something, I don't know. These past two days have been more of the same drills and exercises. Too tired to write any more.

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14th of July in the year 986

Dear Diary.

Today was the last full day of camp, and tomorrow I'll be going home. It's strange, home seems so far away, but tomorrow I'll be seeing them all again. I only now realised how much I've missed them, especially Twily. I swear that girl's getting brighter every day, she's like a learning machine... or something.

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15th of July in the year 986 (afternoon)

Dear Diary.

Saying goodbye to Val was hard. We've become such good friends over the last two weeks, but she's heading in basically the opposite direction to me, back to the Eyries of the griffin lands. We swapped addresses, so we can send each other letters and stuff, but I know that I'll miss that griffin. I can't wait to see my family again though, I'm already halfway home.

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15th of July in the year 986 (evening)

Dear Diary.

Ma just about burst into tears when she saw me. I suppose I've accumulated quite a large number of scrapes and bruises while i've been away, but that could only have been expected. I've also grown by about an inch since I've been gone. Da said that he was proud of me.

Little Twilight was the highlight of the day though. Apparently she'd thought I wasn't coming home until tomorrow, and the way her face lit up when she saw me was just about the best thing in the world.

I'll see Blues tomorrow. Right now I just need food and rest, it's been a long couple of weeks.