The Guard And His Sword

by Himntor

A Lesson in Harmony

I stared at my flank in disbelief, yet at the same time I knew the shield being there made complete sense. It was part of my cutie mark, it had always been there since I got it. Except for yesterday, when it disappeared. What in Equestria happened?

Well, there was no time to figure it out. The shield was back, and it felt right. I continued on my way out of Hollow Shades, and after an hour of walking, I decided that it was safe enough to try using my sword to get back to Canterlot. With a bit of concentration, I teleported it outside of the city gate, and then teleported beside it. Everything seemed fine, no pulsing or anything unusual.

It was the cusp of dawn, the sky beginning to brighten and the city just starting to show signs of life. I made my way to the castle to find Celestia, hoping she knew where Discord would be. On the way, I happened to run into Captain Morningstar.

“Swordulan, where have you been?” he asked. “What happened? You look terrible.”

“It’s kind of a long story, but,” I glanced back at my flank, “I think everything is gonna be okay.”

He noticed the shield and gaped. “It’s back? Well, alright then! I won’t even bother with the how, that’s a great relief. Hope those stars start returning too.”

“Me too, but it seems to have come at a price.” I levitated my sword’s hilt to him.

“By Celestia, it cracked? How?”

“That’s what I’m trying to find out. It began pulsing and exploded with more magical energy than anything I’ve ever seen. I’m hoping Celestia hasn’t sent Discord off somewhere yet.”

“I don’t think she has, so I won’t keep you any longer. Remember though, you start back at the walls tomorrow morning.”

I gave a salute. “Yes, Sir.”

He returned the salute and trotted off, and I finally made it to the castle throne room. Celestia sat on her throne reading a letter and enjoying what looked like a cup of tea.

“Good morning, Swordulan,” she said. “I hope you’re doing well.”

“I am, thanks,” I said. “I’m looking for Discord though. The crystal cracked and I think the entity is gone, but I’m not sure.”

Celestia looked up from her letter. “Really? May I see?”

I levitated the sword up to her and she took it in her own magic.

“Hmm, yes, I no longer feel a resistance to my magic. This is most strange. Do you know what happened?”

“Not exactly.” I explained the story of what happened to the sword from it beginning to pulse in Manehattan to its explosion in Hollow Shades. “Do you think Discord should have another look at it?”

Celestia levitated the sword back to me. “Yes, I think that would be wise. One moment.” She cast some sort of spell, and seconds later Discord popped in out of nowhere.

“What is it now, Celestia? I was about to take one of my weekly showers, and you know how long that—oh! Swordulan, I wasn’t expecting to see you again so soon. I’m pleased to see it looks like you took my advice to heart.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I don’t see how, considering I didn’t understand a thing you said to me yesterday.”

Discord shrugged. “What I said hardly mattered, but either way, it seems to have worked out. Now, what’s this about? Is your sword up to some mischief, I hope?”

“That’s what we’re wanting to find out.”

I levitated the sword to him and he swiped it out of my magic and examined the cracked crystal. “Ah, I see the entity has escaped. Well, good for it I suppose. Hmm, you don’t happen to know where it went, do you?”

I shook my head. “For all I know, it could be in a parallel universe.”

“Of course,” Discord sighed. “Always a parallel universe. Well, I wouldn’t worry about it. The enchantment has lost a good deal of its power, and with it goes the threat. I’m curious, how has your magic been handling it?”

“It’s making me put some effort into using it now, but I have yet to test its new limits. I could still teleport myself from Hollow Shades to Canterlot, though I suppose that’s not surprising.”

“How interesting.” Discord threw the sword back to me, and I caught it in my magic before it cut my head off. “There’s not all that much more to say about it. Rest assured that it should be perfectly safe from now on. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve a shower to get to.”

Discord poofed away in a puff of smoke.

“I guess that’s a relief,” I said uncertainly.

“I’m sure Discord knows what he’s talking about,” Celestia said. “At the very least, my worries are alleviated with the entity gone.”

“Yeah. I’ll be heading out then.” I formed my sword around my waist and gave a quick bow to Celestia. “Have a good day, Your Highness.”

“To you as well, Swordulan.”

As I made my way out the castle, I happened to spot Luna walking down the hallway ahead of me with a cart of flowers and a rather stern expression on her face. It reminded me of the dream I’d had while in Hollow Shades, so I decided to talk to Luna and see if she really had been in it.

I ran after her and called out, “Princess Luna!”

Luna stopped and turned to me, having a few rings under her eyes. “Ah, greetings, Lieutenant Shield. Is there something you need?”

“I wanted to talk to you about a dream I had. Do you mind?”

Luna motioned me to follow her. “Please. I am simply replacing the lavender in the halls, so I have plenty of time to talk.”

“Thanks.” I began to follow her as she slowly went from flower pot to flower pot. “Anyway, last night I had a rather disturbing dream, and you were in it, but I wasn’t sure if it was really you. Was it?”

“Hmm, I don’t believe so. What was your dream?”

“It’s a little foggy, but I was jumping around Equestria knocking on doors. I wound up in the castle, and found it full of changelings. They tried to get me, then suddenly disappeared. I went through a door and found Discord, and he told me I needed to ‘face it’. Afterwards, another door appeared with you behind it. You kept telling me that I needed to choose, to move forward, and then… well, I fell, my cousin caught me, my sword flew in and cut her hooves off, and then it ate me.”

Luna stopped and looked at me wide-eyed. “Truly, that sounds like a terrifying nightmare. I am sorry I was not able to intervene.”

I sighed. “It’s alright. I guess it was just a normal nightmare.”

Luna gave a nod and continued replacing flowers. “Perhaps, but our dreams are often a reflection of what we are struggling with in life. There may be a difficult choice that lies before you, and you are struggling to face it. What do you think? Are there things in your life that you feel the need to face, but are too afraid?”

“I… don’t know.” I grimaced at the answer. There were a few things that came to mind, one of them being the fact that my father had not cast a spell on me. I had faulted him wrongly, and now he was gone. Another was how I was going to live from now on. Was I going to try harder to make friends after my break was over? Or would I just stick to working all the time? Even if my cutie mark was coming back now, I still had no clue who I was. “Princess Luna, who am I?”

It was a weird question, but I needed an answer.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “You are Swordulan Thunder Shield. If you are looking for me to tell you what that means, I’m afraid I cannot help you. Only you can determine what that means.”

I sighed. “I know I’m a Lieutenant of the Royal Guard, but… that seems too shallow, and I don’t understand why. What makes a pony who they are?”

“I don’t think I can perfectly answer that, but let me ask you this: if somepony is living by themselves off the land, never speaking or interacting with anypony, and merely doing only enough to survive day by day, what does that say about who they are?”

I thought through the question for a second. “If they’re just living a life of existence, then… they’re nopony of consequence I guess. They’re just somepony who exists.”

“So is it those around us who determine who we are, or ourselves?”

“Our… selves?”

Luna smiled. “And yet you just asked me who you are.”

“A little of both then. I don’t know.”

“I find there is a great deal of our identities which we place in the hooves of those around us. The greatest influences are what—or who—we admire and fear the most. Such things become most evident through friendship.”

I snorted. “Through friendship? Why? That seems so one-dimensional.”

“Friendship is more than what it seems, Swordulan. It is honesty, loyalty, generosity, laughter, kindness, and magic.”

“Those are all the Elements of Harmony.”

“Indeed, and more important is the source of harmony behind the Elements. It is love. Love is pure harmony, between both oneself and others. It is what truly holds the world together.”

I took a deep breath. “I don’t think I know what love is.”

“You may not think so, but love shows up in many ways. It can come from within and from without. We often let our many emotions get in the way of us seeing it clearly. What are the emotions you’ve had most in your life?”

I thought for a moment and frowned. “Doubt… mostly doubt. Uncertainty, frustration, anger. I guess I’ve been angry for a long time, I just haven’t shown it much. And as much as my life has stayed the same, at least as a Royal Guard, everything beyond my duties seems totally unknowable. In the past few months, so much has been changing, and I don’t know how to handle it. Which is crazy, I’ve faced off against some of Equestria’s most powerful foes without breaking a sweat, but thinking about my life’s future outside of the Royal Guard terrifies me. Ponyfeathers, I can’t believe I’m saying stuff like this. I don’t understand it at all. I’m sorry, Princess Luna.”

“There is no need to apologize. It is good you are going through this time of change, and you will come out of it better than before, but you must stay vigilant. Do not repeat my mistake in disregarding what you already have. If you accept darkness into your heart and forget all the values of love and friendship, it will transform you into a monster, just as what it did to me.”

“I know, I need to be more careful with my emotions.”

“No, you must let them out more often. Having feelings is not wrong, and it is good to express them. Do not let them build up inside and control you, or they will destroy you utterly.”

I thought for a moment and gave a sharp nod. “I’ll do my best to remember that. Thank you for your advice, Princess Luna. It means a lot to me.”

“Of course, Lieutenant. It is always my pleasure to help.” Luna looked at her cart of flowers and sighed. “Halfway done.”

I took the cart in my magic. “Don’t worry, Your Highness, I’ll help you now.”

About an hour later I found myself sitting on my couch at home contemplating Luna’s advice. I needed to let my emotions out, but I was struggling to figure out what they were in the first place. At the moment, I felt guilt the most. I had run out on my mom when she needed me, and Shining Armor was probably still worried about me. How was I supposed to express that? Was I supposed to go back to Manehattan and apologize to my mom, then to the Crystal Empire to make sure Shining Armor knew I was okay?

… No. No, my feelings were telling me not to. There was nothing I could accomplish going back to Manehattan now, I’d probably only make things worse. She needed time. As for Shining Armor, I could simply send him a letter.

What else?

Dad was gone. How did that make me feel? Was I sad, or angry? It had all happened so fast I never had time to know how it made me feel. Dwelling on it, I felt… cornered. Boxed in. I felt like I’d been put in a position I didn’t want to be in, because I wasn’t sure what I felt. I had never really liked my dad. Was I supposed to find something redeemable about him in order to be sad?

That didn’t sound right at all. Sure, I was in the Royal Guard because of him, he cared enough about me to at least secure my future, but I still wasn’t sad. All I had wanted from him was respect and support for what I loved, which was the study of magic. Did I still care about it like I had when I was a colt? Yes, I believe so, but I had a job to do. I didn’t have time to be studying and practicing. Except for today, I suppose, and there would be other times.

Should I be doing that right now then?

Knock, knock, knock.

That was odd, I wasn’t expecting anypony. Had Katana come after me?

I got up and answered the door, unexpectedly finding the Cutie Mark Crusaders looking up at me eagerly.

“Hey, Lieutenant Shield,” Apple Bloom said, “sorry to bother you, but my friends and I were wondering if you might be able to help us earn our cutie marks in being Royal Guards!”

I blinked. “You three want to be Royal Guards?”

“Well, sure! Y’all get to wear that real shiny armor and look all important-like.”

“And wield awesome spears!” Scootaloo said.

“And protect Equestria from monsters!” Sweetie Belle said.

Apple Bloom nodded to her friends’ additions. “We thought if there was anypony around here who could help us with that, it’d be you.”

“Hmm, I guess I have the time to help,” I said.

“Yes!” the Crusaders cheered. “Cutie Mark Crusaders Royal Guards!”

I massaged an ear. “Yeah, not so fast. It takes years of training to become a Royal Guard, and a lot of reading.”

“Reading?” Scootaloo asked. “Why would somepony need to read to become a Royal Guard? That’s ridiculous!”

“How can a book teach somepony how to fight monsters anyway?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Oh come on, Crusaders,” Apple Bloom said, “if reading is what it takes to become Royal Guards, then that’s what we’ll do.”

I smiled. “That’s the spirit. Have any of you read Fence and Form?”

They all shook their heads.

“Well, I guess everything in it I can teach by demonstration.” I shaped my sword into a spear. “We’ll start with some basic forms. Come on, let’s head around back where we can’t accidentally hurt anypony.”

Comments

[Himntor]

8193057

Supposed to?

I appreciate the critique, but it confuses me a little bit, so let me address some things about this story. First, I don't see how his name is Gary-Stu-ish (I mean is it any more than Shining Armor? His dad was a somewhat haughty noble, of course his name is going to have some extravagance), and the character himself as about as much a Gary-Stu as Twilight is a Mary-Sue. Which is to say that he's not one, because he doesn't excel at everything he does, and he, in fact, fails at pretty much everything except in controlling his sword with magic at an excellent level. That happens to be his cutie mark's talent. Supreme excellence in that one thing. The show is very clear that a pony's cutie mark denotes supreme excellence in one thing (you see that statue of the CMC that colt built in like three seconds?). And the whole idea of the story is that his talent doesn't help him succeed at anything he wants to succeed at.

He isn't the large driving force of the plot because he is both a Royal Guard (they don't do much!) and is the victim of the show's storyline. Like, this story is built upon the show as chronologically as I can piece it together. It is written with intent for this character to be a believable character in the show universe, but is so insignificant that there is very little impact on the show. I squeeze him into the cracks. The only plot he controls is how he responds to what happens in the show and what he does with his life when events in the show become less extravagant. The first few chapters focus heavily on the extravagant events and some little things around them, particularly because life as a Royal Guard there isn't much happening. In the later chapters, it focuses more on Swordulan's emotional and social development, since his failures have continued to build up and it drives him into identity issues.

And I think I explained what basic enchantment meant at some point, not sure where, but it means that it makes an object easier to manipulate with magic. I will promptly move that explanation to the beginning of the story. EDIT: Okay, uh, the explanation IS in chapter 1. "Enchantments can do a certain number of things, but for my sword it simply made manipulating it with magic easier." Did you miss that part?

If I somehow mislead your expectations for what this story is supposed to be, my apologies. Is there any way I might make it clearer?