His name was Shining Armor, Royal Guard Officer in training. He had a little sister named 'Twiley,' who would be going to a prestigious school soon. He knew the layout of the castle backwards and forwards, having studied it thoroughly in the Academy. He had met both of the princesses of the castle, a Cadance and a Celestia. Celestia was the powerful one and Cadance was possibly attracted to him? They had gone out to eat, officially on business. Cadance liked chocolates. He’d put in great effort to remember the address on the label of the box of chocolates. Most importantly, his mind was weak.
Queen Chrysalis opened her eyes, pulling back from inside the mind of the pony collapsed in front of her. Squire was peeking out the doorway to the room they had both hidden in, making sure nobody was coming.
“Status?” Chrysalis thought toward her minion.
“I’ve seen one guard moving around in suspicion,” Squire’s voice chimed back in the Queen’s mind, “This one might have had a chance to report our presence.”
“I need more time, let’s take this somewhere more private,” Chrysalis responded, a ring of emerald flame forming on the ground around her.
As soon as Squire stepped in, they sank through the ground. Reaching out mentally, Chrysalis searched for a decent point to transfer to. She felt the perfect place, directly under the castle. Rising from the ground in a darkened cave system, the flare of green flame reflected off of the countless crystals on every surface.
“It looks unoccupied,” Chrysalis said aloud, “Secure the area anyway.”
As Squire buzzed off to investigate the tunnels, her Queen dove back into her victim’s thoughts.
As Celestia and Cadance were leaving their quarters to hold court, Celestia began to notice something was just a little bit off about the guardsponies on duty. Waving one over, Celestia spoke in a motherly tone, “Something is wrong, isn’t it?”
“We’re not sure on the exacts, Mum,” he quickly replied, “There was a hard to understand report from a trooper, and we can’t find him at the moment.”
Celestia noticed Cadance looking to her, clearly in an attempt to judge her aunt's response, so she was sure to stay calm, “Tell the commander to run down whatever leads you have and double security on the throne room.”
“Yes, Mum,” the guard replied, galloping off to relay the order.
Celestia immediately turned to continue on her way, leaving Cadance to catch up and ask, “So I take it you think this is nothing?”
“Well,” Celestia looked for words, “These things happen, it's likely nothing the guards can't handle.”
Cadance apparently accepted the idea, since she didn’t bring it up again in the time it took them to reach the throne room. After all of the usual pomp and pageantry, Celestia was on her throne, Cadance standing by her side. The whole event carried on much as it always did, except with slightly more stallions in armor in the room and guarding the doors.
Deciding things looked under control, Celestia called forth the first courtier.
Shining Armor slowly stood up, hearing a voice calling his name. He sat up, slowly taking stock of the room he was in and the pony approaching him. It was Sergeant Lancer, and he was saying something. Shining shook his head to clear away the grogginess.
“-you been? We’ve been looking for you for hours. What happened?”
Shining stumbled to his feet, “I… honestly don’t remember too well. I feel like shit.”
Lancer did a few quick field checks to make sure he didn’t have a concussion before continuing, “I could barely understand anything you were saying in that mindlink. You really don’t remember anything?”
“I…” Shining struggled with his memories for a while, “There were two ponies, a grey pegasus and a white earth pony. They were sneaking around, so I tailed them. They must have hit me over the head or something after my spell rebounded.”
Lancer made sure to remember the statement for later, continuing his questioning, “How were they being suspicious?”
“They looked like they were casing the place,” Shining Armor answered, “and I just got this weird vibe off of them in general. I dunno.”
“Alright, trooper. Just settle down, let’s get you to medical.”
Soon enough, all of the day's business had been brought to Celestia's attention and she gave appropriate judgement on the matters. All in all, it was just another day of running the country, almost exactly like the hundreds of thousands of days prior. Having Cadance here was a nice change of pace, but even that happened enough to be routine. Cadance had certainly shown improvement over the years in handling matters of state; she just needed to learn how to better hide her boredom.
As all in attendance filtered out of the room, Celestia waved a guard over again, “Status of the search?”
“He’s been located,” reported the stallion, “They brought him to medical for a quick checkup and will be debriefed shortly. So far we only have his basic statement, which matches what he initially reported.”
“What was the report?” Cadance chimed in a fraction of a second before Celestia could say the same.
“He was in pursuit of two suspicious individuals in the South Wing,” the guard informed.
Cadance looked to her aunt with concern, unsure what the best approach would be. Celestia was about to reassure her to trust in the guards when Lancer trotted into the room. After asking something of the guards at the door, he headed straight for the throne.
After a short bow to the princesses, Lancer spoke directly to Celestia, “You’ll have to pardon the interruption, but there’s a short matter for you to attend to.”
Cadance looked startled, but Celestia could read the scene. This was something Lancer wanted her to know, but not Cadance. She stared him down for a moment, trying to read his posture and expression for clues. He stared back with certainty in his course of action.
“You’ll have to excuse me, Cadance,” Celestia said apologetically, “Would you mind starting to get things ready for the afternoon while I take care of this?”
From her niece’s expression, Celestia could tell that Cadance knew something was wrong. Despite that, she accepted and went on her way. Grateful to her niece, Celestia walked the halls of the castle, being led by Lancer.
Deciding they were sufficiently far along, Lancer finally gave his report, “Sorry to resort to that, it’s just… I didn’t really want Princess Cadance to know what happened before you did.”
“Sergeant Lancer,” Celestia reprimanded, “Princess Cadance doesn’t need to be coddled like a child.”
“It’s not that,” Lancer elaborated with a dour expression, “The guard who went missing, she had taken him as personal escort last night. Based on how they acted together… well I was worried she might get emotional. He’s not in the best condition.”
Shining Armor. Celestia was immediately concerned, “He’s in the medical wing?”
“Correct, I brought him there once I found him,” Lancer answered, “I was worried he might be concussed, but they can’t find any evidence of it.”
Reaching the medical wing of the barracks, Celestia spotted Shining Armor. A doctor was still looking him over and asking questions, but he seemed fine, like nothing had happened.
Spotting Celestia with some surprise, Shining Armor quickly stood to bow. Celestia smiled to him, “Don’t strain yourself, I heard what happened.”
“Well I…” he looked at a loss for words for a moment, “I appreciate your concern, Princess, but it’s nothing that’ll affect my duties. Right, doc?”
The doctor ruffled through the pages on her clipboard before nodding in agreement, “There’s a little memory loss, but combining magical rebound and head trauma can do things like that. You should remember bits and pieces over the course of the upcoming days.”
Visibly relieved, Celestia asked if Lancer and the doctor could leave the room quickly before turning to face Shining Armor once more, “Since you’re fit for duty, there’s one easy thing I’d like to ask of you.”
Shining Armor slowly opened his eyes. He was in what looked like a cave made entirely of large crystals, a purple glow coming from somewhere on his chest. As he thought about it, there was something heavy on him. Looking down, he saw the source of light was a horn. His little sister was laying with her head on his chest, crying.
“Hey, Twiley, you alright?”
Twilight bolted to her senses and jumped forward to hug him, crying into his shoulder, “Shiney, oh my gosh, I was so scared when you weren’t waking up.”
Hugging her back, Shining Armor looked around the unfamiliar room, “Hey, come on, I’m fine. I’m your big tough royal guard brother.”
Twilight pulled back and smiled before looking around the room in fear, “Where are we?”
Shining Armor stood up, struggling to remember. That’s when the migraine ripped through his head. His thoughts were completely scattered, his memories with huge holes in them. He remembered pursuing… something? Was that something in the castle?
A single image flashed into his mind, hazy like he was trying to forget it, but scarred in nonetheless. A huge monster, towering over him with fangs and piercing eyes. He was just happy Twilight couldn’t see him go pale in this light. He had to be the hero for her.
Lighting up his own horn, Shining looked around the now glowing room at the hundreds of reflections of himself and Twilight. Struggling to stay calm, he put on an air of wonder, “Wow, look at this place. I’ve never seen a cave like this. It’s really pretty, right?”
With her brother confident and the room clearly lit, Twilight visibly relaxed, “Yeah, it’s fascinating.”
“Come on, let’s find a way out,” Shining suggested, walking towards an entrance to a tunnel nearby with well faked confidence.
After a short moment to judge the direction Shining Armor had chosen, Twilight grinned maliciously, “Sure, that way looks perfect.”