The Story of a Royal Guard: A Shield Contingency [OUTDATED/CANCELLED]

It was an anxiety filled trip to Canterlot. All sorts of questions were racing through my head. What do I say? Should I wear anything? Do I smell okay? Would flowers be appropriate? Actually, flowers sound pretty good right about now. I’m hungry and should’ve gotten something to eat before I left. Maybe I could ask her to dinner.

Yeah, dinner sounds good. I can ask her to dinner.

I arrived at Canterlot late in the afternoon and trotted to the library, which luckily was open for another hour. A pale, peach coated unicorn stallion with a dark copper mane and glasses stood at the desk stamping some books, but there was nopony else in sight.

“Is there something I can help you with?” asked the stallion without looking up at me.

I cleared my throat. “Yeah, I’m looking for Summer Dawn. She still works here, right?”

“Huh?” He looked up at me and jumped back with surprise. “Whoa, Lieutenant Swordulan Shield! I-I wasn’t expecting you. Excuse the mess, heh.” He swiped away the load of books on the desk. “It’s good, uh I mean, great to finally meet you.”

I tilted my head. “Ah-huh, and you are?”

“Oh, sorry, excuse my poor manners.” He cleared his throat. “I am Alfred Wright, one of the librarians. No you don’t have to make a joke about the puns, yes I love to read and yes I love to write, but it has nothing to do with my name and I know it’s a weird one! Oh, erm, sorry for yelling. I’ve been meaning to use that for a while, haha. Had it all written down here. Guess I got a little excited. Ahem, right, what was it you needed again?”

I looked around the silent library again. “I was just looking for Summer Dawn. I believe she works here, right?”

“Summer Dawn? But why would somepony like you want… uh, never mind, yes she still works here but she left about an hour ago. Heheh, I was gonna treat her to dinner, but I got the longer shift. Oh well.”

I grit my teeth. So it seemed there was a bit of competition. “I see. Do you know where she is?”

“She’s most likely at home by herself. Just a couple blocks down that way from here, the house with a mailbox marked Dawn. Um, she isn’t in trouble, is she?”

I shook my head. “No trouble, just something I needed to investigate. Thanks for the info.”

"Yeah, no problem. Cya later, I guess."

I nodded and trotted out of the library and in the vague direction Alfred pointed me to, all the while with butterflies forming in my stomach.

I took a deep breath. “Alright, you can do this Swordulan. You got this. You got this. Hoo hoo hoo, yeah.”

I finally came to a mailbox with the name Dawn. It was a cute little house, nothing too fancy, nothing too humble. Three shakey hooves forward, one stubborn hoof back. Repeat. I made it to the door, reached forward and paused.

“Um… hi. How you doin’? Good… uh… yeah. You look nice. Wait, no, ugh! Oh, ponyfeathers with this.”

Knock, knock, knock.

Silence. Eternal silence. Deep breath, hold it, hold it. Any second now. Okay, no holding my breath. That’s just stupid.

The door opened and I felt an electric shock go through my body. Summer came into the door and looked at me. Okay, I just need to focus.

“Oh, hi!” she said with a bright smile. “I wasn’t expecting to see you here Sword Shield, or rather Lieutenant Shield now, right? It’s good to see you! Been a while, huh?”

I must have been focusing a bit too hard, because all I was able to do was think: “Wooow she’s prettier than I remember.”

Summer Dawn. Soft cream colored coat, deep amber mane and tail with pale pink highlights, and even deeper amber eyes, all coming to a fine, sharp unicorn horn that could pierce a hydra's scales. I might be exaggerating a bit there, but I don't care.

“She’s prettier than I remember,” I thought again, only this time also mumbling it out loud by accident.

She looked at me confusedly. “What was that?”

I finally realized my mistake and shook myself back to reality. “Uh, nothing, I was just thinking half out loud for a second.”

“Ah. What about?”

The question sent my brain spiralling. I shall describe it in the only way I think properly represents what I was going through.

Boom, door. ‘What about?’. Boom, dark hallway. Teleport, teleport, teleport, teleport. Boom, three buttons. Lie, Avoid, Truth. Suddenly an army of Summer Dawn changlings assaulting me with the door and yelling at me to press a button. I look left and right over and over, faster than the speed of sound I’m sure. Pick one, pick one, pick one. Which one do I pick!?

“Truth!” said Cadance. “Every mare wants to know they’re pretty!”

“Avoid!” said Shining Armor. “It’s not worth the pressure!”

“Lie!” said Discord. “Come on, press it! Press it, press it, press it! Here, I’ll do it for you!”

I don’t know what happened next, but something pressed something, and the next thing I knew I was back in reality about to speak, when I felt a chaotic presence behind me.

“Why, strong and handsome Swordulan here was thinking about me!” said Discord.

I grit my teeth. “Oh no, you did not just do that,” I whispered.

Summer looked up at him with a mix of shock and confusion, then looked back at me. “You know him?”

I sighed. “Yes, it’s an unfortunate curse I bear.”

Discord pat me on the head like a pet. “Don’t be silly, we’re good friends, and good friends don’t let their friends make bad decisions! I’m here to help things along, like a good friend should. So, you two lovebirds, what shall it be for tonight?” He snapped his paw and suddenly we were all formally dressed and at a table in a fancy restaurant. “Table for two?” He snapped again and we were back to normal and sitting on a picnic cloth on a little grassy ledge on the mountain overlooking the sunset and nearly all of Equestria. “Romantic picnic spot?” He snapped again and we were rolling down the streets of Canterlot on skates. Discord rolled beside us going backwards. “Thrilling skate through the city?” He snapped again and we were soaring through the clouds on a pegasus pulled chariot. Discord popped up beside us as a bird. “Joyride through the clouds?” He snapped again, and we were back at Summer’s house.

Summer shook herself. “What. Was. That?”

Discord looked at her oddly. “You mean old Swordulan here didn’t tell you yet? He-”

“No, Discord, that’s enough!” I said. “Thank you for trying to help, but I don’t need any from you.”

“Are you sure? I’m quite the dating expert, I could help you with-”

“I’m quite sure, Discord,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Go on. Go… save somepony from a burning building or something.”

Discord pouted with a ‘hmph!’ “Fine, but I'll be back soon!” And he was gone.

“Okay, hold on a second, what did he mean by ‘dating expert’?” asked Summer, still quite confused.

Lie, Avoid, Truth.

Dear me, the butterflies are back. That was fast.

Alright, what would Cadance tell me to do? Well, not lie, not avoid, but she never said anything about telling the truth. Then again, it is better to be honest, even if it’s difficult. There was no point in making a lie for this. Truth it was.

I took a deep breath and looked her in the eye. “A couple days ago I received a letter from my dad… well, it was part of his will.”

Summer frowned. “Oh, I’m so sorry. I heard about him passing away. It must’ve been hard on you.”

“Um, yeah. It’s alright. Anyway, in the letter he expressed his desire for me to… well, to find a special somepony I guess. Jeez, I’m really bad at this, sorry. In the letter he mentioned you, and… well, here I am.”

She smiled and laughed a bit. “Aw, that’s sweet. But you make it sound like you’re here mostly because of the letter. Is that true?”

I shuffled my hoof. “Yes and no. Well… it was at first, but then I changed my mind when you opened the door and I mumbled something, um... what I really said was that you were a lot prettier than I remembered.”

“Oh,” she looked away slightly and blushed. “Thank you. Nopony’s ever said something like that to me before. Except maybe my mom and dad, but they don’t count. Anyway, the night’s still young and you know, a few of Discord’s ideas don’t sound too bad right now. I was just about to make dinner, so would you like to join me?”

“Oh… yeah, of course.” Why did every question she asked take a few seconds to process? “Maybe we could pack a basket and have an evening picnic at the park or something.”

“That’s a great idea! Come inside, please. I’ll grab a basket and picnic cloth and we can prepare dinner.” She stepped aside and let me in. “Does a salad and a few sandwiches sound good?”

I nodded, remembering just how hungry I was. “Sounds great.”

So we began making a picnic. I felt a bit odd and out of place at first, but I got over it, and it was rather nice, only it took nearly all of my willpower to stop myself from snacking. I made the sandwiches, Summer made the salad. We packed it all into the basket, which I offered to carry, and headed for Canterlot’s central park. After we left, if I had looked back I might’ve seen that Alfred Wright pony holding a rose and looking at us, then throwing the rose down and walking away.