Arc Angel

"So Arc, what are YOU doing tomorrow eh? Hitting on them books again?"

Boisterous laughter burst through the guard common room at my expense. This was a common thing they teased me about. I merely shrugged.

"Nope, just having your fillyfriend screaming my name all day is all I have planned."

A massive 'oooooO!' as I turned the entire thing around on the stallion prompted him to laugh and clap me on the back.

"Yeah, keep dreaming Thunderhead, she's my little angel, and you can't have her."

I looked up from my book. The common room was quite large, and was often full of ponies on their time off before or after a shift just to unwind and store armour and such before heading out and home. This was no exception. The massive fireplace roared it's merry song to the room as a heap of guards jostled and joked around. I was reading a novel at the time. A good novel and I was quite enjoying it, but one rarely gets enough peace in a place like this. I grinned up at my fellow guard.

"I know. But it did get you a good one."

He snorted with laughter and nodded.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever."

Another stallion, heavily muscled and solidly built, had approached Nightspring sitting next to me and the entire room went quiet.

Nightspring was known as the Ice Queen when it came to dating or anything concerning intimate contact. Not in the fact that she'd flat out turn you down, but that she'd lead you on and then freeze your heart solid and shatter it like it was nothing but fragile ice. She was flirtatious, but incredibly choosy. I think she'd only ever had one coltfriend since I'd known her, and that had been for a decade at least. She was picking idly at a meal she'd scrounged from the castle chef, who had a soft spot for her and her alone. Nopony knew why, but he did, and she frequently got food from him.

"Hey there, Spring," The big stallion said, obviously impressed with himself. Nightspring turned to look at him and gave him big doe eyes, like she'd never seen a stallion like him before. Even though I knew she was leading him on, I felt a stab of irrational jealousy at that. She'd never made doe eyes at me, not even in jest.

"Wow!" She said in the most girly and gushing way possible, "What a big stallion! Such big, strong muscles~"

She rubbed his forehooves as she spoke, now fluttering her eyelashes at him. The other guys, you could see, were holding back grins and laughter as the arrogant (and obviously new) guard puffed himself up even more at her praise.

"Yep, Gym work. Bet there's nopony else in the core who looks quite like me!"

She shook her head and bit her lip seductively. I had to stop myself from screaming in my jealousy. The big stallion grinned.

"Well, I've got tonight off if you wanna go get some dinner with a fine stallion like moi."

A few of the others actually almost giggled as Nightspring made big doe eyes at him again, full of hopeful adoration.

"Really? You really mean it? Could I be that lucky?"

The self important stallion nodded triumphantly, and that's when she pounced. Her voice took on a chilling edge I'd heard one too many times before and her eyes hardened and turned to shards of ice rather than the lovely blue they normally were.

"Well you can take your stupid dinner and your self important image and shove 'em both where the sun don't shine musclemass, and start using the muscle that matters. I'm not about to go out with some musclebound, thick headed buffoon who wants me for my body and because nopony else has had me. Take a good look sugar, coz you have no hope of ever boning this little filly, nor conquering her neither. Get used to it."

The stallion looked taken aback at first, followed by shock, then a grim, angry humiliated look that spoke volumes as the entire room lit up with a cacaphony of laughter and cat calls to the elusive minx herself as she smirked at the stallion and waved him away. Left with nothing else to do, he did just as she gestured and left, sitting down on his own on the other side of the room.

Another win for the ice queen.

The guard at my shoulder laughed and looked slyly at Spring.

"Wow Spring, you're sounding a little rusty there. Arc not bothering you for even a look anymore?"

I felt a heavy blush claw its way up my face and I elbowed the guard viciously, only making him laugh harder, until Spring turned her vicious, icy gaze upon him.

"I am a little rusty, Copper Shield, are you volunteering to be a practice dummy?"

He shook his head, clamming up with a look of sheer terror on his face. She smirked and tossed her mane before sweeping a wing around my torso and drawing me close. I was so overwhelmed with the fact I was so close to her I almost missed her next words.

"Besides. The bookworm over here probably has twice the chances you other boys have."

"Twice zero is zero..." I mumbled softly and she looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"What was that?" She asked loudly. I flushed and spoke a little louder.

"I said twice zero is zero, so I have just as much chance as these guys."

With a hoot, the room exploded again, this time along with Nightspring's silvery peals of laughter and her wing reflexively clutched tighter around me. Celestia be damned, these wings were the embodiment of fucking perfection.

One thing ticked off my list.

~*~

Ah, home. Home is where the heart is they say. In my case, I hate the place. Don't get me wrong, the guys are good friends with me and we are quite close, but do you know how annoying it is to be the only guy in the house not 'getting any'? Not to mention without a fillyfriend. The guys had tried to get me out and about but...

I'm a little shy around girls. See, I will stare down a pony bigger than me if needs be, and fight them should the occasion demand it, but when it comes to beautiful mares, I just fall to pieces.Of course, it's worst around Nightspring, but that's to be expected, she is the most beautiful and downright sexy mare I've ever met.

Argh, stop thinking like that.

Anyway, I'm sitting in my room when I hear a crash. Curious, I head downstairs to see what caused the commotion. It appears my room mates had the same idea. See, there's three others. Bolt Flare is a bright yellow with flaming red mane and a rare strain of red eyes. He's a wiry sort of colt like me, but he was granted with a sort of rogueish charm I couldn't even hope to master. His massive wings were his most powerful asset, he pulled long, overland runs for the post office. His fillyfriend was like a dream come true, with a pink coat and gorgeous purple and blue hairs for her mane and tail and the prettiest eyes I'd ever seen. Dusk was, obviously, a dark coloured stallion. He was quite heavily built and many confused him for a guard. He's actually a bouncer. His fillyfriend sort of reflected his dark sort of outlook on life, with deep purple coat and wings with dark blue highlights. Her mane was long and fell over one eye.

The last member of our little household's name was Shade Touch.

We have no idea what he does. But he's rarely ever home, and he has a sort of haunted look in his eyes whenever he is home and he makes a tonne of bits. He sort of blends into the shadows around the place and sometimes it's hard to decide if his coat is grey or black. His mane is a similar deal, it's difficult to discern what it is exactly. No doubt his fillyfriend, a bright, petite little mare named Sugar Cream, knew. Sugar had a silvery coat with rich reds making up her mane and tail, and her eyes were a perky sort of pink. She was seriously cute.

At this moment, the crash, it seems, had been caused by Sugar Cream crash tackling her coltfriend to the ground and kissing him feverishly, much to the humorous delight of my fellow stallions.I just felt a pang of jealousy and went back to my room.

I was due on patrol in a few hours anyway, I needed some sleep.

~*~

I don't know how I feel about this.

Mid way through my shift, I got a summons from Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Now, I'll be frank, I have never met her majesty before. I have met Princess Celestia, and I have been guarding Princess Celestia's room when her sister Princess Luna came by and entered, but I have never met the captain's wife, so why she would want to speak to me is beyond my knowledge. Regardless, I couldn't help but feel a little privileged that she would call for me by name. I had to leave a rather upset Nightspring behind though. She wanted to meet the princess too. Although why on Equestria she would want to meet the wife of the captain is beyond me. Why I wanted to meet her was beyond me, but I was sorta looking forward to it all the same, I mean it's not everyday you get called into a meeting with the princess herself. Or one of them anyway.

So here I am, walking down the corridors leading to her Majesty and her husband's room. I gotta admit, it feels weird. Getting to go into the Captain's room is... wow. Anyway. I'm looking at this door and it's way too fancy. Like almost everything else in this palace. Don't get me wrong, I like the palace, it's just... ugh, sometimes it's simply too much. I take a deep breath to steady my nerves and knock on the door. I pace them carefully, making sure it sounded professional. i do have a reputation to uphold as a guard after all. A feminine voice answered.

"Come in."

Maintaining my guard demeanor, I pushed the door open and took a single step into the doorway. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was... well, much more normal that I expected. That's not to say she wasn't just as beautiful as her aunts. Far from it. She was stunning and I had to fight my urge to stare. Don't get me wrong, I am not a perv. At least, I don't think I am. I'm certainly not looking at her in a sexual way, I swear to you. The only one I have ever.. actually, no, I'm not telling that.

Anyway, she looked at me as though I was funny and waved me to come in more. I gulped and took another half step before standing at attention. She laughed softly and smiled.

"You know, you don't have to be so stiff."

I swallowed and spoke formally, as is dictated by protocol.

"I'm sorry Princess, but I am currently on duty. I'm afraid protocol must be followed."

She raised a brow at me and I could feel my stomach twisting. I wasn't sure if I had said or done something wrong, and if I had... well, she is the princess. Not to mention my CO's wife. She suddenly grinned at me.

"Well, consider yourself temporarily relieved of your shift, until such a time as I have finished with speaking to you, okay?"

This is unorthadox to say the least. Guards aren't simply 'taken' off of duty mid shift, not even by Celestia or Luna. I think my uncomfortable disposition to this idea must have been obvious to her because she smiles at me and giggles. It must have been from my uncomfortable squirming.

"Don't worry, I won't tell Shiny or anypony else. Just you and me, alright?"

I licked my lips and avoided her eye. It's not easy to accept, but she is a princess, so her word is absolute so... I relaxed and slipped into a more comfortable sitting position and hesitated before taking my helmet off and shaking my head to get my mane off of where it had plastered onto my head and neck. I flushed as she smiled at me, feeling a little self conscious. She was still smiling at me.

"I wanted to talk to you about something alright? You're not in trouble or anything like that."

I nodded, understanding, but I didn't speak. Her smile went a little melancholy.

"Now, I don't know how well you know me, but in case you don't know, I am considered the Princess of love. As such, I have a... I'm sensitive to such things. I... couldn't help but notice, and no, I haven't been spying on you."

She giggled softly and I swallowed heavily once again. I'm not sure I like how this is going.

"But I have noticed that you seem to have a great attraction to your fellow guard Ni-"

"I don't want to talk about this," I said quickly and maybe a little too aggressively as she recoiled back in surprise. I didn't like where this conversation had gone, and I certainly didn't want to talk to somepony I don't know, even if it WAS Princess Mi Amore.

"Don't be like that Arc, I just want to talk to you about it! I asked around, and found out you're the only stallion in your household wi-"

"THAT'S ENOUGH!"

I bristled angrily, standing and jammed my helmet back on. I really don't want to talk about this, and there's no way I'm going to simply stand here and listen to this crap. I don't need to hear it, and I don't want to.

"I'm not going to stand here and listen to you go on about my personal life as though it's common knowledge and just some new topic to bring up on our first meeting. Forget it! I still have a few hours to my shift. If you'll excuse me, Princess, I have a Patrol partner to get back to."

I left before she could come up with a response.

I wanted nothing to do with it.

~*~

I woke up later that night to the urgent shaking and panicked squeaking of Sugar Cream. She looked at him as he woke up and looked over her shoulder in concern.

"Arc! Arc, you gotta get up. There's guards at the door asking for you, I don't know what's going on, but I'm scared."

I groaned and looked at her, unimpressed.

"Cream, I work with the guard, I'm sure they're just here for some sort of thing to do with duty. probably rosters or something."

She shook her head.

"I don't think so... your friend Nightspring is with them and... she looks grim."

I sighed and forced myself from bed.

"Go back to bed Cream. I'll handle this."

I staggered out of the room. It was too damn late, or early. Whatever. I haven't been sleeping for even close to long enough. Spring's excuse better be good, or I'm going to relocate her to the top tier of the tower and make her wings seem like lead. I walked downstairs and to the door where, true to Sugar's word, Nightspring stood. Strangely enough, Belladonna was on her back, and a ceremonial sword was sheathed at the side of her escort.

"What's this about Spring?"

Spring swallowed heavily and looked at me grimly. It... it's scaring me. She's never this grim. Never.

"Captain Shining has requested your presence... there's..."

She looked away. I feel a chill going down my spine.

"Spring..?"

"There's been an attempt on Princess Mi Amore Candenza's life. You.... you're wanted for questioning by Captain Shining Armour...."

She looked at me quietly, and the look I got was one of betrayal, and I'll never, ever forget it. It broke my heart and chilled my soul all at the same time.

"You're the prime suspect."