I closed my eyes, taking in the nice summer sun that was in the sky. I stretched out my entire body on the park bench, enjoying the gentle breeze in-

“Excuse me ma’am, but you will need to move,” a voice drilled into my head, causing me to let out an annoyed sigh as I moved my head upright to look at the tin ponies that were bugging me. “You cannot stay on this bench, loitering like this.”

“Oh bugger off,” I snapped, as I rolled my green eyes and fell to my hooves. Even though I was not exactly the tallest pony around, I knew how to appear big and terrifying to idiots and tin ponies alike. Edging close to them, I gave a bit of a twisted grin before shaking my mane out of my face when they backed up before I decided to be more level headed.

“I know you buckers are just picking on me,” I grumbled as I looked at the other ponies laying around in the park. None of them were being asked to move along or anything but feh, wasn’t worth the effort on my day off. Still, I could feel myself getting angry and I couldn’t help myself snarking, “So congrats on pissing on my day, ya assholes!” as I began to walk off to my apartment.

Only for the unicorn of the two tin ponies to snap a wall of magic in front of me. “Look ma’am, I don’t know who you are or what your issues with the Guards are, and I don’t care, but there is such a thing as an obscenity law and there are foals around,” he said as I turned around to glare at him.

“And I give a buck of what you say because?” I growled out while kicking myself because getting smart mouthed with a tin pony was bucking stupid and I needed to calm the Tartarus down now before I said something really stupid.

“Because we could bring you in for being a nuisance, Reflecting Shield,” the pegasus said with a smirk on his face, causing the blood to drain from my already whitish coat. The unicorn looked at his partner with confusion, but he clearly saw how off balanced I was now. “And we all know how much fun that would be, right?”

“Go buck yourself sideways, you feather duster,” I snarled out, my heart thundering in my head. “I’ve done nothing wrong, so let me go!”

“I don’t think so, Shield,” the pegasus said with an uglier look on his face. “My partner here hasn’t been told of you yet, but-”

“Excuse me, what is going on?” a voice called out from behind us, causing the tin ponies to drop to the ground in a deep bow. I was seriously tempted to bolt but instead I just turned around to look at several special looking tin ponies parting away from a very tall and pink uni-

Wait, she had wings-oh buck me sideways and smack my horn, it was a Princess!

Gulping in fear, I started to back up when I felt the magical wall at my flanks.

“Nothing, your highness,” the unicorn on the ground next to me said, eyes darting to me as he stood up. “Just dealing with a pony with a bit of a foul mo-”

“Shiny?” the Princess interrupted, which caused me to blink in confusion. “Is that you?”

“Huh?” Okay, this was getting a bit weird and even weirder as she started to walk up close to me.

“Oh, sorry,” the Princess, Cadanza I think, or something similar, blushed as she placed a hoof to her chest. “You reminded me of my old husband, miss.”

Well, if that wasn’t what every mare wanted to hear, that they looked like a stallion… “Uh, okay?” I squeaked out, not sure what exactly was going on here.

She looked at me again, staring down into my eyes before shaking her head and looking at the tin ponies next to me. “What seems to be the problem?”

“She was loitering on the park bench and spouting obscenities near the young, your highness,” the unicorn said.

“Is that all?” she said with a smile, causing me to feel a bit of panic race across my chest. “I am sure that she did not mean it, right?”

I knew enough to recognize when somepony was covering your flanks and how to lie well enough to make it believable. “That’s right,” I said with a bit too big of a smile on my face. Couldn’t tell if they knew how fake it was, but with the princess around me, I went all out due to my nerves being shot.

The tin ponies all gave me a pointed look that caused me to roll my eyes as I quickly said, “Er, your highness.”

“It is alright,” the Princess laughed, patting me on the shoulder which caused me to really bite my lip to stop myself from freaking out. “I prefer being treated like an average pony and being called ‘Cadance’ instead of everypony walking on eggshells and calling me ‘Your Highness’.” Her tone suggested she’d said all this before and nopony had listened to her then either.

“Okay...” I trailed off, still very confused and uncomfortable about this whole thing.

“You two are dismissed as I am sure she will be careful in the future,” the Princess said, turning her piercing eyes to the two guards next to me, with a look that I knew meant they’d better leave now or she’d kick up dust in Guard Garrison. Oh by Celestia’s sunny flanks, I hoped that they left now as I really didn’t want to deal with that headache.

They looked at each other, gave Cadance a nod and me an angry stare, then marched off.

I let out a sigh of relief before I noticed that she was still in front of me, looking right at me.

“Uhhh…” I trailed off, feeling my face light up with a stupid blush.

“I’m sorry, but there is so much of you that reminds me of my Shiny,” she said with a blush that caused me to blush even harder for some stupid reason.

“Uh, thank you?” I said with a squeak that had Cadance chuckle softly. If she wasn’t a Princess and I wasn’t so scared, I think I’d sock her for laughing at me.

“Excuse me, I haven’t gotten your name,” Cadance said with a disarming smile, getting her mirth under control.

“Uhm… Shield,” I replied, trotting backwards to get some space from her. “Reflecting Shield.” Cadance’s nose flared as she let out a sharp breath.

“...Alright, Miss… Shield. I’ll… well… stay out of trouble, alright?” Her voice had gotten strange, almost wistful while her eyes suddenly lost their teasing gleam.

I nodded numbly as the Princess once again shot me a weird look that I couldn’t begin to understand and left with her guards, leaving me to once again to try and enjoy this pleasant day, although the meeting had really soured it and I was looking forward to getting back to my apartment so I could make sense of this day.