A Heart of Silver

Princess Flurry Heart sat on her bed. She had a book levitated in front of her and was reading when somepony knocked on her door. "It's unlocked," Flurry Heart called out, placing the book down. The door opened and Shining Armor walked in, wearing his captain's armor. neutral expression drooped.

She knew exactly what her father was here for, she knew very well. She had been dreading this day for the past month and a half. "Really? Are you making me go through with this? I'm eighteen -almost nineteen. I don't need some random pony following me every waking second of the day."

Shining Armor sighed at his daughter's stubbornness. "Flurry Heart. We have had this discussion multiple times. I don't care if you need a personal guard or not, but it makes me and your mother feel better knowing that you have one." Flurry Heart rolled her eyes. "I'll let you choose the pony to be the guard." Flurry Heart sighed. At least she had some control over the situation.

"When are they supposed to get here?"

"Around 2." Shining turned to leave but added one last thing to the conversation. "Oh, and if you aren't there, I'll choose the guard."

"What! You just said I could choose the guard." Flurry Heart huffed.

"Only if you're there to choose them," Shining said with a smirk.

"Pinkie Promise." Shining stopped and looked back at his daughter. She had a smug grin on her face.

"What?"

"Pinkie Promise that you will not try to change the guard I choose with somepony else." Flurry Heart crossed her fore-hoofs.

"Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye." Flurry Heart nodded in content approval. Shining closed the door, leaving Flurry Heart alone. Grabbing a cloak from her closet and casting a spell to disguise herself, Flurry Heart left the castle. This would probably be the last time, for a long time, that she was going to be able to go anywhere without having a pair of eyes following her every move and hooves tracing each of her steps.

Furry Heart, disguised as a pegasus, entered a cafe. Not long after she entered, a voice called out, "Hey, Skyla."

Flurry looked at the one that spoke. Three mares; a pegasus named Lemon Zest, a unicorn Chalk Dust, and a crystal pony Ruby all around her age sat at a roundtable. Lemon waved Flurry over with her wing. Trotting over, Flurry Heart smiled outwardly while internally she was thinking up something to tell them. "Hey girls." Flurry gave a wave to a waiter, signaling her usual order. "Okay, so first, I have a bit of news."

"Good news or bad news?" Lemon asked.

"Both. I got a promotion. That's the good part. The bad part is that this means I will have to work more hours at the Castle, so I may not be able to attend our get-togethers much. Sorry."

"Ahh, don't be sorry. This is great. You're moving up in the world. Before you know it, you'll be the personal maid to the royal couple!" Ruby stated.

"Yeah, I doubt that, Ruby." A bowl of salad flew through the air and landed in front of Flurry Heart. She waved a 'thank you' to the waiter before taking a bite.

Shining Armor returned to the royal chambers. Cadance was sitting at a table, reading a scroll detailing new legislatures that had been petitioned recently. Without looking from the paper, Cadance greeted her husband, "Hello Shining." Shining's response was a series of grumbles. "I take it she's still not big on your 'protection plan'?"

"No, she isn't. Why does she have to be so stubborn?"

"She's your daughter. She was bound to inherit some of your stubbornness."

Shining simply rolled his eyes. "Did you get the transfer list for the guards yet?"

"Hmmm." Cadance shifted through her pile of papers. "Here it is." She levitated a rolled-up scroll to her husband. Shining took it and stared at the broken red wax stamp on the scroll.

"Why is the seal broken? Was it like that when it arrived?"

"No. I opened it." Without even needing to look at her husband's face or hear him say the words he was thinking, "I was curious. Anyway, most of them are ordinary, but one was-" Cadance pondered what was the right word she was looking for, "-peculiar."

Shining opened the scroll and looked down the list. "Unicorn, Pegasus, Unicorn, Earth Pony, Unicorn -if the last one's a unicorn too- wait."

"Yeah, that one."

"A thestral? In the solar branch? There's got to be a mistake."

"Twilight signed it."

"It's not a mistake?"

"Nope."

"Why would a thestral join the solar branch? Where are the files for these guards?" Not a moment later, Shining found the stack of files very close to his face.

"Here they are dear," Cadance smirked.

Shining took the files and pulled out the one he was looking for. "Silver Shield. Age: 25.....Huh. He excelled in all the courses that leaned more towards the lunar branch. But he specifically asked to be in the solar branch. He said for a personal reason that he would rather not speak about."

The train rattled over the snow-covered tracks. Inside was a platoon of royal guards assigned to the Crystal Empire. Almost all of the guards were stiff at attention. As if, at any moment, one of their superiors might walk down the aisle. All but one. A white thestral with a short scraggy brown mane and a long brown tail. His bat wings had a tan leathery-wing membrane on them. His cutie mark was that of a silver shield. It almost blended in with the white of his coat.

Silver's stomach growled, snapping him out of his mindless daydream. Sniffing the air, Silver detected the smell of apples. Food. Sure enough, a mare pushing a cart with a bag of apples was walking down the aisle. Silver fished some bits out of his bag. "Would you like anything...." the mare's voice trailed off at the sight of Silver. Unnatural, slitted golden eyes. Four sharp fangs, two large ones on his upper jaw and two small ones on his lower jaw. Bat wings instead of a pegasus' normal wings. Silver didn't even need to take notice of her body language to tell that she was unsettled by his appearance.

"A bag of apples, please." The mare shakily handed Silver a bag of apples. Silver thanked her as he handed her a small bag of bits. The mare lowered her head and quickly, but not quite running, made her way to the next cart. Silver sighed when he heard the train cart's doors further behind him close. Biting down on an apple, Silver sucked out all the juice. Ponies still weren't used to seeing a thestral in public. All the rumors surrounding thestrals didn't help any. But he didn't blame her, he hardly blamed anypony for reading in that manner.

Looking out the window and squinting his eyes, Silver could see what looked like a tiny tower. The Crystal Empire. They were close but it would still be a while before they arrived.

The platoon of guards pilled out of the train and onto the Crystal Empire train station. Shining Armor, fully dressed in his captain's armor, stood waiting for them. "Alright. Your platoon has been assigned here, to the Crystal Empire. Now, follow me. I'll explain how things are around here on the way." All the guards took to a single file line. As they walked down the streets of the empire, the resident crystal ponies stopped to watch the line of guards. Most looked for but a moment before turning away and back to whatever they were doing, their curiosity sated.

Silver looked over to see a group of foals, trying in vain to reach a ball that had landed on the roof of a building. The majority of the foals broke off and scattered- presumably to find an adult to help them, or maybe because that was the resident grumpy old stallion who hated foals and they didn't want to be caught trying to retrieve their ball from his property- leaving one pegasus. Silver quickly broke off from the line and walked over to the remaining foal. With his wings tucked beneath his armor, Silver couldn't fly. Instead, he climbed up to the roof from a stack of boxes and retrieved the ball. Handing the foal back the ball back, Silver did his best to hide his thestral features. He didn't want to give a poor foal a heart attack.

The feeling of false feathers made Silver look closely at the foal. It looked back up at him and its eyes narrowed and it smiled, showing two pairs of tiny fangs. Silver smiled at the young foal and showed his fangs too, causing the foal to giggle. Affectionately rubbing the foal's mane, Silver winked before speeding off to catch back up with the group. Once caught up, Silver was smiling; as he knew that, at the least, he wasn't the only thestral in the Crystal Empire.

"These will be your bunks," Shining Armor announced to the group. Six bunk beds, three on each side of the room. "Now, I want all of you in the training room." With his duty done, Shining Armor left the group to their own devices. Silver Shield practically made a beeline for the bed in the back corner. Silver placed his bag of belongings on the end of the bottom bunk. Out of the corner of his eye, Silver could see the other guards drawing straws with the occasional glance his way. Really, they're drawing straws to determine who shares a bunk with me?

The group of guards stood at attention in the training room. Shining Armor paced in front of them, sizing each of them up. "Now. One of you will be selected for an important duty. Protecting my daughter, Princess Flurry Heart. But before that one of you is chosen each of you will partake in a sparring match with the best sparring pony here." Silver's ears twitched. There was a faint sound of hoofsteps. Getting closer and closer, but not louder. Silver's ears started moving up and down and twisting and turning to locate the source of the hoofsteps. To his left. Looking down the hallway to his left, Silver's eyes squinted. It was a very faint pink colored pony. Short mane with alternating colors of various shades of violet, light blue, and pink. She -and Silver was certain it was a she- walked with an air of royalty. "Silver Shield!" Silver snapped back to the immediate reality.

"Sir," Silver said.

"What are you looking at?"

Silver made one last quick glance down the hallway to confirm his suspicions. "Captain Shining Armor, I believe that your daughter is approaching." Silver nodded his head in the approaching pony's direction. Now the hoofsteps grew loud enough for the others to hear.

"Flurry Heart. You're early." Shining Armor sounded slightly surprised like he was expecting his daughter to not be there.

"Well, I do plan on seeing, and choosing, the guard who will become my personal guard." All the guards remind at attention. Flurry Heart walked up to the line of guards, inspecting each, asking for their name. And every single one of them answered in an identical tone and mannerisms. Give name gruffly, do not break attention, and say no more than asked for.

Internally, Flurry Heart was cringing. All the same, no difference, nothing for uniqueness. She was starting to wonder if her dad intentionally chose the platoon composed of one pony, carbon copied onto the other for the entire platoon. Once she got to the last guard, she was considering letting her father choose instead. If simply because she couldn't tell the difference between any of them, so much so that she doesn't remember half their names- make that any of their names. "And your name is?"

"I'm Silver Shield, your royal princess.... or highness. Which would it be highness, excellence, royal princess, or just princess?" For a few seconds, nopony spoke. "Does nopony here know?"

Shining Armor was about to speak up, calling Silver out for breaking attention when Flurry answered, smiling. "Actually, it's just princess."

"Well, I'm Silver Shield, Princess Flurry Heart." Silver gave a friendly bow to the princess before returning to his more lax form of standing at attention. Flurry Heart's mouth formed a subtle smirk. Finally, somepony who speaks without having to be ordered to.

"Congratulations Silver Shield. You will be my personal guard."

Silver Shield followed Princess Flurry Heart to her room. "Your room is the one right next to mine." Flurry Heart pointed to the door next to her own room's door.

"Yes, Princess." Silver stopped in front of his new room. He just stood there, staring at the door, not moving.

"You gonna go in and see it?"

Silver returned to reality once more. "Yes, it is just that I never thought this is a situation I'd be in. Personal guard to one of Equestria's princesses." Silver opened the door. It was a modestly spaced room. A queen-sized bed tucked against the wall adjacent to Flurry's room. A small, walk-in closet and a bathroom. An empty bookshelf, multiple shelves -probably for pictures- lining one of the walls, and a tv facing the bed. Instead of cold crystal flooring, rugs covered the entire area.

"You look as if you've never had a room to yourself before," Flurry Heart noted from the doorway.

"Never since joining the royal guard. In the guard, you do all the daily routines together, like a machine."

"Your armors different. It doesn't look quite so... armored." Silver looked down at his armor covering his body.

"Actually, it's armor from the Night Branch redesigned to match those of the Solar Branch. The Night Branch's armor sets for thestrals are less armored than the rest. Normal pegasus armor wouldn't fit me."

"Still doesn't answer why it's less armored."

Silver chuckled. "Can't hear if its armored like normal armor. Too much metal clanking against metal. That and it's much more lightweight, for flying. Requires a lot less work to be maintained."

"I've never met a thestral before."

"Didn't think you would. We don't exactly get out often. Sun hurts our eyes."

"Well, I'll leave you to get settled in here."

Silver nodded back to Flurry. Once she was out of sight, Silver got to unpacking. Few clothes, a pair of dentures, toothbrush and toothpaste, and a small pile of books, some read and some not. Silver turned back to grab one last book and saw Shining Armor standing in the doorway. "Captain."

"Silver Shield, right?" Silver nodded. "Okay, my daughter chose you. Now you better take this with every ounce of seriousness you have. If anything happens to her-"

"Trust me, Captain. I ensure you that I will watch over your daughter."

"You start tomorrow morning."

Princess Cadence walked into her daughter's room. Flurry Heart was looking into a box but Cadence couldn't see what was in it but she had a feeling that she knew what was in it. Cough!

"Mom!" Flurry kicked the box under her bed, hopefully away from prying eyes. Flurry bounded over to her mother and gave her a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Well, it is my castle. And you are my daughter. Can I not go to my daughter's room in my own castle?" Cadance gave Flurry a few seconds to try and counter before continuing. "But news travels fast around here. I heard you already chose your personal guard."

"Yes. Turns out he isn't a robot-like pretty much every single other guard here. A rare creature, a royal guard that shows, du-du-duuuuu! Emotions." Cadence shook her head and smiled. "I mean seriously, would it kill somepony for a guard to show the slightest hint of emotion at any point?"

"You know your dad just worries about you. I do too."

"Can you tell him to lay it off a bit then, I've found it impossible to get through that thick skull of his. Maybe you can?"

"Flurry, it took me ten years to get it through that thick skull of his that I liked him. Then another few years just for him to do or say anything about it."

"Hmph."