The clamoring of clanking armor and clacking hooves filled the ancient, dusty corridors as a very annoyed Captain of the Royal Guard was rushed to some cell far below Canterlot. The snow-white Captain of the Royal Guard, Shining Armor, had just arrived from the Crystal Empire with his wife to enjoy a relaxing family vacation away from their jobs and responsibilities, so his disgruntlement was expected when he was called to duty as soon as he stepped off of the train.

To add to Shining's annoyance, he did not even know what he was rushing to. The guards only said that it was a matter of utmost importance, and that they were not allowed to speak of it in public. Not even his wife, a princess, could accompany them due to the secrecy. However, what really sold the urgency of the problem to the Captain was the look in their eyes. It was a look of confused terror, as if something had gone horribly awry yet they had no clue of what went awry.

As Shining ran with the guards down the corridors, he expected them to turn and stop at the massive doors of the dungeon but a few doors away. Instead, they went past, down numerous flights of stairs, lower into Canterlot castle. They led him farther and farther, into places the Captain had never even seen or heard of in decades. They went lower and lower and lower, too low to still be in the castle.  

Eventually, the Captain finally reached wherever the guards have intended to take him, and strangely enough, he had some vague recollection of it. Shining's eyes scanned the dripping chambers, spotting guards hastening themselves into place, ready for the Captain's orders. This was all familiar enough for Shining Armor, but he noticed that something substantial was different from the one instance he had been here. Shining looked to the far wall and sees that something was missing in both sight and sound.

"Guards," Shining asked in a sharp, testy voice, "wasn't there something locked up in here, that used to sit at the wall, bound in the strongest enchanted chains Equestria had to offer?"

A nearby subordinate saluted, and beckoned towards the center of the keep that the single sliver of light shone through. An area that the Captain's eyes overlooked. Shining followed his hoof to the sight, and raised his eyebrows in confusion. There it was, that figure, covered from head to toe in a ridiculous amount of archaic irons and chains. It stood at the center, fixated on the light like a curious child, standing stock still, without making a single noise.

Shining turns to the others, "He's just standing."

"Yes, he is sir!"

"And I was disturbed from my time off with my lovely wife because... he's standing?"

"Yes... well, no."

Shining Armor sighed and removed his helmet, "Private, you have about five seconds to explain before I station you as Prince Blueblood's personal escort for a week."

"Captain, I believe you're misunderstanding us," an old, gritty, and experienced voice said as he approached the Captain, "this may stem from the fact that you haven't been placed here nearly as long as they have."

Shining immediately recognized the speaker. A gray unicorn with a close cropped brown mane and a broken spear as a cutie mark. An old pony, who in years past, often had to catch and reprimand certain white unicorn colts who thought it was great fun to flood a Grand Galloping Gala with a sea of giant pasta noodles, courtesy of a pasta-summoning-spell of course.

"Grit Hoof? Do you know what the hay is going on here?"

Grit Hoof chuckled under his silver armor, "The gist of it. From what I know, that there prisoner," he gestured to the petrified figure who payed no attention to them, "has never moved a single inch from that wall, like some statue, for hundreds of years. Earlier, these greenhorns were making a hoot and holler, so they notified me to take a look-see. The guards stationed here said that the prisoner decided to get up, sing some creepy tune, and walk to that light. He's been in the same position ever since, but he's made no indication to do anything else."

Shining Armor took in the new information with mulling silence, examining the prisoner as he thought. "... do you still have any idea of what the heck it's supposed to be?"

Grit Hoof shook his head, "No Sir, Princess Celestia and Luna still won't say a word about it, and they never have for as long as any of us has lived. All we know is to keep a vigilant watch at all times, and that if anything happens, to notify them and you."  

"Then where are the Princesses..?"

"They're reading to foals in one of the public libraries," Grit Hoof answered with a grin, "they wanted to start their vacation off with anything other than diplomatic duties. I wasn't sure if this, situation, was fit to disturb them, so I was planning on waiting for the Captain's judgement. What do you think, Captain Shining Armor Sir?"

Shining scratched his chin. Nothing very major happened, but then again, these sort of things always evolved into some crazy scenario where it all could have been avoided if an Alicorn had been present.

Shining cleared his throat and gave the order, "Send the Princesses a letter. Inform them that the prisoner started moving but he's still again. Just don't make it sound too worrying, they need this vacation more than I do..."

Grit saluted, and floated a parchment paired with a pen from his saddlebags in his gray magic. He inscribed the message, and performed the spell that sent the letter as a quick wisp of fire to the Princesses. Shining Armor returned the salute, and headed back to Canterlot with Grit Hoof in tow, both ready to be rid of the musty prison and the unnerving occupant.

When the pair left, the prisoner inwardly stirred. He stirred at the mention of the two names which brought much memory to him: Celestia and Luna. Oh, what memories they brought. He sighed, rasping through the steel mask on his face.

As he sighed, he whispered, "Alicorn... my Alicorns........ my burning star.... mine..."

*CHUG CHUG....*

*KSSHHHHHH....*

The Ponyville train ground to a halt in front of the station, right on time. Six ponies excitedly strolled out of the carriage, followed by a dragon lumbering with their luggage. They stop to sniff and take in the Canterlot atmosphere. It was a crisp air, filled with the scent of smoke and tea leaves alongside perfume and freshly baked delicacies, a hodgepodge but high class air. The stark white buildings complemented with dominating, royal colors filled the city, the tallest of them topped off with striped spires and caps.

"Why, imagine if we had missed the train!" Rarity said as the glitz and glamour invaded her eyes, "We would have missed such a beautiful city and a wonderful time off. We were only seconds away from missing it!"

"Yeah, we were almost late," Dash snarked before leaning closer to Pinkie, "right, Pinkie?"

"Heh heh... sorry about that."

"Well, we're here now, aren't we?" Spike remarked while fumbling with a nearby luggage cart. "No point in worrying about it now."

"Well said, Spike." Applejack complemented with a nudge. "Now, where is that BBBFF and sister-in-law of yours, Twilight? Ah'm ready to get a-move on from here."

Fluttershy nearly gets knocked over by a wandering tourist. She recovered while rubbing her shoulder, "It is a bit noisy and crowded.."

Twilight squinted as she searched the shuffling crowd for the awaiting Princess and Captain, "I don't know, Applejack. Since our train was rescheduled, we should actually be minutes after they arrived. They should still be here..! Unless they were late too... or maybe their train is having engine problems... or maybe—" however, Twilight's ramble was interrupted by a comet of pink-Alicorn surprise from above.

"—TWILIGHT!"

"AGH!"

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza bowled Princess Twilight Sparkle over in a giggling embrace, ignoring the looks from the passing train-goers.

The two Alicorns broke away and rose to perform an adorable yet cringe-worthy dance, "Sunshine-sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!"

Cadence turned to exchange her greetings and nuzzles with the rest of the party, "Sorry about the jump, couldn't resist!"

Spike snorted, "Anything to stop Twilight from panicking again..." Twilight briefly blushed from her rambling, before realizing that someone important was missing.

"Wait, where's Shiny?" Twilight asked with a worried tone, "Wasn't he able to make it?"

Cadence waved the worry off with a hoof, "The guards just needed him at the castle, they grabbed him as soon as we arrived."

Rarity raised an eyebrow at the mention of his reasons, "The guards? Whatever did they want him for? Is it something serious? I mean, the stallion is on vacation."

Cadence shrugged, "I don't know! The guards wouldn't tell me anything, but they looked really... frightened, to say the least."

"But you're a princess, how could they not tell you?" Rainbow retorted as she lazily buzzed through the air.

"Well, it could be that it's something super-duper gross and they didn't wanna gross you out," Pinkie reasoned, "or maybe it's the other way around and they have a super-duper surprise waiting for you! Oh no! I might've just spoiled the surprise and ruined everything!" the pink, lamenting pony collapsed, and threw her hoofs into the air, "I'M SOOOOOOORRRRYYYYYY!!!!!!!!"

The platform went eerily quiet as Pinkie's cry echoed throughout the station.

Of course, this prompted the group to break into a fit of side-splitting laughter.

Cadence lassoed in the chortles to say, "It's fine, Pinkie, I'm sure it's nothing too bad. Before he left, Shining told us to go have fun, and just meet up with him at the castle in an hour or two."

Twilight and Spike seemingly deflate at the absence of the brother. Twilight because, of course, she had been looking forward to spending time with everyone, especially her brother. Spike because him and Shining always shared a brotherly bond that one can only find among fellow men. Shining Armor was that cool older brother who you could depend on without getting tormented as a power play.

Rarity glanced back at the veritable mountain of luggage (most of it belonging to her) with a wistful frown, "Will we not have to bring our belongings to our rooms anyways?"

Rainbow flew a bit higher and peered into the distance, "I can just fly it over real quick. Shouldn't take long."

"There's no need for that, I already got it covered!" on cue from Cadence's whistle, two shimmering Crystal Pegasi bedecked in equally shiny Crystal-Empire armor descended upon the luggage cart and begin to haul it in the direction of the castle, quickly disappearing from view. "Now, with that out of the way, who wants to wander?"

"Oh look, there it is!" Twilight pointed a hoof to the store in question. It was small, but not too small, as comic book shops are apt to be. The windows of Enchanted Comic Books were lined with graphic novels and comics of all genres for everypony to savor, except that one thing set it apart from ordinary shops.

"That's the place? Doesn't look like it sells any magical comics to me." Cadance skeptically noted as she steps closer.

"Yup, that's it alright..." Spike groaned, "you know, it would have helped if they put a warning label on them. How was I supposed to know it was actually enchanted. Seriously, what if somepony got hurt inside that thing? Or what if we got stuck?"

"There's probably a fail-safe on the comics, Spike," Twilight explained as her eyes hover over a Daring Do graphic novel, "we probably weren't in any actual danger."

"But you shoulda seen the way we walloped 'em!" RD exclaimed with a spin in the air, "They couldn't do a thing after we got out of that cage!"

Rarity gave Spike a quick wink, "Thanks to my Spikey-wikey, of course!"

Spike chuckled in an unintentionally dopey manner in response. "Aw, shucks, it wasn't much. At least I know I'm not as bad as Hum Drum."

"But, wow, those powers sure were awesome!" Rainbow reminisced, "It'd be nice to have all that again."

"Yeah, they really were fun!" Pinkie agreed, "Even though the powers we got were basically just an upgraded version of whatever we already could do and it was almost pointless to have considering they actually made us perform worse than we usually do. Think about it, we took on all those Changelings, no problem!"

From the mention of the Changelings, the conversation quickly turned to their actions at the Wedding. Spike quietly walked behind them through the bricked streets of Canterlot's Cultural Pass, and listened on. Again, the dragon remembered that this was another moment he had proven to be virtually useless, but he already knew that it was bad to dwell on such things with that mindset. He was always the back-dragon, the guy behind the curtains, the drake who would always be there at the end, silently providing his support.

Except for the many times he could not be there.

But of course, it is not wise, he thought, to ruminate on the dark musings. It only made things worse and made him feel like a whiny teenage colt. Besides, this normal talk, as stated some time ago, let him know that his ponies were alright, safe, and at ease.

Although he could not help but admit that Shining's call to duty was disconcerting.

Spike's eyes caught another pony receding to the rear of the party: Fluttershy. Surprisingly, he found Fluttershy to be a good source of companionship in times like this, despite her tendency to remain quite.

"So, how you feelin' about the trip so far, Fluttershy?"

Fluttershy's head snapped up, as if she awoke from some daydream. She smiled at Spike and said, "Oh, it's very nice! I don't think I've spent much time walking through Canterlot like this. It's all so beautiful, especially the wonderful art pieces displayed here! I do need to take a look at art more often, but I just don't have the time..! How about you, Spike? How are you today?"

Spike pursed his lips, recalling Fluttershy's sizable knowledge of art in general. He resumes his stock-grin and returns to the conversation, "I'm having a great time! It's been forever since I've wandered Canterlot. I used to do this with Twilight when we lived here, whenever she wasn't studying. Well, in that case, we didn't walk that often. Besides..." Spike swiveled his eyes shiftily, before leaning towards Fluttershy to whisper, "she used to hate exercise!" The dragon and Pegasus shared a hushed laugh at the lighthearted quip, "But, yeah! I'm doing awesome!" he gave Fluttershy a thumbs up as confirmation.

It was here that Fluttershy threw Spike off.

"Then why did you look so sad?"

Spike's happy expression melted into a confused, open-mouth frown. Sad? He looked anything but sad. "Huh? But I've been smiling the entire time, what are you talking about?"

Fluttershy's frown continued to deepen, "Were you really smiling?"

Spike's face flickered between puzzlement and disbelief. Of course he was smiling, he had worn that grin the entire time: through the walk, the talk, even the thoughts. "... Yeah, I was smiling. I guess the scales sorta shift over it from time to time. Nothin' new! Heh heh.."

"Oh, um," Fluttershy looked away, realizing the accidental awkwardness her strangely keen perception spotted, "okay, I guess that explains it."

The pair looked away from each other, scratching their heads in an attempt to surface a way to direct the conversation somewhere else.

Spike prodded Fluttershy with the back of his hand (to avoid nicking her with his claws), getting her attention, "Well, uh, I guess I should say, it's always nice talkin' to ya!"

She smiled back and brought her face close to give a nuzzle, "Thanks, Spike! You're also a very interesting, not-meany, not-pony-eating, dragon!"

"Er, thanks, I guess?"

"Spike!" Twilight called from the front of the entourage.

The Number One Assistant dutifully hasted himself to her side, "What's up, Twi?"

"How does taking everypony to Pony Joe's for a snack sound?"

Spike curled his lips and scoffs, "Um? It sounds awesome!"

Twilight rolled her eyes in amusement, "Lead the way!"

Spike's wide smile planted itself on his face as he directed his friends to his favorite donut shop at the head. No matter what time, be it midnight when running from the guards for helping a certain Shining Armor release a surf of pasta noodles into a Grand Galloping Gala, or a calm vacation with friends, it's always appropriate to have a donut.