The Necromancer's Apprentice

It had been roughly two weeks since Shining Armor agreed to resume his military training. The Princess had pulled some strings to get him re-enlisted as soon as possible, but proper lessons had only begun just a couple of days ago. It'd been some time since the colt initially dropped out of the JRCTC program after what happened to his family.

In the beginning, he found himself having to take a short refresher course on what he'd already learned the first time around. Shining hadn't thought he'd need one and had made his irritiation plain to Celestia, but the Princess wouldn't budge on the decision. Thankfully, the petulant colt had only really joined the program about three weeks before the CSGU incident.

Thankfully, even with his relatively long absence, there hadn't been much to relearn other than the role of the Royal Guard and a bit of history on the subject. He'd finished the remedial lessons in short order, much to his relief, and now his general education had begun. The program was primarily focused on military courses, but it also offered a fair few classes outside of Royal Guard training.

Shining Armor hadn't had a choice in taking most of those classes—though he did agree with the Princess that it was necessary. However, in addition to those and his military courses, His adoptive mother had agreed to take him on as her personal student where magic was concerned.

There'd been some reservations on Shining's end at first. After all, the commitment would just add more work to Celestia's already overflowing plate. But the Princess seemed more than happy to commit—and likely more than capable of taking on the extra workload. So Shining Armor let his concerns go and accepted her proposal.

Technically, Princess Celestia had already more or less taken the colt under her wing, but now the lessons were official. Documents had been signed and everything and today marked the first day of his officially sanctioned magical study under the Princess.

That was all well and good of course, but Shining Armor found he couldn't appreciate the occasion as much as he wanted to. As he finished his breakfast and made his way to the Princess' personal study, he couldn't help dragging his hooves. He was reluctant to see Princess Celestia for two reasons.

The first and foremost was the conversation he'd had with Nightmare Moon some time ago. She'd essentially trapped the colt within his own subsconscious mind where the two of them had talked quite a bit about the past, Celestia, and Nightmare Moon herself.

His first—or rather, second—meeting with the banished villain had been far from what he'd expected. That said, it hadn't been all bad and he'd learned a lot, more than he ever thought possible. Given who he was speaking to, he couldn't be sure he was being told the whole truth, but the experience gave him at least some insight into Nightmare Moon's character—or so the colt would've liked to think.

The truth was, he still wasn't sure what to make of the alicorn once known as Luna. He'd expected a cruel tyrant and what he got instead was a mare who was reasonable and level-headed, at least for the most part. Sure she was incredibly arrogant and quick to criticize, but ultimately, she just seemed bored and starved for company after being trapped alone for so long.

The meeting had happened some time ago and Nightmare Moon hadn't visited him since. Shining knew he should've told Celestia about the meeting. He'd meant to, but hesitated at the last moment. With all of his misgivings, Shining Armor had chosen not to bring it up in the end. Not until he'd had time to work through what he and Nightmare Moon had talked about for himself.

The problem now was that he'd had plenty of time to think about it since then and still hadn't said anything. It wasn't like he wanted to keep the matter a secret, but it never felt like the right time to tell the Princess when they were both so busy. If he was being honest with himself, Shining still wasn't sure if he could trust Nightmare Moon at her word.

By her own admittance, the armored alicorn had every reason to lie to him—not that she needed to tell him that. Shining Armor was already wary of her words, and that was the problem. No matter how he tried to think through the issue, he ultimately had no way to know if she was telling the truth. If there was a spell to reveal falsehoods, he certainly didn't know it.

The other issue was that he'd also thought about how things would go if he told Celestia. He would've liked to think Celestia would be able to honestly confirm or deny Nightmare Moon's claims about what happened in the past. After all, she'd been candid with him so far, but that didn't mean bias wouldn't get in the way and cloud the full truth of the matter.

There was just no way to tell. Shining Armor knew he'd have to sit down with Celestia and have a long talk about it, which was why he'd been avoiding it. There was too much to do. He was already trying to get his life back on track. He didn't need the distraction and neither did the Princess.

Still...

I need to tell her at some point. Maybe not right now, but... soon. It has to be soon. No more sitting on my hooves.

The colt made a promise to himself then to bring it up the next time the Princess had room in her schedule. The resolution felt good and would've been enough to lift his spirits normally, but then there was the second issue he'd have to deal with once he arrived to his destination.

The name of that particular issue... was Sunset Shimmer.

Wrapped up in his studies as he'd been, Shining Armor had completely forgotten about the Princess' other would-be protégé. He remembered her mentioning something about introductions, but hadn't bothered to pay it much attention at the time. He'd wound up regretting how he'd brushed the Princess' words off once it actually came time to meet her other student a few days later.

In short, Shining Armor had not been prepared for the filly with the fiery mane.

Shining Armor and the other Royal Guard hopefuls were allowed to use the courtyard near the military barracks for basic physical training, but his actual education took place in a special annex specifically tailored to teaching the future protectors of Equestria.

It was too small a structure and there were too few students to officially call it an academy. Nevertheless, that's what most chose to call it, and for all intents and purposes, that's what it was. It was here that Shining started spending a good chunk of his days since the Princess officially enrolled him in the JRCTC.

Though small, the academic building had its own mess hall where students could chat and eat together during lunchbreak. Unfortunately, by the time Shining started attending classes, most of the other foals had already formed their own groups of friends and acquaintances. Most days, the colt sat alone as he ate, but that was fine with him.

At this point, he still hadn't fully acclimated to being around other foals his age. Shining Armor was aware how strange the aversion was, given he'd been a fairly extroverted colt who'd gotten along with everypony when he'd enrolled initially. Of course, that had been before the death of his parents and sister—and shutting himself away in his room all this time in the castle hadn't exactly helped matters.

Even if he was aware of how drastically he'd changed, he was still content to keep to himself. A few ponies had tried to reach out and talk to him—a lot of them ponies he'd talked to back before he dropped out the first time around—but Shining had simply made excuses and brushed them all off without explaining anything.

Seeing as how the Royal Guard tended to promote brotherhood and comeraderie among soldiers, his loner attitude hadn't gone over well. It wasn't long before his instructors picked up on his behavior and admonished him for it, but he'd just made more excuses and empty promises to do better. It hadn't amounted to much and he continued to eat alone.

This went on for a few days, with the colt taking up his own small table near the back of the mess hall well out of the way of the other students. It was nice. Peaceful even. Then the day came when a unicorn filly with an amber coat and a thick red and yellow striped mane approached.

Her own lunchtray was suspended in an aura of pale blue magic beside her. Without a word or any sort of preamble,the filly plopped herself down in the wooden seat opposite his own. Shining stared at the other unicorn, his brows furrowed as he watched her immediately dig in with no regard for anypony else.

Shining knew right away that something was off with the filly. The first thing he noticed was the filly's lack of a uniform. In the JRCTC, everypony enrolled in the program wore a military style school uniform. This pony didn't have one, so the fact that she wasn't a student was a plain as the horn on Shining's forehead.

And yet, here she sat, eating lunch in the mess hall like she'd been here from the very beginning. Shining was fairly sure, he'd never seen the filly around the academy. Not first time he'd enrolled, nor the second. There was a chance he simply hadn't noticed her wandering about, but somehow the colt doubted it. Looking around, he noticed more than a few students eyeing his table with strange looks.

When they caught Shining's eye, the others either glared or shrugged and returned to their own meals or conversation. That, more than anything, made it clear that the filly's presence here wasn't normal. Sensing a headache coming on, Shining rubbed his face and groaned inwardly before taking the plunge and addressing the pony in front of him.

“Can I... help you with something?” he asked, trying his best to keep the irritation out of his tone.

“Nope.”

Shining Armor blinked, the colt at a loss for words at the dismissive response. It was clear the filly had little interest in a conversation. She hadn't once pulled her attention away from her meal. Normally, that would've suited Shining just fine, but for some reason he couldn't let the strangeness of her being here go, not yet anyway.

“You're... not a student, are you?” he pressed.

“Nope.”

“Okay, yeah, that's what I thought.” The colt frowned, “So if that's the case, then why are you here? How did you even get in here?”

At that, the filly finally stopped gorging herself. She paused, swallowed, and raised her head to glare at Shining in annoyance.

“I'm here because I was hungry and this place is serving food,” she answered, looking at the colt like he was an idiot for even asking, “and what do you care how I got in? I'm not hurting anypony.”

Shining gave an exasperated sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose at her standoffish response. Now that he'd gotten a better look at her face, he could see that the filly was likely around the same age as him. To Shining Armor, that just made her petulant answer all the more aggravating.

“Did nopony tell you on your way here that this whole annex is off limits to all but students, staff, and other castle officials?” he pointed out.

The filly shrugged and went back to stuffing her mouth as she replied, “Funny, 'cause the guard who was with me was happy to let me in. He even told the chef to hook me up with something to eat,” she swallowed again and gave Shining a smug smirk, “guess that makes me one of those 'castle officials', huh?”

“What? Why were you with a guard and why'd they let you into the academy?” Shining paused a second, then asked the question he realized he probably should've asked in the beginning, “And who are you anyway?”

Rather than answer right away, the filly finished off the last of her meal. It wasn't until she polished off the last last apple slice on her tray that she finally gave the colt her full attention. Giving Shining Armor a thoughtful look, she replied, “Forget about that. Let's talk about you instead.”

Shining grimaced at the response. He could feel his patience draining away with each word the other unicorn spoke. Before he could even attempt to redirected the focus back on the filly, she spoke up first, cutting him off.

“I heard about you, y'know,” she continued casually, “you're that colt that got adopted by the Princess, right? The one whose family got blown up in that explosion at Celestia's school?”

A horrible moment of silence followed in the wake of the filly's question. The mess hall wasn't that large and there weren't all that many students in the room—maybe twenty or so at most. With that in mind, it would've been hard not to overhear the conversation, even if most of the other student's hadn't already been listening in.

Many of them had already been aware of Shining Armor's circumstances. That'd been the main reason none of them gave the colt any grief despite his attitude. Even if they didn't like him, the others had the good grace not to bring up the CSGU incident in front of him. That apparently didn't hold true for the filly, who looked as though she'd just asked about the weather.

Shining stared back at the other unicorn with a carefully blank expression. His darker cerulean eyes bore into her brighter cyan orb s for a long, tense moment. Then he pushed himself from the table and stood up. He could see where the conversation was going and what kind of pony the filly was, and he wanted no part of it or her.

“Where you going, big guy?” the filly called out as Shining snatched up his tray and began to storm off, “we were just getting to know each other!”

Shining grit his teeth, but didn't stop as he ground out, “I'm done talking. I'm going to leave now before I do or say something we're both gonna regret.”

The other ponies in the room were now staring at the two of them openly. Some watched with clear apprehension while others looked on with eager smiles, hoping for some kind of conflict to break out. Shining ignored the looks and whispers, his only focus on despositing his tray at the nearby counter and getting out of the mess hall.

“Ah, I see how it is. Hit on a sore subject, did I?” the colt heard the filly say from somewhere behind him. Even if he couldn't see her, Shining Armor could practically feel the smirk in her voice as she spoke. “Well, why don't we talk anyway? Who knows? Maybe you'll feel a bit better about it if you get it all out there.“

“No need. I'm dealing with it.”

Shining Armor kept moving, his eyes deliberately locked on the counter in front of the kitchen at the back of the mess hall. He was so close. He just had to drop the tray and he could leave the brat behind. He didn't know who the filly was or why she was here, but if he was lucky, he'd never have to see her again.

“Are you, though?” came the filly's skeptical reply, “I wouldn't eactly call dropping out of school and cowering alone in your room for months on end 'dealing with it'.”

The dubious unicorn didn't bat an eye as she caught the tray hurled at her from across the room in her magical grip. She instead swapped her skeptical look for a victorious grin as she eyed the colt who'd thrown the tray in his fury.

“Who are you to waltz in here and tell me how to deal with my problems?” Shining hissed. His voice carried across the whole room despite being just barely above a whisper. “Yeah, I dropped out and hid like a coward, but I'm back now and I'm dealing with things at my own pace.”

He took a moment to close his eyes and calm his breathing and straightened up to his full height. When he opened his eyes again, all the rage was gone, replaced by a mix of bemusement and frustration. “Seriously, what's your problem?” he asked, “Why are you trying to call me out like this in front of everypony? This how you get your kicks or something?”

The filly didn't say anything at first. She just looked Shining Armor over as if truly seeing him for the first time. After a long and slightly awkward pause, she spoke, sounding and looking disappointed. “Huh,” she muttered loud enough for everypony to hear, “guess the Princess was right.”

Shining's eyes narrowed. “...What?”

“Ah, don't worry about it,” the filly sighed as she unceremoniously dropped the thrown tray down on the table next to her, “just wanted to get a feel for my future study buddy is all. Heard a bit from Celestia, but I had to see for myself, y'know? Don't take it personally.”

“What?” Shining repeated, his confusion turning into full on bewilderment, “What are you talking about?” He froze as her words registered and his mind finally put the pieces together. “Wait, don't tell me, you're the—”

“Aaaanyway, I got places to be, so I'll, uh, just be on my way now,” the filly interjected before hopping off her seat and making her way to the mess hall's exit.

She stopped just long enough to give a still shocked Shining Armor a mock salute. “Hey, no hard feelings about what I said earlier, right? Cool. See ya.”

She didn't give Shining a chance to retort before stepping through the doorway and disappearing around a distant corner further down the corridor outside the mess hall.

It wouldn't be until Shining Armor talked to the Princess the next day that he found out the filly's name. Princess Celestia confirmed that Sunset was, in fact, the protégé she'd told him about. Apparently, Celestia had meant to introduce the two properly the day after they'd met in the mess hall.

She hadn't been aware at the time that Sunset had somehow talked a guard into giving her a tour of the castle. When Shining told her about what Sunset had said, the Princess had been confused initially. After thinking about it for a second, she came up with an explanation.

According to Celestia's guess, Sunset had been trying to help in her own twisted way. She said it was something akin to a 'tough love' approach. The filly had wanted to get a rise out of Shining—force him to confront his own demons. Once she'd cut to the heart of the matter he'd have no choice but to either get over himself or continue to run away from his problems.

That was Celestia's guess anyway. Personally, Shining Armor had his doubts that things were really that simple. Sunset Shimmer didn't strike Shining as a conscientious or thoughtful pony. When the colt pressed, Celestia admitted that she'd let a few of her worries about Shining Armor slip to Sunset at some point.

That, in turn, likely led to Sunset seeking him out and Celestia's theory about why she'd acted the way she did. The Princess made it a point to mention to Sunset prior to that encounter that Shining Armor had improved quite a bit from how he'd been before. Evidently, Sunset hadn't entirely believed her.

Frankly, the whole thing left a sour taste in Shining Armor's mouth. Sunset Shimmer hadn't made a good impression whatsoever—she hadn't even intended to from what Shining could tell. Shining didn't know what background Sunset was coming from. He didn't know how she'd grown up or what her deal was, but he did know one thing.

If their first meeting was anything to go by, then what should've bene an exciting endeavor was going to be a tiresome chore instead. As he made his way to his first official magic lesson from his adoptive mother, all he could do was groan in disappointment as he lamented his aggravating circumstances.