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In Full

"I would like to join the Guard, Sir."

Shining looked at the earth pony in front of him, a little confused. Dusty blue coat, gold mane and tail with orange stripes, a sealed letter as his cutie mark. Not anypony he'd ever seen or even heard of. "How did you get in?"

"The door was open, Your Highness." The stallion looked towards the end of the corridor, at the door left slightly ajar. "I would like to join the Gaurd."

"Did you not notice the world shaking?" asked Shining.

"Yes." The stallion stared at Shining with the charisma of a goldfish, and with almost the same expression. "That's why I'm here. I feel I should contribute to helping the Empire, Sir."

Shining opened his mouth to speak, but said nothing, blinking and raising a hoof as he tried to think about the situation. "Shiny?" Cadence's voice came from the nearby room, shaking him out of his pause.

"Is this not a good time?" the other stallion asked.

"Uh." Shining cleared his throat. "Just a moment, dear," he shouted. He didn't want to be mean to the pony, but the circumstances they were in were still pretty close to an emergency. "Yes, this isn't exactly the best time for this. If you could just wait until we've properly addressed the situation-"

"Of course, Sir!" The pony gave a salute, but didn't move. "I'll wait here until your other duties no longer require your attention." He still didn't move, almost frozen in place. "My name is Paper Letters, by the way." He continued not to move.

Shining stared him up and down, still somewhat confused by the situation. "Okay. I'll be going, then."

Paper gave a short nod.

"Right." Shining left the corridor and moved to the room where Cadence was waiting for him. And a few minutes later he left the room and passed through the corridor again, Cadence walking alongside him, and they both spotted Paper still standing in the same spot he'd been left in. He gave them both a salute, possibly his only motion since Shining had walked away from him. The two rulers shared a look, and Cadence walked down the corridor while Shining stopped behind for a moment. "Look, there's actually a whole set of procedures to join the Guard, and I'm not really the pony you should be asking about it. Here, here are all the instructions you should need." He passed Paper a folded piece of paper.

Paper took it in his hoof. "Thank you, Your Highness." He opened it and began to read it over. "I shall join the Guard as swiftly as possible, Your Highness." Without looking away from the paper he held in one hoof, he began to walk back towards the door.

Shining looked at him go, still weirded out, then shook his head and turned to follow his wife, quickening his pace to catch up with her. He could only hope Paper wouldn't get himself or anyone else in too much trouble. But he did seem to have good intentions, at least.

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