Shining Dash

by Ianpiersonjdavis

Evacuation

“So, can I help you guys evacuate everyone?” Rainbow Dash asked, hopefully.

“Well, you’re not really in the guard, so I’m not sure they’d take you very seriously…” Shining Armor mulled. “I mean, on your own they’d probably think you’re just some punk kid trying to pull a prank.”

Dash frowned.

“I-I mean, you can still come with us, but they’ll be more inclined to listen to us, since we’re guards.” He quickly added.

They were approaching the first home. In order to ensure the city’s residents had ample time to evacuate, they were working through lunch. The other guards that Dash had seen went about their task with surprising speed and efficiency compared to the stationary guards she was used to seeing, all while maintaining their professionalism. Once again, she was brought back to her disillusionment with the Wonderbolts, recently there had been rumors surfacing of their lack of integrity and how quickly they dropped members when they became even the slightest bit inconvenient. As angry as she was with them, she hoped none of these accusations were true-it was saddening to think that her fillyhood heroes could be so callous.

“You okay, Dash?” Shining asked, noting the long silence she held with a perturbed look on her face.

“Yeah, just thinking…” she replied. “It’s not really important…so how does this work, anyway?”

“Watch and you’ll see.” Shining replied as they stopped before the door of the first home and he began to knock.

A pink Earth Pony mare appeared at the door with a curled blonde mane wearing a yellow dress and pearl necklace. Her golden eyes widened when she saw the Captain of the Royal Guard at her door with some strange mare. She raised a hoof to her chest as heart sped up, fearing this Pegasus might have some grievance with her.

“We’re sorry to bother you ma’am,” Shining began. “But, I’m afraid you and your family will need to pack up whatever essentials you own and evacuate the city.”

“I…’evacuate’?” The mare repeated, her heart began to pound harder. “Why? What’s wrong? Are we in danger?”

“We don’t have reason to believe so at this immediate moment, however that could very easily change in a few days and Princess Celestia wants to ensure the safety of Canterlot’s citizens.” Shining continued. “We will send word out when we are certain that it is safe to return.”

The mare swallowed weakly before slowly closing the door.

“Think she’ll be alright?” Dash asked nervously.

“Hard to say,” Shining replied, truthfully. “While dealing with emergencies, we try to prevent causing panic-people become unreasonable and erratic when they panic in times of crisis.”

“That’s why you guys are trained to act like statues?” Dash asked.

“Partly yeah, keeping us stoic like that to the public eye is essential to keeping citizens calm.” He continued as they headed to the next home. “I mean, if we lost our cool in the middle of some major catastrophe-it really wouldn’t inspire much confidence in those we were trying to protect, would it?”

“Good point,” Dash agreed. “Hey, do you think you could teach me to be like that?”

“Maybe…but, why would you want to learn that?” Shining asked. “I mean, you’re not a guard and it really stifles social interaction for us on duty-what would you need to use it for?”

Dash stopped as she let out a sigh.

“Guess, you’ll find out sooner or later…” she muttered, lowering her head. “I…have this thing-I’m always worried about what others think of me-if they don’t think I’m cool, then I feel like I’m nothing. If I can learn not to care about stuff like you guys, then maybe it’ll stop bothering me…”

“Dash…I don’t think you fully understand the concept.” Shining replied. “Just because we act like nothing bothers us on the outside doesn’t mean we aren’t thinking or feeling anything-we’re just trained to give off the impression that we can’t be rattled. I mean, we’re trained to handle more pressure for dealing with intense situations, but we’re still thinking and feeling things the whole time.”

“If it really bothers you that much, why don’t you talk to someone about it-like a therapist?” He pressed, noting her dismayed expression.

“Because I’m not crazy!” Dash growled defensively as her wings flared.

“I never said you were.” Shining continued, calmly. “I’ve had a few friends who went to therapy during difficult times in their lives-and they were all completely sane…are you afraid your friends will think less of you if you talk to someone?”

Dash averted her gaze.

“Look, I can’t speak for your other friends, but I’m pretty sure Twily wouldn’t judge you…and it wouldn’t make me think any less of you. But, ultimately it’s your choice-I’m just throwing it out there to try and help you out if others’ opinions bother you that much. I became a guard because that’s what I wanted to do, not because I felt like I was obligated to do it or because I wanted recognition for it-it was something I wanted to do since I was a kid and it’s something that I’m proud of.”

“Maybe…” Dash murmured. “I-I just need some time to think about it, we should probably get back to evacuating everyone.”

Shining nodded as they continued on their way.

---

“I’m actually a little surprised you wanted to come with me.” Flash admitted as Sunset walked alongside him.

“Staying in the castle would get pretty boring after a while, besides it’s nice to get some fresh air.” She replied nonchalantly. “…And if possible, it would be nice to help prevent the Changelings from killing anymore innocent civilians.”

Flash fell into an awkward silence, glancing around the street. While there were more shops in Canterlot than most towns in Equestria, that didn’t prevent a few street vendors from peddling their wares in an attempt to catch potential customers before they reached the bigger, fancier shops. After the first Changeling attack, however, there were significantly less vendors and citizens roaming the streets when they weren’t shopping for necessities or going to or from their workplaces after realizing they weren’t as safe as they’d originally thought.

“Well, whatever your reasons-I appreciate the company.” Flash replied, trying to get into a conversation again as the silence was starting to get to him. “It’s kind of depressing, being the one who has to pretty much kick people out of their homes-I mean, I know it’s for their own safety, but still…”

“We haven’t had any real problems so far.” Sunset pointed out. “Besides, given how empty Canterlot’s been lately, I doubt we’ll get much argument in the next stop, either. The only ones we might have a problem with are some of the elitist snobs my parents were always trying to impress-might be why I had such a crappy childhood, despite their wealth.”

Flash glanced at her awkwardly.

“Don’t get me wrong, I realize some of these families are decent enough, but when you only see the bad ones growing up, it kind of paints a certain picture in your mind and affects your opinion on them in general. That again, I guess I’m not really one to talk after building an empire on drugs and blood money, I still have more Bits than I’ll ever know what to do with.” She mused. “I know it sounds like I blame my parents for everything that’s gone wrong with my life, but I really do realize that I’m pretty screwed up myself-every decision I’ve made in my life up until now is a testament to that.”

“Well this next home should be our last stop.” Flash commented.

No longer distracted by her self-contemplation, Sunset returned to the present and cursed under her breath for not recognizing the route they had been taking.

The home itself appeared to be some sort of mansion, as it was quite large with a healthy lawn and a large fountain with an Alicorn statue in the center, standing on its hind legs with its wings outspread and head raised with water spouting from its horn before falling back down to pool into the fountain below. The home itself was white with a yellow-gold roof with a violet trim in an attempt to emulate the design of Canterlot Castle. It was sealed off by a golden gate with small spires. As a filly, before being accepted into Celestia’s school, Sunset always thought of them as prison bars, keeping her stuck with her neglectful and exploitative parents.

Flash had already ventured ahead and pushed the gate open before realizing that Sunset had fallen behind before looking back to her. She was standing in the same spot, staring at the mansion. Hadn’t she just said that she didn’t have a problem helping him evacuate everyone?

“What’s wrong?” he asked, his voice filled with concern as he slowly returned to her side.

“This is my parents’ place.” Sunset replied grimly.

“Oh.” Flash uttered, fearing that he made a major faux pas. “Sorry, you can wait out here if you want and I can talk to them myself…”

“No, I need to do this.” Sunset replied, determined as she made her way to the front door. “This has been a long time coming.”

She knocked the violet door until it slowly opened to reveal a Unicorn mare with a cream cot with a lighter shade of cream in her mane, which had been tied back into a bun. The mare was wearing a turquoise dress with diamond earrings. The features that helped Flash confirm that she was a relative were her tail, curled in the same manner as Sunset’s and her eyes, which were exactly the same as her daughter’s.

“Glint!” Eventide called out uncertainly, upon seeing her estranged and disowned daughter on her doorstep with a member of the Royal Guard.

A Unicorn stallion with a yellow-orange coat and a fiery red mane with a lock of hair dangling next to his horn came down the stairs wearing a beige tuxedo with a black bow tie and the chain of a pocket watch swaying as he moved towards the door. His body size was not quite lanky as some stallions of Flash had seen, but he wasn’t quite a bulked up powerhouse, either but still larger than Flash himself. Glint’s initial look of annoyance turned into one of disgust as his icy blue eyes glared at his daughter.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, coldly before seeing Flash standing next to her, wearing his armor.

“Oh,” Glint turned to Flash. “You must be the one who caught her-she’s no daughter of ours if you’re looking for compensation for whatever else she’s done.”

“Actually, sir-I’m here to instruct you and your wife to evacuate.” Flash informed him.

Glint narrowed his gaze back at Sunset.

“Then why is she here with you? Wait…she probably spun some kind of story to get you to kick us out, didn’t she?” He pressed, eyeing them both suspiciously.

“What!? No, trust me the Changeling threat is very real…don’t you remember the attack last week?” Flash asked.

“Yeah, or maybe she’s taking advantage of everyone’s fears to suit herself.” Glint replied, indignantly. “We wasted years of our lives raising her, giving every possible advantage in life, even got her into Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. But, when she got to study under Celestia herself, what did she do? She pissed it all away!”

“All the two of you ever did was exploit me to increase your own social standing!” Sunset retorted. “The only times you ever treated me like you cared about me was to keep up the façade of a loving family so you could reap the benefits. The only time I interacted with other kids was when you forced me to, so the social elites of this city might hit off with you and give you a few favors for entertaining their spoiled brats.”

“Even if that was true, it wouldn’t have mattered,” Glint growled. “All you did was fight with them and disgrace our family name-something you’ve become quite adept at.”

“Yeah, too bad I didn’t have any decent role models.” Sunset spat.

“It didn’t seem to stop you from spitting Celestia’s face, either.” Glint continued. “The fact that she’s willing to have a member of her guard associate himself with you is quite disappointing. Some of us have a sense of self-respect and realize that public perception is important-it’s a shame that even royalty can fail to understand that.”

“Perhaps, Celestia has no knowledge of this and the boy is just sweet on her?” Eventide chimed in, taking Flash completely off-guard.

“Shut up, Eve.” Sunset growled. “Even if we did have feelings for each other, it would be more substantial than what the two of you have.”

“Why, whatever do you mean?”

“Please, even someone as lacking in social skills as I, was able to tell that your marriage is sham-and I was five.”

“It would make sense.” Glint grumbled. “Of course, she’d do that to us.”

“What does that mean?” Flash pressed.

“Running off with some cloud jockey and potentially poisoning our family’s-never mind.” He growled. “It doesn’t matter, she’s no longer a part of this family, anyway.”

“Well, it’s my job to inform Canterlot’s citizens of the evacuation and answer any questions they might have-Sunset volunteered to help me out.” Flash informed him.

“We’re not going anywhere.” Eventide stated, adamantly.

“That’s right,” Glint agreed. “This is our home, which we have built with our own money-even if these…things attack the city again-we’re not going to abandon everything we’ve worked for out of fear for what might happen.”

“You mean the money and power you’ve gained through lies, manipulation, and theft.” Sunset growled.

Glint glared at her once more as Eventide seemed anxious about the guard standing before them, hearing these accusations and watching this family dispute.

“Well, I can’t force the two of you to leave, but I strongly recommend it-since, it’s starting to look like things will get ugly.” Flash sighed.

“Obviously, that’s a risk we’re willing to take.” Glint grunted. “Now, if we’re done here?”

“Get off our property,” Eventide finished, pointing a hoof at Sunset. “This one’s damaged our hard-earned, respectable reputation more than enough for one lifetime-all just to spite us, after all we’ve done for her-it would be best for the two of you to leave before she gets violent.”

“Fine, I knew this would be a waste of time, anyway.” Sunset spat before turning to leave.

Flash watched Sunset heading back towards the gate and waited until she was out of earshot before turning back to her parents.

“I know you guys aren’t on the best terms, but she’s still your daughter and despite everything, she still came with me to talk to you.”

They both looked at him disdainfully before shutting the door in his face.

Flash turned around to see Sunset nearly to the gate before he galloped to catch up with her. What surprised him, was seeing Sunset’s head hung, when she appeared to be looking forward from behind. Despite their rock relationship, he was surprised this visit was affecting her in such a manner.

“You worried about them?” He asked.

“When I was a kid, all I wanted was for them to love me, to spend time with me-but, that only happened whenever they got something out of it.” She sighed. “It didn’t take long for me to catch onto their manipulations and I began to hate them for it…but, part of me still wanted them to love me, really love me-as pathetic as that sounds.”

“How is wanting your parents’ affection pathetic?”

“Because it’s outside the realm of the possibility for them to care about anyone other than themselves. And only an idiot would expect otherwise.” Sunset replied. “And the saddest part, is that despite all my contempt for them and their actions-I still turned out exactly like them. I’ve lied, manipulated, stole, and even killed. What right do I have to expect anything from anyone after all that?”

“Well, I can’t deny that you have certain….issues.” Flash conceded before placing a hoof on her back to comfort her. “But, you’ve been trying to better yourself-earlier, you stopped me from doing something incredibly stupid and you’re helping us save lives-so you can’t be that selfish. And the last time I checked, it was considered completely normal to crave affection from your family. Even if they don’t care about you, I do.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, I mean even though things have been a little rocky since we’ve met, but you’re still a better friend than most of the other guys in the guard.”

---

“Wait, I thought we were done evacuating everyone?” Dash asked as Shining Armor led her to a large white home with a yellow-gold roof, with a matching shade for a spark-like crest above the door.

“Didn’t we pass this place, earlier?” she pressed.

“Yes, and yes.” Shining replied, “But, we’re not evacuating the residents here-we’re taking them back to the castle with us.”

“Really? Why?”

Shining Armor knocked on the door before it swung open to reveal a Unicorn stallion with a dark, azure coat and a dark blue mane with amber eyes with a Cutie Mark of a cream crescent moon, with a smaller, inverted, white crescent moon within its arch. He was had a large, brown duffel bag, which he levitated, covered in a pale, blue magical aura. Behind him was a Unicorn mare who looked very similar to Twilight, with a light gray coat and mane with light violet streaks the back of which was curled, her eyes were arctic blue and instead of sparks, her Cutie Mark was of three light violet stars. She was carrying a violet duffel bag, which she was levitating, covered in a magenta aura.

“Wow that was fast.” Shining commented.

“Well, we started packing as soon as we got your letter, son.” Night Light replied.

“Wait, ‘son’?” Dash repeated. “These guys are your parents?”

“You must be Rainbow Dash, I’m Night Light-Twilight and Shining Armor’s father.” He introduced himself.

“And I am Twilight Velvet,” The mare introduced herself.

“Wait, how do you know who I am?”

“Well, you and your friends are twice-over national heroes, Shining and Twilight have been sending us letters every month and your mane is kind of a dead giveaway.” He chuckled.

“Well, you guys look way too young to be parents.” Dash continued.

“That’s very flattering of you to say, but Shining and Twilight really are our children.” Twilight Velvet replied, blushing.

“No, I’m serious, I thought Twilight had some twin sister that you guys forgot to tell me about.” Dash insisted.

Twilight Velvet blushed harder as Shining examined their bags.

“Well, we should probably be heading back to the castle-do you guys need any help with your bags?”

“No, we’ll be fine.” Night Light replied, confidently as Twilight Velvet closed the door behind her.

“So, Twilight says that you have a taste for adventure novels?” Night Light asked, Dash as she began flying slightly above their heads as they began heading back down the road to the castle.

“Well, yeah I-wait, which Twilight?” Dash asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, there’s your daughter, Twilight Sparkle and who I assume is your wife, Twilight Velvet-I mean, it’s kinda hard to know who you’re talking about unless you refer to them with their full names.” She pointed out.

“Twilight Sparkle, our daughter in Ponyville,” he clarified. “But, yeah it can get pretty confusing-so, I just got used to calling her Velvet around the time Twilight was born, so as not to confuse anyone-it’s just been a while since both she and Shining have moved out, so we’ve gotten used to treating each other the way we had back when we were dating.”

Shining Armor shuddered at the thought.

“He brought it up because I write adventure novels for a living.” Velvet continued. “You like the Daring Do books, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve read the whole series like eight times waiting for the next one because the idiot who’s supposed to be writing it is taking forever.” Dash growled, bitterly.

“You do realize that most authors actual have lives and families outside of their writing?” Velvet asked.

“Yeah, I guess…so why are you guys coming back to the castle with us, instead of evacuating with everyone else?”

“Because we’re not abandoning our children, while they stay behind and potentially risk their lives fighting off hordes of bloodthirsty shapeshifting monsters.”

Dash cast a side-glance at Shining Armor and murmured.

“Are they going to be fighting with us or…?”

“If it comes to that, they’ll be staying in the castle and out of harm’s way.” He replied, quietly.

Comments

[Rainbow87dash]

Why doesn't Sunset just burn her parents and their mansion? She could blame it on changelings...hehehe

[Sarged]

“Yeah, I’ve read the whole series like eight times waiting for the next one because the idiot who’s supposed to be writing it is taking forever.” Dash growled, bitterly.

So Daring Do is an idiot and should be risking her life more for your entertainment. Is that right Dash.
LOL