A light on the balcony turned on to reveal a unicorn with a coat the color of late twilight and a mane as black as the night sky stood in the doorway holding two plates of the cake he had seen earlier on one of the tables. He sighed in relief and slid the blade back into its sheath then started in surprise when he heard Bash doing the same. Bash shook his head and spoke, "Don't sneak up on us like that. Also, I thought I told you to wait until I came to you." The mare rolled her eyes.
"Aw come on, it's boring in there and I wanted to meet this mysterious friend of yours." She said. Enigma examined her blankly, she was wearing a dark blue dress with a sapphire necklace that was almost darker than the dress itself.
Bash sighed and turned to Enigma. "This is Shadow Axis. She's the daughter of one of the merchants that resides in Canterlot. What was his name? Leer? Tear? Anyway, I was going to introduce you to her later but she seems to have taken the initiative." He said.
Enigma held out a hoof without changing the expression on his face. "Hello I'm Enigma. It's very nice to meet you Shadow Axis." He said. She put one of the plates of cake on his hoof and smiled.
"Enigma, huh? What a mysterious name!" She chuckled to herself a bit while a dark expression passed over Enigma's face. He picked up the fork on the plate and took a piece of cake, it tasted almost as strange as the liquid he'd been drinking earlier. 'I must be used to field rations or something...' He thought as he placed the fork back down on the plate.
"So then, you've met me, now why don't you go your way and I'll go mine. I have some paper work to do and-" Bash cut him off abruptly.
"Paper work?! We're on vacation, you've got more than a week of doing nothing at all! Paper work, pah." Bash said. Enigma slowly turned his head to look at Bash directly. His expression said, "I'm going to murder everything you love, then you." But instead, he said, "Thank you Bash. I had FORGOTTEN."
Bash smiled and stepped to the side a bit. "Ooh! On vacation huh? Well then you'll have plenty of time to spend with me, I've been dying to go sightseeing with somepony ever since getting back from Stalliongrad!" Enigma frowned.
"Not to be rude, but why would I be escorting you around Canterlot? I only just met you." He glanced over at Bash who had a mysteriously evil expression on his face.
"Why, because that's what my colt friend is going to do for me!" She said. She made it sound as though it were common knowledge that Enigma was expected to be her colt friend. Enigma froze with a blank expression, barely even breathing. If you listened closely, you'd probably be able to hear a dial-up noise playing near him as he processed what she'd just said.
"Colt friend?" He asked in shock. "What do you mean Colt friend? We just met! I only know your name!" He said. Shadow Axis laughed at him and patted his shoulder.
"There's no need to be shy, I don't bite! Now come on! I need to introduce you to my parents! Er... father... mother decided to go partying with friends." She said suddenly frowning. Enigma's eye twitched as he slowly turned his head back to look at Bash who was barely suppressing laughter. He gave him the most homicidal look he could muster, causing Bash to take two more steps away from him. "Anyway, have you ever been to Stalliongrad? They're currently rebuilding the north end of the city, something about a hoof full of extremists left over from a war or something." Enigma remembered that his second to last mission had ended in him calling in an airstrike on the north end of Stalliongrad. He could still hear the sound of gunfire and explosions in his head as he answered. "Maybe once or twice..." He remembered a bomb blowing the front of a house off near by him as she continued.
"Oh! How nice! Maybe we passed each other and didn't even notice!" She laughed. It was then that Enigma noticed he was involuntarily following her toward the table closest to the thrones. At the table sat eight ponies, all wearing fancy clothing and dress sabers like him, though he doubted any of them actually knew how to use one.
Shadow Axis stopped in front of the table. "Enigma, this is my father, Gear." She gestured to a light light grey pony who was wearing a pair of goggles. "And these are his friends, umm... I don't remember their names." She frowned at them. Enigma looked at the gathered ponies with minor interest, he only recognized two of them, one was a clothier and the second was a baker.
Enigma regained his composure after a bit of awkward silence and shook his head with a smile. "Well it's very nice to meet you all, now if you'd excuse me, I have some business to-" Shadow cut him off.
"Oh no you don't! You're on vacation remember? Dad! This is my new Colt friend! Enigma! He's Bash's friend, you remember Bash right? He's the pony that told us to stay in doors that one night and had to forcibly remove mom from the street!" Shadow said excitedly. Enigma smiled as he remembered they had had to clear the streets a week ago to sweep for anything threatening for the princess's return.
"Colt friend huh?" Gear looked at him critically as though looking for the slightest flaw. He twitched his wings nervously and stopped smiling.
"Erm, no, I'm not her Colt friend, she just kind of forced it on my suddenly. I never agreed to anything." He glanced over at Shadow who was looking at him expectantly. "What?" He asked.
Gear stood up from the table and motioned for Enigma to follow. Shadow sat down in his spot and listened as the other seven began chatting. Enigma followed warily as Gear led him out into the entry way. Several ponies were chatting quietly here and there and several young ponies were attempting to make a guard move from his position. "Alright, now we can talk. Thing is, when my daughter says you're her colt friend, you're her colt friend. It doesn't matter how much you disagree or try to get away from her, she is going to find you and continue to act as though you're a couple." Gear stated bluntly.
Enigma looked at him in shock, "What? I don't get a say in this?! I have a very difficult line of work that takes me all over the place, I can't HAVE a mare friend even if I wanted one!" Gear sighed and pushed up his goggles to rub his eyes.
"Look, I like it even less than you do, how do you think I feel? My little filly suddenly declares a stranger is her colt friend, but there's no avoiding it." He pushed the goggles back down over his eyes and adjusted them before looking back at Enigma. "It's like how her mother and I met, she wouldn't leave me alone no matter what I did, eventually I just gave in and went along with it. After a while I found that I did love her and now I'd do anything to protect her. If you don't see where this is going, I'll just say it. You are going to be my daughter's colt friend and if anything happens to her, I'll rip off your wings and staple them to your eyes. Got it?" His expression never changed making his speech that much more terrifying.
"Uh, got it, sir." enigma stammered. He was still rather confused as to what was going on, but it made slightly more sense now. Shadow simply took after her mother more than her father. Gear nodded and began walking back to the table, leaving Enigma to think about everything that had happened this night.