Shining Armor -- For a Shining Future
Written by: Violet Lenoir
Rated Everyone
The Equestrian capital city of Canterlot, blessed by the presence of both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, was witnessing the most beautiful sight in Equestria. On the horizon, clearly visible to most of the city because the city resided near a mountain top, the sun could be witnessed as it slowly ascended from the horizon into the sky as dawn broke.
The dawning sunlight found its way across the nation, into Canterlot, and into a modest sized house in Canterlot’s resident district. The sunlight was filtered further into a large master bedroom with a king sized poster bed that held no one sleeping in it. Instead, an open door in the corner leading to the bathroom let the sound of running water be heard. In the bathroom stood a white stallion with a three tone blue mane. His cutie mark, a purple star-burst--reminiscent of a certain element of magic--on top of a blue shield was covered by stray white hairs as the stallion had just left the shower, and was preparing to leave for work.
The stallion looked into his own eyes in the mirror and spoke to himself, “Alright Shining Armor. Today is another day of living the dream. Captain of the guard! It’s your job to protect the ponies of Equestria. No matter what.” Shining’s voice carried through his bathroom as he gave himself a pep talk. A sigh followed shortly after as he dried himself off and left the bathroom. He stared at the bed for a moment before leaving the bedroom altogether and made his way through the house.
Although large for a town like Ponyville, Shining’s house was quite modest for the city of Canterlot; especially for someone like the captain of the royal guard, as one could travel through it--taking time to admire each room--and have finished seeing through it within an hour or two. While not that large, it was filled with memorabilia from Shining’s family. A knickknack from an uncle here, a bauble from a cousin there... Though his family wasn’t large, they always found a way to be unique and special, even amongst themselves.
Shining glanced at each piece of memorabilia and gave a smile at each one, acknowledging each one’s existence, giving a special smile to the emblem his favorite uncle had once worn, before he made his way to the door to leave his house. He began walking down the silent streets of Canterlot towards the castle to begin his shift. As he had been a guard for so long, it was second nature to wake up just before the sun rose; so now, despite being a population center, there were few ponies on the streets to be seen and Shining could hear his own hooves clopping on the ground beneath him. It would’ve been eerie if he wasn’t used to doing it every day.
After a short time, the sun just barely in the sky now, Shining arrived at the guard barracks. He had the option of staying in his own house due to his diligence and position, but his charges weren’t so lucky. Once at the barracks, he got dressed in a set of armor like the rest of them, his own being repaired at the moment, but didn’t need to use any of the facilities like showers, due to preparing beforehoof. So he spent the rest of the preparation time deciding who was going to patrol what routes. After about twenty minutes of planning and letting his soldiers prepare, they began lining up outside the barracks for roll call. Shining watched with a diligent eye as those under his command, with their white, gray, and black coats almost completely covered in golden armor, began to line up. Shining was more lax with his guards than most captains, so they weren’t in a rush, but they didn’t lollygag either.
Still, when the rest of the guards were ready for several minutes and somepony was still missing, Shining had to intervene. “Has anypony seen Gilded Silver? He is missing from roll call!”
Some of the guards began looking around at each other and murmuring, until a mare stepped forward. “Sir, I recall seeing Gilded before he left the barracks last night. He had said he was going on a secret mission, but it was believed he went to fraternize at the new club in town. It is likely he was not able to contain himself and overindulged, sir.”
Shining Armor shook his head in disappointment. “We are already low enough on recruits that we can barely do our job as it is and he goes off gallivanting and disobeying orders?” Shining sighed deeply and rubbed a hoof against his temple ”Thank you, private. Would you--and his partner--mind retrieving him? That will be your job for today. Report upon success and I shall have a new assignment for you.” The mare saluted Shining Armor, who saluted in return as she and another stallion left to retrieve Gilded.
Shining walked up and down the line of the rest of the guards. “Attention! These will be your postings for the day!” He levitated the piece of paper he had been working on while they were preparing and began listing off assignments. One group patrol through Canterlot’s music district, another patrol for the castle, these guards stand in court today and so on.
Once the assignments for the guards were handed out, Shining turned to the mare that had been standing at his side for the latter half of assigning posts. He saluted her, and she saluted in turn. “Captain Shining Armor, Lieutenant Ruby.”
Shining nodded to her. “Proceed.”
Ruby, a pegasus, unfolded one of her wings to present a scroll. “I am here to deliver a message from Commander Aquilinus.” Ruby turned to the side to present the scroll to Shining. He levitated it out and began reading it.
Captain Shining Armor,
Due to a midnight call on the previous day, my own forces have been called elsewhere to deal with a problem outside of Canterlot. It would be my honor to request that you cover the sections of Canterlot that would be under my control for the next few days.
I would also like to apologize for the suddenness of the request, but the report was received but two hours before sunrise, so I expect you understand. Nevertheless, I shall compensate you for time taken, as I know your troops are few, and you will probably have to patrol yourself to cover everything.Yours with apologies,
Commander AquilinusP.S. When I get back, how about we go out for a few drinks and see that you enjoy yourself before that wedding of yours in a couple weeks, eh?
Shining lowered the letter and sighed again. He levitated it back to Ruby, lifting a few other parchments and a quill to him. “Lieutenant Ruby, would you be so kind as to deliver a few messages for me since your commander is currently not in the area to give you orders?” Ruby nodded. “Thank you.” Shining began to write something on one parchment--then another and another--until he had 5 tied scrolls, which he hoofed to Ruby, who furled each of them in her wings, holding multiple per wing. “One for your commander upon his return, one for each of the Princesses--you may wish to hurry for that before court opens or you’ll likely have to deal with some noble or another--and one for my Lieutenant; who should be heading to the courtroom now, so you can get that to him when you deliver the first one to Celestia. The last I’ll post myself.”
Ruby nodded and began trotting away to make her deliveries. Shining walked back to the barracks and posted the parchment on the outside. It read ‘Soldiers. Captain Shining Armor will be spending today patrolling Canterlot’s shopping district. If a message needs to be delivered, locate Lieutenant Prism, or send a message runner.’
Shining, having re-read the bulletin, began heading out towards Canterlot’s shopping district. First he had to proceed through the residential district again, as it was on the way. While not more than an hour and a half had passed since he had left his home, it was enough time for several more ponies to be up and about. Not as many as normal, but it was enough to make something of a crowd, and the streets were no longer eerily silent. Shining would nod to some of the faces he recognized, but mostly he kept moving without distractions.
When he arrived in the shopping district, he began moving with purpose. He would scan the crowds for anything with potential danger, glance through shops as he passed them, but overall very little happened in Canterlot that really called for the guard’s attention. Nevertheless, Shining was a captain for a reason and he intended to remain diligent. It was his job to protect the ponies of Equestria, after all.
As the sun rose to it’s zenith at noon, Shining had patrolled through the Canterlot shopping district three times. It had been an average day, but was no less tedious. Twenty minutes into his second round and a message runner had arrived delivering news that Gilded Silver had been found. He wrote a quick assignment to the team that found him and sent it off, along with a warning for Gilded to be prepared for when Shining returned for punishment. It wasn’t too long after noon had arrived that Shining found himself approached by two of Canterlot’s residents.
Typical of Canterlot behavior, the two of them approached Shining with their noses held high. They both appeared to be wearing simple shirts with a coat wrapped around their shoulders. The mare had pink pearl earrings and the stallion had a pair of simple oval reading glasses--despite not reading anything--that stayed just at the tip of his nose. They stopped in front of Shining Armor and the stallion spoke with a very typical haughty tone of voice. Shining mentally rolled his eyes as he began to speak, “Dear guard, it has come to our attention--” Did a stallion really need that much emphasis on a single word? “--that there has been a young mare who is not a resident of this town seen entering the castle. We do not believe she would have the privilege of such an honor and should be dealt with immediately.”
Shining stared at the two of them for a moment. They seemed to have mistaken him for a guard recruit. It was that moment when Shining remembered he was using ordinary armor because his was still being fixed after a small problem with some dangerous infestation of a creature that could eat just about anything, adorable though they were. “I see. Do you have any evidence that she did not have permission to enter the castle? If not, then I’m sure the guards at the castle did their job appropriately and let her in because that is where she is supposed to be.”
The mare seemed aghast for a moment. “That simply--” Again with the too much emphasis. “--cannot be, sir guard. She came from Ponyville--” She practically spit the word in her haughty accent “--of all places. Nopony from such a backwater town could possibly have access to the castle.”
Shining smiled at them for a moment. “I see. Ponyville you say. If it isn’t too much trouble, may I ask your names? It’s important to get as much information as possible when apprehending possible criminals.”
The stallion spoke. “Of course, how rude of me. I am Jet Set, and this,” He motioned to the mare. “Is my wife, Upper Crust.” Listening to them talk was like riding a roller coaster with that dang accent of theirs. “We would like to thank you for your consideration in this matter.”
Shining nodded. “You see, I am not considering this matter. My sister happens to live in Ponyville, you see. She happens to have connections to the castle. In fact, she is probably the most connected to the castle short of the Princesses and royal guards themselves, of which I happen to be Captain of. I know who I positioned at the castle this morning and they would not let somepony in who does not deserve to be there, so I would like to ask you two to be very cautious when calling on the guards in the future, because we will have our eyes open. We do not like being called to false acts. Good day madame Upper Crust, sir Jet Set. It is not flattering to know my job is defending ponies who are as rude as you two were trying to be to this young ma’am by accusing her of being a criminal.” Shining Armor immediately walked off, leaving the two ponies with their jaws hanging open.
Shining spent the next few hours going from one false call to another. While each could have been very valid, it always happened to be a misinterpretation of some sort, and at some point he was even roped into moving some furniture out of a shop called Quills and Sofas, all the while thinking to himself, ‘What kind of shop only sells quills and sofas?’
Suffice to say, Shining was not having a good day, and he was getting more upset as time passed, because most every day had been like this almost since the day he became captain. It really made him question his position as a guard when this was what every day was spent doing.
Just as dusk was starting to come about, however, a little colt ran up to him in a panic. “Help mister! Somepony is being hurt!”
Shining immediately grew serious, and bent down to the little colt. “Are you sure? Where are they?”
The colt nodded quickly and immediately took off down the street. Shining followed him without too much difficulty, as the crowds were much smaller again, when compared to the afternoon anyway. Shining quickly found himself outside an alleyway where the colt was pointing towards. “I heard a mare scream and looked and there was this stallion and he had a knife and and--”
Shining put a hoof in front of him, nodding solemnly. “Stay here.” The colt nodded and watched as Shining made his way down the alleyway slowly. There were no screams, but he thought he could hear muffled scuffling. He turned left down the alleyway and saw a stallion with a hood over his face and a skin tight suit to hide his coat and cutie mark. He was holding a knife at a mare as he held her mouth shut, trying to look through her purse at the same time. He was obviously not very good at this, but he was trying, and that was the problem.
“Halt! Cease your vile act or be held accountable under the judgement of the Princesses!” All unicorn guards could use an (admittedly) toned down version of the Royal Canterlot Voice and it was this voice Shining now used. The mugger immediately looked at Shining, dropping the knife at the same moment. He grabbed the purse in his mouth and immediately bolted down the alleyway, only to run into a solid purple magic force field. He looked back at Shining, his eyes terrified. Shining stepped closer and levitated the purse out of his mouth. He handed it to the mare with a smile, putting a force field between him and the mugger to prevent being blind-sided. “Get out of here, I’ll see to it that he gets punished.” The mare hurriedly nodded and left in a rush.
Shining turned back to the stallion. “I have you trapped now. I have sent a magic message to my lieutenant and there will be a pair of my own armed guards to take you back to the castle for punishment.” Shining’s look became softer as he looked at the mugger sadly. “I hope you realize how wrong you were in doing this and come to your senses. I don’t know what your punishment will be, it is not up to my discretion so don’t start talking to me about it. I’m sorry that whatever happened in your life drove you in this direction, but it was your choice.” At that moment a pair of guards arrived on the scene. Shining saluted them and they saluted back. Shining let the force field drop and they began to lead him away. Shining sighed, leaving the alleyway, only to find the colt that had led him there still there, wide eyed.
“Did you really save that lady from that bad guy? That is so cool! It must be awesome to be a guard!”
Shining looked at the kid sadly for a moment, before putting on a grin. “It’s our job to help ponies not get hurt, true. But our real goal is to prevent things like this from happening. Everypony is good, they just need to realize it first. My first goal as a guard is to encourage ponies to do better. Do you think you’ll be a good colt?”
The colt nodded enthusiastically. “I want a cutie mark that will make me a good guard!”
Shining shook his head. “Like I said, all we do is encourage good and protect ponies, no matter what. Any cutie mark could be used for that! You can become a guard no matter your special talent.”
The colt looked up at him with wide eyes and a large grin before trotting off.
Shining smiled as the colt trotted away. “No matter what, we protect the future of ponies and of goodness.” Shining began walking calmly back to the barracks to wrap everything up for the night and rest up to do it all again tomorrow.
Stats
Page generated in 0.031 seconds
Total duration
944 users online
103,095 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
While the premise is interesting, and I do intend to read this, for a brief moment the coverart made me think "Myst Crossover" and I was really leaping for joy at the prospect that there was a proper myst cross over being written*. Ah well, shall have to give it a look later.
*meaning not just toss Twilight or a pony into Myst, but crossing the theme/premise of myst with MLP FIM.
Suddenly, the bottom half is all centered! Whoops.
Anyway, I rather enjoyed this little view of Shiny's daily life before the wedding. It's nice to see how he did his job.
Very enjoyable.
Also, you might want to delete the editor's comments on the bottom.
1428338
I enjoyed reading them, personally.
The alignment switches to center after the postscript of Commander Aquilinus's letter. Thought you'd like to know.
All in all, I like what's been written so far. There are a few spelling, grammatical, and formatting errors that kind of threw me off, but that's a minor problem. I may just go through all of these one day and nitpick the hell out of them, but not today.
1428441 Whew, that's one heck of response. I thank you for taking your time to respond to my critique in such lengthy detail. Looking back, I see that perhaps my outlook was a bit skewed. I can see how this sort of thing can be amusing or comically pity-inducing - Again, perhaps I just wasn't in the right mindset when reading. Maybe I'll come back and read it again some time.
As far as Slice-of-Life, I know it's not all sunshine and flowers, but I think that a piece of fiction should be enjoyable, if not for a feel-good aspect, for the quality of the writing and overall entertainment. This story wasn't that way for me, at least the first time I read it. Once more, maybe I was just in a bad mood when I read this.
Also typos. Derp.
Weird... My story also has a pegasus named Ruby in the Royal Guard. Not a Lt., but the timeline is different than this story so it is possible...
Either way, an enjoyable read. I agree the centering can be a bit distracting, and I think "bad guy" is two words, but I liked it when I read it on gdocs, and I find I still enjoy it.
Shining Armor is best badflank.
1428338
Bollocks, one of these days I'll stop overlooking such things.
1428224
Thanks for that, fixed now.
1428475 1428548 1428567
Apparently my eye wandered more on this one than any other, since many people have made mention of typos. Must've been tired that day, or something. I'll give it another run through, eventually. Thanks.
1428441
This is where I would strongly suggest utilizing Author Support. We've got pre-readers, editors, and proofreaders galore all waiting to be utilized.
I want to go on official record here that I edited these very lightly. I fixed any immediate and absolutely incorrect problems I saw--but I held back quite a bit in many cases in regards to stylistic choices, or incorrect choices that aren't that big of a deal. These are not MY pieces, I wanted them to retain the essence of each writer.
As well, I disagree with statoose's suggestions, Raven (except the part for em dashes--I always support more people learning to love the dash, it is woefully underutilized). I wouldn't have left them in otherwise.
1428475
If you do, I would suggest talking to the authors themselves rather than just putting them on here.
1428567
Just a coincidence. I needed a message to be delivered, and the name Ruby for a pegasus LT. stuck out for me.
1428938
I concur, which is why I will be writing a story with him as one of the main characters soon. Need to figure out what i'm going to do exactly for it first though.
1428224
I agree. I was glad to write about his job. I had actually picked Shining solely because I wanted to write him, as I was one of the earlier people to sign up. First dozen probably.
1430536
I thought quills and sofas was only in Ponyville, unless they have expanded without my knowing about it.
Ok, after thinking about it... I was really impressed with the way Shining handled the thief. It's not to often that you see a police officer offer compassion like that, at least in my experience.
To me in this story anyway, it was like Shining hates his job but, he knows he has to do it. Just like in the real world to be a cop you gotta hate it, or else you won't be good at it or be able to handle the evil the real human world holds.
~LATEP