For Those We Love

by ABronyAnonymous

Chapter 1: Good Intentions

Shining Armor sat at his desk, propping his head up on one hoof. Dim shadows played along the walls of his study as the fireplace burned low as the wood crackled. He looked down at the blank parchment with tired, bloodshot eyes; bags drooping from many dreamless nights. Shining Armor lazily rubbed the side of his face as the gears of his mind slowly churned, working through the haze of sleeplessness trying to find the right words to say. For several minutes, Shining sat there, drifting in and out as every blink turned into a few seconds sleep. Finally he shook his head, desperately throwing off the vestiges of drowsiness that clung to him. Lighting up his horn, he grasped the quill in his magic and began to scrawl along the page.

“Dear Princess Celestia,

I write this letter solemnly and carefully. I am not as crafty a wordsmith as my sister nor am I as articulate in expressing my thoughts as her so I will be frank and to the point. After being bested once again by forces that rally against us, I feel that I am currently inadequate and unworthy to continue my command of the Royal Guard. With this letter I am informing you that I am taking a leave of absence and recommend Bright Shield to act in my stead while I am away. He is a fine commander and should be more than capable of handling things in my absence.

I know this is abrupt and demanding, but I do not feel I have it in me to continue on and remain an effective leader of the ponies under my command. Tirek’s attack has left some thoughts and concerns I need to resolve for myself. This has been the second time during my command that I have been bested and unable to defend this castle or my wife. Twice now, I have failed my duties as her husband.”

Shining Armor stopped; his horn dimmed as his magic halted the movement of the quill tip across the parchments scratchy surface. He looked up at Cadance sleeping through the doorway of his study, the soft moonlight dancing across her features. Her sides slowly rose and fell as the sounds of her soft breathing filled the quiet room. He sighed and a subtle pain wracked his heart, as much as her presence gave him comfort and some measure of peace. He couldn’t recall a single thing that he ever did to deserve somepony like her. Their wedding was by far the happiest day of his life. Well, at least the parts after the changling invasion. It still bothered him how he couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment when Chrysalis took Cadance’s place. He was told that was a side effect of changling magic on his memories and how they could insert themselves in ponies lives. He snorted bitterly and slammed his head on the desk. It was also Twily that ended up rescuing Cadance that time too. His sister was living up to his namesake better than he was.

“Shining?” Cadance called out groggily, rubbing one of her eyes while sitting up in bed, “Is that you? What’s wrong?”

Shining Armor lifted his head from the desk, some of the wet ink from the letter staining the fur on his face, “Yeah it’s me honey, sorry to wake you. Go back to sleep, I’ll rejoin you in a little while.”

“Okay. Is everything alright though?” she asked as she laid back down.

“Uh...yeah...everything’s good. Just some reports I forgot to look over,” he comforted her.

“That’s all. Shining, leave them for tomorrow. It can surely wait ‘til then. Come back to bed,” the princess begged tiredly and rubbed his pillow with her hoof before quickly falling back to sleep.

His ears splayed back against his head. He hated lying to her. No, everything was not okay.

“Every night since then Princess, I wake up panicked and afraid that I’ll be powerless to protect Cadance. This fear cripples me as I realize that I am not adequate enough to protect those I love most. As of now, I need leave and go deal with my failings. I do not know when I’ll return, but I hope that when I do, I’ll be better prepared and capable than I am now.

-Shining Armor”

Setting aside the quill, he rolled and sealed the letter before placing it in a slot of his packed saddlebags. A soft snore came from the bedroom as he watched Cadance continue to sleep peacefully. He took a small piece of paper out as he levitated the quill once more.

“My dearest Cadance,

Please know that I love you. I always have and I always will. I know that when you read this, it may not seem like it, but please have faith in me. I need to leave and sort out some things that have been troubling me. I hope that my travels will bring me back to you as soon as possible, but I need to do this for myself. I need to do this so that I can be a better husband to you in the future. You are my everything and I can’t live without you. You are most precious to me and while I’m away my thoughts and heart will be with you. Please forgive me for telling you this way. I love you Candance. Never doubt that.

Forever yours,

-Shining”

Shining stood up slowly, and slung his saddlebag over his bag, taking extra care to make as little noise as possible, especially as he crept over to the bed. Cadance was splayed all over the bed sound asleep, and snoring softly. A slim smile formed on his face at that as slight tears built up in his eyes. What he was about to do was going to hurt her and tear her heart apart, but he needed to keep her safe. He set his note down on the bedside table. Hopefully after all this was done, he’d be able to protect her.

Leaning down, he tenderly kissed his mare on the forehead and as he nuzzled her neck whispered ever so softly, “I love you. More than you’ll ever know.”

The moonlight shined brightly down upon Canterlot as a hooded figure walked slowly through the streets. The figure stopped in an alley alongside a burning barrel, often frequented by the few bums that lived along the outskirts and sprinkled some sort of powder over the dying flames. As the powder touched the flames, the barrel burst with green flames, pulsing brightly against the walls and the hooded figure dropped a scroll into the flames, watching as the scroll magically burned away, green smoke rushing towards the castle, carrying the message to a sleeping white alicorn. Certain that the scroll had been sent, the figure brought a second letter with a six pointed star on the cracked seal out of its saddlebags and began to read.

“Twily says her friend Zecora took possession of the Alicorn Amulet for safekeeping,” the figure muttered. A grim smile formed on Shining Armor’s face as he stepped out of the alley. He’d be damned if he wasn’t able to protect Cadance next time.

Author's Note:

I'm still editing this chapter. I tend to straight up tell the reader what I see rather than show them, and it's a process to go back and add the details and polish it up. I'm also debating if I want to leave this as a one shot. I have several ideas and scenes of where I can take this story, but I'm not sure I have enough to fill in the gaps between those scenes.

This chapter is a submission for the May 2015 Monthly contest.

Comments

[ABronyAnonymous]

6039186 Thank you! I'm glad you liked it. I'm playing with the idea of continuing it out as I have some scenes I'd like to write but I want to connect them and make them meaningful, not just little snapshots. I'll be working some of it out while in a way for training over the next three weeks and hopefully when I return I can just go on a writing frenzy.

[ABronyAnonymous]

6040485 Well, I have mixed news. On one hand, I've got some plans for this story. On the down side, I've hit a small writers block in providing a reasonable set of motivations for one of the characters who is central to the plot. So, I'm going to have to ponder a little more while I work my way there.