Just A Slice

Aeroslash awoke before sunset. He untangled himself from Flare's legs gently, trying not to wake her, and slid his hoofcaps on while he buckled his wingblades into place. He slowly walked to the door, careful not to make too much noise with steel shoes, and headed for the training grounds. He saw Luna in front with Tiberias, talking to him over a sheet of parchment while he nodded his head every so often.

Aero cleared his throat to announce his arrival. Luna looked up and smiled at him before returning to her conversation with the trainer. After a few minutes, she beckoned him over to join them.

"This morning we saw what you were capable of, but tonight we will train you to do your assigned task in a fight."

"And what is that Your Majesty?"

She looked at the parchment thoughtful, "To take out key ponies in a fight under my command. For example, if somepony leads a small force against me and my sister, your job is to take them out. A snake without a head cannot bite. That and other things. In a larger battle you will stay above me and Celestia and prepare to strike down anypony who nears us individually, or take out an array of them like you did this morning when you pulled out of your dive."

Aero nodded understanding, "And what if you yourself are in the fray? I mean no disrespect to your sister, but I am employed in YOUR personal body guard. I will fight for you before Celestia."

"I am flattered, but you will serve Celestia as you do me. Anyway should I join the fray, I want you to make a strike at the immediate area around me, then land for melee at my side with the other guards in my retinue."

"Yes Your Majesty."

Luna walked closer to him and placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Come, walk with me Aeroslash." He complied hesitantly, not sure of her intentions, but obedient nevertheless. He walked next to her into the palace and Luna headed to the throne room. "I will go ahead and pay you this month's wages and I want you to take tonight with Flare and make yourselves at home, go out to eat, whatever it is you wish but keep in mind, tomorrow you will join me in the throne room for your first night of service at sunset.

"Yes My Lady."

"Good. Now go spoil your girlfriend, she needs it." She finished with a smile. He returned the smile and trotted off to find her. But Luna called him one more time, "And just call me Luna if you don't mind."

He smiled and nodded to her before heading down the hall.

When he told her that they had tonight to themselves, Flare pulled him to the bed, "There won't be very many shops open at night. Tomorrow we can go out and have some fun. So for tonight get a good rest, you have a long day tomorrow.

He smiled and kissed her before crawling into bed.

Rarity handed the letter to the mail pony. He took it without a word and flew off in the direction of Ponyville. She smiled to herself. If she could get this very attractive stallion to owe her a favor, she would be very... pleased.

She waved at the pegasus as he flew away out of a quick wave of giddy joy. She couldn't remember if she had ever been with a pegasus before but she was sure it would be grand. She had an itch to feel those wings under her hooves. She got back into the carriage and continued to hatch her plot to gain the favor of a certain dark green pegasus pony as it rocked back to her hotel. Fortunately she was going to be here all week. So she had plenty of time to charm him.

She thought for only a moment about the mare that was always at his side but brushed her off. Stallions were fickle and were very susceptible to the charms of a unicorn so entrancing and sophisticated as herself. She had little doubt she could steal him away from Flick or Flab or whatever her name is. She settled for dreaming about enticing him while she fell asleep, dreaming of what he would be like to have.

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Fortunately, Flare wasn't very flamboyant. They went out to lunch and bought her a dress to wear should any formal occasions come up but not much else. When they returned to the palace they sought out the palace smithy so she would have something to do when Aero was gone on duty.

The numerous unicorns in the forge were surprised that she, "a lady", was quite adept with a smith's hammer, and without even the use of a horn. They chatted over some coffee about things way over Aeroslash's head. Metals and the best way to heat steel and other things Aero didn't understand. After the smiths had finished with their coffee break and returned to their forges, The couple walked out to explore the palace some.

They found an enormous variety of strange things from a massive labyrinth, to an ancient library filled with scrolls and dusty books. Soon Aero noticed the sun start to go down and he led Flare to their room. Saying his goodbyes and giving her a kiss he left for the Throne Room.

He arrived early, seeing a long line of ponies lining up even outside the door waiting to see Princess Celestia. He saw her greeting countless ponies of all sorts. A rather large, handsome unicorn dressed in a military uniform looked to Celestia and after seeing her nod to him, he called out, "Alright everypony, visitation with the Princess is over." Several ponies groaned at being cut short in meeting the princess, but left the room without any trouble.

Aero trotted to Celestia and bowed to her. She gave him permission to rise and introduced him to the unicorn.

"Aeroslash, I would like you to meet my commander, Shining Armour." Aero saluted him a he always had when meeting a soldier. The memories of his childhood hurt him, but he shoved them aside for now. Shining Armour saluted him back.

Celestia resumed, "He is my second in command. He is the one you will take orders from aside from me and Princess Luna. He is also captain of the guard for both me and Luna. If you have a problem with your duties or anything related to your employment as a guard, you go to him about it."

"I hope your serving under my command will prove beneficial to us both and may our jobs of defending the Princesses be successful." Aero responded likewise, "May we die together in service of our Princesses." The commet was unnecessary but he felt it would help him gain Shining Armour's trust. The unicorn raised an eyebrow in surprise before nodding and excusing himself.

Celestia turned to Aero, "I didn't know you were so willing to die for us." "You are the reason I am able to provide Flare with a home and food. And not just any home, but a palace. I owe my life to you, literally and figuratively."

"I am pleased to hear that." She answered. She rose from the throne and Luna took her place. "Goodnight Luna."

"Goodnight Tia." Luna responded, surprisingly casual in front of Aero. He bid the Princess good night and she returned his sentiment.

"Excellent." Luna began, "Let us talk about what your duty entails in the everyday environment."

Aero nodded and asked, "You spoke last night of battles, are they common or do they practically never happen?"

Luna smiled and waited for a moment until Celestia was completely gone from the room, "No, they hardly ever happen, we rarely have a pony who wants to see Tia but ran out of time. Every so often we have one run in here wanting to meet her but other than that, not much happens at night. Everypony is asleep or out on a late night date, but we hardly ever see anypony come in at night. They all want to meet my sister.

"Now tell me the exact circumstances the led you and Flare to the hospital." He hesitated but began his tale :

"Me and Flare graduated from Cloudsdale flight school about two weeks ago. Our plans were to introduce her to my family and get settled in the city. We flew from Cloudsdale but when we arrived at my home, my father was there."

He struggled to continue his story, it was such a tender wound, still open and bleeding freely.

"Go on."

Aero sighed, "First a background about me, I am the sole pegasus in my unicorn family. My mother died during ponybirth and my father has never forgiven me. As soon as I was old enough, he sent me to Cloudsdale flight school with the command to come back a unicorn, or not at all." Luna gasped, incredulous.

Aero continued, "For obvious reasons I didn't, but I met Flare and we started to go out. Over the years, I suppose I almost forgot that my dad hated me and when we graduated and Flare asked to meet my family, I supposed that perhaps his loathing of me had lessened. It hadn't. He tried to hurt Flare but I hit him and Flare fell, breaking her leg. I picked her up and fled, taking her to the hospital. And the rest you know."

Luna remained silent taking it all in. "So why did you say when I asked you, 'My family honor requires that I join either the equestrian army or the palace guard'?"

"My family has served in both for the past 17 generations and they take an enormous amount of pride in it."

Luna nodded and began telling him how things work around her and 'Tia'. "Every so often a lonely pony comes in to see me and I expect you to be at full attention, but do not intervene unless the pony seems outright hostile. In between those isolated incidents, whenever I travel somewhere, you will accompany me. Also Tia sometimes travels to the pegasi cities and for obvious reasons, she cannot bring a unicorn along. She normally borrows from my guards and may choose you. Should she select you, I expect you to guard her as well as you would me, to die for her as you would for me, and do whatever she asks of you."

Aero nodded, struggling to take it all in.

Luna did not relent, "You are not my Captain of the guard but you will be sided with him in the following nights. But you will do what I had him do in the past. If I need a parcel delivered or received or have a mission for you, you are to carry it out."

"I don't mean to sound rude or anything but, you seem to be much more relaxed and casual than Tia seems to be"

Luna laughed out loud, a surprisingly beautiful sound, almost as if she was singing, "No, I don't really like to be so formal and proper. It's so stuffy, like wearing a really tight necklace. Don't worry, you can talk to me about anything and don't be afraid to ask me a strange question. I promise you I won't blow up."

Aero smiled, "Princess-" "Luna. Just call me Luna."

"Luna." he tried, weighing it on his tongue. "I don't want to sound ungrateful, but why did you do so much for me and Flare? Why give us a room in the guest wing? I'll wager that none of the other guards gets to stay in such fine quarters."

Luna answered without skipping a beat, "I took pity on you two in the hospital. I gave you the room to help you unwind, but it occurred to me later that night, the two of you wouldn't work in the barracks so I decided to let you keep the room."

Aeroslash thanked her and took his place by her side.

She was right. Not much did happen that night.