From the Flames of a Phoenix

        I yawned and threw my feet over the side of my bed. I pushed myself onto my feet and looked around the room. As usual when I woke up, both Inkwell and Dawn were asleep. Over on one of the desks was my armor sitting in a pile. Beside it was Inkwell’s. Both looked cleaned up.

        Hm. I wonder who did that, do the servants do it? I had figured I would have to clean it before guard duty.

        I looked down at the jeans and the shirt I was wearing. Both smelled terrible since I skipped showering and had not changed.

        I got up, grabbed a new change of clothes, and took off to the showers.

        I didn’t encounter anyone on the way to the showers, but after I left, guards were leaving their rooms to get ready for their various days.

        Once again in my room, Dawn and Inkwell were both up and were donning their armor. I dropped my dirty laundry into a bin near the door and was greeted by Inkwell.

        “Good morning Richard!”

Inkwell put her helmet on her head while she smiled at me.

I returned her jovial greeting with a wave and strolled over to the desk, “Hey Inkwell,-” I nodded towards Dawn, “- hey Dawn.”

In response, he trotted in front of me and said, “Richard, your position today will be at the entrance of the staff quarters.”

I saluted him, “Yes sir,” and he continued his path past me and out the room.

However, as he walked through the door, he called back, “After guard duty, meet the rest of us at the Bannered Mare.”

“Alright.”

I turned back to the desk and then to Inkwell as she levitated the various pieces of my suit out in front of me. I snatched the gold chest plate from her magic field and donned it.

“Thanks Inkwell, sleep well?”

I grabbed the leggings.

“Your welcome, and yes, I did. Did you sleep well, Richard?”

“That’s good to hear, and I slept okay.”

That reminds me, I still have to talk to someone about getting a larger bed.

The two of us relished each other’s company as I put on the rest of my armor.

“So, where are you stationed today, Inkwell? I’m stationed at wherever the entrance to the staff quarters is.”

“I’m stationed at the kitchen.”

Oh- she’s going to have to smell food cooking all day, sounds like torture. Though, I doubt the staff quarters is going to be any better in terms of anything going on.

I strapped on my second gauntlet and walked over to the door.

“Which kitchen? The castle’s kitchen or ours?”

Inkwell passed through the doorway and I followed closely behind.

“Castle’s kitchen. Hey Richard…” She trailed off.

I turned to look at her whilst we walked down the hall.

“Yeah, what’s up?”

She did not return my gaze, but instead was looking at the wall, away from me.

“D-d-did you have any m-marefriends back home?”

Marefrie- oh those.

I looked at the double doors emblazoned with Celestia’s thigh mark ahead of us.

“Well, they call them girlfriends from where I’m from, but anyways, not when I had left. I have not had one in- well over a year. Why did you want to know?”

I opened one of the doors and I held it open as she passed through and I took my place by her right side once more. I assume this is the staff quarters because of the lack of regal design.

        “No reason, so about later tonight. Dawn says our squad goes out every night of guard duty to a local bar.”

        Oh yeah, forgot about that for a moment. Where is it anyways?

        “Oh yeah, where in town can I find it?”

        “I’ll show you after guard duty. You’d probably forget where it is by time we finish.”

        Well, she’s right about about that.

        “Alright, sounds good. Anyways, where exactly is my post?”

        “Oh! Just keep following me, I’ll show you.”

        We kept walking until she stopped at the doorway between the hall we stood in, and the elaborately decorated hall on the other side.

        “Here we are.”

        On one side of the entrance was a white earth stallion. I stepped to the opposite side that he stood on and thanked Inkwell, “Thank you Inkwell, see you later.”

        “You're welcome, bye Richard.”

        She stepped closer to me and nuzzled the armor covering my thigh and turned away, leaving me alone with the guard beside me.

        I changed my position to parade rest. My feet spread out from each other a couple feet with my arms hands behind my back just above where I would have a belt on.

        The guard next to me spoke up, “Already getting friendly with the mares, eh?”

        I kept facing forward and replied, “Not that friendly. I’m not used to seeing another sentient species. Bit weird thinking about it. That and I doubt it’s appropriate for interspecies relationships to happen, am I right?”

        “No. Relationships like that are pretty common here. However, you said where you’re from you’re not used to seeing another sentient species, so where are you from?”

        “Not sure actually- It could be a different world, dimension, or anything of the like. Maybe I’m really a second from death and my body is experiencing massive hallucinations in its final moments.”

        “I can guarantee I’m not fake, or at least I don’t think I am. I’d hate to find out that my entire life was just a figment of someone’s imagination.”

        “Yeah… why exactly did you think I was getting to with Inkwell?”

        “Inkwell is that mare you came here with?”

        “Yeah.”

        “In all honesty, it’s pretty obvious how she feels about you.”

        Feels about me?

        “What do you mean?”

        “Eh, you must be pretty oblivious to it then. The way her face softens when she looks at you, Celestia’s sake, I’ve seen her interact with you once and it was painfully obvious.

        “The tone in her voice, how it quickened when she nuzzled you. Learn to read the subtle signs and a whole new world reveals itself to you.”

        Huh… how did I not notice that? I should start looking for the small things.

        “So, lets say she does have an interest in me. How should I approach it?”

        “With your hear-”

        Captain Shining Armor passed through the doorway and interrupted the guard next to me, “Stay quiet, you two are on guard duty. No talking.”

        The two of us answered in unison, “Yes sir!”

        The two of us stayed silent for the rest of the morning. I thought over what he said, about Inkwell having an interest in me. Thinking back on it, it is pretty obvious. That would explain why she prefers being by me whenever our squad is together, or at least part of it.

        But- do I have an interest in her? First, I find it a bit… strange. I mean, I don’t really see her and think ‘sexy’, I don’t think I’ve seen a  single pony who looks ‘sexy’. Though, she is cute. But that voice in the back of my head just tells me it’s wrong, that she is an animal.

        However, if this is real and not fake, then she truly is not. I’m not sure I’ll ever even see another human again. Hopefully I will, but regardless the physical differences between ponies and humans are there. I’m not familiar with looking at another species that way- so I don’t exactly have a reference for this kind of thing.

        Her personality seems good though, I like her that way. If she was a human, I would definitely make a move, but the species difference is putting me off. Urgh- why do I have to make this so complicated for myself?

        Eventually, Alabaster passed us and told the other guard and I to take a break and get something to eat. I finally got a good look at the guard. He had a tuft of his blond mane sticking out from his helmet and he also had light turquoise eyes.

        The two of us went back to the canteen and grabbed some lunch. It was sometime past noon and the other two platoons already ate, so pretty much only a few of our platoon’s units were eating. I didn’t spot anyone else I know while we ate.

        The guard and I, found out his name is Verum, chatted about where I’m from and what the Army back home was like. I put off thinking about Inkwell while we made small talk.

        After around maybe twenty minutes, the two of us made our way back to the post for another six hours of boring guard duty. It was perhaps the most boring thing I have done since- well, pretty much ever. Whenever I’ve done a similar job in the Army, there was at least something going on that made it even slightly entertaining. Maybe some cadets being punished, or the rising sun, something.

        I don’t care how long you stare at it, but an empty hallway won’t be the little bit interesting. Unless you're into that sort of thing- which I don’t know anyone who is remotely interested into watching a wall. I rather watch paint dry.

        Eventually, Dawn walked by my post and told me that I was dismissed for the evening, then he told me to meet the rest of the squad at the Bannered Mare in twenty minutes. I went back to our room and stripped myself of my armor and waited outside the door in the hallway for Inkwell to return.

        She arrived after a few minutes and went inside to drop off her armor. The two of us then left the castle and out the castle gate. I took a quick look around at the city from the gate.

        This is actually the first time I’ve gone out of castle grounds. All the buildings are two-three stories high. Shop stalls lined the city's streets. Most of the vendors sold some sort of luxury item like jewelry and the such. We followed the main road leading away from the castle for two blocks then turned right.

        The new street we were on was much smaller and was full of residential looking buildings rather than shops. But after passing seven of those buildings, we arrived at a ‘hole in the wall’ place. The only thing outside that regarded it’s existence was a wooden door and a small sign hanging above the door that showed a picture of a mare holding a banner.

        “This is the place?” I pointed over to the door.

        “Yes it is, lets go!”

        She nudged me forward and so I stepped forward and opened the door for the two of us. She walked past me and I scanned the room as I followed behind her.

        Inside was a few tables set up, each having two or three chairs, except for table on one side of the room. That table had five occupied chairs and two empty ones waiting beside each other. The rest of our squad besides Inkwell and I were sitting down. At the back end of the room was a counter and behind it stood what I assume is the bartender and his various drinks covered the surfaces behind him. A few other ponies littered different sections of the bar.

        I followed Inkwell up to table our squad was sitting at. The two empty seats were positioned between Seeker and Dawn. I took the seat next to Dawn and Inkwell sat between Seeker and I.

        Breeze leaned across the table and pushed two mugs filled with an amber liquid to us.

        “Drink up you two! Tonight’s the night to party!”

        The two of us pulled a mug near us whilst Switch lifted his own up and chugged it down. He then got up and took his mug to the bartender to get a refill. Inkwell looked into her mug and turned to Seeker.

        “I’ve never drank before, what is this?”

        He lifted his mug and took a sip and replied as he set it back down, “Mead, give it a try.”

        Mead? Haven’t had that before!

        I wrapped my hand around the mug rather than the handle, mainly because it was a giant ring meant for hooves, and brought it to my lips. I tilted my head back and let the mead slide down through my throat. The mead was sweet, like honey water.

        I drained the glass to the halfway mark and lowered the mug on to the counter. Switch climbed back onto his seat and sat down with a fresh mug of mead.

        To my left, Inkwell was raising the mug up to drink. Breeze was leaning across the table with a grin that split his face as he waited in anticipation for her to taste her first drink.

        Our entire table had our attention focused on her as she brought the mug up and drank the sweet amber liquid. She drank nearly a fourth of the mug and slammed it down.

        “By Celestia! That’s sweet!”

        Seeker laughed and slammed his head back as he chugged down more of his. Chasm merely raised his mug and nodded with a smile on his face whilst the rest of us congratulated her. After the first drink, whatever concerns she had melted away and she chugged the rest of her first glass like a pro.

        She got up and left to get a refill while the rest of us slowly drained our mugs.

        Dawn turned to face me and asked, “So, how was first day of guard duty? Anything interesting happen?”

        I drained the rest of my mug and replied, “Boring as fuck. The only thing that happened besides watching dust accumulate was the occasional passerby, but they were just as boring.”

        “Hey, at least you did not have to sit outside in the hot sun all day. I can’t bucking wait until fall comes.”

        “You can say that again!” Breeze added in.

        I pulled myself out of my seat and walked over to the bar keep. Inkwell brushed past me on the way to him. I slid my mug on the counter and the bar keep grabbed it and put it under the tap and refilled it.

        “Here you go,” he said as he set it back in front of me.

        “Thanks man.”

        I picked it back up and made my way back to the table. Seeker was talking when I sat back down.

        “-and I heard Celestia and some other pony saying something about changeling activity to the north.”

        Changelings? Like from the thing- oh fuck I hope not. Please don’t let that be a thing here!

        “What are changelings? Namely, what can they do?”

        Seeker spoke up to answer me, “Chang-”

        “I hate changelings,” Switch interrupted.

        Dawn laughed and yelled, “Who doesn’t!”

        Seeker waited until his laughter died off and continued, “Changelings look like ponies, except with a black carapace and soulless blue eyes. They are able to take the form of anyone of a similar size, regardless of species.”

        Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. Why did they have to fucking exist here!

        “Holy shit- we had a similar thing in a movie back home that would kill someone and take their shape.”

        Inkwell went wide eyed at that and Dawn spoke up, “As far as I know, they don’t kill anypony. They capture ponies and use them as love slaves.”

        “Love… slaves? What the fuck, they capture you guys so they could get laid?”

        Dawn burst out laughing along with Switch, Seeker, and Breeze.

        Dawn sputtered out between breaths, “No, changelings feed off of the emotion, love. They don’t rape ponies.”

        Inkwell still had a look of fright on her face and she asked me, “What about the changelings in your world, you said that they killed people…”

        I waved my hand in a dismissing manner and stated, “Changelings from my world are fake, they are just from movies.”

        “Movies?”

        “Yeah, movie, film, moving picture, whatever you guys have here. The movie they are from is fictional.”

        “Moving picture?” Seeker asked.

        “Yeah, it’s basically using a camera to film something and you can replay it and watch it over and over again.”

        “How does it work?”

        I shrugged and said, “To be honest, no clue. I just know it’s something along capturing light, I never actually made a camera, just used them.”

        “Hm, I never heard of anyone capturing light. Anyways, I wonder what in tartarus changelings would be doing in the north. The last time we saw them was at the royal canterlot wedding between Captain Shining Armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”

        Mi Amore Cadenza… isn’t that italian?

        I took a gulp from my mug and asked, “What were they doing at the wedding?”

        “Invading- they tried to overthrow the princesses and conquer Equestria.”

        Obvious they failed, but regardless, “What happened?”

        Dawn answered me before Seeker had a chance to, “They successfully incapacitated Celestia, not sure where Luna was, and they ended up getting defeated by some ‘power of love’, which personally I think is kind of bullshit.”

        Inkwell spoke up, “Hey! Captain Shining Armor and the princess used their love to create a shield that blasted them out of Canterlot!”

        Dawn let out a mocking laugh and shook his head, “I bucking wish. He bucking had us scraping changeling off the castle walls for days, you don’t know true suffering until you are scraping a mixture of dried blood and carapace off of the ceiling.”

        Fuck- and it took days? How many changelings died from that?

        Inkwell seemed taken aback by this, “I don’t remember seeing any changelings after the spell.”

        Dawn shook his head in disbelief, “Well of course, everyone was told to stay inside their homes after it happened so no one would see the mess.”

        “Oh…”

        “Regardless-” Dawn lifted his mug into the air, “-we will kick their flanks if they even think of trying again!”

        A chorus of cheers rang around our table as we all lifted our glasses and clanked them together.

        The seven of us drank and eventually bellowing a chanty. I picked up the lyrics the second time through and joined in.

        The shanty itself was about a soldier returning from deployment back to his family. I’m not sure if it was a trick of the light, my fifth drink, or it actually happening, but unless it was either of the first two, I saw Chasm shed a tear. If so, that would be the only thing I’ve seen from him besides him smiling silently.

        As we sang each repeat of the song, our words became more and more slurred. By the sixth repeat, Inkwell had scooted her chair next to mine and was singing whilst leaning against me. My left arm was laying against her left shoulder and my right arm was up in the air, holding onto my mug as I swung it back and forth to the lyrics.

        Our singing ended when Breeze passed out and face planted on the table. Switch poked him with a hoof then turned to face Dawn.

        “Heeees ooooout.”

        Dawn’s reply was to get up and help Switch carry Breeze.

        The barkeep called over to us, “Don’t worry about paying tonight boys, I’ll put it on your tabs.”

        Out of the seven of us, Chasm was the only one who drank in moderation. He got up and helped Seeker up and stopped to look at me and Inkwell. She had passed out and was lying on my lap, sleeping.

        I waved to him and slurred, “I-I-I’llll get heeer.”

        He turned back around and led the five of them out the door. I looked down in my lap at Inkwell’s sleeping form. I put my hands under her chest and stood up as I lifted her up with me. Once I was in a standing position, I nearly fell over, but I balanced myself out before I could. I then lifted her front body over my shoulder and wrapped my arms around her to carry her much like you would carry a cat. A big, cute cat.

        I followed the path the rest of our squad took and left the bar. I looked around and had no idea where to go. I scanned the sky until I saw the top of the castle poking out above the buildings of Canterlot.

        I carried her down the road which I assumed got me at least closer to the castle. I felt her shift a few times on my shoulder as we walked. After a bit of walking I found a road that led to the castle gate and started following it.

        “Yeaa knnow, I’vvve been th-thinking.”

        I didn’t get an answer but I continued anyways.

        “W-w-what ifff I’m stuck heeere? Yaa know whaat I saaid? I-I toold myself t-thaat I wouuld find somebody.”

        We were getting close to the castle gate.

        “I-I-I thinnk that you’rre a nice marre. Cu-ute too.”

        The guards out front gave me a nod and a chuckle as I passed by them with a passed-out pony.

        I stumbled around the halls, lost, until a guard noticed my situation and escorted me to the barracks. I made my way down the hall and opened the door to our room. A quick look inside and I saw a group of four ponies I didn’t recognize laying in their beds.

        Okay- so not our room. I backed out and closed the door. I walked up to the one across the hall and opened it up. Inside, Dawn was snoring in his bed. I carried Inkwell over to her bed and set her down on her back.

        I felt a bit of vertigo and also felt like something was missing when I stood back up. Then I realized it was probably the lack of weight on my shoulder. I reached my bed and fell face first into the sheets.

        “Uurrrgh.”

        I kept my eyes closed, but felt myself being dragged.

        “Put him under.”

        “Yes sir.”

        Whoever was dragging me laid me down across the floor and I heard the creak of something turning.

        “Urrg- ah!”

        Cold water streamed over me and my eyes snapped open. Alabaster and Dawn were standing in front of me. Dawn reached somewhere above and behind me and the water stopped. He then helped me up onto my feet.

        “Welcome back to the land of the living Richard,” Alabaster stated.

        I groaned and rubbed my aching forehead.

Fuck, that mead gives one hell of a hangover.

“You have some clothes waiting on the bench over there,” -he pointed towards the front part of the room- “so get up, dressed and meet outside for PT.”

“Yes sir,” I sluggishly saluted and made my way over to the bench. The two of them left the room as I changed out of my wet clothes and into a new shirt and pair of shorts. Afterwards, I walked out through the hall and to the field.

PT woke up me quickly, not nearly as fast as that shower though. Whilst doing the various exercises I remembered bits of the previous night. The jokes, the singing, Switch passing out, then Inkwell following in his footsteps. Then I remembered what I said to Inkwell.

Aw- damn. I’m pretty sure she passed out, so I don’t think she heard me.

At the end of PT, Alabaster told us we have the day off because it’s the Summer Sun Celebration today. Not sure what it is, but great. Our entire squad walked together to the canteen. Breeze started talking about how awesome last night was as we entered the castle.

Inkwell pressed against me the entire time while walking and once we sat down at a table with our food, she continued leaning against me.

She must’ve heard me last night, oh well.

I reached around her with my arm and put my arm around her shoulder which prompted her to turn and nuzzle my chest. Breeze’s face lit up when he saw that and he started saying how cute it was to see us like that. One thing I did not expect though, was that I got a smile and a wink from Switch.

Switch. He is not mad about anything! That makes his approval that much more surprising.

After eating, I went back to our room to just relax for the day, but Inkwell insisted we go to whatever the celebration is. We went and I found out that it was some day that used to be the celebration of some evil pony called Nightmare Moon, which is pretty much evil incarnate that had possessed Princess Luna for a thousand or something years. After Nightmare Moon’s defeat the event changed to be a celebration on the return of Princess Luna.

Though, wouldn’t it make more sense to be during the night then?

Nevertheless, the celebration itself was interesting. It started with Celestia making a speech about friendship and recounting Luna’s return and then she flew into the air whilst raising the sun behind her. It would have been a pretty damn amazing sight, you know, if it wasn’t the fact that if you saw it, you would go blind from staring at the goddamn sun.

Somehow, the ponies kept their eyes on the spectacle while I had to block the bright sunlight from my eyes. Seriously, how the hell are they looking directly at it?

After the Princess tried blinding the population of Canterlot, everyone scattered to look at various attractions and vendors set up in the street for the occasion.

The rest of the day went without a hitch and after going back to eat at the barracks for dinner, Inkwell and I went back to our room. She and I pulled up chairs to one of the desks and we read chapter two of  “Rules and Guidelines of the Equestrian Solar Guard” which was on PT and Drill procedures.

Eventually, Inkwell fell asleep whilst pressing against my side. I closed the book and slid it to the corner of the desk. I wrapped my hands around Inkwell and picked her up. She did not wake up as I carried her over to her bed and set her down for the night. I followed her lead and walked over to my bed and laid down, exhausted from the day’s activities.