Chapter 5: The Night of Shining Armor

Shining Armor had just gotten off the Friendship Express when he saw a rainbow trail leaving the library. He knew that meant Rainbow had been seeing his sister, but he didn't have a clue as to why she would fly off that fast. Knowing that it would be pointless to try and figure it out now, he instead headed for the Ponyville hotel, where he was going to stay for the week he was in town.

The room wasn't anything special, as some ponies would have guessed. He was offered the Celestial room, but he turned it down and instead got a normal room. Second floor, room 18, to be exact. The closet provided barely fit his small assortment of clothes in it, and the bathroom was extremely cramped, even if he was the size of a colt. By the time he finally got settled in it was late afternoon, and his stomach was growling loud enough to wake Luna, so he started to make his way towards Sugar Cube Corner. Although, he never did make it there, as he saw, and heard Rainbow Dash pull off a sonic rainboom above the outskirts of town, and she was headed towards the library.

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"Twilight, please open up" Rainbow pleaded from outside the library, every door and window locked tight. After a few more attempts to find a way in Rainbow fell to the ground outside the library door, head in her hooves.

"Something going on between you two?" said a voice that caused Rainbow to jump.

"Shining Armor!" Rainbow quickly got close to his face, "What're you doing here?"

"I got out on leave, they said I was working too hard" Shining joked, "But what's going on here? Lover's quarrel?"

"Uh, something like that," Rainbow said as she rubbed the back of her neck, "Look, I need your help!"

"With what?"

"Twilight won't come out, or let me in, so we can talk"

"So?" Shining asked while giving Rainbow a confused look.

"You can get her to talk to me!" Rainbow said, annoyed at how dense Shining had been.

"Nope"

"What?!"

"I'm not going to fix this for you" Shining said as he started back on his way to Sugar Cube Corner, "You two need to work this out yourselves" Shining suddenly felt a weird weightlessness to his body, and quickly realized that he was now far above Ponyville, with Rainbow being the only thing keeping him from falling.

"You going to help now?" Rainbow asked threateningly.

"Nope" Shining responded, crossing his forelegs in front of him.

"Urgh, why won't you help me?!" Rainbow shouted, now finding it hard to carry Shining Armor.

"Because, if I help you the problem won't go away, it'll just disappear for a while" Shining said as he prepared a shield spell.

"Fine!" Rainbow said as she suddenly stopped flying, jerking Shining Armor out of her hooves, "Oh shit!" Rainbow quickly shot down to try and catch Shining Amor, but when she saw his calm face she stopped, confused. When he started to glow she realized that he had put a safety spell on himself, so she calmly flew down the ground. A few seconds later Shining came down, his spell creating a gust of wind to slow him down just before he hit the ground.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, I'd like to get something to eat" Shining said, turning around to face Sugar Cube Corner, which they had landed in front of.

"Wait!" Rainbow shouted as she jumped in front of him, "Can you give me any advice on what to do?"

"Just be honest about it, she'll understand"

"Thanks!" Rainbow yelled as she took to the skies again. Shining Armor watched her until she flew over the horizon, and turned around to see a royal guard staring at him.

"Captain" the guard said.

"Sergeant, what are you doing here?" Shining asked, somewhat worried.

"Princess Cadance told us to look for you sir" the guard answered, "She said you had suddenly disappeared"

"Oh, she's just mad that I got to go on leave for a while and wanted to know where I went" Shining said as she patted the guard on the back.

"What do we tell her sir?" the guard asked.

"Hmmm..." Shining said as he tapped his chin, noticing a small souvenir stand, "Wait one second" Shining quickly ran over to the stand and look for a letter with a picture of Ponyville on it. He paid the stallion behind the stall 5 bits, and quickly wrote down on the card;

Dear Cadance:

I'm loving it down here in Ponyville, it's all so peaceful. Wish you were here!

Love,

Shining Armor

"There this should do it" Shining said as he handed the guard the letter.

"Is this all we're supposed to show her sir?" the guard asked as he examined the letter.

"Yes, now if you'll excuse me..." Shining said, as he once again turned to face Sugar Cube Corner.

"SHINING ARMOR!"

"Oh for the love of..." Shining said as he turned around, only to see Rainbow Dash flying towards him, "What happened?"

"She kicked me out and said she never wanted to see me again!" Rainbow shouted as she skidded to a stop in front of Shining Armor.

"What?!" Shining said, caught off guard by what Rainbow said.

"I got her to let me in so we could talk, and..." Rainbow started, tears welling up in her eyes.

"Calm down, it's okay, I'll go talk to her now" Shining said as he patted Rainbow on the back, now very angry with his sister.

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KNOCK, KNOCK

"Who is it?!" Twilight yelled from somewhere inside the library.

"Your brother" Shining said as he looked towards one of the library's windows. It looked as though someone had smashed it, and recently too, since there was still some glass on the ground outside. Just as Shining started to think about what caused the window to break the door opened, a very disheveled looking Twilight on the other side.

"What are you doing here?" Twilight asked, somewhat surprised to see her brother outside her door.

"I need to talk to you about Rainbow Dash"

"Oh, what, did she tell you about what happened?" Twilight asked, sounding very annoyed.

"Yes, and I think you are making a big mistake"

"What?!" Twilight shouted, turning on the spot to face her brother.

"She loves you Twilight, she doesn't know why, but she does, why can't you accept that?"

"Because the book says-" Twilight started, but was cut off by Shining's hoof.

"Seriously, a book caused this?!" Shining shouted.

"Yes..." Twilight admitted

"Twily, you need to go find Rainbow, and apologize to her, right now" Shining ordered.

"Why? We don't have any reason to love each other, so why should we?"

"Because you don't need a reason! If you love her, you love her, simple as that!"

"But the book said..."

"It's just a book Twily, you can't trust everything you see in a book!"

"But..."

"No buts! I heard about you and Rainbow's date, you want to know who told her to ask you again? Me!"

"What?"

"Rainbow came to me after you turned her down the first time she asked, she was crushed, so I told her to wait until you weren't busy to ask you again"

"Why?"

"Because I know you love her!"

"But I don't know why I should!"

"You just do okay! Love can't be understood, it just happens, why do you think I married Cadance?!"

"Because you love her for her actions!"

"No, I love her, but I don't know why, I just do! Same goes for her!"

"But..."

"I said no buts!" Shining jumped behind Twilight, and started pushing her towards the open door, "Now go! Go and fix this whole thing right now!"

"But"

"GO!" Shining yelled as he slammed the door on Twilight's face. He was fuming, and starving. A growl from his stomach made him forget everything he just said and he quickly made his way to Twilight's kitchen, eager to find some form of sustenance. After he finished a rose and lily sandwich he made his way towards an open book that was sitting on the table. He read it, and immediately picked the book up and used his magic to burn it. "Now Twilight can forget about this stupid book's idea" Shining said after the book stopped burning. Shining then heard a knock at the door and made his way to it, only to see Cadance standing on the other side.

"I had a feeling I would find you here" Cadance said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"Yeah..." Shining said sheepishly, "You're mad at me for not telling you, aren't you?"

"Mad is an understatement" Cadance said as she used her magic to teleport both her and Shining Armor back to their house in Canterlot.