The Other Side of the Law

by Herr Director

Grim News

Today seemed like a perfect day for Shining Armor. Everything seemed to go his way. Shining Armor sat in his office in the Royal Barracks. Since tensions with the Gryphon Empire were rather high at the time, his troops were all at the front lines, where all seemed peaceful. In fact, the only two ponies in the Barracks at the time was him and Flash Sentry, who had earned some downtime and was helping him type his resignation letter. Flash had just stepped out for some air, and Shining was alone to his thoughts. He looked over his office. Behind him was a cabinet housing all his medals and various war artifacts. Two racks stood in the corner, one for his dress uniform, and one for his battle armor, which like his namesake, was polished immaculately. His desk was clear of all things except a mostly empty bowl of apples, a picture of his mom, dad, and sister, his typewriter, and one of his marefriend. Princess Cadence sat in the corner of his desk, smiling at him every day.

Soon my dear, he thought as he gazed at this picture. Soon I will propose to you, and we will be wed as Mare and Colt. Sadly, this would not be the case. Flash Sentry burst through his door.

"Sir!" He gasped, stopping in front of his desk. "I have bad news!" Shining stood up. This sounded really serious, and he did not take serious things lightly.

"What is it?" he ordered. "Are the Gryphons attacking?" Flash shook his head quickly.

"No, it's worse sir." Flash Sentry panted out. Shining said nothing, his eyes silently begged the corporal to continue. "It's your marefriend sir. She's disappeared." Shining Armor's mouth moved, but he was deprived of words. Finally, he found his voice.

"What did you say?" Flash looked down.

"Princess Cadence has disappeared." he said, his voice grim. "Nopony knows what happened to her, or where she is. She's gone... sir." Shining's brain was reeling. Never could he have imagined that such a staple figure of his life would just up and vanish. He took a few deep breaths, silently shaming himself for looking unprofessional in front of a lower rank.

"I... I need to see Princess Celestia." Shining said, stumbling slightly toward the door. On his way out, he looked back. "Don't you dare touch anything." And with that, he shut the door. Flash Sentry was rather disappointed with that last statement. That dress uniform sure looked fancy.

I bet that would look great on me, Flash thought as he looked hungrily towards the uniform. What the Captain doesn't know, won't hurt him...

Shining Armor galloped through the halls of the palace. A few staircases and turns later, he arrived at the imposing double doors that led to the Throne Room. Fortunately, The Solar Court, for once, was not busy that day.

Lucky me, Shining thought. No wait. Especially since this matter cannot wait. He opened the doors and stepped inside. The large throne room had few ponies besides the guards and advisers. More importantly though, at the end sat Princess Celestia. She smiled as Shining approached her.

"Good day, Captain," she greeted. "I take it you have heard the news." She sounded remarkably calm, given that her niece had just vanished off the face of Equis.

Shining bowed out of courtesy. "Indeed I have," he replied, regaining his respectful demeanor. "With your permission, I would like to gather a platoon to mount a Search and Rescue for Princess Cadence." He made his goals straight and to the point. No sense in beating around the bush. However, the princess looked on him with pity.

"Captain Armor," she began. "I know that you and Cadence were very close, but you know as well as I do that we simply do not have the stallionpower to do such a thing." Shining frowned, for he knew she was right. Most of the troops who would be normally off-duty were out protecting the east border from the Gryphons.

"Well..." he said, thinking, "What about Prince Blueblood's soldiers? Are they not available?" The princess looked again with pity.

"I've already asked him," she sighed. "My nephew says he needs his troops on guard, and they cannot stray from the duties he provides. It pains me to say this, but we cannot mount a rescue operation at this time." Shining hung his head, down trodden.

"Oh." was all he could muster. "Okay, I see. Please forgive me for wasting your time princess." He left without another word from either of them.

When Shining arrived back at his office he slumped down in his chair. Even when Flash Sentry came back from his bathroom wearing his dress uniform, he did not sound angry, only defeated.

"Just hang it back on the rack Corporal." he mumbled. Then he did something very uncharacteristic of the proud Captain. Shining Armor threw back his head and cried. Tears flowed from his eyes, and sad, hopeless wails came from his mouth. He did not care that Flash was still in the room, he did not care that he had tried on his dress uniform, he did not care about anything. He just cried. After a few minutes, Flash brought him a tissue, which he made good use of. Flash felt like he should say something to comfort his superior and friend, but nothing came to his mind. So he just sat and waited.

By this point, Shining had moved from full blown crying to quiet weeping. He turned to his subordinate.

"That's that," he sobbed. "There aren't enough troops to save her. We will have to wait weeks before we'll have enough, and by then... it will be too late."

Flash put his hoof on the officer's shoulder. "Don't worry sir," he assured. "We'll figure something out." Shining looked up at him, his eyes red and irritated.

"I'm glad you want to help me," he said. "But just you and me won't cut it."

"Don't give up sir." Flash said. "There's still hope. We'll find a way. You always find a way."

That way came in the form of the apple salespony who filled up the bowl of fruit on Shining's desk once a week. The red farm pony trotted up to the desk with a small pail of apples and dumped them in. the bowl. Shining opened a drawer to get out the money he owed the stallion, only to be stopped by a red and blond furred hoof.

"I hear you're in a tight spot." The pony said. His voice was low and thickly accented. "I think I know somepony who can help you." Shining's ears perked up. He gave the stallion his full undivided attention.

"What's he talking about sir?" Flash asked, confused.

"Could you step outside for a moment Corporal?" Shining replied. It wasn't a question. Flash did as he was told, and left the two other stallions in none but each others company.

"Let me tell you something," the stallion leaned in closer, his voice dropping lower until it was just above a whisper, and Shining could smell the apples on his breath. "Dead-shot still lives."

Shining was taken aback. "But, he's been dead for two years!"

The stallion merely chuckled. "Eeyup. Funny how some ponies jump to conclusions so fast." He took a piece of paper out of his saddlebag. "You got two days." he stated firmly. "Take his offer, or leave it." And with that, he left the room as Flash re-entered.

"What was that all about?" he asked. However, Shining didn't look up from the paper the stallion had given to him. On that paper was an address in Fillydelphia, with a place to meet the mysterious individual. When he finally did, the captain had a determined look in his eye.

"Lucky you Corporal," he said. "You may be able to help me yet. Pack your bags. We're going to Fillydelphia."

Author's Note:

Who is the mysterious Dead-shot? Find out next chapter in "The Other Side of the Law"

Though my main focus now is the Edward Lawton Chronicles, I will update this little story from time to time. An idea I had a while back will now come to light on paper! As usual, please enjoy the story and leave constructive feedback!

Comments

[Night Frost]

Nice story so far. Great idea. I hope you update a lot.

[Herr Director]

As I said, my main focus will be "The Edward Lawton Chronicles" but in between releasing chapters for that, I will update this story. You can probably expect at least the second chapter to be out this week, since I won't be updating ELC until the weekend.