Tales of a Madman
Twilight Sparkle was thinking about her dream, or whatever you could call it because it technically wasn't a dream. Not by a long shot. The clock said ten fifteen, pretty late by common standards.
There were three knocks on the Door. Rarity was too busy fixing her hair to care about responding. Three knocks again. Twilight got up from her bed and grabbed her violet brush. Usually her hair was a mess after unsettling dreams, so the explosion would freak someone out. With three passes her hair was back to its straight form.
Three more knocks came, and she managed to open the door. To her surprise Hawk Eye was standing there, wearing a khaki shirt with a dark green vest, denim pants and black sneakers.
"What can I help you with." Asked Twilight.
"Oh, sorry that I woke you up ma'am. I thought you would be up by now." Said the boy shyly. His face feuded to see her, why she couldn't tell, she was wearing long pajamas. So nudity wasn't the question, although it seemed to be true for him.
"No it's alright, we were already up, we just needed some time to get ready." She kindly responded.
"Oh, very well then. I came here to invite you to breakfast, I hope you can come." He spoke with a merry voice.
"Where's Shield?"
"He still hasn't woken up yet, he probably has had difficult dreams, tends to happen."
"Why are you with him?"
"I'm not with him, he is sleeping."
"Why do you live with Shield, what links you to him."
"Oh, because I'm his brother. Albeit adopted."
"We're you raised in an orphanage?"
"Nope! Shield rescued me when I was naught but a babe. He never told me the full story, refuses to, says it'll give me nightmares."
Twilight was surprised, she expected the kid to be some sort of squire, but once again her presumptions were wrong.
"So, you comin' for breakfast?" He asked
"Of course! Just give us a moment to freshen up." She answered.
"Very well, I'll inform Shield to wait an hour before breakfast." The boy left, in the same fashion as his brother, never letting anyone respond.
"That went great." Said Twilight sarcastically. She turned to look at Rarity, but the bathroom door was closed. "So I'll just sit here alone then." Twilight was forced to wait half an hour before the element of Generosity was ready to depart from the bathroom. Lasting half as long as her friend, Twilight managed to be ready just in time for breakfast.
.oOo.
Shield was standing in the kitchen, wearing jeans and a black long-sleeved tee and a white apron. Said apron was stained with orange splotches. His right hand was holding a spatula and his left a frying pan.
The table was set for four people, with the checkered blue and green tablecloth.
"Sit down, breakfast is ready to be served. I hope you're in the mood for... Wow, unexpected!" Said shield as he turned around. Rarity was wearing a blue blouse and matching white denim pants, her belt was dark violet, like her hair. A white jacket was covering her shoulders.
Natural for a fashionista, Rarity looked insulted. "Don't you like it?" She asked offended.
"Oh no, I love it, it's just unexpected, as I said. We won't be doing much today so I would advise against dressing too fancy." He said. "Also I think you'll need an apron more than me."
"And why would that be?" She asked.
"Have you ever had Chilaquiles for breakfast?"
"Come again?"
"Chilaquiles. Didn't think so. It's a traditional dish from Yeguadalajara. Sit down and I'll show you, Hawk, get these ladies something to drink." The boy followed instructions, opening the refrigerator and taking out two pitchers.
"Milk or orange juice miladies." He asked
"I'll have orange juice thank you." Said the Sapphire-eyed woman, and the boy skillfully poured the contents from the glass pitcher.
"I'll have milk, thank you very much." Responded the librarian.
Shield started serving them what looked like fried tortilla chips. Both women went for their forks, but were stopped by a plastic spatula.
"Spicy or regular?"
"Umm. Regular."
"Regular too."
And holding a pot, he poured its contents onto both plates. He changed the pot for a pan and with a soon served fried beans. They each thanked him and he went to retrieve a basket full of bread.
.oOo.
They could see a kind man serving breakfast, but what he could see was far more disturbing. His hallucinations had stopped, except for Sheogorath, who had taken to humping Rarity and breakdancing over Twilight's. He was both disgusted and on the brink of laughing.
"What's your problem?" He thought to himself. Speaking would only make him look weird and more demented, but Sheogorath was living in his mind, so he could listen to his thoughts as good as words.
"Sorry, but I can't control myself around beautiful women, especially these two."
"Got history together?"
"You can say that."
"So what are we doing today?" Asked the librarian, her head leaning forward.
He too leaned. His face was serious, he opened his mouth and spoke: "Absolutely nothing!"
"What?"
"Nothing, as in not one thing. We still have a full day of train riding, so we will be resting for today."
"Shouldn't we, I don't know, TRAIN?"
"We don't have the space, so why try? And anyways, there's more to life than training."
"Says the man willing to kill himself in experimenting shots." Replied Rarity.
"During train rides I like to relax, so please respect it. Don't worry, once we get settled you will go through a crash course."
"Is it true that Princess Luna is your new boss?" Asked Twilight. This sentence made the soldier drop his head. His fears were true, he had hoped that the princess that had visited him in his dreams came from the imagination. It was highly unlikely, since he felt the real her enter.
"Yes, I'm afraid it is."
"What's so bad about it?"
"You may think that I respond directly to the Princesses, but actually, the Order was made independent from the government. This allowed us more freedom when acting. Out of respect we still made reports on the missions. Being independent also meant that we didn't need to report if something got out of hand, so those were labeled as "secret" in our great archives."
"So for the first time you will finally have to answer to someone and you have shady business that you want to protect."
Shield no longer met her gaze, instead he looked away. He stammered a bit of nonsense, but it was clear that she was right. He started eating, barely stopping to swallow.
"Sorry 'bout him, he tends to do this when he doesn't want to talk about something."
"So what about you? You look like someone with an interesting story." Said Rarity. She began eating and sighed in delight.
Hawk blushed. "There really isn't much to talk about me yet, I'm a simple student in Vanhoover Academy. I'm ten years old and happen to be good with a bow and a staff."
"That's a lot to say for someone so young, what do you do for fun?"
"Usually I go snowboarding, sometimes I practice hockey or I go to the shooting range to practice with my bow. Or if it's raining or a blizzard I'll go to the library. Depends on my mood."
"How often does it rain?"
"Have you ever heard of its nickname?"
"Oddworld?"
"Sorry, the other one."
"I don't believe so."
"They call it Seaddle."
"Really? How come, is it flooded?"
"No, it means that the rain will drown your soul." Said Shield in a lighthearted manner.
Both women looked at him.
With a mouthful he said: "Wha? Ids de truth." He swallowed. "That city is completely grey! Just wait 'till we get there."
"How can anyone enjoy living somewhere so dull?" Asked Rarity.
"Because where the city is dullest the people are more colorful. Vanhoover is well known for its people and the research that takes place there, not for being beautiful in colloquial ways."
"What sort of research goes on?" Asked Twilight, with great intrigue.
"All sorts, from machinery to agriculture to magic heck, even archeology. You name it. You never really heard of Vanhoover before?"
"Not really."
"Well, it is considered a freaktown by most. But it still is crucial to all of Equestria. Without them, Manehattan would never have developed motorized transport, or would have scry-phones. Vanhoover is the unspoken Hero of Equestria."
"Kind of like you?"
"In some sense, yeah. Though they deserve more credit than me."
"What on earth is a scryphone?" Asked Rarity.
"It's something like a mobile telephone, except it utilizes magical energies in order to communicate. It's faster, safer and even cheaper. Half of Equestria uses them, but still they don't appreciate Vanhoovians as much as they should. The best part is that you can see the person you are talking to ."
"Do you have one?"
"Yeah but I left it at home by accident. Tends to happen all the time. Twilight, do you have that letter for your brother I asked you to write?"
Twilight was caught off guard, of course she totally forgot about it. But she regained herself and answered: "Um, yeah of course. But I left it in my room. But I've been thinking..."
"Thinking is dangerous, you should leave it to me."
"What if the changelings manage to intercept the message, then we would be alerting them of our arrival."
"I am setting up a bait. The reason why I told you not to include my name was because you are supposed to be alone, therefore a much easier target. With me and my friends at your side, you will come to no absolute harm if the message reaches the wrong hands. Now enough prep talk here, if you want to continue talking I suggest we meet in the library."
By that point everyone had finished breakfast, so after cleaning up they left the kitchen.
Once in the library, Shield began gagging. Alarmed, Twilight and Rarity rushed to help. But he held up an arm to stop them. He then burped, the spice was clearly present in the air.
"Sorry about that, I usually have these incidents when eating spicy food. Now Twilight, please write the letter to your brother you are going."
"How did you know?" She asked.
"When you and Shinning both lie, you look away for a second and twitch your eyes very slightly." He answered gleefully.
"No I don't." She refuted.
"The it is again! Now stop complaining and write the letter." His hand started fidgeting and erupted blue flames. From ashes two letters formed themselves. One was elegant stationary and the other portrayed a large metallic monster in the back called Ormaggoden.
"Speaking of letters, it seems I have mail!" He put the elegant one away and began reading the other.
Twilight used this time to write the letter with a fountain pen.ot was the closest thing she could find to her quill.
"Perfect! Now to the next!" He said as he changed letters. "Awesome!"
"What are those letters for?" Asked Rarity.
"They are confirmations, one is from the Storm Brothers and the other from Metal Riffs. Curious that both were sent at the same time, and also that the Commissioner failed to respond." His voice lost some cheer."
"Is that bad?"
"It could mean anything, from him being busy to being replaced. I really can't tell."
"By replaced you mean what exactly."
"Either he has been replaced by another Commissioner or by a changeling, I really hope it's the former. Otherwise we will be walking into a death pit."
"So how do you know if your friend has been replaced?"
"No idea from here, we'll just have to hope for the best. Are you done Twilight?"
Fortunately, she was. She handed the parchment to him, and he sent it amidst a tongue of blue flame.
"So what do we do now that the chores are complete?" Asked the Librarian.
"Quite simple really, we relax! Watch movies, read books, anything you want."
And so the rest of the day was spent doing nothing of importance.
When night came along, Shield had trouble sleeping. His dreams began getting more corrupted than before. At this rate, he noted, I'll be sent to the Mental Ward!