Stand Guard

by Shocks

Rating: teen
Tags: Comedy, Adventure, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia, Sex, Human, Anthro, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Other, Princess Luna, Original Character
Length: 6523

A human tries to manage his life and job as the country he has been transported to faces it most eventful years in its history. It will be challenging, but it can be done. Now only if his subordinate wasn't trying to kill him on a regular basis.

It's been just over a year since I arrived here, since I left Earth behind. It's been an interesting experience and I even think I might be stronger for it. Certainly more muscled, that's for sure. I've got a good job, I work with the ruler of the entire country, I have an excellent apartment, a nice paycheck, and am respected among my peers. Despite the fact that my roommate is a-

"Awww. Are you writing in your diary again?"

"...Its an officer's log thank you"

Sex Tag for innuendos and flirty thestrals.

Published 2015-08-15 14:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-08-15 14:20:01 UTC

Meet the Captain

Author's Note

This is what happens when I try to write Anthro.

Welp. I don't like this story's chances of success.

Meet the Captain

It was just about five o’clock in the afternoon when I stepped out the door to my bedroom, lazily making my way down my apartment’s hallway toward the kitchen, and with any luck, breakfast.

My feet shuffled against the carpet as they dragged themselves, the fact that most of my body still being half asleep playing into my sluggish attitude. I gave my roommate’s door a brief glance as I passed it, but hearing no particular sounds within I surmised she was still asleep.

Good, got a few minutes to myself today…

I quickly found myself exiting the hallway into my living room slash kitchen, a half wall separating the two parts. While I didn’t like to admit it-I wasn’t really the bragging type- I utterly enjoyed the amount of living space my apartment had to offer, as my living room was ridiculously spacious with enough room to rival that of a nice house’s family room.

With several couches dominating most of the space, centered around a glass topped table with various little items on it, including one of the latest radio’s my country had to offer. I even had a small weight set in the corner of the room. Making my way over to the largest window of my living room, I quickly pulled back the curtains to allow some of the evening sun to brighten the slightly gloomy area, biting back a curse as some of it momentarily blinded me.

While I certainly appreciated the view this place had, allowing me to truly take in the vast cityscape around me, having the ball of fire blind me every morning was not something I was particularly happy with.

Turning around and making my way back to the kitchen, I meandered around my kitchen table that was sort of the dining room part of the area, and toward my fridge, narrowly avoiding stubbing my toe on one of the stools that surrounded my kitchen’s island.

I rummaged through my cabinets, finding nothing sticking out to me so I went with my classic morning dish even since before I arrived here. Cinnamon oatmeal.

Shit was good. Not entirely sure exactly why, but damn if it didn’t hit the spot in the morning. It was quick work to pour it in a bowl, mix it with some water, and pop it in the microwave. Said appliance being one of the latest models to come out if I might add.

My job had its perks.

While the little piece of tech was still nuking my food, I went over to the coffee maker that had just finished its morning brew as per set, pouring myself a cup of the black souled liquid into an awaiting coffee mug. Retrieving my oatmeal from the microwave, I made my way over to the dining table, snatching the newspaper on my countertop as I went by. Sitting down, I let my body slump against the chair, its half asleep nature enjoying the lack of movement greatly. Ignoring the thought of returning to sleep though, I set about the process of my morning routine. And step one, breakfast.

I chewed the oatmeal with as much speed and gusto as a sloth, my mind still attempting to play pick up with my body in waking up. I didn’t even really taste the normally cinnamon flavored oats, as my eyes drifted over this week’s addition of the Canterlot Times, my city’s most favored newspaper. My eyes lazily scanned over the columns of articles, not really picking out of anything of particular value. Although a few things may have caused me to linger for a moment, this week’s seemed none to interesting for anything exciting. Just the usual celebrity gossip and nobles wanting this and that and blah blah blah…

Fleur De Lis sex scandal? Fancy Pants heart shattered? Damn bullshit, those two are more in love then George Clooney and his ego…

Setting down the paper for a moment, I finished what little oatmeal was left in my mouth before grabbing my coffee cup, blowing on the steaming beverage before more or less gulping a good fourth of the cup in one go. I very nearly hissed as the liquid burned down my throat, my assumption of its temperature way off.

Fucking holy hell! Hot hot hot!

I bit back a curse as I hacked for a few moments, some of the searing fire liquid managing to go down the wrong tube.

If I wasn’t awake now, I wasn’t sure there would be much else that would wake me. Barring the fact that the coffee was bloody hot, I had the double whammy of it being some of the strongest shit I’ve had in a while and considering I’m not a big coffee drinker in the first place, I received the equivalent of a slap across the face.

Twice.

Damnit, she made it strong as hell again! Serves me right for letting her make it…

In my little coughing fit, I didn’t hear the door to one of the bedroom doors of my apartment open, signaling the awakening of my roommate. I was too busy making sure that I hadn’t spilled any of the devil liquid on myself that I didn’t hear the approach of said roommate, nor the tap tap tap of her feet onto the tiled floor, which I had installed specifically for the exact purpose of hearing her.

Completely ignoring the fact she had almost zero traction on it but…

I didn’t even notice her approach until she was practically on top of me, no doubt sporting a feral grin as she leaned over me.

And that’s just about when I had a shiver run down my spine, the hair on the back of my neck stand on end, my eyes widen, and the spoon I was holding to fall back into my oatmeal. I was…surprised…by the two…fleshy, smooth furred…ahem.

She had her breasts pressed against the back of my head.

God dam-, its one of those days.

There is nothing like blood rushing to a certain part of your body to wake you up better than a cold shower or a screaming banshee.

I felt my light somewhat decrease as a shadow fell over me, and with my surprise fading to faining disinterest; I calmly looked up at the woman who was smiling somewhat over me.

Her slitted, honey yellow eyes were nearly dancing with mirth, her smile nearly reaching both her tuft ears as her little ~~cute~~ menacing fangs poked out over her lower lip.

“Gooooooooooooood Morning Anon!” She especially emphasized the morning, laughing as she pushed into me a little more, sending another chill up my spine and making my little buddy downstairs wish to stand at attention as much as I was fighting him not too. I was getting better at it, but god damn did she test me regularly.

“That joke hasn’t gotten any funnier since the last thousand times you’ve said it” I replied monotonly, taking my attention away from her to try and start eating my oatmeal again. As I tried bringing a spoonful of the oats to my mouth, I was blocked by the sudden appearance of furry, off black arms wrapping around my upper chest, blocking my attempt at eating. While the feeling of her fur against my bare arms wasn’t anywhere near unpleasant, the fact they were blocking me from eating was rather irritating.

“Awwww is Nonny gwumpy twoday?” She mock pouted over me, her voice slightly changed to reflect more as if she was talking to baby.

I deadpanned.

“You made the coffee strong again,” I informed her, finding her face to light up the instant I told her, no doubt finding the information very humorous.

“That I did! I call it, Midnight’s Midnight Brew. Whadoya’ think?” She leaned over me even further, so much that her furry chin was resting against the top of my forehead and part of my vision was skewed by the upper part of her head and faded violet mane.

“If you intended it to be capable of knocking out a fully grown hydra, then you’ve done a fantastic job” I tried to get a good laugh at her expense, but she was able to get right back at me by squeezing me into a hug, pinning me against the back of my chair and unfortunately my head to her breast.

Yes. I said unfortunately.

“Awww thanks Nonny!” She happily told me, trying and somewhat failing to rub her small muzzle against my head.

I silently prayed to baby Jesus when she finally released me from her grip, moving around me to walk beside the table and into the kitchen for some breakfast as well.

The traitorous little bastard in my boxers was crying out in sadness though.

Avoiding looking at my roommate as I knew would only get me more flustered, I returned my attention back to my newspaper as I heard her rummaging through the cabinets for food.

“Sleep well?” I asked offhandedly, trying to start conversation as my eyes drifted over the written articles once more.

A few pops of joints and the sound of stretching were my initial answer, as a yawn also worked its way into there too.

“Mmm, ya. Pretty well actually. Those new pillows you got are quite comfy” I ignored the fact that I had to buy her new pillows because she had bitten the last few so much the stuffing had begun to fall out of them.

I didn’t even want to know what she was dreaming about.

I mumbled a ‘good’ as I continued to eat my breakfast, taking of a few sips of the slap-happy coffee to keep my mind from falling back into sleep. All the while I heard the continued shuffling and opening of various drawers and cabinets, the contents inside being rifled through somewhat.

It took me a moment to realize she seemed to be making much more noise then usual, and I was admittedly curious to what she was so invested in looking for.

With the mistake of grabbing my coffee to take another sip, I foolishly had the cup to my lips and already had some pouring into my mouth when I glanced lazily in her direction.

Only to have 90% of the black liquid be inhaled instantly. I was more or less breathing the damn stuff.

The reason for me now officially never drinking anything around my roommate ever again-as I will repeat for the nth time- was the fact that I had looked over the exact moment her butt was placed in the air as she bent over, my eyes immediately locking in on the form hugging, deep violet panties that graced her ~~perfectly toned damn fine~~ backside. Her tail did little to hide the outspoken area as it was draped somewhat over her right hip, its start just before the top of her rear making me zone in on it even more.

She immediately noticed the coughing fit behind her as I attempted to extradite the coffee that had so callously invaded my only organ that allowed me to, you know, breath.

I mean, it’s not like I want to live a happy and full life or something…

Several more moments of hacking with multiple curses interwoven here and there, I was able to get most of the coffee removed from my lungs, though I had to wipe my nose repeatedly as some decided it was going out the hard way.

“Damn it wo-ack!-man! What have I said about that!” I yelled out loud, not bothering to turn to her as I continued to recover from my near death experience.

“That you find it sexy?” She more or less purred over the island’s counter-top, causing me to groan. I had said that once. Once. And she hadn’t let it go since. Damn these ponies and their good hearing…

I tried to hide the heat that had entered my face as I covered my face with my hands, resting my elbows on the table so I could cradle my head.

This is what my life is now…

“I swear to god, if I look up, I better not find you in just your skivvies.”

There was a pause when I didn’t hear her reply back, and I almost, almost didn’t want to lift my head up. I knew what was coming, but god damn it did a part of me want to see it!

With the grace of a snail, I lifted my head toward her-

-and instantly brought it back down onto the table with a smack, barely avoiding landing face first in my oatmeal.

“Fucking-! Midnight!” I groaned and yelled at the same time, only making the woman leaning across the island’s countertop to smile like a Cheshire cat.

And perhaps saying woman was pushing it. Barring the fact that she was literally the most flirtatious person I had ever met in my entire life-and I mean that-she wasn’t exactly totally…human.

One could easily point out she was female sure, as she had the bits to make that a surefire assumption. Somewhat slim but still toned hips were hidden behind the island, of which I knew where connected to long, furred legs that ended in equine hoofs. With a taunt stomach thanks to our job occupation, she easily had the figure of a well trained athlete, but of course, that wasn’t the part she hadn’t decided to flaunt at the moment.

No, because god forbid she just had to have her smooth, muscled arms positioned just under her matching deep violet bra, pushing her somewhat petite bust out for extra emphasis.

And the main cause of my heart attack, but moving on…

If the total, thin lining of hair across her body or the fact that her legs ended in hooves rather then feet wasn’t enough, then the last few details I can say will make it clear my roommate is far from human.

I will start with the obvious, as she was a pegasus variety of her species, the ponies -don’t get me started on the name, I know it doesn’t make sense, but again moving on- had sort of unique traits, hers being her back was graced with large, literally bat like leathery wings that at their zenith were just above her head, while they stretched just below her calves. Tucked against her body, they only stretched past her actual body about half a foot on each side, though I was fully aware that their full length was about her body length plus some to spare.

I could shake my head at how many times she’s managed to ‘wing slap’ the back of my head.

Now here is where all doubt of her being a human disappeared. If that wasn’t already clear enough.

Her head, while still shaped relatively much like a normal persons, was more a mash between a horse and human. A small muzzle was the main indication, slightly pushing out of her face but looking nowhere near that of an actual equine muzzle. In addition, instead of ears usually on the side of her head, she had hers positioned just barely poking out atop her violet mane-yes, that is the correct term- the off black pony ears somewhat tufted at their tips.

Then of course her eyes, the slitted pupils of a cat and with slight fangs instead of canines, she clearly was not human. In just appearance of course. No, she was very human, just like everyone-or everypony- else in this completely wrong fantasy world.

I say fantasy as it is literally the best way to describe this place, especially with the habitants of said world being ripped from straight from the pages of a fantasy novel.

…Or someone’s fan fiction, but I choose to go with the former.

Basically, to sum things up rather quickly, the universe-or should I say multi-verse- is unstable as almighty fuck. Now, that’s not to say that it is a complete nightmare of absolute fuckdickery, but essentially it means the ‘walls’ that separate the various universes is about as strong as paper mache. So when something happens to manage to slip toward another universe, generally, it’s able to get through.

That’s not to say that there are literally entire universes being flooded by creatures from different universes, as the whole ‘breaking through the wall’ thing doesn’t happen that often, and given the absolute infinite number of possible dimensions, it’s a bit of a rare thing.

But when it happens, well…

You end up like me.

That’s how it was essentially broken down for me by this country’s ruler, and my boss, Princess Celestia. Now, if you take in Midnights proportion into account when she was leaning over me, you might be able to make the assumption that she is roughly the same height as myself.

And you would be correct. The mare is roughly about 5’11 in height, actually, just barely sort of maybe passing my own height of 5’10-something she would lord over me at points... and if we had our helmets on, she even looked taller next to myself. Now, I wasn’t sexist or anything, but my masculinity did take a slight hit at finding out most women or mares of this country usually stand at a height of 5’10, with the men or stallions reaching a surprising height of 6’3.

Now Princess Celestia? She was a practical amazon at 7 feet plus with the body to match. I nearly pissed myself the first time I was brought before her after being discovered wandering the city-blubbering incoherently at all the horse people around- and was slapped awake by just looking at her.

She was a white coated mare, the purest white I had ever seen, and radiated power atop her throne, hell, she was more intimidating then the spear wielding guards she had with her!

With a stature such as herself, she loomed over me when we first met, the fact that she had a spiral horn appearing out of her forehead the length of my entire arm did little to calm my nerves.

And all that before I learned she was essentially the equivalent to a god.

Her hair and wings had actually helped me calm down slightly, as the psychedelic rainbow colored hair managed to move in a non-existing breeze, reminding me of something akin to an ocean of moving color. In addition, she had massive angelic wings on her back, that made me nearly believe she was an angel and I had died or something.

This played into my idea that I had gone insane just fine…

Wearing a crown of jewels and more gold than most people wouldn't see in a lifetime, coupled with matching wrist bracelets and horse shoes, she screamed ruler.

And I had been brought before her, babbling like a maniac, in just my skivvies I might add-I had ‘landed’ here from my bed- to the one mare that would decide my fate. That literally held my life in her hands and…

She was incredibly kind. Generous. Understanding. Hell, just nothing you would think she would be!

Celestia was quick to ascertain that I didn’t belong here, in her country, or this world. Canceling the day court that I had been brought into, I was guided to a small sitting room where the ruler of an entire country interviewed me herself.

I’m not quite sure what earth’s first contact procedures are, let alone America’s, but the fact that the ruler of an entire nation decided to speak to the alien that had been brought before her was one hell of a ballsy move. I’m sure the president didn’t even have the grapes for that.

Though once I learned she could have essentially turned me into a pile of ash at a flick of her horn, I conceded that she had things under control.

After managing to calm me down with some warm tea and a blanket around the shoulders, Celestia had sat me down and wanted me to explain exactly how I got here; and she didn’t mean in just her city. She had lived long enough to know my species did not exist on her planet and she seriously doubted that humans had managed to hide from the multitude of other sentient races across the globe.

She explained that if I was honest with her, she would be honest with me in turn. Now, barring the fact I was talking with, frankly, someone that should not exist, I was a little out of my element.

To be perfectly honest, I was shitting my proverbial pants.

I tried to explain how I had original woken up in an alley in the city and that I had no idea how I had gotten here and it became a ramble very quickly. I was extremely nervous at hearing my own explanation and only became more panicked as I realized how much my story sounded like complete bullshit. Alien shows up in your city and just claims that “I had no idea what happened!” Yeah, that sounds about right.

Yet, Celestia sat patiently as she heard my tale, and even offered to stop me repeatedly to let my nerves settle. I don’t know how that mare did it, but…she was able to get me through my whole tale without an utter mental breakdown.

After that, she asked me about my world. What my species was like. And against all that happened to me, I actually had the balls to tell her no. What I mean was, I didn’t want to explain tell her about earth and even countered with why she wanted to know. As more of my sanity returned through our conversation, so had more coherent thought, and ideas that she was operating under an ulterior motive began to fill my head. It didn’t surprise her at all actually.

She could understand that there wasn’t much trust between the two of us, and while she wanted to believe my story, she had to still consider that I was possibly working under malicious orders.

To wrap this story up, it would take months for us to come to an understanding, and during that time, I remained at her palace in the city I was now in, Canterlot. A play on words apparently…

During that time, I was allowed to learn more about the world I was in, under heavy supervision of course, but I wasn’t essentially a prisoner. I learned quite a few big things. One, this world had magic. None of that card trick shtick, but honest to god spells that allowed unicorns to do things that could defy all laws of physics.

Including the fact that apparently Celestia raised and lowered the sun and moon. The sun and moon.

My brain stopped at that point. It truly did.

Two, this world had no humans, yet was extremely earth like in nearly all regards. Many animals that I knew existed on earth existed here as well. From squirrels to cats and dogs to even lions and tigers and bears oh my. Even the flora was roughly the same, right down to flowers from earth.

And the third most important thing I learned was this world was populated by anthromorphized equines and other species that essentially had the bipedal body structure of a human with the various traits of their species woven in.

Soon, I was able to have enough trust and confidence in that Celestia wasn’t some power hungry ruler and was the kind woman she projected herself as- the fact that she was practically revered among her people was a good indication-I relented in explaining to her about Earth.

I still skipped over a fair amount of detail of my planet, but did tell her a broad history of humanity and of my people, more bits of America’s history then most.

She was definitely surprised to learn that we had no magic, but was even more astonished to learn that we had advanced so quickly in the little time we’d been on our planet. Then I made the mistake of mentioning the world wars in passing.

That had caught her attention immediately. I swear, I don’t know how someone can look so scary, but hot damn did Princess Celestia have a war face. The usually calm and warm smile she had was replaced with a small frown and her normally warm magenta eyes soon had a cold look to them.

She wanted to know about the wars. I became extremely nervous.

I told her in as little detail as I could the destructive nature of the wars, what they encompassed, and the various countries that waged it.

Celestia had been building a sort of profile of my world’s progress, tech wise, and she was severely disturbed how destructive our weapons were. That was when she asked me or as some can interpret it, ordered me to not disclose any of my knowledge of weapons or technology of my world to be released or recreated.

She feared that if my knowledge became public, I could potential start a weapons race that could send both her people and other nations down a path she had been steering them away from for decades.

While I was a bit peeved that she was essentially blocking her entire nation and people from advancing forward, I could understand that the world may not have been ready for that kind of knowledge.

So, I did. I promised not to reveal any information on my world’s technology explicitly, so none of it could be recreated.

It’s a promise I have kept to this day.

That promise went a long way to building the shaky trust that had been forming between us, and as a sign of good will, the princess went about creating a cover story for me, which she had been building for some time since my arrival. I was apparently a minotaur with a rare disease that caused hair loss and various other…complications.

While I didn’t exactly want to be painted as a deformed member of one of the planet’s races, the other option of explaining I’m an alien didn’t exactly sit well.

For either of us.

Her story went a long way to silence the many un-asked questions popping up do to my arrival and appearance.

And how did she explain my arrival in my skivvies?

Well, I apparently enjoyed my liquor a little too much.

The bottle of applejack in my office has nothing to do with that statement.

Eventually after months of staying at the palace, Celestia had asked me what I planned to do with my- as far as she could tell-permanent stay in Equestria, her country.

To be honest, the question had actually been silently bugging me for weeks, poking out in the back of my mind for some weeks.

And…I sort of did have an idea what I wanted to do.

I wanted to join the guard to protect Celestia and its people. Essentially, Equestria didn’t really have a major military, rather, most of its armed forces served inside the royal palace, guarding and protecting Princess Celestia from any threat. And I wanted to join them.

I wanted to repay some of the kindness she had shown me. She didn’t have to do any of what she did, but she chose to. Out of the kindness of her heart. People like her? They deserved to be protected.

While she was wary of my choice, and she cautioned it would not be an easy path, I pressed that I wanted to enlist in Equestria’s forces.

And just over a year after my arrival, here I am. One of the three vice-captains of the night watch, those that guard the palace while the princess sleeps.

“I swear cap, you make it too easy!” The mocking laugh reached my ears.

Oh. Right. The lovely bat mare over there is my subordinate. And she lives with me.

Yaaaaaaaaaay.

“Remind me how I got stuck with you?” I asked, keeping my eyes on my oatmeal as she moved to sit at the opposite end the short table, placing down whatever food she had grabbed.

“Oh c’mon Nonny. You know you love it” she purred over at me as I gulped down a spoonful of oatmeal particularly quickly.

Only the smallest part of me would admit that. And considering the traitor downstairs was apart of that group, I wasn’t going to touch that answer with a 4 foot pole.

“Yes, because getting heart attacks is just lovely,” I fired back only to have a no doubt roll of the eyes.

“Pfft. Anon, out of all the minotaurs I’ve met, you’re the most reserved out of all of them.”

“That’s because I’m living with the most flirtatious mare I’ve ever met.”

“Aww thanks for the compliment. You’ve got me all blushing!” I know she was trying to bait me with that response, and I chose to just shake my head and get back to my food, taking a large gulp of coffee for an added kick.

Her laughter died down quickly at realizing the conversation had dropped off and I had wised up to her antics. So, a small silence occurred as we just went about eating each of our breakfasts in silence.

Finally though, I decided it was best to break the silence between us.

Gulping down the last of my oatmeal, I cleared my throat. “Listen Midnight, I-“

My looking up was a mistake.

Again.

I stared blankly at my roommate as she continued to chew on the piece of fruit in her mouth, the rest of the very earth related, yellow fruit peeled away and patiently waiting to be eaten in her hand, a bite mark near the top indicated the portion she had just eaten.

“Wha?” She asked me, raising a brow while talking through a mouthful of…

Banana.

My head proceeded to hit the table fast enough to shatter the sound barrier. I could tell I definitely made a loud enough thump. I suppose I can count myself lucky my helmet covers most of my forehead. It certainly wasn’t going to be alright after this.

I think I could feel the bruise pulsing.

I spied my still unfinished coffee out from the corner of my vision. Maybe it would be a good day to freshen it up with some of the vodka I keep hidden under my bed.

After getting over the debacle that had been breakfast, Midnight and I quickly fell into our usual routine for the morning. Well, morning for the night watch anyways. Getting back to what I was saying, while Midnight was…well, Midnight at breakfast, generally this was the only time she was blatantly suggestive, she was much more tame in the sense when it came down to getting things done. Specifically, guard duty, including preparing to don our armor. She had an underline sense of duty that I respected greatly, it just utterly buried under her playful nature.

With Equestria barely pushing into the industrial age, medieval armor and weapons were still in full use across the country and the world. Fully metal and weighing a comparable amount, all royal guards wore some type of protective metal, most of the day guard featuring gold coated armor suits.

In contrast, myself along with those in the night watch wore either dark navy and grey armor, or more exclusively had deep violet armor as their sort of color designation.

Gold for the day guard. Violet and navy for the night watch.

The violet had actually been a recent addition by the princess over the past few decades, introduced along with the return of a species that many Equestrians had not seen in a their whole lives.

Midnight’s race, or rather the thestrals, nocturnes, lunar pegasi, whatever one wanted to call them, the bat-winged equines had returned to Equestria after nearly centuries of near banishment. I honestly didn’t have the full story on that, and from what little I could gather, there was some bad blood between ‘normal’ ponies and the thestrals.

Getting ready was a simple affair nowadays and had almost become robotic for the two of us, but I suppose as trained soldiers that was typical. It was quick work to get the simple tasks of readying myself to dawn my armor. Honestly, Midnight was usually behind me in her morning routine, though I suppose that comes with the fact that she had a full body of hair to comb, as light as it was.

Though, despite me usually being ahead of her in terms of time, we would usually help each other in strapping on our armor, as it was immeasurably quicker to have additional help. Seriously, you ever put on armor by yourself, straps and all? Shit takes time. Not alot, but it can eat up some time.

Especially considering the extensive protection of the guard armor. The main components of our violet set were a cuirass breastplate that was forged to usually fit the body style of the guard wearing it to a T. Mine actually privately forged for the exact reason. Connected to the cuirass were rather large faulds that protected the lower areas of the groin and upper parts of the hips. With matching gauntlets and tough metal boots to match, and having a cuisse cover the rest of my exposed body, the only parts that were actually open to attack were the underside of my arms and the T shaped opening of my barbute styled helmet that sported a plume, though considering I needed to see, there wasn't much option there.

"Ah! Easy on the straps cap. Celestia..." Midnight winced as I secured the extra armor pieces that attached to her wings as per pegasi regulation, myself ignoring the obvious use of our princess and savior Celestia's name in vain.

Though, the thought of Princess Celestia being comparable to Jesus brought a smile to my lips.

"Buck-! Are you getting me back for this morning Anon?!" She hissed again as I tightened another strap. I shook my head.

"No," I replied, grabbing another strap.

Tighten.

"Yah!" She nearly yelled, her wings unfurling slightly and launching the piece of armor I was attaching flying into the wall with a clunk. We both watched it hit the floor, she glaring back at me with narrowed eyes as her ears flattened against her head.

"You did that on purpose" she growled as I turned to walk over to the fallen piece of metal, thankfully already having my helmet on.

Not that I was afraid of getting hit, but so she wouldn't see the smile on my lips. Picking up the wing attachment, I turned to find her silently glaring out the window to the apartment, her ears twitching slightly atop her head, her helmet held in the crook of her arm.

"What's got you in such a bad mood all of a sudden?" I asked, as she ever so slightly gazed down at me. Like I said, the armor makes her slightly more taller!

She rolled her eyes at me as I smiled back, finding her suddenly quick temper to be a bit funny. It was usually a bit difficult to get under a guard's usually tough skin, especially Midnight Blossoms'. She could take almost anything in stride.

"Didn't you see the banners and flags?" She questioned as I reattached the armor I was working on before, her wing twitching just a minimal amount in my grip. Banners and flags? Wait...wait wait wait.

I facepalmed. Which was a bit difficult considering my helmet.

"It's the Summer Sun Celebration today isn't it?" I shook my head, the one piece of information that the guard had been having to work around for an entire week somehow slipping my mind. I had been having to deal with the transfer of multiple of my troops being displaced to the picked town this year. How could I have forgotten that?!

...I blame Midnight.

"Yes. The 'One thousand anniversary'" I blinked as I couldn't help but notice the slight anger laced in her voice, the words pronounced almost in mocking. Though when I glanced up at her, her expression was mostly neutral, except for the small frown she had. I knew that the Summer Sun Celebration wasn't exactly a 'happy' holiday for thestrals, as it was a reminder of how long they had been banished from their homeland.

Though the hostility she had was a bit unusual. I think I was seeing some true deep seated anger at the holiday that was anything but for her people. I wanted to relate, but I simply couldn't. That sort of anger came from being raised to believe something like that, but I wasn't about to question Midnight's raising.

"Calm down Blossom. It's just the city celebrating. Let the people have their fun" I told her, slipping into the commanding tone I usually carried when on duty, and in addition in removing any casualness from Midnight's name.

Her frown deepened ever so slightly, but she didn't seem any more angry.

"Yes sir," Was her robotic reply.

I shook my head, fastening the last armor attachment in silence. Stepping away from me after it was completed, she didn't look back as she furled and unfurled her wings, nodding to herself after a few moments.

I grabbed our weapons as they were laid carefully against the couch, her long spear perfectly polished and clean while the longsword in my scabbard was fastened securely. Pegasi like herself tended to use lances or spears as their ability to act like cavalry made them well suited for the role. I, on the other hand utilized the longsword as I was able to wield it with decent precision.

Amazing what half a year of training can do to a guy.

Handing her her spear, Midnight took it without a word, and having placed the helmet on her head, she looked like the usual stoic guard that we were supposed to be.

"Jesus Blossom, lighten up a little," I nodded to her, only to get a blank reaction.

"I am sir" she replied quickly again, which only got under my skin. It was another trait of classic Midnight. She was stubborn when she was angry or irritated.

I sighed as I grabbed the door handle to my apartment, realizing that she was going to be in this mood for a little bit. Barely an hour and a half into the day and she is officially in a bad mood.

Playful Midnight was annoying, but god damn if irritated Midnight wasn't a stick in the mud.

I shook my head as I opened the door to the outside city, the sounds of bustling commerce and the populace assaulting my ears instantly.

Well, the day is starting out bad, but we should be able to round it out.

Right?