//------------------------------// // (sidestory) A Guard's Troubles // Story: A Cold Life // by gracial //------------------------------// A lone royal guard flew through the sky's, searching for the four ponies. 'Okay, first,' he thought to himself, 'is Pinkamena Pie.' He looked around, and suddenly realized he had no idea where she lived. In fact, he didn't know where any of them lived. "Why do I not know"?! Hay bells, I should have asked before flying off like that. If I go back I'll just look like a fool.' He looked around to see if he could ask any of the ponies around if they knew where she lived. He spotted a filly who was standing by a donation box. He flew over and landed in front of her. "Hello mister!" She said with glee, "would you like to donate to a good cause?" "No, I'm afraid I'm busy right now. Could you tell me where Pinkamena Diane Pie lives?" The guard said with his usual 'business only' demeanor.  "Oh, I know where she lives." "So where is she?" The guard asked, wondering why she wasn't telling him outright.  "If I tell you, will you donate?" The guard nodded his head, "Yes, if it will move this discussion along. What, may I ask, is this going towards?" "Ex-royal guards who were handicapped during the line of duty" the filly said with a smile. His eyes widened in shock. "Oh,um, keep up the good work." He dropped a few bits in the box and gave a salute, which she promptly returned. "Thank you! Now, Pinkie Pie (that's what she goes by) lives at Sugarcube Corner. That's the huge gingerbread house a few blocks to your left." She managed to say it all with a huge grin on her face. "Thank you, have a nice day" he said before galloping towards his destination, leaving the filly by herself. "Wow, for a royal guard, he's not that bright" she said with a smirk. She looked at a small heart above the box that read 'filly scouts fundraiser'. "Well at least it's still going to a good cause!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The guard walked into Sugarcube Corner to find that it was empty. He walked up to the counter to see if there was anypony working. He rang a bell that was between a novelty cupcakes and the cash register. There was a hurried "coming" from upstairs and some scurrying noises. A blue mare came down with her mane in a mess. "Welcome to Sugarcube Corner" she said, "Sorry about that, it's been a slow day." She rubbed some grime out of her eyes and suddenly realized who she was talking to. "Oh my, a royal guard! Does Celestia need our services again?" The guard shook his head, "No ma'am, I'm actually looking for Pinkie Pie." "Oh, she's right upstairs. I'll go get her" she said before trotting back upstairs. A few minutes later, she came down with Pinkie Pie at her side. "Well here she is. Now, before I go back to bed, was there anything you wanted to eat?" "No" he said bluntly. "Alright then, just remember to call Mr. Cake if you need one of us because I'm getting tired of those stairs" she said before going up once again. Pinkie turned to the guard. "So," she said with a smile, "what's up?" "I need to take you to Golden Oaks library. There's an emergency and-" She put a hoof over his mouth. "Say no more, this kind of thing happens all the time. What is it this time? Big meanie wanting to destroy to world? Creature from the Everfree Forest terrorizing Ponyville?" The guard took the hoof off his mouth. "The species and the motive is unknown." She started bouncing up and down. "Oh boy, that's a new one!" "So are you ready to go?" Pinkie nodded her head. "Uh-huh, I'll go ahead and go to the library." The guard shook his head, "I'm sorry, but the roads aren't safe to walk alone. You'll have to come with me to get the rest of your friends." Pinkie rolled her eyes, "Okay." The two headed out the door to find the rest of the ponies. 'At least I'll have somepony to ask for directions" the guard thought. He turned to Pinkie Pie. "So," he said, "I'm afraid the residences of your friends has slipped my mind. Where do they live again?" Pinkie started giggling, "You forgot to ask, didn't you?" The guard shook his head in disappointment. "Nice job" she said before bursting into a fit of laughter. The guard hung his head in shame. "I'm new to this job, but I guess I'm not cut out for it." Pinkie stopped laughing and stood up straight. "Hey," she said, "don't be like that. Everypony had their problems when they're just starting out. You can't let it keep you down!" The guard raised his head and smiled. "Thanks, I guess I just need to try harder." Pinkie smiled, "There you go! Now follow me, we'll get Fluttershy first". With that, the two set off to get the rest of the ponies. When they came to Fluttershy's cottage, they found her outside playing with some ducks. When they asked her to come, she just said yes and sent the ducks back to their pond. Next, they went to Rarity's boutique to find that she was still asleep. When they woke her up and asked her to follow, she said she needed some time to fix herself up before going out. The other three ended up sitting in the living room for and hour before she came out. Finally, they headed for Sweet Apple Acres. The four ponies walked up to the house and Pinkie knocked on the door. It opened to reveal Big Macintosh. "Hiya Big Mac!" Pinkie said, "Can we talk to AJ?" "She isn't home" he responded. "Oh, well where is she?" She went to go raise the door at the crusader's clubhouse a few hours ago." "Alright, thank you!" Pinkie said before turning around to walk away. Big Mac shut the door behind them and the others started following Pinkie. They were just about to leave when Rarity noticed something. "Hey, why is that barn door just open like that? Couldn't that let vermin in?" she asked. They all turned to look at it. "Yeah she's right" Pinkie agreed, "Applejack must have forgotten to close it! I'll go do it for her, you guys just wait here." She trotted towards the barn with the usual spring in her step. She stepped in front of the barn and suddenly let out an ear-piercing screech. The others galloped over to where she was to see what was going on. "Pinkie, are you alright?" the guard asked, having been the first to arrive. She pointed a shaky hoof into the barn and he looked to where she was pointing. The guard facehoofed in annoyance. "Pinkie, it's just a wooden statue that looks exactly like Applejack. There's nothing to be afraid of." The other four looked around the corner to see what was causing all the fuss. They were surprised to see that the statue looked a lot like their orange friend. "I know this now, but that cold, wooden face caught me by surprise! Talk about jeepers creepers, that was freaky!" Pinkie shuddered to emphasize her point. Rarity sighed, "Pinkie darling, you must not scare us like that. We thought you were in trouble." Fluttershy flew up to the statue and gently tapped it out of curiosity. It stood perfectly still for a few moments, then suddenly its jaw dropped and a scroll rolled out onto the floor. Fluttershy squeaked in shock and backed up. She stood still as the statue for a few seconds before she started slowly inching towards the scroll. She picked it up and brought it over to the rest of the ponies. She gave it to the guard and trotted next to Rarity. "Wait, why did you give me the scroll?" The guard asked. "I'm, uh, not a very loud reader" she murmured. He shrugged and opened the scroll to read it. "What the? I can't read this!" "Aw, why not?" Pinkie asked. "It's just a bunch of scribbles. What's the point of this?" He continued to look over the scroll to see if he could find anything. Rarity was finding this day to be weirder and weirder by the minute. "A strange monster on the loose, a wooden statue that looks exactly like Applejack, and a scroll that makes no sense coming out of that same statue? What's going on in this town?" "Oh, I found something!" the guard shouted before anypony could respond, "It isn't just scribbles, it's a bunch of letters jumbled together in a random order. Though, I can see a few words in there." "Do they say anything?" Rarity asked, hoping it might help make sense of all this. He nodded his head, "Yeah, a few phrases here and there. Mostly just saying things like "run" or "there is no hope", but I did find two that are interesting. The first I saw said "night and day will end forever", and the second said "twilight will fall"." The four other ponies gasped in shock. "H-how can the day and the night both end?" Fluttershy asked weakly. "And if day and night end, wouldn't twilight end with them?" Pinkie asked. The guard suddenly had a very bad feeling in his gut. "We need to get back to the library. Fluttershy, you carry the scroll. Pinkie Pie and Rarity, I need you two to help me with carrying this statue." "Wait, what if that statue belongs to the Apple family?" Pinkie asked. Rarity shook her head, "Pinkie, I promise you that thing doesn't belong to them." "Hey," the guard interrupted, "we can talk later, but right now we need to get back to the library. You two get the front, I'll get the back." As he finished, he walked over to the statue and motioned for them to hurry up. The two mares looked at each other, shrugged, and went to help carry the statue.