In Duty's Name

by Cloudhammer

02 - Ominous Portents

Chapter 2: Ominous Portents

The moon hung low in the sky, its silvery light streaming through the window as Cloudhammer finished buckling the last strap on his armor. He shook himself gently to settle the plates so they wouldn’t chafe, and turned to look tenderly at his wife, still fast asleep. Her sky blue coat seemed to soak up the moon’s glow rather than reflect it, so she seemed to shine with her own inner light. Cloudhammer had loved that about her ever since he had first seen her during a visit to Cloudsdale all those years ago. He had just been promoted to Captain, and had been one of the pegasi selected at random to escort Celestia to the Best Young Flyer’s Competition. He had, admittedly, only been half-paying attention when Contestant #12 had been announced, and the figure that emerged from behind the curtain stole all his attention away. He barely remembered the small smile Celestia had on her face when she noticed, or the smirk the other pegasus had when they returned to Canterlot. He had resolved on the spot to try and find her again the next chance he got for some leave.

His expression soured as his thoughts swung back to yesterday, when his wife had opened the door to see him standing there, left wing wrapped in bandages and held against his side by the sling. She had of course gotten into a panic about it, thinking his wing was broken or worse, and once he had assured her it wasn’t, she had started getting angry with him over giving her such a fright, as well as his constantly pushing himself to keep up with pegasi nearly a third his age. After a while her anger had subsided, and she had apologized yet again, saying she was only worried that one day he really will come home with a serious injury, or worse, that it’ll be the Princess standing there to deliver the news. Soon after that they had finally gone to sleep, all the previous hostility forgotten.

He flexed his left wing, the muscles protesting a little as they were stiff from being held in place all night. He quietly gathered the bandages and the sling and hid them in the small chest under the window. His wife would find them eventually, but he knew his own body well enough to make the call on his own, her opinion to the contrary or not. He decided that he might not run the recruits through the Sting again, but give them a relaxing marathon flight out to Cloudsdale and back instead.

Suddenly, the predawn quiet was broken by the sound of a knock at the door. Sighing softly, and with one more smile at his wife, he pulled the sheet back over her, and trotted out of the bedroom, nosing the door shut behind him. Trotting across the combination living room/kitchen, he grabbed the door handle in his teeth and pulled the door open to reveal the perpetually smiling face of Captain Flare, one of the Unicorn Guard’s captains and surprisingly enough one of Cloudhammer’s closest friends, despite the slight rivalry between the Pegasus and the Unicorn Guards.

“Morning Flare, what brings you around?” Cloudhammer asked as he stepped outside and pulled the door shut behind him.

“Well somepony’s got to make sure your lazy flank is up in time for the morning briefs. If I didn’t keep a tab on you, you’d probably let your age get the better of you and sleep in until midday.” Flare deadpanned as they started walking along the dimly lit streets.

“Oh, and what about that time me and Stargazer caught you napping inside that barrel during your second year? ‘Practicing evasive techniques’ my left wing, your face was redder than an apple.” Cloudhammer snorted.

“How has Stargazer been doing? She never sends letters anymore; last I heard she was going to try out for the Wonderbolts.”

“I got a letter from her a while back, she did manage to get in, but get this, 3 months after joining, she finds herself a nice stallion and ended up retiring to have a couple foals. Told me they were thinking about moving to Fillydelphia and settling down.”

“That’s good, was starting to think she’d be single forever. Oh, by the way, how’s that request form you put in to General Arrow doing? Heard some rumors from one of the aides that after he got it the sounds of a breaking chair were heard, along with a string of language fit to make mares blush.”

Cloudhammer snorted derisively. “I’m sure he’s going to reject it again. We need new training equipment, and our procedures haven’t been updated in ten years, despite the complete breakdown we had when Nightmare Moon came back, and the fiasco with Discord six months ago only made it worse!”

Flare raised a hoof in a mollifying gesture. “I understand you completely, it’s the same on our end, we spent 2 full days cleaning all that mess out of the fountains. You know, you could actually accept the promotions the Princess keeps offering, and then you’d actually be able to do something about the problems, instead of complain to me about them.”

Cloudhammer sighed. “True, but if I moved up, who’d take over training the recruits? Not to mention there’d be no one to keep your sorry flank in line…” Flare cut him off.

“Look, you don’t have to lie to me Cloudhammer; I know you’re still upset over that last visit with your son. The colt’s his own stallion now, if he wants to do something other than serve, then that’s his choice to make, and neither you nor I nor the princesses have the right to say otherwise.” Flare gave his friend a steady gaze as Cloudhammer’s eyes hardened for a moment, before he sighed heavily.

“I suppose so, it’s just a lot, you know? It feels like the weight of the whole family’s coming down on my shoulders, and I’ve got enough on them already as it is. To be perfectly honest, I’ve been starting to feel like I’m reaching the end of my time. I’m not a young colt anymore by a long stretch, and… Flare?” Cloudhammer turned to see his friend sitting on his rump on the cobblestone, his expression one of disbelief.

“Are you sure you’re the same Cloudhammer? I never thought to see the day when you’d honestly talk about retirement without throwing in some choice phrases and/or bucks to whoever was around you.” Getting back to his hooves, Flare caught up and the pair resumed their walk towards the Guard's office building. The imposing structure was entirely out of place amongst the delicate spires of the rest of the city, it’s squat, square-edged form a constant source of irritation to the nobleponies, who would without fail complain about it once per year to the princess, who in turn would politely remind them that the Guard had an edict dating back 800 years that they were above the decree of the civilian council, and only answered to her. However, their attention was drawn by another unicorn guard, his breastplate marking his rank as a private. He drew to a stop in front of the two captains, breathing hard.

“What is it Private?” Flare asked with a look of mild concern on his face.

“Prin-Princess Celestia has called for an emergency meeting in the throne room, all senior Guard officers are ordered to attend, as well as one of the headponies for the School for Gifted Unicorns, and several nobleponies were also asked to come.” The captains glanced at each other nervously before dismissing the private and turning to make their way into the castle instead.

“Guess this means we don’t get breakfast again.” Flare mused as they walked.

“I suppose so.” Cloudhammer grumbled in agreement.

Entering the castle, the two made their way through halls covered in ornate decorations, paintings of famous ponies from Equestria’s past looming over everypony who trod the worn stone passages. The normally bright and cheerful atmosphere that the two were used to was absent, instead, the castle staff moved quickly to their destinations without speaking to anypony else, and the guard ponies who normally bore at least an attempt at a friendly demeanor instead had eyes that could have made steel look soft and cuddly. The two captains couldn’t shake the feeling that something ominous was about to happen, and Cloudhammer in particular remembered that unicorn who had been brought in, and wondered if that had something to do with it. His musings were interrupted by seeing a semi-familiar shape making its way towards them, indigo mane swirling in a non-existent breeze. The two captains stopped in place and bowed as one, their chins resting on the passage floor.

“Princess Luna.” Cloudhammer said, a note of hardness entering his voice despite himself. Luna turned her gaze to him, a well-hidden look of sorrow touching her eyes. But it was all too easy for Cloudhammer to pick it out, years of service with Celestia giving him excellent practice at picking up the subtle details that even the most skilled pony couldn’t hide.

“Captain Cloudhammer, I am pleased you received the envoy sent to find you. And Captain Flare, good to see you as well.” Her speech was much improved since she had paid her visit to Ponyville the last Nightmare Night, not to mention the lack of window-shattering volume that had led to more than one member of the castle staff getting their hearing fixed during her first few weeks back.

“So, anything you can tell us about what’s going on Princess? All we were told was that an emergency meeting had been called.” Flare asked, his tone somewhat kinder than Cloudhammer’s.

Luna shook her head. “Nay, Celestia hasn’t even told me the details, only that it was extremely important. Now, if I may be excused, the moon needs to be lowered and the sun raised, after which my sister and I will join you in the throne room.” With that, the alicorn trotted past the two, with Flare smiling respectfully as she passed, only to turn to Cloudhammer with a look of mild annoyance after she turned the corner.

“Are you ever going to lighten up around her?” He asked indignantly as they continued towards the throne room.

“What do you mean?” Cloudhammer’s voice was even, yet his eyes smoldered with annoyance.

“I mean you still giving Princess Luna a hard time. She’s been back for nearly a year and a half, isn’t it time to let it go?” Flare instinctively took a half step to the side as Cloudhammer glared at him.

“You weren’t there in Ponyville when she came back Flare, you didn’t have to suffer getting struck by lightning, see two of your friends hitting the ground wounded, and you unable to move to find out if they were alive or not. Razorwind is still re-growing the wing feathers he lost that day.”

“That may be, but Razorwind’s forgiven her already, so why haven’t you? She’s not Nightmare Moon anymore, the Bearers saw to that, and even Celestia’s determined that whatever made her into that monster is gone for good. So why do you still cling to the notion that she’ll somehow turn back?”

Cloudhammer sighed. “Some things are just harder to forgive than others.”

Flare looked ready to say more, but they had come before the open doors to the throne room, and upon entering, they could see that the normally vast empty space before the throne was now taken up by a large wooden table, upon which was a map of Equestria, and several clustered groups of ponies stood about whispering nervously to themselves. Spotting a group of other Guards, Cloudhammer and Flare went over to join them. Cloudhammer’s eyes narrowed a bit as a unicorn shifted and he saw General Arrow berating a junior pegasus for apparently bringing him the wrong form. The pegasus immediately took off and flew out the door, presumably to get the right form.

Arrow shook his head irritably before turning to Cloudhammer and Flare. “Young pegasi these days, always flitting about and not paying a lick of attention to the orders they’re given.” His eyes narrowed a bit at seeing Cloudhammer. “Captain, so good of you to finally join us. I suppose I’ll tell you now, your request to update our training procedures and for new equipment can’t be filled at this time, the budget simply can’t support it.” His thin smile soon turned to a frown as Cloudhammer snapped irritably

“Having the very best for the trainees that will take up the armor after us just ‘isn’t in the budget’? Then go to the council and demand more bits, or ask Celestia what she could do! We haven’t updated either our training regimen or our equipment in nearly 10 years! What happens when the next disaster strikes? The complete breakdown we had when Nightmare Moon returned or when Discord broke free is more than enough evidence that something needs to be changed!”

The general’s face started turning scarlet with rage, his wings instinctively flaring in challenge. “Mind your tongue Captain or I’ll see you demoted! Remember to whom you speak!”

Cloudhammer looked ready to say more, but he noticed the sun had been creeping over the horizon for the past few minutes, and the noise in the room was dying down. With an irritated snort, he turned in time to see Celestia and Luna stride into the room and take their place at the head of the table in front of the throne. Celestia’s gaze seemed to pick out everypony’s in the room, lingering for a moment longer on Cloudhammer and the lack of bandages on his wing. With a gesture and a flicker of magic, the doors slammed shut and a shimmering curtain of light closed off the windows, making the sound echo weirdly as Celestia began to speak.

“Please everypony; take a spot at the table.” As one, the groups fanned out, until everypony surrounded the table, all eyes on the princesses. With a gentle cough, Celestia motioned towards Canterlot on the map. “Late last night, a unicorn collapsed in the street. While the cause of the collapse was relatively minor, of deeper concern was the reports by witnesses that just before the collapse, the unicorn’s magic failed and would not work. Upon examination by a doctor, the patient’s magic had actually diminished, and did so again during the examination. Fortunately, the patient did not continue to lose magic, and is now recovering. What caused this meeting to be called is this.” With another pulse of magic, the map actually zoomed in, until a close-up of the street where the unicorn had collapsed was shown. A red circle drew itself around an area roughly 10 hooves across in the middle of the street. “When I returned to the site of the incident, magical probing of the area revealed that within this space, magic effectively did not exist. In fact, the only reason I was able to determine its area was by my magic’s failure as well.” At this revelation a low murmuring began, for if something was strong enough to nullify the magic of an alicorn as powerful as Celestia, there was no telling what else it could do. “There is, however, some good news to this. As I examined the space, it began to shrink and soon vanished.” She raised a hoof to quell the relived sigh that started to sweep the room. “However, upon casting a spell to examine the area’s past, I soon found that the patch did not exist until a few minutes before the patient walked into it. This means that it could happen again at anywhere, anytime.”

Another wave of fearful muttering swept the room before Celestia was able to silence them again. “This brings me to the second part of this meeting, where we will work to understand both the cause of this unknown disturbance, and how to prevent it from harming anypony else. In order to do this, I first task the Pegasus Royal Guard with forming teams to go to every city and village in Equestria. They will carry a letter from me empowering them to take any and all reasonable measures to ensure that all ponies are informed of what to do should the phenomenon appear there. Captain Cloudhammer will be responsible for the actual determining of the teams. Doctor Silverheart, as the unicorn who treated the first patient, will include his report on the effect the phenomenon has on a pony’s physical health. As for those of us here in Canterlot, it is crucial that we serve as a steadying beacon during the days ahead, for both each other and for Equestria. I now open the floor to discussion. Captain Cloudhammer, I’d like you, Captain Flare and Bastion Yorsets of the School for Gifted Unicorns to accompany me please.”

As soon as she finished speaking, the room erupted into a frenzy of shouting, everypony wanting to get their own word in edgewise. Celestia spoke briefly with Luna, and then motioned for Cloudhammer and the others she had called for to follow her. As they exited the throne room, the booming voice of Luna could be heard calling for silence, before the doors slammed shut again. Once the doors were sealed, Celestia led the three ponies to a small antechamber just down the hall, and again shut the door and magically soundproofed it. She then breathed a small sigh before settling abruptly to the floor.

Cloudhammer and Flare reacted instantly, both moving to within a foot and asking as one, “Princess, are you all right?”

She raised her head and smiled a bit at the ingrained loyalty her guards showed her, pushing herself back onto her hooves. “I’m fine, it’s just been a long night and I needed a moment to rest. Besides, I do find it curious that you worry for my condition when you’re so cheerfully disregarding your own.” Cloudhammer almost looked a little sheepish at the remark, but managed to maintain a serious expression on his face. She sighed, shaking her head like a parent with a recalcitrant child. “Now, I’ve already given you one task Cloudhammer, but there is another one I must ask of you once you have finished assembling the teams.”

“Whatever you ask, Princess.” Cloudhammer replied almost on reflex.

“I need you to select one more team of pegasi and a chariot large enough for seven ponies. You will go to Ponyville and retrieve the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, the dragon Spike, and the zebra Zecora. Once you have done so, please bring them all back here to Canterlot.”

“As you command, but I admit, I am confused about this zebra, what part does she have in this?” Cloudhammer asked curiously.

Celestia sighed tiredly. “I recall reading in an old scroll from the archives that zebras, while not possessing the same degree of raw magical power like unicorns, were able to harness the natural energy in the earth through the use of drawing ritual lines in the ground” Everypony’s eyes widened in understanding as Celestia continued, “I am not yet sure if these lines will be of any use, but I am willing to consider any and all options to deal with this crisis. Therefore, I intend to ask Zecora what she knows of this subject.”

“I understand, Princess.”

“Captain Flare, I charge you with picking the best magic users in the Unicorn Guard and assisting my dear Bastion here with anything he requires. If there is a means to combat these anomalies, it will likely be in the Archives. You will also divide the remaining Unicorn Guards up into teams to accompany Captain Cloudhammer’s teams to the different cities around Equestria and assist the locals in helping anypony afflicted. Above all else, do not let yourselves become affected by this same phenomenon. Earth ponies seem the least affected by it, as they have the smallest amount of active magic within their bodies, so have them assist you in retrieving anypony who becomes a victim. Thus far, nothing indicates that the effects are contagious, but take all necessary precautions nonetheless.

“I understand Princess.” Flare said at once.

“Princess, do you have any idea what could be causing this phenomenon?” Bastion asked nervously.

“Regrettably I do not; this is something I’ve never seen before anyway. However, I have absolute faith that you and the fine staff at the School will be able to help figure this out.” The princess smiled as she said this, and involuntarily each pony present felt more confident, both in themselves and in their princess.

“Well, with your permission Princess, Flare and I had best get to dividing up the Guard, and I’ll bring the Bearers here as soon as possible.” Cloudhammer and Flare saluted firmly before marching out of the room.

…

“ALL RIGHT! Listen up you lot!” Cloudhammer’s voice cut across the muttering of the recruits as he paced in front of the assembled mass of the Pegasi Royal Guard. He knew Flare would be doing the same across the training grounds with the unicorns. “There’s been an unknown event right here in Canterlot, something that disrupts magic. We do not yet know if this event is singular in nature or if it’s contained to the city. Therefore, Celestia and Luna have ordered the entire Guard to mobilize!” At this, a quiet round of whispering occurred; nopony present could remember a time when the entire Guard had moved out at once like this. “KEEP IT DOWN UNTIL I’M FINISHED! Whatever you may have heard, whatever you may think, none of that matters right now, and do you know why?” Cloudhammer stopped his pace by the window and pointed a hoof outside, over the wall. “Because out there is our home, out there are ponies who DO NOT have the training or the discipline that we have here to deal with a crisis like this. Therefore, we are going to be divided into teams and dispatched to each city and town in Equestria, to help with preparations and to maintain order. I have the rosters right here,” and he motioned to a corkboard hung on the wall behind him, “And once I finish, you will form up into an orderly row and find your assigned city and team leader. During this deployment, your team leader has all the same authority as I do, cross him and it’s the same as crossing me, with the same punishments. Second Lieutenants Soft Breeze and Singing Dawn, First Lieutenant Willow Spark, you will not be participating in this deployment. Instead you will be coming with me on a different mission.” He sighed and looked out over the sea of white coats and blue eyes, wishing he’d had more time to train them.

“I’m not going to lie to you; this is unlike anything that’s happened in the entire history of this nation. However, I can tell you that it doesn’t matter, because the Guard has stood unbroken against every threat that’s tried to bring down Equestria for over a thousand years, and WE WILL NOT FAIL NOW! AM I UNDERSTOOD?”

His voice was like a rally horn for the pegasi, who all leaped to their hooves. “SIR YES SIR, CAPTAIN CLOUDHAMMER SIR!”

“Alright, now fall in and make your princesses proud, Breeze, Dawn and Spark with me.” Cloudhammer strode out of the room to a thunder of hooves. Once outside he took a deep breath, the feeling of unease he had been holding back finally making itself known. He turned to see the three pegasi he had selected to carry out the other mission Celestia had charged him with. “Alright, for the four of us, the Princess wants us to go to Ponyville, and to gather the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony, as well as the zebra Zecora from the Everfree Forest. Willow, once we land, you will go to the zebra’s home and bring her to the library. If she gives you any trouble, you have authority to explain to her the scope of the danger facing Equestria. If she still refuses, you come tell me and I’ll see to bringing her myself. Above all else, we must not cause a panic, understood?”

A chorus of assents responded, all the assembled pegasi well trained in receiving strange orders and acting on them.

“Alright then, let’s move out.” Fifteen minutes later, a quartet of pegasi could be seen pulling a larger chariot amongst the dozens of chariots departing Canterlot in all directions.

…

Meanwhile in Ponyville, the rays of the morning sun shone through the window of a certain library, directly into the eyes of a certain purple unicorn. She squinted, raising a hoof to block the offending light. Yawning as she rolled out of bed, she looked out the window and smiled, before narrowing her eyes at a swarm of tiny specks in the distance near Canterlot. “Hmmm, I wonder what that could be, did something happen last night?”

Comments

[Cloudhammer]

My apologies if any section seems rough, I got tired of waiting for my proofer and decided to turn it loose as it stands now heh

[Rust]

Hehehe, so, you got your ass handed to you by 'ole moony, eh?
I like where this is heading, great work mate.
Excellently written chapter.
What a way to introduce a problem, too!
Good things are coming your way should you keep pumping out words like this.

[LysanderasD]

So... as I promised, reading through your story now. I understand that things change as you continue to write, and a lot of what I have to say now may not be relevant to the latest chapter; I'll check that out when I get there. But I figure I should leave my thoughts here while they're still in my head.

A lot of what I'm thinking about are largely aesthetic things, so pardon me if I seem needlessly nitpicky.

If the action of a sentence continues past the dialogue, do not end the dialogue with a period, but rather with a comma. "'Yes,' said Flare" as opposed to "'Yes.' said Flare." Putting periods there interrupts the flow of the story; it necessitates a longer pause and interrupts the flow of dialogue -> speaker. Furthermore, if you're using exclamation points or question marks, do not capitalize the rest of the sentence ("Is this a question?" asked Flare).

Captain is not a terribly high rank in the military; I point this out only because it seems odd to me that a Captain would be in charge of recruits. This may simply be my inexperience speaking: I am not a soldier and don't know how these things play out in the actual armed forces. I understand the appeal of consonance, but wordplay does not a realistic story make. Maybe I'm wrong, though; just putting that out there.

Beware the info dump: it is extremely jarring for a story to suddenly stop the action to deliver a huge amount of backstory all in one go. A good story should not have to do that; things should be explained as they go, as they become relevant, or even simply as they run across the mind of the narrator; but stepping back to reveal even a paragraph or two's worth of information interrupts the story terribly and it's sometimes hard to find one's place again.

My last real nitpick is that you tend to have very very large paragraphs. Now there's nothing necessarily wrong with this; they aren't big enough to consistently be a bother (although beware of making paragraphs too big because people tend to skip past things that look huge--the tl;dr phenomenon, so to speak); remember that paragraphs exist to separate ideas. Just because you have a long period of Cloudhammer thinking does not mean it has to be shunted into a single paragraph; it is good to separate trains of thought, or to jump to a new paragraph when Cloudhammer reaches a conclusion or moves to a different subject altogether.

Other than that... well, this story's intrigued me so far. I'll be keeping an eye on it, and I'll keep reading and pointing things out if they come to my attention.

[Rainbow Sparkle]

Yay foreshadowing? Also...If you ever go back and fix things, I suggest the last bit with Twilight might not be a bad idea. It seems a tad forced.

[Earthpatriot117]

This doesn't end with all humans turned into ponies is it? Cause if it does I'd rather know now, I don't got anything against stories like that, but there not my types in the least.
Story sounds awesome so far!