From the Flames of a Phoenix

        The guard and I entered an unfamiliar hall- unfamiliar to me at least.

        “So, what’s your name?”

        “Alabaster.”

        “Alabaster? You know why your parents named you that?”

        He turned to me and raised an eyebrow, “You know why your parents called you Richard?”

        I held a hand out, palm up, and replied, “Actually… Richard is my last name.”

        “Last name? What’s a last name?”

        Well, this guy doesn’t know a last name is so ponies must not use them. I wonder how they keep track of family.

        I explained to him about last names, how they are acquired (birth, marriage, etc), and their use in the U.S. Military.

        “Okay. So what’s your first name?”

        We passed into another hall, this one was much less regal. Must be for the working class in the palace.

        “Just call me Richard, I’m used to it.”

        “Okay, but what’s your first name? I want to know.”

        I sighed, “There’s no way in hell I’m telling anyone here, I’ve not exactly had a good history with it.”

        He smirked, “It can’t possibly be that bad?”

        We were approaching a set of closed double doors with Celestia’s thigh mark centered on the front.

        “I mean, it’s not exactly a bad name, I just got a lot of flak from other people while growing up because of it.”

        We stopped in front of the door and he asked me again, “So… can you tell me? I promise I won’t tell anyone!”

        “Argh- fine. But when the only alien in this world is not an enigma because you damn ponies ask me everything about me, I blame you. My first name is Jesse.”

        He tilted his head just a bit, “Jesse? Never heard of it, why would anyone mess with you because of it?”

        Oh yeah, ponies don’t exactly have the same names as we do. Welp, there goes me worrying about nothing.

        “Jessie is pronounced the same way as Jesse, which Jessie -with an i- is namely a name for females while Jesse is a male variation of it.”

        Alabaster opened the door and we both walked in.

        “Huh. People from your world sure can be mean.”

        “Yeah, tell me about it. Speaking of that, how are all the ponies I’ve seen mainly cool and perfectly fine with an alien suddenly appearing?” I asked while taking a look around the hallway we entered.

        “I guess it’s because people are just used to it. Even though you are the first alien, you are not the first new species. Our world is full of sentient beings, so just one more is not much of a difference.”

        Well, that explains a lot. However, I really do gotta find out more about this world.

        On either side was an intricate pattern going all the way down the length of the hallway. The pattern looked to be a wave-like line and every three crests a pony would be standing on top of it. The pony itself would change between the basic three races Celestia had told me about yesterday.

        After every third pony, a door to a room would be placed. Each door was numbered and by a quick count, I estimated a good thirty in this hallway. I wonder how many ponies are actually in the Solar Guard. Hm, questions for another time.

        The doors were numbered in a pattern. Starting with the left side, to the right, left up one, and so on. He led me down this new hallway and we passed an intersection after room seven. Down that way I saw a few other rooms. Probably rooms like the showers and the canteen.

        You know what? No time like the present.

        “Just how many Solar Guards are there?”

        He kept trotting towards the back of the hallway as he answered, “Since we’ve not had a war or any major conflict in around… a thousand or so years, we’ve not had a large number of active service members. This barracks has capacity for 120, but we only have ninety three currently not including you.”

        Hmm… ninety three. I wonder what they do most of the time.

        “Since you guys only have so many guards, what do you do most of the time?”

        He stopped in front of door twenty four.

        “Here we are, you’ll be sleeping in this room. As for what we do… we normally just guard the castle and royal events. The city guard takes care of Canterlot itself and other towns and cities have similar systems. Anyways, Captain Shining Armor told me to inform you that you have today off, but you will joining the rest of us as usual at dawn tomorrow morning.”

        I waved a hand in farewell, “Alright, well thanks Alabaster. I’ll see you around.”

        “Bye Jesse.”

        I entered the room and found it to be much more spacious then I’m used to in a barracks. The room had four beds, which sadly, each were small as hell and regardless of how I will lay on it, my feet would be hanging off the edge. They were also bolted to the floor, so there goes moving two of them together.

        Also, multiple beds mean roommates. I’m guessing they are either somewhere around the castle or in the platoon Shining Armor had out for PT.