Chapter 30

“All I am saying is that you must have deep emotional issues is you keep getting yourself into trouble” Odio sighed as Dave gave him another glare “Seriously, I don’t feel safe around you” he joked

Dave rolled his eyes “Whatever, I don’t seek out trouble” the human climbed out of his comfortable chair as he headed for the door “Anyway I have got to go do some stuff”

“Like dealing with your father’s mess?” Odio smirked as Dave froze and looked back at him “don’t worry, I didn’t poke inside your mind”

“So what do you know… actually” Dave narrowed his eyes at the arrogant fog “How do I know you aren’t throwing out random stuff and hoping something comes out of it?”

“Giant earth pony and voluptuous Pegasus” Odio smiled as Dave walked away from the door and sat back on the edge of his chair “I admit that your father had an interesting past”

Dave clicked his fingers “Oi! Leave Strong Shie… Dad alone” Dave’s angry expression was slowly replaced with a concerned frown “I can’t imagine what he must have gone through, killing his friends”

“I can” Odio laughed as he wrapped a tendril around Dave and gave him a small cuddle “I killed you and I felt amazing”

Dave rolled his eyes “I meant killing his friends permanently” Dave stood up and away from the fog “You planned me to come back… Dad thought he killed his best friends because they betrayed him”

“Did you know Flux was going to be your mommy?” Odio chuckled as Dave’s jaw dropped “Oh yes, Strong Shield actually loved Flux, strange considering his heartless attitude”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa back up” Dave rubbed his eyes “My dad, the emotionless, workaholic was going to marry Flux?”

Odio nodded “Pretty much”

Dave held his hands up as he headed for the door “Whatever, too much information that I just can’t handle right now, I‘m going to find Celestia and Nox” Dave quickly left the room and left Odio to pout at the door

“Aww… come back!” Odio sighed, “I promise I won’t teabag you as hard next time!”

Meanwhile…

Shining Armour saluted to some guards as they marched out of the barracks on their daily patrols. The captain of the guard entered the barracks and one guard instantly shot to his hooves and saluted

“At ease Private Barrier” Shining Armour smiled as the guard gave a sigh of relief and resumed polishing his armour. The captain removed his purple helmet as he looked around the room, a few groups of guards were playing card games and Private Barrier was quietly polishing his armour again. Shining Armour spotted the pony he wanted to see and calmly sat opposite the lonely unicorn

“Morning, Captain Shining Armour” Strong Shield sighed as he looked out of the window at the city of Canterlot “how are the guards? Or is that confidential?”

Shining Armour placed his helmet on the table as he rubbed his blue mane “Listen I wanted to talk to you about rejoining the guards” he smiled as Strong Shield looked at him “Princess Celestia knows she made a mistake and I am sure she would love to have you back as our sergeant”

Strong Shield allowed himself a small smile “If I wanted the job back I would have asked,” the black unicorn sighed as he relaxed in his chair “I have other businesses except the guards”

“If you have no interest in the guards then why are you always here?” Shining Armour raised an eyebrow as Strong Shield managed to tear his eyes from the window and look around the barracks

“The noise calms me down” Strong Shield glared at Private Barrier “The armour won’t snap! Put some effort in!” he yelled and the nervous private saluted

Shining Armour laughed “Still a sergeant at heart eh?” he smiled as Strong Shield quietly returned to staring out the window “Seriously, you should consider coming back, you can make these guards a hundred times better if you wanted”

“Keep tricks for yourself to ensure your superiority” Strong Shield muttered, leaning forwards as he saw a single Pegasus guard flying towards the castle “Why is he alone?”

Shining Armour looked out the window before a frown grew on his face “I don’t know, it is not time for the pegasi flight patrols to switch either” he hummed before placing his helmet back on his head and waiting for the Pegasus to enter the barracks

The door slammed open as the Pegasus saluted Shining Armour “T-the Canterlot bank is being attacked, the unicorns that are attempting to rob it possess magical boosters”

Shining Armour frowned “GUARDS!” He bellowed and all the guards put aside their cards and cider as they looked at their captain “We have a bank being robbed by powerful unicorns, I want everypony out there to help”

“YES SIR!” All the guards yelled in response as they quickly equipped their armour and began flooding out of the barracks, leaving Shining Armour and Strong Shield to look at each other

“Two minutes and forty four seconds” Strong Shield shook his head “They are slowing down”, he allowed a small grin to creep across his face “I suppose you want me to assist”

Shining Armour nodded as Strong Shield stood and they both began to chase after the rest of the guards “Are you sure? At your age you might hurt yourself”

“I’m fifty three and have been in a coma for four months” Strong Shield glared at Shining Armour “I may be a tad rusty but I am not dead”

Shining Armour laughed as they left the castle and began charging down the cobbled streets of Canterlot “Well I suppose you have a few days to adapt” his smile turned to a serious frown as he saw the broken marble pillar on the front of the bank

“GET BACK!” A bank robber yelled, “We have weapons that will tear you to shreds if you don’t back away!” he yelled in a panicked tone as he turned to his two accomplices

Strong Shield frowned as he saw the golden triangle that was around the unicorn’s horn, three beams of light joining the points of the triangle to the tip of his horn

“Seen anything like that?” Shining Armour asked as he sent the guard away with orders to set up a perimeter. The wall of golden guards slowly backed away from the bank as pegasi began to land on the roof

“There are plenty of trinkets that can help boost a unicorn’s power” Strong Shield shook his head “But I am more interested in the pony that is wielding it” he stopped behind a group of guards as he looked around the front of the bank

Three unicorns stared at the guards, one inside was constantly using magic on the large safe that held a huge bounty of bits and records of each ponies bank accounts. One of the unicorns outside had a magical booster on his horn and was constantly shifting his gaze as the sweat from his head dripped onto the floor

“He isn’t a robber and that trinket has a flaw” Strong Shield sighed as he pointed to the marble pillar that had fallen to the street “Four guards can get behind that and be safe from that unicorn with the booster”

Shining Armour whistled for three guards to follow him “How do we get past the unicorn with the booster? He will fry us before we get near”

“The flaw with the trinket is that it requires a charge up to cast any spell” Strong Shield hummed “It collects a certain amount of magical energy before it can actually be used” he tapped Shining Armours shoulder “I’m almost certain you could walk calmly to cover and still have time”

“Thanks for the advice” Shining Armour nodded to his fellow guards as he lowered his horn “COVER FIRE! ADVANCE!” he charged forwards with his small team as the rest of the unicorn guards fired small magical bolts at the robbers

The robber with the booster saw the small strike team and pointed his horn at Shining Armour, groaning as his horn glowed. The trinket began to spin rapidly as the space between the three beams of light began to fill with a light glow

As Shining and his team dived behind the pillar, they had time to pull their tails into cover as a wave of light raced over then and burnt the ground around their cover, the marble pillar protecting their bodies completely

The captain of the guard stood and faced the robbers, his eyes full of determination as his mouth curled into a snarl. He fired a blast of magic at the robber and succeeded in knocking him against the wall and rendering him unconscious

Shining Armour breathed a sigh of relief as his three teammates followed him over the pillar and quickly incapacitated the remaining robbers. He walked over to the triangular trinket as he carefully picked it of the ground

“I heard Twiley talking about an Alicorn Amulet but I would have never guessed that something as simple as a gold triangle being able to boost a regular unicorn that much” Shining Armour looked up at Strong Shield as he hurried over

The black unicorn looked at all the robbers before stamping his hoof angrily “These aren’t bank robbers, these are hoodlums that wouldn’t rob a granny unless they knew they would get away” he looked at the trinket in Shining Armour’s hoof before looking at the guards around the bank “When was the last bank robbery?”

“About…twelve years ago” Shining Armour smiled “By then you had the guards so well trained that they could smell thieves from a mile away” his smile faded as he saw Strong Shield’s worried face “What’s wrong?”

“You brought every single guard down from the castle” Strong Shield turned and began running at full speed to the castle, running through the pain that his muscles began to scream at him. Shining Armour ordered the guards to start returning to the castle as he hurried to catch up with the scared unicorn

Strong Shield ignored his old captain as he ran down corridors and poked his head into different rooms, his breaths becoming more frantic until he ran into the royal gardens and saw the princess of the sun

“Princess Celestia!” Strong Shield yelled as he ran over “Where is Dave and Nox?” he let out a sigh of relief as Nox appeared from one of the bushes, a wooden sword in his mouth. Dave sat up from Celestia’s lap, a bunch of grapes hanging out of his mouth

The human removed the grapes as he exchanged blushes with Celestia “H-hey dad, how are you?” his smile faded as Shining Armour staggered next to Strong Shield “What’s happened?”

“There was a bank robbery, it’s over now but… whew, you run fast for an older stallion” Shining Armour wiped the sweat from his face as he collapsed to his flank “What was the emergency?”

Strong Shield shook his head “Nothing, just an old fool being paranoid” he sat down as his hooves began to shake, his eye stared at Dave as a smile grew on his face

“I was almost worried when you mentioned that every guard left the castle” Shining Armour smiled “Don’t you remember the contingency that you put in place?”

“Contingency?” Strong Shield frowned again, “I made many contingencies in my years of service” his eye scanned the floor before he looked up at Shining Armour again “Are you talking about the Spotlight Contingency?”

“Yep, in the event that all guards are required outside the castle for an emergency, one guard minimum must find the princess and inform her of the reason” Shining Armour saluted to the princess “Did you receive the message?”

Celestia stood and dropped Dave on his head “No, what is this about a bank robbery?” she glared between the captain of the guard and Strong Shield “Which guard should have sought me out?”

“The only guard that would think about previous orders than get caught up in the excitement” Strong Shield stood again as his panicked face looked at Dave “I need you to help me son”

Dave frowned as he stood up and followed Strong Shield as he bolted through the castle, avoiding servants and guards that walked back through the corridors towards the barracks. Dave and Strong Shield raced ahead as they barged through the barrack doors

“BARRIER!” Strong Shield yelled as his face dropped, his ears cringed in pain from the scream that filled the air. Dave froze at the sight before he looked around for a table, moving as fast as he could as Strong Shield’s hooves buckled and he collapsed to the floor

Private Barrier screamed in pain as his body was suspended over the central table, his hooves being held apart by barbed wire that was buried deep within his hooves and attached to the ceiling. The large round table itself was burning furiously as the guard was being attacked by the flames that swallowed his lower body

Dave grabbed two of the spears by the side of the barracks and snapped off the blades, he moved as far away as he could from the guard being tortured more than his screams could ever explain. Dave pushed off the wall as he dived over the flames at the guard, throwing the spearheads to cut the barbed wire

The guard was almost completely consumed by the flames before Dave managed to grab him in midair, turning so the dragonscales on his trench coat could protect against the flame. He landed on the floor of the barracks as he carefully placed Private Barrier on his side

Strong Shield managed to snap back to reality as he ran to Barrier’s side “Stay with me!” he yelled as he held the young guard’s head “You followed all my orders so far and I’ll be damned if I let you ignore them now”

“S-sir?” Barrier shook as Strong Shield placed his hooves either side of his face “D-did I do good?”

Strong Shield nodded as his eye began to water “You were going to have my job one day you stupid guard” the private smiled until his body shook again and his eyes began to roll away from the guard he always tried to impress. Strong Shield frowned angrily as he held Private Barrier still, his eye looked down at the guard’s injuries “Dave, get help”

Dave stood up as he looked down at the sight “Dad I don’t know if there is anything we can do”

“I SAID GET HELP!” Strong Shield roared as he started shaking Private Barrier again “Stay with me, that’s an order” he growled as his voice began to crack and his ears drooped. Dave turned and ran out the door, yelling the entire time he ran

“S-sir?” Private Barrier coughed as Strong Shield held his head

“Yes Barrier?”

“It was an honour to have been trained by you” he managed a weak smile before his eyes began to flutter again, “May I be dismissed sir?”

Strong Shield bared his teeth before bringing his face to normal, his lip quivered as his eye finally allowed a tear to run down his face. Private Barrier groaned as he used all his strength to lift his hoof and give a salute

“Permission granted” Strong Shield closed his eye as he rested his head against the dying guard’s head “Permission granted Private Barrier”