The Adventures of Thunder Strike and Ink Blot

"Alright!" Captain Shining Armor announced as we all marched across the balcony of the palace. "I'm not going to remind you all of your duties or what you're here to do. I'm assuming Valor did enough of that, and you don't need as much hoof-holding anymore."

No pony in the platoon laughed at that joke. We all knew better. We had been molded to keep a straight face at all times, especially when a superior was speaking.

"As of now, you're all on guard duty in a double-skip-counter-clockwise rotation. From the moment I place you all at your station, you'll stay there for a four-hour shift. After that, a new guard will arrive to take your place and relieve you of your position. Then you have a five-hour break to spend however you choose before your next shift starts. Understood?"

"Sir, yes Sir!" My platoon shouted in perfect unison.

"Good!" And that was all he said for a while. I could not help but feel glad that Shining Armor was our captain. I liked him. He did not yell at us or act as uptight as Sergeant Valor did. This was probably because we had finally passed the training, we knew the general ropes, so I guess their grip on us loosened, in a manner of speaking.

He was probably in a happy mood anyway. If I heard right, he just got back from his honeymoon a few days ago, and everything has been kept in line. No mishaps or outbreaks, and certainly no issues with those changelings, nasty buggers!

We all continued to march on in silence until finally, we arrived at the corner of one turret that overlooked the palace property.

At that time, Armor turned sharply to face us. He pointed to me and one orange-furred unicorn beside me.

"You two!" He said. "This is your position!"

"Sir, yes Sir!" We both saluted.

"At ease."

We both dropped our salutes.

"Take position."

We marched over toward the two guards that were already there until we faced them directly. They did not move. We knew the switching procedure. We had practiced it so much. I knew I could not screw this up, not on my first try for real, not in front of the captain.

Stare each other in the eye for five seconds.

Three one-thousand, four-one thousand,

He lifted his spear, and knocked on the floor twice before holding it out for me. I took it from him sharply. We gave each other a sharp salute before he stepped aside, and I walked into his spot. I turned around to face the direction he was looking in, my hooves clacking sharply with each step.

Out of the corner of my eye, I knew that the exact same thing had happened with the orange colt and the other guard.

And now we were in position. As the two relieved guards walked away, Shining Armor marched on, leading the rest of my old platoon to their new positions.

I did not watch them leave, but look straight ahead out over the balcony as I was suppose to do. I could still see them out of the corners of my eyes though.

Valor had always stressed us the importance of staying together and working together through thick and thin. And now the brave colts whom I had trained along side were off to their new positions. I could not be sure if I would ever see them again.

No matter. It times like these, one must be prepared to sever bonds when necessary.

And so my first shift as Sergeant on the Canterlot Guard began. Since nothing seemed to be going on at the moment, I decided to savor the moment some more. I did not get my fill earlier at the graduation ceremony.

Ah, this was a proud, proud day for me! Six years of rigorous exercise, memorizing procedures and codes and maps, and being repeatedly yelled at and spat on by Valor had finally paid off. It had all been leading up to this!

I still remember two years ago when I graduated from the basic guard training, and became a private-ranked guard. And now, after that extra work, I'm finally a sergeant!

Finally, I was one step closer to achieving my goal! If I could just keep up the good work and work hard, one day... I'll make it. I am sure of it!

If only my parents could see me now. What would they say? I did not see them at the ceremony. I still remembered when the letter came to me saying that my mother became deathly ill. It was only a year later that my father fell to a similar fate. Because I was still in training, I could not go to their funerals.

It does not matter. Even if they were still alive, they probably would not have come to see me. They never cared for me. Oh, but if they could see me now, I knew they would be sorry! They would be more interested in me then, for sure!

I shot a brief glance over at the orange colt beside me. His name was Fire Bolt. He was rather scrawny compared to the rest of the platoon. He just barely managed to scrape by enough to graduate. Still, he was now just as much of a guard as I was. He was one of the colts I talked to the most during my extended training period. I was happy to have my first shift beside him, even if we were not allowed to talk or even look at each other.

Okay, I thought that was enough free-thinking. I needed to stay focused and keep my sharp eyes out for trouble. I knew exactly what to look out for; if any sort of turbulence or violence broke out in my line of sight. And of course, we all had to be on the lookout for changelings.

Thankfully, a spell had recently been developed to tell is a pony was a changeling. All we had to do was to use our magic to check the pony's pulse. If the had warm blood which flowed normal, they were clean. As it turned out, changelings don't bleed... at least not like normal ponies.

For about an hour, I stood at that post, never moving, looking straight over the balcony. I must say, not a bad view. No problems broke out. There were hardly any ponies even out today. It was pretty boring. The most fun I had was when a pony would walk by, and I scanned his or her pulse with my magic. And thus far, only two such ponies have crossed my path, both were clean.

I was tempted to move. My golden armor began to feel heavy and sweaty. Thankfully, I had learned in training how do dismiss physical discomfort. Part of me wanted to move and maybe go take a walk or take off my helmet. The biggest temptation probably was to turn and start a conversation with Fire Bolt. Hard to believe I've been through all that training, and we never really learned how to stand still for such a long time.

Still, I had to suck it up. I've worked too hard and come too far now to screw up. I was more of a real stallion now than I ever was! I was a Canterlot Royal Guard! I was even more than that now! Now I was a Sergeant of the Guard; one step more than the regular guards!

I continued to stare off and look over the view until I heard another pony trotting up the balcony from around the corner. I prepared to scan him.

"Phew!" He panted as I sensed his presence approach me out of the corner of my eye. "There you are. I-I finally caught up to you!"

I had a feeling he was talking to me, but I ignored him. We had rules about socializing with civilians on duty. If he continued to pester me, then I would respond.

Sure enough, he did.

"Uh, hey buddy!" He continued on. "Mare! It's been forever! How have you been?" He walked into my view.

I still tried to avoid eye contact, but I saw that he was a short earth pony with dark grey fur and a white mane. And did his voice sound familiar?

At this point, interaction was unavoidable. He was trying to converse with me. I turned my head in his direction.

"Sir, can I help you with something?" I asked sternly. As I spoke, I channeled my magic to my horn, and then sent a wave through his body. He was full of normal pumping warm blood. He was clean, thankfully. And we could do this without making the pony feel it.

At the sound of my words, the colt took a step back. By the look on his face, he was pretty intimidated by me, maybe scared.

"Th... Thunder?" He stammered. "Yo- you don't-uh re-recognize me?"

"Should I, sir?" I raised my eyebrow. "How do you know my name?" I tensed up, ready for anything.

"You don't remember your old buddy?"

I thought for another second. Let me see... grey fur, white mane... green eyes... that voice... so much stuttering, so much fear in those eyes... and that dark-yellow vest with... ink stains? No way!

I blinked my eyes before widening them in surprise.

"Son of a buck!" I gasped. "Blot? Is that you?"

"Ah! Now he gets it!" Blot cheered as his smile returned.

I raised my hoof. There was only one way to know if this was Blot for sure. Our little hoof shake. Heck, I'll surprise myself if I still remember that old thing.

He smiled as he must have remembered it himself. He raised his own hoof.

First a bump,

Front hoof,

Back hoof,

Up high,

Down low

Pull back,

Big bump!

Yep. It was him alright.

"Little buddy!" I said, almost squealing. "It's great to see ya! What the hay are you doing here?"

"I'm writing for the Canterlot Gazette now!" He said proudly. He gestured the fountain pen tucked in his ear. "I've been sent to report on stuff happening at the palace here!"

"That's great!" I nodded.

"I saw the ceremony!" He continued. "So you-ye-you're a-um sergeant now? That's great! We-uh-we gotta catch up! You gotta tell me all about it! I got an interview with Valor. He's a pretty scary guy, isn't he?"

Before Blot could stumble over any more words, I held up a hoof to shush him.

"Hey, you know, I really shouldn't be chatting right now," I said. "I'm on duty."

His smile faded slightly, but not much. He nodded. "Oh, right. That's okay. I totally understand. But then can we meet up later?"

"Sure," I answered. "My shift ends in three hours."

"Oh, by then it'll be like four in the afternoon, right?" He continued. "Okay. Sure. Uhhhh... Where should we meet?"

I thought for a brief minute, trying to recall some of the big diners or bars in Canterlot. Finally, I got something.

"You know Martini's?"

"Oh yeah, I know that place!" He nodded.

"How about you get us a table and I'll meet you there?"

"Oh, yeah. Sure. I can do that."

"Okay. Great. I gotta get back to work so I'll see ya then?"

"Yeah, sure. Great. See ya then!" And with that, he turned and walked back from the way he came.

When he was gone, I got back to standing in my stance, hoping no pony saw me act that way. I recollected myself, and became stern and serious again.

I stole a glance over at Fire Bolt. He had a slight smile on his face. I knew he would not tell any pony about this incident. My secret was safe with him. I could not tell which he thought was funnnier; my little reunion with my buddy, or how he called Sergeant Valor a scary guy.