Chapter 5 – Introductions
Captain Shade walked over to Proxis and gave him a quick kick to wake him up. The eyes of the pegasus snapped open, and seeing his Captain standing over him, snapped to attention. Captain Shade gave a small chuckle. “They’re gone Corporal, you can relax.” He glanced back at Az “although I do believe you have a new sparring partner for unarmed combatives. You can stop picking on poor Stilts. Now go get yourself cleaned up.” Proxis gave Az a cautionary look before making his way towards the long house.
“Don’t you guys have helmets? That would have prevented him from getting concussed back there” Az asked as he and Captain Shade watched Proxis walk away.
“We do, but for some reason he doesn’t like to wear them.”
“He may now. I actually have a couple of questions, if you don’t mind me asking, Captain.”
“Shoot.”
“Are there any other recruits here now?”
“Two, but to be perfectly honest, they’re sucking it up hard. We got them after they got pinched trying to make off with some rich pony’s jewel hoard. Funny thing is, they would have gotten away with it had they not started bickering in the middle of his living room. Right now they’re working on infiltration and sabotage. They couldn’t infiltrate a cider house with a bag full of bits though, it’s amazing they considered themselves thieves. Maybe you could give them a few pointers as you blow by them in the curriculum.”
Az gave a small laugh “speaking of which, what’s in the curriculum?”
“Stealthy individual movement, infiltration, sabotage, unarmed combat, armed combat, assassination, and small unit tactics. The first four I actually expect you to finish within a few days, but I take it you’ve never performed an assassination before, much less actually worked with anypony on any of your jobs.”
“That would be correct. How often does the Guard get assassination missions?”
“Once a decade or so. I know, turns my stomach too. I honestly prefer an easy snatch-and-scoot myself. But, you gotta train for what could happen, just to stay sharp.”
“So what do most recruits do in the entry exam?”
“Stumble blindly, creep along at a snail’s pace, fall on their flank trying to buck through the wall, and get submitted by Proxis within ten seconds or so. He usually catches all our recruits with that initial wing swipe. You definitely threw him for a loop there.”
“How often do government officials pass through? And I noticed everypony wearing their armor. Is that some courtesy afforded to them or is that just a typical thing?”
“They come by every so often. Why, you have a special interest?” Az could feel his face begin to flush. “Huh. I guess so. Anyways, the armor’s a formality, like you thought. Most days, we find it easier to get our practice in without it on. Stamina and strength training are done with it on, though; being surprised by its weight in combat wouldn’t be ideal. So which princess have you got your eye on?”
Az gave a short cough. “None of them. Princess Twilight gave me a second chance by getting me going here instead of shipping me off to jail. I am grateful to her for such.”
“Uh huh. I’m sure that’s it. Any other questions?” They had finished walking across the field and were standing in front of the long house. Upon closer inspection, the building stood two stories tall, and stretched at least one half mile.
“Just one last one. How many members of the Secret Guard are there?”
“Including our three recruits,” Captain Shade gave him a look, “twenty-five. Small crew, I know, but we get along well enough.” With that, he opened the main door to the hall, and allowed Az to walk in. The main hall of the building looked to be a dining hall of some sort, with benches lined up along heavy oak tables. On the far side of the hall a podium stood in between two banners, each black with a silver dagger across a crown emblazoned on the bottom. A few ponies sat around at the tables, still clad in their enchanted armor, their black coats ink blots in the ruddy light of the hall. A few regarded Az as he walked into the room, followed closely by Captain Shade.
“Lieutenant Flow, sound the all clear. DG’s have left the premises.” A unicorn sitting on the far side of the room and approached a speaking horn on the wall next to the podium. His horn glowed, as did the base of the speaking horn, and he began speaking.
“DG’s?”
“Distinguished Guests.”
“Attention in the area, attention in the area. DG’s have exited the premises. I say again, DG’s have left the premises. All clear.” As soon as he had finished, the ponies in the room began removing their armor, and their coats returned to their typical colors of red, blue, brown, and tan. Az could here spotted cheering coming from other parts of the building. Lieutenant Flow had walked up to where he and Captain Shade had been standing. “So this is our newest recruit, huh?” He then looked at Az “Lieutenant Rapid Flow, Captain Shade’s second in command. Most everyone around here just calls me LT or Flow though, no need to go all formal on me.” He held out a hoof to Az.
“Pleasure to meet you. Names Azure Wind, but I tend to just go by Az.” He bumped Flow’s hoof.
“The Lieutenant here can show you around. I need to go fill out your paperwork” Captain Shade said as he began walking away.
“Rog” Flow said in response. “Well, as you can tell, this is the dining and meeting hall. Pretty much the two most important things rolled into one room.” He began walking towards a door on the right side of the room, and Az followed suit. “I’ll bring your up to where you’ll be staying for the next, well, for as long as you’ll be staying with us. Everypony gets similar housing arrangements: bed, chest of drawers, desk, bookshelf, closet, and private bathroom. Pretty good considering the bunkhouses most of us came from with the palace guard. Where’d they find you anyways?”
“Princess Twilight found my apartment, complete with the safe room full of stolen items.”
“Thief, huh? You any good?”
“Best in the business.”
“Confidence, good. We could use more recruits like you.” They reached a set of stairs ascending to the second floor of the building. The walls were made with similar oak to the tables in the dining hall, the stairs granite shelves made of the same stone as the entry tunnel. The second floor consisted of a long hallway flanked by doors every thirty hoof-lengths. “I wasn’t able to watch your entry test, how’d you do?” He laughed before adding “how long did you last against Proxis?”
“The Captain said I’m the best recruit he’s seen in years, and Proxis only lasted fifteen seconds against me.” Az had to restrain the laugh at Flow’s expression.
“Damn, that’s impressive, Proxis is our best fighter. Here we are.” Flow had stopped at the twenty-fifth door on the right side of the hallway. Home sweet home. Better make the best of this. Flow opened the door, revealing a well-furnished room. The bed sat in the corner of the room, adjacent to a window overlooking the courtyard of the base. Az’s hooves caused reverberating echoes to bounce around the walls. That could be annoying. His thoughts were interrupted by Flow telling him he could drop his bags.
“Where to next?” Az asked as he dropped his bags on the bed, which he noted was simply a mattress, sans covers.
“The armorer, we need to get you fitted with a set of this spiffy black armor.” Flow replied.
“Actually, Captain Shade said I could keep on using my own set.” he pulled his armor out of his saddlebags.
“Well in that case, we need to go to the armorer to get your armor enchanted. Uniformity of coat color and all.” He shook his head. “Kind of silly if you ask me, but regulations are regulations. Follow me.”
After placing the armor neatly between his wings, Az followed Flow back out of the room and back down the stairs. They continued across the main hall and through the doors on the opposite side of the hall. Instead of another staircase, the walls and ceiling were covered in slate, and the smell of burning coals met Az’s nose. Flow led him down the passage, which seemed to run the entire length of the wing of the building. At the end of passageway, the yellow light of gas lamps was replaced with the orange glow of red-hot coal. A fully-stocked forge opened up in front of the duo, with a single unicorn stallion standing in the center next to an anvil, beating away at looked to be a sword. A white-hot forge stood along the back wall, flanked with racks of different sorts of hammers and tongs.
“Hammer! I have a recruit for you!” Flow called across the forge. The smith looked up, set his hammer down and trotted across the room to Az and his tour guide.
“So what’ll it be, typical armor and knife set?” He spotted the armor Az was holding between his wings. “Ah, never mind then. Typical enchantments I take it?” Flow nodded. Hammer attempted to lift the armor out of Az’s grasp with telekinesis, but when the armor refused to move, he gave Az a confused look.
“Oh, sorry about that.” Az flipped the armor off his back, and proceeded to turn it inside out. On the inside of the armor several symbols were stitched into the fabric. Retrieving the dagger from its pocket, he proceeded to snip one of the threads on a rune close to the left breast of the armor. It began to bend to Hammer’s will as soon as the rune’s pattern was broken.
“Knowledge of ancient arcana, huh? Never thought somepony your age would know anything about that.” Hammer took the armor over to a workbench and began layering enchantments onto it. “After I’m done here, I can fix that rune for ya if ya want.”
“That would be much appreciated.”
“Sounds good. What room is this going to once I’m done?”
“Twenty five” Flow answered.
“Alright. Now please get out. Lot’s ‘o work to be done here.”
Flow motioned with his head for Az to follow him out of the forge and led him back down the hallway until they reached the door again. After proceeding through it, they were greeted by a dozen multicolored faces. Looks like it’s meet and greet time. I hate having to play nice. Captain Shade motioned for Az to follow him up to the stage and stand next to the podium. He then proceeded to lift his front hooves onto the podium and addressed the crowd, which had now assembled at the tables.
“Everypony, as you now know, we have a new member among us. This is Azure Wind, or for those of you who were members of the Palace Guard, you may better know him as his wanted poster displayed his name: “Black Dagger”.” There was scattered murmuring in the crowd of faces. Captain Shade pressed on “despite his past exploits, he is now one of us, and will be treated as such. Based on his entry exam, I expect him to be completed with individual training within the week, and will proceed to train with the rest of us in unit tactics soon afterwards.”
“Bucking seriously?” came a reply from the back of the room.
“Yes, seriously, Morning Light. If you weren’t incapable of holding rope with telekinesis you would be done already.” The hall erupted into laughter. To Az, the Captain added “she and her brother are our other recruits. Like I said, almost completely hopeless cases.” Once the laughing had died down, he proceeded addressing the crowd. “Now, down to business. No new missions as of yet, so keep up training. We never know when something new is going to drop. Carry on.” With “carry on”, a press of ponies moved forward to introduce themselves to their newest compatriot. Here we go.
An hour later, Az made his way up to his room, to find his armor resting atop his bed, which was now covered in fresh linens and blankets. Black, everything here is black. Well what should I have expected, covert operatives and all. Alongside his armor sat a new dagger in its leather-wrapped scabbard. A note attached to the pommel read “Not as sharp as that other one you have, but it’ll hold much better in a fight. Good enchanted blade, use it well. –H.” Az tried finding a pocket for the new blade, but it was just too big for every spot he tried. He looked back at the note, and flipped it over, maybe there was something he missed? Ah, here it is. “Damn thing’s too big for any of your pockets, so I made a new fastener, right between the wing holes.” Az found the fastener and clipped the scabbard onto it. He tried shaking his armor a few times, and once he was satisfied that it wouldn’t move, he nodded and set the armor aside.
I guess this is my new life. Definitely won’t pay as well as stealing stuff, but at least this is somewhat honest work. Here’s hoping there won’t be any of those assassination missions. A shiver moved up his spine. Stealing was one thing, but murder something else entirely. He looked out the window, noting the sun had gone behind the treetops, bathing the courtyard in shadows. Might as well get some sleep, tomorrow’s probably going to come early. He lay down on the bed, and quickly fell asleep.