My Little Paladin: Chapter One
My Little Paladin: Chapter One
By: Tomix (Same person as Zarik from Pastebin)
*AUTHOR’S NOTE: This is quite possibly my first-ever story that’s based on absolutely nothing! No other fictions (Though I did use the name of Crimson-Devil’s Gloom Wing), no ideas posted by famous authors, nothing! The only outside reference here is the use of the Friendship is Magic characters, of which I do not claim the rights to. Fortunately for me Hasbro has better things to do than sue a fifteen-year-old Swedish idiot. Also if you want clop then BUCK OFF. Peace!*
Day one of the Paladin Project approaches.
My name is Lieutenant Ghost, second in command of the Canterlot Royal Guard under Captain Shining Armor and fourth in line to the high throne of Equestria.
Recently I, along with nine other elite guards, was selected to take part in a program which could very well make Mother Equestria the greatest country in the world. A program which will train ten of the best of the best, ten guards with the potential to become something great. Ten guards who care not if they become nothing more than weapons.
I am proud to become a war-machine for my country.
In an attempt to keep this process as formal as possible I will be keeping this journal to record the training sessions and my…feelings on the subject.
What the buck is wrong with me?
“Heh, ‘record my feelings’? What a bucking colt cuddler.” You mumbled as you set aside the journal on your desk, idly dragging a hoof through your mane. You let out a yawn as you realized that you, yet again, stayed up far too late. “Ooooooooooh training is gonna suck in the morning…”
Pulling your lazy flank from your desk chair and wobbling over to your bed, you didn’t even bother to ditch your Paladin fatigues before crashing on your bed and flickering out like a light.
Your dreams, oh by the gods your dreams were pure Tartarus that night. Dreaming of Captain Shining Armor chasing you down with a griffin’s glaive while shouting at the top of his lungs, “You’ll never be Spirit, NEVER!”
You awoke in a cold sweat, panting with your right hoof clutching your chest. “Oh Galactica, why?” you collapsed backwards onto your bed and passed out for the rest of the night. Your dreams were peaceful for the rest of the evening.
Awakening in the morning to the sound of the maid rapping a hoof on the door with a quiet “housekeeping”, you groan and sit up.
Walking towards the door and throwing it open, you surprised the poor maid...not that you particularly cared. Never was much of a morning pony.
Jogging down the hall of the castle, you found your way to the Royal Armory.
Walking in, you found your locker open with somepony rustling through it. “What the hay?!”
The pony stopped digging and turned around, a sheepish smile on her face. “Umm…good morning, Lieutenant…?”
It was Gloom Wing, another member of the Paladin Project. She was…a bit unpredictable. A bit of a klutz if you’re to be completely honest.
“Private Gloom Wing what the hay were you doing digging through my locker?” You growl, getting a bit angry at Gloom Wing’s abrasiveness.
”Ummmm…isn’t this…my locker?” She looks confused, almost as though she seriousl—wait. Does she honestly think this is her locker?
You slam the door and point a hoof at the front where the word “GHOST” is clearly printed in large ponyglyphs.
”Umm…oops?” She gives a very forced laugh and rubs her front leg with a hoof. Looking to the side and blushing slightly.
You give her a deadpan look. Reopening your locker and bumping her aside you reach in and retrieve your training armor. Your training armor is a fine changeling-made garment of cougar leather. You move to put on the garb as Gloom Wing continues to trip over her words.
”Sooo…Ghost—I MEAN Lieutenant Ghost! Sir…Uh…After training and everything…would you uh…like to go a-and do something?” She gives a nervous, toothy smile blushing furiously.
You look her up and down, still tying off the buckle around your neck. She wasn’t exactly unattractive, just not really your type. Yes, you were certainly old enough to know your type…twenty-four is fairly old…right? Right?
Anyway you finish buckling your armor down and clear your throat, “No thanks Gloom Wing, I don’t think I’ll be able to anyway. Training today is gonna be the toughest…well ever.”
You certainly didn’t want to tick her off; she may have been a bit clumsy but she was still part of the Paladin Project for a reason…you just hadn’t figured that reason out yet.
Clearly downtrodden she looks at her hooves with a barely audible, “Oh. Okay.” She slowly trotted away towards what she was now certain was her locker.
Shaking your head slowly you made your way towards the exit and down the halls once more. You jogged your way to the specially designated training area for the Paladin Project.
With a sly grin you decide to make a bit of an entrance, charging towards the double doors and crashing your way through you strike a pose.
“Ha-ha, very funny get steppin’!” Snaps Captain Sunshine Smiles, hehe, night guard named Sunshine. Classic!
“Yes, ma’am!” You bark, dropping the act. Jogging past the dark blue mare and making your way to the track.
You reach the start line and are about to start your laps when you hear somepony over your withers, “Ghost!”
You turn around with a grin seeing your best friend Shining Armor. Remembering your earlier dream you feel a cold shudder run down your spine. No…no Shiny wouldn’t ever hurt you, he’s your closest friend.
You introduced him to Princess Mi Amore Cadenza for Celestia’s sake! Shaking the depressing thoughts from your head you offer him a warm smile. “Hey Shiny, what’s up?”
“Meh, not much…other than being placed as SECOND IN COMMAND OF THE PALADIN PROJECT!” He certainly seems ecstatic about it, and why shouldn’t he be, he’s—oh Celestia dammit he’s still your boss? Really? REALLY???
“That’s great, man!” You offer him your hoof and he bumps it with vigor.
“I know,” he says with a smug smile, quickly dropping it to return to his normally mellow self. “Hey though, if Cadence’ll let me I’m goin’ out for some cider later with some of the others, you in?”
“Is Sunny a stuck-up whorse, hay yeah I’m in!” The two of you start to run your laps at a brisk pace, neck and neck you begin the inevitable competition for supremacy.
You pull out in front of him; he pulls out in front of you. This is generally how your training sessions together go, a never-ending battle of one-upping each other, just a game really, never anything serious. Nopony ever really got hurt or anything, again just a game.
“So Cap,” you say beginning to pant with the strain of your sprint. “How’s the program treating you so far?”
“What program?” He says, also beginning to grimace due to the pain in his hooves. “This all feels th—WOAH!” He shouts dipping out of the way of a rogue magic missile. “Watch it! Anyway I was saying that this all feels like normal training. Just with cooler armor.”
“Well it’s a new fighting style,” you say pulling ahead of him again. “Can you imagine fighting on your hind hooves? Like the ponies of old? Like Galactica’s original Paladins?”
“True,” he mumbles with another grimace. “Not to mention the armor upgrade, full bodied armor is kinda worth it, y’know?”
You both finish your laps and head over to “Rendezvous Point Beta” to wait for your orders from Celestia. The two of you chat for a while excitedly about pretty much anything.
It was times like this that you forgot that Shining Armor was your superior officer, unlike Sunshine Smiles he was much more down-to-earth. Easier to relate to in pretty much every aspect, except for the marriage thing, better him than you.
amirite.jpg
You shuffle your hooves impatiently, casting an awkward glance over you withers every once in a while.
“Where the hay is the guy with our orders?” You mumble under your breath.
“What was that, Ghost?”
“Nothin’, just gettin’ tired of waitin’ y’know?”
“Well wait no longer!” You hear a voice over your wither and turn around to meet its owner. None other than Fox, the head of the project. Hey, at least Shiny finally had somepony to report to instead of the Princess herself, take that ya smug little—“Our orders are to run operations C7D, and 426T. Just a drill, keep in mind that we are officially the best that Equestria has to offer and that these anti-changeling drills could actually happen, all right?”
“Yes sir!” The two of you bark, happy to finally have something to do, yet apprehensive of the incoming headache.
You both head off towards the castle once more; R&D had something for every Paladin to collect. Some kind of new custom-armor, supposed to be full bodied yet light enough to maintain quickness.
Trotting your way down the long hallway in the R&D complex the two of you pass several open laboratory doors.
One contained an earth pony mare in a lab-coat doing an autopsy of a dead minotaur; another had a unicorn stallion scientist typing like mad on a typewriter.
Yet another room contained a pegasus mare beating a small rabbit senseless…wait what?
You pay it no mind and continue to the end of the hall where you throw open the last door to reveal a menagerie of machinery and electronic devices scattered around. Everything in the lab was spread spasmodically across the floor and counters with no rhythm or rhyme to be found. This is where the scientist who made your armor is?
“Hello?” You call out to anypony in the room who may hear you, walking into the room a ways you wait for a response.
“Yes? Wuzzat?” An older unicorn stallion with a sporadic white mane and large hipster glasses walked into view. He pushed up his glasses and squinted as though they weren’t quite strong enough. “Ah yes, you must be here for your armor! Yes, yes very good. Now then, um, follow me! Yes, yes follow me!” The stallion walked around a pile of machinery and out of sight again. You hear him shout from a distance, “Oh and by the way, my name is Bunsen Burner, pleasure to meet you. Yes, yes quite a pleasure!”
You look at Shiny, shrug your withers and follow the old stallion. A soft trot behind you tells you that Shiny has decided to follow along.
Rounding the pile you see Bunsen up ahead a ways, you walk up next to him to trot along beside him. Shiny takes up Bunsen’s other side.
The three of you finally come along ten capsules built into the wall, they appeared to be made of aluminum but what do you know, you’re just a guard.
You chuckle quietly to yourself as Bunsen hits a button on the wall beside him, “Behold! The new Paladin Project armor!” The capsules open up, and your jaw drops at the sight before you. Shiny’s mimics yours and for good reason, each set of armor is customized.
“These suits of armor are made from a high-density polyester-mythril mix. Commissioned by Princess Celestia and General Fox, they’re designed to be the ultimate super-soldier suits. These two are yours, so what do you colts think?” Bunsen was smug and man, he sure had a reason to be.
You look at the capsule labeled ‘GHOST’, it’s…beautiful. The armor itself is a highly-polished silvery colour; yours has an orange chest piece inlaid in it. It was dull, which was a bit of a downer. Seems like they could’ve made it showier, but eh, maybe it would be a liability in battle. You look over at Shiny’s armor; it’s very similar only his chest piece is blue.
Shaking your head at the thought of a fashionista making your armors custom to your eye colours, you grab your suit and pull it out of the capsule.
Walking away with Bunsen still nattering away contentedly, you find your way to a cracked mirror leaning against the wall. Unbuckling the new armor and putting it on over your leather armor, as it was designed to do, you push the pieces together with a loud *click*.
All at once several things happen; the armor pulls in against your sides and reaches the perfect fit. It also begins to vibrate slowly against your body, confused as to what this means, you are about to voice your concerns to anypony who may be listening when the armor begins to glow a luminescent orange. The chest piece lights up like a star and you chuckle you yourself for thinking that it wasn’t showy enough.
Now THIS is showy!
Gleefully giggling like a foal you trot over to Shiny to find his armor glowing a bright blue with the chest piece a brilliant cerulean colour, just like his eyes.
You both turn to look back at the mirror and are simply blown away by the warriors that you have become, even though the armor itself has returned to silver. Blue and orange clash creating an image of confidence and determination, which is essentially what you and Shiny thrive off of.
Isn’t irony fun?
Your honey-blonde with white stripes mane and white coat are, simply put, emboldened by the new armor. Your orange eyes glow like never before, matching the colour of your chest piece perfectly. Shiny is quite the same with the shades of blue coming together to form an image fit for true Paladin.
You grin at each other before Shiny drops his smile, calmly turns around, and grabs Bunsen around the neck giving him a strangling hug.
Bunsen was still talking and was completely unprepared for Shiny’s “attack”.
The two of you grin at Bunsen before waving goodbye and trotting out the door. The full plate armor a welcome change against your legs, at least your hind hooves won’t be a liability anymore. Those are protected, too! As is your belly, everything but a helmet was present with your suit of armor. Sucks, you really wanted a nice helmet…
“Wait, boys! Yes, yes wait!” You hear over your withers. Stopping short and turning around to see Bunsen rushing over to Shiny and tapping the back of his armored collar. “This is how you activate the helmet technology! Why dontcha try it out?” Bunsen gives the biggest grin you’ve ever seen to which Shiny rolls his eyes and smacks himself on the back of the neck.
The armor around his neck morphs into a shell made of the same material and completely incasing his head in a silvery shell, the eye holes of course glowing that same cerulean blue as before.
Intrigued, you smack yourself and watch in interest as the same thing happens to you. Your eyes were most likely a brilliant orange, so no point in asking.
“Bunsen Burner…you’re a bucking genius.” You say in awe of this truly great mind of your generation. Giving a bow of courtesy, you punch Shiny in the foreleg, a punch which would normally have made him stagger but now glanced off without a scratch. “C’mon, Cap. Let’s head back outside.”
Waving goodbye to Bunsen one last time, the two of you head outside…after putting away your helmets of course. Neither of you question why movement in full-bodied armor is silent but quite honestly, neither of you care. Shiny thought his red captain’s coat was cool, but these were space-aged awesomeness!
“Let’s head back and wait for the others, mmkay?” Says Shiny, still not dropping his grin, to which your only reply is a mirrored expression of his own.
TIME SKIPS ARE INTERESTING THINGS, AREN’T THEY?????????
The ten members of the Paladin Project are lined up, fully armed in their custom armors. All of which have their helmets retracted. You stand in line third from the right, stone-faced and listening intently.
Who do you listen to? Why ask me, you’re the one in the story…I MEAN UHH…General Fox is giving your team your first legitimate orders.
You risk a glance up and down the line of Paladins. You don’t really know most of them; they’re just ponies that made the cut, too.
You do however recognize the blue glow of Shining Armor, the golden luminescence from Gloom Wing, and the red aura over Fang. Fang was a night guard, which means he looks like a bat…and he’s really creepy.
Still a pretty cool guy, though.
Turning your attention back to General Fox you realize you haven’t missed much in your musings and tune in intently, not wanting to miss a single portion of your first orders as a Paladin—
“Okay ladies? You got that?”
Oh Celestia dammit.
Follow Shiny Follow Shiny Follow Shiny.
The other nine disperse into groups of three, you realize now that you’ve been assigned to work with Fang and a unicorn mare with green eyes.
Heh, now that’s more your type. Sorry Gloom Wing, but pegasi just aren’t your thing.
“So uh, hi, I guess,” she says looking at you. “We got put together, eh?”
“Looks that way, yeah,” you say with a chuckle. “Hey, Fang, you got an output?”
“Nope,” he mumbles in that resolved manner of his.
“…okay then!” Says the mare cheerfully breaking the awkward silence, a welcome change seeing as you could never come up with a response to anything Fang said. “Anyways I’m Corporal Emerald, but ya can just call me Em. Nice ta meetcha I guess.”
“Likewise, I’m Lieutenant Ghost and the subdued one is Sargent Fang,” you offer her a friendly smile.
Fang just mumbles.
Weirdo…unless he’s drunk. Hot damn he’s a funny drunk!
“Cool,” says Em brightly. “Let’s get to work then!”
The other two head off to the western wing of the training grounds, you follow along still unsure as to what exactly your orders were. Upon reaching the west wall the other two begin to perform maneuvers designed to catch a changeling off-guard.
The maneuver was specifically engineered by Celestia herself after the changeling queen crashed Shining Armor’s wedding. It’s performed after you identify a changeling; you execute a jump kick with any one of your hooves. The kick is aimed right where the horn of the beast would be located, which not only reveals the changeling’s true form, but also disorients it for arrest or further attack if necessary.
Fang and Em are hitting several training dummies with that, and eventually several other anti-changeling attacks.
You quickly join them on the “offensive”. You know changelings first hoof; you were there during the changeling invasion and were one of the guards who initially went to the badlands chasing after Chrysalis.
The other members of that unit didn’t make it back and it has haunted you ever since.
It was that blunder which first disappointed your father…oh Galactica why can’t you forget…?
OH GAWD ANOTHER TIME SKIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The three of you finish your training session around sunset and head your separate ways…not without getting a date with Em for next week of course!
Hehe, I still got it.
Reaching the locker room and removing your brand new armor which, for some unknown reason seemed to never get dirty, as well as your cougar leather training suit, you take a deep breath finally feeling the air upon your ruffle and sweat filled coat.
Grinning at yourself in the small mirror you placed in the back of your locker, you glance away from it and look down to the bottom of the locker. Retrieving your comb and standing back up straight you glance in the mirror a—HOLY BUCK WHAT THE HAY IS THAT!?!?!
Ducking away from the object flying at the back of your head, you look to see who threw it. You found nopony else in the room. Breathing heavily at the close call you look back to the mirror and find a large knife buried halfway up the blade into it and the wall behind it.
That knife certainly wasn’t tossed by hoof, but who has good enough magic to—no.
NO!
You refuse to believe that Shiny would…no. Why would your best friend hurt you?
You slap yourself in the face with a hoof and chuckle, slamming the door and leaving the knife in the wall. You glance to your left, and then to your right. Finally with a resounding “nope”, you exit the room at pace which would surely make a zebra say “DAAAMN.”
Finally reaching your quarters you open your journal and record the events of the day. You write for a good twenty minutes, emphasizing the part about the knife should you—*gulp*—not wake up in the morning and the investigators find it.
You certainly wish you could say this was the first time that you feared sleep, but alas…
Shaking yourself out of your reverie and climbing into your bed, you make a decisive choice and get back up. Walking over to your personal cabinet you grasp your crossbow and take it back to your bed with you, deciding that it’s better to be safe than sorry.
Sleep does not come easy that night.
Hey what ya think guys? Feedback at zealt97@gmail.com.
