The Guard Years: A Canterlot Wedding

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: The Guard Years

Chapter 1: Introduction

Ponies are generally peaceful beings. Sure, they can argue, but usually, everything remains peaceful. But there are exceptions. Mishaps, but sometimes intentional. And for those ponies, the Royal Guard exists, to keep everything peaceful and to solve crime in the rare occasion that it does pop-up and to aid civilian ponies in peril. If crimes occur however, it usually happens at night, when all ponies lay asleep in their beds, dreaming sweet dreams, or getting some help from Princess Luna in case of nightmare's.

To more important matters. Everypony remembers the royal wedding, I mean, who doesn't? The wedding was beautiful, the food delicious and the party was swinging. Unfortunatly, there were some unexpected guests. They don't need introduction, you have all seem them be defeated by Princess Cadence and Shining Armor. you have all seen the story through the eyes of the six heroic ponies.

But what about everypony else? We can't possibly tell you the story from every point of view? No, but I will give you the point of view from a pony that you don't know. This is the story of a Canterlot Wedding through the eyes of... Shadow Eye.

And seeing how the regular Royal Guard had to sleep, it was time for Luna's guard to watch the night. And for Shadow Eye, to take post.

1 month before the wedding...

"All right everypony, ready to wake up!" was heard through the night.

the sound came from the Palace grounds, east wing. The barracks of Luna's guard.

The guard rose themselves from their bed without complaint, went to their lockers and donned their armor, which was purple and black in appearance.

Every one of the guards had the same dark grey fur and yellow slit eyes. But those features were even more outspoken in the pony who had awakened them.

Shadow Eye was the captain of Luna's guards and he's larger then all of them, fittingly, he's comparable to Shining Armor in size. He was of the Pegasus race and his wings were rather big, of comparable size to Princess Luna's. His eyes were a lighter and brighter shade of yellow, but that only added to the generally scary impression a pony would have when bumping into Shadow Eye.

The fact that he litteraly had a yellow slit eye as cutie-mark didn't help.

Shadow Eye got his name from the bright tapetum in his eyes, which reflected so much light that it was near impossible to hide in the shadows from him.

The other Guards quickly stood on a line that was marked on the ground so the captain could inspect them before heading out for duty.

Shadow Eye joined Luna's Guard as soon as it was re-formed after 1000 years of abscence. After initial training he was named captain, since he the best of the first batch of guards. Being the best was not easy, all the bat-ponies (sub-species of the Pegasi) are strong, able fliers (better in manouvering then speed though) and to most ponies: scary. But they were all nocturnal (they operated better at night then during daylight) and that's why only they were chosen for Luna's Guard.

"Attention!" Shadow Eye called.

Every guard immediatly raised a hoof to his forehead.

"At ease!"

Now every guard put his hoof back down while Shadow Eye made his inspection, looking at the armor and appearance of every guard. He paid careful attention to each of them. Did they rest wel? Are they fit for tonight? Is their armor clean?

"Well Cloud Strifer? Your eyes are dim and your stance is feeble, what happened to you private?"

Cloud cleared his throat and responded

"The cut I got during my training incident started to throb again and I couldn't sleep - sir."

Shadow looked at him thoroughly.

"You don't seem fit for duty today private, get to the infirmary and let them have another look, you'll report back when you're better, dismissed for today."

"Yes - sir" Cloud said, he then bowed his head slightly and trotted off to the infirmary.

At the end, Shadow constated that the rest of the privates were fit for duty. He was just about to assign the tasks for today when the front door of the barracks swung open and a very familiar face came in.

All the guards took of their helmets and made deep bow, Shadow followed in their example, then lifted his head and said

"Princess Luna, whatfor do you grace the barracks with your prescence?"

Luna looked at the recruits and turned her attention to Shadow Eye

"Thy precense is required at the Royal Palace, Captain"

Shadow had to keep his jaw from dislodging. If Princess Luna came to tell him personally that his precense was required, then it must be for something for very important.

"Very well princess, recruits, officer Blue Coat will take the lead for today"

A pony with a perfectly groomed darkblue color stepped forward and took the list of tasks from Shadow.

"I'm ready to leave you're majesty"

"Then follow me Captain"

Princess Luna and Shadow Eye left the barracks and walked on the road connecting it with the inner palace grounds. The Pegasi had initiated Spring just a week ago and the flowers were slowly coming into bloom. The tree's leaves had returned to a slight dark green color and the garden was cleaned, all the fallen leaves had been swept away and it all looked majestic. In daylight that is, it was nightime now, so the colors didn't matter much. Yet, Shadow enjoyed the clean garden, and he could still faintly see the colors thanks to his improved night vision.

They arrived at the main palace building after a short walk. Celestia's night guards opened the door.

Shadow could just faintly hear Luna's guards march out of the barracks and dispersing into Canterlot. Luna led Shadow throught the corridors to the south-west wing of the palace. Shadow already knew that this was not Luna's nor Celestia's wing, this was the guest wing of the palace.

Luna stopped at a large decorative door in front of the tower of the wing.

"Whatever is told here will remain between these walls, understood captain?"

Shadow raised his right hoof to his front head "Understood your majesty"

Luna then opened the door with use of her magic.

Inside of the room was one pony. Shadow immediatly recognized who he was dealing with. This pony was a mare, that was for damm sure. She had a purple-pinkish fur, a yellow-pink-purple mane and tail, a small crown on her head, a cutie mark shaped in the form of a heart seemingly made of crystal, purple eyes, but the most distinctive features of her were definitely her horn AND her wings, marking her as royalty. She was absolutely gorgeous.

"Princess Cadance?" Shadow asked in a confuse tone. Shadow had grown up in Canterlot and had seen Cadance a few times, but he never had a long conversation with her. The only ponies he knew she often hung out with was Twilight and...

"Ah, Captain Shadow Eye, just the colt we needed" A voice said from behind Shadow, who turned around and faced Shining Armor.

"Hello Captain Shining Armor, now if I might be so kind to inquire why I was called here?" Shadow still thought the royal Canterlot accent sounded redicolous with his heavy voice.

Princess Luna closed the door behind her while she moved to stand over to the window. Shining Armor went over to Cadance who happily gave him a hug. "Ah yes, captain" Cadance said "We needed to talk about about the security for our upcoming event" Cadance beamed after saying those words, and Shining Armor smile looked like it would rip his face open if it went any further. Shadow only had to guess the obvious.

"You two are going to marry ?" Shining Armor and Princess Cadance nodded in unison. Shadow's jaw dropped, but he quickly regained composure.

"Congratulation to the both of you then, I-I don't really know what to say"

Shining Armor cleared his throat

"The reason why we called you here is becouse we need to improve the nightly inspectations of the town. everything must be perfectly safe and all the roads and trains must run day and night in two days, when our wedding will be announced to the public."

Shadow nodded and replied

"When exactly is your wedding going to take place?"

"In 1 month to be precice"

Shining armor smiled at Cadance who returned the smile. Cadance then spoke

"You'll be up to the task I hope, captain?"

Shadow gave Candance a salute and said

"Of course, making sure all infrastructure is working and ensuring safety is nothing the Lunar Guards can't handle"

At this comment, Luna's gaze shot towards Shadow Eye. Shadow turned his head for a short moment and thought he saw her smile for a short while.

"I think our bussiness is concluded Shadow, you can go now" Cadance said.

Shadow nodded and walked out of the room followed by Princess Luna.

"Shadow..." Luna said hesistantly.

"Yes your majesty?"

"Make sure this task gets carried out without faults" Luna then turned her head and trotted towards the east wing of the Palace.

Shadow watched the Princess turn the corner. He knew what she was going through. Luna wanted to be recognized by the ponies as much as Princess Celestia. And for that, he could not let her guards make a bad example of themselves.

Shadow returned to the barracks and went to the officers bunks, where his desk was located. He immediatly took a sheet of paper and a pen "thif wd be mch esire f I cld se magc" was his usual complaint as he took the pen between his teeth and started a new list of tasks to give to the guards tomorrow.

Meanwhile Luna had just raised the moon and was watching over the night. Her thoughts raced all over the place. She didn't want to screw up the wedding by some mistake she or her guards made. She didn't want to lose the partial recognition she had gained during Nightmare Night in Ponyville.

But she felt at ease all of the sudden. She knew Shadow wouldn't let her down. He was one of the most loyal guards she knew, and that said a lot. Luna didn't easily trust someone, and her guards, however loyal they are from the beginning, are no exception. With her mind at peace she made a quick turn and flew back in the direction of the palace to make another survey of Canterlot.

Shadow had finished his new taskslist and let out a sigh. he had nearly reshuffled all the guards assignments. He put down the pen and went to his bunk, tired for the night. He would have to wake in daylight to get everything in order and explain everything to the officers. Guard duties aside, Shadow felt sleep creeping and taking hold of his eyelids as he lay down on his bunkbed. Ugh, he hated daylight, his eyes were very sensitive to it and he could never use all of his skill during daytime. It was his one big weakness, aside to several small ones: like loud music, he would wince slightly when one of the guards would put on some dubstep etc... during resttime. The worst thing was that it was nearly always the same artist, a mare DJ who went under the name of DJ Pon-3 or something like that. Shadow had always been a lover of classical music.

Somewhere far from Equestria, a mare was enjoying some music. Although she could hardly be described as a pony, she was tall, had a hard black coat and green eyes, a horn like that of a unicorn, but instead of being straight, it was curved and had cracks and holes in it, her wings looked like they would better fir on an oversized insect then on a pony. And the music she was listening to, was the sweet music of hoofsteps, hundreds, thousands of hoofs that made the ground tremble like a partyroom quacking to deep bass sound, all marching neatly in formation, the pony-like creatures numbered in the tens of thousands. The pony-like mare smiled, a grin that would give her the world. "Perfect"