The life of a Royal Guard armorer is not full of glam and glitz like the ponies we serve. Indeed, you could say we are firmly in the background for the most part. If we do our duty correctly, then nopony ever knows where their weapons, armour and other equipment goes when it needs repaired. One day they hand it in to their units QM, the next they have a replacement back in their hooves. It is a largely thankless job, however, we are allowed to take some pride in what we do when we see the royal guard on parade. Knowing that we supply the implements of safety and security that work towards the continued harmony of Equestria, is something I like to think is the biggest kudos one can get in the engineering sections.

Indeed, such constant,quiet work can make life blur and before you know it, several months, even a year can pass. My life hasn’t changed much, no promotion, no big ceremonies, no medals. In essence, my life as a clock maker and my life as a Royal Guard have many parallels that I find comfort in. A few small changes have come along which help to relieve the monotony, for one, I joined a small gaming group in my down time. We play several different types of games in one of my colleagues rooms, twice a week. We play various board games, war games and even some card games. I’ll admit that I am a bit of a sucker for anything collectible. That probably comes from my making of watches and clocks, always have to have the best parts and tools around, which results in most of us tinker ponies being quite the hoarders.

During duty hours, we busy ourselves with repairs, cleaning, general maintainance around the palace and even outsource some of our ponies to the civilian contractors. Because of this wide spread reach, we tend to find that, where breakages, accidents and other unfortunate events happen, that similar names crop up. One that never gets old for us is a guard by the name of Miley Hooves. Former City guard and currently part of PLHG, who, if you were to take a map and draw a line between incidents that involved her, would no doubt draw some kind of amusing image, with the current epicenter being the palace. From windows, tables, glasses, a cafe canopy, a display cabinet and more recently, a chandelier and a sofa, within Princess Luna’s wing of the palace. I don’t think I will ever let a pony like her enter my old shop, ever. On the plus side, she did break a wall, which upon inspection was full of rot, and work had been taken to further inspect the palace and begin repairs. So, yes, being in the engineer sections is relatively quiet, punctuated with some small incidents which make us smile. Today was different.

It started when Lieutenant Stone called us together for a briefing, all of us. She was in full parade armour, as usual, her eyes checking each of us, ocassionally nodding to one or two.

“Alright ponies, I have called you here to inform you that Princess Luna is taking a trip to the Northern Gryphon Kingdom for a diplomatic meeting. Her House guard as well as several Palace guard and even members of the Unicorn Temple Guard will be in her retinue. I want to remind every pony here that we pride ourselves on being the finest smiths, and crafts ponies in the Royal Guard. Should any of the ponies on the list require anything done, it is your job, responsibility and pleasure to ensure their requests are carried out quickly and to the highest quality possible”

As the days running up to Princess Luna’s trip flew by we had relatively few requests. A sword here, some polishing work there and one Palace Guard who had clearly lost his copy of “So you joined the Guard, a primer on -hurry up and wait-” By the time we were notified of the Princess’s departure we had only seen about four ponies who were on the roster. It just goes to show how efficient and self-reliant members of Palace security really were.

The next few days were a blur of monotony. With the PLHG either away on the diplomatic trip or just guarding empty rooms we only attended to some minor fixing work about the Palace. Even the Lieutenant was fairly absent, and even when she was around she would busy herself with small-talk with us or challenge some of us to hoof wrestling, which we all lost. Even the Sergeant lost, which he quickly put down to not wanting to seem like he was hurting a mare or to let everypony think she was weak. The medical report I spied on his desk a day later said otherwise.

We were ready, today was the day the Princess was to return. We had made sure any work inside the Palace was done in her absence and we were stood on parade awaiting the arrival of the ship. As we stood at-ease we could see the outline on the horizon. I smiled to myself as with these ponies returning we would have some work to do. As the ship drew closer somepony flew off from it’s deck and swooped up to Sunny Day, the PCHG commander. The Pegasus looked panicked and worried, before we knew it Lieutenant Day was yelling “Bring up medics! Everypony prepare to receive casualties!” That last word ran my blood cold, was the Princess injured? It was a diplomatic trip! Who was hurt? What happened?

Author's Note

It's been far too long, and this chapter was gathering dust so I decided to wrap it up and push on :)

Written within the Quill & Blade universe, with permission from Anzel.
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