Another day, another reason for Shining Armor to try and act like he actually enjoyed working at the DMT. Even though, inside, he dreaded every single moment of it. From the complaining customers to the crying children that were in the waiting room to even the long lines that wrapped around the building, Shining did not like anything about it. However, to him, he couldn’t just pack up his things and leave. With Cadance looking after the kids, it was on him in order to try and provide for them-

RING! RING!!

The unicorn’s train of thought came to a halt when he heard the phone on his desk begin to ring. When he picked it up, he could hear his boss, Mr. Hoofh, yelling at the other end of the line… and also hear his secretary. “Mr. Hoofh would like to have a talk with you in his office… Now.”

“Oh no.” Shining muttered to himself. He got up and began to make his way to Hoofh’s office… but not until a beautiful looking mare walked into his stand, looking quite new to the DMT.

Inside the office of Mr. Hoofh, there was a recurring theme no matter where you looked in the room. In certain parts of the room, there were three of everything. Three clocks on the wall that had different time zone changes that were three hours apart, a calendar on the wall that showed three months at a time, and right now… three pens pointed directly to a chair in front of his chair as Shining Armor came in.

“Sit down, Armor… we need to talk.” Mr. Hoofh spoke in a stern tone. Shining followed, his action of sitting making the place shake a bit, knocking the two pens on each side out of alignment as he used both of his hands in order to straighten them. “Armor… I’m not thrilled at all. Not… Thrilled.” The last two words were with a tone that was raised up a bit. Not to the point that he was furious, but to where he can still display his anger while also keeping composed. “Do you know why, Armor?”

“... Why?” Shining asked.

“Ah-ah! Specifically, Armor.”

“... Why are you not thrilled, Mr. Hoofh?”

“Well… I recall hiring you for one specific purpose…” He said as he raised the index finger of his right hand. “Your position here at the DMT is that you were to help anypony with paying any particular tickets that they might’ve gotten… However, what I have been finding with you is that you aren’t exactly having customers pay their dues. It was their fault for the tickets and yet, you want to make it like they’re… non-existent to you. Like they never even happened.”

“Is that a problem? Am I not supposed to help customers pay their tickets?”

“You are, but that’s not the problem… There’s another entire department that’s focused towards trying to dispute or challenge tickets and instead of referring your customers to them, you are taking it on yourself,” His boss sternly told him, before taking out something from a drawer and presenting it to him. “My secretary even found applications for such matters stowed away on the filing cabinet under your desk...”

To Shining… this was not good. He thought that he had those forms hidden carefully, but if this was the case, then he was really in trouble now. Until he thought of something quickly. “Why was your secretary digging through my stuff?”

“She wasn’t… she passed by your desk to drop something off and they slipped out,” He explained to him. “And after that, she reported it to me… I’m not thrilled… but I believe this could be a valuable teaching moment…”

In Shining’s mind, he knew what this meant. Mr. Hoofh favorite analogy of comparing the roles of the DMT to the engine of a car. “For you see, Shining… the DMT…”

“Is like an engine in a car.”

“Is like an engine- Yes! Precisely!” He said, before beginning to fiddle with his hands. “The only way for it to work, and in turn for the car to work, is to have all the numerous pieces work simultaneously. No part is trying to do everything by itself because each one helps the other do their parts too. Now…”

As his boss continued to go on with the analogy, Shining began to look out the window and see everything outside. But it was one particular thing that caught his immediate attention. A stallion was approaching a mare that was getting out of her car, pointing a gun at her and telling her to get out.

And watching this unfold had Shining not even pay attention to his boss. “Armor? Armor…” Five seconds later, Shining felt a magical grip around his face as he was forcefully pulled to look at his boss directly in the eye. “Armor, don’t you dare look away while I’m trying to talk to you-!!”

“That mare outside needs help!”

Mr. Hoofh looked outside for a moment, before turning his attention back to him. “Well, somepony will call the cops-”

“I have to help.” Shining got up and began to walk out of the office. But his boss was not having it as he made one last threat to him to make the unicorn think otherwise.

“ARMOR!!! If you dare attempt to leave this room, then you’re FIRED!!!”

The moment that he heard those last three words, Shining stopped dead in his tracks. His hand was already on the door handle when his boss made the threat. But he stopped because he remembered that if he lost this job, he wouldn’t be able to provide for Cadance… for his kids. “Close… the door.” Shining growled as he followed suit, closing the door, but the doorknob was all but crushed. “Come back over here, now. We aren’t done with our discussion yet.” Shining let out a low growl as he walked back to his boss. “I’m not thrilled, Armor. Not thrilled.”

Shining looked out of the window to see that the stallion had thrown the mare out of her car and drove off. “He got away.”

What his boss told him next though… was seen as the last straw for Shining. “Good for them,” Anger began to rush through him at that point, not even looking at his boss as Mr. Hoofh was still speaking. “It’s not like they’re going to get really far- URK!!”

Many ponies who were working at the DMT’s back offices that morning did not know of what was going that lead up to this. But in an instant, many ponies were shocked when they saw the head of the DMT barreling through a wall and colliding with the back of a copy machine like it was the backstop at a baseball field. But it was when they turned to see where it originally came from, all they saw was a unicorn that was standing in place as a metal like glint was shining off of him as they stared at him.

And he only had two words to say upon realizing what he had done.

“Uh oh.”

Mr. Hoofh laid in the emergency room in a full body cast from head to hoof. His horn has also been bruised severely from the injury that he received as Shining just stared from outside the room in the middle of the hallway from the chair he was sitting in.

A few moments after that happened, an elderly stallion wearing a faded brown suit stepped out of the room. He had a grey mane and tail and the pin on his jacket that resembled a spear was based on his Cutie Mark.

As he turned to walk away and waved off the security guards that were in the hallway, Shining proceeded to follow him. For this stallion was somepony he knew long before being a hero. In fact, he was originally his commanding officer for the royal guard before becoming the head of the ESA (Equestrian Supers Agency). But Shining was not wanting to talk about old times… he instead had a different question.

“How is he?”

The stallion only let out a brief answer for him. “He’ll live, that’s for certain.”

“Let me guess… I’m fired, aren’t I?” Shining then asked.

“Oh, you think? I thought it was kind of obvious.”

“What can I really tell you, Halberd?” The unicorn said, addressing the elderly pony by his name.

“Nothing that you have told me before, Rook…” Halberd told him, now addressing Shining by one of the names that he called him during basic training as they were approaching the elevator.

“Somepony was in trouble, Halberd. Their car was getting stolen in the middle of the parking lot. I had to do something-”

“Somepony is always in trouble, no matter where you look,” The former commander told him in response, pressing the down arrow for the elevator as he looked back at Shining. “And everytime you say those five words, it means almost two months of trouble for me. It means hundreds of thousands of taxpayers bits…”

“I know…” Shining said, sounding a little defeated while Halberd was still talking to him.

“We got to pay to keep the company quiet, we got to pay to fix the damages, erase memories,” The stallion told Shining, but the last part was one that hit him personally. “Relocate your family… Everytime it gets harder and harder to do it and more money is being consumed to do all of those things. We can’t keep doing this, Rook… I can’t be helping you everytime this happens.”

The doors of the elevator opened up, just as Halberd stepped in and turned to face him. “Look, we appreciate everything that you did for society in the old days, but from now on, you’re on your own,” As the doors closed though, the stallion actually extended his hand. Preventing the door from closing all the way as he parted it open and let out a deep sigh. “Look… maybe I can help you and your family be able to relocate. You know… for old times sake.”

That lead to Shining Armor looking back at him and shaking his head from side to side. “No, no… Sorry Halberd, but I can’t do that. We just got all settled there and my son’s graduating soon.”

“He’s graduating elementary already?”

“They’re… moving him from the fourth grade to the fifth grade,” Shining told him in response. “I know… it sounds like celebrating mediocrity, but Cadance says it’s important.”

With that, Halberd said one last thing, just before he let the doors to the elevator close. “Shining… Any important moment in a child’s life is only better when their parents are there to celebrate with them… I’ve learned that myself with my own kids. They always look up to their parents, so it falls on you to be a good example… Take care of yourself now.”

Throughout the whole car ride back home, what Halberd told him before he left the hospital still remained fresh in his mind. Even as he was pulling up into the driveway and trying to think about how exactly he was going to explain what happened to Cadance, it was still there.

Just like someone else that was still there in the driveway as he got out. “Well…? What are you waiting for?” He asked the same colt with the pinwheel hat as the earth pony just stared for a few seconds.

“I don’t know… something awesome, I guess…?”

Shining sighed, only thinking of one reply off the top of his head in that moment. “Yeah… me too, kiddo…” Closing the door to his car, he proceeded to go through the door of his home and head straight to his office. Flipping the lightswitch, the room soon lit up and revealed all sorts of newspaper articles, merchandise and other trinkets from back during the glory days. His suit was in the far left corner of the room in a display case and an old replica model of his ironmobile was sitting next to his desk lamp as Shining placed his briefcase on the desk and cracked it open. Inside was various job applications, and also the employee guide for the DMT. Which lead to him tearing it into pieces as he dumped it in the trash.

The same was done for every other paper after that to the point that he just decided to throw everything away. It wasn’t like he was going to find something that would turn his life around at the end of it-

KLUNK!

“Huh?” Shining looked back at the trash bin he had, grabbing a small screen he was sure that he didn't pack in his briefcase earlier. It turned on, follow by extremely small blue text that was beginning to rapidly blink in the center. “Hold still?”

Immediately, a violet light began to spread outward, before he heard a robotic voice from the device. “ID Matched. Iron Steed.” Hearing that made the stallion fall backwards and dropped the device onto the floor… but the device itself remained unfazed. In fact, the part of it that Shining thought was some kind of stylus proceeded to stand upright and began scanning the entire room. “Location secure… Beginning message…” The device now began to show a pre-recorded video, with what was the most beautiful white unicorn mare with a very pale pink mane, in an elegant dress. Everything screamed class about her.

“Hello, Iron Steed,” The mare in the recording began to speak as Shining tried getting back up on his hooves and picked the tablet off of the floor. “Yes, we know who you are. But do not worry, your secret's safe with us… I am Fleur De Lis… and according to the government, you and I have something in common… Right now, the two of us don’t even exist.”

At the moment he heard that, Shining had multiple different thoughts running through his head, but he wasn’t even able to say anything before Fleur said something rather important. “Do bear in mind that the information that I am about to present to you in this message is seen as Confidential material and it will not be repeated under any circumstance.”

As she began to speak, Shining Armor immediately scrambled over to his desk to try and write down whatever he could. Fleur De Lis was explaining to him about how she was part of a top secret wing in the Royal Parliament that tests experimental technology, but as she was stating the first part of her message, the stallion was having trouble with trying to find something to write with. One of his pens was out of ink and the tip from one of his pencils broke as he tried to hurry and jot down what he could.

However, there was another complication that soon came up… and that was outside his door. “Honey,” He heard Cadance, who knocked on his door. “Dinner’s on the table.”

“O-okay, I’ll be right there!” He stuttered, listening to Fleur’s message and seeing what looked like some kind of mechanical beast on the screen. However, it was not just him that was hearing this.

“Is somepony in there?”

“U-uhh…” Shining replied back, trying to think of something and quickly. “I-it’s the radio! I’m trying to listen in…”

“Well, could you please hurry? Your soup’s getting cold-” Cadance then spoke up from the other side of the door.

“I’ll be there in just a minute!!” The stallion declared, just as he heard the last few footnotes of Fleur’s message to him.

“… If you choose to participate in this endeavor, you will be rewarded with a large sum of bits that is five times that of your current payroll with the DMT… The supers have not faded away into society, Iron Steed. You are living proof of that…” Fleur’s words made Shining feel a sense of pride in him as the rest of the message played out for him. “You can be able to do remarkable things…… or… you can spend your evenings listening to police scanners. Your choice… If you do wish to take part in this assignment, call the number on the card that this message will leave for you. We have voice recognition software that can match your voice for security purposes. You have twenty four hours to respond… Take some time to think it over.”

With that, the screen went to black as Shining Armor tried to process everything that he had just heard… thinking about the possibility of being the Iron Steed again. And with the money he would make from it, he would be able to support his family much more than whatever the DMT would give him. The whole thing was making him feel rather excited.

In his mind, something like this was an opportunity he would be crazy to pass up.

When he looked back towards his suit though, he noticed that what looked like a business card was ejected from the bottom of the device… before it said one last thing. “This message will now self destruct… Have a nice day.”

“Oh no…”

BOOM!!

It was only for a moment, but in that moment, the entire heart household began to shake. The sounds of coughing from Shining’s office was soon heard as the unicorn stepped out, smoke behind him as he tried to get some fresh air. Unfortunately, the smoke that followed him out triggered the fire alarm in the house.

And with it, the fire sprinklers that were installed in the roof immediately sprang to life and began to pour down on everypony in the household.

“What the-!?”

“Aww, what the hay just happened?!!”

And if hearing his kids speak up over what just happened isn’t bad enough, there was still one other pony who had something to say. “Shining!!!”

An hour after the accidental downpour with the sprinkler system earlier, Shining was now using a light fire spell that he learned from back in the royal guard in order to try and dry off some of the books and other things that Cadance had out in the middle of the kitchen. All while his wife was trying to rearrange some of the other things that were knocked over and dry off anything that was wet.

At one point though, she did approach her husband from behind. Placing a hand on the counter as she tried to get his attention. “You… are just… one distracted stallion.”

That had Shining stop his spell as he turned towards Cadance. “Huh, wha-?” He looked back to his wife. “Oh, sorry. Today’s been a long day.”

Then, he felt his wife’s hand along his back as she looked back at him now. “Look, Shiny. I know you miss the times when you were a hero… and your job is just… bothersome. But I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate you doing it… so just stay at it anyways.” With that, he felt a kiss on his cheek as she went to go fold the tablecloth… and in Shining’s mind, there was something that he needed to say.

“Cadence… something happened at work today.”

For a moment, Cadance stopped. Before looking back at him. “What…?”

“The… department is sending me to the higher offices tomorrow.” The pegasus turned back to her husband as she looked back at him.

“Higher… offices?” She asked, “You mean like a promotion?”

“Well… they wanted me to attend a meet and greet so I can meet some of the ponies there. Maybe even learn a few things. It would be for a couple of days…” Shining then said, hoping Cadance would buy that.

“I’ve never seen you being invited to something like this before…” He heard his wife say with a bit of skepticism in her voice. Though, it was the next thing she said that made Shining feel relieved. “This is good, isn’t it?”

“Uh… yeah! It should be.”

“Aww, you see?” Cadance replied back, moving alongside her husband and running up one of her hands along the side of her face. “They’re finally seeing you for your skills! You’re moving up! Shiny, this is wonderful!”

“Heh, yeah, wonderful…” He replied back. As his wife was hugging him though, he then pulled out the card that came from Fleur’s message and remembered something. “Can you excuse me for a moment, dear? I just remembered I need to RSVP for tomorrow.”

“Sure thing, honey.” His wife told him, which was a sign for Shining to go back into his office and get on the phone. Dialing the number, he soon heard a familiar voice speak on the other line.

“Hello?”

“It’s Iron Steed. I’m in.”

“Wonderful… Meet us at the airport around 7:30am tomorrow. We’ll provide you travel arrangements and bring you up to speed once you’re here.” Fleur told him over the phone. “Get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning.”

Author's Note

As this chapter shows to us... sometimes life knocks you down... but it also has a very strange way of getting you back up on your hooves. Only question now... is if Shining is sure that he is completely prepared for this.

First, I wanted to be able to thank everyone who's had the chance to look at what we're doing here and the world that we are trying to build. Both MrAquino and I are already thinking of ideas for much farther into this story and I am personally excited to see how everything goes. Thank you very much for tuning in with us so far and I hope you have a great day!
-Frost