A guard, a racer, and a musician

Chapter 1: Old friends, new problems

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“Princess, its morning.” I knocked on the bedroom door, but got no response. “Princess?” I slowly opened the door. “Are you in….of course not.” Not in her bed, as usual. I looked to the guard next to the door. “Let me guess, she’s in the library?”

“Yes Sir.”

“Right then. Another morning in the castle I guess.” I sighed, maybe she won’t be buried in books this time. “Go take a break sergeant, not much danger as always.”

“Of course Captain.” He chuckled as he made his way down the hall. He removed his helmet, the magic illusion showing his actual color. The armor like all royal guard armor is made to hide the Pony’s actual fur, mane, and eye color. Making it a gray with purple mix. Even makes us sound the same, uniformity of some sort.

I made my path to the library, knowing that it’s a mess already. Knowing the Princesses late nights of reading, studying, and book related activities, it was always a mess. I opened the door and the mess had blocked most of the way in. A bit of magic and I was in. “In the name of Celestia……this mess…..” I looked around. “Princess Twilight? Hello?” She might just be buried, again. “Spike, you here somewhere?”

“Over here!” I followed him over to a pile of books, a familiar looking purple coat showing under it. “Found her, another Monday.”

“Another Monday indeed Spike. Here, let me help.” I used my magic to remove the books and stack them up nearby. “There she is,” Snoozing away on the same table. “And sound asleep.” I nudged her. “Princess, wake up, its morning. I believe its late in the morning.”

“Ergh…….Little longer…..” She’s out like a candle.

“Princess, Rainbow Dash already came by looking for you. Said she’s be back later. I would suggest waking up.”

She slowly opened her eyes and rubbed them. “Rainbow Dash…..when?”

“Earlier, said something about flight practice.”

“Oh…..” She looked around before yawning. “Sorry about that, late night.”

“I can tell Princess. I can clean this up while you go do your morning process.”

“Thank you, Captain Eisen.” She got up and stretched, heard every bone pop. “But, I’ll handle it. My fault for making you come find me in the morning. Again.”

“It’s my duty Princess.”

She giggled. “Yes, you’ve said that. And I told you, you don’t have to call me ‘Princess.’ Just ‘Twilight’ is fine.”

“I’ll try Princess.” I grinned.

“Ha ha, you’re so funny

“I try Princess, I have to find a way to entertain myself on the less the exciting days. Ponyville is lacking is evil or chaos imbued trouble recently. A good thing, yes. But, it means some of us have less to do. So, in conclusion, I have to have a way to entertain myself. A Pony can only do so much with magic.” My grin still present.

“I guess so. So, why not take today off then?”

“Was going to, but I have some papers I need to finish, simple recruitment lists, overview of the armor, and a few other things. Planned to meet my friends at the train station, but these things came up. Have to get them- “

“You’re taking the day off.”

“Princess? I have things that need to get done, maybe next week I can take a day off if there’s nothing to- “

“Nope, I decided, you’re off today. You mentioned your friends. First time I’ve heard of them.”

“Well, we haven’t seen one another in a long time. Also never really needed to mention them before. Come on Princess, I don’t need a day off. I have work to do, so I should get- “

“I’ll meet them with you! Oh it will be so much fun!” She clapped her hooves in excitement. “I’ve never heard of them and I bet their nice ponies. So, tell me about them.”

I sighed. “I’m not winning this, am I?”

“Nope.”

“Of course,” I shrugged. “Well. There’s Arpeggio, a musician from Baltimare. Decent fellow, plays guitar, earth pony. Never figured out how he does it. Then there’s Stopwatch, Pegasus. I little crazy. Loves racing, also just plain crazy. He and Pinkie would get along well. Might be scary if they meet, so much crazy in one place.”

“Well, they sound interesting. When will they be arriving?”

“I think……now?”

“Now!?”

“I guess, I had work, so I just kept working. “I shrugged.

“Come on then! If we’re late, then well…. we’re late!”

She rushed out, I shook my head and looked to Spike. “So, how was your morning?”

“Good, you?”

“Same old, same old. See ya’ later Spike.” I left, passing by my room to put my armor away. Letting my short Auburn mane, Damson eyes, and light yellow coat return to their normal color. My cutie mark of an iron wand showing up again. “Let’s head out.” I found the Princess waiting outside, tapping her hoof on the ground.

“We’re going to be late, what were you doing?”

“Taking my armor off, if I’m off duty, I’m not wearing it. Don’t worry Princess, we’ll be fine.”

“What did I say about calling me ‘Princess?’ “

“Not too? Sorry, it’s a hard habitat to break. I’ll work on it Prince- I mean, Twilight.” My Germaneic accent made the ‘w’ sound like a ‘v.’

“There’s that accent. I always liked it, something different from the norm.”

“Ja. I guess. The armor made us all sound the same. Bei seltsamen ersten.”

“Wait…what?”

I chuckled. “I said it was strange at first. Sorry, forgot you don’t know Germane. Not many here do.”

“I’ll make sure to find a book on it then. Never hurts to learn something new.”

“With Germane? It might, a bit confusing to start at first. A lot of words that could mean the same thing, but spelled differently. Makes witting an issue sometimes, so many spell checks.”

“Well, challenge accepted. I’ll have to get your help sometimes. Oh, we could start later today!”

“Do you really think that’s a good idea?”

“Oh, it can’t be that bad.”

I chuckled. “Hey, I tried warning you.” We got to the train station right as the train pulled in. The doors opened and out came to old faces.

“Eisen.”

“Eisen! Woot!” One calm earth pony and one crazy Pegasus.

“Arpeggio,” Shirt, tie, vest, sunglasses, fancy hat. Long brown mane, pale peach coat, brown eyes. Note cutie mark. The Musician. “Stopwatch.” Goggles, wonderbolts fan jacket. Messy sun-orange mane, tan brown coat, bright green eyes. Stopwatch cutie mark. “Good to see both of you.”

“Same here, Stopwatch here wouldn’t be silent the entire way here.”

“Oh could I! We get to see our oldest friend again! And we have! Best day ever!”

We shared a laugh on Stopwatch’s antics. “Yes. It has been a while. You never told me what brings you here. The letters were rather vague.”

“Oh, we’re living here now. Surprise.”

“Surprise! Woot! We need a party!”

“Wait, Stopwatch, don’t- “Too late. Our vision was flooded with confetti.

“Did someone say ‘Old friends meet again party!?’”

“Yes!” Oh dear Luna……. the chaos from this, it will be…. chaotic.

Arpeggio looked back to me. “So, guard captain, tell me,” He bowed. “Why is the Princess of friendship here?”

“Oh, she wanted to meet my friends. Also forced me to take a day off.”

He laughed. “Oh, finally. Thank you Princess.”

“For what?”

“Getting this stallion right here to take a break. All he did was focus on work. Should have seen him in school. Royal guard cadet class, one of the best, due to only focusing on that. Well, guess it helped.”

“Really? Well, as the Princess of friendship, it is my pleasure.”

“Maybe help him in finding a- “

I used my magic to keep his mouth shut. “No, not another word.” Heat rose to my face. “I mean,” I let him go. “That’s not something she’d be interested about.” I nervously chuckled. “So, uh…...where are you two living at?”

“Well, our homes are nearby actually. And nice subject change.” I glared at him. “Right, got it, dropping it.”

“So yeah, Prin- Twilight. This is Arpeggio and Stopwatch. My old friends. They already know who you are.”

“Nice to meet you two. Eisen never mentions you or any other friends he has.”

“One of many problems. He was never one to make friends. So, we’re kind of his only ones.”

“Wait, really?”

I sighed. “Yeah, I had work to focus on. Things to get done.”

Stopwatch landed on my back. “Yeah, real lonely! But we said hello, a lot. And we became great friends!”

Twilight laughed. “Well, I’m not surprised by that. But, now that- “

Pinkie came up and fired her party cannon. “Time for the ‘Old friends come back and get more friends party!’ Party!”

I sighed. “Well,” I looked to Twilight. “Don’t think we’ll get to those Germane lessons tonight. Reschedule?”

“Sure. You have tomorrow off too.”

“Princess, I have duties and work- “I stopped. “I can’t win, can I?”

“Nope. Now come on, if we don’t join in on the party, you know how pinkie can get.”

“Yeah, let’s go.” I shrugged. Well, maybe Arpeggio is right, maybe I do need to take some time off. I’ll think on it, maybe after I finish my work that’s no doubt already started to pile up. Maybe I could slip away from Twilight’s sight to go do it. Well, not while Pinkie is here, she seems to always notice a pony leaving the party before its done. For now, I guess we party.

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Author's Note

Hello everypony, here it is. After so long. I decided to rewrite the first chapter and now I like it. Took me so long due to now being in the Marine Corp. Months of training left me unable to do anything. So, I’m back. Sure, now I can’t always update, but, I can do more than I’ve done in the past. Sorry about the wait, and I hope you all enjoy this. See ya’ next chapter!