Chapter 2 : A Broken Shield

Cast:

Shining Armor - shiningarmorreports.tumblr.com

Transcript Here

Summary : Shining Armor’s emotional revelation at dinner has taken a turn for the worst. The traumatic incident concerning the Royal Wedding has continued taking it’s toll on his mind, with further stress brought forth by his new title and responsibility as Prince of the Crystal Empire, ordaining alongside his beloved Princess Cadance. With vengeance and paranoia clouding his mind, Shining Armor has taken a vow to exterminate the creatures that almost ruined the very Kingdom he was supposed to protect.

(( I decided on no music and no sound effects for this monologue. It’s blank, save Shining’s voice. I wanted his emotions and pain to be fully recognized, the bleakness to really amplify the performance. Clearly he’s starting to lose it. I didn’t intend it for it to get this ‘dark’ — definitely something difficult to master with a canon character who has never really been grim or dour — but things happen! I hope you enjoy. ))

(( Shiny’s voice is a little deeper than normal here, due to me being a bit under the weather…but lets just say it’s from lack of sleep on his part. Please note I took some liberties with the Crystal Empire thing since not much is known about it. Once more info is released — and if my own is incorrect — I’ll probably retcon things. ))

C-Captain Aquilinus?

Yeah, I know of him! He’s only the bravest, coolest stallion that I’ve ever heard of! He’s my hero!

Ah..hah, sorry about that. The Legend of Captain Aquilinus is well known to me. He was my colthood idol, and one of the reasons I wanted to become a guard in the first place. Call it hero-worship if you want, but the stories my dad told me about him have always stuck with me in one way or another.

I mean, come on! The guy fought dragons, gryphons, outlaws and bandits, and I heard he wasn’t too shabby with the fillies either. How could you not admire a stallion with that kind of reputation? Aquilinus was fearless and brave…though I heard a couple of tales that stated he was deathly afraid of this one castle chef. Can’t be true though. No way.

Sadly…he’s only a storybook character. I’d like to think I’ve outgrown such things since then, but if Aquilinus ever existed, I would shake that stallion’s hoof -hard-…and probably ramble like an idiot about how amazing he is.

Aw, geeze. I think I’m blushing. Can we just consider these questions done? I’ve gotta get back to my station.

(( For those who don’t know, Aquilinus ( http://askaquilinus.tumblr.com/ ) is a Captain of the Guard OC that was around a long time before Shining Armor was even announced to the public. The guy meticulously built his tumblr around awesome world-building , and he was one of the people that inspired me to make my WildCard tumblr. ))

(( He’s a good friend of mine, and out of respect for him, my Shining Armor doesn’t exist in the same universe as his Captain character. Instead, he’s a tale of legend and heroics, as you can see. ))

(( Art in BG of pic is done by : asksweetcream.tumblr.com ))

Though we do seem numerous and almost everywhere at once, Royal Guards aren’t exactly an infinite resource. We can’t spare too many soldiers to go and act as personal bodyguards for every noble that needs an escort to the market.

Princess Celestia has her personal envoy of guards, but they’re mainly implemented for procession and crowd control during public events. I oversee the bulk of the guard, and typically don’t let them deviate from their usual routine unless something truly important comes up , like a death in the family or a serious illness.

The only time we usually ‘rent out’ Guards to nobles is if they are under house arrest for some sort of petty crime—which happens more often than you’d think— or part of a transport that seems like a vulnerable target to ponies with ill intent. Some nobles often try to bribe us with ludicrous amounts of bits to accompany them for unimportant escapades, but I stand on a firm ‘No Tolerance’ policy.

The Royal Guard is here to protect the community and uphold the law. We’re not mercenaries.

(( Did Shining’s voice a teeny bit less ‘surfer’ here, since he’s being professional/explanatory. Sorry if this is boring because BLAHBLAH MILITARY STUFF, but it needed to be done. >:O ))

(( Custom art will be soon. Artist is still recovering. I hate using stock pics. ))