Chapter One
The Palace
“Fiyera! Caleb! You’re going to be late!” the older mare yelled to my brother and I. We had come home a week ago from training. Because of our lineage of great war heroes, we both had to be sent to a camp and trained to be part of the Elite Royal Guard. It also meant that we were taller and stronger than the average pony. Our ancestor's genes had been passed down to us, so we were more “well bred” as some would say. Today, we were being sent to the palace to start serving Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. They were both vey unusual ponies, having a unicorn horn and pegasus wings. They were the rulers of our land, Equestria. They had a long snout, like mine. It was regal and a sign of noble birth. The only other commoner that had a snout like me, was a mare by the name of Fleur De Lis.
I tied my long, fiery red mane into a side ponytail and left my forelock to hang in the front. It was regulation to tie one’s tail up, also, so I used another green color ribbon to tie around the base of my tail. I levitated my saddlebags in my white, magical aura and strapped them to my sides. I looked briefly at my flank. I had learned to live with the knowledge that I was one of the few ponies that never got their cutie marks. My charcoal coat thus remained bare of any image or picture that described my special talent.
I looked around my room for the last time and went to join my brother out in the hall. He, like me, had tied up his mane and tail, though his weren’t nearly as long. We walked solemnly to the kitchen where Megaera, our older sister, had called from. She was an earth-pony. Her dark green mane and tan coat sparkled in the morning sunlight. Caleb had deep, thoughtful brown eyes that went perfectly well with his yellow coat and orange hair. He was a pegasus. Both of my siblings were a different kind of pony, but we were all biologically related. They had their cutie marks, though, Caleb’s being a bow and arrow, and Meg’s being a Lark.
She looked at us with a bittersweet expression and misty grey eyes. She had been blinded at a young age when she caught the influenza. It didn’t deter her, though. We all stood in a silent embrace, each muttering a prayer to the Creator. Soon, we had to break from our last few moments together. As Caleb and I walked from the threshold of our home, we each felt a twang in our hearts.
The morning was crisp and the birds were chirping. The mountain air of Canterlot filled my lungs.
“Fi, I’m-”
“Nervous?” I guessed.
“Yes. I know I have no right to be. It is a great honor to join the Elite Royal Guard, but there has been news of a tension between the sisters. If something happens...”
I stopped and put my hoof on his shoulder. “If something happens, I’ll still be there for you.”
We approaching the gates of the palace and Caleb knocked. We both stood attention when the guard shouted, “State your name and business, quickly.”
“I am Caleb Hooves. We have an audience with Head of the Elite Royal Guard, sir.”
“You and her?”
“She is my sister, sir. We have both been drafted to serve.”
“Very well...OPEN THE GATE!!!” The booming voice of the guard was immediately followed by the creaking of the palace gate, port-side of the main entrance. Caleb spread his wings and hovered over beside me as we went through the gate. The courtyard we walked into was beautiful. There were paths of dark brown dirt lined with large rivers stones. The bushes and grass were lush and a deep green. There were flowers of every color. Soon, however, it opened up into a clearing where we saw a unicorn, like me, standing with his advisors. He was muscular and tall, not a stallion to be messed with.
We walked up and stood straight as we could be until he turned to us and said, “If it isn’t Caleb and Fiyera Hooves! Welcome! Please, at ease.”
We obeyed and quietly spread our legs a bit more and our backs became less rigid. The old stallion’s voice was kind and gentle. Not what I expected from a leader of the Elite Royal Guard. I was relieved. When we had first gotten the letter saying that we were being drafted, I thought it was going to be many years of harsh work under the authority of a rough leader. I soon saw this wasn’t the case. We followed him to the guards’ quarters where we met his wife, the General Ma’am, Silver Script. She was a unicorn, but much shorter than her husband. I looked back to see General Written Script walking back to his tent.
“He has business to take care of. Don’t worry, after this weekend, he’ll come and tell you your positions. Now, I want you to see where you’ll be sleeping. It would be wise to make friends with as many as possible. One, you’ll be working with them for a long time. Two, if our guard has friction in it, it won’t function and it will fall.” Silver Script started walking and I followed on foot while Caleb flew. She led us to a door in the side of the castle. As she opened it, I looked up and saw it was the North Tower. Inside there were bunks surrounding all the walls. There was a large window on each of the four walls.
“Evynn! Jerome! I have new recruits. I need you to each take one of them around and get them familiar with the grounds and the castle. They are joining in the Elite Royal Guard on Monday, so it’s imperative they know their way around the inside and balconies of the castle,” She turned to us, “I leave you in their capable hooves.”
We saluted as she left us with the two other bronze-clad guards. They turned to us and the pegasus named Evynn spoke first. She had ivory hair and a white coat. Her eyes were a lovely green. “Welcome. I hope you both had a safe journey. Now, just among us guards, we can call each other by our real names. Please, introduce yourselves.”
I turned to Caleb and said quietly, “I’ll take this one.” I cleared my throat and spoke again. “I’m Fiyera Hooves and this is my brother, Caleb...”
“Is something wrong?” Caleb asked nervously for Jerome’s face had gone white.
He shook his head to clear it and said, “I’m sorry. My great-grandfather fought alongside a stallion named Gerriah Hooves. He was a great war hero, but he died in the War of Terrapin. He never had any children.”
Caleb stopped to remember something that Meg had told him. “Our older sister, Megaera, told us that our mother had told her that story when she was just a little filly. But, there was one difference. In the heat of the battle, when he was supposedly going to die, he faked his death and lived to extend his family line.”
“He was our great-great-grandfather,” I added.
Even Evynn’s face had become solemn. After a few minutes of silence, Evynn took me around while Jerome took Caleb.
We walked around the top balcony first. She told me where each door led to and then let me lead her around naming each door. After I had gotten that mostly covered, we moved onto the inside. As was the case with some buildings, the palace was much larger on the inside than it looked on the outside.
We walked through many passageways before we found the Great Hall.
“You can always find your way to the Great Hall through any door or passage. Some take longer, though. You should be familiar with this area, but you don’t have to know it by heart,” Evynn paused, “What’s it like?”
“What’s what like?”
“To have only a brother and a sister as family. I have a mom, pa, eight siblings, and a pet dog. I have all the family and friends I could ever ask for. How do you cope?”
“Sometimes, I can’t cope. When I was a little filly, Megaera and Caleb looked after me. I barely knew my mother and my father died in a battle before I was born...My siblings are some of the bravest ponies I know. When Meg caught the influenza, she was blinded. Caleb looked after both me and her. He is stout of heart, sometimes, but he is the greatest friend I could ever ask for. He’s my best friend. I just hope that he can get used to this routine. He has been through so much. It’s going to start to show sooner or later.”
“Well then, we can’t let that happen. Can we?” A clear, melodic voice filled the air. Standing behind us was the young princess, Celestia. Evynn and I bowed as low as we could. Although she just recently had her coronation, Celestia already had the wisdom of a great and wise ruler. She and her sister were a thousand years old, which was considered young for an alicorn. Their parents, the wise king and queen, had left to finish some alicorn business of theirs. They never returned.
“Thank you, but I’m still getting used to being a monarch. Please, rise.” We did immediately as we were told. She froze when she looked at me and I could tell the gears were grinding in her head. I could almost make out what she was thinking. Finally, she shook her head and smiled. She then proceeded and asked me a few questions which I answered to the best of my ability. They weren’t hard questions, but ones that took me deep into some of the memories that I’d rather forget. She stopped asking questions when she saw that I was getting uncomfortable. Was it really that obvious?
After she left us with a hurried goodbye, one of her annoying advisors had “requested her presence”, Evynn and I could finally breathe.
“Well, looks like you passed the test.”
I had an utterly stupefied look on my face that was most unbecoming. Evynn took notice of it and giggled quietly to herself.
During the afternoon, I started my evening rounds. They weren’t hard, but they were a bit boring. I did get to see a spectacular sight, though. I got to see Princess Celestia and her younger sister, Princess Luna, set the sun and raise the moon.
It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen...
✥✥✥❂✥✥✥
At night, the lunar guards took over the watch and the elite and solar guards went to our sleeping quarters. I learned that the Elite Guard had the North Tower, the Lunar the South, the Solar the West, and any visiting military got the East. I walked back to the North Tower with weary hooves, but a happy heart. I was starting to like it here. I had been here for over two weeks, I had hoped I would like it at least a little bit. As I opened the door, there was a loud hooraying as everypony saw what I was levitating with my white telekinetic aura. Sweet Rolls. It might be considered odd for a group of mares and stallions to be excited about sweets, but after eating the kind of food we had been eating, you can understand.
“Three cheers for Ms. Hooves!”
“Hip-hip, hooray! Hip-hip, hooray! Hip-hip, hooray!!!” I felt my face start to burn with blush. Even through my dark coat, I knew it was visible. After I went around and passed everypony a sweet roll, they turned to those nearest and began to talk lightly. I spied Caleb across the large room talking with Jerome. I was thankful that he and Jerome slept next to each other. It was good for him to have somepony he knew so close. He caught my eye and waved.
I found my way to my bunk and started to take off my heavy bronze armor. Evynn leaned down from the top bunk and laughed as I struggled to untangle my long, red hair. I had never had any luck with doing my own hair. Meg usually helped me. I missed her a lot.
After a few more moments of struggling, the white coated mare flew down from the bunk and succeeded in detangling my hair. She then started to braid my hair. The reason why? I have no idea. All I know is that she probably couldn’t do it with her short spiky mane and tail. She stopped suddenly and ran her hoof over two areas of my back that I had really though nothing of.
I chuckled half-heartedly and said, “Those two scars have been there as long as I can remember. I honestly don’t know if I was born with them or not. Meg never bothered to talk about it and Caleb did the same. I honestly have given up asking...umm, you can stop staring now.”
“Sorry. It’s just that their position on your back is so close to where the base of pegasus wings are. I’m sure it’s just my imagination.”
“Oookay,” I said skeptically, “Well, when you’re done braiding my hair, I have a spell that I learned. It is a preening spell. I often would use it for Caleb when he was having a rough night. It put him to sleep almost instantly.”
Evynn smiled at this and agreed.
