It had been that usual day as the Royal Guard yesterday. Waking up, doing his job, and sleeping. Very normal for a standard guard. But today was very weird. Not worse, but somehow...different.
The smell of the warm sun awoke him instantly, an hour before the tooting horns woke him up. Groaning slowly, he sat up. He flapped his wings for a bit and licked his lips, testing how he was today. He would give a 4 out of 5 for today. Not too bad.
He carefully pushed himself off the bed and flew down to the floor. The room looked normal as well. He looked around. The giant wardrobe was still in place, the tattered scroll from his graduation wrapped in a red bow was fine, and most importantly, the desks were neat and tidied. This wasn't usual for his room since he had a sloppy roommate, but he got used to it.
His roommate! He turned around to find the sheets patted down neatly and the pillow softened and straight, but no roommate. He thought of all the things that could go wrong. Slick(His roommate's actual name, surprisingly) may have gotten sick, he could've died... He counted the possibilities endlessly, worrying more and more.
Then he stopped. He actually wasn't ENTIRELY in bond with Slick...seeing that Slick was a boastful unicorn who was never promoted (he claimed that Shining Armor had begged for him to stay and teach all privates properly in a undercover way) and was somehow popular in the guard community. Slick was sloppy and disgusting with all kinds of dirty things tucked inside his pillow (Celestia knows what). He shrugged the urgent matter off and opened the wardrobe.
2 sets of glistening golden armor were set on a mannequin plus a set of black-colored armor tucked in the back revealed itself to him. He smiled brightly and was completely cleared of the current situation as he took off the pieces of armor and fit them on him. Grinning happily, he opened the door and headed to the lounge for the privates. As he trotted towards the door, he heard a cough.
"And what would your name be?" A voice said. He turned around to see a unicorn the same rank as his. Of course, he looked way too familiar so he rolled his eyes.
Flare ignored Slick and continued to turn the doorknob to the lounge. He heard a loud snicker before he entered the room. Blushing ever so slightly, he turned around a gave Slick a dangerous stare. Slick stopped and smirked.
"Think you can beat me, Mr. Flare Rider?" He pointed to his badge, which Flare hadn't noticed. He received a cold chill down his spine and forced his eyes away. In turn, Slick snapped back at him.
"THAT WAS A COMMAND, BALDHEAD!" He yelled, and pulled him close towards his face. "Listen here, tramp." He whispered angrily and jabbed him in the ribs. "You pay attention to me now." Slick grappled Flare's chin and pointed it down to his badge. Flare, frightened as ever, reluctantly stared at his badge.
The badge shimmered a gold color, representing he had been promoted to Elite Private. Flare gasped. Slick released his grip on Flare's chin, kicked him in the body, and chuckled to himself as he walked into the lounge. A bunch of doors to other guard's rooms had been opened with heads popping out, each snickering or gasping in surprise like Flare. Flare shut his mouth and gloomily walked into the lounge, where a few guards were already there sipping cups of iced chocolate with the new elite.
"You ok?" A griffin approached him slowly as the other guards gathered round a corner of the lounge, listening to Slick's 'modified' version of the story.
"I'm fine." Flare and Dexter sat down on the opposite corner trying to ignore the commotion there. "You're sure?" The perplexed griffin said again, and he nodded back.
Flare painfully rubbed his hit spots. Dexter looked at him again, concerned. "Yeah, I know you're not fine." Flare smiled at him weakly and replied. "Don't worry, it's just a humongous mistake that Shining Armor made. No biggie." They chuckled at his joke.
"Well anyways, how're you doing?" He asked. He twirled his claw around with his other claw holding his cup of iced chocolate.
"Well, I heard that they changed the hot chocolate to iced chocolate..." He eyed the cup in Dexter's claw as he talked. Dexter shrugged helplessly and gave him an not-my-fault look. Flare snickered in his mind but put on a straight face.
"So anyways, what's your field today?"
"I've gotta do Field A today. Training first recruits for this week."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
The stutter and small conversations continued until the tooting of the horns rang. The 2 friends followed the group of guards in front of them, led by the all-high-and-mighty Slick. Flare kept his head low while the guards marched out into different sections, chatting and talking on the way. He looked at his schedule written on his hoof (courtesy to the lousy trainer they had, they were out of schedules when he was trying to get his) and stopped in mid-trot.
Field B: Guarding Main Entrance
Dexter, who was behind him, bumped into him. "Sorry." He said quickly, helped Flare up, and flapped his wings as he disappeared into the Training Field.
It was a bummed-out day the rest of the time. He was mercilessly teased wherever he went, he had to stop 7 ponies from coming into the castle, resulting in a fine count of bruises and aches. Lunch was coming so he headed to the Cafeteria Hall for some good food to cheer up his mood.
As Flare walked into the cafeteria, he noticed the place was more crowded. The 10 tables that surrounded the front desk and all-you-can-eat buffet was occupied by many mares and stallions. He recognized Dexter and his other friend who were sitting down on a table, chatting and eating their lunches. Thinking of the school cafeteria, he walked up towards the line where unfortunately, Slick was 2 ponies in front of him, boasting and rambling on about the 'amazing' story he had 'discovered'.
"And I was like, AWAY, BASTARD!" Flare could hear Slick lying right through his teeth. Flare shuffled along the line, trying his best to ignore the annoying voice rambling on like a knife poking him continuously. A humongous line of chuckles and impressed gasps slid through his ears.
"Hey." Flare turned around as a mare spoke to him. She looked very boyish, black coat, green mane. He swore he'd seen her before somewhere, but couldn't remember. He smiled at her weakly as an response. The mare smiled back, but this time, was a cheeky grin. A warm blush greeted Flare and he quickly noticed that the line was moving. Slowly, he trotted backwards and successfully slipped and landed on his back.
A small groan escalated from his throat but he quickly covered it with his hoof while he tried to pull himself back up onto his legs. The mare stuck out a hoof and pulled him up. As they shuffled along the line, a big conversation started. Questions popped out as they moved along, and finally, they both sat down at the table with Dexter and Night Chaser, two close friends.
"Hey." Night Chaser smiled at the mare. Flare looked down at his lunch tray, unwilling to confront Night Chaser. The mare smiled back at him but turned to Flare. Night grumbled under his breath and whispered to Dexter angrily. "That girl is nuts, dude." While Dexter nodded in agreement, the mare was talking to Flare excitedly.
"Favorite sport?" The mare seemed to have a massive amount of interest in Flare, asking questions at the speed of a bullet. As more questions shot at him, he became more and more happier to answer the questions. At the end of her question craze, he knew a lot. Her name was a surprise, though.
"I'm Agile Bolt. Kinda boyish, but I'm ok with it." She had said cheerfully. Flare had nodded in agreement.
Flare looked at his plate. He was pretty hungry after 20 minutes of nonstop chatting so he examined the food platter. Some hay fries, oats, and a drink of chocolate milk (Of course, the chocolate was iced). He poked around for a bit and quietly ate while Dexter chatted with Agile in a hurry to beat Flare with all the progress he had made from his new 'marefriend'. Flare grumbled a bit but continued eating his food, listening to the conversation.
"Are you a furry pony or something?" Agile Bolt had started the conversation with this line, frustrating Dexter immediately. He smiled annoyingly and started the conversation again with a simple question.
"What's your name?"
Agile swiftly answered the question as Flare was gobbling up the last crumbs of his lunch. He flashed a glance at Agile, who was boringly staring at her hoof while Dexter babbled on. He could tell Dexter was boring her out. He turned his glance to Night Chaser, who was eying Agile curiously with flirty eyes. Flare could feel a burning sensation of jealously overcoming him.
"Uh, what's up?" He blurted out suddenly as Dexter had just finished. Dexter shot him an angry look, but Flare just smiled weakly back at him and focused his attention on Agile. She responded immediately like before.
"Nothing much. Dexter here just finished telling me stories about his life in the Griffin Kingdom. It's pretty fun and interesting." Flare wondered how she could've remembered all the details. She smiled at Flare cheerfully once again and rubbed Dexter's head with her hoof, rustling his fur. He smiled back, this time clearly satisfied with the turnout of his story.
"You know, we all should get together again..." Night Chaser smirked at her in a quiet and flirty way. She looked at him weirdly though but then caught on without hint of any weird stuff going on. "Yeah, totally! We should do our fields together!" She showed a big smile and laughed.
Flare and Dexter nodded in agreement, but in Flare's mind, he was furious at Night Chaser. How dare he interfere! He stomped his hooves just imagining it. Agile looked at Flare as he stomped his hooves under the table.
"Uhm, are you ok?"
"Wha-oh! Yeah, uh, totally fine." He gave a slight blush. Looking at his tray, he stood up. "I'll be right back." He smiled at everypony on the table and trotted towards the Dirty Cutlery trolley filled with slopped plates and bits of food resting inside a hole. He carefully placed his plate in the 'Dirty Plates' hole and set the blue tray onto the stack of blue trays beside the hole. He glanced back at his table, burning with jealousy. Night Chaser was now in his spot, talking to Agile quickly so he wouldn't waste a single second. Flare could here lots of parts of the conversation clearly.
"And maybe we could have a cup of coffee." Night added, hoping to spark some interest. Agile turned from happy to worried. She knew what was coming up, and she didn't like it. Even though she was a friendly pegasus, she hated somepony who rushed things and went way to fast. Despite the horrible situation, she nodded weakly and continued to listen.
Flare slowly walked back, unable to lift his head from the uncomfortable thoughts he was feeling. As he sat back down with his head low, Agile looked at him with a concerned and worried smile on her face. Night noticed her glance, and shuffled forward on his seat.
"You okay?" He asked, trying to add in the cool voice he had once used when he wanted to coo his little brother. Flare glanced up slightly and put his head back down once he noticed that Night was actually flirting Agile. He sighed, raised his head a bit, and started a particularly loud conversation with Dexter. Dexter smiled coolly and continued with the idle conversation, not realizing Night Chaser was stealing Agile away from him. He tapped his beak thoughtfully as the next question tested him.
"Hurm." He continued tapping his beak until he came up with an idea. "I guess you could say-"
A large noise interrupted his thoughts. Or rather, a cry. Dexter turned to Night Chaser, who was sobbing loudly. Agile was walking away from the table, heart filled with guilt and sadness. Flare looked around the room. Thank Celestia they didn't notice. Flare thought as he rubbed his chin with his hoof.
"I..I almost...I..." Night Chaser sobbed even more, each tear spilling onto his thighs with a soft 'splosh'. Dexter patted his back with his rock-hard claw. In return, he screamed.
"Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwchhhh!" He yelled, tearing off the claw frantically. All the guards turned to them, finding the situation. A embarrassed pegasus, digging his face into his hooves. A surprised and angry griffin, glaring at a unicorn. A unicorn, jaw right open. Slick, who also seemed to notice, started the catastrophe with an earth-shattering guffaw. The guards, who were surprised by Slick at first, caught onto the fact and starting chuckling and roaring nonstop.
Flare, whose face was now red as a ripe cherry tomato, stood up and galloped towards the exit. Dexter and Night Chaser quickly followed, flinging the doors open as the guards roared at them continuously. The trio increased their speed to a canter, and Dexter and Flare rose in the air and flapped their wings as Night Chaser followed behind them tiredly. Flare looked behind him quickly to find a mob of galloping and exhausted stallion guards chasing after them, anxious to laugh some more. He could see Slick at the lead, directing them with a smile in his face. Man, they must love him right now. He thought. Flare focused again and turned his head back towards his route.
After a while of running away from the guards, they slowed down, exhausted from the chase. Night Chaser slowly peeked behind him. Nopony there. Dexter panted and dug a claw into a beam. Flare thoughtfully looked around them.
They were in the garden park beside the Privates Quarters. A few benches were set up in front of a wonderful garden with primroses and sunflowers settled nicely. He had never noticed how nice it looked, prior to all the duties and training that were outgoing. Oh well. He sighed.
Dexter, however, was raging furiously at Night Chaser, grabbing his coat angrily. He sweared at him silently. Night Chaser gulped, swallowing a humongous lump of nervousness in his throat.
"Uh..y-y-y-you know, we can't...I mean can work this out together...r-r-right?" He smiled weakly at Dexter, who smashed his face in response. Flare glanced back at them but didn't do anything. He calmly sat on the bench, waiting for his lungs to fill up with fresh air.
After a while of pounding, Dexter eventually gave up at Night and flew up into the sky, anxiously waiting for a cloud to float by. He saw one, pulled it over and sat on it, pleased with his progress.
The three friends sat there. Still and quiet. Flare could hear somepony trotting up to them. He stood up and faced the direction, ready to apologize to the captain. He opened his eyes and stared straight ahead to see Captain Shining Armor with a blank look on his face. Dexter and Night Chaser followed behind and each one stood beside Flare embarrassingly. Shining Armor began to speak.
"Hello, privates."
"Good afternoon, sir."
"Would you mind meeting me in my office?"
"Yes sir."
"After your fields are over, report to me."
"Yes sir."
"As you were." Shining Armor walked away after the short conversation, leaving the trio speechless. Flare was especially gloomy. He was ridiculed in the morning and at lunch, and now he had 'achieved' a one-way ticket to his captain's office? He sighed angrily and flapped his wings. Dexter and Night Chaser exchanged depressed looks and silently waddled away to their posts, leaving Flare Rider alone.
Alone.
Flare thought of that word meaningfully. He wondered where Agile Bolt was now. Never mind, he thought. He would look for her after his doom talk with the captain. Just like his friends, he quietly slipped away to his post.

Agile sat on the roof of the Privates Quarters, listening to every word that they spoke. Her heart sunk wearily. Her head was heavy and her eyes were about to tear up from all the guilty actions she had done. She paused her tears and sucked them up. This wasn't how she acted before. She remembered that time. That horrible pony she was.

A few years ago...
Agile Bolt, class popular, was flying home. She had seen one of the puny colts who couldn't fly, so she decided to try her luck.
"Hey, baghead!" She smiled cruelly as she flapped down beside him. The colt lifted his head sadly and looked at her.
"What?"
"Hey, are you okay?" The colt looked at her immediately with interest, smiling a little.
"Why...uh...ask?"
"Because you look like DOG POO, stinkball." She stuck out her tongue hatefully and flew back up into the sky happily, knowing that she had satisfied herself with her mean and venomous hunger. The colt drooped his head dejectedly and continued walking, almost sobbing angrily.

Agile Bolt shuddered of her flashbacks. She hated her cruel self, always becoming the bully instead of the friend. She knew better than to do that.
Agile stood up and flapped her wings once again. This time, she was going to do it properly. She flew to her post and stayed there firmly for the rest of the day, forgetting all of her angry or guilty thoughts and enjoying the day.
At that moment, the 3 friends were walking together, dejectedly heading towards the Captain's Quarters. The captain had his office right beside the long spiraling staircase leading up to the castle and to his room, presenting a simple-looking view. Dexter carefully curled up his talons and knocked on the door.
"Hello?"
"You requested us sir." Night Chaser said. He could hear a bit of a chuckle and then a response.
"Yes, of course. Come in, you 3." Night pushed the door open and they all gazed around. It was amazing to look at. There was a marble floor, a desk, an antique bookcase, and even a small fountain. The outside looked slightly less elegant and grand. Dexter shrugged in his mind and they all followed the source of the voice to another room, identical to the one they had just seen.
"Sit down, please." Shining Armor gestured to the seats in front of the desk and quickly pulled up his seat to sit down on. A brief moment of awkward silence registered between the guards. Dexter awkwardly tapped the desk with a curled talon, waiting for his next orders. Night Chaser looked around the room to keep him from waiting. Flare, however, was nervously shivering but staring ahead at his captain with a blank face.
"Let us start this conversation, shall we?" Shining Armor said flatly. The 3 guards nodded back silently. He continued to talk.
"First. I am truly disappointed you didn't attend your fields after lunch." He tapped the desk with his right hoof angrily. Flare imagined a raging Shining Armor, slapping his face with an iron hoof.
"However, I have overseen this little situation of yours about what happened at that time. You should thank me some time, really." He smiled proudly. A huge boulder was lifted off Dexter and Night Chaser's shoulders, while there was still one on Flare's. He remained blank.
"Since you have missed out on quite some time, I will set up a deal." He said. Dexter did a small hoofbump with Night Chaser. Flare still remained blank. "I will give you all a new and revised schedule with added activities and maybe a few surprises." He winked, eyes glistening with mystery.
"But, since you all have worked harder than any other guard I have ever seen in my whole entire experience, I shall grant your permission to access the Elite Private lounge and promote you to an official guard, either the Solar side or the Lunar side, by the end of this month." He stretched his thin smile into a wide one, reaching into his drawer and taking out 3 schedules. Flare sighed, and a small rock was lifted off his shoulders. The 3 guards quickly nabbed the schedules, issued a quick salute-goodbye to the captain and slipped out of the room.
"Um..nice." Night Chaser said. The 3 friends suddenly smiled and all laughed. They were just saved by their captain, despite the horrible events that had happened in just a few hours. Another small rock was lifted off Flare's shoulders. He restarted the conversation due to the irony and dumbstruck-ness he had received from that single chat with the captain.
"Let's go to the lounge or something."
"Which one?"
"Huh?" Night Chaser interrupted Dexter and Flare's conversation suddenly. "What do you mean, which one?"
"Puke pickle, the captain said we had access to the Elite Lounge too!" Dexter punched Night Chaser in the guts with a curled claw (as he didn't want to fatally stab anypony). He groaned and clutched his stomach with his hooves, rubbing it's swollen spot that was now beginning to take place. Flare gave Dexter a annoyed and angry stare and helped Night Chaser hang on. Dexter sighed at him, apologized to Night briefly, and carried him on his back. Flare smiled playfully as Dexter bounced up and down, trying to make the ride as bumpy as possible for Night. He yelled and cried out, but Flare could see that he was smiling and laughing too.
"Let's just go to the normal lounge for now. At least Slick won't be there." Flare meant those words, but he hoped so well that Slick wouldn't be there. Of course he wouldn't! Flare shook the thought out of his head and they entered the room from that morning. Dexter looked around, head turning sharply and swiftly, until he sat down in a comforting-looking spot. The ponies gathered around, each sitting on a comfy red armchair. Dexter carefully set Night Chaser onto the longer armchair (a sofa) and returned to his seat.
"So, where do you guys think I should take Agile?" Night Chaser certainly wasn't bothered by the fact that he was recently just punched. Dexter snorted in his face and replied immediately. "You mean, where I should take Agile." He said. Night Chaser smiled weakly and replied a quiet mumble of words. Dexter grabbed him angrily. "Dude, speak up."
Flare, however, was frozen. He straightened up at the phrase of 'Agile Bolt', his heart now burning furiously again with jealousy. He imagined a heart dripped in a green venom paste, which he believed to be jealousy. However, a CERTAIN griffin interrupted his thoughts.
"Dude, you hear that? He said that WE would take her together!" He guffawed in laughter, spewing out sloshes of saliva whilst setting a claw on Flare's shoulders (a certain claw that he forgot to curl up). Flare smiled weakly and ripped the claw off, feeling a burning sensation erupt on his shoulders.
"Hi!" A very familiar voice interrupted all of their thoughts. They all looked back and Agile Bolt was happily staring at them like all thoughts were gone. She smiled excitedly and sat down right between Dexter and Night Chaser. Unfortunately, Flare was having his nonstop-blush-syndrome again. A fiery heat appeared on his cheeks instantly. Agile didn't notice that, and was too busy chattering away.
"I just had the most exciting chat with Shining Armor! I got a new schedule and he told me that I could ACTUALLY be promoted to an official guard by the end of this month if I complete my schedule!" Flare's ears perked up. She, as well? He had suspicion that Shining Armor was planning on something to happen.
"So, I was thinking that we should go to some sort of...show." Night Chaser squeezed next to her, squishing her between Dexter and him. Flare looked at Night Chaser blankly, who smirked in response and mouthed a quick 'watch-this' to him.
"What do ya think?" He smiled widely. Agile's mind went blank. She was engulfed in a wave of guilt and angry emotions. At the same time, her heart was beating wildly as she tried to console the feelings. She didn't want to be a bad friend, but this? She closed her eyes tight and spoke immediately.
"O-ok."

Author's Note

I'm not even gonna say an excuse. I'm just gonna say that if you like it, please put a comment, like, or favorite. If you don't, downvote it, comment, dislike everything, whatever. Oh and also make sure to tell me why it sucked @$$.