//------------------------------// // Chapter 11 // Story: The Castle Canterlot // by Honey Mead //------------------------------// The Castle Canterlot: Chapter 11 “Loyalty is a hiltless sword and duty a cuirass of briars.” —Ancient Griffon proverb commonly attributed to Emperor Clawdious the Second, though a number of sources dispute this claim. Shining Armour did not gallop down the castle halls; he merely proceeded with all due expediency. With the order for All-Hooves summoning every available guards-pony to the palace and somepony, probably Quartz, deciding to establish constant patrols throughout the palace, moving at any quicker pace was out of the question. Every guard he passed received an appraising glare, Shining ensuring they noticed him but not slowing to return their salutes. He’d lost too much time already, between his rush from the Royal Armory to the Guard Armory and then in having to dress himself—the squires having been deployed to fill the ranks. No, he did not run. At no time did more than two hooves leave the ground at once. Nor did his stride stretch beyond his muzzle. He was calm and collected. The image of a Captain of the Guard with some place to be and no time for pleasantries. He was not storming either. Oh, he had a glower on his face, a hard frown he could not cast off. His eyes were set under a furrowed brow and his ears were poised halfway back, true, but he did not storm. He wasn't afraid. He wasn’t. He’d faced death before, stood against hydras and bugbears and manticores. The prospect of dying no longer gave him pause, much less instilled any fear. Whatever may come, he was the Princess’ sword and would stand firm. So, why did his chest hurt? Why did his hooves start to quake the moment he stopped moving? Why did he still feel like a greenhorn clutching his sword close at the monster’s roar in the dark? His magic played across the hilt of his sword, tugging it an inch out of the scabbard before slamming it home once more. The act brought some level of comfort; less than a full test of his magic might have, but it was all he could do given the circumstances. “Shiny!” Shining froze, or tried to, his knees locking up without accounting for his momentum and nearly sending himself hoof overhead to the floor. All of his definitely anger and possibly fear kept right on going down the hallway without him and, if he was lucky, wouldn’t be there waiting for him later. In its place, trepidation born of embarrassment welled up. Had he still been a colt, he might have closed his eyes in the hopes that if he couldn’t see her, she couldn’t see him. Rather than postpone the inevitable, he sucked in a steadying breath and took stock of himself. His cheeks verged on burning but remained white, he hoped. His armor was straight and polished, nice and bright. It took an effort to unclench his teeth, but there was nothing he could do about the unsteady smile or the tilt of his ears. Of all the things he did not need right then… He turned around. Velvet Sparkle, also, did not storm down the palace halls, though it was a closer thing. Her strides were long and carried her with a surety of purpose that could not be taught, and her expression was… He’d witnessed his mother angry a scant few times, and each left an indelible impression. This was not the case, not yet. How long that would remain so, Shining didn't hazard a guess. Despite this, he could not fault the maid for skirting the wall to stay out of her way. Trailing behind Velvet, with a more easily discerned expression of worry, Comet Chaser gave Shining a forced smile as their eyes met. “Mother? Father? What are you—” Velvet threw a foreleg around Shining’s neck, pulling him into a tight hug. His cheeks were no longer white. “Mother, please!” “Oh, hush.” In contrast to her appearance, Velvet’s tone sounded warm with a small hint of chiding. “I get enough of that from your siblings, you’re old enough to be over all that nonsense.” Releasing him, Velvet stepped back, making room for Comet to take Shining’s hoof and give it a firm shake. “It’s good to see you well, son.” “Ditto,” Shining mumbled, glancing between his parents. “But…” he shook his head, forcing ‘Son’ aside in favor of ‘Captain’, “you should be at the manor.” Velvet huffed, and Comet spoke, “We’re just here to collect Twilight and Spike.” Comet said more, but he went unheard by Shining. The mention his little sister struck him like a blow to the gut. Twilight hadn't crossed his mind in the past few hours, much less been the top priority where he felt she should have been. Only now did her absence even register. A single spark of relief flared when he remember where she was and who was with her, only to die when he remember where she was and who she was with. “That’s… not going to be possible.” His words had a predictable effect. First, there was the initial shock of what he’d said, followed by the realization of ‘what’ he’d said. They diverged there, his father receding into fear while his mother's deepening frown spurred Shining to quickly add, “Because she's not here.” At that, Velvet realigned with her husband. “What do you mean, she isn’t here?” “She… she's in Ponyville.” “Ponyville? Ah… well… that’s not terribly surprising, I suppose.” No matter Comet’s attempt at composed speech, worry played out in the twitch of his ears and tail. “You haven’t heard from her have you, since this whole fiasco started?” “Comet,” Velvet, on the other hoof, regained her displeased disposition, moving beyond a visible frown to a fully furrowed brow, “I need you to go home and let the girls know that I will be late for dinner.” “What? Why…” Comet’s ears shot straight up only to quickly press back against his skull. “Now hold on just a minute!” “That was not a request,” Velvet said, her steady voice a stark contrast to Comet’s rising timbre. “Request be damned! If you expect me to scamper back with my tail tucked between my legs while our daughter is—” “I expect you to have the presence of mind not to argue and raise your voice in public. Go home, Comet. I can deal with this myself.” “I don’t—” “Now.” Comet’s cheeks puffed out as though filling with the words left unspoken until they were sure to burst, their normally blue color tinting a deep-purple. For a second, Shining truly thought he would finally let it all out. He didn't, though, still seething as he said, “Of course, dear.” Shaking Shining’s hoof once more, he made a valiant go at pretending his departure was not against his will. “Don’t be such a stranger, son. You know you are always welcome to stop by for a visit.” “I know. I will. I promise.” As honest as he meant the words to be, even Shining couldn’t ignore how rote they sounded. Stepping away with a nod, Comet gave his wife one last hard look before he turned and left. Shining watched him go with a rising anxiety. It wasn’t fair to his mother. She loved him, he knew. Never had she done anything to him or his siblings that was not just and well deserved. But even before she became truly infamous, there were times, moments when he was certain that she was a hair’s breadth from murder. He remembered all of those moments, profusely thankful each time that that gaze had never been aimed at him… until now. Only once they were alone in the corridor did she speak. “Why is your sister in Ponyville?” He cringed into an awkward smile on reflex. Nothing about this situation surprised him, for all the comfort that provided. There was nothing he could do about it, however, so he repeated everything he’d been told, little as that was, making sure to express his own disappointment at not being able to see Twilight off. Velvet seemed to dissect his every word, whether searching for a hidden meaning or some iota of dishonesty, he couldn’t tell. And then her scrutiny disappeared. A solid two seconds after he finished speaking, she finally turned away, and Shining let himself relax, if only for a moment. His attention snapped right back to his mother as her agitated pacing escalated with irate mutterings, a stream of angry epitaphs dancing just within Shining’s hearing. What she was saying, he had no idea. If he hadn't known better, he'd have sworn she was speaking some foreign language he'd never heard before, much less understood. Which was horse-hockey. If not intimately familiar with them all, there wasn’t a language on the Disc he hadn’t been exposed to. “Mother?” She whirled around to face him once more, her face looking far older than it should, yet filled with an energy he’d rarely witnessed. “Don’t you have any idea what’s going on?” Stuttering at first, Shining nearly offered a full account of what Cadence had told him. The vehemence in her voice demanded an answer, fairly ripping a confession from his lips, whether he had anything to hide or no. It was like her superpower, one she’d never shied from using on his sisters and himself—the few times he’d managed to warrant its use. The accusation in her tone was perhaps what prompted him to take a defensive posture and bite back his immediate response; though, in retrospect, he would attribute it more to a desire to preserve Cadence’s trust in him. Either way, his voice locked into a decidedly neutral tone as he offered nothing more than a guarded, “I have some.” “Then why are you still here?” “Still here? Where else would I be?” “Where you belong. At your sister’s side, keeping her safe!” His mother’s rebuke shouldn’t have affected him as harshly as it did. It should have been shrugged aside with ease. Instead, it gripped Shining’s throat and pricked his heart. “That… that isn’t fair, mother.” “You know nothing of unfairness.” “I know when I’m being manipulated!” Shining growled through gritted teeth, breaking away from his mother’s gaze. It was one thing to know what his mother was doing; it was something else entirely to counter it. He was trapped, caught in his own personal nightmare from which there was no escape. The image of Twilight lost and alone, or worse, caught by Nightmare Moon, haunted him, demanded that he abandon anything holding him back and rush to her aid. To lose her… The scrape and clang of armor plates infringed upon his personal Tartarus and snatched his attention back to the real world. A pair of pegasus guards marched down the hall toward him and his mother in perfect lockstep. He did not recognize them right away, such was their armor’s purpose. That was no impediment to his imagination. All of his guards had a family, whether parents, siblings, nibblings, or foals. Some lived close by in Canterlot, or Cloudsdale for most pegasi, many more from as far away as Vanhoover or Manehatten. “No. No,” he repeated with a growing conviction, turning back to his mother. “My place is here. I have responsibilities. I can’t go chasing off after Twilight, not when all of Ioka is under threat.” “And what good are you doing here?” Velvet nearly shouted, loud enough at least for the two guards to hear and one visibly losing a step. “You’re one guard among hundreds. There’s nothing that you can do here that Quartz or Gust cannot do just as well. At least out there you can make a difference!” “I am the Captain of the Sword, mother. It is my duty and responsibility to protect every Equestrian. I will not abandon all of them for the sake of a single pony! No matter how much they mean to me.” “I cannot believe I’m hearing this! They don’t need you. Twilight does!” “I don’t care!” Where those words had come from, he did not know, but they burned. They cut a hole in his chest, left him hollow. He didn’t mean them. Those words weren’t his, weren’t true. But there they were, hanging in the air between them, and if he backed down now… Velvet just stared at him in mute horror, and he bore it for as long as he could. “If there is nothing else, I have duties to attend to.” Not waiting for a reply, he continued on his way to the throne room. He moved at a sedated pace, fighting every step not to break into a gallop. Running would do no good, he could not escape himself. Twilight would understand. She would agree with him, have told him to make the same choice. Nothing he told himself could make those words go away. — — — TCC — — — Long Hall leaned back in his chair, forelegs crossed behind his head and hindlegs resting on the desk’s edge. He didn’t need to be there, what with the holiday and all, not to mention everything else that was happening, whatever that actually was. They weren’t even open for business and wouldn’t be until the next day… assuming that ‘the next day’ ever came. Fortunately, his wife was an idiot. Unfortunately, she was also an idiot. So, Long Hall did what he did best, kick back, relax, and— The door to the small office swung open, ricocheting off the wall with a loud bang and brought to a stop by North Passage’s outstretched wing. Neither pony paid the walls ever expanding dent any mind. “Why am I not surprised?” North Passage said as he kicked the door closed behind himself. Long Hall didn’t so much as shift position at his boss/partner’s arrival; it’d taken far too long to get comfortable to ruin it for no good reason. “Because you have an abysmal imagination.” “First off, that doesn’t make sense. Secondly, just because you’re here doesn’t mean you’re getting paid.” Closing his eyes, Long Hall gave his wing a dismissive flick. “Shouldn't you be at home, you know, with your wife.” “Shouldn't you be at home, you know, with your cat.” North rolled his eyes but let the topic drop with a shake of his head. “Why are you here?” “She invited one of those Sisters to dinner—and don’t you dare say ‘I told you so.’” “The words never crossed my mind.” “Yeah, right. And what the hay are you doing here anyways?” “Ah, you see, there’s this thing called ‘work’...” “Sounds horrible.” “... and since I’ve got nothing better to do…” North shrugged. “See, this is why you should get married.” “Said the stallion hiding from his wife.” “Exactly! Then you’d have a less pathetic reason to come in on your days off.” “Remind me again why I haven’t fired you yet?” “Because you’re secretly a masochist who loves being belittled by your employees?” “You’re my only employee.” “That too.” Crossing the room, North gave Long a hard shove. “Get out of my chair.” “But I just got comfortable!” “Out.” “Ass.” “Now.” Long Hall whined as he rolled out of the chair and North Passage took his place, opening a drawer and pulling out a stack of papers and quill. Moving to the small table at the room’s center, Long Hall resumed his previous pose. His attempts to let his mind wander and fall into a well deserved nap were not to be. The scratching of quill on paper combined with North’s constant hemming and hawing to himself drove him up the wall and eventually out of his seat. Turning his attention out the window, he stared up at the stars and moon clearly visible no matter the clock proclaiming the pre-noon hour. “This is starting to get ridiculous.” “What’s that?” “This. The whole keeping the Moon in the sky thing.” North grunted. “Everypony deserves a day off now and then.” “A day off?” Long Hall turned back to look at his boss still hunched over his desk. “If she wants to take a vacation from being a Princess, yeah, sure, I get that. But this… shouldn’t she have given everypony a little warning?” “Look. I’m sure she has a good reason for it, and it’s not like there’s anything we can do about it anyways.” “What if she’s sick?” “Sick? Princess Celestia, sick? I don’t… Is that even possible?” “Tartarus if I know.” “Whatever. The point is that whatever’s going on, I’m sure the big ponies in the palace are dealing with it, and—” “Riiight, cause those useless sacks of hay could find grass at their hooves without somepony else burying their faces in it. Plus it’s been like, what, six hours now, and they haven’t said a damned thing. We have a right to know what’s going on.” “If you’re so concerned, why don’t you go marching up to the castle and demand answers?” “Like that’d do any good.” “About as much good as you’re doing right now.” “Yeah, but it takes a lot less energy to pester you.” North’s forehead impacted the desk. “You’re an ass.” “Nope, I’m a pegasus.” “It’s like I’m back in highschool all over again.” “Speaking of, when was the last time you got laid?” “Oh, for the love of—” The door slammed into the wall, the panelling finally giving way, catching the latch and holding the door open. “Woh, sh—” Velvet Sparkle marched into the little office, her face a picture of barely contained rage. “I need a flight to Ponyville.” “Harmony bless it! First of all, we don’t fly outside of Canterlot. Second, it’s a holiday. Third—” “We’ll take you!” “Like Tartarus we—” “Shut up!” North growled at Hall before turning back to Velvet with a too wide grin. “I’m sorry, please meet us in the garage. We’ll be there in a jif.” Velvet gave a stiff nodded and left. Once she was out of sight, North rounded on Long. “That’s Baroness Sparkle you nitwit! Are you trying to get us killed?” “Killed? What?” “Baroness Sparkle! The Bloody Baroness! She was all over the papers for months! All but exiled from the House of Ladies.” “And?” “And you don’t say no to a pony like that! Now get your shit together and let’s go before she decides to burn down my garage!” “Am I getting paid now?” “I hate you so much right now."