The Orphan
Princess Celestia had taken the day off from her duties. Her sister could handle the castle and she had raised the sun before she left. She was enjoying walking down the street while her sun set. The cool evening breeze cooling the flesh under her short, white coat and carrying the smell of popcorn from the carnival that had been set up in the Castle garden. Most of her subject were enjoying themselves and only a few of her little ponies wandered the streets. She lost herself in her thoughts and didn’t notice she had walked into the poor district of the big city. She looked around curiously. She hadn’t been into this part of the city in a while. It had changed a lot. The once pristine, white walls were now a sickly, greenish color and covered in graffiti. She continued walking down the broken sidewalk until she stumbled upon a small, blue colt with a mint green mane. He was leaning against a short building with boarded up windows, sleeping.
“Oh, you poor thing.” Celestia said to herself. She was a compassionate ruler. Had she known that some of her subjects were forced to live like this, she would have done something about it. She trotted over to the colt. She couldn’t see his face very well due to his shaggy mane covering it. But she could see a scar that went up the length of his chin and disappeared under his mane.
She looked at the sign that was resting on his lap. It read ‘Spare bits for the poor.’ Celestia frowned. ‘This poor colt is starving, and i knew nothing about it.’ She thought to herself. She reached into her invisible pony-pockets and extracted some of the bits she carried with her.She dropped them in the tin that he had sitting next to him. He grumbled something to himself and shifted his body, all the while staying asleep. She smiled at the child and continued walking down the street.
She went about thirty feet and felt something stirring in her heart. She tried to ignore it, push the feeling away, but it persisted. She turned back and cast a glance at the small colt. His little chest rising and falling as he breathed, and her heart melted. She turned and walked back to the colt. She stood next to his small figure for a moment and brushed his mane out of his face. His eyes shot open revealing a pair of grey pools. He looked around frantically and then the the tall white mare next to him he stared at her in awe. He scrambled into a kneeling position and looked at the ground.
“What is your name child.” Celestia said putting a hoof under the colt’s chin and lifting his gaze to meet her eyes.
“S-S-Shield your majesty.” He said in a shaky voice. “I-I-It’s an honor.” He said reverting his gaze back to the ground.
“Now Shield, why aren't you you in your home with your parents?” Celestia asked concerned. It couldn’t be safe for this young colt to sit at a street corner.
“My, p-parents.” He began. A tear escaped his eye and fell to the ground. Celestia removed her hoof from under his chin and sat down next to the still kneeling colt. He looked over to her and then remembered his place and looked back to the ground.
“Forget the formalities child, sit with me.” The princess said patting the ground next to her. The colt tentatively rose from his kneeling position and sat down next to the princess.
“Princess, with all due respect, why are you in this part of town?” Shield asked her. The question caught her off guard. She didn’t really know why she was in that part of the city. But she was glad she was. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have met this young colt.
‘I was just going for a walk, and then i noticed you.” She said to the young colt. His grey eyes shifted back to the ground.
“Don’t see why you would have noticed me. I’m just an orphan.” He said glumly. He looked as if he would cry again, but the tears never came.
“No one in my kingdom is ‘Just another somepony.’ And you’re no exception.” She said batting him on the nose with her hoof. He giggled and smiled wide at her. His earlier worries about formalities had vanished and now, sitting next to her was a young, light hearted colt. He reminded her of her own s- no. She wasn’t going to think about him right now. It brought back too many painful memories. The colt settled in, leaning his back against the wall.
“You remind me of my mom.” The colt said. They sat there in silence for a few moments until a fierce rumbling interrupted them. Celestia looked over to the colt who was blushing heavily and wore an embarrassed smile on his face. “Sound like somepony is huuuungry!” Celestia announced and tickled the clots belly. He erupted in laughter and squirmed around on the ground. His stomach rumbled again and Celestia stood up. She began to walk back towards the castle. The colt didn’t know if he should follow her or stay where he was. How should he have known. Up until today, he had thought he was absolutely worthless. Celestia turned around when she noticed she was walking the street alone. Back sitting at the same street corner, staring at her through those adorable grey eyes, was the colt.
“C’mon slow poke. Aren’t you hungry?” Celestia asked in a joking manner. The colt stood up and rushed down the street to her. “So, have you ever eaten in a castle before?” Celestia asked the colt as they walked down the streets. The building became gradually cleaner until the returned to the pristine white building that towered up into the sky.
“No, no i haven’t.” He said tentatively.
“Well, boy do i have a surprise for you!” Celesti said walking up the steps to the castle. Several of the ‘higher class’ ponies watched as celestia brought the small orphan into the castle. They looked on in disgust and kept on with their sad, little lives.
Shield followed the princess through the great halls of the castle. The red velvet rug felt like he was walking on clouds compared to the rough concrete he was so used to. The beautiful stained glass windows refracted the weak evening light that shone through them and decorated the white tile floor with their colors. It was almost too take in. Celestia pushed open a pair of double doors and walked inside. Shield followed shortly afterwards. Inside the great room was a long mahogany table that stretched the length of the room. At the table sat three ponies that he never thought he would meet for real. The tall pinkish purple alicorn stood up and walked over to him. He instinctively dropped into the kneeling position.
“Who is this little cutie?” Cadence asked not taking her eyes off the colt who was still kneeling.
“His name’s is Shield. I found him while i was taking my walk around the city. He was hungry so i brought him here for a meal.” Celestia said walking over to Cadence. The remaining stallion and princess still at the table cast skeptical looks at each other.
“Are you sure this is safe?” Shining Armor asked in a concerned tone. “What if he is carrying diseases or something.”
“Come on little one. Lets get you something to eat.” Cadence said ignoring her husband and leading Shield over the the chair next to her’s. As he got settled, Celestia sat at the head of the table and clapped her hooves. Almost instantly, four chefs rushed through the huge doors at the front of the room. Each chef was carrying two trays in their magic. The set them down lengthwise along the table. They removed the covers on the trays to reveal all kinds of fruits and steamed vegetables. He could point out some of them like green beans and apples. But there were others here that he had never even seen or heard of.
The dinner was great and left the colt stuffed to the brim. He had never eaten anything so good before. His eyelids drooped and he eventually dozed off in the chair. Cadence noticed him after a while and giggled. She pointed him out to Celestia and she smiled at him.
“Shining, would you mind taking him to the guest room.” The white stallion nodded and picked up the little colt with his magic and left the room leaving the princesses to talk.
“So sister, what of his parents. Won’t they be worried.” Princess Luna asked.
“He’s an orphan sister.” Celestia said with some difficulty.
“An orphan! And he was living on the streets! How come we didn’t know about this?” Luna yelled. She was suddenly furious that her guards hadn’t brought this to her attention.
“What happened to his parents?” Cadence asked.
“I didn’t ask. But it’s his business, not mine.” Celestia said matter of factly. The room was silent for a few moments.
“Are you thinking of adopting him sister.” Luna asked. A smile crested Celestia’s face. She hadn’t thought of that.
“Yes Luna. Yes I am.” Celestia said. And with that they split up and went to their chambers for the night.
The next morning :D
Shield woke up the next day to the sunlight pouring through the windows. He hopped out of the bed and popped his back and neck. He went opened the door to the room where he had slept and walked out into the hallway. He decided it couldn’t hurt to explore for a while. He walked down the hallway to a flight of stairs. He descended them slowly and ran into a guard.
“You’re Shield, right.” The guard said to the blue unicorn. Shield nodded. Celestia said she wanted to see you in the throne room. i wouldn’t keep her waiting.” The guard said pointing through a pair of doors.
“Thank you!” Shield said to the guard and trotted down the corridor to the two massive doors. He pushed one of them open and walked inside. The two guards posted on the inside of the doors glanced warily at him but let him pass. Celestia looked up and smiled at the colt. She waved for the two guards to leave, which they did leaving only Shield and Celestia in the room.
“Did you sleep well?” Celestia asked him. He nodded.
“Like a foal.”
“So, you like it here?” Celestia added.
“Erm yes, but i’ll leave whenever you want me to.” Shield said. He felt it coming. Her telling him to get lost. He knew it would happen, it was just a matter of time.
“I don’t want you to leave.” She said.
“Wait, what.” the colt said. He was genuinely confused.
“I want you to stay here. I want to adopt you.” Celestia said. The colt’s eyes widened and Celestia stepped off of the throne and walked down the steps to him. She wrapped him up in a hug and he returned it.
“Thank you, mom.” Shield said. He felt as if a horrible burden had just been lifted off his shoulders. But Celestia felt better. She hadn’t felt like this since she had last seen her own son, Star Swirl the Bearded.
Fifteen years later.
Shield sat on a hill just outside of canterlot. His hoof was around the shoulders of the mare he had fallen in love with. He looked out at the sun that was setting and looked back on his time in Canterlot.
He wasn’t a colt anymore and wouldn’t stand to be called one. He had joined the royal guard within a year after Being adopted. He had risen quickly through the ranks and was now second in command to shining armor. He had excelled in hoof to hoof combat and could best anyone in Equestria. He had fought in the great changeling war five years back.
After the war he had come back home to Canterlot and lived a quiet life. The reserve was the place to be after the war. In the past two years he had fallen in love with one of the princesses. Princess Twilight Sparkle to be exact.
All of this came flooding back to him in an instant. Every moment in an instant. All the way up to now. Twilight was leaning on his shoulder as they watched the sun set. Right as the sky lit up purple, Shield pulled something out of his invisible pony-pocket. He keeled down on one knee and looked up at Twilight. She was starting to tear up.
“Twilight, i love you.Will you marry me.” He said looking up at her and opening the small box. She was shaking her head as tears were streaming down her cheeks.
“Yes. Yes.” She said finally. He stood up and kissed her. His horn began to glow and a small magical firework shot out and into the fresh night air. It exploded and lit the night up with a gold shine and fizzled away.
