The Guard And His Sword

by Himntor

Run Over By A Train

It was an anxiety-filled trip back to Canterlot. All sorts of questions raced through my mind. What do I say? Should I wear anything? Do I smell okay? Would flowers be appropriate? Of course, I knew what to say, sort of. ‘Hello’ at least, but from there I had no idea.

Actually, flowers sounded pretty good right now. I was getting hungry again, and it was getting late into the afternoon as the train chugged along. Maybe I could ask Summer to dinner.

Yeah, that could work. I’ll ask her to dinner.

It was only about an hour before sunset when the train arrived in Canterlot. I trotted off to the Canterlot Library, which was luckily still open for a bit longer, and peeked inside. The only pony at the front desk was a pale, peach coated unicorn stallion with a dark copper mane and wearing glasses. His attention was focused on the pile of books next to him as he sorted through them. I sighed with relief and approached him.

“Is there something I can help you with?” the stallion asked without looking up at me.

I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I’m looking for Summer Dawn. She still works here, right?”

He looked up at me and jumped back in surprise. “Whoa, Lieutenant Shield! I-I wasn’t expecting you. Please excuse the mess, heheh.” He swiped away the books on the desk. “It’s good, uh, I mean, great to finally meet you.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Ah… and you are?”

“Oh, sorry, excuse my poor manners.” He cleared his throat. “I am Alfred Wright, one of the librarians. No, you don’t have to make a joke, yes I love to read and yes I love to write, but it has nothing to do with my name and I know it’s a weird one! Oh, er, sorry for yelling. I’ve been meaning to use that for a while, haha. Had it all written down here in case anypony ever asked my name. Got a little excited I guess. Ahem, right, what was it you needed again?”

I looked around the silent library. “I was just looking for Summer Dawn.”

Alfred adjusted his glasses. “Summer? She clocked out about an hour ago and went home. Heh, I was planning on treating her to dinner, but I got the longer shift. Oh well. Um, she’s not in trouble, is she?”

I pursed my lips. So this guy was interested in her too? Hmm. I guess it was my luck that she had clocked out early. “No, just something I needed to investigate. Can you tell me where she lives?”

“Of course, she’s just a couple blocks down that way from here, the house with a mailbox that says ‘Dawn’.”

I turned to the exit. “Thanks.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

I trotted out of the library and in the direction Alfred had pointed, all the while butterflies formed in my stomach, which were annoyingly eating away at my appetite.

I took a deep breath. “Okay, Swordulan, you can do this. You got this. You got this. You’re a Shield, for Celestia’s sake. Hoo hoo, yeah.”

Finally the mailbox marked Dawn came into view. I stopped in front of the house, which was a cute little thing, nothing too fancy or humble, and stared at the door. Three shaky hooves forward, one stubborn hoof back. Repeat. I made it to the door, reached a hoof out, and paused.

“Um… hi. How’s it going? I’m doing good. Nice evening out, you look nice too, uh… wait, no, ugh! Oh, ponyfeathers with this.”

Knock, knock, knock.

Silence. Eeeeteeerrnaaal siiilleeennnce. Deep breath, hold it… hold… stop holding, idiot.

The door opened and I felt an electric shock go through my body, shooting adrenaline through my system. I recognized Summer as she stepped into the door and looked at me.

Okay, I just need to focus.

“Oh, hey!” Summer said with a bright smile. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here, Swordulan. Or I guess it’s Lieutenant Shield now, right? It’s been a while!”

I must have been focusing a bit too hard, because all I was able to do was think, woow, she’s prettier than I remembered.

Summer Dawn. Soft cream colored coat, deep amber mane and tail with pale pink highlights, and even deeper amber eyes, all coming to a fine, sharp unicorn horn that could pierce a hydra’s scales. Maybe that’s a slight exaggeration, but I don’t care.

Celestia, she’s pretty.

Summer looked at me confusedly. “What was that?”

I blinked and screamed on the inside. I said that out loud didn’t I? Ponyfeathers, I must have mumbled it by accident. “Uh, nothing, sorry. I was just thinking half out loud for a second.”

“Ah. What about?”

A train ran me over. Or at the very least that’s what the question felt like it did to me. Questions could do that? I had never known. Nonetheless my brain felt like it had been squished and whacked like a pinball, bouncing around between three options.

Lie, avoid, truth.

The bounces accelerated, growing furious. Pick one, pick one, which one do I pick?!

“Truth!” I heard Cadance say in the back of my mind. “Every mare wants to know they’re pretty!”

“Avoid!” Shining Armor said. “It’s not worth the pressure!”

“Lie!” Discord said. “Come on, pick it! Pick it, pick it, pick it. Here, I’ll do it for you.”

I don’t know how it happened, but something was picked, and the next thing I knew I was opening my mouth to say something when I felt a chaotic presence behind me.

“Why, strong and handsome Swordulan here was thinking about me!” Discord said.

My eyes widened. “Oh no. Of all times…”

Summer looked up at Discord with a mix of shock and confusion then looked back to me. “You know him?”

My ears drooped and I sighed. “Yes, it’s an unfortunate curse I bear.”

Discord pat me on the head like a pet and pulled my cheek. “Don’t be silly, we’re good friends, and good friends don’t let their friends make bad decisions! I’m here to help things along, like a good friend should.” He stood up tall and a writing board appeared in his paw. “So you two lovebirds, what shall it be for tonight?” He snapped his claw, and suddenly we were all formally dressed and sitting at a table in a fancy restaurant. “Table for two?” He snapped again and we were back to normal sitting on a picnic cloth on a little grassy ledge above Canterlot on the mountain, overlooking nearly all of Equestria. “Romantic picnic spot?” He snapped again and we were rolling down the streets of Canterlot on skates. Discord rolled up beside us going backwards. “Thrilling skate through the city?” He snapped again and we were soaring through the clouds on a pegasus-pulled chariot. Discord popped up beside us as a bird. “Joyride through the clouds?” He snapped again, and finally we were back at Summer’s house.

Summer shook herself, eyes wide. “What. Was. That?”

Discord looked at her oddly. “You mean Swordulan here didn’t tell you yet? He—”

“No, Discord, that’s enough!” I snapped. “Thank you for trying to help, but I don’t need anything from you.”

Discord’s face stretched up to my head. “Are you sure? I’m quite the dating expert, I could—”

“I’m quite sure, Discord,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Go on and… save somepony from a burning building or something.”

Discord pouted. “Hmph, fine. But I’ll be back soon!” With a puff of smoke, he was gone.

“Okay, hold on a second,” Summer said, still visibly confused, “what did he mean by dating expert?”

Lie, avoid, truth. Dear me, the butterflies were back already.

Alright, what would Cadance tell me to do? Well, definitely not lie, and… not avoid, either. She never said anything about telling the truth, but, I had a feeling she’d want me to. Ponyfeathers. There wasn’t a point in making a lie for this anyway. Too much work, and I was a terrible liar.

I took a deep breath and looked her in the eye. “It’s a long story, but… well, I’ll skip the details. My dad wanted me to come see you and ask… uh… ponyfeathers, I’m really bad at this. To ask you out. On a date. Yeah.”

Summer gave a coy smile. “Aw, that’s really sweet, but you make it sound like you’re mostly here because of your dad.”

I shuffled my hoof. “Kinda, sorta, not really. It’s complicated. At first it felt like I was doing this because he wanted me to, but, uh, then you opened the door, and…” I nearly had to force myself to cough out the next part. “What I thought half out loud was that you were pretty. A lot prettier than I remembered.”

“Oh.” Summer looked back into her house and blushed. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? She finally looked back to me. “Thanks, that was sweet of you to tell me.”

I made a dumb grin. “So, I was thinking, do you wanna go and, uh… dinner?”

Summer gave an amused smile. “I think that sounds great right now. I was just about to start preparing something, would you like to come in and lend me a hoof?”

“Oh… yeah, of course.” Why did every question she asked take a few seconds to process? “Maybe we could pack a basket and have a picnic. That idea from Discord didn’t sound too bad, but probably not on a cliff. The park, or somewhere.”

“That sounds like a great idea! Come on in, I’ll go grab a basket and picnic blanket and we can prepare dinner.” She stepped aside and let me in. “Does a salad and a few sandwiches sound good to you?”

I nodded. Amazingly, my appetite was starting to return. “Sounds perfect.”

And so we began to prepare a picnic dinner. I felt a bit odd and out of place at first, but I got over it, and it was nice to just prepare dinner with somepony, though it took nearly all of my willpower to stop myself from snacking. Summer made the salad while I made the sandwiches, as I had much practice with them during the years I went to the School for Gifted Unicorns. We packed it all up in a basket, along with a picnic cloth, and headed out for Canterlot’s central park with me carrying the basket.

If I had looked back, I might’ve seen Alfred Wright holding a rose and looking at us, then tossing the rose down and walking away.