“Alright fillies, lights out in five minutes! Make sure to brush your teeth, put on your jammies, and rest up, ‘cause we’ve got PT in the morning!”

Flash sighed in contentment as he cleaned his helmet.Well, it looks like I’m back to running my flank off and being yelled at by my superiors, he thought, oddly happy about his predicament. Even though it was fun running around with Ares, there was just something about guard duty that put him at ease.

A sergeant will almost burst a blood vessel yelling at you and you might just throw up from exhaustion when they decide to punish you because you didn’t have your armor on its rack properly, but they would never throw you into highly tense, touchy-feely scenarios where you felt far too tired to even lift your head afterwards. No, life in the military was simple, upfront, and you pretty much knew what you were getting into when you signed up.

All he was going to have to do was guard the princess for a few hours a day, he might have to do some patrolling, but that was it. He could do that and have his fun with Ares or another one of his fellow guards, or do pretty much anything else during his down time. Yep, everything was going back to the normal, orderly, and boring life that Flash was more than ready to get back to.

It almost made up for the fact that he was going to be running, training, scrubbing, running, lifting, getting yelled at, and running until his feathers fell out. Did he mention that he was going to be doing a lot of running? Because he was, probably more than most ponies run in their lives in fact.

Echo, it seemed, did not like the physical fitness of the crystal guard, so she decided that a mini boot camp was in order to get everypony back into tip-top shape; and Flash couldn’t be happier about it. He was going to lose the bit of weight he had gained during his little vacation, and hopefully this would get the guard and Echo acquainted with each other.

I’ll try to make sure to talk her up to the fellas he thought, yawning as he hopped into his little bed. Hopefully she’ll show them that there was a reason that the princesses picked her to replace Shining.

Tomorrow was going to be a new day full of excitement and sweat, and he couldn’t wait for it. All that he needed to do was hear Echo yell for lights out, then he could go to sleep, but for now he was just going to have to wait, so wait is what he was going to do.

… And wait…. And wait…. And wait.

What the heck is taking so long? He thought. frowning. We should have had lights out already. Is time just moving REALLY slow for me or is something happening?

With a sigh, Flash put down the helmet and placed it next to the rest of his armor—all of which were so shiny that you could see your reflection in them—noticing, for the first time, that there was nopony in sight within the barracks. Where did everypony go? He wondered, quietly trotting towards the door to see what was happening.

Is this like that one nightmare I had after eating too many jelly beans? I swear to Celestia if a monster jumps out and tries to sca—

“Hello there, Private; long time no see.”

Flash’s head whipped around at the voice, his eyes widening in confusion and shock. That’s not the cap, he’s still in…

Shining Armor couldn’t help but smile tiredly as Flash froze at the sight of him, the unicorn adjusted the pack on his back to a more comfortable position. “You know, I was wondering where you were. As soon as I got within sight of the castle I had about half of the guard running out in their nightcaps to come see me.”

Flash still hadn’t moved from his spot, but Shining carried on regardless.

“I got to talk to your new CO; I heard a lot about her from back when I was at Canterlot years and years ago. She’s a good mare once you get to know her, I’ve been told.” With that tired smile still on his face, Shining took a step forward and patted Flash on the back. “So private, how’s life treating you?”

Somewhere, in Flash’s jumbled, confused mind, he realized two things. One: He should really get somepony in the guard to tell him when something’s happening so he just didn’t sit on his bed and clean his armor like a putz; And two: it looked like things were, in fact, not going to back into some form of normality. No, either something good was going to happen, or something very bad was going to happen.

~-~-~-~-~-~-~

It’s always nice to know that your special somepony notices and appreciates just how far you went to set the mood just right. Whether it’s a happy mood, sexy mood, or anything in between, I always like it when my hard work is appreciated.

While Ares was gone I had decided that our special night needed a little more oomph to make it memorable, so I decided to pull out all of the stops.

I covered most of the room in candles so the room would be getting just the right amount of light, I changed our bedding from its silly white and orange color (Those were the only clean sheets that I had at the time, so don’t look at me like that) to red, the color of love, and, for most ponies that would have just been great. But me? Nope, I wanted to go the extra mile to really make this night memorable for the two of us.

I had some very good wine chilling by our bedside; I had some soft, sweet music playing in the background; I even decided to throw some rose petals on our bed for fun. I also gussied myself up, tying my mane up into a ponytail and applying a little lipstick, so you could say that I had gone the extra-extra mile for my favorite human.

Ares REALLY needs to get back, I thought, idly sucking on my lollypop as I lay in bed. He and I have a lot of … experimenting to do. For the fifth time, I snuck a quick peek at my pony sutra book before looking at the door in impatience.

Let’s see, the music’s on, I have everything Ares and I can play with right on the nightstand so we can reach them easily, I know how to do the Manehattan Masher backwards and forwards, all I need to do is keep myself busy for a little longer.

I shifted around my bed, my brow furrowed in thought.

You know, now that I think about it, I might need to ask Ares how flexible he is before we try to do anything like this, because I really don’t know if Ares’ back can bend like—

My eyes widened when I heard the doorknob turning. OhmygoshIneedtogetready! I thought, tossing my little black book under the bed and sitting up.

Looking around the room to see if everything was perfect, I magicked over a little mirror to check that my lipstick was still on alright before lying back down on the bed in the sexiest pose I could manage and sticking the sucker back into my mouth.

Have you ever been in one of those situations where something seems a thousand times longer than it usually is; time just seems to stand still? Well it felt like Ares took about an hour opening that door. In that span of two or three seconds, my adrenaline-filled, excited mind went ahead and did the worst thing imaginable; it started to make me doubt myself.

Was Ares going to be in the mood now after I had basically kicked him out to spend time with his friends? Was all of this—the candles, the music—too much? Was he going to laugh at me when he saw my make up? Did he get the kind of ice cream that I asked for?

I was actually making myself so nervous that it was a wonder that I didn’t fly out the window as my human opened the door and stepped inside the room.

“Hey Candy,” he said, looking out into the hallway while he closed the door, “I got you your—”

When he finally brought his eyes up to look at me, he froze him place, and I swear, even with the dim light and how far away he was, I could see his pupils dilate.

Alright, I thought, it looks like you’ve got him in a state of shock-arousal, now’s the time for a sexy look!

Bringing out my best one, I took the sucker out of my mouth and looked him up and down. “Oh, hello Honey,” I purred, “did you get me my ice cream?”

I giggled quietly when I saw Ares’ mouth just open and close for a few seconds while he stood there. Hah, I knew I didn’t go overboard! I cheered to myself while I just levitated the sucker close to my mouth. Giving Ares another sexy look, I stuck my tongue out and started to lick at it.

My human almost looked lost as he showed me a carton of ice cream that was in one hand and the bowl that was in the other. I smiled. “Thank you, baby,” I said giggling. I took the carton and bowl out of his hands with my magic and floated it over toward me. “Did you get pistachio like I wanted?” Not that I really cared whether or not he got me the right ice cream. I just wanted to keep this up a little longer to see what my little human was going to do.

“Um … they were out so I got you pecan,” Ares said.

Seeing that he was starting to pant, I opened up the carton and looked inside, seeing the pecan-y goodness, though a little thawed, was still frozen enough to eat. “Well, lucky for you you got my second favorite kind of ice cream,” I told him, giving him a little wink.

For a minute, Ares looked like I had just kicked his puppy. His lips stuck out, he was shaking, and I swear to Faust that he had tears in his eyes. I, Mi Amore Cadenza, had actually brought a full grown stallion to tears because of how sexy I was. Not to sound like a narcissist or anything, but I was pretty happy about that.

I gave him a gentle smile. Alright, enough playing, I thought before lying on my back fully. “Aw, does someone need a treat too?” I asked my human, spreading my legs and showing him how much my teasing was affecting me. Seeing that the ice cream had served its purpose, I set it down on the nightstand and watched as Ares’ eye started to twitch.

Wow, I REALLY have him worked up, I thought with a mixture of pride and glee, but now I really have to bring it home ... what can I do? Pulling Ares onto the bed would’ve been fine but I kind of wanted him to come to me.

Then a little light bulb lit up over my head. All I needed to do was just say one more thing and I was sure that Ares would be charging this bed as fast as his legs could take him! Come on, you’re a pro at dirty talk, I thought. This is going to be as easy as pie.

I dug deep, trying to remember everything that I had learned from books, magazines, and my personal experience and using all of that collective knowledge to think up something truly awesome. They will be writing about what I say tonight; mares will tell their daughters, in hushed whispers, about my words tonight, and they will use them to win any stallion that they want!

Batting my eyelashes at him, I arched my back and said, “Well, I’m all you can eat, honey~”

The words came out of my mouth before I could stop myself, but when I heard them out loud I almost facehoofed. So much for building myself up; if I was lucky Ares would just laugh at me before leaving the room after how horrible that was. What the buck was that?! I thought to myself. I’m all you can eat honey? That sounds like it came out of a bad porn—

“ARRRRGGGGHHH!!!”

Once, in my life, I had the misfortune of being up close to a Hydra as it roared. Let me tell you, it was something. It was so loud that the force of the yell hit you in the gut like a punch and it sounded so angry and animalistic that you knew that there was a reason why this creature was so infamous.

I promise you, as Faust is my witness, the yell that came from my human’s chest sounded louder than any hydra. Louder and hungrier too. As soon as his cry ended, my eyes snapped upwards, back toward him, where I saw that Ares was already out of his pants and shirt and he was halfway across the room, giving me the hungriest look that I had ever seen in my life.

Boy… maybe I need to take it a little easier next time. I thought, a goofy smile coming to my face. Hah, and I thought that I wasn’t going to knock his socks off!

I swear he made it to our bed in five steps, and was just in his boxers in three, and then jumped on with so much force that he almost catapulted me off of it. I couldn’t keep myself from laughing in delight and relief. It looked like this night was going to be one to remember.

If it’s a night the two of us want to remember, then I should make sure that nopony is going to be interrupting us.

I eyed the door while Ares wrapped his arms around me and started to lean in for a kiss. “Hang on for a second,” I said, gently pushing him away with a hoof and giggling when he kissed it. “I just want to make sure that no pony will interrupt us this time.” When he looked at me questioningly I just pointed at the door. He looked at it and nodded, kissing my neck as my horn lit up with magic.

“And how are you going to do that, Candy?” My human asked, sounding a little winded while his hands slowly started to run over my body.

I giggled when one of his hands tickled my belly. “Ares,” I whined, “Stoooop, I’m trying to cast the spell!”

Ares kissed my neck again as I swatted the hand playfully away. “And what spell is that?”

I shivered at the feeling of his hot breath tickling my neck. Grabbing his hand with my hooves, I brought it up to my face and gave the back of his hand a little kiss. “Oh, I’m just going to turn the door into stone,” I replied nonchalantly, casting the spell and watching the door turn grey, “That should keep pretty much everypony out.”

Ares quietly laughed against my neck before giving it another kiss. “Well, here’s to hoping that you know how to change it back,” he said, kissing my jaw. “I don’t want to have to jump out the window to get to work in the morning.”

I rolled my eyes but didn’t say anything as I concentrated on the spell. While it was a convenient little bit of magic, if I do say so myself, it actually took a good deal of time and effort to cast, so it took a few minutes of watching it and molding the magic just so, so that it actually turned the wood and iron of the door into stone.

“Huh, that’s actually pretty neat,” I heard Ares say as the door thickened and turned stone-like. “You’ve got to tell me how to do that, Candy. I bet it’d be neat to break that out some other time.”

Seeing that my spell had been fully cast, I grabbed Ares by the back of the neck and pulled him into a kiss. “You don’t need to worry about that right now,” I growled, eyeing the bulge in his boxers. “What you need to worry about is me and you and everything we’re going to be doing tonight.” I looked back down at his boxers in disgust. “Now, be a good boy and take off those boxers. You and I have a long night ahead of us!”

I giggled when Ares grabbed my head and kissed my nose tenderly. “Why don’t you take ’em off, Candy?” he suggested, wiping the lipstick off of his lips the best he could with the back of his hand.

I smiled, and gently pushed Ares down until he was lying flat on the bed. “I was hoping that you’d ask,” I told him, toying with the edge of his boxers. I bit my lip. “I always love undressing you; it’s like unwrapping a hearth’s warming present.”

Slowly, as slowly as I could, I slid those pesky boxers down, right until—

CRASH!

I yelped when I felt Ares wrap his arms around me and roll the two of us off the edge of the bed as the window beside me practically exploded. Whatthebuckwasthat?! I thought, covering my head with my hooves at the sounds of expensive things in my room being broken into a million pieces.

There was a pained grunt, and some more glass breaking, leading me to believe that A: there this was not just some freakish accident, and B: there were at least two ponies in my room breaking my things and possibly coming in here to try to hurt either me or Ares.

The very thought made me angry. How dare somepony come in here and try to assassinate me while I’m trying to get lucky with my coltfriend! Couldn’t they at least have some class and wait until tomorrow?!

With an angry snarl, I rolled out of Ares’ protective hug and got to my hooves. “You picked the wrong night to try something like this,” I spat, my horn charging a rather nasty offensive spell as I looked around for my intruders. “Now come out and I’ll only hurt you a little— what?”

My righteous anger was replaced with confusion when I saw Sergeant Echo slowly getting off a groaning Flash and onto her hooves, the mare muttered to herself as she picked up the sword. “Private, I am so making sure you get demoted if we get…”

She looked over at me. “What the he—“

BOOM!

~-~-~-~ Ten minutes before ~-~-~-~

Echo watched as Shining Armor talked and joked with a few of her soldiers, a contemplative look on her face. Sweet Luna he looks tired, she thought, eyeing the bags under his eyes. It looks like he hasn’t slept in days.

For most of the crystal guard, and Flash, the return of Shining Armor was something to celebrate, but for Echo it looked like it was going to be the beginnings of a headache. A headache and maybe something more serious.

To her, the ex-captain had no reason to come here; he didn’t lead these ponies anymore, she did, and he didn’t have any connections that she knew of other than the princess, who dumped him. So that lead to the question of why the hay he was here, in her barracks, standing in front of her.

After a few minutes of watching carefully, Echo thought she had it narrowed down to two reasons. One: Shining and Private Flash Sentry were secret lovers and Shining had come back to get his man. It may have sounded silly, but Echo had seen and heard about stranger things during her time in the guard. Then again, it might have just been all of those cheesy romance novels that she had been reading lately.

The other more probable reason was that the unicorn might be here for more nefarious reasons. His wife had kicked him to the curb and he wasn’t that happy about it; plain and simple. Maybe he became depressed, maybe he wants to come here and hurt the people that had hurt him.

Echo knew Shining from hearsay amongst the guard; she knew how much power he could bring to bear if he ever got angry enough. There wasn’t a single unicorn in the Crystal Guard of his caliber, which would make a difficult fight—if it came to that—a heck of a lot harder. The princess might have to get involved if Shining decided to fight his way up to the royal bedroom to pay Ares a visit. Echo had no idea about his mental stability at the moment and she wanted to make sure he was actually okay before letting him anywhere near Cadence or Ares.

I just need to get him secured for the night, she decided, leaving her little corner and making her way over toward him. I’ll talk to a few of the veteran’s and explain the situation.

If she could get Shining out of the castle, maybe let him stay at one of the hotels under watch, Echo could have the night to think about what to do. If he willingly came with them, it’d look good on his part if not, well, he couldn’t stop all of them from jumping him at the same time, and Echo knew for a fact where the magic inhibitors were lying around, so she liked her chances.

I’ll get that big guy standing over there and that mare with the red mane. I think those are the ponies that came from Canterlot with Private Flash Sentry. They’ll be able to—

“Um, are you alright, ma’am?”

Echo blinked, looking around and seeing Flash staring at her. “What was that, private?” she asked, giving her head a little shake. By Luna’s moon, I need to get some sleep. Why the hay do things like this happen right when I’m about to go to sleep?

Flash took a step toward her. “You were just staring off into space, Sergeant,” he said with concern. “I was just making sure that you were okay…. You’re okay right?”

Echo took a moment to look him over. Even though the private and Shining seem like friends he should be willing to help me get Shining out of the castle until the morning, she decided, laying a wing over his shoulder and leading him to the other side of the room. Or at the very least he won’t be stupid enough to try to stop us.

“Private, I need you to get Hoplite and Grinder over here,” she whispered, eyeing Shining. “We’re going to have to get the ex-prince-consort out of the castle for the time being and get someone to watch him for the night.”

“Why?” Flash asked, confused. “Shining just wants to go and talk with the princess, and I’m sure she’ll make sure he has a room to sleep in tonight.”

“I don’t know the mental stability of that stallion at the moment,” Echo said calmly, looking him right in the eyes. “He might do something everypony will regret, so we’re going to get him out of the castle until I know for certain he’s here for the right reasons.”

Flash frowned. “Ma’am, look at him; he’s not here to hurt anypony, he just wants to—“

Echo narrowed her eyes at him. “Private, I was not asking you, that was an order,” she said warningly. “Now get you flank over there and tell the—

“ARRRRRRRGH!”

As one, everypony looked up at the ceiling.

“That sounds like it’s coming from the floor above,” somepony said.

“All the way through the floor?” Another said, scoffing. “That’s like five feet of stone.”

“Isn’t the royal bedroom right above us?” All of the guardsponies looked at each other.

To most of them, that sounded like someone screaming in pain, and to hear it through that floor meant it had be have been loud.

“Who’s on guard duty tonight?” Echo asked quickly as she rushed over toward her armor and weapons. Some ponies, seeing this, followed her example, calmly strapping on armor and putting on their helmets.

“There’s nopony on guard duty ma’am, the princess told us to take the night off.”

Of course she did, Echo thought sourly, checking her sword before strapping it to her back. It’s one thing after the bucking other isn’t it?

Hopping up onto a bed, Echo looked at her fellow guardsponies. “Alright, listen up,” she said loudly. “You, you and you, I want you to take a look around down on this floor to see if there’s anypony sneaking around who shouldn’t be sneaking around.”

The guards she pointed out saluted before racing out of the barracks. “The rest of you come with me. Even though this is probably nothing I want to go and make sure that it isn’t something.” Echo scowled. “BUT, if it is bucking something, I want you all to be ready for anything. The main priority is making sure the princess and Ares are safe; is that understood?”

“Sergeant!” Shining pushed his way through the crowd and looked up at her. “Is there anything that I can do to help?”

Echo smiled when she heard the unicorn’s tone. She could tell that he was just asking her to be polite; even if she said no, he was going to come with them. Hopping off the bed, she gestured toward a spear on the rack.

“Shining Armor was it? Well, you can come with us to see what’s what if you’d like, but you and I are going to have a talk when this is over.”

Instead of the confusion and even anger that she was expecting, Shining just nodded. “I understand, ma’am,” he said. “I would be a little confused why somepony would just drop by in the middle of the night for seemingly no reason.”

Nodding, Echo looked back at the group. “Alright, everypony, let’s get into formation and get through this castle nice and easy. We all want to get to the princess’ room in one piece, don’t we?”

With practiced grace, from the veterans to the rookies, the troop fell in line, eyes scanning and weapons at the ready.

~~A few minutes later~~

“Where the hay did the bucking door go?”

That is a very good question, Shining thought as he looked at the wall where hi—the royal bedroom was supposed to be.

After an uneventful but nerve-wracking march through the castle, Shining and the guards had made their way toward the royal wing of the castle and into an empty, doorless hallway. For every guard, it raised more than a few red flags.

Transfiguration was a school of magic that very few ponies could even do because of the amount of power it took for even the simplest of spells, so each one of them knew that not only were they dealing with a spellcaster, but a powerful one at that. That or there was an entire group of unicorns trotting about with unknown intentions, which might have been even worse.

“What are we going to do, Sergeant?” One of the guardsponies asked, eyeing the wall. “Do you want us to just smash through and buck up anything that isn’t pink or a monkey with clothes?”

Shining almost shook his head. If there’s somepony of the other side of the door that might be exactly what they want; we need to think of another way to get in there undetected. He thought that, but he kept his mouth shut, he wasn’t running this ship, the Sergeant was. Hopefully she’s as good as the princesses say.

Echo shook her head, glaring at the wall. “We won’t try that yet,” she said. “We don’t want to go and hurt the princess or the monkey if they’re still in there.” Cautiously, she trotted over to the wall and gave it a tap, putting her ear to it and listening intently. “But at least now we know that something’s obviously going down in there.” She closed her eyes and hummed quietly before moving back toward the group.

“Shining, I want you and the rest to stay here. “ She looked over at Flash. “Private you’re coming with me. You and I are going to fly outside and see if we can get at the windows.”

Flash saluted, walking over and standing next to her. “Now listen up, if you hear the private or I hollering, or you hear the princess, I want you to tear down that wall and secure the area, understood?”

“Yes ma’am!” They all whispered.

Echo nodded one more time before looking at Flash and spreading her wings. “Let’s go, Private; and no stupid stuff or I’m going to throttle ya, you understand?” Flash, trying to hide the fact that his legs were shaking, nodded. Gripping his spear tightly, he took off into the air with Echo, flying through the hallway.

“Through the window!” Echo hissed, eyeing the window pane to her far right.

Flash said nothing, instead following the mare through the window, much to Shining’s displeasure. Well, I would have wanted some ground forces backing me up but that’ll do, he thought, looking at the troopers, who just looked lost and worried.

Even though he had no business sticking his hooves into this and ordering ponies around—well, he did, but not really—Shining could see that maybe these stallions needed somepony that had been around the block once or twice to help them out.

“You all heard the Sergeant,” he said loudly, getting their attention. “We’ll stay here and act as her backup incase this goes south!”

“But sir, how are we going to get through that wall without hurting anypony?” a guard asked.

Shining couldn’t help but smile as he lit up his horn. “Don’t you worry about that. I’ll have that wall in pieces in a flash if I need to.”

I swear to Celestia, Ares, if you’re dead in there I’m going to kill you. And Cadence… Cadence, please be okay…”

~-~-~-~-~-~-

“Do you see anything in there, Private?”

“No ma’am, it doesn’t look like there’s any movement coming from inside the room.”

It had been a quick flight around the castle, toward the high window that lead into the royal bedroom, but there were still a number of problems that were keeping the Sergeant from just crashing through the window.

There was a good chance that the balcony was being watched, so they couldn’t use that. Another problem was the window itself. Layered with magic, the window didn’t let anypony looking in from the outside see a damned thing, and it was also made out of a very tough compound that made it more than a little difficult to just break. So, seeing that they had a few serious problems to deal with, Echo and Flash were forced to come up with something literally on the fly, in the dark and cold, when every second of them being idle could be putting the princess and Ares’ lives in danger.

The worst part was that the private wasn’t handling the stress very well. Even though he was trying his hardest to hide it, Echo could see his nervous twitching as he eyed the window. It was a look that she couldn’t say she cared for.

“Private,” she said warningly, tapping his helmet with her spear. “Don’t you get any stupid ideas. I know what you’re thinking but it’s not going to help anypony right now so get those superhero thoughts out of your head.”

A little whine escaped Flash’s throat. “But there’s nopony moving in there, Sergeant,” he said desperately.

Echo grimaced. He was right; as far as she could see, and even she could barely see with that stupid window, the room was dead, which was either a really good or really bad sign.

I doubt that any assassin would be able to take down the monkey and the princess this fast, she thought, beating down her worry as she carefully eyed the door, trying to will the magic off the stupid thing so she could actually get a good look inside.

The monkey is a heck of a lot stronger than he looks, and the princess is a bucking alicorn, so there should still be a fight going on. So why isn’t there one? What could be—

Out of the corner of her eye, Echo saw Flash’s wings flare. Her eyes widening, she tried to fly in front of him. “Private, you bucking—“

With a mighty flap, Flash flew past the mare and toward the window, his eyes wild. “Don’t worry Princess, Ares, I’m coming!” he shouted.

Cursing, Echo followed right behind him. “Flash, you moron, I’m gonna kill you!” she shouted, turning her head away so no glass would get into her face when they went through that window.

Please don’t let us just bounce off the stupid thing

~Present Time~

Boom!

The second that he had heard Cadence yelling from the other side of the wall, Shining unleashed the spell he had been holding. With a boom and a shower of rocks and a cloud of smoke, the wall was gone.

While he was sure that somepony was going to be waiting for him as soon as he breached, probably with some sort of weapon, that didn’t keep him and about thirty other guardsponies from charging through the gap in the wall with their battle cries of “For Cadenza and the Empire!”

We need to act fast, Shining thought, his spear at the ready as he scanned the room for enemies. They’ll be coming right about now.

No matter the enemy, Shining had his magic on his side and the guard at his back. It didn’t matter what happened to him, as long as Cadence and—

Thump!

Before the unicorn could so much as blink, he was spinning in the air and yelping in pain as something smashed itself against his muzzle. “Bucking, BUCK!” Shining cursed before hitting the ground hard.

“What the fuck is wrong with you horses!” Someone shouted angrily. “You just broke a window and a WALL!”

Shining cracked open an eye to see that the guard had stopped in their tracks and were looking at an enraged Ares, who was in his underwear and holding a shoe in his hand, with a mixture of confusion and fear.

…At least the two of them are okay, Shining thought, resisting the urge to groan in pain. Sweet Luna, how did he throw that thing so hard? If he had thrown that a little harder I’d be a head shorter!

“…Shining?”

Shining closed his eyes when he heard the voice, which sounded weak, confused and … hopeful? “Hiya Cadence,” he said, rubbing his muzzle and flinching when he saw that it was covered in blood. “I think Ares broke my face with his shoe. Sorry about the wall; I’ll get that fixed as soon as the world stops spinning.”