The Celestial Guard

Swift Hooves groaned as he unlogged himself from the slight indent made in the wall. No, broken bones, at least yet.

"What in the name of your father was that for, Celestia?", asked Swift

"How can you be here?", replied Celestia, visibly shocked.

"What do you mean? I just saw you yesterday!"

"How can I know you are Swift Hooves? Are you a changeling, is this some sick new plot from Chrysalis?"

"Changelings?!"

"If you are who you claim to be, tell me something that only Swift would know."

Swift Hooves grinned, "I remember the time in foalgarden, when we first met, you wanted a certain doll that you couldn't reach, and when you tried to climb the wardrobe to it, you fell on top of the teacher and pissed her off. You cried for almost four hours and when your dad found out, he laughed and gave you the doll. While you were boasting to the others, bumped into me and almost knocked me off my hooves as you were shoving that doll in my face."

Celestia's face turned red in embarrassment. She may as well have been on fire, the guard behind her just barely kept back the laughs building up. He was totally going to tell this to his pals.

"I guess it is really you...................., how did you get here?"

"Uhhhh....you still haven't told me what is wrong, or where am I? Is that Celestial guardspony wearing gold armour? Why would anypony wear such a soft metal for protection?" The Royal Guard frowned at Swift Hooves, confused and slightly insulted that he had been compared to those barbaric Celestial guardponies.

"He's apart of the Royal Guard, and we are in the Royal Castle."

"Why are there Royal Guards in the castle?!"

"That's the thing, you've been gone for 2000 years."

"WHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTT?!"

From Luna, Cadence, Armour and Twilight's POV

The four sprinted down the hallway to the source of the noise. They entered the ICU and saw a shocked Celestia, a dent in the wall and an unusually tall stallion. He was an inch taller than Cadence, and he mirrored the pony they learned about EXACTLY.

"Sister? Who is this?"

"Oh... hi Luna, this is a friend, his names Swift Hooves."

The stallion looked at Luna, then at Celestia, "You have a sister? So I really was gone for a while. She's a little small for an alicorn, isn't she."Luna glared at Swift Hooves.

"She doesn't like being called small", sighed Celestia.

Swift Hooves realised the other two alicorn staring at him in shock, as if they knew who he was. "Well, it seems you got quite desperate, why are there two converted alicorns here?"

"What does he mean by desperate? "said Twilight and Cadence in unison.

"He means thaaaaaaaa-"

"I mean that when the head of the Royal Family, Celestia in this case, cannot find a "mate", he or she uses magic to create more alicorns. These alicorns do not carry the makers original blood, instead they carry a magic imprint of it. I am  not very surprised, Celestia is very picky when it comes to stallions."

Celestia started to blush, looking away to avoid hearing her inner secrets being bled to the others.

Then Shinning Armour spoke up, just as 3 more Royal Guards showed up, "Who are you? What are you intentions?"

"I am Swift Hooves, Captain of The Celestial Guard."

The guards were visibly shaken. A Celestial Guard Captain, here? Idly chatting with the Princess? Celestia saw this.

"Do not be afraid, he is not like the others, he was a captain before the invasion."

"What invasion?"

"I will tell you more about the events you have missed during dinner, which should be now I believe.", Celestia looked at one of the guards.

"Yes...yes it is, if you would follow me." The group followed the guard.

In the dinning hall,

Swift Hooves caught up on all the crazy shit and stuff that had passed during his absences. Apparently, during his absence, he missed Discord taking over the Old Kingdom, Luna being banished to the moon and the discovery of the Elements of Harmony. Apparently Discord had been rehabilitated by Twilight and her friends, but he was in no hurry to meet him.

"You mean the rediscovery of the Elements surely?"

Twilight looked at him puzzled, "What? They were never seen until me and my friends discovered them."

Swift Hooves sighed, and looked at Celestia," How many government cover ups have there been since I disappeared?"

"Uhhhh...", Celestia pondered," I lost count 2000 years ago."

"Heh, bit of a co-incidence that I disappeared around there?"

Celestia blushed again, Cadence knew what was going on and she knew what to do. Twilight was about to ask about what he was talking about when she was interrupted by Cadence.

"So Swift, how many fillyfriends have you had? Do you have any special somepony?"

Shinning glanced at Cadence, and they seemed to share a silent conversation for a few seconds. Then Cadence looked back at Swift Hooves.

"So do you?"

"Uhhhhh....no, not really. Quite an odd question, don't you think reminds me of the ti-"

"Do you have a special somepony? Why are you deflecting my question?"

"Uhhh....Uhhhh"

"Honey, stop now, Swift Hooves obviously doesn't want to answer and you shouldn't press the issue"

"Bu-"

"Leave it alone"

"Fine, but this is coming out of tonight!"

Shinning's cheeks blushed. " Awwwww........, come on honey, I was just joking."

Cadence pretended to pout and ignore all of Shinning's pleas. The others sighed at their bickering and Twilight reasserted herself in the conversation.

"So what did you mean when you said the rediscovery of the elements?"

"When I was made captain of the Celestial Guard, my first job was to hide the elements. King Helios was going through a paranoid fit and wanted to hide them. There's not much more to it then that. But I may have hid them so well that only the blood relatives of someponies I trusted could find them."

"You knew an ancestor of mine?"

"Yes, I think it was Starswirl the Bearded. You do remind me of him."

"Really, I'm related to one of the greatest unicorns ever to exist?"

"Him, special? I think your confused, Starswirl was a drunk."

"What?!"

Celestia decided to intervene, " Yes he was, but after Swift disappeared, he got himself into shape."

"Yea, we were quite close."

Luna yawned, " I think it is time that we retired, I have to raise the stars tonight."

The group departed to their rooms. Then Swift Hooves realised that he had not been given a room.

"Celestia, it seems that I don't have a room."

"Oh yes, I forgot you can follow me to it."

Luna, Celestia and Swift Hooves walked down the hall. Luna said goodnight and Celestia showed him too his room.

"Goodnight for now Swift, tomorrow I need to talk about what you plan to do now"

"Sure, goodnight Celestia."

As Celestia exited the room, a figure stood in the hallway.

"Aunt Celestia, how much do you like him?"

"He's a good friend, If not the closest I Have ever had."

Cadence grinned and went for the kill.

"No, do you like really like him?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean Aunt."

Celestia knew then what she meant.

"No, no, not at all like that, why would you think such a thing."

"Since he has arrived, your entire attitude has changed and he seem to prance about the place."

"That is ridiculous! I can't have such thoughts about my own personal guard!"

"Why not ,in my opinion you need a stallion to soften your heart. Besides, I know that your minds are interconnected through the glowing mark on your cutie mark. The Magical Bonding Project, right?"

"How do you know such things, did you break into my private library?"

"Maybeeeee."

Celestia sighed and went to bed. All she could think about was him, she had failed to tell him before and now she was given a second chance, why wasn't she taking it? Over in Swift Hooves quarters, Swift was also thinking about Celestia. Her mane, face and flank.....Why was he thinking about her flank. She would probably think that he was a crazed time travelling perv. They were just friends,...right?