Albertus

“Cold, and darkness. Heh, everypony here is used to that. It’s the Arctic North, why wouldn’t there be cold and darkness? It’s not like we’re further south or anything, it’s just where the empire sits. I’m getting off topic now, so I guess I’ll just start. Here, my friends, is how our story started.”

The sun slowly rose over a cold, almost-barren slab of land, surrounded by ice-covered mountains. Down in the valley, lies the city of the Crystal Empire. Most ponies by now would be asleep. Most. Except those who work their lives to protect the empire.

"Come on, boys! Let's move!" Shouted a tall, well-built navy blue unicorn stallion, wearing fine silver armor that sparkled ten times more than the Canterlot guard armor, ahead of a line of stallions, each in color to literally make a rainbow. Every one of them wore similar armor, but it did not come close to the sparkle like the unicorn's armor.

Crystal ponies on that street stopped and watched the assemblage of crystal guards march towards the castle, a few mares in the crowd admired the armor-plated stallions as they cantered by. If you were one of those mares, you'd be lucky to have one of the guards briefly break march code and wave at you.

"Hmm," a white unicorn dressed in purple with gold outer lining armor with a shield on the center of the chestplate stood on the balcony of the Crystal Spire. His coat was whiter than snow, and his mane was a deep-night blue, with a cyan stripe down the side. He held a helmet in his hoof, which again had a purple paint, with a gold outer lining. Underneath his armor was a pair of dog tags that read ' CAPTAIN SHINING ARMOR ROYAL GUARD '. They were the new recruits who had already gotten their armor. Unlike Canterlot, Crystal guards received their armor while still a recruit.

The unicorn and the group of guards, all in three perfect rows, stopped underneath the spire, where the Crystal Heart was. The stallion then turned around to face them all.

"Listen up boys, Captain Armor's goal is to train a better guard ever since the changelings attacked Canterlot two years ago," he started, walking on the outside of the stoic-faced stallions. "We will crush the standards of the Canterlot guard, we will excel in our performance, we will be ten to a hundred times better than those boys in gold armor!"

"Hoorah!" the group responded in unison, in very rough voices.

"Very good," the navy blue stallion trotted back to the front of the line. "Come on boys, it's almost chow time."

The unicorn, along with the recruits, marched off to the main crystal guard base on the outskirts of the empire. After arriving, the stallion let off the others to the mess hall to get some grub, while he cantered back to the spire for an important meeting.

The unicorn ran into the castle without breaking a sweat, then slowed his pace to fit in, before looking around to find where he needed to go. He then came up to a door, and knocked once. A moment later, they seemed to open on their own, and the stallion slowly entered the dark bedroom, slowly unsheathing a combat knife from his armor and cautiously inching through the room, the doors slamming shut behind him suddenly, causing him to jump.

"Who are you?" A dark voice said, and the unicorn turned and saw a tall, but blacked out, stallion figure standing there.

"Uh. First Lieutenant Shield Spotter," he started, gulping. "Sir..."

The dark mass then slowly moved towards the unicorn, and Shield begun to get a sense of fear, but on the outside he remained hard as a rock, and he soon pointed the knife out at the dark figure.

"Stay back!" He said, before the curtains slid open magically, revealing the captain of the Royal Guard standing there, smiling.

"I've trained you well, Spotter," Shining Armor smiled.

Shield slowly lowered the knife, and flipped it back into the handle, before tucking it away in his armor. "Thank you sir, my apologies."

"Don't worry about it, soldier. I would have done the same thing most likely," Shining Armor walked to a set of tall doors that led to a balcony, the white unicorn motioning for Shield to come with him, which is what he did. "It's beautiful, is it not?" He smiled.

"Yes, sir. It is," Shield replied, looking out at the one hundred eighty degree view.

"Some day, I bet this empire will be all yours, when I'm not around," Shining Armor continued to look out at the horizon.

"Uh, I object sir," Shield said.

"What do you mean?" Shining Armor asked, turning to face Spotter.

"What I mean is, chances are if we live to full life, without any issues or wars or anything, I'd be dead before you could pass it on. Besides...I'm, not sure if I'm ready to lead an entire empire anyways. I don't think I would be good enough for that responsibility, sir." Shield Spotter replied with a stern tone in his voice.

"But, you never know. For all we know, you might become Equestria's next alicorn princess," Shining Armor bantered.

"What?!" Shield shouted, his irises shrinking to pinpricks, and taking a few steps away from the captain.

Shining Armor then burst out laughing. "I'm kidding, first lieutenant."

Shield then took a deep sigh of relief. "Sir, don't you ever do that to me again. I almost had a heart attack."

"Seriously? You know stallions can't become alicorns right? Or...princesses," Shining Armor stopped laughing.

"Yes, but..."

"But what?"

"I do know of somepony who is an alicorn...and he's a stallion."

"What?! Who?"

***

Shortly after the meeting with Shining Armor, Shield Spotter returned to the crystal guard base, where some were training, while others stood on patrol, and he was stopped at the door.

"How many times does the Crystal Heart glow per day?" The gate guard stood like a statue, staring at Shield and blocking him from entering as a security precaution.

"Twenty-four hundred," Shield answered, and the guard moved his spear out of the way, allowing him to enter.

Shield casually walked into the base, past barracks, a training field, and a couple of groups of guards marching, and then the flagpole, where some guards stood saluting the flag, which was purple with a crystflake in dead center. Afterwards, he went into the main building, which was three stories high.

"Afternoon," he said to the receptionist mare, who giggled some and blushed. Shield had a very strong feeling that she has had a crush on him for a while, which every time he thought of it, brought a smile to his face.

Shield then opened the door to his office, and saw a nice-sized package wrapped in brown paper with a basic string holding it down. He sat at his desk and pulled out his knife, cutting the string and paper, revealing a white cardboard box. He shook it gently, hearing a light thump against the side of the box before cutting the tape with the knife and opening it.

Inside the box was a snow globe with the Canterlot Castle, with a couple of guards playing together on what looked like a snowy field, and on the bottom was a picture of an extremely light green pegasus mare with a brown mane, smiling brightly with a red and white striped scarf around her neck, as well as an envelope taped to it. Shield took the envelope off of the picture, and opened it, levitating out a piece of paper which was written on.

Dear Shield,

I miss you so much, and I cannot wait for you to come home. How is the Crystal Empire? I'm not always busy, so you shouldn't hold yourself back from sending a reply. It always warms my heart to get a letter back from you, it just lets me know you're safe and sound, and how you are doing. Our neighbor has been asking how you are doing, and I never know what to tell him. Reply back when ever you aren't busy.

I love you with all my heart,

~Mint Spark

Shield smiled, and levitated a quill, ink, and a piece of paper to his desk, putting the letter off to the side, and he begun to write.

Dear Minty, my love,

Things are going great up here, I wish you could have come with me. The sights here are breathtaking, and i'm certain you'd love it here. I miss you dearly, and I can't wait to come home either. Tell our neighbor I'm doing fine, and that i'll be home in a few weeks to a month, before the winter season really gets worse around Equestria. I've told all of my buddies about you, and they are eager to meet you some day, if they are ever in town. I promise, once I get home, i'm not going anywhere without you.

I love you more, with all of my heart and strength,

~Shield Spotter

P.S.

Thank you for the snow globe and picture. Love you a ton.

Shield then set the quill down in the ink jar, reading over the letter to make sure he didn't make any mistakes.

"Writing to your marefriend again, are we?" A voice chuckled.

Shield scrambled on accident, knocking over the jar of ink onto his desk.

"DAWH. What gives man?!" Shield yelled, grabbing a paper towel and cleaning up the ink.

The stallion laughed. "Oh come on, dude. I've never seen your hooves move that fast in my life."

Shield grumbled. "That wasn't funny, Stratus."

"Yes it was! Admit it!" The stallion grinned. He was a large, muscular pegasus stallion, slightly bigger than Shield. He also had a mid-length, slightly spiky purple mane.

"It. Wasn't. Funny," Shield grit his teeth.

"Yes it was. Anyways, what did you write to her?" Stratus sat on the edge of Shield's desk and looking down at him.

"None of your business," Shield replied, shoving the stallion off of his desk.

Stratus landed on his hooves, then sat in a chair next to Shield's desk. "Aw, come on bro. I'm just tryin' to have fun with you. It's not like you're here forever. You are shipped back to Canterlot in three weeks, chances are pretty slim that we'll ever see each other again."

Shield sighed, putting his letter into an envelope. "I know. It makes me sad too, but it's just the way things are."

"Can't your wife move here? So we can all stay together? You told me when we met that you loved it here, possibly more than your home town," Stratus motioned a hoof.

"No, Stratus! If I'm going to start a family with Minty, it's going to be back in Canterlot!" Shield slammed his hoof onto the desk, startling Stratus.

Stratus jumped slightly. "Okay..." He sighed. "It's just, you are like my best friend."

Shield slowly sat down, calming himself. "And you're like my best friend too..."

"It's going to suck when you leave. I love hanging out with you and the others," Stratus' ears flopped down.

Shield then got up and walked around his desk, resting a hoof on Stratus' shoulder.

"If it makes you feel better, we should go to the tavern tonight and get a few drinks," He said, smiling.

Stratus' ears perked up. "Really?" He grinned some.

"Sure, it's not like we've been there recently anyways," Shield smiled still.

"Awesome. We bringin' Golden too? And Swifty?" Stratus asked, standing up.

"Of course, we can bring Glow and Swift too," Shield smiled.

"Sweet, another guys night out! I love it when we have stallion night outs," Stratus grinned.

"Me too, bro. Me too," Shield smiled, walking out of his office with Stratus.

***

Later that night, Shield and Stratus waited on a bench outside of a packed sports bar, not far from the spire, waiting for their buddies to arrive.

"Don't you think we should go in and get a table before it packs out?" Stratus asked.

"Don't be silly, it's not THAT packed," Shield replied, looking around for two familiar faces.

Soon after, a yellow earth pony stallion with a brown mane, and a white pegasus stallion with a dark-cyan mane trotted side by side up to them.

"Hey guys!" The yellow stallion, Golden Blade, shouted.

"Stratus! Shield!" Swift Sword called out, smiling brightly.

"Hey you two!" Stratus stood up and giving both of them a manly hug.

"What's going on, my brothers from other mothers?" Golden asked as Shield stood and hoofbumped them.

"Just waitin' for you is all. Come on, let's go in before it packs out," Shield smirked a bit.

"Wha...That's what I said!" Stratus' eyes widened, and the three laughed.

"Hah, no you didn't," Shield smirked more and trotted inside.

Inside, ponies drank ciders, ate food that was cooked in the kitchen, and watched games from hockey, to hoofball, to soccer on screens with projectors hanging from the ceiling. The four then got lucky enough to find four empty spots at the bar, where they ordered some food and ciders.

"Hey, guys," Golden spoke up, sitting at the end of the group, and he got the attention of the other three. "A toast, to Shield on his promotion to first lieutenant," he continued, raising his glass.

Shield's cheeks darkened in a blush and he smiled as the others raised their drinks. "Aw, come on, it's not that exciting."

"Oh yes, it is, shut up and take it," Swift joked around, and the four clinked their shot glasses.

"I also bid you good luck, for when you go back to your wife and your old job in Canterlot. We will all miss you bro," Stratus smiled at Shield.

"Hoorah," they said in unison, before downing their drinks.

Afterwards, the four joked around with each other and watched the sports until around midnight, when they all went home.