The Veins Run Deep

by Thunderblast

The Royal Guard

Bloodvein laid in bed with his eyes wide open late at night. His eyes were somewhat bloodshot from the lack of sleep, with his golden pupils circumcised to about the size of ping-pong balls. To his side lay Halberd, who was out cold and snoring quietly, facing the opposite direction of the grey pegasus.

Blood slowly looked over at him, somewhat jealous of him being able to sleep, but desperately wanting out. His mane was extremely messy, as was some of his coat, and they both smelled of something Blood couldn't explain, but he knew it wasn't what he wanted to smell like. His body also felt strange, and found a slight struggle to move his hind legs without feeling like he was leaking something out his rear end. Blood then raised his head enough to peek over the slumbering unicorn, seeing his alarm clock read four twenty-five in the morning. He yawned quietly, then slowly and carefully removed the blankets from atop him and begun to wiggle out of bed.

He stopped once when he heard Halberd no longer snoring and fake-slept long enough to make sure he wasn't awake and watching him. The unicorn then turned over onto his back, now snoring louder with his hooves at his sides above the blankets. Blood breathed a sigh of relief, and finished climbing out of the bed, then quietly walked over to the shut bedroom door. He grabbed the knob and tried to twist it, but discovered it wouldn't budge.

“Locked,” he mumbled. Blood set his hoof back down and looked around the dark room. Thanks to his enhanced vision, he spotted a window with the curtains mostly shut, facing out onto a narrow street where a lamp flickered and needed changed. He soundlessly walked up to the window and moved the curtains which waved slightly in the cool breeze, then realized the window was cracked open. “Jackpot.” Blood mumbled again, smiling some. He slowly opened the window, which creaked loud enough to wake a not-so heavy sleeper, but once again he was lucky to know Halberd was a heavy sleeper and was out cold still.

Once he had finished opening the window, the breeze blew through his messy mane, forcing it to bounce a centimeter or two. A cold chill from the sudden breeze went up his spine as it swept through his thin but warm coat, and Blood turned his head and stared at the unicorn for a few moments. Sure, he took him in and gave him a bed to sleep in for who knows how long until he got rid of him, unless he was planning to later on but got too tired and fell asleep, and he fed him warm food...but he couldn't stay to be a pleasure pony, which still scarred his mind freshly. Blood turned back and sighed, then took flight out the window and left it wide open, Halberd still completely oblivious.

Blood was homeless once more. He needed a change, and fast. Luckily, he knew where he was sleeping the weeks before meeting the unicorn, and flew back to it. Nothing had changed, the alley was still cold and his blanket and box were still there where he had left them. He smiled again, then curled up on the blanket in a final attempt to sleep that night. Instead, something in his mind kept him wide awake, with his heart still beating faster than it should be. Blood was thankful to have escaped the unicorn, but was back in a depression, knowing he had no real place to call home again. He was again ready to give up, and thought it might be best to go back home.

As the sun rose a couple of long hours later, ponies started to flood the streets again as they started their commute to work. Blood surrendered and gave up trying to fall asleep, moving his box and standing back up weakly and shaking the dirt off of his back. He walked out of the alley, cleaner-looking than he had been during his unfortunate time in Canterlot.

He, however, noticed something new. He trotted up to a building across the street after noticing a pony put up a colored poster of what appeared to be an alicorn princess, with a large sun in the background, smiling and looking down on a one-dimensional view of the world, with Equestria in dead-center, and other landmasses on the sides that he couldn't specify without reading some books.

Then, on the right side facing the world picture were three angled stallions; the larger and closer one was white, the one in the middle was a grey unicorn, and the furthest was once again white with another unknown race, all wearing magnificent golden armor. The two white stallions had blue manes, while the unicorn had a white-grey mixed mane on his helmet. Above all, there was a short description.

"Equestrian Royal Guard, Recruiting Now! Protect the princess and all, with the honor of you. Enlist Today!"

Blood didn't get the last part, minus the 'Enlist Today!', but it intrigued him. It reminded him of Fang Legion, but he knew the Royal Guard was twenty times bigger. He thought for a few moments as he stared blankly at the poster, then his ears perked and he trotted off. He searched and searched, looking for the nearest recruiting station.

Eventually, he found one. It was a grey stone two-story tall building with pillars on the front, with the rest of the front being all glass. Above the door was a sign, showing a white pegasus stallion in the same armor as the poster standing on his hind legs with his forelegs held out one in front of the other. On the right side stood a dark grey unicorn wearing purple and dark blue armor with sharper edges on the chestplate. Above both stallions, were the sun and moon, the sun being over the golden-armored pegasus and the crescent-shaped moon hanging over the dark-armored unicorn.

Blood took a slight inhale and casually trotted inside. Instead of the appearance of the outside, the building was all one story except at the back, where a round staircase sat to the side of a wooden desk. At the desk sat a pegasus stallion in the same golden armor as the poster and the sign, facing down and doing what appeared to be paperwork with a quill and ink. Blood stopped halfway up to the desk, and begun to tremble a bit when he realized the pony was bigger than him. Again, he took an inhale, this time deeper, and trotted up to the working pegasus with his chest puffed out some. The pony didn't initially notice, and Blood cleared his throat to grab his attention. The pony then looked up at Blood. "Here to enlist?"

Blood nodded. "Yes sir, I am."

The pony briefly noticed Blood's fangs as he spoke, leaning closer a few inches while staying seated and squinting his eyes. The stallion then lifted a mug of coffee and stared down into it, then dumped it into a trash can on the side of the desk. Afterwards, he set the mug down and scrambled some papers, then lifted a clipboard with some of them on it, and a pencil. "Finish that, then bring it back to me and we'll get started." He smiled lightly, but kept a serious look on his face.

Blood nodded again, then took the pencil and clipboard. He trotted over to a chair and sat down on it, then went over the long three papers of blank lines following questions. After reading, he went back to the first page and started writing quickly. Instead of writing his name, he wrote down 'Night Shadow' instead to avoid raising a few eyebrows.

He then wrote down his age, seventeen, his gender, which apparently wasn't obvious enough but he didn't care, then his home town which he put down as Vanhoover, which was almost accurate but was still a lie, then other questions before standing up and bringing the pencil and clipboard back to the stallion, who he assumed was a royal guard. Bloodvein stood where he was as the guard went over the papers. A minute later, the guard set down the clipboard and put his hooves together, staring straight at Bloodvein while crouched down some and raised an eyebrow, nodding slightly as he looked over the pony. "You sure you're guard material?"

"Yes sir."

"Do you think you will pass training and become a guard?"

"Yes sir..."

"DO YOU THINK YOU ARE TOUGH ENOUGH TO BE WORTHY TO GUARD THE PRINCESS?!"

"Y-yes sir!"

"Good," the guard smiled. "You're in. Training begins tomorrow. For now, I need you to come with me."

"What for, sir?"

The guard stood and snorted a bit. "You want a bed to sleep in, don't you?"

Comments

[SageBrony07]

I wish that Blood would have kicked that pony in the tenders. Man. That sucked he became a pleasure pony. I'm glad he is a royal guard. It does look like Luna is back then. Also great job with him using his persona name. The next chapters are gonna be good. I can feel it. Thanks for the update.

[Thunderblast]

5308172 Hehe, no problem! Yep, this is the start of a new chapter in his life! The next chapter however, someone new is introduced, or should I say two?

[SageBrony07]

5308183 I think those two are in the tags of this story. I do hope they become friends. I do hope Blood sees sky eventually and they reconcile. I don't think that will be soon, but I hope you do write that.

[Snowfyre]

sorta odd that he ran away from enlisting, only to enlist anyway

[Thunderblast]

5308508 Yes, but when he ran away, he was angered that his father was forcing him to when he already got a job. The only reason he enlisted in the guard was because he was running out of options (and time probably).

[Paladin Redflare]

FASTEST RECRUITMENT EVER. And now Night Shadow moves onwards... to a great future.

[Thunderblast]

5310406 He still has to pass training :p Enlisting is easy, the hard part is training.

[Thunderblast]

5308195 I made an error, NEXT chapter is when two new ponies are introduced.

[SageBrony07]

5333603 Okay. I can't wait to see who those ponies are. I do hope the update comes soon.

[Thunderblast]

5333663 I'm thinking either this week, or this weekend.

[SageBrony07]

5333679 Okay. Good luck.

[Kestrel]

Pretty light screening process. Though I suppose it is Equestria.