Tugged on his Heartstrings

by FlimFlamBros.

Old Feelings...

“Well son? Do you love the mare your with?”

It had been a sad day when she had move away, he could remember it well. His best friend was leaving to go off on an adventure into the world, she had to follow her calling just like it was his to stay in Canterlot to complete his guard training. Back then, and he had just recently been promoted to Captain of the Royal Guard, his family had been incredibly proud during the moment, even threw him a celebration dinner, inviting all of his relatives and friends. Among those friends, was Lyra.

“Hey Shiny!” the green unicorn had said, giving Armour a friendly hug. “So what’s all this for? Something big happen?”

“Very funny,” he laughed. “I’m so glad you could make it Lyra, it means a lot to me.”

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she beamed, walking pass Shining Armour and into the house. “So who else is here?”

“Parents, uncles, aunts, a few friends of my parents…” the white stallion listed.

“I meant our friends, dummy.”

“Oh right,” chuckled Shining. “We’re all hanging out in my room, c’mon.”

The two had made their way to his room, politely nudging by relatives, who would congratulate Shining Armour on his promotion. His other friends were already lounging around his room. His one friend, Colgate, a light blue unicorn whose mane resembled toothpaste, was sitting on the ground with another unicorn, a pink coated mare named Amethyst. The two were in a seemingly heated game of go fish at the current moment.

“Got any threes?” asked Colgate, not looking away from her cards.

“Go fish…” replied Amethyst, smiling as Colgate muttered something under her breath. “Got any tens?”

“Dang it!” sighed the blue mare, throwing her ten of hearts to Amethyst. “That’s the fourth time in a row! How are you so good at this game?”

“It’s easy when I can see your cards in the mirror,” chimed the piny unicorn, giggling as she pointed out the angled mirror behind Colgate. “Want to play again?

“You cheated!” growled the blue unicorn. “Why would I want to play with a cheater?!”

“Calm down, Toothpaste,” teased Amethyst, sticking her tongue out at her opponent. “It’s just a game.”

“Yeah, that you cheated on!” barked Colgate, “And don’t call me Toothpaste!”

“Then stop styling your mane like it.”

“It’s like this naturally! Unlike somepony I know!”

“What are you implying, Toothpaste?” snarled Amethyst.

“I’m SAYING that at least I don’t have to spend three hours to make my mane look half decent!”

“Are you saying I have bad hair?”

“I don’t know? Am I, cheater?!”

“You tell me, Toothpaste!”

The two continued to argue, neither of them refusing to back down, both convinced that they were right, and that the other was just overreacting.

“Cheater!”

“Toothpaste!”

Suddenly, the two ponies stopped arguing with each other. They both immediately started to cry and collapsed into one another arms.

“I’m sorry, Colgate!” cried Amethyst, apologizing to her friend. “I shouldn’t have cheated!”

“No, I’m sorry!” sniffed Colgate, “I over reacted, it was just a game!”

“I swear,” giggled a voice from beyond the door of the room. “I’ve been casting my forgiveness spell on these two for hours.”

All the ponies turned around, seeing Cadence kneeling against the doorframe, her horn glowing a light blue as she smiled at her friends.

“Hey Lyra, glad you finally made it,” said the young princess.

“Cadence, what’s up girl?” chimed the green pony. “It’s been a while.”

“We were hanging out yesterday…”

“Exactly!” laughed Lyra, as she pounced onto her friend, locking Cadence in a headlock, scrunching up her yellow and purple mane. “I can’t stand being away from my little buddy!”

“He-Hey!” laughed the alicorn, trying to defend herself against the noogy of her friend. “Somepony help me!”

Whack!!

One of Shining’s pillows was whipped across the room, slamming right into Lyra’s face, causing her to release Cadence.

“Oh you did not just—“

Whack!!

Colgate threw another pillow at the mare. “PILLOW FIGHT!!” she screamed, grabbing yet another pillow and swinging it at Amethyst beside her, who was too stunned to dodge the blunt of the soft weapon.

All chaos was unleashed as feathers started to fly. Pillow projectiles flew across the room and no pony was safe. Lyra had entered a temporary truce with Amethyst as they hid behind an old chest. Colgate and Cadence were on the far side of the bed, hiding and plotting their next move. Shining Armour, who had been confused and attacked throughout the skirmish, was left standing in the middle of his bedroom, and he was completely defenseless.

“Get him girls!” yelled Lyra, throwing her pillow at the idle stallion, the pillow hitting him square in the face. Soon all four of the mares had teamed up against Shining, bombarding him with a barrage of fluff and playful laughter. When the feathers had cleared, and the damage done, Shining Armour was left defeated under a large pile of wrinkled pillows and feathers.

“Victory!” laughed Amethyst, peeking up from behind her cover. “We win!”

“Hey Shiny?” asked Lyra. “Are you okay…”

“Oh…” moaned the white stallion, shifting from underneath the pillows.

“Did we hurt him?” asked Cadence.

“I don’t think so, they are just pillows… Oh no!” gasped Colgate.

“What?”

“Shining has all the pillows…” gulped Colgate.

Suddenly, the pile of pillows levitated off of the young colt. He was completely fine, better than fine, he had a large evil grin on his face as he looked at all the shocked mares.

“First rule of war, ladies,” said, readying his arsenal. “Lure your enemy into a false sense of security, then…” his brow deepened and his smile grew more sinister. “UNLEASH TOTAL CHAOS!!!”

The mares didn’t stand a chance. They were all knocked back from the sudden outburst of feathery death--the death part being quite exaggerated--and they all fell to the might of Shining Armour. The colt stood there triumphantly in his victory.

“I’m not the new Captain of the Royal Guards for nothing you know!” he gloated. “I’ve trained to deal with real life combat situations, I think I can take some girls in a pillow fight—“

“KAMIKAZE!!” screamed Lyra, leaping from out behind the bed and jumping onto Shining, pinning his back to the floor. “Now who can’t take a girl?” she laughed.

It was weird, as he stared up at her, if felt sort of… He couldn’t explain the feeling, but it was something. The way she laughed, it was like a sweet musical to his ears, every high pitch giggle like a thousand songbirds chirping. He noticed her face, her flawless green coat, her silver like silk mane, and those eyes. Eyes that glowed in the shadow of his ceiling light, lighting up the darkness, eyes that were golden as a coin, that while looked away to others, still glimmered towards him. It was in that moment, he had felt something he had never felt since that day.

His heart started to beat faster, yet he was not nervous. He had the cool of a soldier. It felt like it was heating up, catching on fire as it kept beating faster and faster, like it was going to explode, it was stressed.

Like it would be tugged out of his body by his heartstrings…

He was in a trance, speechless, no words to be said. It was hard to breathe as he was drowned in this sea of foreign emotions. He had once asked himself what that feeling was, but he knew all too well what it was.

True love.

“Umm Armour, are you okay?”

“Hah...” mumbled Shining, still far away in dreamland.

“I said are you okay?” repeated Lyra, who was now staring deep into his eyes.

Shining Armour shook out of his trance, returning to reality. “Yeah...yeah I’m fine.”

“Good, cause I totally kicked your flank!” laughed the green mare, getting off of Shining, his heart seemingly jerking as she rose. “Anyways, I think I heard your mom calling for us. We better not keep everypony waiting.”

She trotted out the door, slowly followed by Cadence. Colgate whispered something into Amethyst ear, causing her to laugh before they too left the room.

The rest of that evening was mostly uneventful, filled lots of good food and conversation. There was more than a few toasts for Shining Armour and his accomplishments, as well a couple of laughs and an overabundance of appreciation and love for the new Captain. But this was all a blur to him, he hardly noticed the taste of his favorite meal, or the praise and admiration that his family showered him with, all he could focus was Lyra, the green mare chewing on a carrot stick while jabbing her peas with a fork. Why did he feel this way about her, and why now? Had he had these feelings but never realized it? Did she cast some sort of spell on him as another joke? No, this wasn’t a joke or fake, this was real. His heart ached for her with true, undying affection, and it was driving him mad inside.

When the dinner had concluded and the guests had said their thanks and final congratulations, it was time for everypony to go home. He had so graciously offered to walk his friends home that night, as Celestia had just raised the moon (Luna was still banished away on the moon during this) and it had gotten quite dark. They all walked in a group, talking about this and that as they went. Amethyst only lived down the block, and Colgate just twenty minutes from there. Soon, it was just Cadence, Lyra, and him.

“I think I’m going to fly the rest of the way,” said Cadence, as she opened up her wings. “Auntie Tia wants me up for some redundant lectures about something.”

“Are you sure?” asked Shining Armour. “I don’t mind walking to the castle.”

“No, it’ll take me five minutes to fly from here, four times faster if we were to walk,” she winked. “Just walk Lyra home and get some sleep. I’ll see you tomorrow, ‘Captain Armour,’” she said, before taking off into the moonlight, quickly disappearing into the darkness.

“So…” pondered Lyra, looking at Shining. “To my house?”

“Yeah,” nodded Armour, as the two walked down the road. There was an awkward silence in the air, and a tension that could be cut with a knife. There was a million and a half things that Armour wanted to say, but his mouth wasn’t working, and his heart was racing again. The mere presence of this mare drove him crazy with lustful desire, and it almost frightened him how quickly his feelings for her had escalated.

“That was some pillow fight we had,” Lyra said, finally ending the silence.

“What? Oh yeah! That was pretty fun,” chuckled Shining, his heartbeat beating harder than before. “I got you all pretty good there at the end.”

“Not me!” laughed the green unicorn. “I got the jump on you there!”

“Yeah… Jump.”

“So what was up with you staring at me all during supper?” she asked.

Shining froze dead in his tracks, his heart skipping a fast paced beat. “What?”

“And what was up with you staring at me during that pillow fight?”

“Huh?”

“You’ve been acting kind of weird tonight,” Lyra said, turning around to face the young steed. “Like when I tackled you, and you were staring at me so…intensely.”

“I was?” gulped Shining, sweat starting to drip down his brow. “Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize,” said Lyra. “Nothing wrong, it’s just that… You’ve never stared at me like that before, it was like you were looking at me differently or something.” She took a step closer to him.

“Really? Sorry I must have—yeah I’m sorry.”

“You seemed like you wanted something, needed something…” she took another step.

“Lyra—I.”

“You desired it…”

“I—“

“Craved it…” her face was now inches away from his, he could feel her warm breath brush against his face. “It was almost as if…”

“I wanted to kiss you,” Shining finished, closing the gap between their mouth. He couldn’t stand to be apart for a second longer. He needed to feels her lips against his. The roaring fire within his stomach still hungered as he brushed his hoof down her mane, feeling every smooth strand of it as it fell gracefully down her face. He was happy but something was wrong.

“No…” whimpered Lyra, as she parted prematurely from the kiss. Something was wrong, she did not kiss her back, had he read the signals wrong? Where there any to begin with?

“What’s wrong?” he asked, the happiness he had felt moments earlier had evaporated, leaving nothing but worry and doubt.

“I can’t,” she cried, a perfect clear tear rolling down her minty check. “I can’t… Not with you.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry!” Lyra cried, running away from Shining, her bright green coat becoming shaded by the night.

“Lyra, wait!” he had called out, but she was long gone. He was crushed, broken, dejected, and miserable. But, worst of all, he was in love.

“Well?” his old captain’s voice seemed to ring in his head again. “Do you love her?”

Comments

[mageli7]

“Well son? Do you love the mare your with?”

It's you're, as in, do you love the mare you are with? Sorry, that has been bugging me for sooo long!

[alexanderhunt88]

Why are all Shining's friends mare's?