“Page!”
I blinked and stopped, looking back to see a white-furred unicorn heading down the corridor towards me and I turned towards him. “Shining. Good evening.”
“Evening. You are awake early today.” He said and gave the changeling a wary look. She, on the other hand, sidled to the side to stay out of the way.
She looked similar to all the others of her species. Skitter was more or less pony-shaped and -sized, a pair of insect wings on her back and a unicorn-like horn on her head, if narrower and slightly bent upwards. Instead of a coat, she was covered with dark grey chitin that changed towards black over her back. Her legs had holes through them and her eyes was a slightly luminous blueish-green, the same colors as her mane and tail. Yes, holes in her legs. No, I had no idea why. Perhaps it had something to do with feeding on love or made shapeshifting easier, what do I know.
I couldn't exactly blame Shining Armor for not liking changelings. Worst thing was, they felt exactly what you felt about them.
Personally, I was mostly indifferent, even if I had grown to like Skitter since she was assigned to me.
I shrugged. “There was something or other Luna had to deal with. An ambassador or something, I think? Not entirely sure. I admit I was not exactly fully awake at the time.”
Shining grinned. “I know what you mean. Cadence has those at times, as well. Though I suspect not as much as Princess Celestia or Luna.”
“Lucky you.”
“Mmm. Eaten anything yet?”
I shook my head. “Just some tea. Thinking of heading down to the kitchen for a raid or something and see what I can loot.”
Sure, I could just head to the private dining room and order basically whatever I wanted, but the chefs would take like an hour to get everything just right even if I ordered toast bread.
“Ah. We could head down to the guard mess, it's about time for dinner. The chow is better than you might expect.”
I raised an eyebrow, “...Am I even allowed there?”
Shining Armor grinned, said; “Captain of the Royal Guard.” and pointed at himself with a hoof.
...Yeah, that would do it, wouldn't it...
“Besides,” He continued and poked my medallion. “This gives you access even if you were not a member of the nobility.”
He chuckled at my expression as he reminded me of that particular little tidbit. I didn't think Luna would actually go through with it.
Actually, that's not quite fair. That was all Celestia's work. Luna just absolutely refused to veto it no matter how I asked her.
“Yeah, I guess you have a point.” I said with a shrug before following along, my shadow taking up the rear.
Almost three months since the wedding and I'm almost completely used to having a guard following me around. If anything she was even better at staying out of the way unless there was something specific she needed to know or needed me to know or if I asked something.
“So what's up?”
Shining shrugged. “Oh, nothing really. Was just thinking we should hang out a bit more.”
I raised an eyebrow and grinned. “So basically, you want to compare notes on Princesses?”
He glanced at the changeling following along a couple of meters behind us and lowered his voice a bit more. “Actually... yeah.” then he gave me a curious look and asked; “Do you know anything about wings?”
My other eyebrow went up as well. “Wings?”
“Yeah, that's what I thought. You've never dated a pegasus before, right?”
I frowned at that and then shook my head. “No... you know my background.”
What did I miss?
Shining grinned. “I figured.” he said before he grimaced. “Thought I would tell you about it so you didn't have to find out in a more embarrassing way.”
I tilted my head. “Princess Cadence told you?”
He grimaced again. “Worse... My sister wrote a study on it when Cadence said something about it to to her and then gave it to me.”
...Oh. Oh, ouch. That was just... wrong...
“Wow... rough...”
Shining Armor nodded. “...Yeah, I suspect it was revenge for forgetting to tell her about dating Cadence.”
That would do it, alright. Having your sister write you an essay on what you are doing wrong when... yeah...
Fucking hell.
I'm now going to have nightmares. Thanks a lot, dude!
“...So what's this thing about wings?” I asked hesitantly. If I had to have that image in my brain, I might as well get some use out of the information.
“How to properly care about the feathers.” He explained. “It's apparently really impressive if you can help them with that stuff. Like a massage or something.”
“Oh, preening.”
“Yeah, exactly.”
Huh. I guess that would be nice to know how to help Luna with that.
I hesitated for a moment. “So... uhm...”
“I'll get you the essay.” He said before he looked away, looking uncomfortable, scratching behind his ear. “...It's a really good essay. It has diagrams. Diagrams.”
“...Thanks. I owe you.”
“Buy me a beer or something and we are even.” He said with a shrug. “Come on, let's get some grub.”
“Sounds good.” I agreed and walked along for a moment before a thought struck me. “Did Princess Cadence tell you to let me borrow it?”
“Saw right through that, did you?” he asked, looking at me in surprise.
“Yep. Still appreciate it, though. I do owe you that drink.”