Due to some things on my part, the title has been changed. My bad
I should also say that this chapter and the last one are the same chapter just in different points of view
Chapter 3 The Old and New faces. (Part II)
Due to some things on my part, the title has been changed. My bad
I should also say that this chapter and the last one are the same chapter just in different points of view
“Hey Sunset, you alright there sugar cube?” Applejack asked me. I blinked in surprised and looked at her. How long was I looking out the window? I turned to look at her and gave her a smile.
“Sorry Applejack, I was just thinking about some things.” Well, that was somewhat true, I am thinking about something. She gave me a look.
“Well, what are ya thinking ‘bout then?” I looked at her for a moment and sighed. Before I opened my mouth Pinkie appeared in the seat in front of me.
“Oh come on Applejack you know what she’s thinking about, she has to make sure that everything at the wedding goes according to plan, and has to help the princess with the dragons.” Pinkie bounced in her seat and grinning like a mad mare.
“Well yeah I’m thinking about the wedding, but I’m mostly thinking about the bride and groom. Shining and Princess Mi Am- something-something.” I waved my hoof at the last part and groaned. Her name sounded familiar but it was so hard to say.
“I was meaning to ask about that. Who is this Shining Armor and why is he important?” Dash asked out loud. I looked at her and glared at her, sometimes I wondered where all the info we tell her goes if it doesn’t stay in her head. I was about to speak but Rarity beat me to it.
“Rainbow, Mister Shining Armor is the captain of the Royal Guard.” Rarity shakes her head and glared at her “Honestly do you pay any amount of attention to anypony that is talking?” Rainbow blinked at her and crossed her arms.
“Right, well um, I knew that. I was wondering if you guys knew who he is.” Rainbow grumbled and hovered for a bit. I just rolled my eyes and saw Fluttershy out of the corner of my eye, I looked at her which made her jump.
“Ummm Sunset I wanted to ask, umm how do you know Shining Armor?”
“Well, when I studying magic in the Canterlot, we occasionally talked about stuff and hung out from time to time. I got to play in one of his Ogres & Oubliettes groups, ” Fluttershy nodded and looked out from her window. I also heard some snickering from Rainbow.
“Is there something funny Dash?” I asked her, she just shifted a laugh and looked at me. She looked like she was trying not to laugh.
“It’s nothing, but when you said that you play that game it just shows there you're a really big egghead. Like, really, you and Shining playing a tabletop game, that’s so nerdy.” I raised an eyebrow at her and an evil grin appeared on my face.
“I have to say Dash, if I didn’t know better I’d think you know a bit of the game, maybe you’d even played it before.” That made her stop laughing and looked at me. For a second I caught a look of worry as her eyes shot to everypony else then glared at me.
“W-what are you talking about, I never played that game. I never even heard about it until now.” I turned to face her and gave her a sly smirk.
“Oh really, so how do you know that’s it’s a tabletop game then.” I saw some beads of sweat coming from Dash's forehead.
“Y-you said it!”
“No Dash, I said that I played in one of his groups, but I never said that it was a tabletop game.” Dash started to sweat a lot. I wanted to push a little more but I heard Rarity cough and I looked at her.
“Well darling, as much I like to hear about what Rainbow Dash does in her spare time, I have to ask, this princess he’s marrying, do you know her? Rarity asked me. I scrunched my muzzle and shot a ‘we’ll finish this later’ look to Dash and thought about what Rarity said. My right eye started to twitch a bit, I know I’d heard that name before but couldn’t put my hoof on it.
“That’s just it, I don’t think I’ve met anypony named Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, but I have this nagging feeling that I know her. Ugggg I hate this.” I grumbled for a bit. Before I could say anymore Pinkie shot to the window and pressed against it.
“WE’RE ALMOST THERE!” Pinkie yelled. Her yell rattled the windows a bit. We all moved to the windows to get a better look. Canterlot came to view as the train came around a mountain, but as I watched the city I saw a pink dome surrounding the city. Odd, why was there a shield up around Canterlot?
As we watched the city get bigger, I could see a pair of guards standing just outside of the dome watching the train. As the train passed through the dome I felt some sort of spell pass over me. My friends felt the spell as well. They all stiffened a bit and looked around the car we were in.
“Umm, what was that?” Rainbow Dash asked as she looked around. I didn’t answer her as I looked out of the window as we were coming close the station. As we got close I gasped at what I saw.
I saw guards, a lot of guards. There were guards standing around the station, in the station, even on the roof of the stations. I get that a royal wedding needs extra security, but this is overkill. “Whoa! What’s with all the guards?” Rainbow said as she stuck her head out of the train when it stopped.
“I’m sure they are the necessary precautions, royal weddings do bring out the strangest ponies.” As soon as Rarity said that Pinkie Pie sneezed out confetti. She rubbed her nose and continued on. “Now let’s get going! We have important work to do.”
As my friends left to go do their jobs, I looked around at all the guards. I have to agree with Rarity that royal weddings can make ponies do strange things, but this was a little much. It looked like they were getting ready to go to war. What in Celestia’s name was going on? Was this about the Dragon princess that’s coming here or is it something else? As I was thinking of possibilities I felt a someone give me a shake. I blinked and looked over to Applejack who was standing beside me.
“Are you alright there sugarcube? You kinda zoned out there for a spell,” she asked me. I gave her a sad smile.
“Sorry Applejack I didn’t mean to zone out there it’s just…” I again looked around at the guards, “Don’t you think that there’s a lot of guards? I know it’s a royal wedding, but this is a bit overkill.” AJ scrunched her muzzle and looked around at all the guards.
“Well I gotta admit, they're more guards than a rodeo. Why not just go ask Shining 'bout it.” My head shot up and looked at her with a surprised look. She’s right why didn’t I think of that.
“Thanks, Applejack,” I said to her. She gave me a smile and rubbed the back of her head.
“Aww shucks Sunset, it’s the least I could do. Well, I got to get going, my job won’t do itself.” I watch her trot away and went over to one of the guards to ask where I could find Shining. After pointing me to where I needed to go I found Shining giving orders to some groups of guards, and he was in full armor too.
Beside him was a black unicorn wearing a darkened version of normal guard armor. While I was approaching, I saw a bit of his cutie mark. From what I could tell it was a red star with two lightning bolts going through it. While I was trotting up the stairs to them I was trying to figure out why it looked a familiar.
“Shining, it’s good to see you again,” I called out to him, Shining and the other unicorn turned to look at me. The unicorn’s smile grew wide as Shining gave me a weird look and blinked at me.
“Ummm who are you?” He asked me, I just rolled my eye and stood up straight.
“Oh great king of Westmarch, I’m Echo solis Ortus, a wizard from the order of the unseen way, I have come to Tara to gain the knowledge of the land.” I bowed in front of him. I opened an eye and smiled at him, which he gave a big smile to me.
“Sunset! Last I saw you, you had your muzzle in a book of spells.” He gave me a hug and broke away to look at me. “How’ve you been, I haven’t seen you in months! What are you doing here?”
I just shrugged at him and smiled, “Oh you know same old, same old. Studying, hanging out with my friends and defending Equestria from the latest crisis. The princess asked me to come and make sure that some royal wedding goes according to plan, now who was the groom of this wedding? Oh, it’s on the tip of my tongue…” I saw Shining roll his eyes at me. The unicorn chuckled a bit.
“Oh ha ha, Sunset very funny. While it’s good to see you again, you didn’t say hi to my Sergeant here.” He pointed to the black unicorn beside him. He grinned happily at me as I blinked at him. Seriously, I should know him from somewhere. The unicorn took off his helmet which showed a red and black intertwine mane. I also saw his golden colour eyes, I couldn't help but blush a bit.
“Sunset it’s me, Shadow.” It took me a moment to remember who he was. A memory of seeing him in Ponyville and hanging out with the girls and me. I broke into a huge smile.
“Shadow Sparkle! Is that you!” I saw him nod with a toothy grin. I couldn’t help myself as I gave him a big hug. After a minute, I realize what I was doing and pushed him back before my face got too red. I saw him blush and blink a couple times. “Ummm sorry about that. I just got excited to see you since it’s been some time and ummm…”
“It’s, umm, fine Sunset, I’m happy to see you again and ummm...” We didn’t talk or look at each other for a bit. I saw Shining trying to hold back a laugh. I blinked at him and was about to say something until I remembered what I was doing.
“Right. Umm, Shining can I ask you something. What’s with all the guards? There’s practically an army of them here,” I asked him. He looked at Shadow and Shadow looked at him.
“Well sir, she is the Princess’ personal student. I guess we can tell her.” Shadow said to Shining, he sighed and nodded to Shadow then looked at me.
“Sunset, walk with us for a bit.” Instead of the happy face, he had on a few minutes ago, he looked tired and stressed. I nodded to him and followed them until we eventually stopped in a small garden.
“Shining, what’s wrong?” I asked him. He sighed and turned to look at me.
“All I wanted to do was marry the mare of my dreams, but I’m also the captain of the Royal Guard so I have a duty to protect Canterlot as well. Here, watch.” He bented down and closed his eyes. His horn glowed with a pink aura and a beam shot into the air, hitting the dome and making it pulse with magic. He let the beam die out and gasped for breath. Shadow pulled out a bottle of water and had it float over to Shining. He nodded and started to gulp it down. Shadow looked over to me with a serious look.
“For the past two months we've been getting threats from someone, we don’t know who he or she is, but we think that something is going to happen on the wedding day.” As he said that Shining finished drinking and floated the bottle over to Shadow who put it into his bag.
“There’s also the fact that the princess from the Dragon Empire is coming as a guest, so I’m stressed about the wedding, the threats, and this princess.” Shining sighed and shook his head. He turned and give a sheepish grin, “No rest for the wicked huh.”
We continued walking and talked for a bit though I wasn’t really paying attention the whole time, I was thinking for most of it. Threats of an attack on Canterlot. This was bad, really bad. How was I supposed to make sure things went smoothly with the dragon Princess with a threat looming over the city? I was lost in thought until I heard Shining calling my name.
“Sunset, you're doing it again.” I looked up to see them looking at me, and the fact that we were on a small bridge.
“Umm sorry about that, I didn’t mean to space out like that,” I smiled at them and they gave me a smile back, well Shadow gave me a normal one but Shining gave me a tired one.
“So Shining who are you marrying? Who’s Princess Mi Amore Cadenza?” I asked him. He chuckled at me and I frowned at him. “What’s so funny?”
“Sunset you remember Cadence?” My ears perked up by the name and frowned. I nodded at him and he smiled at me.
“Well, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza is Cadence.” I blinked at him for a minute as my brain broke down and tried to repair itself. Shadow looked at Shining and walked over to me and poked me.
“Ummm Sunset? Are you ok?” I blinked once and looked at him then at Shining.
“Cadence, as in my old foalsitter?” He nodded, “The same Cadence that kept saying that ‘love can overcome anything,’.” He nodded again but slower with a frowned. “The same one that turned everything in my old room pink and I got back at her by turning her mane neon green?” He sighed at that.
“Yes the same- wait, that was you!” I waved him off.
“Details, anyway Cadence is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza,” I started to say but I saw Shadow raised his hoof.
“Also the Princess of Love!” Shining and I glared at him as he lowered his hoof. “Umm, I will just shut up now.”
“I will say this once, Cadence, my old foalsitter is Princess Mi Amore Cadenza the Princess of Love and you’re marrying her, am I right so far?” I looked at Shining as he sighed.
“Yes I’m going to be marrying her, is that going to be a pro-” I cut him off as I raised my hoofs in the air.
“About bucking time!” I rolled my eyes at his surprised look. “Oh come on I’ve been waiting forever for you to ask her. Took long enough.”
“Wait you wanted us to get married? I thought you hated Cadence.” I put my hoof on my chest and gasped.
“Why Shining, how could you think of me like that. I don’t hate my foalsitter.” I said in a dramatic way. He was about to say something but I continued. “I just hate the way she keeps pushing the idea that love can solve everything. Once was fine, twice was ok, three times was meh, but over a hundred! That’s a bit much.” He just blinked at me then shifted a bit. Shadow walked up beside him.
“Ummm sir? If you don’t mind me asking, who’s Cadence?” I rolled my eyes at Shadow and smiled.
“As you heard, Cadence was an old foalsitter, she’s always friendly and nice to me and, we had fun together, but we do…” I paused a moment, “Disagree with each other at times.”
“They fight all the time because she doesn’t agree with the way Cadence sees things.”
“The idea that love can solve anything is a bunch of horseapples!” I grumbled to myself. Shining just chuckled.
“I’ve got to ask, how did you know that me and Cadence were going out? We were trying to keep everything a secret from you.” I smiled at him and rolled my eyes.
“Shining, I’m Princess Celestia‘s personal student and probably one of the smartest mares in Equestria, it’s hard for me not to know somepony has a feeling for another.” He stared at me then did a side glance to Shadow then back to me.
“Right~ you keep telling yourself that.” I looked at him confused.
“Huh, what do you mean by that?”
“Oh, it’s nothing important.” He smiled at me. I glared at him and at Shadow as he looked back and forth at both of us confused. What did Shining know that I didn’t? I hate when a pony does that to me. I grumbled a bit and put the thought in the back of my mind, I could chew him out after the wedding.
“So” I began in a much happier tone, “how did you propose to her? Was it all romantic and stuff, oh did you take her out to a moonlight dinner?” Shining stared at me and snorted.
“Why Sunset, when did you become such a romantic mare?” I blinked at him and replayed what I just said in my head.
“Oh dear Celestia, I’ve been hanging out with Rarity way too much.” I looked at Shining and gave him a nervous smile. “Sooo, When did you propose to her?”
“Well I think it was about three years ago, but right know that’s not important.” He stepped forward and looked at me with a big smile. “Sunset would you like to be my best mare?”
I blinked at him as he asked his question. “You, you want me to be your best mare?” He nodded.
“Well I have Shadow as my best stallion and I want you to be my best mare, do you think you can do that for me?” I nodded gleefully.
“I would be honored to be your best mare,” I said to Shining. I looked over to Shadow and he gave me a happy smile.
“What’s going on out here?” We all jumped at the new voice and Shadow looked in the direction it came from.
“Well, speak of the devil.” I turn around to see a pink alicorn standing there with a confused look on her. It was Cadence.
“I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” My left ear twitched a bit at her tone. Sure I should be nice to her since this was her wedding, but old habits die hard.
“Oh Cadence, I thought the neon green mane suited you, why go and change it?” She stared at me with a confused look.
“What are you talking about.” My smile disappeared and I stared at her.
“I turned your mane green and you screamed at me for a week about it.” Again she just stared at me. “Cadence, it’s me Sunset Shimmer, you foalsat all those years ago, don’t you remember?”
“Uh-huh.” Was all she said and started to walk passed me. I looked at her in confusion. I looked over to Shadow as he was trying to cover his snickering. Cadence walked up to Shining as he put his hoof over her.
“I’ve got to go back to my station, but Cadence will be checking in with all of you in the meantime to see how things are coming along. I think I can speak for both of us that we are excited to have you here, right dear?” Judging from the look Cadance was giving me, I don’t think she was. I know we didn’t get along perfectly, but I thought we got along better than that.
“Absolutely,” Cadence said as she looked at me. I took a step back and saw Shadow give me a worried look.
“Well, I guess we have to get back, we’ll-” Before Shining could finish something flashed behind him, bright enough that I had to cover my eyes to not get blinded. As I looked back I saw Celestia standing there.
“Princess Celestia! What are you doing here?” Shining said as he bowed his head and we all followed. When we lifted our heads we say the Princess smiling at us.
“Hello to you too Captain Shining Armor, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, Sergeant Shadow Sparkle, and my faithful student. It’s good to see you all well.” I blinked at her mostly to get the black spots out of my eyes.
“Umm, hello to you too Princess Celestia, but if you don’t mind me asking what are you doing here?” Shining asked her. The princess just giggled to herself and looked at him.
“Well, I came to ask you to lower the top of your shield for a few moments.” We all stared at her for a minute until Shining could speak.
“Ummm sure, give me a moment.” Shining did the same thing he did back in the garden, only this time the top of the dome began to disappear. I looked at Shining as he began to sweat. I also saw Cadence chewing her bottom lip and starting to look around in the sky. What was she looking for?
“Umm Princess why do you want the shield lowered?” His question was answered a few moments after he said that. We all watched as an airship flew over the lowered shield and towards the airship docks. Once it was clear, Shining raised his shield again and almost fell from exhaustion. Shadow pulled another bottle of water out of his bag and gave it to Shining. I looked over to Cadence and just got a glimpse of her sour look change to a worried one. I frowned at her but made sure no one saw it.
“Well, our guests are here. Would you all like to meet them with me?” We all looked at each other and then said the exact same thing.
“We would be honored,” We said as we bowed again. Celestia smiled.
“Well then let’s not leave our guests waiting.”
It took us about twenty five minutes of walking to reach the docks. Celestia was in front of the group as Shining and Cadence were walking beside each other behind her. Shadow was walking beside me in the back and three guards were around us with two more flying overhead. I glanced over to Cadence a few times as we walked, I couldn't believe she'd changed so much over the years. She wasn’t the same foalsitter that I remember all those years ago. I sighed quietly enough that no one noticed, well, almost no one.
“Sunset? You alright?” I turned to look at Shadow when he asked me the question. He looked a little worried and I guess he saw me looking at Cadence. I gave him a sad smile. “It’s nothing, Shadow. I just never thought Cadence would change so much over the years.”
“Well I don’t know much about the Princess of Love, but I know weddings are stressful.” He moved a little closer and whispered in my ear, “And to be honest, she’s taking it much better than Shining is. Two days ago he mixed up some letters and sent the captain of the Wonderbolts a love letter instead of the princess, boy did she have a word with him.” We both started to laugh quietly so that Shining didn’t hear us.
I looked back to the two of them. Cadence was nuzzling Shining and they were smiling about something. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid over nothing,” Shadow smiled at me.
“See there’s the Sunset I know, smart and paranoid over everything.” I blushed at that. Sure it was a joke but I couldn’t help it. I chuckled a bit that made him smile more. Time to get ready for the Dragon princess. ‘It’s just a greeting, what could go wrong?’
“Auntie!” And in one word, everything came crashing down. I closed my eyes and rubbed the bridge of my nose, trying to fight off the incoming headache. ‘Oh Celestia no, please no.’ I thought as I turned and opened my eyes. I groaned at what I saw. Coming towards us with six guards was a unicorn with a blonde mane and a tuxedo with a red rose sticking out. The last time I saw him was the Grand Galloping Gala, where he quickly became a stallion that I want to see jump off a cliff.
“Blueblood, it’s good to see you.” Shining put on a forced smile as he said that. Blueblood stopped to glare at him.
“That’s Prince Blueblood to you.” He said with his muzzle up in the air, which looked funny since they’re the same height. Shining continued his forced smile but I could see it twitching. Cadence put a hoof on Shining’s shoulder and looked at Blueblood.
“Oh don’t be like that, the wedding is in a few days and it should be a special day. Can’t you two just be nice.” She gave Blueblood a smile and Shining a nuzzle. Shining took a deep breath and sighed and looked at her.
“You’re right dear, it’s a special occasion, and it should make everypony happy.” He turned at Blueblood and stuck out his hoof. “Let’s not argue alright, Prince Blueblood.” Blueblood looked at his hoof and for a second he looked disgusted, then pulled out a white handkerchief and put it on Shining’s hoof before shaking it. Shining frowned but didn’t say anything.
“I suppose I can do that since he’s going to be my cousin soon.” I saw Shining’s eye twitch when Blueblood said that and put on the forced smile.
“Oh, I didn’t think of that. I suppose you’re right.” Shining said through his teeth. Blueblood rolled his eyes and walked past Shining and Cadence and saw me. He gave me a sour look.
“Oh. Why isn’t it auntie’s personal student, Miss Shammer.” I gave him a death glare and ground my teeth together.
“Oh Prince Blueblood, it’s nice you see you,” I said nice with venom in the word nice. “And, it’s Shimmer.”
“Whatever, not my problem.” I ground my teeth some more and felt a hoof on my shoulder. I looked and saw Shadow standing there trying to calm me down.
“Easy there,” He said to me. I took some breaths and calm down a bit. Got to be calm right now, nothing good will happen if I stay angry. Well, I could punch him in the face, that would make me happy. I turn to Blueblood just to see him walking up to Celestia. Oh hello, anger nicely to see you again.
“Auntie it’s so nice to see you, what are you doing?” He asked. Princess Celestia gave him a smile.
“Well, I’m off to the dock to greet our guests for the wedding.” Blueblood frowns a bit and looked at Shining with disgust.
“Auntie, must you? Can’t you have some other peasant pony do that, you're the Princess of Equestria, you don’t have to do labour like this.” Celestia smiled her perfect smile, but I thought I saw her narrow her eyes a bit.
“Blueblood, our guests are from the Dragon Empire. It would rude of me to not meet them.” I couldn't help but be happy when she shut Blueblood up. I looked over at Cadence and I thought I saw her sneering at Celestia. What was wrong with her today?
“Well when you put it that way,” I was happy to hear that from him. Yes! He’s leaving, this walk can only get better. “I’ll join you to greet our royal guests than.”
And there goes the happiness of the walk. I could hear some groans around me and even saw Celestia’s eye twitch for a second.
“Oh well, I’ll be happy to see you come along. Now let’s go my little ponies, we are wasting time.” She turned and hurried towards the docks, quite a bit faster than our leisurely walk before. Some of us need to trot to keep up.
We quickly arrived at the airship that came it. I saw a lot of ponies working around the ship that looked nervous. I leaned a bit to Shadow to whisper to him.
“Why are they nervous?” he shrugged and looked at me.
“Don’t know, but I’m guessing that it has to do with whoever came from the Dragon Empire.” I swallowed a bit and took some breaths. I then heard Blueblood ask a question that made me want to kick him.
“Auntie, do we need to spare any guards for the guests? I don’t want my personal guards anywhere near them.” I glared daggers at him. Shining stepped up and cleared his throat.
“Actually, they brought their own guards with them.” Blueblood snorted at what he said.
“What was that for?” I asked him still glaring at him. He didn’t even looked at me when he answered.
“Well, have you seen a dragon before? They are barbaric! I don’t think they even know their lefts from their rights.” I stared at Blueblood with a look of murder and saw Shining and Shadow doing the same thing.
Before anyone could speak a loud ‘Thud!’ came from in front of us, which surprised us except for Celestia as she watched as the ramp of the ship was lowered. What came down the ramp made my eyes widen. Two hulking giants came down of the ramp that looked like dragons but they stood upright on their hind legs and were taller than the Princess! I shrank down a bit and shivered in fear. I’d never seen dragons like this and they looked like they could each take on whole squads of guards.
I looked over to Celestia and saw her looking at me with a warm smile. I took a deep breath and straightened and smiled back at her. I also saw Blueblood took a few steps back, I couldn’t help but laugh at him. He had it coming. I looked at the blue dragon as she cleared her throat and stepping forward.
“Presenting the princess and future queen of the Dragon Empire-”
“Cough! Maybe. Cough!” The blue glared at the red one when did that. He didn’t look at her as she muttered something under her breath before continuing.
“-Princess Amber Trasza!” We all looked as a red-amber dragon walked down the ramp. She was about the same height as Celestia and wore a dark red necklace with blue and gray gems on it, and some ornate bracers around her legs. She also wore a crown with what looked like a gem with a dragon in it. She stood in front of Celestia and bowed to her. Celestia returned in kind.
“Princess Amber Trasza, on behalf of everypony I welcome you to Canterlot.” Celestia eyes drifted a bit and stopped. Celestia and everypony else looked shocked, and I could swear that Shining had tears in his eyes. When I was finally able to see what they were all looking at, my jaw hit the deck. The blue dragon guard cleared her throat to speak again.
“Presenting the princess’ guest and the Archmage of the Court-” Her guest looked almost like a pony, but there were some obvious differences. She had claws instead of front hooves with wicked looking talons, big leathery wings, and a dragon’s tail. She had dark purple fur with a patchwork of scales the same color. As she moved close I saw two more details, her eyes were dragon like, and she had a cutie mark. It was a pink six pointed star with a white dragon curled around it.
“Her Excellency, Miss Twilight Scintillula.”
End Chapter.