The Four Seasons

  Canterlot came into view as the train traveled over the hill. The sun was just rising above the horizon. The trip was an over night ride in which Big Macintosh found sleep exceptionally hard. He reluctantly opened his eye's and saw he was still in his seat. He wiped the saliva off of his chin with a fore leg before standing up and stretching his stiff muscles. After he stretched he walked over to the window.

The site of the capitol city was breathe taking. He had seen pictures , but none could compare to the real thing. The town had mostly white and grey buildings and houses. The canterlot castle is what stuck out the most in the city. With at least six towers and several more balcony's on each of them.

The speakers in the train cart came to life as a voice filled the room.

"Attention all passengers we should be arriving at the station in five minutes."

On that note Big Macintosh gathered his luggage and prepared for the train to arrive in Canterlot. At this point he was sweating bullets, afraid of screwing up in front of everypony.He didn't want to let his family down. That thought alone was enough to keep him going.

The gravity on the train suddenly increased as the train came to a screeching halt. The automatic doors slowly swung open revealing Canterlot.

He exited the train and stepped on to the solid marble platform. The air was cold and thick, which he assumed was because of the altitude of the city. The next thing that caught his eye was the snow on the rooftops of the buildings which complemented the smoke rising from the chimneys.

The streets were littered with pony's, There was carriages being pulled, and Pegasus flying low to the ground.

The pony's from the train flooded the platform of the train station. Some were greeted by family others by friends. He however was looking for the older brother of Twilight Sparkle and also captain of the guard.

He walked in circles for a few moments looking for him with no luck. Just as he was about to give up he felt a poke on his side.

He turned to see a white unicorn, he had a mane that consisted of two different shades of blue. And on his side he had a purple shield with a pink star.

"Hello are you Macintosh Apple by any chance?"

"Eeyup, and you must be Captain Shining Armor?"

"Indeed I am so Shall we get going then?" He said gesturing his hoof in the direction of the castle.

They continued to walk through the streets of canterlot for about half an hour. Along the way he saw gardens decorated with statues, shops with wide windows to view their merchandise, and movie theaters towering several stories high. They all were truly astonishing sites to behold.

They soon came up to the gates leading into the castle grounds. The gates themselves stood at about thirty feet high and were painted gold. Behind the gate was a path leading to the grand doors that allowed entrance into the castle.

As soon as they got close to the gate they were stopped by the spears held by the guards.

"Halt" one of them said in a firm voice.

"State your name and business here" The other said.

"Captain Shining Armor. In other wards your boss, and this is a new recruit, open the gate."

The guards looked at each other and nodded. They then proceeded to open the gates to let them pass through. Once they got through the gates they walked up the path to the grand doors. The guards stationed there bowed respectfully and let them through.

It was truly amazing, the stone white columns stretching several stories high, and the shinny granite floor which covered the whole lobby. The paintings of important pony's lined the wall.

Big Macintosh had never been to canterlot castle before.... or any part of canterlot for that matter. However he has heard wonderful things about the architecture of the palace, even though the gala wasn't so good.

"Now....." Shining Armor begun.

"Your room is in tower one on floor eight, I'll show you. follow me." he said walking towards the crooked and twisted stair case. They walked up for five minutes until they reached floor eight.

Once they arrived on floor number eight Big Macintosh noticed that the hall way was small and had four large wooden door ways, and at the end was a grand window.

"Now there's a lot to explain but I will do my best. First thing to know is we are divided into squads of four. There's a Pegasus named sky spark, he's very cocky about his skill but in the end he's alright and gets the job done. And then there's  Iron clutch who's an earth pony just like you, but don't let the name fool you he is a tender hearted soul who gets along great with every pony. And finally there's fizz flash who is a unicorn, but very weak in the field of magic. This hallway belongs to your squad."

The two stallions walked to the doorway on the far right. Shining Armor opened the door to let Big Mac in. Big Mac was impressed with the room. The room was very expansive, the walls were painted a pierce white color. The beds were up against the wall on the far right, and next to it was a night stand. On the far end of the room was a glass door leading onto a balcony that over-looked all of canterlot.

"I'll comeback in a few hours and help you. until then you can unpack everything" He said before closing the door and trotting towards the staircase.

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A few hours passed, and Big Macintosh was finished unpacking when a knock on the door broke the silence. When he opened it Shining Armor was there to greet him.

"Hello the princess would like a word with you in the thrown room, so if you would follow me." He said in a serious tone.

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The princess sat alone with only her personal escorts by her. When suddenly the doors opened, revealing Big Macintosh and Shining Armor. The princess turned to the two stallions standing in front of her who where bowing down.

"Please rise my little ponies" She said as the two pony's stood up.

"Everypony, I would like to speak with Macintosh alone."

Shining armor slowly trotted back to the large door and left without word. She then turned towards her escorts.

"Everypony" She said sternly

The two escorts looked at each other confused, but left with out questioning her. once they were gone princess Celestia stood up from her thrown and walked down to Big Macintosh.

"So are you finding everything to your liking Mr. apple?"

"Yes yer highness" He said respectfully

"Well that's good so have you been assigned to a squad yet?"

"Yes Ma'am "

"Well anyways I called you here to talk about...."

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A dark hooded figure was on the roof ready to burst in and do his job. He was hired as a hit pony to assassinate the princess by Prince Blueblood. Any minute now he would burst through the window on the right side of the thrown room and take a shot at her from the side.

Since his target was an immortal alicorn it required a special kind of spell, that requires dark magic. The spell is very complex so he would only have one shot.

He steadied his heart beat before lunging down in to the window. He broke the glass.

CRASH!!!

He saw the princess turn his way so he fired.

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"I will think about it princess but I don't see..." he was interrupted by a crash.

CRASH!!!!

Everything went in slow motion for Big Mac. A bolt of green magic was caught in the corner of his eye. To his horror he noticed it was heading right for the princess. With out thinking he lunged in front of the princess to take the bullet for her.

He felt a burning pain erupt in his chest, and when he looked down he noticed a crimson liquid falling to the ground. The last thing he noticed was the escorts running in shouting something, but he couldn't make out what they were saying do to the buzzing in his ears.

Big Macintosh fell to his knees as his vision blurred he saw the assassin taken down by the two escorts. The blood kept slowly leaking out of his chest. He could make out the princess calling his name through the buzzing.

"Y-your H-h-highness?" He was barely able to mutter.

But before he got a response he collapsed to the floor.

And then everything went black.