A Knight in Shining Armor

by Rinshi


Return Home

The next morning, Sunset woke up early, wanting to finish all her business before leaving.
She went down for breakfast and found it already made on the table along with a note: “Your last breakfast made by me. I’ll be a bit late. Order something special for your goodbye dinner. It’s on me.” Next to the paper was a clip containing 300 dollars.

Sunset was touched. She knew that the man had taken her into his home and did not want her to leave. He was clearly happy to have her near.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After breakfast, Sunset made her way towards the place she’d called home for nearly a decade.
She had been incredibly lucky to find the place. After managing to falsify her documents, she had investigated the legal standing of the place.

It had taken a lot of time, money, and effort to find out if the building where she was sleeping was due for a demolition any time soon. Fortunately, the place seemed to have fallen into a bureaucratic crack which would have required a maelstrom of paperwork to remove from, and nobody was crazy enough to try.

Upon reaching the door, she realized that it was open. Worried about the things inside, she quickly made her way inside, opening the door wide open. A strong breeze blew through the room and lightly ruffled her hair, but otherwise nothing seemed to be out of place.

When she had arrived, more than one person had tried to take advantage of the little girl who was out on her own. Unfortunately for her, the former unicorn had quickly managed to find a way to use her magic in her new body, thus scaring them off quite easily, and given that only idiots and drug addicts hung out around her home, it was easy to pretend that all her magic was nothing more than illusions.

The interior was a mess, but that was how it had always been.

Looking around at all the things she had collected over the years, she realized that she could not take everything with her, so she only packed the bare essentials. Clothes could be modified and books would be interesting.

She looked at the potted plants sadly, knowing that she would have to leave them. She remembered how they had saved her life when she had found herself with no money and nothing to eat.

While the portal changed her body, some things had remained unchanged, including her digestive system which was still capable of processing plants better than real humans, and her muscles which were stronger than anyone with her height and weight should reasonably be.
During her first few months when she had no idea what to do, she had eaten plants and flowers that she had found here and there. It wasn’t until later that she found out that humans couldn’t do the same.

Next to those pots was another that, instead of a plant, had a rock. During her time studying under the Princess, she had learned the art of petriculture that was practiced by many earth ponies. Of course, since she was a unicorn, it was terribly difficult for her to make gems, especially since natural magic in this world was all but nonexistent.

Fortunately, she had arrived in this world with her travel bags. During her youth, she had liked to travel to exotic places, sometimes with her mentor as a sort of assistant and other times on her own, so she had always liked to have a bag with a variety of things, such as her books on magic, her diary to communicate with the Princess, and several gems and bits in case of emergencies.

These last had helped her a lot once she realized that her stay in the human world would be longer than she had first thought.

It had taken her a while to figure out the gems and gold that she had were much more valuable in this world than in Equestria, but once she found out, she took advantage of this fact as best as she could.

It was funny that humans could grow their food just like she could, but they couldn’t grow their money on plants like her.

And even though it had been almost ten years, Sunset still found it hard to believe that something that anypony in Equestria could collect simply by digging through their backyard was so valuable in this world.

Shaking her head, Sunset thought to herself that in the end, Celestia was right in that one day the knowledge of earth ponies would be useful for her. It was almost a shame that this world had so little magic that it took a whole year to grow just one gem. Fortunately, the little pieces that grew around the edges were almost enough to pay for a month or two when she sold them.
Looking at the almost fully-formed ruby the size of her fist, she frowned. She had been considering spending it on a Christmas gift for her friends, or perhaps saving it for Rarity’s birthday.

Now the mere sight of it annoyed her, shining innocently in the light of the sun.
Letting out a sigh, she put the precious stone in her pocket. Maybe she could leave it at the nearby orphanage as a donation. One last good deed before leaving.

Turning around, she saw her laptop lying over the office desk she’d pulled out of somewhere.
She had mixed feelings about the device. On one hand, she was certain that the fascinating artifact would be a wet dream for any investigative pony in Equestria, but she could not help but feel disgusted by the object, due to the way she’d used it in the beginning.

When she had started to run out of money and realized that growing a gem would take longer than expected, Sunset had discovered something on the internet, but it wasn’t until much later that she found out just how bad it was. At first it hadn’t bothered her, having been unfamiliar with the part of her new anatomy - in Equestria, she had rarely used clothes unless it was a special occasion, such as The Grand Galloping Gala, so, she hadn’t seen anything bad about showing her naked child body on a webcam for money.

Fortunately, she had never shown her face, always suspecting that there was something strange about the whole affair
.
Sometime after she realized just how bad it was, she had decided to stay away from the inter
net, but she eventually found another, far less repulsive method of making money off her computer.

She was a genius; the only subject that ever gave her trouble was history, and that was something easy to fix. Very soon, she had people paying her to write reports, written projects, and even university theses.

She had sustained herself this way until she entered Canterlot High, where she had to reduce her time somewhat to at least pretend to have a social life.

Even so, it was easy to maintain her business given that she had nothing to do apart from spending some time with Flash and school, so she could work easily on her works for desperate students.

Finally, after a long internal debate with herself, she decided to take the laptop with her anyway.

A short while later, she had a bag full of stuff she didn’t want to leave, which she took to Shining’s house to leave while she prepared for her departure.
But before that, she had one last thing to do.

As she left the place that had been her home for the last nine years, she didn’t see a small paper with a note that had been blown away by the wind when she walked in.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a short trip. She had spent the entire journey mentally repeating the things she needed to say and do.

Finally, she reached her destination - Canterlot High.

Holding the notebook in her hands tightly, she entered the building - for the last time.

Just as she expected, the halls were empty. Everyone was out for the holidays, so no one would bother her during her final walk through the school.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was a stressful few weeks for Principal Celestia. It began with someone putting out other people’s secrets online, and immediately, everyone had pinned the blame on Sunset Shimmer despite the complete lack of evidence.
Finally, the constant harassment had led Sunset to run away. After two days of absence and no answers on her telephone, Celestia had begun to worry, and on the third day she had been about to call the police, consequences be damned.

When the real Anon-a-Miss had revealed herself in the middle of the lunch hour, everyone had been shocked to discover that it had been the youngest member of the Apple family.

What followed had been pandemonium. More than one student had wanted to file charges against the pre-teen, and Celestia had been forced to intervene, and as if that hadn’t been enough, she had been forced to deal with the Rainbooms full of guilt over how they had treated their friend.

Regardless of what she had promised the girls, if Sunset didn’t appear after Christmas, she was going to call the police.

Thus, she was quite surprised when Sunset Shimmer herself showed up at her office with a stony expression. Quickly, Celestia looked towards her sister at her desk, who seemed just as surprised as her.

“Sunset!” she exclaimed. “We were-”

She was then cut off by the raised arm of the girl who placed a page over her desk and crossed her arms.

Surprised, she took the page and began to read.

With every line, her eyes became wider. “You’re leaving school?!” Celestia exclaimed, looking at the young girl incredulously..

“Sunset, the real culprit has already been found, you don’t have to do this!” Luna said passionately

For a moment, Sunset’s eyes widened

“And what about next time?” she asked.

The two sisters glanced towards each other.

“What will happen the next time something happens and everyone decides to blame me?” she asked again. “The fact is - nobody cared and everyone hates me.”

“That’s not true,” Luna proclaimed.

The former pony just looked and quoted: “Perhaps Sunset Shimmer is just eager to make someone else out to be a bad element so that her actions at the Fall Formal will become old news.” her voice dripping with heavy sarcasm.

“That was not me! I was being controlled by the Dazzlings!” at least Luna had the decency to blush.

Sunset rolled her eyes.

“I’ve studied magic for years and if there’s anything that I’ve learned, it’s that mental suggestion doesn’t put anything in the victim’s mind, it only removes the inhibitions that normally prevents them from speaking their mind,” she explained, looking at the vice-principal the whole time. “I’d rather go before someone decides to blame me for something else. Besides, there’s no point in me staying anymore.”

“What about your future?” Celestia asked worriedly.

“What ‘future’?” Sunset shrugged. “There’s nothing for me in this world and the only reason I stayed here is because of the portal to Equestria”

Celestia opened her mouth, to find the words convince her,

“I’m not changing my mind, so save your breath” Sunset lifted her hand again, silencing the Principal. “And now that I have no more use for it, and I don’t care about the students of this school anymore, take this and do whatever you want with it.”

Sunset gave Celestia a notebook “this is all the blackmail I’ve collected on the students. All the dirt, all the gossip, all the rule-breaking, stealing, bullying, disgusting little glory of it. Do with it what you will.”.

And with that, she left Canterlot High forever.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shining Armor was nervous, but not in the same way as he had been on his first date with Cadence, or the first time they slept together. Neither was it the same nervousness as the first time he went out on patrol or was called to an emergency.

Slowly, he entered the restaurant, l and saw her with her silky pink hair with lilac highlights, and her beautiful blue eyes.

And he felt nothing.

Well, he was still extremely nervous, but he never felt the same joy and happiness that usually appeared whenever he saw her.

“Hi,” he said as he sat down next to her.

“Hi,” she replied. “How are you?”

“Fine. What about you?”

“Fine.”

The two paused for a moment, looking anywhere but each other.

“How are your parents?”

“Fine.”

Awkward silence.

“How’s work?”

“Fine.”

More awkward silence. He toyed with his cutlery, trying - and failing to find any words.
Every second dragged on and on, as both of them struggled to find something, anything to say.

“How is Twily?”

For several minutes, Shining did not answer.Instead, he looked in her eyes.

“This isn’t working… right?” Words felt like sandpaper on his mouth, but they were true. It was not working.

Cadence’s eyes briefly widened in surprise and shock, before they settled into a resigned look with a sad smile.

“Yes. I think you’re right,” she said, looking away. “Is… is it my fault?” she asked.

She hadn’t been able to avoid blaming herself for it. After all, she had practically accused him of cheating on her, when his situation could very well be considered rape.

Knowing what she was thinking, he shook his head. He had even blamed himself, but in the end, the only one guilty was Chrysalis. Without saying anything else, he got up and turned to leave.

“Shining!” Cadence called out, getting to her feet suddenly.

Before Shining could ask what was going on, Cadence grabbed him and kissed him deeply.

And he felt nothing.

The physical sensations were still there; the texture of her lips, the heat of her breath. But he never felt the spark, the passion that he’d always felt when he kissed her, when he made love to her. It was gone.

Cadence broke away, her eyes still closed and her hands still on Shining Armor’s chest.

Finally, after a whole minute, she opened her eyes and looked at him.

Shining could see the hope and fear in her blue eyes. This only made it more painful.

“Goodbye Cadence,” he said.

He turned around and did not stop until he was in his car.

Once he was safe inside his car, he buried his face in his hands, and just sat htere. It was anyone’s guess how long did he spend there, in the darkness of his car, doing nothing, thinking nothing. Being nothing.

But even that had to end. He straightened out, and checked his clothes, ready to go back home, when he felt something in his shirt pocket.

Putting his hand inside, he pulled out a golden ring with a heart-colored cyan gem. Cadence mush have placed it there when she kissed him.

That was the final declaration. It was over.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
His return was quick. In this situation, he would normally take hours driving around to relax, but right now he just wanted to get back home.

He walked all the way up to the door… and stopped, but not because of Cadence. What really scared him was the chance that if he entered the house, it would be empty.

Gathering courage, he opened the door and walked inside.

He did not say a word, wishing to keep the silence. Everything was calm, the television was off, and the sofa in which he’d slept for the past few days was in order.
For a moment, his heart stopped.

“Shining?” He heard someone ask from the kitchen.

When he walked in, he saw the blonde/redhead sitting on the floor against the wall, with several boxes of pizza around her, along with a couple of bottles of vodka and whiskey.

Sunset seemed slightly red, but not as much as the first time he’d seen her. She was wearing pale violet pajamas with a stylized red and yellow sun on the chest. A “cutie-mark,” he remembered she’d called it.

“You look like you could use a drink,” she suggested, moving a bottle temptingly.

For a brief moment, he thought of rejecting it, but before he realized what was happening, he was sitting next to the false adolescent, with a piece of pizza in one hand and the bottle of vodka in the other.

“So...” Sunset started. “How did it go with your Ex?”

In a very undignified manner, Shining choked on his drink. “H-How did you…?!”

“I didn’t, you just told me,” Sunset replied with a mocking tone, before gazing downwards with a sad look. “Besides, you’re only ever this sad when you’re thinking about her.”

Seeing the strange look on Shining’s face, Sunset decided that she had to know what the deal was with her.

“Tell you what. If you tell me what happened, I’ll tell you all about me and how I got here.”

Shining didn’t even think about it. Surely, his situation with Cadence was private, but he’d been dying to know everything about the strange girl who’d almost killed herself on that bridge.

“Okay, but you go first,” he said quickly.

It wasn’t exactly what she wanted, but he supposed she could make an exception. Besides, she also wanted to tell the man all about her life. She loved the expressions that he made when she told him things like how the griffons had their own kingdom, even if it had decayed significantly from its glory days.

With a big smile, Sunset took the bottle out of Shining’s hands and took a swig. “When I was young…”

They spent hours this way, one telling something about their life, then the other took a drink from the bottle and telling something about theirs.

Surprisingly quickly, both were done with their respective histories, and so they simply recalled amusing anecdotes, such as the time Shining went to a party he’d thought was a costume party dressed as a giant chicken. Or the time Sunset ended up covered in honey and her horn stuck in a tree during a presentation she’d made out in the open
.
“And when I walked in, there she was, with long, bright fuchsia socks, matching panties, a face full of cake, and the face of a deer caught in the headlights. So she takes off her helmet, points at me, and says ‘I can explain this.’”

No longer able to control themselves, the two burst into laughter.

At this point, three bottles of vodka and two bottles of whiskey were lying empty on the floor, along with several empty pizza boxes, lemon slices, and gummy bears.

While they laughed, they both looked at each other, their faces red, and not just because of the alcohol.

The laughter died an abrupt death when they both became lost in each other’s eyes and their faces slowly came closer. Before their lips could touch, Sunset spoke.

“I’ll leave in the morning.”

And like a hammer against a glass wall, the moment was broken, and yet neither of them moved.

“Please don’t go.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When he awoke the next morning, Shining Armor took a moment to take in the disaster area that was his kitchen. Confused, he tried to remember how it managed to get that way.

Then the memories hit him like an avalanche. The reunion with Cady, the ring, the drinking, and finally, falling asleep next to Sunset, her head upon his shoulder. He even remembered the smell of her hair, the only thing about her that he could smell even over the smell of the shampoo he usually used.

He then realized the Sunset hadn’t been at his side when he woke up. Quickly, he looked all around the room in search of her bicolored hair, before getting to his feet and running up the stairs towards his room, hoping to find her there, but it was empty, with no sign of her.
For a moment, Shining had no idea what to do, and the constant throbbing of her brain wasn’t helping.

Finally, he decided to cat. Even though he knew it was risky to drive with a hangover, and probably still with some alcohol in his blood, he grabbed the keys to his car and drove off in search of Sunset Shimmer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Standing in the middle of the snow, Sunset looked at her reflection in front of the statue at Canterlot High. The portal was closed, but opening it would be relatively easy. She only needed to send a message through the book several times, hoping that the princess would notice and answer quickly.

She had woken up long after noon. Apparently, she had fallen asleep with her head resting on Shining’s shoulder. Without making a sound, she had gotten up, picked up all the things she had packed beforehand, and left.

As soon as her hand touched the knob, she realized that she hadn’t said goodbye to the man who had saved her life, in more than one way.

She approached the sleeping officer, skillfully evading the discarded bottles around her, and looked at his sleeping face with doubt.

He seemed calm.

She remembered how they had spoken the night before, and the words he’d said before falling asleep.
“Please don’t go.”

Though the man did not know it, those words meant a lot for Sunset.
With a soft smile and slightly wet eyes, she brought her lips up to his ear and whispered a quiet thanks, and before she could let herself doubt, she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

Instead of going directly to the portal she walked around the city, as if she were taking one final farewell tour. The factory that had been her home, Sugarcube Corner, the antique store where she’d bought most of the catalyzers for her more complex spells. She even stopped next to the Flash’s garage, where she’d spent many afternoons watching him and his band practicing.

Before she knew it, night had fallen, and she had finally arrived at the school.

It was curious how much it resembled the night she’d reached her lowest point, the night when she’d hit rock bottom, the night she’d almost ended it al…

The night she had met that person, despite how blurry her memories of that night were.
Opening her backpack, she took out the diary that would allow her to communicate with the princess. She opened it and looked at her reflection.
It was time to go back home.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The clock struck twelve. It was officially December 25th, Christmas. One of the happiest days of the year, a day to spend with family and friends, surrounded by decorations and presents.
Exactly the opposite of what Officer Shining Armor was doing.

His house was dark and lightless; he hadn’t put up a single ornament or bought a Christmas tree. His Christmas dinner consisted of cheap pizza; his family was celebrating without him.
And despite all his searching, he hadn’t found the young girl from another world.
Picking up another bottle of beer, he regretted not insisting that Sunset stay.
His musings were interrupted by the sound of the doorbell.

Slightly intoxicated, he frowned. He had no idea who could be visiting at this hour, especially on this day.

He then looked down at the table and saw the half-empty box of pizza. He must have ordered a second one.

He had acquired that habit despite the short time he’d spent with Sunset.

Getting up, he took money out of his wallet. He decided to pay the delivery boy and give him the pizza. He wasn’t in the mood for a second one.

“Listen…” he began as he opened the door, but he froze when he saw who was on the other side.

A pair of cyan eyes stared into Shining’s.

She had thought of a hundred things she could say, but the moment their gazes met, the words died in her throat. “I... uhhh… said I was going back home, b-but…” Sunset stuttered, unsure of how to express her thought processes in that moment.

Shining said nothing as he watched the girl stumble over her own words as she stood at her door. He hadn’t moved since he saw her. He hadn’t even let go of the money in his hand.
Seeing how Sunset was looking downwards, embarrassed by her inability to say what she wanted, he smiled and moved to the side, leaving the way inside open for her.

Upon seeing the gesture, Sunset’s eyes widened as she stopped speaking. Shining just smiled.
“Welcome home, Sunset,” he said happily.

The smile Sunset Shimmer gave him as he walked inside was as bright as the sun.
She was finally home.