Chapter 8 – Advancement
Az woke up the next morning and grabbed a fireproof blanket and the instructions for making the Zebra hangover cure from his saddlebags before heading down to the main hall for breakfast. He entered the room to find the typical number of Guard members eating and chatting. He noticed that Longshot was mingling with others in the room as well, which brought a small smile to his lips. Hopefully we erased that stigma last night. It’s good to see her laughing. He trotted up to the food counter and ordered his typical toast and fruit from Hammer before giving him the hangover cure recipe.
“Just make sure the measurements are precise. Like I said yesterday, this stuff can be poisonous if you don’t do it right.”
“Thanks for the warnin’, kid. I’ll be sure to put this to good use down here.” Hammer gave him his tray of food, and Az draped the fireproof blanket over it before finding a spot at the middle table next to Longshot.
“’Morning Az. What’s with the blanket?”
“You’ll see.” No sooner had he said it than there was a puff of green flame and a scroll dropped onto the blanket. “HA! Princess Twilight tends to send me letters asking about my collection while I’m eating breakfast, and they’ve ruined my food on the last couple of occasions.” He picked up the scroll, removed the ribbon, and began reading.
Az, thanks for letting me get that information to the hospital. The doctors there said they’ve never seen anything like it and would begin putting it to use immediately. Hopefully this will put some of my friends’ unease at rest. Fluttershy has even started warming up to you since you put this through to the hospital. Also, you can cut the ‘princess’ stuff, I’m still getting used to it, and I’m sure it’s just a pain for you. Celestia and Luna said they’ll be stopping by the base the end of this week, and asked if I wanted to tag along. I said yes, so maybe you’ll get to tell me about a few of your adventures while the other two are conducting their affairs. Sincerely, Twilight
“And you said she isn’t your marefriend.”
“She isn’t.” Az could hear Flow laughing from across the room. He rolled his eyes and stood up from the table. “I should probably let the Captain know that we’ll be receiving guests Friday though, if he wasn’t already aware.” He looked at his tray. Maybe one day, breakfast. He walked to Captain Shade’s office and knocked. Upon hearing the Captain call from inside, he entered the room. As he was the previous day, Captain Shade was looking over a few documents, his quill poised over a separate piece of paper.
“Good morning Private Wind, can I help you with something?” He hadn’t looked up from his work.
“I just got a letter from Princess Twilight, and she said that the sisters were planning on visiting at the end of the week, just figured I’d let you know if you didn’t already.” Captain Shade dropped his quill and looked up at Az.
“I did not know that. Thank you. Looks like they’re trying for a surprise visit, but we’ll be ready. Was that all?” Az nodded. “OK. Well then, you should get out to training with Longshot, we’ll need you advanced to Corporal by the time the Princesses get here. Undoubtedly Princess Celestia knows about your involvement with the disappearance of her tiara, and she’ll be looking for a Private to mess with.” He flashed a sly grin “and I just had a thought. How difficult do you think it would be to steal if off her head?”
“Uh, not very I think, unless that mane of hers has nerve endings in it. I’m kind of afraid of the horn part though. To my knowledge she can blast copious amounts of fire out of it.” Az was beginning to fear the Captain’s idea of mischief.
“Done deal. While she and Princess Luna are here, it’s your job to steal the tiara right off of her head. It is just the two of them, right? I’d really love to mess with Shining Armor too.”
“Princess Twilight will be coming as well. I can’t speak to the presence of the other Captains.”
“Your marefriend, huh?”
“She’s not-“
“Yeah, yeah, tell it to somepony who cares. Anything else?” Az shook his head. “Then go get assassination taken care of. It’s Wednesday and we only have a couple of days to make you invisible, rank-wise.” Az left the room as Captain Shade picked up his quill again and continued writing as if nothing had happened. He returned to Longshot where she was still sitting at the table next to Az’s abandoned breakfast.
“Any chance we can get started? The Captain wants me promoted before the Princesses get here on Friday.” He swallowed hard to get the lump that had formed in his throat out. “And he wants me to steal the tiara right off of Princess Celestia’s head.” He could feel himself beginning to pale as Longshot began cracking up.
“It hate to say it Az, but you’re dead.” She began laughing while he simply stood next to the table with a look of dread spreading across his face.
“Yeah, yeah. Can we get started though? I’d like to get this assassination business out of the way if at all possible.” Az walked towards the door and Longshot followed, still snickering. They spent the remainder of the morning practicing against the target dummies, which, to Az’s relief, were filled with sand and not fake blood. As the morning progressed, so did Az’s ability to hit his mark with certainty.
After lunch, Longshot began instruction on armed combat. “While you have done most of this before, understand that your steel knife is going to be preferable to that ebony one you have. It’s a great little blade and all, but it won’t last if you’re parrying against a sword or an axe. While I’d love to say that all you need to do is parry, that’s obviously not the case. Pressing an attack is just as important as defending yourself, as you well know from your unarmed combat experience. This will involve targeting the non-assassination vital centers we talked about, such as tendons and muscle groups. While it is not always necessary to outright kill your opponent, you need to ensure that they are incapacitated. Knocking them out with a swift kick to the skull usually does the trick if you don’t want to get your hooves dirty. Think you got all that?” Az nodded, relieved she gave him a non-lethal out for this bit of information.
“So like I said, I’m confident with your hoof-to-hoof combat abilities, so I’ll pass you with that little lecture information. Just remember, lead with your dagger instead of your shoulder and everything else will fall into place. And that’s all I have for you. Congratulations Corporal.” She finished with a smile and looked behind Az to Captain Shade, who had just walked out of the main hall.
“Good to see you’ve finished so quickly Corporal Wind. I’ve already taken care of assigning you to a squad. You’re now attached to team “Nightstalker”, along with Sergeant Longshot here, Lieutenant Flow, Corporal Wise Guy, and Corporal Lightning Shift. The Sergeant can fill you in on team training, typical methods of practice, and any other subtleties associated with the team. If you weren’t planning on doing anything else today though, I would appreciate it if you could give our other two recruits some pointers so we can get them further along in the curriculum.” With that, Captain Shade wheeled around and returned to the main hall.
“So, Sergeant, we have anything else to do today? And you never told me you were promoted above Corporal.”
“That’s because you never asked. And as for anything else to do, no, we don’t. Nightstalker doesn’t practice together very much since we’re essentially the most talented members of the Guard, with the exception of Wise Guy. I’m still trying to work out how he got assigned to our squad, all he does is eat and sleep. ”
“Sounds good, looks like I get to help out some idiots then…” Longshot laughed as Az began walking towards the obstacle course where he could hear Morning Breeze and Morning Light fumbling through the initial infiltration course. Upon reaching the appropriate section of the obstacle course, he approached the supervising member of the Guard, Mountain Stream, who seemed exceedingly frustrated with his students’ progress.
“Dammit, Morning Light, you’ve exposed yourself again! Stop trying to look cool and just perform your assigned task!” He looked up at Az as he walked up next to him.
“Mind if I take a crack at them?”
“Aren’t you a Private too, though?”
“Nah, just got promoted.” Mountain Stream almost visibly brightened. “So I’ll take that as a yes?” He nodded and turned to address his students.
“Morning Light, Morning Breeze! Corporal Wind here is going to take over with you guys for a while. If you need anything, I’ll be in the main hall.” The two recruits began to walk out of the course and towards Az. Morning Light was a unicorn mare who sported a bright yellow coat with an orange mane and tail. Morning Breeze was a red unicorn stallion with a deep blue mane and tail. Both had green eyes. Must be siblings. This could be more difficult than I had thought.
“How the hay did you get promoted already?” Morning Breeze asked incredulously. Morning Light nodded, a scowl darkening her face.
“Because I was already a master thief before I got here. I’m assuming neither of you have stolen the dragon king’s crown before? No? Well then, looks like you need to listen to me then.” Morning Breeze opened his mouth and closed it several times, giving him the appearance of a large red fish out of water. “Now what I’m going to do is separate you two so you can critique each other’s form. The goal of infiltration is to never, ever be seen. It doesn’t matter how you do it, as long as the job gets done. First thing I want you both to do is go up to the catwalk on the far side of the section over there and watch as I do it.” They complied, and Az took up his place at the beginning of the infiltration course.
Once they were in position, Az took a look at his surroundings. There were blocks of granite interspersed throughout the initial section of the course, with a tunnel that appeared to lead underground nestled underneath a boulder on the far left of the course. How have they been failing this? I know foals that could traverse this section easily. He assumed a low crouched position and flowed behind each boulder, ensuring that he would not be seen by the unicorn siblings. He performed a roll between two boulders that placed him in front of the tunnel entrance. He crawled into the tunnel and began to follow it. This must go under that big open area he thought. As he reached the end of the tunnel, he found it opened up behind the viewing stand where Morning Breeze and Morning Light were sitting, watching the infiltration course with great interest.
He flapped once and landed noiselessly behind the two unicorns. He placed his face directly behind their heads and said “boo.” Morning Light jumped so high he thought she was going to fall off the platform, and Morning Breeze was similarly startled but remained on the catwalk.
“H-how did you- you must have cheated!” Morning Light stammered. “We saw you crouch, but then you disappeared! How did you do that?”
“You just need to look at where you’re going before you move.” Az answered. “Slow is smooth, smooth is fast. Therefore, slow is fast. Unless you are under a significant time crunch, you always have time when infiltrating. Guards never watch the same place for any extended amount of time, it’s boring. So which one of you wants to go first?” Morning Breeze raised his hoof. “Fantastic. Well get to it!”
Morning Breeze set up at the far side of the area and fell into a low crouch, which obscured his form from view. There was no indication that he was still on the course until a small flash of light denoting a teleportation gave his position away. “Stop!” Az called. “Start over, no magic, it makes you very visible.” Morning Breeze stood up, scowling, and returned to his place at the start of the course. He once again crouched and disappeared behind the boulders. A few moments later Az heard him emerge from the tunnel behind the viewing stand.
“Very good, Morning Breeze. See how easy that was? Infiltration is only as difficult as you make it. Time is on your side, as long as you don’t announce your presence with magic or something like that. Morning Light, your turn.” The yellow unicorn teleported to the start of the course, and assumed a crouched position. She immediately announced her position by rolling to the next boulder, he tail flashing above the top of the rock. “Stop! Start over.” She stood up and moved back to the beginning of the course. She crouched and did the same thing again. “Stop!” He turned to Morning Breeze. “You want to tell her what she did wrong?” Morning Breeze nodded.
“Hey sis, you need to stop rolling! We can see your tail when you do it! Remember what he said, slow is smooth, smooth is fast!” Az nodded, approving. Morning Light crouched again and disappeared behind the row of rocks again. This time she did not roll to the next rock, and a few moments later, she could be heard scrabbling out of the tunnel.
“Good. It looks like you guys are starting to get the hang of it. You two have any questions for me before I grab Mountain Spring?”
“What do you have to do if you’re under a time restraint?” Morning Breeze asked.
“Be very careful and very good at what you do. You need to keep in mind too that this sort of arrangement isn’t always going to be there for you. You may need to time the guard looking away with your next move. In the end it all comes down to practice. Anything else?” They looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking their heads. “Cool, I’ll go grab Mountain Stream. You two continue practicing, and keep up the good work.”
Az flew back to the entrance to the main hall, and entered the building. He found Mountain Stream going over some paperwork and eating a bowl of salad. “Those two should be ready to go. I just got them past that first iteration of cover.” Mountain Stream looked dumbfounded. “Seriously, they just needed a push in the right direction. They’re all yours.” He found Flow talking to Longshot in her usual corner of the room.
“Hey there big shot, how’d training stupid is and stupid does go?” Longshot asked.
“Got them through the cover scenario practice that was set up out there.” He looked over his shoulder as Mountain Stream exited through the main doors, who shot Az an unbelieving look.
“Seriously?” Flow asked, a disbelieving look on his face.
“Seriously. Do either of you know where I can find Clear Sky? The Captain said she was in charge of the archive and I’d like to take a look at it.”
“I still don’t believe you, but in any event Clear Sky keeps the archival information in her room. It’s number eighteen I think.” Flow answered. “Just be careful with the archives, she’s pretty prickly about them.” Longshot laughed. “What?” he asked her.
“You’ve obviously never seen Az’s collection. He has books from before Princess Celestia and Luna were born. If you think Clear Sky can be prickly, you’ve seen nothing yet.” She let out another laugh, as Flow gave Az another disbelieving look.
“Before the princesses were born?”
“Uh, yeah, my oldest is from about three hundred years before Discord was defeated, so it predates the sisters. I have each page in a vacuum sealed bag, otherwise they’d likely fall apart. Eighteen you said?”
“Yeah.”
“Thanks.” Az walked towards the dormitory hallway, and found his way to door eighteen. He knocked a few times and waited for a response. Nothing. He tried again, only to be greeted at the door by a frustrated looking pegasus mare. Clear Sky had a light blue coat with a white mane and tail. She had a pair of wire frame glasses sitting on her nose which framed her blue eyes.
“What? What do you want?” she asked Az, as if he had interrupted some important business.
“Clear Sky?”
“Yeah, who the hay are you and what do you want?”
“Azure Wind, I just got in a couple days ago. As for what I want I just want to get a look at some of the archival information, particularly the stuff about the Guard of the Fifth Era.”
“Absolutely not. What makes you think I’d let anypony look at books that old?”
“Because I can get you acquainted with somepony who owns pre-Discord Draconian books.” She paused. Good, that got her attention. “But if you’re not interested, I could just keep on walking…”
“No! No, wait a sec. First of all, who is this, and second, how did they get these books?”
“Me, and out on a job. You interested or not?”
“Yes I’m interested! Come in and I’ll get you set up with the archival information.” She wandered back into her room, which Az noted had more bookshelves than living space. “Fifth Era, right? Here we go. Now you need to promise that you’ll be extra careful with these, they’re very old.” She had returned with a stack of fifteen books bound in cracked leather covers. Az took them from her and balanced them between his wings.
“Believe me, you don’t know careful like I know careful. When do you want these back?”
“Whenever, just make sure I get them in the same condition as they are now. When do I get to look at those Draconian books?” Her eyes displayed hunger. I may be able to use this to my advantage in the future. She sure does like books.
“I’ll get them to you on Friday, I’ll have friend drop them by for me. Thanks for the books, I’ll probably get them back to you by the end of the week.” Az walked out of her door and continued down the hall to his room. Upon entering the room, he placed the books on his bed and retrieved the letter that Twilight had sent him that morning. He flipped it over and began writing on the back. Twilight, when you come here Friday can you bring a few of the pre-Discord Draconian texts with you? I needed to strike a deal with our librarian here that involves her getting a look at the archives. Thanks. Sincerely, Az.
He wrapped the letter up in its ribbon and sent it off. Az then turned his attention to the books. Better get started. This stuff can keep me occupied for longer than I need it to. Plus, I need to figure out a way to get Celestia’s tiara. I really hope this doesn’t end with me on fire…