Reflecting Shield

by Evilhumour

Chapter 3

Chapter Three

I woke up to a familiar screeching noise that had me wishing I could smash that damn alarm clock. Lunging out blindly only caused me to get tangled in my blanket, falling out of bed in the process.

After silencing the blaring alarm, I let out a massive yawn before shaking myself in an attempt to wake up.

Throwing the blanket to the ground and chucking the apple core near the garbage, I stretched out a bit before trying to decide what I should do on my second day off.

With a noncommittal shrug, I grabbed my bits and decided to do some grocery shopping.

Of course, when I opened my front door, I did not expect to see a Princess bending down in front of me.

She might have said something nice, like hello or something like that but I didn’t know as I let out a squawk of surprise and did what I did whenever someone got too close to my face, and socked whomever it was in the face.

Watching in horror as the Princess stumbled to the side, I realized that I had just punched a bucking Princess of Equestria.

“Good morning to you as well, Miss Shield,” Cadance said, holding a hoof to her eye. “Do you wake up every morning and punch the first pony you see?”

“I didn’t realize it was you,” I squeaked out, feeling an all-too-familiar surge of warmth to my face. “I… don’t like ponies getting close to me.” Turning, I raced to my freezer to get some ice for the Princess I just punched in the bucking face! “I’m so sorry, I just have a hard time not reacting negatively when somepony gets directly in my face.”

“Miss Shield,” a voice behind me said, reminding that I was being too slow and I was rambling.

“I’m sorry your highness,” I said again, somehow shifting through my empty freezer, my heart hammering in my head. No ice, so frozen bag of stuff? Did you give a Princess a bag of frozen peas or carrots when you punch a Princess in the fac- oh sweet Tartarus I was going to go to jail!

“Miss Shield,” Cadance’s voice came again, firmer than before. Grabbing a bag of frozen whatever, I sheepishly turned around to see her sitting on my sofa/bed with a bag of ice in her magic aura. “I am alright Miss Shield, so you can calm down.”

“Oh,” I said with a small voice. “Right. Magic. I forgot about that.” I then turned back around to toss my frozen… cabbages? back into my freezer before turning to the Princess in the room.

“Yet you are an unicorn?” she said with a tilt of her head, showing how much of a shiner she had on her right eye. Thank Celestia’s flank I held back enough that I only punched her instead of trying to knock her out or something.

“Yeah,” I said as I walked over to her, my sofa the only place to sit down besides the floor. “I tend not to use my magic, don’t want to get too dependent on it.” With that semi-lie out of my mouth, I looked at my messy room before I spat out some more words as I wished I had bothered to clean up. “Frankly, I could go days without really using it.”

“An interesting approach,” she said with a light chuckle in her voice, which I guessed was meant to try and calm me. It did nothing of the sort, my heart screaming in my head as I sat next to her. “I take it that is why you are so deft at using your hooves so efficiently?” I think she said it with a teasing tone, the jamming beats in my ears were kinda blocking out other sounds.

“Yes,” I said, twiddling my hooves in a bout of nerves. “That and my angry wall.” Why did I mention my angry wall?

“Your angry wall?” she asked with a confused look on her face, blinking at me.

Groaning as I rubbed my face, I pointed at my angry wall, pockmarked with my hooves’ imprints from all the times I’d bucked and punched it. “I use it to vent my anger since I can’t afford to go to the gym,” I said as I rubbed my foreleg, ignoring the other broken angry walls lying near the current angry wall I’d hammered in and wishing I’d thrown those out.

“My,” Cadance puckered her lips together, staring at the abused wall thoughtfully.. “It seems you have a lot of anger for somepony so young.”

“I’ve got my reasons,” I shrugged as I tried to push some garbage under my sofa with my hoof, before looking up and seeing Cadance smirk at me, causing me to feel another jolt of panic. “Sorry your highness about the mess. I don’t have anypony over, and I didn’t expect anypony to come here, and I know that this is a complete mess but I can’t do better and-”

I was suddenly aware of a hoof pushing on my back, causing me to yelp in complete fright as it held me in place.

“Breathe, Miss Shields,” Cadance said in my ear, leaning over me. “Breathe in, breathe out. In, out.” She spoke in a soft tone as she hovered over me, my mind racing to what my mom had told me.

“Get off of me,” I snapped, shoving her to the side with my shoulder, my teal coloured magic helping me get the alicorn out of my personal space. Jumping to my hooves, I was barely able to restrain myself from lashing out at her but I really didn’t want to go to jail because I gave a Princess another black eye! Standing in front of my angry wall, I focused all of my pent-up frustration into a punch. Letting out a sigh of relief, I grabbed a nearby towel to wipe away the blood as I shot Cadance a guilty look. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t like ponies touching me.” It was very unusual for a herd species like ours to hate contact from our own kind, but I did not want to go into it.

Thank you mom for giving me your baggage.

...Wow, I feel like utter crap now.

“It’s alright, Miss Shield,” Cadance said, raising her hooves in an open manner as she looked at my hoof, still dripping in blood. “I am sorry that I made you upset.”

“It’s okay,” I said as I walked back over to her, pressing the towel onto my hoof. “It just takes me a bit of time to let others get near me like you did and it just tripped something inside myself. You know, the old fight and flight instinct?” I said with a light chuckle, rubbing the back of my head before realizing I was using my bloody hoof. Oh great, I would need another shower.

“I understand, Miss Shield,” Cadance chuckled again, maybe at me running the towel through my mane to try get rid of the blood or something else. “And may I say that I pity anypony that tries something with you.”

You and me both, sister. “Um…” I said as it suddenly dawned on me that I’d yet to ask about the Princess in the room… and now I realized how bad a phrase that was. “I was about to head out to do some grocery shopping but Prince-er, Cadance, why are you here? And how do you know where I live?” That last one was really bugging me now, my mind really picking at it.

“Oh, Little Bird told me,” she said with a coy smile on her face. “And I wanted to give you this.” She held up a sealed envelope before booping my nose with it.

Covering my nose with my hooves, I look at the letter before deciding I need to steer this conversation in the right direction. “A little birdie?” I asked, turning the letter over in my hooves in a nervous fashion.

“No, Little Bird told me where you lived as I asked him to make sure you got to your home safely,” Cadance said, nodding her head at a bucking massive tin pony that walked into my apartment - barely squeezing through the door and I’m pretty sure he took a coat of paint along the way in - as we had left the door wide open.

He was in the colours of the Crystal Empire, with a heart as the centerpiece. He was a bat pony, or a thestral, or nox pony, or whatever the Tartarus they were calling themselves this week. Seriously, they were the only species alive that actually could not figure out what to call themselves. I swear I once heard them call themselves one kind of pony and everypony else a different kind of pony. Like pegasi were feathered ponies, unicorn were magic ponies - also horny, but that didn’t last long after a unicorn thrashed a bat pony and nearly started a street brawl, but that was a story for another day that I wasn’t entirely sure was true - and so on.

“Wow, your parents were really off the mark when naming you,” I snarked at the tin pony. He simply offered me a smile that said he’d heard that line before and I felt a twinge of guilt for opening my mouth. But then again, he was a tin pony.

“I have heard from the grapevine, Reflecting Shield, that you were hostile to the Guards,” he said, breathing down at me. Sweet buck he was tall, and maybe it wasn’t a good idea to snark at him. “Among… other things,” he finished, eyes briefly flicking towards Cadance.

“And yet, Little Bird and Little Pebble refuse to say a word to me,” Cadance sighed playfully. “Something to do with the Guards themselves?”

“Yeah,” I sighed, somewhat amazed that my past had reached the Crystal Empire as an equally tall and massive earth pony came into the room, glaring down at me. “So… again, why are you here? I mean, this was for here if I didn’t catch you but since you are here...” I trailed off awkwardly.

“Well, Miss Shield, I was hoping to introduce you to somepony I know,” she said with another of her soft smiles. “As I did run into you,” she chuckled as she moved the ice away from her eye, causing both tin ponies to gasp a bit before glaring daggers at me. “Or your hoof as the case was, I hope that you can accompany me to meet my dear friend.”

“Oh,” I said as excuses ran through my head. As always, the best lies were the ones that were true. “I can’t really just go, I mean, I just woke up and I am a complete mess, and I need to do my grocery shoppi-”

“Miss Shield,” Cadance interrupted my rambling with a hoof reaching out to me before pulling back. “You look fine, even a bit cute right now with your ruffled-up mane, you seem alert enough and I can ask Little Pebble and Little Bird to stock your fridge while we are out.”

Oh Tartarus, a fully stocked fridge? There was no way I could pass that up, even if it was only temporary.

Doing my best to fight the blood racing to my face and stamping down the irritation that they probably thought that I couldn’t provide for myself, I licked my lips and nodded my head. “I guess that works, Cadance,” I said, getting to my hooves as my stomach grumbled. “Uh, thanks for this.”

“No problem, Miss Shield,” Cadance said while looking at her two tin ponies before nodding at them to go ahead. With a grumble from Little Bird, Cadance said, “I am still an alicorn, my little ponies, and if Miss Shield does try something, I can defend myself. So please do as I asked.” I wanted to point out that I nearly knocked her on her plot with a single punch but that seemed like a horrible idea. With a stiff bow, both of her tin ponies left my apartment, leaving us alone.

Looking over at the Princess, I saw she was standing upright now, with her eye covered up by her magic which was something I should look into learning how to do in the future. “Shall we?” she asked with a wing extended.

With a bob of my head, I cast one last look around my apartment before following the princess out.

Comments

[Asolem2]

“Yes,” I said, twiddling my hooves in a bout of nerves. “That and my angry wall.” Why did I mention my angry wall?

Cause you're panicking

With a bob of my head, I cast one last look around my apartment before following the princess out.

What'd I tell ya, your life just got a whole lot more interesting