A Hero Goes Unrewarded
“Are you sure you don’t need anything?” Auntie Celestia asked for the fourth time that morning.
“Auntie,” I said, trying not to speak through my teeth, "I’ll be fine. As always.” I said the last part under my breath.
It’s my bad luck that she heard me. “Oh, well, if you don’t appreciate me, I can always cut your allowance a bit—“
“Did I ever mention what a lovely and kind ruler you are?”
“You can say that more often,” She grinned devilishly back at me. “Now then, I have an important meeting, so I won’t be seeing you tonight. You may hang out with your friends, but I don’t want to hear you going outside of Canterlot. Am I clear?”
“Crystal,” I nodded vigorously.
Auntie Celestia sighed. “Alright, take care, Mi Amore Cadenza, I love you.”
She didn’t give me a chance to respond before she took off, but I managed an, “I love you too, Auntie,” before she got out of earshot.
Looking at a nearby mirror, I tripled checked my mane before I walked through the school halls where I was immediately greeted by my group of noble and rich friends.
“Hey, Cadence,” My best friend, Dollar Sign, waved at me.
“Hey, girl,” I waved back at her, noticing her coat green was shining brighter than usual. “You seem refreshed.”
“Oh yeah.” She nodded as she flashed her freshly groomed white coat and golden dollar sign cutie mark. “New help! Much better than that last batch.”
I nodded. “Well, no point in letting some bad help get you down.”
“Yeah.” She smirked, and looked at something over my shoulder. “Oh hi, Buck.”
I blushed and turned to stare at one particular yellow colt among my cousin Blueblood’s group of friends—Buck.
I blinked at him.
He pointed a hoof at me and wiinked back while I giggled like an idiot.
As I started to fantasize about our first date, my daydream was interrupted by a large mass of blue that shoved its way past me.
The retard of the C.S.F.G.U. halls—Billy. I’m sure he has a real name, but I could have cared less. A dumb cot who probably doesn't know what two pulse two is, let alone proper manners, including not bump into ponies. Especially Princesses.
“Hey, you retard!” I shouted. "Watch where you’re going!”
He stopped dead in his tracks as the girls backed away.
I rolled my eyes at the thought that they believed the rumors. Even if they were true, nopony could have been dumb enough to attack a Princess.
Before I could go on, the second most annoying pony in the school spoke "Is that really necessary?” Shining Armor protested as he came between us.
I groaned. Ponies knew Shinning Armor well enough. A goody-hoofshoes who had no friends—unless you counted geeks—that loved to ruin our fun.
My attention shifted from Billy, who had continued down the hall, to Shining Armor.
“Excuse me,” I said, “is that anyway to address a Princess?”
“No,” Shining said, without missing a beat, “but it is the way to speak to a bully and a spoiled brat.”
The girls gasped. I heard from the occasional gossip that this colt wasn’t afraid to stand up to ponies, but to me, a Princess, that threw me for a loop.
“Well,” once I thought of something clever enough to say. I replied, “At least I’m not a snitch with no life what-so-ever.”
My friends nodded in approval as Shining got ready to say something, only to be stopped when Blueblood and his friends—including Buck—walked up behind him.
“Cousin,” he began as he attempted to hover over Shining Armor, only to come a few inches shorter than the necessary height to look intimidating, "is this commoner causing you any trouble?”
The school bell range.
“Not this time, Bluey,” I assured and looked back at Shining Armor. “But you better learn your place. Don’t think I’ll let you go so easily next time. You got that, commoner?”
His lack of offense made my blood boil. “Fine, if you lot want to pick on a pony, pick on me instead of some poor innocent colt.” He walked past me, and for a second, I swore he considered bumping into me. However, he proved to have some common sense by letting it go and walking off.
Was I worried? Was I thinking about ways to get back at him?
No. To be honest, I could care less.
“Seriously,” Buck said as he gave Shining Armor one last nasty glare, “they’ll let anypony into this school nowadays. You okay, my Princess?”
I giggled and turned beet red. “Oh he’s nothing, guys. Honestly, if we let everypony like him offend us, then we have no right to be considered nobles.”
“You got that right.” Dollar Sign nodded.
The warning bell rang.
I headed to class with nothing more on my mind other than how I was going to get Bits ask me to the Fall Solstice Dance.
*****
The first couple of classes came and went. Before I knew it, it was lunch time.
“You and Blue, huh?” I teased Dollar Sign as we trotted along.
“Oh yeah. Like, that isn’t a problem, is it, Mi Amore?”
“Oh stop calling me that,” I snapped. “However, if he gets it through his thick head, he’ll ask you out. I mean, what’s not to like about you? Noble, white coat, perfect purple mane, rich, and the second most popular girl in school.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Second?”
I unfolded my wings. “Sorry, Darling, Princess, remember?”
“You’re right,” she grumbled as I smiled in satisfaction. “Which makes it all the more surprising that Buck hasn’t asked you to be his special somepony yet.”
My wings drooped. “Oh, he’ll ask. He’s just a bit nervous with me being a Princess and all.”
The girls laughed along with me.
We were about to discuss who the rest of my friends wanted to ask out when we heard a loud crash from the lunch line.
Spinning our heads towards the source, we saw Shining Armor had his face planted into his tray. Underneath him, a magical aura had dissipated from a broom as my cousin’s horn went out.
Even then, Shining Armor’s reaction baffled my mind, and sort of impressed me to be honest. He simply picked himself up, levitated what little food he could salvage, and trotted off as if nothing happened.
As I got into the line, I began to think of how to get a reaction out of the dweeb.
“I think you’ll have to try a lot harder to get a response out of that one.” I teased the boys as the girls and I levitated our trays in front of us.
“Oh?" Blueblood asked as he took a bite out of his apple. "And what would you suggest?”
“Well, I was thinking,” I said as I picked out some egg salad with extra mayo, “one of us asks him out to the dance.” I snickered at all of their reactions as I levitated a plate of blueberries onto my tray. “We get him into thinking that the one who asked him really likes him. Then, on the night of the dance, we egg him.”
Buck patted me on my back. “Oh that is brilliant, Baby!”
I blushed at my new nickname.
“You should be the one to do it!”
My blush vanished. “What? Why me? He’d never fall for it.”
“It was your idea,” Dollar pointed out.
My friends nodded in agreement.
I gritted my teeth. “Fine, I’ll think about it. But one of you better be ready to pull the weight when he—”
I didn’t finish as a familiar blue coat bumped by me again. Only this time, I had my tray in front of me when Billy shoved past.
His shove resulted in everything—save the soda which had a bottle cap on it—smearing into my coat.
Billy didn’t even blink, and would have kept on walking if I hadn’t screamed. Everypony —including Billy—feel silent and stared at me.
“You…you…” I felt my blood boil. “You stupid, worthless, mass of a retarded colt! Do you know what it’s going to cost me to get even half of this junk out of me, you idiot!”
He stared blankly at me.
“For a Princess,” I explained slowly, “it'll be more than your family will make in a year!”
Billy begin to whimper.
“Oh you are so lucky this didn’t happen two thousand years ago. I could have you and your retarded family locked up for a year, at least. I swear,” I said as I pointed a hoof at him, “you are the most worthless piece of flesh that has ever roamed the Earth!”
My rant was interrupted by the least surprising of sources.
“That seems a bit extreme,” Shining Armor said, breaking the rest of the cafeteria’s silence.
“Oh yeah?” I levitated my soda bottle, giving it a few strong shakes in my magic. “I say you two deserve lot more than this, you commoner!"
I aimed the top of the bottle at Shinning and pried open the cap.
Shining Armor only got a light mist, hardly wetting his coat. The majority of the drink I aimed at Billy, completely soaking him in the sticky liquid.
Once the bottle was emptied, my mind did a backflip as Shining Armor not only dared to call me out in it, but also gave me a light punch to the shoulder.
“What’s the matter with you?” he asked with a glare.
As everypony around me gasped, I was left speechless. Nopony in their right mind would ever punch a member of the Royal Family. Not even a punch that barely glazed my shoulder.
I was about to threaten him with banishment, with every intent to carry it out, when a much larger hoof struck me between the eyes and sent me hurtling towards the wall.
Head spinning, all I was able to register was a trickle of blood that ran down my snout and the audacity that somepony would punch me.
Before I could cry in pain, Billy charged at me with the most inequine howl I had ever heard.
He was certainly scary enough in his pent up rage to get all my supposed friends to run for the hills, leaving me to my doom.
Before he could flatten me, a purple shield came up between us. When Billy made contact, I noticed another colt in front of me wincing in pain. The shield faltered, but held strong.
I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move. I wasn’t even sure if i was thinking straight.
After what felt like hours of the colt pounding away at the shield, I noticed all three of us were wrapped into magic bubbles. Shining and I were pulled away. Billy broke free of his, only to have an army of teachers wrestle him to the ground.
We on the other hoof, were levitated in front of a less-than-pleased headmistress.
“You two!” She pointed towards the hall. “My office. Now!”
I protested “But I—”
“NOW!”
Stunned by how many ponies had done unthinkable things towards me, I relented and moved.
Before I disappeared around the halls, I turned around expecting all my friends to come to my rescue.
To my horror, not a single one of them was behind me.
*****
Shining Armor and I sat in our principal office for hours—literally this time. Not knowing who would fetch me or what my Auntie would say to me tonight.
I rubbed my nose.
It had healed by then, but was still throbbing.
Though, the wait and pain might have been bearable, if it wasn’t for the colt sitting right next to me, awaiting the same fate.
The penalty for getting into a fight with anypony was suspension at the very least. With a commoner, the punishment could be much worse.
I knew I wasn’t going to get into any serious trouble, but I also knew he didn’t have a title to protect him.
Foolishly, I tried to make myself feel better by telling myself that he was defending me and wouldn't be severely punished. However, as the hours ticked by, I couldn’t help but worry that he was going to get suspended for what he had done.
I mentally slapped myself for even caring about what would happen. He wasn’t my problem.
Not that I wouldn’t vouch for him, I owed him that much. Yet, he didn’t deserve to be here in the first place. Shining Armor had every right to let Billy beat me into a pulp. I couldn’t deny that. He chose to put himself in harm’s way, just for me.
“Why did you do it?” I eventually asked.
He looked at me with a tilted head. “Do what?”
I huffed. “Oh you know what! Tried to save me! Any smart pony would have left me at the mercy of that brute after how I treated them.”
He rubbed a hoof on his chin. “The longer I sit here, the better that idea sounds.”
My jaw dropped. “So you would have let a member of the Royal Family, a Princess no-less, die?”
He chuckled.
I felt my blood boil.
"Of course not,” he said.” I doubt I would have let him kill you even if I wanted to.”
Again, I was taken aback when he implied he didn’t want to.
I narrowed my eyes, only for them to fly open as he raised his flank into the air.
“I think we got time. Want to hear how I got my cutie mark?”
With nothing else to do, I shrugged. “Sure.”
“My little sister had just been born, and mom thought it would be a good idea to take me shopping to teach me how to shop for foal supplies if she ever got too busy one weekend. We were halfway done with shopping when we heard a scream down the aisle. A nasty looking stallion with a knife had just run off with a pregnant mare’s purse. Without even thinking about it, I stepped in front of the stallion and used my newly discovered shield talent to immobilize the thief. He was arrested right away, and the mare thanked me, saying what a brave stallion I was.”
“When we got home that night, I told my dad what had happened.” He smiled. “Oh, was he proud of me. Even to this day he still talks about how proud he was of me. The next thing I know, my cutie mark appeared and we had the biggest cutecsinera we could afford.”
I stayed silent for a moment once he finished, I looked at my own cutie mark and groaned. “Nice backstory, I suppose. Although, why’d you put yourself in harms way for something that wasn’t your problem?"
He shook his head and laughed some more. “I guess if it was before, I wouldn’t have done anything to be honest. However, when it happened, I noticed that the mare was pregnant and I though: What if that had been my mom or Twily?”
I raised an eyebrow before I figured out who Twily must be.
After taking a moment to inhale, Shining Armor went on. “After that, and after my father told me how proud he was, I vowed to do the right thing no matter what.” He gave another laugh. “Though, just my luck... The very next day a bunch of colts put cake batter in my locker for telling on them when they picked on one of my friends.”
Goosebumps ran up my spine as I remembered cheering Buck and Blueblood on when they did that.
“So then, why help me?” I asked with my head down. “Why save somepony who causes the problems?”
He looked right at me. “Because even if I had time to think and question whether you were worth saving, I would have stopped him from beating you up anyways. Why? Because like my father taught me, we don’t do the right things for personal gain or because sompony deserves it. We do it because it is right. If we’re rewarded, great. If not, oh well. In the end, we get rewarded with the knowledge that our actions made a difference and there’s one less pony in need of stitches.”
His eyes didn’t break contact with mine, but they narrowed. “I could have let Billy do away with you, hospitalize you and such as your so-called friends seemed to have done.”
I cringed.
“Yet, even somepony as horrible as you doesn’t deserve whatever fate he would have dished out to you. Now, I get to go home knowing that, because of my actions, a pony didn’t die.”
My anger turned to grief.
Would Billy really have killed me? Probably not. Though, I wasn’t able to easily convince myself of that. Yet, even I couldn’t deny that if it weren’t for Shining Armor, I would probably be in a hospital bed right now instead of waiting for Auntie to pick me up.
Throwing my hooves over my head, I began to question which would be worse. Before I could weigh those options, the door opened.
“Shining Armor,” the principal said, “your parents are here. Also, starting next week, you'll be serving a week of detention.”
My jaw slacked. “That isn’t fair!” I protested. “He was protecting me, how does that—”
I felt a hoof on my shoulder.
His deep blue eyes lite up and caused my knees to shake for some reason. “It’s okay. It’s just a week. Again, I would have saved you even if it had been a month.”
I was left speechless. None of my friends would take detention for any of us, myself included. This was becoming too much guilt for me to handle if I didn’t do something.
“Thank you,” was all I could come up with. It seemed to be enough.
He smiled and began to walk off.
“Oh, and...Shining!”
He stopped and turned to face me. “Yeah?”
“If one of the popular girls asks you to the dance, don’t say yes. It’s most likely just a prank I came up with beforehoof.”
Shining gave me a wide smile that made me melt. “You know, Candence, you might not be so bad after all.” He then walked up to me and offered a hoof. “Truce?”
I looked at his hoof, bit my lips, but then gave a genuine smile as I took it and said, “truce.”
He smiled and nodded back. “Alright. Good luck with your aunt, friend.” For some reason I felt butterfly's in my stomach when he called me that.
With a final wave goodbye, he disappeared before I could put in another word.
Thus, I was left alone with a lot to think about. One of the first things that came to mind was, 'Maybe I should ask Shinning Armor if he's okay tomorrow.'
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Nice coming of age story. Like the direction you took with Cadence. Defiently not one I would had thought up.
I guess what they say is true, write what you know. At the very least the story will be easily written, and at best you get a good story. Nice job accomplishing the latter here.
Okay Cadence, you're a princess, we get it. Damn.
Hmm. This was an interesting story. I always love these sort of prequel stories that provide more of a backstory and deeper sense of character development. For example I really liked that nice bit of development you gave Shining Armor regarding how he got his Cutie Mark and how he stayed pretty well in character from what we see in the show. Doing that little bit where he saw the pregnant mare getting robbed at knife point and started thinking "What if that had been my mom with my little sister?" really made him much more rounded by making it personal. The only real gripe that I have is with this whole thing about Cadence's spoiled personality. While it was never explained in the show how she got her Cutie Mark I always figured that she had gotten it from her ability to spread love wherever she went which doesn't entirely seem to match up right here. I'm not saying it's not possible. Maybe when you get to the sequel and provide your interpretation on how she got her Cutie Mark, it'll hopefully add.up a little more and make more sense. Also since you've already mentioned her here, maybe the sequel could feature Cadence's first time meeting filly Twilight (he said hopefully hint hint wink wink nudge nudge
). It could serve as a way of hopefully softening her up a bit. Otherwise though really glad I read this and I look forward to what comes next.
This was really interesting. I love the prequel stories of Shining & Candence, there always fun to read.
I love to see more of this
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Characters. Fifth.