Guardian of the Princesses

by Darth Annihilator

Suited for Success

It had been an eventful couple of months in Ponyville since we last visited Equestria, a swarm of insects known as Parasprites had invaded the town and nearly eaten all the food and had only been driven out by Pinkie Pie becoming a one-pony band . This was followed by Twilight singlehandedly saving the Winter Wrap Up day with her organisational skills and Applejack's sister making two new friends named Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle at a party and embarrassing two school bullies in the process followed by Applejack and Rainbow Dash getting a tad too competitive in an Iron Pony competition and the Running of the Leaves. We now rejoin our equine friends at Rarity's Carousel Boutique where Twilight has bought Rarity a dress for repair and Winter has been dragged along for some reason.

"I get that you want that dress repairing for the Gala, Twilight. What I don't understand is why I'm here" said Winter as he and Twilight entered Rarity's shop and home.

"You told me that you don't have a suit for the Gala, so I brought you here to get you one" replied Twilight, giving him an exasperated look.

"I wasn't under the impression I needed one; I'm there to do the fireworks and mingle, not attend my coronation or wedding!"

"And that's precisely why you need a suit, what would Princess Celestia think if she saw you in your usual cloak?!"

"Probably that I don't want to be there so I didn't bother dressing up…"

"NO… well yes, but that's not the point."

"Then what IS the point?"

"The point is…" Twilight began before she saw Rarity giving them a weird look from one of her tables, where she appeared to be working on a new project "Oh sorry Rarity, I know you're busy but would it be possible for you to mend my dress for the Gala? A button came off."

NO! No! No! You can't wear this old…thing" she gasped in shock upon seeing Twilight's dress "you need a glamorous new outfit for the Gala… Tell you what, I'll make it for you, no charge at all; And did my ears deceive me Winter, or did you say that you hadn't a suit for the Gala?"

"You heard correctly" answered Winter, prompting Rarity to look at him in a rather annoyed manner.

"What happened to the suit you bought last year for special occasions?"

"Got destroyed along with several other things during that mishap during Winter Wrap Up" he said, scowling at the memory; during Winter Wrap Up, Winter had to store his winter themed stock of fireworks due to them being made for lower temperatures and therefore could be ruined by the different conditions of the other seasons, alongside that he'd created a rocket (which he'd named Cloudbuster) in an attempt to help the Pegasi with their job of clearing the clouds. To cut a long story short, one of the Cloudbusters had gone out of control and hit a number of his winter fireworks, causing a massive explosion which damaged a number of the rooms in his hut, thankfully nopony was hurt and nothing important was destroyed or damaged but he still had to replace a few things.

"Why didn't you just say so? I'd have whipped you up a new one in a jiffy, instead I'll just make you a new one for the Gala" replied Rarity, causing both Twilight and Winter to protest, but Rarity would have none of it. They eventually relented as Applejack walked in.

"Howdy Rarity, have you seen Rainbow anywhere? We've got a rouge cloud over the…" she was cut off by said Pegasus crashing through the roof, rolling into Rarity's mannequins and standing up tangled in cloth with a bucket on her head.

"Sorry, new trick, didn't quite work out" Rainbow said apologetically, getting an eye roll from Winter.

"We can see that bucket-head, are you alright?" he asked, looking at her concerned which Rainbow didn't seem to be all that bothered by, if her straightening of the bucket was any indication.

"Yeah, it'll take more than a crash to bring me down… I think I like this look, I'll have to wear a bucket more often" she replied before she caught a glance of herself in the mirror.

"Seriously Dash, the bucket would get stuck on your head when you crash and it's not very aerodynamic, you'd be confined to the ground."

"Meh, point taken. I'll just have to use this look when I'm gracing the ground with my presence."

"Really? Sometimes I wonder how you can fly with the size of your ego at times…"

"HEY! That was rude! I'm not THAT bad… am I?"

"Eh, not yet. You'd know if I thought you'd gotten that bad" Winter answered, to which Rainbow gave a sigh of relief. While this had been going on, Rarity had decided to make dresses for all the Element bearers alongside the replacement suit for Winter and to hold a fashion show after she'd made them, then she chased them out of her shop so she could work. After that, all the ponies left to do their own thing: Applejack left to work on her farm, Twilight returned to her library and Winter decided to supervise Rainbow in her new trick training; so far, it looked as if she was trying to go for a high speed dive.

"You still haven't told me what you're working on, Dash" said Winter, catching her for the third time after she rebounded off the cone of air she produced from her speed.

"I'm trying to do the Sonic Rainboom for the Best Young Fliers Competition coming up soon" she answered, flying up and diving again.

"You're trying to break the visible light spectrum and the sound barrier at once, again? Why? Don't you remember the toll it took on you last time?" Winter asked, a concerned look on his face for Rainbow's health, to which Rainbow paused and smiled at him before resuming her dive.

"Yeah, but a Sonic Rainboom will ensure I win and it'll look awesome! It'll be well worth it for a day with the Wonderbolts" replied Rainbow as she rebounded off the cone of air again "now, are ya going to help me or stand there complaining?"

"Bah, fine Dash. You win" responded Winter, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples before opening them with a determined look "right, you can do a sonic boom on its own, correct?"

"Tch, easily…"

"Good, now give me sonic booms!"

"How many?"

"As many as you can do. I want you to go right to the limit of your speed and back again, then do it all over again. Just tell me if you're beginning to strain yourself, alright?"

"Fine, LET'S DO THIS!" bellowed Rainbow before she took off and shortly after, a loud BOOM was heard and a rainbow coloured streak flew across the sky before slowing and repeating the process multiple times until her wings began to ache and her stamina began to run out; this resulted in her beginning to slow down which did not go unnoticed by Winter, who brought her back down, much to her chagrin.

"What the hay Winter? I could've kept going" she panted, which caused Winter to give her a firm look.

"Dash, you're exhausted. Any more of that and you'd risk pulling a muscle or worse and I'll not see you hurt yourself when I could've prevented it" he replied, handing her a drink of iced water which he'd gotten from… somewhere and Rainbow accepted it gratefully.

"Huh, fine. So what was the point of that anyway?"

"It served two purposes: the first was to slowly increase your top speed by pushing you to your limits, again and again; the second was for me to get an idea of your form when flying and see if I can't work anything out from there."

"And DID you see anything?"

"Yes, you're not aerodynamic enough to pull off the Rainboom. Your current form creates too much drag which is what causes you to rebound off of the cone of air your speed generates."

"So how do I solve that? I'm not going on a diet if that's what you're saying!"

"No, that isn't necessary. What you need to do is make yourself more streamlined when you fly, this'll create less drag and allow you to fly faster; after that, it's just a matter of making sure your wings are strong enough to get you to the speeds needed for the Rainboom."

"Right, thanks Winter, I'll work on that for the competition" There was a pause as Rainbow recovered from her workout before she thought of something and turned to Winter, an unsure look on her face "Winter, if I make a fool of myself at the competition, you won't think less of me, will you?"

"Where's this coming from all of a sudden?" Winter asked, brow furrowed with concern at Rainbow's out of character behaviour.

"I don't know, old insecurities coming back to haunt me, I suppose" Rainbow replied, looking away, probably to hide her expression from Winter.

"Then I'll tell you what I told you years ago: so long as you give it your all, I wouldn't care if you crashed a thunder cloud into Princess Celestia; at the end of the day, you can only do what YOU'RE capable of" he answered, making Rainbow laugh at the image of Celestia being hit by a thunder cloud.

"Yeah, you'd probably find it funny if I did that."

"Bah, don't tell me you wouldn't laugh at our Solar Overlord if her hair was standing on end because of lightning, it'd be…" the two were interrupted by Rarity charging in, saying that she'd finished Rainbow's dress and invited them both to come and see it, after gathering the rest of her friends, they all assembled at the Carousel Boutique and Rarity led them in with their eyes shut.

"That's it, just a little further, no peeping… PINKIE PIE! I SAW THAT! Okay, you can look now" said Rarity, and when they opened their eyes, they saw five masterfully made dresses which appeared to be specifically made to complement each mare's character and appearance which Rarity appeared to be extremely proud of "What do you think of you work duds now Applejack, pretty swanky are they not? And Twilight, what do you think of yours? I specifically designed each outfit to perfectly reflect your individual personalities. It took me forever to get the colours right on this one Rainbow Dash, but I did it and it turned out wonderfully, don't you think? And I know you're doing to love yours Fluttershy, it just SINGS spring. And Pinkie Pie look: PINK, your favourite. Aren't they all amazing?"

"Your craftsmareship is certainly impressive Rarity, you created these in, what? A couple of hours and they look like something you'd see in a high grade designer's shop" answered Winter, in shock at how she managed to make them so well in such a short time, the other mares did not appear to be as impressed however - if their reactions were anything to go by - until Rainbow confirmed it.

"Mine's just not as cool as I was imagining" she said, getting glares from Applejack and Twilight and an eye roll from Winter "what? She asked."

"I guess what we're all saying is that they're just not what we had in mind" Twilight said, getting a hurt look from Rarity and sounds of agreement from the other mares.

"Girls really? You're not fashion designers, wouldn't it be best to go with Rarity's designs here, since she knows what she's doing?" asked Winter, scowling at their reactions but Rarity waved a hoof in his direction to tell him it was fine.

"That's okay, that's not a problem as there's plenty more where that came from, these were only a first pass anyway" Rarity said, taking the dresses of their mannequins.

"You don't have to do that Rarity, they're just fine" interjected Fluttershy, attempting to spare Rarity's feelings.

"But I want them to be better than "just fine", I'll remake them until you're satisfied. After all, you're my friends and I want you to be one hundred and ten percent satisfied."

"Are you sure? I mean, we wouldn't want to impose" asked Applejack.

"It's no imposition… really."

"Well in that case, thank you again Rarity" said Twilight as she left along with the others except Winter who approached Rarity just in time to hear her wonder what she's gotten herself into.

"Are you okay? I mean, it can't have been easy listening to your friends reject your ideas like that" he asked her, helping her tidy up the mess in the room.

"It's fine, a fashion designer must always be open to criticism" she answered, disguising her hurt with her professionalism.

"There's a difference between criticism and what that was" Winter replied, scowling at the actions of their friends.

"Regardless, the customer's always right" snapped Rarity, ending their conversation on the matter "now, while you're here, do you have any design specifications on your suit? I'd hate to make the same mistake with you as I did with the girls."

"You're the fashion designer here, not me. You're better with this thing than I am."

"That's NOT an answer! What do you want?"

"Meh, just make it fit who I am, other than that I'm not really bothered."

"Well that's given me a lot to work with" Rarity grumbled sarcastically before ushering Winter out. The next few hours were consumed by Rarity bringing in her friends and making their dresses according to their designs with the finished products looking extremely over the top. While the girls were admiring their dresses, Spike ran in.

"You are not going to believe this" he began, panting from sprinting all the way to the Carousel Boutique "you've heard of Hoity Toity?"

"The big wig fashion hotshot in Canterlot?" asked Twilight, making sure it was THAT Hoity Toity.

"Tch, emphasis on the "big wig" part; his wig is enormous" muttered Winter, displeasure evident in his voice about the Canterlot fashion designer.

"Yeah, he heard about your fashion show – well, maybe I happened to mention it do him – and he's coming here, all the way from Canterlot to see your work Rarity" finished Spike excitedly.

"Whoa nelly, you could sell a ton of dresses to this guy, business will be boomin'" said Applejack to expressions of support from the other mares in the room and to Rarity's horror.

"Hoity Toity? He's coming here? To see THESE dresses?" she asked and Spike confirmed it.

Scene Change: Fashion Show

The ponies gathered as Rarity poked her head out from behind the curtain and caught sight of the famous designer. He was a navy blue stallion with a whitish-blue wavy mane wearing purple sunglasses and a shirt collar and cuffs with gold cufflinks, his Cutie Mark was of either a paper fan or a cheque book, I'm not sure which to be honest.

"Is he here yet?" asked Winter, popping his head out from behind Rarity, spooking her and he scowled as he saw the stallion clap for a cushion to be put down and he then sat on the face of the pony who put it down "hmph, pompous git."

"You don't like him?" asked Rarity as the two retreated behind the curtain because the lights had gone off, signalling the show was starting.

"Met him once before at one of Lord Blood Cell's parties, I didn't much care for his attitude, anyway I'm off now" Winter said before turning and fell over something "why is there a sink here?"

"It fell off my wall and I still have to fix it" Rarity explained as Spike monologued and the mares walked out to show off their dresses, much to the displeasure of the crowd.

"Why's everypony staring at us like that" asked Applejack upon noticing the looks they were getting which caused Twilight to look at her dress in realisation.

"Oh dear" she said.

"Do you think we overdid it?" Rainbow whispered.

"Hm, nah…. Okay, maybe a little" replied Applejack.

"Credit where it's due, they've managed to keep a confident look" said Winter, watching the performance "I don't think I'd be able to keep a confident look if I were in their hooves…"

"I don't think you'd be able to make a dress look good anyway Winter, even an expertly designed one" replied Rarity, looking amused at the thought despite the seriousness of her situation.

"That wasn't what I meant…" he deadpanned before being rudely interrupted by Hoity Toity.

"Urgh, those amateurish designs look like a perverted mismatch of everything but the kitchen sink…" the fashion titan said, annoying Winter and making the crowd laugh.

"I'll give HIM the kitchen sink!" Winter growled, said sink held in his forehooves while he tried to throw the sink at Hoity Toity but was held back by Rarity.

"It's a travesty is what it is, those dresses are the ugliest things I've ever had the misfortune to see in my entire life, oh for shame! Who is the pony responsible for assaulting our eyes with such horrors and not to mention wasting MY valuable time?!" the fashion designer finished which made Rarity recoil in fear.

"Hide me" she whimpered, hiding behind Winter and her cat Opalescence.

"Relax, I'll handle this" Winter said, walking out towards the stage as Spike asked Rarity to come out and take a bow, resulting in the crowd being shocked when Winter walked out.

"Right, as everypony can see, I'm not Rarity" he began, looking at the ponies and gestured Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow, Fluttershy and Pinkie to come off stage "you see, Ms. Rarity has been taken ill lately and thus was unable to work on the designs of these dresses properly until today, resulting in her rushing to complete them for the show tonight and – as you can see – it's far from her best work; so I apologise for that and, rest assured, you won't see something like these dresses again if she has anything to say about it."

"Hmph, we shouldn't have seen them in the first place" said Hoity Toity, flipping his hair and turning, causing Winter to scowl in annoyance "anypony can see that the one who created these… atrocities is unfit to be called a fashion designer!"

"Listen you pompous…" Winter began before Rainbow cut in and started pushing him backstage as he continued his rant about Hoity Toity.

"Err… now now Winter, no need for rash actions against the business man" Rainbow said as she pushed him back and off stage.

Scene Change: Carousel Boutique

The ponies involved in the fashion show fiasco were all assembled outside Rarity's bedroom door as she was having a nervous breakdown inside and they were deciding what to do.

"So what should we do now?" Twilight asked them all worriedly.

"Panic?" asked Fluttershy to Rainbow's annoyance.

"That's your answer for everything!" she said, getting a glare from Winter for her attitude.

"I could break in and make sure she's not doing anything drastic" said Winter, getting odd looks from the other ponies.

"Why would you do that?" asked Twilight, looking scandalized at the thought of it.

"Meh, I'm legally allowed to do it if I think she's a danger to herself or other ponies" he explained to confused looks from the mares there, causing him to elaborate further "it's an old law from after the Nightmare Moon incident, but I have to have clad-iron proof that I was doing it because I thought it was best for the pony in question, otherwise I'll be getting very well acquainted with our Solar Overlord's dungeons and lecture theatre."

"Well Ah don't think we need to resort to that just yet, but Ah DO think we need to do somethin' to get her out of this funk of hers" interjected Applejack which caused Pinkie's mind to go to a rather odd place.

"Ooh, if we don't help her out, she could become a crazy cat lady!" said Pinkie, looking terrified at the thought and getting weird looks from the other ponies.

"She only has ONE cat" deadpanned Twilight to which Pinkie responded with a warning about time and everypony rolled their eye at her antics, then Twilight looked through the keyhole to see if she couldn't find something of use in getting Rarity out of there and here gaze landed on the original design of Rarity's dress, quickly she used her magic to roll up the designs and slide them through the keyhole.

"Maybe we could make this for her, it might cheer her up a bit" said Twilight, showing them the designs and Fluttershy admitted that she could make the dress in question.

"There's still the matter of her reputation being in tatters" muttered Winter thoughtfully as the mares looked down as it was their fault before Winter's head shot up "AH! I have an idea, you five make the dress, I'll deal with fixing Rarity's reputation."

Scene Change: Outside

A little while later, Fluttershy had completed Rarity's dress and Rainbow had lured her out to see it, resulting in Rarity being chuffed to bits with it and forgiving her friends which left only the issue of her reputation being in pieces but – as luck (or Winter) would have it – Hoity Toity was walking by and saw them.

"Alright, let's get this over with" he said, looking around as if scared something would jump out at him, the group then went into the Carousel Boutique where Rarity quickly made five more dresses to match her original designs and the other five set up a stage while Hoity sat down and made himself comfortable.

"Take Two" he said as Spike closed the curtains and Rarity used her magic to turn the stage purple with stars flying out and they then manifested as Twilight wearing her dress "Hello? Well this can't be the same designer…"

"It wasn't" came Winter's voice from next to him, causing him to jump and recoil in fear "Rarity may have made the first set of dresses, but she was in no way responsible for the designs of them. What you see here are her original first designs for them."

"Really now?" asked Hoity nervously, edging away from the white stallion before getting distracted by Rarity's other designs "Remarkable, simply remarkable, who is the pony responsible for such wonders? Step forward and show yourself!"

Rarity stepped forward, a light blue light shining from her horn and wearing her dress (which suited her perfectly, not that Winter could see because her light was blinding him) and causing Hoity Toity to go bonkers over it, causing Rarity to thank them all.

The mares split up to admire their outfits and Hoity Toity wanted to stock Rarity's dresses in his Canterlot shop and asked for a dozen of each by "next Tuesday"

"Spike, take a note for Princess Celestia please" said Twilight before a voice from the door caused them all to jump and whirl around to find out who it was.

"Why not tell me in person, Twilight?" asked the Princess, causing all the ponies in the room to hurriedly bow due to her unexpected visit.

"Really? Haven't you ever heard of knocking?" grumbled Winter quietly but the Princess still heard him and smiled at him mischievously.

"Yes but I couldn't miss the chance of scaring you out of your wits Winter, and I must say: your face was truly priceless" she replied, causing the Element bearers and Spike to laugh at his misfortune and the stallion in question to roll his eyes good naturedly "well, haven't you got something to tell me Twilight?"

"Oh… yes Princess" said Twilight quickly before clearing her throat "Today my friend Rarity here learned that if you try to please everypony, you often end up pleasing nopony and I learned that if somepony does something really generous for you – like making you a beautiful now dress – you shouldn't be overly critical of it…"

"In short, you should never look a gift horse in the mouth" finished Celestia, smiling at her until Winter chimed in.

"We also learned that Rarity's the only competent fashion designer among us" he said with an eye smile, causing Rarity to blush and the others to laugh.

"Actually now that you mention it: how DID you get Hoity Toity over here, Winter?" asked Rarity, knowing Winter had something to do with his presence there, causing the other mares (including our favourite white Alicorn) to look at him curiously, wondering the same.

"Well…" Winter began, thinking back to the event with a sweat drop.

FLASHBACK

"Excuse me Mr. Toity" said Winter, galloping up to him as he finally found him in Sugarcube Corner after looking since they split up earlier.

"What is it, don't you know my time is extremely valuable?!" barked the fashion designer, causing Winter to grit his teeth.

'Keep calm, remember this is for Rarity's sake, not yours' he thought as he put on a friendly face "Well I was wondering if you would go and see Rarity's new designs."

"And why would I do that after the first pieces of trash?"

"I told you, those were rushed things, she's spent a lot more time on these since recovering from her illness and they are truly exceptional"

"Tch, and why should I believe you? What would a stupid Unicorn from a backwater town know about fashion?"

"Because… you know what, I've had it with you!" started Winter before finally losing his grip on his temper slightly and pulling out a rolling pin from under his cloak "I've tried being nice, I've tried reasoning and I've tried diplomacy. But you have just been a pompous windbag and thrown it in my face! So get down to the Carousel Boutique or I'll deflate you the hard way!"

"Are you threatening me?" demanded Hoity Toity, drawing himself up and meeting Winter's angry glare "because I will not be intimidated by…"

"No, I'm telling you to GET YOUR FLANK MOVING!" Winter interrupted, whacking him on the head with the rolling pin and then chasing him out with it over his head, shouting "HORRIBLE OLD WINDBAG, FOR EVERY MINUTE YOU'RE NOT THERE I'LL GIVE YOU A SOUND BONKING!" as they left and confusing Derpy as she walked in and saw the commotion.

"Err… who annoyed Winter this time?" she asked awkwardly and everypony responded with "HOITY TOITY!" before an ice blue cloud of smoke appeared in front of her and manifested into a note, she opened it and saw that it read "Sorry about that Derpy – from Winter". She shook her head at his antics.

FLASHBACK END

"…With my charm and good looks of course" Winter finished with an eye smile, causing all the mares (and Spike) to face fault at his answer before Rainbow turned to Celestia.

"Not that we mind your visit or anything, your majesty, but why are you here?" she asked, voicing the question that was on everypony's mind.

"Well, I came to see Winter about his fireworks for the Gala, normally a guard would do this but I wanted to see Twilight and all of you, so I came instead" she answered, causing the Element bearers to look at each other and Winter to walk forwards.

"Well, let's get this over with quickly so you can spend some time with your student" he said as both he and Celestia left, both headed for his hut as Celestia smirked.

"Why Winter, one would think you didn't want to spend time with me and I came all this way to see you…" she said to him dramatically causing him to roll his eyes and carry on, which resulted in her frowning slightly and muttering "killjoy, even Dark on duty was more fun than you are. If I wanted to talk to a statue, I'd go into the gardens or talk to a guard. Why does no-pony talk to me like a friend anymore?"

'Huh? Is she really that lonely?' Winter wondered as he overheard her statement and turned to look at her "once you've inspected my fireworks, do you want to "hang out" as Dash would put it?"

"I can? Really?" asked Celestia, her face lighting up like a Christmas tree and when Winter nodded, she almost appeared to be blinding with how excited she was before rambling about what she wanted to do until she said something that caused Winter to give her a weird look "…tea with oranges and lemons and pineapples… wait a minute, I don't like pineapples, do I…? What?"

"I'm sorry, pineapples? Why would you suggest such a thing? If there were a more pointless fruit, I have yet to see it…" started Winter, going on a rant about pineapples which caused Celestia to smile before her eyes widened as she saw a silhouette of an Alicorn with a blood red mane, tail and eyes stand behind Winter and say the exact same words as him, their voices mingling to form one "… inedible, ugly to look at, you can't use it to bonk some sense into ponies without causing grievous bodily harm or brain damage and that's just the beginning of it! Honestly, I don't know what Faust was doing when she created pineapples but if I ever meet her I'm going to tell her exactly what I think of those thrice accursed… what?"

Celestia had descended into a fit of laughter that had ended up with her rolling around on the floor with tears streaming down her face, after about ten minutes, she'd finally calmed down enough to answer Winter's question.

"I'm sorry, but you reminded me of a pony that I knew well, your little speech on pineapples was almost identical to one he gave when we first tried them… I think you two would get on well" she said, smiling at the memory of her and Dark's first taste of a pineapple as she finally stopped laughing before muttering "even if he had more of a sense of humour than you do."

"What happened to him?" asked Winter, while feeling a bit offended at the remark about his sense of humour 'That was rude, seeings as I was standing RIGHT HERE! Typical Celestia, as blunt as an angry and blind rhinoceros in a china shop when she's not playing the part of Princess'

"I wish I knew, I've not seen him in years" she replied, grin fading and a sad look coming to her face "thought I found him about 400 years ago in one of the larger cities but it was just a Pegasus that looked like him." Here she laughed bitterly "imagine that: your ruler couldn't tell a Pegasus from an Alicorn."

'Huh, she really misses me, perhaps I…' Winter thought before a memory unbidden came to the forefront of his mind.
"THIS WHOLE SITUATION WAS YOUR FAULT! YOUR PRESENCE CAUSED MY DEAR SISTER TO TURN INTO THAT… MONTER! IF YOU REALLY WANT TO PROTECT ME THEN YOU CAN PROTECT ME BY LEAVING! I NEVER WANT TO FIND YOU IN MY SIGHT AGAIN!" Celestia's voice, riddled with fury tore through his ears like it was only yesterday, the volume making his head hurt and the words themselves sending a knife into his heart that caused him to visibly wince in pain, only his sheer force of will keeping him standing and Celestia looked visibly concerned for him.

"Winter?" she asked, there was no reply.

'No, she ordered me away from her for her own protection. I will NEVER willingly endanger her while I still draw breath; even if one of those dangers happens to be me, I WILL protect her from them all until I die' he thought while Celestia tried to get his attention.

"Winter" she said, a little louder and firmer, he turned to look at her, blood red eyes locking with violet "are you alright?"

"I'm fine, a bad memory is all."

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No thanks, it was ages ago and I've made peace with it"

'He's/I'm lying' the two thought at the same time before they reached Winter's hut. After inspecting Winter's inventory for the Gala, Winter brewed a pot of tea and the two sat just making idle conversation until the Element bearers burst into his house, probably looking for the princess.

"Ah, you're here. Care to join us?" Winter asked, levitating a few cups and pulling up a few chairs, the mares accepted his offer and the rest of the day was just spent conversing with each other, telling jokes and laughing at Winter and Rainbow's antics. It actually made Celestia look forward to the Grand Galloping Gala for once.

'Well now, this years Gala should be fun, pity I'll be on meet-and-greet duty because I'd love to spend a bit more time getting to know Winter, he seems like a most interesting pony' Celestia thought, looking at him over her tea cup as he laughed at something Rainbow had said and saw the silhouette of Dark over him again, causing her to recoil almost unnoticeably as the apparition grinned at her, winked and then disappeared 'Dark's absence must be hitting me harder than I thought, I'm seeing him in Winter and that's just preposterous! Dark would never be as stupid as to hide right in front of me and expect me to be fooled. No, he's probably right on the edges of Equestria if not outside of it by now; still, I will find him, I need to apologise and let him know that order no longer stands…'

"That pony is certainly of interest, I shall need to watch him in future… " could've been heard deep within Celestia's subconscious (if anypony other than Celestia (and she wasn't listening, as she was too distracted by her own thoughts) was in there) as a pair of yellow eyes watched with great interest "Winter Shield, just WHO are you?"

Author's Note:

Right, that's all for today folks; as you can see, I've literally brought the current chapters of my Fanfiction.net story over to FIMFiction and I'm working on the next chapter now.
Sorry it took so long but RL was really hectic over the last couple of weeks and this was the first real chance I had to transfer my chapters over. Let me know what you think of them or just leave a general comment, since I'm still new to FIMFiction as an author, I'd really like to get to know my readers. Also would you like my Author's Notes at the bottom of the page to be like they are on Fanfiction.net where I basically summarise the story with a different character each time? As I said, let me know what you think, but please follow my reviewing rules which are: phrase your feedback in a polite and comprehensible manner and try to provide examples of areas that need improvement if possible.
Right,I think I've wased enough of your time with my rambling, so Until Next Time,
Darth Annihilator - out.

Comments

[Betoran]

This is incredible, can't wait for the next chapters :D

[sakuralovelight]

I just started reading this story and I like it so far hope to read more soon.