//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Inductions // Story: The Royal Thief // by LTBroski //------------------------------// Chapter 6 – Inductions The next morning came very early. Before the sun had even crept over the eastern horizon, much less the fortification of trees, Az’s door sounded like it was being bashed in by no less than eighty hooves, in combination with as many voices shouting for him to wake up. His initial reaction was to assume a defensive position on the side of his bed opposite to that of the door. Once he was positive that his tormenters were not entering the room, Az relaxed, reached into his saddlebags, and retrieved three small green balls. Wake me up rudely, will you? This should take care of that problem. He rolled the balls under the door and covered the crack with a towel. “What the-“ Three loud pops echoed down the hallway. “SHIT! Tear gas! Clear out!” There was no longer any banging on his door. Satisfied, Az retrieved his armor, and holding it in his mouth, leapt out of his window. As he approached the ground, he slowly unfurled his wings and began a wide sweeping arc no more than two hoof-lengths above the ground. Hopefully I lined this up right. I’ll be pulling out of this turn pretty fast. Luckily, his distance estimation was correct, and he was able to pull up directly in front of the main doors. Az entered the building cautiously, but soon discovered this caution was unwarranted as the hall remained deserted. Are they making another pass at my room? A significant amount of yelling, muffled now, echoed across the room, confirming his suspicions. Might as well get some breakfast while I’m down here, then. He walked up to a window that was covered up the night before along the left-most wall of the room. Hammer stood on the other side of the counter, and gave Az a grin as he walked up. “Gave them the slip, did ya? How’d you do it?” “Tear gas” Az replied nonchalantly. Hammer barked out a laugh. “Clever. So what’ll you have, kid?” “What do you have? And do you do everything around here?” “Standard fare, oat cakes, toast, fruit, and the like. As for yer second question, I run the forge and the kitchen. That’s about it.” “Huh. In any case, can I have toast and a cup of fruit?” “Sure thing.” Hammer walked back into what Az presumed was the kitchen through a set of swinging double doors. He emerged a few moments later with Az’s food on a tray. “Here ya go, kid. Sounds like the fun’s done upstairs, you’d better grab a seat before they’re all gone.” After thanking Hammer for the food, he balanced the tray between his wings and made his way to a spot at one of the tables. Moments later, a stream of ponies clad in odd-looking masks made their way back into the dining hall, many of whom cast spiteful glares in Az’s direction before removing their masks and ordering food from Hammer. Flow was the last of the wake-up party to walk through the doors, and instead of getting food sat down across from Az at the oak table. “Tear gas. Never saw that coming, but I guess we should have expected something different from you.” He pulled his mask off and tossed it across the table to Az. “Luckily we have these things. Filter most contaminants out of the air. Particularly useful when traversing Draconia, with their sulfur geysers and everything.” Az tossed the mask back to Flow. “So here’s the deal for today. We need to have an academic day with any new recruits, get you spun up on the organization, sworn into service and all that good stuff. Depending on how long that takes us, you might get a chance at the obstacle course outside.” He was about to continue when a puff of green smoke appeared in front of Az, causing him to jolt out of his seat. Despite the dramatic entrance, a scroll lay on his now overly-scorched remaining piece of toast. It was tied around the middle with a red ribbon with a wax seal displaying a six-pointed star. “Looks like you have mail, Az.” Az retook his seat and picked up the scroll. “Well don’t keep us in suspense, read it!” Murmurs of agreement echoed from positions surrounding the pegasus and unicorn. Az rolled his eyes and unfurled the scroll after sliding the ribbon off the end of the paper. “Az, I am writing in regards to one of the collections you have in your library. I hope this inquiry does not inconvenience your training, but I really am curious about this bin full of scrolls that was sitting behind a faux book cover. I can’t figure out what language they’re in, and was hoping you could shed some light on them. If you could fill me in that’d be great. Regards, Twilight Sparkle. P.S. To send this back, just roll it up with the ribbon and say ‘send’ it’ll take care of the rest.” There was smattered laughter around Az as he finished reading. “What’s so funny?” he asked the crowd. A red earth pony, Swift Draw, answered for him. “Rumors have it you and the Princess are in cahoots.” More chuckling. Az cleared his throat before responding to the group at large “I can assure you Princess Sparkle and I are not in ‘cahoots’, thank you very much. I am simply grateful to her and owe her a personal debt.” Murmurs of disbelief greeted his ears as his new compatriots returned to their meals. “So what’s this about scrolls then?” Flow asked. “I’m not exactly an academic, but it sure sounds interesting.” He passed Az a set of quill and ink. “They’re a set of ancient Zebraic writings from around the Second Era After Discord,” Az replied, while writing as much. “I was never able to get them translated though. Not enough contacts in the Plains.” He finished writing his reply to Twilight, wrapped up the note, and said “send.” Just as the Princess had said, the note disappeared in a puff of green flame. “She might have better luck though.” He returned his focus to his food, only to find it too scorched for his liking. Flow chuckled at seeing his ruined breakfast. “Interesting stuff. I thought you said you were a thief though.” “I am, was.” Whoops. Guess not anymore. “But I also went on archaeological expeditions every so often. Museums and nobles alike pay gobs of money for historical artifacts. I kept anything with writing on it though, guess I just like books.” “Looks like you’re full of surprises, kid.” Captain Shade had managed to sneak up behind of Az. “Enough chit-chat though, time to get you thoroughly indoctrinated.” Flow chuckled at the Captain’s last remark. Upon hearing his chuckle, the Captain Shade looked at him “Lieutenant, you’ll be running the drills today, armed combat, full armor.” “Rog.” “Right. Well, Private Wind, you’ll be coming with me today and I’ll run you through the academics. Please come with me.” Captain Shade led Az out of the dining hall through the main doors, turned right, and continued walking along the wall. “The academics room is so infrequently used that we keep it out of the way. It’s on the backside of the building, so we have a little walking ahead of us.” Az took the opportunity to take in his surroundings. The grass was closely cropped, and had a decent amount of springiness to it despite it being solid ground. There were five large circular dirt pits surrounded by rocks fifty hoof-lengths from the long house. Probably for sparring drills. A tightly packed gravel runway stretched for a quarter mile down the center of the field, and a row of practice dummies with targets painted on them were set along the tree wall to the east of the complex. The two ponies reached the end of the building and continued following around its perimeter until they came upon a small door at the back edge of the wall. Captain Shade unlocked the door with a key he had produced magically and swung the door open. Az walked inside and suddenly found he needed to sneeze. The room was covered in a fine layer of dust, and as the Captain turned on the magical lights, Az was able to observe his surroundings. There were two rows of short desks arranged so that students could sit behind them on the floor. More black banners displaying the silver crown and dagger insignia hung around the room. In the front of the room, a podium similar to the one in the main hall stood, collecting its fair share of dust. Captain Shade cleared the dust out of the room magically and took up his place in the front of the room. Az followed suit and sat behind one of the desks. “Well, let’s get this over with” Captain Shade sighed. “Her Majesties’ Secret Guard was founded in the Fifth Era After Discord, after a group of young dragons, presumably rebels left over from one of their revolutions, began to wreak havoc across Equestria. The Princesses were preoccupied with taking care of the Crystal Empire, and found an alternate solution to eliminating the problem themselves. Princess Luna initially came up with the idea of creating a branch of the guard dedicated to eliminating threats to the nation. This unit was to be comprised of the best fighters, thieves, and tacticians from across Equestria, and would receive training and equipment equal to their station. “The Guard of the Fifth Era, as they are now known, quickly dispatched the dragon threat and set forth our basic tenets.” Captain Shade pulled a poster down behind him that displayed a set of four numbered inscriptions. “The first duty of the Guard is to protect the citizens of Equestria at any cost. The second is loyalty to the Lunar Princess, who alone may give us direction and form. The second tenet was later revised to account for Luna’s absence, and more recently the addition of two more princesses.” Az nodded, absorbing the information. Better than any history book he thought. “The third duty of the Guard is to avoid conflict when possible, show mercy, and never use tactics that jeopardize the soul of our great nation. What these tactics may be is up for debate, however, as many see assassination in this fold. I defer to the Princesses where doubt is present. The fourth and final duty of the Guard is the prevention of war. After the first, this tenet is the most important and gives us a purpose when conducting our missions. “After the resolution of the Crystal Empire Crisis, the princesses began what is now considered the spiraling descent towards the War of the Sun and Moon. Some members of the Guard split from the main group to support Princess Luna in her coup attempt, as they found the second tenet more compelling than the rest. When she ultimately failed in the face of the Elements of Harmony, these members were excommunicated from the order and thrown to the Changeling Wastes for their betrayal. The Sixth EAD passed without any major incident, and our reputation for skilled mission execution with no known fatalities or mission failures grew. “I was inducted into the Guard of the Sixth Era, as were most of our members that you’ll see around the base. We hold very tightly to the tradition of excellence and success, even in the face of failure, as that was the case for one thousand years. You will be inducted into the Guard of the Seventh Era, as the return of Princess Luna to us marked the start of the Seventh EAD. Resources nowadays are also scarcer since there are fewer threats across the globe than there used to be. Our traditional funds have been split between us and the new Lunar Guard but we still make do with what is given us. While getting used to taking direction from Princess Luna is going to take time, we remain ready to accept any challenges presented to us. And that’s our history in a nutshell. Any questions?” Az thought for a moment, before asking “is there an archive I could look through? Information has its uses, plus past mission reports could shed some light on how to operate in the future.” Captain Shade gave a small chuckle. “I think I found our next tactician. Lieutenant Clear Sky is our librarian and lead strategist, she should be able to set you up with the archival information. Next?” “You keep switching back and forth between calling the organization the Secret Guard and simply the Guard. Why is that?” “Calling it the Secret Guard is the politically sensitive way of not stepping on the hooves of the Palace and Lunar Guards. Our heritage has roots when there was just one Royal Guard, which was disbanded following the War of the Sun and Moon. We can only guess it was disbanded because there was too much division following Princess Luna’s banishment and Princess Celestia wanted to cut her losses. The Palace Guard was created shortly after the dissipation of the Royal Guard, and the Lunar Guard was only stood up recently. As our guard unit is older than the other two, we had taken to calling ourselves the Guard about one hundred years into Princess Luna’s banishment. Anything else?” Az shook his head. “Excellent, I usually get a bunch of dumb questions, but you seem to be the smartest recruit in a while. Should serve you well. As for military customs and courtesies, we pretty much don’t follow them. The other guard branches will follow the sir and ma’am protocol, as well as saluting officers. Since we’re such a small, tight-knit force, anything like that would be pointless. We don’t have any dress uniforms, just each member’s individual armor set. On protective missions, we go about like any other pony in the crowd. Covert operatives aren’t very covert if everypony notices them. “As for weapons and combat capabilities, pegasi such as yourself are issued daggers, as they tend to be easier to wield in aerial combat, and they can be concealed underneath a wing if need be. Earth ponies carry our heavy weapons, swords, axes, polearms, stuff like that. They also tend to be excellent hoof-to-hoof combatants. Unicorns specialize in ranged weapons like bows, crossbows, and spears since they typically need to be manipulated with magic to work properly. That’s in addition to our natural magical abilities as well. “Rank is largely a formality, and the structure works in five stages. Privates are our recruits and tend to be a relatively small group. Corporals make up the next tier in our hierarchy, and represent the largest group of the Guard. Sergeants are members who have either distinguished themselves early in their career or have been in the Guard for an extended amount of time. We currently have three sergeants, Hammer is one of them.” That makes sense, he seems like a pretty gruff old guy. “Lieutenants represent the first of two officer tiers. They are typically University educated, or are sergeants who somehow managed to impress the Princesses even more. That leaves the final tier: Captain. There’s only one Captain of the Guard at any given point in time, much like there is only one Captain of the Palace or Lunar Guards. We’re in charge. No if’s, and’s, or but’s. “As for rules, we maintain very few besides the tenets, any they allow for little or no interpretation. On a mission, you will perform any task assigned to you by your squad commander. If you are unable to perform this command on grounds of physical or moral limitations, you must find someone else to complete the objective. You also have the prerogative to disobey unlawful or unethical orders, but keep in mind we sometimes need to put our own set of ethics aside in order to see the bigger picture. Nopony is allowed to know our mission details unless they are given the express permission of all three princesses.” “Captain, there are four princesses, aren’t there?” Az interjected “Well yes and no,” Captain Shade replied. “Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, while considered one of our princesses, is also the ruler of a separate country, now that the Crystal Empire has returned. Since this is the case, even she needs permission from Princesses Luna, Celestia, and Twilight Sparkle. Make sense?” Az nodded. “Good, where was I? Right, non-disclosure. Like I said, nopony can know from your lips unless all three princesses gave them permission to know. Outside of those rule sets, follow the tenets and we’ll have no problems. “That’s it for academics, so now we’ll head back to the main hall to get you sworn in in front of everypony.” Captain Shade stood up and Az followed suit. They both walked out of the room, back around the building and in through the main doors. Az noted the sand pits seemed more disturbed than they had been before he and Captain Shade had left for academics. As they walked into the main hall, Az saw that all the members of the Guard were assembled on top of the tables, rather than sitting on the benches. They were also all wearing their armor, which made the entire room look darker due the black mob assembled in the middle of the room. Az noted that there were an assortment of pegasi, unicorns, and earth ponies, each sporting armor arrayed in a different configurations. Some members were wearing light leather armor similar to his, but obviously made by a smith and not a leatherworker. Most of those in the leather armor were pegasi, with a few mares scattered in with each group wearing it as well. Az retrieved his armor from between his wings and made to put it on, but Captain Shade stopped him. “Traditionally, you aren’t allowed to put the armor on until you’ve been sworn in.” He then led Az onto the raised platform that the podium rested on, stood up on his back legs and addressed the crowd. “Friends and comrades in arms, we gather here to confer another into our ranks. What say you?” The black-clad legion raised their right front hooves and stomped down. Az looked at the table where they had stepped down and noticed that the center of the tables had an inch-deep trench that ran the length of each oaken slab. “Very well.” He turned to Az. “Do you swear that in joining us, you contain no ulterior motive or design to bring harm to the Guard, Equestria, or her citizens?” “I swear.” “Do you swear to obey the tenets of the Guard, following not only the letter but the spirit of their intent?” “I swear.” “Do you swear to protect Equestria, even if it means giving your life to the cause?” “I swear.” Captain Shade nodded, and the remainder of the Guard stomped again on the tables. “Then, I, as my right as the First Captain of the Guard of the Seventh Era, admit you, Azure Wind, into our ranks. May the shadows guide you as you protect our nation. You may don your armor.” Az slipped the armor over his wings, slipped his hooves and legs through the holes, and closed the front using clasps attached to its underbelly. He left the hood and mask off, as it seemed to be in poor taste with the occasion. All black. ‘One of us’ I guess. The look fits me though I guess. The crowd in front of him had begun jumping down off the tables and walked up to Az to welcome him as a full member of the Guard.