The Story of a Royal Guard: A Shield Contingency [OUTDATED/CANCELLED]

I was never really taught about forgiveness. Training was always my top priority in my foalhood, hardly any time for school or learning good lessons for how to be a nice pony or how to really live. I wasn't given a choice, my dad kept me doing exercises, and right now it doesn't seem to have payed off. I am by no means a weak unicorn, sometimes I've even impressed myself with what I could do, but right now I might as well be a horse-fly with too heavy a stick to carry.

That stick is starting to feel like my sword. I guess I should explain it. When I first joined the Royal Guard, I forged a sword and used a few crystals in the hilt to give it a bit of a magic boost. I'm not the most talented with magic, that position belongs to Twilight Sparkle, but I was able to pull off a simple enchanting spell on the crystals. It turns out that they were crystals from the Crystal Empire, from hundreds if not thousands of years ago, and when you mix old crystals with new magic you get something unexpected. I learned my sword could be manipulated by very simple magic to do complex spells without much of a problem. Changing its size and shape, being able to fly on it with levitation regardless of the weight, even long range teleportation.

Yet it seems to be more of a curse than a blessing. I thought I could make a difference with it, do great things, save Equestria a few times, or at least help save it. But I couldn't, even with my sword I'm still as useless as any other guard doomed to sit at the sidelines while watching Twilight and her friends save Equestria time and time again by pure luck, and some old powerful trinkets known as the Elements of Harmony, of course.

I suppose I should introduce myself at this point. My name is Swordulan Thunder Shield, or more commonly known as Sword Shield, a Lieu- uh, I mean, unicorn of Canterlot. I'm no longer a Lieutenant in the Royal Guard. I quit. I guess my reason was kind of stupid now that I think about it. I needed a break and time to straighten things out, but now things are even more twisted and confusing than they were. Anyway...

So things had gone wrong. My dad was gone, I couldn't face my mother, I couldn't face my Captain or whatever friends I had left. Heck I didn't even feel I could face my home, there was hardly anything there for me.

As I woke up all I could think of was where I messed up. Images were spinning around me from past events. The day I joined the Royal Guard, when I had finished forging my sword, the day I quit the Royal Guard. Funnily enough it's still that same day.

"He's waking up," said a muffled voice.

"Is he going to be okay, mom?" asked another voice.

"I don't know. Go fill a glass of water, quickly!"

I slowly opened my eyes and tried to see my surroundings. There was a thin pink blanket on me and I appeared to be laying on a couch. I looked to my left, there was a table with a vase of flowers, beyond it was a window showing a number of tall buildings belonging to the city of Manehatten. A glass of water was soon shoved in front of my nose.

"Here, drink this!" said a young colt.

I looked at the glass and grabbed it with my mouth, throwing my head back and drinking the contents in a single gulp. I shook my head and tried to wake up more. "Thank you... what happened to me?"

"We were hoping you could tell us that," said another voice. I sat up and saw a stallion, maybe only a little older than myself.

Now I remembered. I had come to Iris's home, finding nowhere else to turn. The young colt was Aster, her son, and I guessed that the stallion was her husband, who I hadn't met. "I must have passed out," I said as I massaged my head.

"But how? Most ponies do not normally just pass out like that," said Iris. She was standing to the right of her husband, worriedly looking over me.

I couldn't think straight, my mind was processing at a snails pace. "I... can't say. Water, I need more water."

"Aster, get him another glass," said the father.

The young colt quickly took the glass he gave me and filled it again with water. I felt my strength coming back so I took it within my magic and drank it all in a single gulp once again. "Thanks... for everything," I managed to say. Everything? Why'd I say that?

"Whoa now, a Lieutenant who happens to stumble into our family and make it so much better, and he thanks us? I'll have none of that," said the father. "It's us who should be thanking you. You're the reason we managed to stay on our hooves. My name's Root Barkley by the way, it's an honor to finally meet you."

Root had a darker brown coat with a leafy green mane and tail, while Iris had a peach coat with a faded yellow mane and tail. Aster had a slightly brighter yellow mane and tail, and a light blue coat instead.

I slowly stood up on all fours, finding my strength slowly coming back. I stumbled slightly but managed to hold myself. I looked back at Root. "I'm no longer a Lieutenant."

"What?!" cried Aster.

"What happened?" asked Iris.

"I did something stupid, and so I quit," I said. "I came here to see my parents, but... things didn't go out as planned." A short wave of pain passed through my head and I stumbled again. Iris moved forward to help me, but I waved her off. "I'll manage." I grunted. "I should get going, I have some things to straighten out."

As I walked towards the door Iris came and stopped me. "No! No, you're clearly not well enough to get moving yet. Sit and stay for just a while, maybe we might be able to help. We owe you that much."

"You don't owe me anything, and I wouldn't want to be intruding."

"Nonsense! We've got some extra space, you're perfectly welcome to stay with us, whether you're a Lieutenant or not."

Aster came up to me holding a Royal Guard helmet. It was my old helmet that I gave him when I first met Iris and him. "Please stay, Mr. Shield," he said. "I'll even give you back your helmet."

I stared at my reflection in the helmet and sighed. "Fine, alright." I levitated the helmet up and put it over Aster's head. "Keep it for now. I'll stay for a while, maybe it will help, and I really don't know where else to go."

"Yay!"

"We'll help you any way we can," said Root. "But first, I'd like to hear about what happened with you in the Royal Guard."

I sat back down on the couch and sighed. "It's... complicated. I quit for a reason I don't really understand anymore. My heart told me it was the right thing to do at the time, but now my mind tells me it was a big mistake. My job seemed to take up the entire portion of my life. I was a workaholic. I would get up, do my job all day as best I could, and then go back to sleep. Nothing else seemed as important, but over time I learned there are other things more important. I couldn't find the time to take a break and work on more important things, I felt too obligated to the 'Guard. But then there was Twilight Sparkle-"

"Twilight? Did you hear she became a Princess?" asked Iris.

"Yeah... I was there when it happened. She..." No, no point in explaining why I didn't like her. "Nevermind. I just felt like, even for how much I worked, I still wasn't doing my job well enough. I could have prevented so many things from happening, but I messed up. Even when it seemed like I could be of some help, the choice was always taken from me. So I quit, I couldn't see what difference I was making."

Root nodded understandingly. "I see... well, I'll tell you that everypony, no matter what, makes a difference somewhere, somehow. You made all the difference to me and my family. Because of your generosity we were able to stay on our hooves. I won't tell you what you should do, but I think the more you believe a choice is being taken out of your hooves, the more it will happen. I was close to believing that at one point, but then you showed up. Sometimes all it takes is a friend or even a generous stranger to show you your choices."

I gave him a weak smile. "Thanks, again. I don't really know what choices I have right now... but I hope I might soon." I looked around real quick and noticed that my sword had been missing from my person for some time now. "Wait, what happened to my sword? I had it with me when I came in."

"I put it up high for safekeeping," said Iris. She walked over to what looked like the kitchen and brought back the sword in her mouth.

I took the sword into my magic and hovered it in front of me. It shined in the sunlight of the window, and was pulsing with yellow light every few seconds.

"Is it always pulsing like that?" asked Iris.

I looked at it confusedly. "No, I've never seen it do this before." I used my magic and shaped my sword into a small but thick wall of metal and put it over the window, blocking the sunlight so I might see it better. It continued to pulse once every five seconds, there was no doubt about it. "I don't understand. This doesn't make any sense."

"What is it?" asked Root curiously.

"I don't know. It's an enchanted sword, but it shouldn't be doing this."

I brought the sword back and changed it to its normal form, then lightly touched the crystal. Nothing. I reached and pressed down on the crystal a bit stronger, this time a sharp pain pierced through my hoof. I immediately jerked my leg back.

"Sweet Celestia, that burns! The thing is heating up like a miniature sun. Stand back!" I waved a hoof towards the others. They backed away towards the kitchen. I began to focus my magic on the sword again, tightening my grip around the crystal and pouring a continuous pressure of magic into it. The sword 'popped' and let out a small burst of magical energy, which flowed through the room and dispersed shortly.

"Whoa, that was cool," said Aster with stars in his eyes.

"What in Equestria did you do?" asked Root.

I looked at the sword curiously. It had stopped pulsing. I touched the crystal again, this time feeling no heat or pain. How odd. "I have no idea, but it seems to have returned it back to normal. Nothing to worry about, it's safe. If I were to guess... the enchantment properties I used a long time ago were coming loose, and began to heat up the crystal where the enchantment lies. I tried to condense all the energy back inside, and it seemed to have worked, minus one little burst of energy which escaped and flew out the windows. I remember reading something about that in an enchantment textbook, but I didn't know about the pulsing."

"Are you sure it's perfectly safe?" asked Iris, cautiously eyeing the sword.

I raised it in my magic and tapped it on my head a few times. "Safe as any other sword is, but it might be better to do this--" I shaped the sword around my back and wore it like a belt. "There. Should be out of the way for now."

"Good," said Root. "Now if you're going to stay a while, we should get you settled in." He motioned for me to follow him down the hall, showing me into a small room filled with cardboard boxes and other sorts of storage containers. "The den is our only spare room right now, which we use for storage. I hope it's enough. You're probably used to having a nice comfortable bed."

"Actually, this is fine. I used to sleep in a simple tent, so if you can spare a mat and a blanket I'll be all set." Now that I thought about it, I could probably be content sleeping outside with just a mat and a blanket. When a soldier needs rest, he'll take it anywhere.

"Oh, okay. We should have a spare or two somewhere around here. Hold on." Root walked back down the hall, shortly coming back with a thin mat and the blanket they had put over me before. "Will this do?"

I nodded. "That'll be fine, thanks."

Root smiled. "No problem. I'll uh, let you set up however you want. I'm going to talk to my family for a minute or two." He closed the door and left me to myself.

I looked down at the mat and blanket. Not as great as the one I was used to sleeping on, but it was good enough. I set it down next to the wall along with the blanket, even taking some time to rearrange the boxes in the room to look cleaner. I then took a moment to sit down and think.

What happened? What happened to me? What happened to my sword? What happened to my dad? I guess I let my emotions get the better of me. I let my pride overrule my rationality. Yes, I had been too prideful. Looking at my sword I now realized how proud I had been to be a Lieutenant of the Royal Guard, how proud I was to fight and defend for it. Or was it for the Guard? Maybe it was for myself. Maybe it was for my father. Ever since my foalhood it seemed I had been fighting for my father, but now he was gone. What was left for me to fight for? The whole time I thought I was fighting for Equestria or the Princesses, when that was blatantly not the case. I had just been too stupid to realize it.

I needed something new to fight for. First I needed to fight for myself. I needed to get out of this mess. If only it were so easy as simply taking my sword and cutting down the vines that were strangling my mind. I would have to unlearn everything I had been doing for my father, and instead learn to do things for myself. Yes, that is my plan.

A knock came at the door. The door opened and Aster walked in. "Sorry for disturbing you, but I wanted to know... how long are you going to stay?" he asked.

"As long as I need," I answered. The young colt only gave me a blank stare, so I quickly corrected myself. "Maybe two nights. After that I will head back to Canterlot."

"Oh, okay. Um... is it okay if I ask you questions? I've never gotten to talk with a Lieutenant before."

I smiled. It wasn't every day a young one wanted to ask me questions. "Sure, I guess. I'm not a Lieutenant any more but maybe I can answer a few things."

"Why did you stop being a Lieutenant?"

"Well, like I said before... I made a dumb mistake," I sighed. This was too difficult without telling the truth. "I'll be honest with you, one of the largest reasons I quit is because Twilight Sparkle became a Princess."

"What? Do you not like Twilight?"

"N-no... I like her just fine, it's just she... she got lucky, okay? As a Royal Guard, I was never the one who won the battles, I never saved Equestria or did anything worthwhile. It was Twilight and her friends, while I stood in the background. I don't think she's capable of being a Princess. I'm not even sure she knows the first thing about it."

"You saved the day for us, that's more than Twilight could ever do for us."

I looked at him skeptically. He really did believe I had saved him and his family. But he didn't know of all the times Twilight did save Equestria, where I had failed instead. She had still saved him and his family more times than I had, he just didn't know that. But... he was still right in some way. Though with all Twilight had done, without myself... they would not be here. I smiled.

"You're right," I said. "I may not have saved Equestria, but I shouldn't discount what I have saved. Thank you. You know, Aster, you'd make a fine Royal Guard some day."

He beamed. "Do you really think so?"

"As long as you keep practicing and exercising, I know so. Have you been working your wings like I suggested?"

"A little bit. They're just--" Aster tried flapping his wings a little bit, but struggled getting them in sync with each other and stumbled. "--so hard to control."

"You'll get it eventually, I'm sure you can."

Root came back through the door. "Aster, you shouldn't be bothering him. Come on out."

"No, it's alright," I called back. "Aster wasn't bothering me at all. I don't often get time to talk with the little guys."

"Alright, if you're sure. Have you figured how long you're going to stay?"

"Probably just this one night actually. Aster helped me to see some mistakes I've made, and now I feel I know how to fix them. I think I'll leave tomorrow afternoon, that should give Aster some time to ask me any questions he'd like."

"Really? I can ask anything?" asked Aster.

I nodded. "Anything. But you have to give me the helmet back, you're not actually supposed to have that. Royal Guard property."

"It's a deal! I don't fit into it yet anyway."

"Perfect," said Root. "We are making supper right now. Are you okay with a carrot heavy salad?"

My ears perked up. "You mean the stuff I practically live on?"