//------------------------------//
// Prolouge 
// Story: Hardship Overcome 
// by SuperSweetStuff 
//------------------------------//

	Shining Armor waved good-bye to his little sister as the train sped away. He then sat down... right on somepony's foreleg.
"Ow!" The pegasus mare had light cobalt fur, pretty purple-blue eyes and a light green updo with dark green stripes in it. She wore black boots with buckles and straps on her forelegs and black cuffs on her back legs.
"Oh, I'm so sorry," Shining responded, his face turning red. He jumped off the seat. The mare pulled her hoof to her side, wincing. "I can be so clumsy sometimes."
"It's fine." She gave him a reassuring smile and patted the train seat next to her. "I don't see any other empty seats, so you might as well sit back down. I'm Minted Drop. What's your name?"
"Shining Armor. I'm going to be a soldier in the Royal Guard! What are you here for?"
Minted beamed. "I'm visiting my grandfather. He's still a captain there, and he loves getting visits from his grandfoals." She shuffled her hooves a bit and mumbled something under her breath.
"What was that?" Shining hopped onto the seat next to her. "I didn't quite catch that."
"Oh! Nothing, nothing! Do you have any relatives in royalty- er, in the Guard?"
"Nah. I'm going to be the first. But my little sister is Princess Celestia's personal student." He puffed out his chest, clearly proud of himself.
Minted seems really unhappy at first, but perked up after a couple of seconds. "I bet she loves it," she said dreamily.
"Yeah! She's always telling me about how much fun she has learning, and how cool Princess Celestia is... are you okay?"
Minted looked really displeased as he spoke, but she just smiled again. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Sorry to worry you. I... I just..." She sighed and looked at the ground, a tear swelling in one eye. "I've had some bad encounters with... um.. royalty. Sorry."
"Oh. Do you want me to not talk about it?"
"Oh, no! If yo you want to talk about it, you can. I don't mind. I'll try to control myself more form now on, I promise." Minted looked him straight in the eyes and smiled sadly. Shinign noticed that one of her eyes was cloudy.
"Hey, what happened to your eye?" He tilted his head as he spoke, curious.
"Oh, I'm blind in one eye. I was born like that. I have really bad depth perception, but I don't mind too much."
"Huh." Shining yawned and picked at a stray thread. "Man, how long does this ride take?"
"I think about two or three hours. It's gonna be a while."
As Shining watched the elegant way everything about Minted moved, he realized he probably wasn't going to mind being stuck next to her for a couple hours.