> The Royal Thief
>  by LTBroski
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Chapter 1: A Thief in the Night
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1 - A Thief in the Night

A light rain fell on a sleepy Canterlot.  The streets remained largely deserted, with the exception of the bar district, which still buzzed with activity in the wake of the recent coronation of Princess Twilight Sparkle.  Loud partyers stumbled through the cobblestone streets, trying to decide through an inebriated haze which bar they would try next.  Most patrons favored the ever-popular cider house, a short but sprawling log cabin that served “over 100 of the finest ciders from across Equestria”.  Ponies with harder stomachs favored the other, liquor-focused bars or the loud and flashy clubs that dotted the street.  Guard ponies lingered around streetlights, their golden armor glittering under the yellow light emitted by the lamps.  To say that they were simply keeping the peace would not fully detail their job that night.  It had been weeks since the “Black Dagger”, a master thief native to Canterlot, had performed a heist.  Last time he was suspected of stealing one of Princess Celestia’s tiaras, and it was anypony’s guess what could happen next.  
For “The Black Dagger”, drunk partyers presented far too easy targets.  Az, or Azure Wind as his parents named him, stalked the rooftops closer to Canterlot’s famous Doughnut Joe’s, waiting for his mark to emerge and head back to her suite at the castle.  His hooves made no noise on the dark red tile roof while he paced thanks to enchanted horseshoes that muffled his movement.  This mare was almost not worth his patience.  Almost.  She seemed overly trusting and an easy enough mark, plus she was staying in the castle.  The castle oozed of opulence and grandeur, and was the most heavily guarded and defended location in the city.  Anything this mare brought with her would be more than worth stealing.
Az considered himself the best in the business.  Clients often came to him with the express purpose of “acquiring” expensive or rare commodities.  This obviously cost them a great deal, but his reputation more than made up for the expense.  Most ponies considered Canterlot the safest place in all of Equestria, with a nearly non-existent number of pickpockets and petty thieves.  Az, on the other hoof, was invisible, a ghost that stole away with one’s most prized possessions while leaving them none the wiser.  Sometimes this called for replacing the item with a worthless copy, sometimes it involved convincing the owner, one way or another, that they misplaced their valuables.  The moniker “The Black Dagger” came from his earlier days, when he slipped up and almost got caught, only escaping thanks to his knife.  Events such as that never happened anymore.  
Az himself was a pegasus stallion with a grey coat and a closely cropped cobalt blue mane, and his cutie mark portrayed a winged book.  When on a job, however, he covered himself in a specially tailored set of black leather armor with a myriad of pockets, which proved useful for holding his array of distraction and infiltration tools.  These included smoke pellets, small incendiary firecrackers, ropes, grappling hooks, and a knife carved out of ebony and honed to a razor’s edge, hence “Black Dagger”.  He covered his face with a hood and mask that still allowed for perfect forward and peripheral vision.  His enchanted horseshoes were a relatively recent addition to his ensemble, and cost him several months’ earnings.  
He prided himself as an excellent flyer and had agility that rivaled that of most cats.  As such, his armor (which served solely as a precautionary element) left his legs uncovered so he remained unencumbered.  On nights like this, however, he wished he had asked for sleeves as a shiver rolled down his spine.  This mare is costing me time and money, she better have something work taking he thought.  While he primarily contracted his services to clients, he stole items of high value to ensure he had enough money for emergency expenses.  
As if on cue, the mare walked out of the doughnut shop and began to make her way towards the castle.  She was a yellow pegasus with a long pink mane and tail; her cutie mark displayed three pink and blue butterflies.  Altogether unassuming, but Az had a knack for picking out nothing but the best marks, plus the castle added enough challenge to keep his skills sharp.  He began following her along the rooftops, thankful that there was no moon to illuminate his figure against the night sky.  Good thing I kept that contact in the weather service.  Burned bridges are far too difficult to rebuild or replace, he thought as he watched his mark take a left up the hill that led to the castle gates.  He’d taken this route dozens of times before.  There were plenty of trees for a stealthy approach on street-level, and numerous chimneys for a rooftop infiltration.  
Hmm lots of guards at the gate tonight, must have been for that big event that was up here last week.  No matter, they never leave the courtyard guarded.  He took a flying leap off the building closest to the wall, spread his wings and glided into the tallest tree in the yard.  Flapping is always easier, but gliding is significantly quieter, and only the rustle of some leaves betrayed the fact that Canterlot’s master thief had infiltrated castle grounds.  He waited for the yellow pegasus to enter the grounds, noting with particular interest how the guards treated her with respect usually reserved for the princesses.  Interesting.  This may be more profitable than I thought.  A tourist who is staying in the castle who commands respect from the palace guards.  Definitely earning my lunch tonight. He grinned behind his mask, his grey-blue eyes sparkling under his hood.
Az watched her enter the castle proper and waited, as he assumed she was ascending the stairs directly inside the giant double doors.  He looked about for another tree within the courtyard that would give him a decent vantage point of the guest suites, which if he remembered correctly, lay in the westernmost wing of the castle.  He flew to a tree nearer to the wing of the castle and waited.  The wing itself would have been an impressive sight, had he not been to the castle before.  Marble stonework, meticulously cut and fitted framed massive windows, which were set in gilded frames.  Each window came to a rounded point twenty hoof-lengths from the bottom and offered a perfect view into the hall.  Before long, the yellow pegasus entered the wing and made her way down the padded burgundy carpet to what could be assumed was her room, seven doors from the entrance to the wing.
At this point, it was only a waiting game until it could be assumed the mare was asleep.  Az figured an hour would be a suitable amount of time to wait, so he found the driest spot in the treetop he could, and huddled up to conserve heat and energy.  It was fortunate that it was raining, since the Lunar Guard, which consisted primarily of bat ponies, would not be coming out to patrol since their wings tended to not work very well in the rain.  Their ability to see better in the dark could have proven troublesome.  
After silently waiting in the tree for close to an hour, Az slowly got up, as to avoid shaking branches and drawing attention to himself, and glided to the stylized marble ledge of the window.  He quickly found the latch to open the leftmost section of the window, unlatched it with his knife, and pushed it in slowly.  The window glided silently until it was roughly halfway open, where it stopped with a small creak.  For the castle, you’d think they would be able to grease the damn window hinges he thought, slightly agitated, and continued inside, alighting on the padded carpet.  Better close this window, there’s a chance somepony could notice the breeze.  He pushed the window closed again, and secured the latch.
Az’s heart rate began to increase as the made his way to his mark’s door.  He glanced left and right before peering through the keyhole.  Good, she’s asleep.  Maybe not as challenging as I thought.  He opened the door a crack, slunk into the room, and began to scope out his surroundings.  In the middle of the far wall was the mare’s bed, where she slept quietly under a plush purple comforter.  The bedframe was a rich mahogany, and extended to the ceiling via four posts carved to imitate tree trunks.  The carpet was a high-quality Saddle Arabian weave of flora local to the desert country.  A hearth in the corner of the room glowed softly, preventing the chill of the night from entering the room from the bay window directly next to it.  
The valuables will likely be…aha! He grinned as he noticed something glittering in the glow of the coals.  Az crept across the room to inspect his finding, and pulled up next to the dresser next the bed.  He glanced at the mare to ensure she was sleeping before grabbing the jewelry with his teeth.  It was a heavy gold necklace of some sort with a pink gemstone set in the center.  Some sort of sapphire maybe? The clarity and facets seem right.  Damn this thing is huge! It could set me up for at least five years, maybe more.  Az tucked the necklace into one of the pockets on his chest.  I could pay for that vacation Ma wanted to take all those years ago.  Or at least pay for her to go there.  He peeked at the necklace again. Maybe both he grinned.  Spreading his wings, the castle grounds shrank as he made for his apartment in downtown Canterlot, nopony the wiser.

> Chapter 2: To Find a Element
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2 – To Find an Element
Fluttershy paced back and forth in her room, her blue eyes glittering if on the verge of tears, which would no doubt stain her pink mane.  She was surrounded by four other ponies, a cyan pegasus with a striking rainbow mane and tail, an orange cowpony with straw-colored mane and tail and a Stetson adorning her head, a pink earth pony with a main and tail reminiscent of cotton candy, and a white unicorn with a perfectly groomed purple main and tail.  Each displayed concern at seeing their friend like this, and they took up varying positions around the room.
“I’m sure everything is going to be fine, darling”, the white unicorn, Rarity, cooed soothingly.  “Twilight will be able to think of something.  It’s not like the Elements are common household goods, there’s bound to be some kind of magical trail…” Fluttershy looked even closer to tears than she had before.
“I-I know, but how could I let one of the most important artifacts in the history of, um, ever get stolen?”  Tears began to well up at the corners of her eyes.  The cyan pegasus, Rainbow Dash, got up from her position on the bed and rushed over to comfort her childhood friend by draping a wing over her back.  
“There’s nothing you could have done Fluttershy.  Whoever did this was obviously a professional.  It could have happened to any of us.” She grinned, and continued “plus, you could use the stare on whoever did it as payback, and then we’ll proceed to kick their flank into next year.”  Fluttershy gave a weak smile in response, and looked further from crying than she had.
The sound of hooves took everypony’s attention to the door, where a lavender alicorn with a purple mane and tail had just galloped in.  “I got here as soon as I could” she panted, “Stupid nobles and their stupid complaining.  Fluttershy, are you all right?  What happened? How can I help?”  Twilight Sparkle, took a deep breath, and looked around the room at the varying levels of surprise and bemusement from her friends’ faces.  “What?”
“Still getting’ used the wings, sugarcube” the orange cowpony, Applejack, commented.  The others nodded.
“Oh.” She looked back at her newer appendages, and ruffled them uneasily.
“Well Twi, can you help out?” Rainbow Dash asked, taking her wing off of Fluttershy.
“I kind of need the whole rundown.  Fluttershy, can you tell me what happened?” Twilight asked quietly.  She approached Fluttershy, the clacking of her hoof-covers suddenly muffled by the Saddle Arabian carpet.  Fluttershy seemed unwilling to meet her gaze.  “Hey, hey, you can tell me.  I Pinkie Pie promise.”  There was a gasp across the room from the pink earth pony, who seemed to have found a deerstalker hat and bubble pipe.  Pinkie Pie trotted across the room to Twilight and whispered “NOPONY breaks a Pinkie Pie promise” before seemingly slamming her nose back onto the ground and snuffling around the room like a bloodhound.
Fluttershy looked up at Twilight, took a deep breath and let loose a string of explanation nopony thought her capable of. “WellafterIleftyougirlsatDoughnutJoesIcamebackhereandfellasleepandwhenIwokeuptheElementwasgoneandpleasedontbemadatmeTwilight.”  She gave a small squeak and hid her face in her mane.  
Twilight gave her head a couple shakes to get rid of the surprised look on her face.  “OK, well the easy thing about this is that I can track the Elements as long as I have mine.”  Her horn glowed and a tiara with a purple six-pointed star appeared on her head.  “So where was it when you saw it last?”  Fluttershy pointed to the top of her dresser with a shaking hoof.  “Thanks Fluttershy, and please know that this isn’t your fault.  The castle is the safest place in Equestria, none of us could have seen this coming.”  She walked over to the dresser and her horn began to glow softly.  In response, a purple trail started at the top of the dresser and led out of the room.  “Well girls, let’s go find us an element” Twilight said, drawing grins and nods from the rest of her friends.

---------

“I’m telling you, Mr. Gemsworth, this sapphire has to be at least twenty karats.”  Az informed his potential customer.  “The gold band itself has to weigh a solid five pounds.  You would be a fool to pass up an opportunity like this.”  His last comment earned him a quick glare.  Mr. Gemsworth was a brown earth pony with a grey mane and tail.  Today he was wearing a jacket with a tie, a top hat, and a monocle.  His cutie mark displayed a shining gemstone, as his name suggested.  
“Mr. Wind,” Az grimaced, “while I believe you wholeheartedly, this item will likely be reported to the palace guard, and given my interests, I will become a suspect.  I cannot accept this item yet, but rest assured I am interested.  Just not now.”  His gaze softened at seeing Az’s slightly rejected countenance.  “Azure, you have brought me the majority of my best pieces, as you are well aware.  Believe me I am interested, just let me know after the Palace Guard has given up and I am your stallion.”  With that he turned and walked away down the business district of Canterlot.
Az sighed.  Almost had him.  And he’s my best buyer.  Looks like I’ll be sitting on this one for a while.  He turned and began walking the opposite direction along the street.  No matter how many times he walked along this road, he always felt vulnerable without his armor.  There were guards everywhere, but it was a different kind of unease.  The stonework streets were too pristine, the businesses whitewashed too well.  It seemed false, and more importantly, dangerous if one wanted to keep their soul intact.  These business types could never be trusted.  
He began walking back to his apartment with a growing sense of unease.  What is wrong with me?  There’s no way that necklace is going to be found.  I have enough wards around my place to keep Celestia from being nosy.  He chuckled as he remembered stealing the tiara from her bedside the previous month.  I’m going to need to wait at least ten years before selling that one, and in a different country at that.  Maybe the dragon king would be interested.  His disquiet allayed, he continued up the street musing over possible buyers for his beloved leader’s tiara.

--------

“This is where the trail ends girls.” Twilight had stopped in front of an apartment door in downtown Canterlot.  She was wearing a cloak so as to not draw attention to her new royal self as they traversed Canterlot.  She had called upon and dismissed her Element as she needed it.
“Good, that was easy enough, good thing whoever this is was a pegasus.  Easy to follow” Rainbow Dash remarked.  “Though that stop in the alleyway about a quarter mile from here was weird. Pinkie, what are you…” she fell silent as the pink pony had just successfully picked the lock to the door.  “How did you…? You know what? I don’t want to know.”  
They walked in slowly, and began to take stock of their surroundings.  Floor to ceiling on any wall space was covered with deep colored bookshelves.  A loft section of the apartment exhibited a sleeping area, the bed meticulously made with its deep blue comforter stretched so tightly across the bed one could have bounced a bit off it easily.  A small kitchenette rested in the corner of the apartment, with what appeared to be a fully stocked pantry directly next to it.  Three plush red sofas sat in the middle of the room around a coffee table topped with glass panes.  Upon further inspection, the glass covered different forms of currency from what seemed to Twilight to be every nation on the globe.  
“Well our thief is well traveled, but more importantly…” her eyes began to sparkle, “look at all these books!  It puts my library in Ponyville to shame!”  She walked up to one of the shelves and gasped.  “This is an ancient draconic writing!  I had thought these were all gone, burned up in the constant revolutions they’re always having.”
“Um, Twi, Fluttershy’s Element?”  Applejack interjected.  “Can we just find it and be done?  Whoever lives here probably won’t be gone for much longer.” 
“Oh, right, sorry girls.”  Twilight closed her eyes for a moment, and suddenly snapped them open.  She screwed her face up in concentration, and looked around, scared.  
“Twilight, whatever is the matter, dear?” Rarity asked.
“I can’t do magic!  I don’t know what’s going on!”  Her friends issued varied gasps and looks of shock.  Rarity tried, only to fail as well.  “Whoever lives here knows some incredibly powerful wards” Twilight mused.   “Looks like we have to do this the hard way, everypony start looking around, it’s bound to be here somewhere.”
They split up around the room with Rarity checking the loft for any clues, Pinkie checking the pantry area, and Twilight and Applejack checking the remainder of the ground floor.  At Twilight’s suggestion, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy began pulling random books from the upper shelves to see if there was a secret compartment somewhere in the room, opened only through an elaborate system of levers and pulleys.  

--------

Az walked down the hall toward his apartment, key in mouth and humming one of the more popular tunes they were playing down in the club district.  He turned the last corner before his apartment and stopped dead in his tracks.  The door was open.  He sprinted the remainder of the way to his flat and burst in through the door frame.  Six surprised faces turned towards him, including…Shit! How’d she find my place? He kicked down on a floorboard directly next to the door.  The curtains on each of the three windows drew themselves, and what gas lights there were in the apartment were extinguished.  He tumbled right, out of the door frame, and reached behind one of the books to find a secret latch that opened into his safe room.  Immediately light began to pour into the room.  Aaaand I forgot to disconnect the safe room from the emergency cutoff switch.  He turned around just in time to see a rainbow colored elephant tackle him.  His head hit the ground hard, and he lost consciousness.  

> Chapter 3: Questions and Answers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3 – Questions and Answers

Az snapped awake, tied up on the floor of his apartment.  He struggle against the knots, but they proved to be well-tied.  Dammitdammitdammmitdammitdammitdammitdammit-
“Who the hay are you and why did you steal Fluttershy’s Element?”  A purple unicorn in a brown cloak stood imperiously over Az’s incapacitated form.  
He cleared his throat, fixed the mare with a withering glare, which he quickly softened, and answered “I am Azure Wind, or Az, provider of rare and valuable items, book aficionado and” he looked at the rest of his captors “Canterlot’s master thief.”  The mares in the room gasped collectively.  “As for the Element nonsense, I’m afraid I do not know what you’re referring to, nor am I acquainted with a Fluttershy.  And if I may ask the names of my captors?”
The purple looked around the room at her companions, some of whom nodded.  Last night’s mark was hidden behind a cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail.  The unicorn looked back at him before shrugging off the cloak, revealing a pair of wings. Az’s eyes widened.  Dammitdammitdammitdammitdammitdammitdammitdammitdammit.  I am dead. I am so dead.
“I am Princess Twilight Sparkle.  My friends here are Applejack” she motioned to an orange earth pony sporting a Stetson, “Rarity,” a white unicorn, “Rainbow Dash,” the rainbow-colored elephant, “Pinkie Pie,” a pink earth pony messing with his kitchen, “and I believe you met Fluttershy last night.  As for the “Element nonsense”, what you stole from my friend last night was an Element of Harmony, the Element of Kindness to be exact.  It is-“
“I know what the Elements of Harmony are, thank you.” Az looked up at Twilight agitatedly, still trying to calm his nerves.  “Have you not seen my collection of books?  I probably know more tidbits of random information than you’ll ever know.”  He glanced down at his cutie mark.  “As I am sure you have figured out, Princess.  I was unaware the Elements had taken the form of expensive-looking necklaces however.  Can’t blame me for that much.”
“You watch yer mouth when talkin’ to Twilight” Applejack interjected.  Great, a country bumpkin.  
“It’s fine, AJ,” Twilight said.  “Now that we’ve cleared that out of the way, I’m curious as the wards you have placed around your apartment here.  I’m sure everypony else has questions of their own as well.”  They nodded.  “What kind of spell did you use to be able to cancel magical abilities?  You obviously have no way to use the high arcana yourself.”
“And I’ve heard tell that you’re the smart one.” he replied sarcastically.  “One does not need to be a unicorn to call upon arcana.  The books in the upper left the middle bookshelf have methods of generating wards and using other sorts of magic.” He saw a fire light behind her eyes.  Resigned to his fate, he sighed “if you choose to look through it, please understand it is ancient.  Older than Celestia-“
“Princess Celestia” Twilight interjected.
“Older than Princess Celestia ancient” he finished.  She galloped away, drawing a bit of a chuckle from Az.  “Next?”
“Where’s your flour?” Pinkie Pie called from across the room.  Confused, he looked to the other mares standing around him with a raised eyebrow.  Receiving no help from their cold stares, he called back “top shelf, next to the oats.”  “Thanks!” came the reply.
“You seem awful calm right now, considering your position,” Rarity stated.  “Most ponies I can think of would be blubbering at this point.  But besides that, who designed this armor for you?  It seems a bit tacky, but I can see a certain sort of elegance to it.”  She held up his armor.
“As for the calm part, this is hardly the first time I’ve been caught.  Granted that was years ago, when I was just a pickpocket.  The new part is that you actually found my place.  But I digress, I can’t tell you who made the armor for me, and thank you I guess?”  She nodded and walked off, still inspecting his armor.  
“Um, why did you pick me?” Fluttershy asked from behind the elephant disguised as a pony.  
Had his ears been worse Az would not have heard her, but as it was, he looked up to Applejack for some sort of guidance.  “Should I be honest?” he mouthed.  She shook her head.  This is what I get for being a big softie.  Might earn me brownie points with the Princess though… “Because I like a challenge,” he replied.  “I made note of how the guards treated you as you entered the castle, and figured it could be a bit of fun.  Apparently I was right.” He winked at Rainbow Dash, who rolled her eyes.  “You hit like an elephant by the way” he directed at her.
“And how would you know that?” came the sharp reply.
“Because I’ve been tackled by an elephant before.”  
“Um, oh. Oh.”  She looked away, drawing a chuckle from Applejack.  
“Had you not stolen something from my best friends, I have a feeling we could have gotten along fine.”  Az raised his eyebrow at her.  “Well, and your choice of profession.  Bein’ a thief and all.  You probably have never bought anything before have you?  I mean, look at all this stuff.”
Az fixed her with a reproachful look.  “Everything you see in here was acquired by legal means.  Anything I’ve ever stolen either goes in that room back there” he nodded his head back towards his safe room, which he noted was obscured from his vision since the door was open.  “The rarer books I found on expeditions.” Huh, guess I should have added archaeologist to the list of stuff I do.  
“Even so, we’re gonna need to do something with you” Applejack said to him.
“Like give you cupcakes!”  A pink hoof shoved a cupcake into Az’s mouth.  As fast as she’d appeared next to him, Pinkie Pie disappeared again.  Applejack rolled her eyes.
“Hey Twi, what do you think? Should we hand him over to the guards?  Twi?  TWI!”
“Huh? Oh, sorry.” Twilight looked up from the books she was looking through.  “I was actually giving that some thought.  Luna told me about some stuff recently that I think would be perfect for Mr. Wind here.”  He felt his heart drop into his stomach, which promptly tied itself in a knot.
“Az is fine.”  He swallowed hard, this wasn’t going to be pleasant.
“Az then.  Simply shipping him off to prison would be a waste of his talents.”  The knot undid itself.  There may be a way out of this after all.  She began walking around the room and stopped next to the safe room suddenly.  “Wait, is that..?” she looked at him.
“Maybe.” He grinned sheepishly.
“Is what what Twilight?” Rainbow Dash asked.  Twilight walked into the safe room and shortly emerged carrying a familiar-looking tiara.  Rainbow looked back at Az.  “You didn’t.”
“Maybe.” The sheepish grin refused to go away.
“Well this just confirms what I want to do with him.”  Twilight sat down, straightened herself out and cleared her throat.  “Mr. Azure Wind, as is my right as a princess, I will give you a choice in this.  You have two options:  you can go to jail, where it is unlikely you will ever see the light of day again, or you will enlist in the Equestrian military with the purpose of joining the Secret Guard.”  She looked at him square in the eyes “which will it be?”
“Heh, not much of a choice is it?  What is this Secret Guard anyways?”
“Special operatives tasked with keeping Equestria safe from all manner of hostile forces.  To my knowledge, they are trained the arts of stealth, espionage, sabotage, and extremely brutal combat.” 
“Check, check, check, and not check.  Always something to learn I guess.  Although, the “Black Dagger” will have a reputation to live up to eventually.”
“Wait, you’re…? Even better” Twilight said with a sly grin.  “So what is it? Jail or the Secret Guard?”
Looks like Dad’s getting what he wanted. “The Secret Guard then.”  He looked around his apartment and sighed.  “And as for my apartment, use it as you see fit, princess, the wards…well I need to be released to disable those.”  
“…Fine.”  Her formal demeanor had vanished.  “Applejack?”  The cowpony untied the knots holding Az hostage.  He stood up, stretched, and flexed his wings.  First things first.  He walked over to Fluttershy, still hiding behind her cyan companion and leaned forward.
“Fluttershy, I am very sorry for having put you in this situation.  I had no intention of causing you harm, emotional or otherwise.”  He stood up, looked at Rainbow Dash, and muttered “Elephant.”  Applejack chuckled again.  He winged up to the section of his library holding the warding spells, carefully flipped through a few pages and returned the book back to its place.  He flew over to Rarity, who was in the process of locating all the pockets in his armor.  “Rarity I need that for a moment.”  He fished through a few of the pockets before finding his knife.  The mares tensed up upon seeing it, and Rainbow Dash flared her wings.  “Relax, if wanted to kill any of you, I would have.”
He walked into his safe room and flipped around a panel on the wall, revealing a series of runes drawn with chalk.  He held the dagger in his mouth, held out one of his hooves, and made a small incision.  Immediately after doing this, he smeared the fresh blood over the runes.  “That should do it” he called into the room.  Twilight teleported up next to him to inspect his work.
“Yup! So what did you have to…oh.  It’s that kind of magic.”  She had spotted the blood smeared over the runes.  
“Yeah.  So as for my library, I’m fine with you using it, Princess, but please don’t make it common knowledge.  Researchers tend to be messy.  As you’ve noticed, neatness is kind of a big deal in here.”  He walked back into the main room, returned the knife into its pocket before walking towards the window.  “I guess that goes for the rest of you fine mares as well.  Use my place as you see fit.”  Looks like the post-heist remorse has finally kicked in.  He turned to Twilight.  “So when do I start?”

> Chapter 4 - New Challenges
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4 – New Challenges 

Az approached the castle gate without his armor for the first time.  He glanced over his shoulder and bulging saddle bags to see the Princess and her five friends watching him intently to make sure he actually followed through with Twilight’s offer.  Fluttershy was still hiding behind Rainbow Dash.  He sighed and walked up to one of the guards at the entrance to the courtyard.  First time I’ve seen it in daylight too, he noted; things definitely look different.  
“I’m here to enlist” he told the guard, who began to look him over skeptically.  While his frame tended to be small, his skills were honed enough to the point where he could render a squad of guards unconscious without breaking a sweat.  “The Princess has recruited me for the Secret Guard” he continued, “who do I need to talk to?”  The guard looked over his shoulder at Twilight, who nodded to him.  
“Right this way.”  Az followed the guard into the courtyard and turned left as soon as they reached the castle, rather than proceeding inside it.  They walked along the length of the western wing of the castle and continued towards the granite wall, which stretched two stories skyward.  Upon reaching the wall, the guard looked about, as if searching for something.  Az noticed the notch in the wall before the guard did.  Must be why he’s a palace guard.  Not very observant is he?  He tapped the guard on the shoulder and pointed at the notch.  Nodding, the guard knocked on the spot three times at a precise interval.  
A door formed itself out of the solid rock of the wall and swung open.  The guard motioned for Az to enter.  As he began to enter the new area, the door swung closed.  Well that was disconcerting.  He must not be allowed in here I guess.  No light either, looks like I need to make my own.  He reached into one of his saddlebags with a wings and retrieved a chemical glow capsule.  He shook it, activating the chemicals inside it, and continued down the now visible corridor.  The temperature dropped as he continued further down the passage, which he now noticed was sloping downwards.  The sound of his hooves hitting the granite underneath him also seemed to be increasing in volume.  Annoyed, he employed his wings to lighten his steps by giving a quick flap every so often.  The sound of his hooves vanished.  Heh, I’m too good at this.  
The passage suddenly ended, the granite of the walls seemingly frowning down on Az as he looked around for a way to continue.  They certainly don’t make this place easy to get to.  Probably some trick to get in.  He looked closer at the wall, only to find that it was slightly flimsy.  There was a familiar smell to it too…  Wait, seriously? Paper?  He pushed through the “wall” only to find himself in a large room.  Or what he thought was one, as the walls disappeared on both sides.  The chamber lit up very suddenly, causing Az to close his eyes.   
He slowly opened his eyes only to find himself nose-to-nose with a stallion clad in black plate armor.  Quickly taking stock of his situation, the stallion was a pegasus, so he was likely pretty quick, although he was large so Az was undoubtedly faster.  The plate armor would also slow him down.  Az took a quick glance at the stallion’s cutie mark, where a red blaze of flame stood stark against the stallion’s black coat.  Enchanted armor most like.  All things considered, threat posed is minimal I guess.  
Az returned his gaze to the stallion in front of him, meeting the new aggressor’s golden gaze with his own grey-blue.  “How may I help you?” he asked coolly.  
The stallion took a swing at him with an outstretched wing, which Az dodged easily.  He shed his saddlebags and tumbled right, out of the attacker’s reach.  While his knowledge of martial arts remained limited, Az had managed to cobble together enough styles to protect himself more than effectively.  He assumed a low, crouching position, wings flared, ready to meet his challenger with a grin on his face.  The stallion charged, and lowered his head in preparation for a tackle.  Az jumped straight up, planted both back hooves onto the base of his attacker’s skull, flapped once, performed a somersault midair, and landed behind the stallion in the same position as he started.  Upon looking at his attacker, however, he saw that he had summarily knocked him out.  
“Better luck next time, bud.”  Az picked up his bags and walked further into the room.  It was composed of granite, much like the passages had been before.  In the center of the room a small table made of, what else but granite, rose out of the floor.  On top rested a note with his name on it in stylized writing.  This is some sort of trap, I can tell.  Better check things out first.  The room was circular, with a domed top.  A ring of mirrors adorned the top of the dome, and Az could see himself in each one as he looked around the ceiling.  Something’s off about those.  He flew up for a closer look.  Sure enough, they proved to be one-way mirrors, as he could discern other ponies’ shapes behind some of the panes. 
He rolled his eyes and dove for the floor, flaring his wings once he was no more than five hoof-lengths from injury.  He trotted up to the table again, checked it over then opened the note.

Mr. Azure Wind, please allow me to be the first to congratulate you on your induction into the Equestrian Secret Guard (ESG).  You come highly recommended and I cannot wait to see how you meet the challenges ahead.  
Regards, Princess Luna

As he finished reading the note, a door rumbled open on the opposite side of the room, through which entered another black stallion, a unicorn this time, clad in the same black armor as the pegasus.  He walked up to Az and regarded his work with the now non-aggressive attacker, who lay unconscious on the ground.
“Certainly made short work of him, didn’t you kid?”  The stallion addressed Az, and turned his attention back to the unconscious pegasus.  “Damn, none of our recruits been able to knock him out for years, much less with the speed you did.  Proxis!”  The last order he barked in the direction of his sleeping compatriot.  No response.  
The unicorn sighed.  “Well in any case, I’m Captain Shade of Her Majesties’ Secret Guard.  I’ll be in charge of training you and whatever other new recruits we pick up in the next couple of months.”  He paused, looked Az over and chuckled, “or next few weeks, based on what I’ve seen so far.  So what’s your name kid?”
“Azure Wind, uh, sir.  Most people just call me Az though.”  He began tucking the note into his saddle bags, but Captain Shade stopped him.
“You can drop the sir crap, we don’t use it around here.  What have you got there?  Ah, a note from the Princess.  She must have sent it down after I left.  Impress somepony did you?”
“In a roundabout way I guess.  Princess Sparkle put the recommendation in for me.”
“Is that so?  Not even a week in office and she’s already sent me the best recruit I’ve had in years.  Drop your bags, I gotta do a run-through for contraband.”  Az complied, and the Captain began pulling items out.  “Big stuff first I guess.  Nice armor, really light, and lots of pockets.  Very good, you know what you need in this line of work.  What did you do before the Princess found you?”
“Have you heard of the “Black Dagger”?”
“Yeah, that you?  Very nice, very nice indeed.  So where is this dagger for which you were named by those idiots in the golden armor?”  Az produced the ebony blade out of one of the pockets in the armor.  “Useful for utility I imagine, maybe an assassination or ten, but not for all-out combat.  We’ll need to get you a metal one for that sort of duty.” Captain Shade continued looking through Az’s saddlebags.  “Distraction stuff, good.  Infiltration gadgets, nice.  Well, what have we here?  Horseshoes, enchanted I’d presume.”  Az nodded and the Captain put one on his right fore hoof.  He let the hoof fall to the ground tentatively, and when no sound was produced nodded approvingly.  “How long it take for you to afford a full set of these?”
“Two, maybe three month’s work I think.  The dealer refused to give me a discount, even after I brought him a, um, shipment of new goods.  Otherwise, they would have run me three weeks’ or so earnings.”
“Just as well, I’m going to need to hold onto them while you’re in training, for as long as that lasts.  That looks to be it.”  He loaded the contents of the bags back into them.  “Most of the operatives you’ll meet prefer the plate armor like I have on, but you seem to prefer mobility to a rigid defense.  Your armor should do just fine.”  Az put the saddlebags back on and watched as Captain Shade enveloped Proxis in a cloud of grey telekinetic energy and began walking towards the far exit.  “So, Az, everything you had to do to get down here was a test, an entry exam if you will.  You showed quick thinking skills when confronted with the darkness of the tunnel, skill in stealth by moving through that volume enhancing area, intelligence with our paper wall over there, and combative abilities with poor Proxis here.”  A small chuckle rose out of the Captain’s chest “he likes to think he’s one of our better unarmed fighters.  Too bad you just showed him up pretty soundly.”
“Um, Captain, who were the ponies in the observation area above the room back there?” 
“Princess Luna was in the one you rolled your eyes at.  Don’t worry, she laughed.  Aside from her, I was in there, as well as Captain Shining Armor, the commander of those golden-shod nincompoops, and Captain Vampris, the Lunar Guard’s leader.”  He looked back at Az, who was sporting a confused look.  “What, Vampris?  Those bat-ponies always get weird-ass names, don’t ask me.”  
As they continued through a tunnel identical to the first, the light began to look more natural, and the air began to feel warmer.  Must be heading back uphill and outside.  Secret base maybe?  Funny how I’ve never heard of this before.  Mentally, Az went through his catalogue of books.  Nope, never heard of anything like this.  Always something new around here I guess.  They eventually emerged outside in a large courtyard, if it could be called that.  The “walls” were composed of tightly planted trees that extended upwards fifty hoof-lengths before the canopies blended in with the surrounding forest.  In one corner of the base was a large building reminiscent of the cider hall in Canterlot.  Directly next to the building stood a large obstacle course, complete with sections designated for stealthy approach as opposed to speed.  
“Welcome to your new home” Captain Shade stated.  “And here come the other judges.”  He bowed as Princess Luna walked up, and Az followed suit, albeit awkwardly.  Captain Shining Armor and Captain Vampris, a female bat-pony, to Az’s surprise, followed close behind.
“Rise.”  Princess Luna began looking over Az critically, with a frown on her face to match the one on Shining Armor’s.  Az raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Captain Shade before returning his gaze to the Lunar Princess.  It only lasted for a few moments before she began cracking up.   “So, you were the one who stole Tia’s – ehem, my sister’s tiara.”  A grin spread across her face.  “I’ve been trying for years, but have never been able to do it.  I am curious as to how you managed it.”  Shining Armor’s frown deepened.  
Az, who was seeming stuck to the ground with shock, finally found his wits and grinned at Luna.  “Well, your highness-“
“Luna will suffice.”
“Very well.  Well I snuck in through her window, flew onto the dresser where she kept her arraignment grabbed the tiara, and flew out through the open window.  One of my easier snatch-and-grabs actually, she sleeps pretty soundly.  There may have been snoring involved.”  Luna was having a hard time looking dignified.  She had since begun to bite her lip and gave a small snort at the mention of snoring.  Az gave Captain Shade a glance only to find him grinning at his newest recruit.  Shining Armor and Vampris, on the other hand, were frowning.
“Mr. Wind, after what Twil- Princess Twilight told me about you, I would have soon thrown you into our deepest dungeon.  However, at her request, I will not be doing so right now.”  Shining Armor continued frowning at him.
“Dungeon?  My guard would have” Vampris looked Az straight in the eyes, “taken care of you if they had caught you any given night.”
“Believe me they tried, Captain.  But your guards seem especially sensitive to smoke pellets” Az replied.  “Plus, they apparently need to learn how to fly in something other than a straight line.  All I needed to do was turn once and I lost them.”  Luna had resumed smirking, and shot a small glance over her shoulder at Vampris.  Shining Armor turned to leave, and Vampris followed after fixing Az with a withering glare.  
Captain Shade glanced at Az, and after bowing as Princess Luna left, he barked out a laugh.  “You’re going to fit in real well here kid.”

> Chapter 5: Introductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

> Chapter 6: Inductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

> Chapter 7: Longshot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7 – Longshot 

Az woke up the next morning to somepony knocking on his door.  At least it’s only one this time.  Yesterday’s wake-up party would have been akin to Tartarus after all that booze…  He thought back over the previous night, as it had ended with a drinking contest between him and Hammer.  The contest ended when Hammer drank Az under the table with fifteen shots of high-proof whiskey.  There was now a small mouse with a hammer going to town on the inside of his skull directly between his eyes.  Az rolled out of bed, noting that sunlight was streaming into his room through a crack in the curtains.  They let me sleep in.  How nice.  He chuckled at his own sarcasm only to cringe as it caused a twinge of pain from his hangover.  
He made his way over to the door and opened it to find Flow waiting for him.  “Damn, kid, you look awful.” Flow began chuckling at seeing Az’s ruffled mane and bloodshot eyes.
“Shaddup.”  Az walked back into his room and began rooting through his saddlebags.  He retrieved a small phial containing a white liquid, opened it, and measured a small amount into the cap.  Bottoms up.  He swigged the liquid down and grimaced as the taste finally hit him.
“What you got there?”  Flow had walked up beside him and watched as Az drank the liquid down.  Az capped the phial and put it back in his saddlebags.
“Hangover cure created by one of the Zebra tribes out on the Plains.  If you’ve ever drank with camels or elephants, you have this.  They can hold their liquor better than anypony I’ve ever met.  Must be because they’re so big, I dunno.”
“So you’ve been drinking out on the Plains?”
“Yeah.  I don’t remember much of what happened afterwards though.  Like I said, elephants can hold their liquor.  Ponies, not so much.”  He was already beginning to feel better, and the mouse had finally received a cease and desist notice.  
“Well in any case, the Captain wants to see you in his office.  Best clean yourself up.”  Flow left the room, and Az went about eliminating his bed-mane.  Once he ensured that he looked presentable via the mirror in his bathroom, he left his room and made his way down to the main hall.  He took a right upon entering the room and made for the back corner, where Captain Shade’s office door resided.  He knocked, and upon hearing the Captain respond, entered the room.  Captain Shade’s office was Spartan in appearance as he maintained only a desk and a bookshelf in the room.  On the bookshelf rested several large volumes detailing the records of members of the Guard over the years.  On the top shelf lay what Az presumed were trophies from various missions.  Captain Shade sat behind his desk looking over a document and glanced up once Az entered the room.
“Private Wind, thank you for coming.  Please have a seat.”  Captain Shade placed the document back on his desk, which was bare other than the presence of a few quills, an inkpot, and a gas lamp.  Az sat on the seat directly across from the Captain’s desk.  “Good to see you’ve recovered from last night.  But down to business.  The reason I asked you to be here is to determine how far along in the course curriculum you actually are, since you had a professional career before joining us.   The best way I can do this is to understand your best and worst moments, so give a rundown of you best heist, your most complex heist, and your most recent botched job.”
Az thought a moment before responding.  “My best heist was probably this one job I took in Draconia.  The client hired me to steal the crown jewels from the then-present dragon king.  I’m guessing he wanted them so he could seize power for himself.  In any case, I snuck into the king’s chambers, found the crown and returned it to the client.  The hitch in this job was that the crown was bigger than me, and weighed easily four times as much.  I had to drag it past his guards since I couldn’t carry it out the window with me.  Definitely made things interesting.  Pay was worth it too.  What made it the best though was that while I was grabbing the crown I happened upon some books that had to be centuries old, so I nabbed them as well.  They turned out to be the books on runes that allowed non-unicorns to use magic.  
“As for most complex, I was hired to steal a few family heirlooms from a business owner in the Tigran Empire.  The business owner, to my knowledge, was a ruthless bastard who had a habit of doing a bit of thieving himself, and he apparently stole from the wrong family of tigers.  I was offered knowledge, more books, in payment for my services, so I readily accepted the job.  Getting onto the business owner’s property wasn’t difficult as he left the external walls unguarded, but inside the security was tighter than a needle’s eye.  Guards everywhere.  Plus they were all manner of big cats, so their hearing was better than anything I’d encountered up until that point.  This was the last mission before I bought those enchanted horseshoes, but I really wished I had them.  It took me a solid half hour of sneaking around and winging from cover to cover to get into the house, and from there I needed to make my way around a decent amount of security systems.  My favorite was a hallway with a pressure sensitive floor and tripwires strung up at flying height that triggered arrow traps.  Luckily, I’ve learned how to fly at a pretty low altitude, so I just needed to be careful my mane didn’t clip the wires.  I found the valuables right at dinnertime, so the guards cleared out and I made a hasty retreat.
“Most recent botched job goes to the one that brought me here.  I picked a mark to make a little extra coin between jobs, snuck onto castle grounds, found an expensive looking necklace and beat hooves back to my apartment.  Little did I know that I had stolen an Element of Harmony of all things, and Princess Twilight tracked down my place using some kind of crazy magic.  Her and her friends cornered me, and they let me go on the condition that I use my talents to benefit Equestria.”
Captain Shade nodded.  “So you’re an expert infiltrator and have mastery of stealth that likely rivals our most experienced members.  I also gather that your agility and flying abilities could have landed you on the Wonderbolts if you had put your mind to it.  I didn’t hear anything about your skill at sabotage or your combative skills.  Granted, you defeating Proxis was pretty good, but it was over far too fast to get any good read on how skilled you are.  Got any stories for me about that kind of thing?”
“As for sabotage, my experience is limited to cutting gas lines, destroying alarm systems, that kind of thing” Az replied.  “But I do have a good story about some decent hoof-to-hoof combat.  I took on a pride of lions out on the Plains once.  They jumped me on the road and attempted to “relieve” me of my possessions.  It was hairy, but I managed to fend them off long enough using smoke and flash pellets to take them out one by one.  No fatalities, but there were several broken bones and a couple concussions.  I came out of it with a couple bad gashes, lions really like to lead with their claws, but outside of that, no permanent damage.  That was the hardest bit of combat I’ve been exposed to, but as far as taking on multiple enemies at the same time, the Palace Guard has a couples stories about me I think.  Their hoof-to-hoof skills are pretty appalling, even when they outnumber you fifteen to one.  First thing I did was begin lopping off spearheads, which made for a bit of fun.  I didn’t even need the pellets, just good old flak-whooping.  That pretty much what you were after Captain?”
“More or less.  We can advance you out of combatives now though, since you’re obviously able to handle yourself when alone.  Things will probably turn worse for the enemy when we put you in a squad too.  Sounds like you’re also able to take care of simple sabotage.  You won’t see anything more advanced than what you’ve already done unless we somehow find ourselves at war, so you’re good there too.”  He looked back down at the document in front of him.  “That leaves assassination methods and you’ll have graduated out of the recruit phase.  From there, you can work on team tactics with some of our other new members.”  He looked back up “of course by new I mean having been with us less than five years.  We’ll get you set up with Longshot for assassination.  She’s the best markspony we have in the Guard.  Plus, the number of ways she knows how to kill is pretty frightening, since she worked as an assassin before joining us.  Go grab some food and we’ll have you working with her in an hour or so.  Any questions for me?”
“Since I’m not going to need infiltration training, can I have my horseshoes back?”
“Not until you’ve passed the assassination course.  There is sneaking involved in that, and we have to sure you can do it without any artificial aid.  Anything else?”  Az shook his head.  “Alright.  Go grab some food and I’ll get Longshot spun up on the details about you.”
Az got up and left the room, entering the main hall to find it half full of Guard members getting in a late breakfast.  As opposed to the previous night, none of them were wearing their armor, and looked to be feeling the effects of their inebriated revelry.  Az walked up to the counter to find Hammer giving a red unicorn, Morning Breeze, if Az remembered correctly, his tray of food.  Hammer seemed to not be feeling any of the effects of the previous night’s festivities.  
As Morning Breeze walked away, Az walked up to the counter.  “You look better than I thought you would, kid” Hammer laughed.  “Not many can go shot for shot with me, but you put up a good fight didn’t ya?”
“Good morning to you too.  I just have a Zebra hangover cure tucked away in my room.  Speaking of which, think you might be interested in the recipe for it?  The damn stuff tastes atrocious, but it’ll fix you up within a few minutes.”
“That’d be much appreciated.  Given the amount of drinking we do around here, it’ll probably be worth its weight in gold.  In any case, can I get ya some breakfast?”
“Toast and fruit, thanks.  I’ll run the recipe to you later.  Just make sure you have a chemistry kit, otherwise the stuff can turn out to be a little poisonous.  Making it’s more chemistry than cooking I guess.”  Hammer returned with Az’s breakfast.
“Thanks for the head’s up, kid.  Here’s your food, enjoy.”  Az took the tray and made his way to a bench along the middle table.  No sooner had he sat down than there was a puff of green flame, once again ruining his breakfast, and a rolled up scroll plopped onto his tray.  
“Bucking again?!”  He could hear laughter sounding around him as the others in the room noticed what had happened.  This mare doesn’t want me to eat toast or fruit apparently.  Let’s see what she wants this time.  He pushed his now ruined food to the side and slipped the red ribbon off the scroll before unrolling it.
Az, I had those scrolls translated by a friend in Ponyville.  Who would have thought she knew ancient Zebraic?  In any case, the first scroll is a list of ingredients needed for a potion that has remarkable healing capabilities, the second details the methods needed to create said potion, and the third seemed to be instructions on storage.  It’s a remarkable find, and with your permission I’d like to send the research to Canterlot General since it could be used to help heal many sick ponies.  Other than that, I hope your training is going well, the girls are still skeptical that you’ll follow through on your word, but I have faith that you won’t disappoint anypony.  In the meantime, I’m going to keep going through your library, there’s so much to learn in here!  One of these days you’re going to fill me in on how you got some of this stuff.  Regards, Twilight Sparkle.
Az sighed, flipped the note over, and began writing his response with a quill that was sitting close by on the table.  Princess Twilight, go ahead and use the research as you see fit, but please leave the original scrolls in with my collection.  Thank you for the well wishes, and I hope to not cause you too much grief due to your friends.  I’d like to reiterate my wish that you remain careful with the older texts in my collection, and as to your last sentiment, maybe once I’m done with training we’ll be able to have story time.  Sincerely, Az.  He rolled the scroll back up, replaced the red ribbon and said “send.”  The scroll disappeared in a puff of green flame.
“Writing your marefriend again?”  Flow had sidled up next to Az while he was writing and shot a look over his work before it got sent off.  He then noticed the ruined food “she really doesn’t want you eating breakfast, huh?”
“First of all, she’s not my marefriend.  I am simply repaying a debt to…” he lost the word describing Twilight. “To a friend.”  Might as well call her that.  I’m losing my touch, letting ponies get close to me.
“Uh huh.”
“We’re not romantically interested in each other.”
“Uh huh.”
“Shaddup.”  Flow was about to make another snide remark when he noticed a unicorn mare with a black coat and midnight blue tail and mane walk into the room through the front doors.  Az noticed her as well, since her presence in the room caused everypony else to become quiet and look intently at their food.  “No shit.”  Flow gave him an odd look.  “When the Captain said Longshot, I didn’t think he meant the Longshot.  I’ve worked with her a few times on jobs.  I always just had her pegged as a thief though, not an assassin.”  He got up from his spot on the bench and approached Longshot, who was still standing in front of the main doors.  
Once she caught sight of Az, she let out a small laugh.  “Well, well.  Never thought I’d see you here.  Get pinched did you?”
“In a manner of speaking.  How’ve you been, Longshot?  It’s been a while.”
“Yeah, since that job in Draconia, right?  You made me use sleep darts instead of crossbow bolts if I remember.  Things have been going well, I got recruited by Princess Celestia herself.  The Guard here had set up a sting to catch me and then she showed up and offered me a job.  I’m assuming you had a similar situation?”
Az nodded “yeah, I accidentally stole one of the Elements of Harmony.”  She gave him a surprised look.  “I know, I know, but in my defense I had no idea what they looked like.  So as I hear it you’re going to give me the rundown on assassination?”
She gave him a small smile.  “Pretty much.  Time for me to take you out of that comfort zone.  Luckily for you, I have a bunch of ponnequins set up with fake blood outside for you.  Should be nice and messy.  Outside of that, you know more poisons than I ever will, with that damn encyclopedia you have sitting in your skull.  So I can skip over that, I just need to put everything away.  Give me a few minutes to take care of it and then meet me outside and we can get down to massacring cloth dolls.”
She left the building leaving Az shaking his head with a grin on his face.  Flow walked up next to him.  “You know, none of us have ever seen her smile before.”  Az gave him a surprised look.  “Seriously, freaking queen of the ice cap that one.  Half of us were afraid she’d kill us in our sleep.  What was that she said about poison though?  Pretty much everypony I know struggled with that for, Tartarus, weeks at least.”
“With the amount of traveling I’ve done, I’ve been exposed to countless toxins.  That also goes without saying that I know all the antidotes too.  Paralytics and sleep poisons are my specialty, but I’m capable of cooking up most of the known deadly poisons too.”  
“I’m definitely calling shenanigans on that.  No way somepony your age could know that kind of stuff.”
“I have pre-Discord runes stitched into my armor.”
“Fair enough.  You’d better get going then, don’t want to leave your buddy the ruthless assassin waiting.”  Shaking his head, Flow walked away.  Az took his advice and walked out of the building and began looking around for Longshot and her set of messy practice dummies.  As the door closed behind him, Az noticed that nopony was out on the training grounds.  I have a bad feeling about this.  He could feel the hair at the base of his skull start to stand on its ends.  He rolled to his left just as Longshot landed where he had been standing.  
“Good to see you too.”  He stood up out of a defensive stance and flashed Longshot his most winning smile.  She fixed him with a scowl and proceeded dusted herself off.
“Dammit, almost had you that time too.  You’ve always been too paranoid for your own good.  In any case, that was lesson one.  Use your environment to eliminate your target.  You’ll likely lead with your dagger on that one, and be able to get out of the area before anypony recovers from shock.”
“Got it.  Pretty sure I’ve done that drop move on a couple guards.  Only knocked them out though.  This whole killing thing is going to take some getting used to.  So what’s lesson two?”
“Follow me.”  She began to walk towards the obstacle course.  “Lesson two is the locations of vital centers.  A clean, quick kill is always preferable to causing undue suffering.  Plus, that whole no unnecessary suffering thing that we have going around here adds to it.  I have a couple practice dummies set up in the obstacle course so you can get a feel for where you need to hit for an assassination, or for any sort of armed conflict for that matter.”  They passed by the initial stage of the obstacle course, which displayed a number of easily navigable obstacles such as low walls to jump over, sets of wire Az supposed he would need to crawl under, and a few weaving poles.  As they approached the second section of the obstacle course, there were plenty of open areas interspersed with sections behind which one could conceal themselves before advancing.  At the very back of the second area was a large opening, where four practice ponnequins were set up in varying configurations.  The one on the far left was standing, followed by one sitting, next was a ponnequin laying down, and finally one where the avatar was arranged as curled up in a ball.
Longshot approached the standing ponnequin, which Az noted had circles drawn on it in various locations.  “This is the dummy we use to teach new recruits vital striking, piercing, and slashing points on pony anatomy.  Granted the Guard has not performed an assassination on an Equestrian citizen since the War of the Sun and Moon, but we still need to know.  Foreign combatants include griffons, dragons, members of the Plains nations, and members of the Tirgran Empire.  With the exception of dragons and elephants, the vital points remain constant for the remainder of any enemies we could face.  
“The first point anypony thinks of hitting in an assassination is the throat.  Quick bleed-out, and it prevents the target from calling for help.”  She showed the line underneath the ponnequin’s chin.  “This is messy though, and is hard to conceal if we need to continue along a mission.  My preferred point of contact is the base of the skull.”  She showed a stabbing point between the ponnequin’s ears and back a few inches.  “This produces instantaneous incapacitation with little clean-up.  The only other point for an instantaneous kill is the heart.  This typically proves difficult for you pegasus types though, as your knives aren’t always long enough to get to where you need to put it.  This method is also very messy, and is generally not recommended.”  
The instruction on the best methods of assassination continued for several hours before Longshot called it a day and walked back to the main hall with Az.  As they walked into the room, it once again quieted quickly, as ponies were suddenly very interested in their meals.  Longshot sighed and Az caught a flicker of sadness pass over her face.  She began walking towards the meal counter where Hammer quickly took her order then disappeared behind the kitchen doors.
“What’d you do to them?”  Az had caught up with her at the counter and continued looking around the room at the now whispering ponies.  Scowling, he returned his attention back to Longshot.
“That’s the thing, I don’t know,” she replied.  “It wasn’t like this when I first got here last year.  But then during the Changeling invasion, I single-hoofedly took out probably close to a hundred.  Everypony’s been quiet around me since.”  Hammer returned with her food and nervously gave it to her.  Longshot walked off to an abandoned corner of one of the tables and sat down.
“What’ll you have kid?” Hammer asked.
“First, a reason why everypony treats Longshot like an outcast.”
“Wha- oh, well...  Honestly kid, she scares most of us.  We’re all trained the same and all, but her ability to kill somepony else is frightening.”
“Well she’s a good friend and I can vouch for her.  Now then, can I have a couple potato patties and a side salad?”
“Coming right up, kid.”  Hammer walked back into the kitchen, looking slightly cowed at Az’s sudden question and response to his answer.  Once Hammer returned with his food, Az took the tray and joined Longshot at her corner of the table.  They ate in silence for a time before Flow walked up to them and sat down next to Az.
“So, uh, you two know each other, huh?”  Az gave him a once-over.  Definitely nervous, his body language displays that much.  But at least he’s making an attempt.  
“Yeah,” Az replied, “we’ve done a couple jobs together.  Saved my sorry flank more than a few times too.”
Flow relaxed a bit.  “Sounds like a story to me.”  He put his elbows on the table in front of him and looked intently between Az and Longshot, mischief apparent behind his eyes.
“Shall I, or do you want to tell him about that time in Tigran when we had that heist that went bad in their capitol building?”  Az looked at Longshot with a grin.  She looked a bit stunned at actually being addressed by somepony in the main hall.  
“I think you got this one” she replied.  Flow shifted his position to look at Az better.
Az shrugged.  “Well this one time Longshot and I were contracted to recover some artifact from the Tigran prince…”

--------

Several hours later, a group of at least a dozen members of the Guard were gathered around Az and Longshot as they were acting out how Az had saved Longshot from a floor trap in a Draconian ruin, after they had finished taking out three guards posted at the entrance to the decrepit building.  
“So he sweeps in, catches me a couple hoof-lengths from the spiked bottom, and says “you’ve gained weight.””  There was an “oooh” from the crowd directed at Az, who had begun to wear a sheepish grin on his face.  “And if I hadn’t thought he would have dropped me, he would have come back from that trip with a black eye and fewer teeth.”  The crowd had a good laugh as Longshot finished.  
Az looked at the clock that hung above the food counter and was surprised to see that it read two in the morning.  “Well folks, I’m about to pass out on my hooves here.  If you remember last night at all, you know none of us got much sleep.”  There was some laughter from the crowd.  “So I’m going to call it quits for now, Longshot, I dunno if you want to keep telling them stories, but I’m bushed.”
“Sounds about right, sorry folks, story time’s over for tonight.”  She and Az jumped down off the table and began to walk towards the door leading to the hall where their rooms were located.  As they walked through the door and up the stairs, Longshot turned to Az with a huge grin spread across her face.  “Az, I just wanted to thank you for that.  Well, you and the LT.  You guys seem to have put the stigma about me to rest, and I just wanted to say thanks.”
“It was no problem, L.  What are friends for, right?”  They had reached Longshot’s room, and she walked in.  
“See you tomorrow, bud.  Keep that knife sharp, you’ll be using it.”  Az continued down the hall, laughing to himself, but soon finding his mirth replaced with a sense of dread.  Sure, they’re dummies, but what have I gotten myself into?  Killing isn’t my style, there’s always a better way about it.  He let out a snort.  But if I don’t finish my training, she just might kill me instead.  He continued on to his room to catch some sleep before the next day’s training.

> Chapter 8: Advancement
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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…

> Chapter 9: A Royal Visit
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9 – A Royal Visit

Az spent the next day holed up in his room, poring over the texts he had received from Clear Sky the previous day.  The majority of the readings consisted of mission reports, damage assessments of towns hit by foreign raiders, and the like.  What caught his attention, however, was the inclusion of personal memoirs of officers during the War of the Sun and Moon.  The notes detailed conflicting opinions, doubts about the future of Equestria and what that meant for the Guard, and, interestingly, the letter of resignation penned to Princess Celestia from the Captain of the Guard following Luna’s banishment.  
Close to dinner time, Az heard a knock at his door.  Longshot entered after Az responded with the affirmative.  She gave a small laugh seeing the books scattered across the room, with Az in the middle of the maelstrom, quill in mouth.  
“Been a while since I’ve seen you like this.  It’s almost comforting, like everything’s right with the world if you have a set of books in front of you.”  Az grunted, but did not look up.  “Find anything particularly interesting?”
“Almost.  I’ve been piecing together journal entries from a couple of the Guard’s Lieutenants from the War of the Sun and Moon.  They keep mentioning something only referred to as “the room”.  No other details, but I get the feeling it’s significant.  If only I had that map of the old kingdom that’s in my apartment…”
“Can’t you just ask your marefriend to bring it for you?”
“She’s not my marefriend.  And if I could, I would, but I don’t have any more of those special magical mail ribbons.  But I swear there’s something to this.  If I remember correctly, the old kingdom was abandoned relatively quickly, meaning that whatever this room is, there might be some valuable resources in it.”
“Emphasis on valuable?”
“Well, you know me.  Once a klepto, always a klepto, kinda comes with the territory.”
“True enough, but if you’re at a dead end, it might be a good idea to head down to the main hall, the Captain’s called a meeting due to our “surprise” visit tomorrow.  Plus, you could eat, can’t have me saving your sorry flank if we get a mission drop and you can’t help yourself due to exhaustion.”
“Shaddup.”  Az got up and followed Longshot out of the room and down to the main hall.  The majority of the Guard was already there, either eating or chatting while they waited for Captain Shade to start the meeting.  They walked up to the food counter and ordered their meals before taking their places behind one of the oaken tables.  About halfway into dinner, the Captain stood up behind the podium and cleared this throat.  The room gradually fell silent as the Guard waited for what he had to say.
“Is everypony here?  Good, looks like we can get started.  So long story short, we have received information suggesting that Princesses Celestia, Luna, and Twilight Sparkle will be coming through tomorrow on a surprise visit.  The goal for the day is to appear as if they had surprised us, but at the same time look as if we are ready for an inspection.  This means we need to get everything spic and span before they arrive.”  There were some groans mixed in throughout the crowd.  “I know this is relatively short notice, but as I said, we need to make it appear as though we were caught off guard.  Also, as with tradition, our newest member will be making an attempt at stealing Princess Celestia’s tiara while she is here.”  Members of the Guard around Az began chuckling.
“He made it sound as if it was a new idea yesterday,” he said sideways to Longshot.
“Nah, this happens every time she shows up.”
“Corporal Wind, did you have any ideas as to how you’ll be completing your objective?”  Captain Shade had spotted Az in the crowd and directed the question at him.
“A few.  Would it be alright if I take one of the aerial approach escort positions?”
“That can be arranged.”  He looked across the room to a green pegasus.  “Corporal Limelight, you can stand down.”  He then returned his attention to Az.  “You and Proxis will meet and then escort the chariot as they approach.  Just wait for the siren.”  Captain Shade then began to address the entire room again.  “Tomorrow will be a full armor day.  Each team lead will be expected to have something planned.  I don’t care what it is, just look busy.  Anypony have any questions?  No?  Good, carry on about your evening.”  He stepped down from the podium and walked into his office.  
Flow walked up to Longshot and Az.  “Alright kiddies, the team leads pulled duties before the meeting started and we’ll be policing the landing strip area for debris.”  A blue pegasus with yellow mane and tail and a grey unicorn with a red mane and tail approached the trio.  “Ah, good.  Lightning Shift, Wise Guy, I just finished telling Azure Wind and Longshot here that we’ll be policing the landing strip area.  Do you guys want to do this tonight or bright and early tomorrow morning?”  Each opted for policing at night, so as to get it done and out of the way.  “Outstanding.  Well let’s get to it.”  
They joined the other crowd of ponies exiting the building as they went about their assigned duties.  It was a half-moon that night, which provided plenty of light for the Guard members going about their duties.  Luna’s outdone herself.  The sky looks really good tonight; I guess Princess Celestia never really got the hang of it.  Az took off as soon as he left the building and climbed rapidly to gain altitude before tucking his wings and diving straight towards the landing strip.  The cool night air was refreshing after being inside all day, and he took a deep breath before refocusing on his task.  As he closed in on the strip, he opened his wings to their fullest extent and began to skim along the ground.  This should go pretty quickly.  I hope.  He flew along the length of the runway, and once he was satisfied there was no debris, began a wide arc that brought him in front of rest of the group, who had just arrived at the end of the strip.  
“Fancy flying there, hotshot.  See anything on the runway?”  Flow had approached Az as the remainder of the group spread out and began searching for trash.  
“Nothing on the strip that I could see.  I noticed a couple loose rocks though.  Probably would be a good idea to tamp them down.”  
“Get on it then.  Once you’re done with that, start looking at the approach area, to include along the treetops over on the wall.  Gotta keep that clean too apparently.”  Flow walked off, and began searching around for small items that could mar the area’s appearance.  Az walked down the runway and stomped down any rocks that were beginning to come loose.  Once he was satisfied that the runway would not pose any further problems, he checked the approach area for debris on the ground.  I don’t see why we need to check for debris.  Everypony here seems pretty clean.  He looked around the courtyard.  Well, maybe around the archery area.  Feathers could go astray I guess.  Upon finding nothing, he flew above the natural treetop parapet and scanned for anything out of the ordinary.  Again, he found nothing, and returned to find the remainder of his squad waiting at the far end of the runway.  
“Find anything?” Flow asked.  Az shook his head before landing.  “Didn’t think you would, but it never hurts to check.  Well it looks like we’re about done here.  Everypony get a good night’s rest, tomorrow should be interesting.”  They returned to the long house and went their separate ways upon reaching to the dormitory hallway.  
Az returned to his room and began closing and stacking the archival information he had received them in.  As he was walking the last two volumes to the shelf, a piece of paper fell out of one and fluttered to the ground before stopping at the foot of Az’s bed.  “Shit, Clear Sky is going to have my head on a platter if I misplace this” he muttered to himself.  Az picked up the piece of paper and was about to return it before noticing that he had never seen this sheet before.  Where did you come from?  I read every single page of those book and you weren’t in there…  The page was a diary entry from a Guard member who found himself locked in “the room” during a rebel assault on the base in the Old City.  
The rebels continue to pound away at our defenses.  Their attacks are mindless, ferocious, and lacking a command structure.  We’ve tried to identify field marshals, but as of yet have found there is not direction but from the Nightmare.  Luckily for me this room is protected with the strongest wards Princess Celestia could think of, so it’s unlikely our secrets will be discovered… I hope she can get to the Elements in time to end this.
He finished the reading, astonished that there was even more to the Guard than most remembered.  Maybe I can ask Princess Celestia tomorrow.  Or I can have the Captain ask.  Any undue conversation could result in a deep-fried Az… He replaced the page within the book and set it on his bookshelf.  May as well get some sleep though.  Tired hooves make for sloppy work.  

---------

The next day, Az awoke as sunlight began streaming into his room.  He groomed what he needed to, and put on his armor in preparation for the royal visit.  His coat and mane turned an inky black, which gave him pause.  I need to get used to that.  He left his room and made his way down to the main hall and ordered his typical toast and fruit.  Az noted that he was one of the first Guard members awake, as he was the third one in the hall, after Hammer and the shadow of Captain Shade pacing behind his office door.  
He finished his breakfast, gave the tray back to a sleepy-looking Hammer and made his way to Captain Shade’s door.  Upon reaching the door, he knocked, and rather than the Captain calling from further back in his office, the door opened to admit Az instantly.  “Yeah kid? You need something?”  Captain Shade admitted Az into his office and sat down behind his desk.
“Actually I had a question for you.  Have you ever heard of “the room”?  I was looking through the archives yesterday and I happened upon the name a few times.”
The Captain pondered for a moment before responding.  “The room, huh? Never heard of it.  Anything you can tell me about it?”
“From what I gathered, it was a tightly guarded secret of the Guard of the Fifth Era, a place where they kept a significant number of secrets, even from the Princesses.  To my knowledge, it’s somewhere in the old city, and protected with a significant number of wards that Princess Celestia placed on it during the War of the Sun and Moon.  Outside of that, the information is vague at best.  That was all I had managed to piece together.  If I had a map of the Old City, I might have been able to pinpoint it, though.”
Captain Shade processed the information for a moment before speaking again.  “You said you have a relatively extensive collection in your apartment, right?  Does that include a map of the Old City?”  Az nodded. “Good.  After our visit today, you have my permission to go retrieve said map and then return here to complete your research.  Once you have accomplished this, I’ll task Nightstalker to finding and retrieving any artifacts you deem pertinent to our cause.  Did you have anything else for me?”  
“My horseshoes…?”
“Ah, right.  Here they are.”  Captain Shade flipped a bag containing the shoes to Az.  “Any more pressing questions?”  Az shook his head.  “Very well.  You can continue about your business.”  Az turned to leave “Oh, and one more thing.  When you go to escort the chariot, put your hood and mask on.  We can’t have Princess Luna or Twilight Sparkle blowing your cover.”
“Good point.”  Az left the room and Captain Shade closed the door behind him magically.  The main hall had begun to fill up with ponies clad in their black armor.  Longshot walked up to Az as he walked away from the Captain’s office.  He was surprised to see her wearing armor composed primarily of plate, with patches of leather interspersed at the joints.  
“You get yourself in trouble?” she inquired.
“Nope.  Got us a job after the Princesses leave.  Recovering priceless artifacts from a secret Guard base.”
“That room thing you were telling me about yesterday?”
“Yeah.  Also, I’m surprised you’re wearing plate.  If I remember right, you preferred lighter armor.”  They began walking into the room and sat down at one of the tables.  Flow, Lightning Shift, and Wise Guy joined them as they were getting themselves situated.  Flow wore his armor in the standard configuration, Lightning Shift had removed the plates from his back, and Wise Guy had opted to remove the joint protection from his.  
“I started using plate after the Changeling invasion.  I got pretty banged up fighting them off.  I figured a little extra protection couldn’t hurt.”
“Fair point.”  Az turned his attention to Flow.  “So as far as practice goes, what did you have in mind?  I think Princess Twilight wanted to get a chance to talk to me.  And before you say it, shaddup.”
The remainder of the squad was snickering as Flow answered.  “I was just going to say to make yourselves scarce.  If you really feel need something to do, give Hammer a hoof in the forge.  Outside of that, anypony else have news?”
“Actually yes, I picked up a job for us a few minutes ago.”  The others, with the exception of Longshot, groaned.
“You had to go and make us work…”  Wise Guy complained.
Az shot him a glare.  “It’s a simple enough job.  I was looking through the archives and I found out about something called “the room.”  Apparently there’s a bunch of secrets and stuff hidden in it.  Seems like it could be some fun.”
“Sounds good to me,” Flow said.  “But the Captain hasn’t talked to me about it yet though, did he say why?”
“I don’t have all the information yet, he’ll probably let you know tomorrow at some point.  The place is apparently protected by some strong wards, so the trick will be finding it.”  Just as he had finished speaking, the alarm siren went off.  “Looks like that’s my cue.  I’ll see you guys later.”  He pulled up his mask and hood and left the room at a canter.  He spotted Proxis waiting for him over by the landing strip.  
“So, uh, have you done this before?  I don’t want to sound like an idiot.”  Az asked as he reached Proxis
“Yeah, it’s easy enough.  You ready for some crown stealing?”
“I certainly hope so.  So where are… ah there they are.”  Az could see a faint golden glint to the East.  “Shall we?”  Proxis nodded, and they took off on a course to intercept the chariot before it reached the base’s airspace.  As they flew in front of the chariot’s trajectory, Proxis pulled up short and began hovering, and Az followed suit.
“Halt! Who goes there?” Proxis yelled at the chariot.
“You damn well know who, Proxis you big lout!”  Luna replied.  She looked as if this trip was inconveniencing her sleep cycle, as she was resting her head on the side of the chariot. Makes sense, she’s in charge of the night after all Az thought.  Still, I would have thought she would act a bit more dignified.  I guess there’s more to these three than everypony thought.  Princess Celestia rolled her eyes at her sister’s outburst, and Twilight giggled to herself.  
Proxis barked out a laugh.  “Very well.  Princesses, if you’ll continue along your previous course heading, we’ll see you to the base.”  He then nodded to Az, who took up his position to the left and rear of the golden cart.  The chariot duty continued pulling the Princesses’ chariot towards the base.  Az waited until he was sure his shadow would not be spotted by anypony in the carriage before taking up his place directly behind it.  He slowly made his way closer to Princess Celestia as they flew on.  
Almost there, almost there.  He inched closer to the tiara sitting on the Sun Princess’ head, until he was certain if he moved and further forward, it would notify her of his mischief.  It's been a while since I needed to steal anything off of somepony.  I definitely need practice.He placed his hooves around it and lifted as straight up as he could muster.  Once he had cleared Princess Celestia’s horn, he yanked the tiara back into his chest and placed it within one of his armor’s pockets.  No fiery death for me today I guess.  He looked over at Proxis, who was barely containing his amusement by biting his lower lip.  
Az grinned to himself and turned his attention to the quickly approaching base.  It now appeared to be buzzing with activity, with at least a half dozen Guard members flanking the runway.  Az could clearly see Captain Shade at the end of the runway, attempting to look as regal as possible.  The chariot landed, and Az and Proxis made their landing next to Captain Shade.
“So?”  Captain Shade asked, as quietly as he could muster.
“Mission accomplished.”  Az replied, grinning behind his mask.  The Captain nodded, and Az and Proxis walked off towards the long house.  Once they were out of earshot of the Princesses, Az leaned closer to Proxis.  “So what should I do with this?”
“Hay if I know.  Nopony’s ever been able to get it off her.  Just keep it on you for now I guess.”  Proxis was wearing a huge grin.  “I just hope nopony blows your cover before you make it back inside.”  Az quickened his pace.
“I, for one, like to remain unburned if I can help it.  Shall we pick up the pace a bit?”
“Fine, fine.”  Proxis matched his pace to Az’s.  They reached the longhouse and were immediately surrounded by members of the Guard asking Az if had managed to get the crown.  He produced it, drawing a cheer from the crowd surrounding him.  He put the crown back in his pocket, removed his hood and mask and made to leave the building.  

---------

“So, Captain, how have things been since my last visit?”  Princess Celestia stepped down from her chariot following Twilight and Luna.  
“Well enough, Princess.  We’ve been breaking in a few new recruits, but outside of that, things have been pretty slow.”
“Good.  I take it one of them will be trying to take my tiara again?  Also, speaking of new recruits, Luna has told me one of your Privates was responsible for the theft of my tiara a few months ago?”  Luna had begun snickering.
“That wouldn’t be entirely accurate your highness, see, he’s already advanced up through Corporal.  He’s probably one of the best recruits I’ve seen in years.”  Captain Shade began leading the delegation towards the long house.  Luna and Twilight had noticed the disappearance of Celestia’s tiara and were barely controlling their mirth.  
“So he is already indistinguishable from the rest of you then.  How… unfortunate.”  Celestia noticed that they were snickering and turned to see what was going on.  “May I ask what is so funny?”  Luna pointed to where the tiara usually rested and Celestia poked at the top of her head with her hoof.  “What-?”  She looked at Captain Shade, who was biting his lip to prevent himself from laughing.  “WHERE IS HE?!?!”

> Chapter 10: Story Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10 – Story Time
Az walked out of the long house as Princess Celestia began shooting fire out of her horn.  Nope.  He turned around and reentered the long house, to the amusement of his compatriots.  He heaved a sigh and found a seat at one of the tables.
Longshot walked up next to him.  “Hey Az, you may want to lay low for a while, you know, until she calms down a bit.  This is the first time we’ve ever been able to nab it in who knows how long.  She’ll get over it.”  She sat down next to Az at the table.  “You could give Hammer a hoof over in the forge.  It’ll keep you out of the way at least.”  Az nodded and stood up.   As he did, however, Luna and Twilight came bursting through the doors and slammed them shut behind them, panting.
Luna was the first to speak, as all of the Guard members stood gawking at the spectacle.  She sat straight up and cleared her throat before addressing the crowd.  “Ehem.  Threats were made and Twilight and I thought a hasty retreat would be most beneficial to our health.”  Twilight nodded before displaying a sheepish grin.  Az noted she had forgone the typical hoof coverings and crown she would have worn in court.  She was instead wearing a set of saddlebags.  The Guard members in the room let out a nervous laugh, aware that they were hiding from the sun goddess in a building made from wood.
Twilight noticed Az before he was able to retreat into the crowd.  “Az! There you are!  I almost didn’t recognize you.”  There was smattered laughter from the Guard members still in the room.  She looked around confused before returning her focus to Az.  “So did you actually do it?”
“I may or may not have done any number of things.” he replied
Luna chuckled.  “Very good, you’ve definitely found your niche around here haven’t you?”
I guess I never thought about it like that before.  He looked around at his comrades.  “Yeah, I guess I have.  Princess Twilight, did you bring those books I asked about?”
“Oh yeah!  I have them right here.”  She pulled three ancient texts out of her saddlebags.  “You aren’t permanently giving these away, are you?” she asked nervously.
“No way.  I’ve used them way too many times to begin giving them away.”  He turned towards the dormitory corridor.  “If you’ll follow me, Princess.  I promised Clear Sky that I’d get these to her by the end of the week.”  He cast a glare at Longshot, who making googly eyes at Az and hiding her laughter by faking coughing.  Az and Twilight ascended the steps leading towards the dormitory hallway and stopped at room eighteen.  Az knocked loudly, since Clear Sky apparently had a habit of ignoring anypony at her door.  She opened the door enough to see Az and Twilight standing outside, with three very old books held in Twilight’s telekinetic grasp.
Her eyes widened. “Are those-?”
“Yep.”
“Can I-?”
“Help yourself.  Just be very careful with them.”  The books had disappeared out of Twilight’s grasp and the door slammed with a rushed thank you.  
“A bit eccentric isn’t she?” Twilight asked.
“That’s one way of putting it.” Az replied.  He could hear Princess Celestia enter the main hall and begin demanding to know where her tiara disappeared to.  “We’d better get out of here before she burns the building down.”
“Yeah, I’m with you on that.  Oh and you can just call me Twilight, all my friends do.”  She began walking further down the hallway before stopping and turning to look at Az.  “Uh, where do I need to go?”
“Door twenty-five.  We can hop out the window if your solar counterpart comes rampaging down the hallway.  If I remember properly, I told you we’d have story time if you’re still up to it.”  He caught up to Twilight who had resumed walking down the hallway.  
“I do indeed remember.  I also remember you saying that you’d tell me how you came across those Zebraic scrolls, specifically.”
“Right.  Well here we are.”  He opened the door and allowed Twilight to walk through first.  “You can post up wherever you want to.  This story may take a while.”  She hopped onto his bed, which caused the perfectly folded sheets to crinkle.  Az hid his grimace, and took a seat on the middle of the floor, facing the bed.
“So the Zebraic scroll story.  Right.  Well I was out on an expedition on the Plains, on my way to check out some ruins that researchers had uncovered recently.  They had hit a dead end, so asked me to drop by and see if there was some sort of contraption guarding a hidden door or anything like that.  I agreed to a modest price to cover my travel expenses, plus a stipulation that I would get to keep anything of value with writing on it once I entered the ruin.”
“But I thought you were a thief?” Twilight interjected.
“I was, but I also did odd jobs to make a little extra money between high-paying jobs.  If you’ve ever been to the Canterlot Historical Museum, you’ll have seen displays that were donated anonymously.  Most of those were me, and by “donated” they mean they paid more than another country’s museum.  I had a habit of finding nothing but amazing pieces when I wasn’t working with researchers.  
“But in any case I had just started my expedition when things started going wrong.  The train that I was traveling on to a point near the excavation site broke down just after the Equestrian border.  I couldn’t afford any delays so I decided to fly the remaining distance.  It was easily seventy or so miles across the Plains, but luckily for me thermals are present throughout the year there.  I was able to fly a solid thirty-five or forty miles before I had to take a break.  Between the heat and the muscles in my shoulders getting tired, I needed an hour or so of shuteye, not to mention water.  I managed to find a stream and angled down so I could catch a drink and hopefully find a tree for a nap.  
“So I get my drink and had just settled in for a nap in a nearby stream when I hear some sort of wailing chant coming from over the hill.  I had noticed there was a village on my flight down, but hadn’t paid it any attention, since many of the Zebra tribes that inhabited the Plains are nomadic by nature.  Needless to say, curiosity got the better of me and I decided to go check out what was going on.  First thing I did was put my armor on though, one can never be too careful you see.  I crest the hill and see the entire tribe out in the center of the village, chanting and dancing in some sort of circular form.
“I posted up on top of the hill to watch, but as I did so, some members of the tribe spotted me and came running over.  I couldn’t see any weapons, so I just stayed put as they approached my spot.  They reach me and I can’t understand a single word that they’re saying, it’s one of their hundred or so dialects that I can’t understand, and they just kept rambling on.  I tried telling them I had no idea what they were saying, and as soon as they heard I was speaking Equestrian, they just grabbed me and started pulling me towards the village.  Oh, and I forgot to mention that these two were kids, no more than fifteen or sixteen years old.
“So we get to the village and the two kids run off to go find someone.  They come back with the older Zebra mare, probably the village elder, who knew enough Equestrian to get her point across.  What happened was that while they were moving from their previous village to the one they were in then they lost one of their foals along the way.  It happened at night, so they were convinced she was foalnapped by a group of hyena thugs that were native to the area.  Since I had put my armor on, they figured I was some sort of warrior or something and asked for my help in retrieving the foal.  I had heard about these hyenas before, and they were some seriously bad guys.  Made a habit of ransoming captives, and if their demands weren’t met, well, hyenas are carnivores.”  He saw Twilight cringe where she was laying down on his bed. Az stood up and walked over to his bathroom and grabbed a drink of water before retaking his place and resuming the story.
“I agreed to help out this tribe and ask them to point me in the right direction.  They told me that the bandits were last seen holed up in a cave under this big hill about ten miles north.  This set me back a ways, but the kid needed help.  None of the zebras were outfitted for the kind of fight these hyenas were going to put up, and like I said, carnivores.  I hopped a couple of thermals and quickly found the hill they were talking about.  For the most part hyenas are nocturnal, so they hadn’t posted any guards on the outside of the cave.  I was able to slip in easy enough, but inside the place was crawling with a dozen or so half-asleep bandits.  And did that place smell.  Hygiene was obviously foreign to them.  
“I sneak past the majority of the bandits pretty easily and make it to the foal.  The poor thing was knocked out, drugged most likely, and tied up in a corner of the cave.  I picked her up on my back and got out of the cave as quickly as I could.  Luckily none of the hyenas noticed me making my way out with her.  After about a mile of hiking I tried waking the foal up, without any success, so I needed to hoof it the rest of the way to the village.   I managed to get back a few hours before sundown, and the villagers were more than grateful.  They kept trying to give me some of their more valuable possessions, which I continued to refuse.  The village elder walked up and asked me what I would take as payment.  I told her knowledge, which drew a grin from her.”  Funny how I never forget that grin.  “She told me about a cave in the mountains bordering the southern edge of Equestria, and that I could find what I wanted in there.  After my expedition to the ruins, I made my way there and found the scrolls that you found to contain that panacea.”
“So what’d you do about the hyenas?” Twilight asked.
“I immediately notified the authorities about their hideout after leaving the Zebra village.  A couple hours later, the Plains Guard moved in and arrested all of the bandits.  They caught them just as they were leaving the cave to go out on the prowl.  Easy as that.”
“It was really nice how you just up and helped out that Zebra tribe.”
“What, you expected me to be the bad guy in that story?  Sounds like I have a few more surprises up my sleeve than I thought.”
“Well it’s not that, I just thought with your profession and all… Speaking of which, how did you get into being a thief?”
Az paused, taken aback.  “Huh, nopony’s ever asked me that before.”  He stretched his wings, looking out the window before answering.  “Well that’s a long story too, if you’re up for it.”  She nodded, apparently eager to dive into his backstory.  Az sighed before continuing.  “Here goes then.  I guess everything started when my Dad joined the Palace Guard.  He and my Ma had just had me, and they were really happy with how everything was going.  He was a bit of the adventurous type when he wasn’t on duty, probably where I got it from, and he took my Ma on some pretty exotic excursions once in a while.  About the time that I was two or three, though, there was… an accident.  My Dad didn’t make it out of some cave that he and a few of his buddies were exploring along the border with Draconia.
“My Ma took it really hard for a long time, and I was forced to fend for myself when our savings ran out.  I was about six when that happened.  So I took up thieving at an early age, mostly little things to help me and Ma get through the week.  I always ended up feeling bad about what I stole, but there was no other way around it, steal and eat or starve.  She initially asked about where I managed to get some of the stuff I brought home, but I never answered her straight.  After a while she gave up asking and just accepted that I wouldn’t tell her where I picked up the food and stuff.  She found a job at a travel agency after I got caught and brought home by the Palace Guard, and I didn’t have to steal anything anymore.  Habits die hard though, and kleptomania had its claws pretty deep in me.  Don’t get me wrong, I stole less frequently, but I had that irresistible urge to take shiny stuff.  
“I eventually found I had a knack for solving puzzles and getting to places others may have had a hard time getting to on my thieving excursions into Canterlot.  I heard about these expeditions that went off to faraway countries to find rare and valuable items and I figured it was right up my alley.  I applied to a trip out to the Tigran Empire, where some researchers had just found some new ruins.  I did pretty well and found the money was more than useful.  Eventually I discovered my skillset would serve me well in thieving around Canterlot, so I started taking jobs from well-off clients to acquire rare and valuable items from other members of high society.  These jobs paid more than the expeditions, so I became a professional thief.  
“Over the years, my Ma kept pushing me to join the Palace Guard, do what my Dad did, but I always found some way to get around it by telling her about my latest adventure out of country.  It was especially bad after both the Nightmare Moon and Discord incidents, let me tell you.”  Twilight grinned apologetically after he shot her a look.  “She’d respond by telling me about this grand vacation she had been planning over the years she was at the travel agency.  “Four countries and three oceans” she kept saying, “better than your adventures.”  So as I got better, I started putting money aside for her to take that trip.  Your friend’s Element would have been the final nail in the coffin on that one.  Now that I’m with the Guard though, I can put most of my money towards that, and I don’t need to feel bad about it.  That pretty much answer your question?”  He looked at Twilight, who appeared about ready to burst into tears.  Ah crap.  I made the Princess cry.
“I-I had no idea that-“
“Of course you didn’t.  Nopony but you knows.  Well, maybe Longshot.  I’ve worked with her enough that she might know the majority of my backstory.  She was the unicorn mare making faces at me down in the main hall.”  Twilight gave a small laugh, followed by a sniff.
“You two are close then?”
“Longshot and I go way back.  We’ve saved each other more than a few times.  Now that I think about it, she was really my only friend before I came out here.”
“That doesn’t explain the faces though.”
Az laughed nervously, and was glad his black coat would conceal the blood rushing to his face.  He rubbed the back of his head “Heh, yeah.  The current running theory is that you and I are… in cahoots.”  He laughed again nervously.
“Well that’s silly” she said with a confused expression.
“Tell me about it.” Whew, dodged that one.  Being up here with her can’t be helping though…  He looked out the window again to see the courtyard deserted.  A moment later, Captain Shade’s voice sounded over the magical intercom system.
“All Guard members to the main hall, please.  I say again, all Guard members to the main hall.”  Az could feel all the blood rush out of his face.  So this is how I die.
Twilight noticed that he had stopped moving.  “You’re not nervous about Celestia, are you?  I’m sure she’s calmed down by this point.”
“Easy for you to say, you’re her personal student.”  He stood up, and Twilight hopped off of his bed.  “Might as well get this over with though.  But if I’m to die today, I’m going out in style.”  He pulled Princess Celestia’s tiara out of its pocket and placed it on his head, drawing a giggle from Twilight.  They walked down the hallway in silence, and upon reaching the door, Az poked his head out, with the tiara in full view of anypony watching the door.  He was greeted by the faces of all of the Guard members, Princess Luna, and, directly in front of him, Princess Celestia, who looked as calm as she always typically was.  
She regarded Az with a cocked eyebrow as he put on a large grin.  Luna was the first to start laughing, her dignity still ignored, as the remainder of the Guard were still staring in shock at the spectacle before them.  “Um, hi there, Princess.”  Az said, startling the remainder of the ponies in the room, save Princess Celestia, into laughing.  Eventually she too cracked a grin before levitating the tiara back onto her own head.  
“Well played Azure Wind, well played indeed.” Celestia said as Az walked into the room, followed closely by Twilight.  “Nopony’s been able to get my tiara without me noticing in quite some time, I daresay before anypony in this room was born.”  The Guard cheered, and Az grinned at their response.  “But I must return to Canterlot, along with Luna and Twilight Sparkle.  There are many pressing matters that demand our attention outside of surprise visits and stolen tiaras.”  She turned to leave before pausing and turning back to Az.  “How did you get my tiara a few months ago in the first place?”  Az was about to answer when he saw Luna snickering behind her hooves.
“Luna, would you like to tell her?”  Luna’s look of surprise at being addressed turned into one of demonic glee as she nodded and straightened herself out.  
“Sister, thou.  Were.  Snoring!”  She laughed, leapt into the air, and teleported out of the room before Celestia could reply.  The Guard once again erupted into laughter, more prompted by Luna’s antics than what she had said.  Celestia shook her head and looked to Twilight, who was laughing just as hard as the Guard members in the room.
“We must be going Twilight, as I said, we have many pressing matters to attend to.”  Celestia began walking towards the door, and Guard members, still reeling from their most recent bout of laughter, parted to let her pass.  
Twilight wiped her eyes off before turning to Az.  “Thank you for telling me those stories.  I’ll only be in Canterlot for a few more days before I need to return to Ponyville, so if you need anything, you’ll know where to find me.”  She turned to follow Celestia out of the room.  Az turned to see Longshot looking at him with the beginnings of a smirk crossing her face.
“Don’t you even start with me.” Az said, grinning himself.

> Chapter 11: Discoveries
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 11 – Discoveries

The night after the Princesses left contained fewer festivities and more snide jabs at Az than he would have liked.  The number of Guard members who approached him and asked about him and Princess Twilight easily numbered more than there were members actually in the Guard, and it soon became very old.  He retreated to his room earlier than he usual, and after taking a few moments to collect his thought on the day, resumed his studies of the archives of the Guard of the Fifth Era.
With the revelation of the hidden page the last time handled the books, he was tempted to hold each book by its spine and begin shaking them, but his better judgment took over.  Clear Sky may kill me.  She seems like the kind to know if I did that type of thing somehow he thought.  He began flipping through each of the ancient tomes.  Maybe there’s some sort of rhyme or reason to it though, like a puzzle?  He liked puzzles.  Az turned over each book, inspecting them for small hints that could potentially disclose the location of hidden secrets.  After this failed, he conceded to looking through the contents of the book once more, this time searching for any further clues that would help his cause in finding out what was in “the room”.  
His search continued late into the night, and upon looking at the clock, he discovered it was already two o’clock in the morning.  Az rubbed his eyes, gave one last look at the musty tomes and began getting ready for bed.  He arranged the books on the shelf once more in their order and continued about his business.  Something still nagged at him, however, as he began to set aside items he would need for his trip to Canterlot the next day.  He looked back at the books, discovering that below each number (likely inscribed by one of the Guard’s past librarians) was a small sigil of some sort.  Each displayed a different marking, ranging from a shield to a crescent moon.
Well that’s certainly something.  I wonder what happens if I arrange them in a particular order?  He walked up to the books and began moving them about on the shelves, first putting the crescent moon to the front of the fifteen tomes, and arranged the remaining in any order he could muster.  When this failed to produce any results he took a step back and looked again at what each sigil represented.  A shield, a crescent moon, a quill, and a heart were the most prominent emblems displayed, whereas the other eleven were faded and barely distinguishable.  Those four are obviously of more importance, but in what way?  He racked his brain to come up with the answer.  He thought back on his years of experience in ancient ruins and thieving jobs.  Nothing made any sense, until he thought of the instruction he had received from Captain Shade four days prior.
Az facehoofed.  I’m such an idiot.  The four tenets, of course! he thought.  He arranged the first four tomes in the order of the tenets.  Shield for protection, crescent moon for Luna, heart for mercy, and quill for deterring war.  Simple enough.  How did I miss this earlier?  Once he had arranged the first four books on the shelf, he took a step back and waited.  Nothing happened.  Worth a try he thought, ready to give up and go to bed.  Just as he was about to do so, however, the four emblems began to glow white and grew in intensity over a few seconds.  Az was mesmerized.  I’ve never seen anything like this before.  I wonder what they’re doing?  As if answering his thoughts, each of the four books shot a beam of light at his chest and receded just as they hit him, causing a slight burning sensation.  
Az let out a small yelp and assumed a defensive posture, unsure what to expect from the suddenly hostile literature.  Instead of further beams of light, however, a ghostly pony, a unicorn stallion, appeared before Az, and shimmered slightly in the light of the books.  A magical hologram of some sort? Az thought.  I guess it would make sense for something like this to happen, but still, it’s kind of freaky.  The phantasm began speaking.
“Greetings unto thou, member of Her Majesty’s Guard.  Thou hast discovered our secret code, allowing thou to speak with me through magic.  While I am but a ghost of the past to thee, my message remains the same.”
“And what message would that be?” growled Az.  He was still expecting an attack from the ghostly Guard member before him and had resumed his defensive posture after the specter began talking.   
“One of warning, and advice, wouldst thou receive it, thief?”
“How did you know-?”  He paused and shook his head, straightening up out of his defensive posture.  “Never mind, magic gobbledygook I guess.  Yes, I will receive your message.” 
“Very well.  We speak with thee across the centuries to warn you of the return of the Nightmare.  On the thousandth year after her banishment, she will return to bring the world into everlasting night.”  Missed the boat on that one Az thought wryly.  “The second thing,” the ghost continued, “is the location of our most dearly held secrets.  The chamber of secrets, hopes, and loss is located in the Grand Capital, the home of our dear Princesses, within the Hall of the Elements.  We of the Guard only hope that we have given you this information in time, as the return of the Nightmare surely marks the end of days, as chaos and disharmony will reign…”  The spectral pony vanished.
“A little late for that.” Az mumbled at the space previously occupied by the magical apparition.  He noticed that the rug where the stallion had been standing was smoking slightly.  “At least could have left my rug undamaged…  This saves me a trip though I guess.  I’ll have to tell the Captain in the morning.”  With that, Az hopped onto his bed, and with Rarity-esque precision, crawled under his covers and fell asleep. 

---------

The next morning Az awoke to the sound of chirping birds, the sun shining through his window, and the smell of food wafting up from the main hall.  Everything seemed peaceful, as it had over the past few days, and Az got out of bed with a smile.  A real, genuine smile.  He paused, surprised by his own reaction.  How long has it been since this has happened?  Years?  At least a decade he mused.  Since before I started stealing for a living.  What’s changed?  Why are things so different all of a sudden?  The memory from the previous day of Luna stating that he had found his niche returned to him.  I guess I needed to do this all along.  He chuckled quietly while walking to his door and out into the hallway.  It’s a shame it took this long to figure out.  It’s good having friends around me that I can depend on, even if I just met them. 
Az made his way into the main hall, and instead of going to get his food, went directly to Captain Shade’s office.  He knocked twice before hearing a gruff reply come from behind the door.  Az walked in and shut the door behind him as the Captain looked up from his seemingly ever-present paperwork.
“What’s up kid?  I thought you’d be back in Canterlot by now,” he asked, looking at a clock, “or at least on your way back.   You didn’t get up that early did you?”
Az gave a small laugh.  “And give up valuable sleeping time?  No way.  I managed to find the solution to the problem without needing a map though.  Have you ever gotten to take a good look at the records from the Fifth Era?”
“How do you mean?”  Shade placed his hooves together on the desk, giving Az a quizzical look.
“The spines of the books, specifically.”
“Since you put it that way, no.  Why?”
“There was a secret message encoded on four of the tomes.  I figured out there was a pattern to how the books lined up and some sort of magical apparition told me about the location of “the room”.  Or at least as it called it, the “chamber of secrets, hope, and loss”.  It’s apparently located in the old Hall of the Elements in the Old City.”  
Captain Shade froze momentarily before looking Az dead in the eye, a cold look on his face.  “Are you sure this apparition called it the chamber of secrets, hope, and loss?”
“Positive, why?”
“That is the only lost secret of the Guard that we have been unable to uncover throughout the years.  When you told me about “the room” I had a suspicion that you might be onto something.  Since you apparently are, I’m dispatching teams Shadow Wing and Heavy Squad to assist in the recovery of any potential artifacts and other lost items of interest.”
Az stood still for a moment, absorbing what he had just heard.  Something isn’t right here.  He didn’t seem this interested yesterday.  “Captain,” he began saying slowly, “what do you expect us to run into on our way there?  Or in the chamber for that matter?”  He stressed the word “in” as he said the sentence.  Captain Shade, who was about to return to his paperwork, paused and looked up at Az with a slight grin on his face.
“You’re smarter than I gave you credit for, kid.”  He sighed and stood up from behind his desk and approached the bookshelf resting along the side wall of his office.  He retrieved a helmet from the shelf that had previously been obscured from Az’s vision and rested it on his desk.  “This a helmet from a member of the Guard of the Fifth Era.  It was specially crafted for the battles that were characteristic of the War of the Sun and Moon.”  Az took a better look at the helmet.  It was jet black, as if made from shadow transformed into metal, and designed to look menacing and streamlined, no matter who wore it.  It was designed for a unicorn, as it had a hole for their horn, but in front of the hole rested a two hoof-length long blade.  Captain Shade spoke again before Az could further inspect the helmet.  “This helmet is made from a special blend of metals.  While we are able to come close to its strength and durability with modern materials, the specifics of making anything like this are lost to us.  If there are weapons made with similar materials to this, they would be nigh unstoppable in a battle.  Best case scenario, we find the process of making this sort of metal.  Worst case, we find a bunch of the weapons.”  He placed a hoof on the helmet.  “Given new budgetary constraints with the addition of the Lunar Guard, we could use any edge we can get from this room.  There’s trouble brewing in Tigra, and I want us to be ready to eliminate any threats to Equestria.”
Az’s gaze snapped up to Captain Shade’s face, and made eye contact with this superior’s dark brown eyes.  “Trouble?  What sort of trouble?  Why hasn’t anypony been told?” he asked, his grey-blue eyes boring into the Captain’s.
“Trouble trouble.  I don’t know the specifics right now” he answered nonchalantly.  “As for not telling anypony, they knew already.  I don’t do paperwork unless there’s something about to go down.  The only reason you didn’t know is because you’re new around here.”  Captain Shade replaced the helmet on his bookshelf.  “Now, Nighstalker, Shadow Wing, and Heavy Squad are to prep for an immediate departure via train to Ponyville.”
“Ponyville?  Why there?” Az asked, deeply confused.  If this is some sort of jab about Twilight…
“Because it closely borders the Everfree forest, where the Old City resides.” Captain Shade answered, interrupting his thoughts.  “As you will be travelling through an area primarily populated with civilians, each member will be required to wear a cloak to conceal their armor.  While this is not the most inconspicuous method of travel, it conceals your identities as Guard members.  I’ll brief Lieutenant Flow and the others shortly.  Do you have any questions for me before I send you off?”  Az shook his head in the negative.  “Good, now go get ready, and we’ll have you off by the end of the day.”  Az walked towards the door.  “Oh and another thing,” Captain Shade said, causing Az to look back over his shoulder, “no flirting with the princess while you’re there.”  Captain Shade grinned, and Az scowled at the jab.  It had to figure in there somewhere.  He continued walking out the door and into the main hall.
After a largely uneventful breakfast, Az went back to his room to sort out his gear before he left on the mission.  He began by checking the inventory already in his armor’s various pockets and supplementing his supplies where necessary.  I seriously doubt that I’m going to need any of this he thought, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared.  Hall of the Elements or no, that place is still in the Everfree Forest.  Not many jobs had taken him there over the years, and he was never able to get out of any of them fully intact.  Nothing more than a few cuts and bruises, but it was still enough to unsettle the master thief.  After he had successfully double checked his armor, he went about tidying his room before leaving on the mission.  

---------

Later that day, Nighstalker, Shadow Wing, and Heavy Squad assembled in the courtyard to depart for the ruins of the Old City.  The sun was low in the sky, causing long shadows to stream from the hooves of each Guard member and from the treetop parapet of the complex’s wall.  Each member was clad in their armor, and garbed in or carrying a nondescript brown cloak.  After checking in with Flow, Az looked around at the other teams to determine what he would be working with.  Shadow Wing consisted of only pegasi, each clad in varying configurations of leather armor.  Heavy Squad, on the other hoof, consisted of earth ponies, and was adorned in the heaviest-looking plate armor Az had ever seen.  They were busying themselves attempting to find ways to conceal their bulky weapons: great swords, axes, and halberds, beneath their cloaks, with varying degrees of success.  All told, the three teams showed a particular lack of variety, which could be assumed would be made up with by skill.  
Captain Shade left the long house and made his way over to the group to give them their official send off on their mission.  As he approached across the field, the three teams lined up so as to resemble a military unit preparing for battle.  Shade sat down across from the group and began to address them, “Everypony, you know what you need to do.  This isn’t a particularly high-risk mission, but remember to keep your guard up as you are going to be entering the Everfree Forest under cover of darkness.  This is an unfortunate necessity as the residents of Ponyville must not be alerted to your presence if you can help it.”  He locked eyes with each Guard member before continuing.  “To that end, avoid a business called ‘Sugarcube Corner’ at all costs.  You’ll know it by how it looks: a large gingerbread house.”  There was some grumbling along the line of Guard members.  Shade raised his hoof to call for silence, and once it was given to him, he continued. “Hard to believe, I know, but that’s just how it is.  I have it on good authority that there is a civilian who resides in the establishment that likes to throw parties for newcomers to the town, so that’s why you’re avoiding it. 
“Once you have completed your objective within the Old City, wait again for the cover of darkness to return to the train station.  The train itself will be on lockdown until you return, under the premise that it is in for repairs.  Bring anything that could be of use or value back, and we’ll continue from there.  Any questions?”  He looked up and down the line of Guard members, and once he had determined that there were no questions, nodded curtly.  “Very well.  Lieutenant Flow, if you would raise the gate.”
Flow nodded and turned to the wall.  His horn began glowing with a vibrant blue light and a section of the wall glowed to match it.  To Az’s surprise, the section of illuminated wall moved inwards, then straight up, revealing a small train station on the other side.  The train looked toy-like, almost as if designed by the same architect as the one who made Sugarcube Corner.  The smokestack of the train began puffing out small white clouds of steam as the engine began to turn.  The three teams loaded themselves onto a section of train, and Heavy Squad loaded a cart per member on the following train car.  
Upon entering the car, Az noticed that the furnishings did not match the quirky exterior of the train.  They were plain, Spartan even, with the exception of the use of couches and armchairs instead of traditional seating.  Each window was covered up with a maroon shade, drawn all the way down since it was still light out.  Az trotted to the opposite side of the car and peaked underneath the shade to see what was on the other side of the train.  To his astonishment, what appeared to be a medium-sized airship loomed in the shadows of the treetops.  It appeared to be all black, much like everything else on the base.  On the side of the dirigible, a large rendition of the Guard’s emblem was emblazoned in silver thread.  The car on the bottom of the airship was also burnished in silver.  
“Impressive, isn’t she?” Flow walked up behind Az to see what he was looking at.  “Not exactly covert with all that silver on it, but it gets the job done.”  He seemed highly pleased with himself at the last fact.
“And what is its job, exactly?” Az asked, “and why do you seem to have a bit of pride in it?”
“Covert drops into areas that trains don’t necessarily run to.  The pain is that we can only travel at night with it due to its coloration.  As to the pride thing you mentioned, I’m the airship’s primary caretaker and pilot.  If you can’t find me around, just check the hanger back here.”  Az let the curtain drop back into place and fixed Flow with a dubious look.
“They let a unicorn pilot something?  Now I’ve heard everything…” he quipped sardonically.  “I imagine you’re going to tell me that Longshot has been caring for puppies and kittens next.”
Flow gave a snort of laughter “that’d be something wouldn’t it?  They let me pilot it since all the systems require minute adjustments generally only doable with unicorn magic.  She works great, just don’t expect her to pull any insane maneuvers.”  The train gave a jolt as it began moving.  “Looks like we should find out seats, this ride may take a little while.”  Flow walked towards the front of the compartment to meet with the other Lieutenants, leaving Az looking around the car for somewhere to sit.  He spotted an empty bench in the back of the car and sat down in it.  
The train was unnaturally quiet, considering the amount of boisterous energy that typically permeated the main hall.  I guess none of these guys have been into Everfree before. He gave a bemused snort.  Hardened veterans my flank.  He turned his attention to looking through a crack in the curtain.  They were still passing through a forest, but the trees were beginning to thin, and show signs of small farmsteads.  Sunlight was continuing to fade across the countryside, as evidenced by lengthening shadows cast by the now fruit-bearing trees that dotted the landscape.  
It did not take long before a small town came into view, its skyline punctuated by a few tall buildings dwarfed by a large clock tower standing next to an equally large building resembling some sort of governmental office.  It did not take long before the train rumbled into a station with a sign greeting the three teams with “Welcome to Ponyville”.

> Chapter 12: Everfree
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 12 – Everfree 

The expedition disembarked from the train with a bit of trepidation as there were still civilians milling about the town’s streets.  So much for getting here when nopony’s around Az thought.  Celestia’s sun had sunk behind the rooftops, bathing the streets in deep blue shadows.  Looking up, the sky revealed a veritable rainbow of color, with a deep blue, already showing the signs of night by way of stars in the east to an orange-yellow where the sun had begun its final descent over the horizon in the west, with an array of red-gold and purple light in between.  The residents of the town seemed to be wrapping up the day’s business, chatting with neighbors and friends, or simply walking about the streets.  
As the three teams made their way into the town, with Heavy Squad dragging their carts in the rear, the town’s residents began to show signs that they had noticed the cloaked new arrivals.  The fifteen Guard members continued through the town’s streets, drawing sideways glances from the civilian crowds.  Az put a hoof to his mask to ensure that it was still up as he began to identify individuals within the crowd that he remembered from his time before joining the Guard.  Past clients recognizing him would be more than a dangerous tell that could put the mission at risk, much less expose the existence of the Guard; his training at the base over the previous week had effectively cut his ties with his contacts and clientele.  This sudden severance with the outside world would surely generate questions.  
So far so good.  Luckily we haven’t run into any of the Elements yet.  They’d probably recognize that something’s up.  He looked around at the buildings, suddenly expecting an ambush of rainbow-colored elephants to come charging down the boulevard.  As this failed to occur, Az resigned himself to taking in the scenery.  The houses were simple one and two-level structures, largely whitewashed, with thatch roofs.  The distinguishing factor between each house was the shutters and doors, each sporting a different pastel color with varying patterns carved or etched into them.  The road seemed to continue on to the edge of town, which would hopefully deposit the teams close to the edge of the Everfree forest.  
The Guard members continued through the town without any incident and exited it to find themselves confronted with a row of trees that rivaled the parapet of the secret base.  	A small path led from the outskirts of Ponyville to the base of the tree line, and continued into the forest.  Flow led the way as they continued along the dirt road, paused at the entrance to the forest, and then pushed on.
“Looks like this is our ticket in, folks” Flow stated.  “Once we get into the forest, everypony can take their cloaks off.  Fair enough?”  There was a muted grumbling affirmation from the fourteen others following him as the looming shadows of the forest enveloped them.  “Now, Longshot, take rear security, and get some light on the back of our group.  Wise Guy, get in the middle, and I’ll take the lead.  This forest can get pretty dark pretty fast.”  He gave a quick chuckle “and we all had to be wearing black didn’t we?”  This drew some nervous laughter from the group.  
Az shared in the chuckle but continued his watch around the group.  The last time he ventured into the Everfree forest, he was attacked by a small pride of manticores.  With any luck, they would avoid any undue excitement on this trip, especially given the size of the group.  The Old City lay at the heart of the forest, so they had a bit of walking ahead of them, close to ten miles, if Az remembered correctly.  The path was still largely intact from the last time anypony ventured into the city itself, namely being the time the Elements of Harmony defeated Nightmare Moon and brought Princess Luna back to the world.  
The next two and a half hours passed without incident as the Guard members passed through the Everfree Forest undisturbed.  A sharp cliff posed a slight problem for Heavy Squad, as they needed to slow the carts enough so as to not allow them to go tumbling to the bottom of the hill in a jumbled heap.  The forest showed little signs of habitation, even by the fauna that resided within its borders.  While this seemed disconcerting to Az at first, he eventually attributed it to the size of this group, as well as their appearance.  With their cloaks removed, they looked not dissimilar to shadows roving the forest, with spots of light interspersed throughout the ethereal party.  Shadow Wing in particular was difficult to spot as their leathern armor did not have the same reflective properties of the larger part of the group.  They appeared as sets of eyes flitting back and forth along the line, their impatience at the speed of progress causing them to take to wing.  
The Old City slowly became visible among the trees and bouts of fog, first as low, decrepit walls of dark stone, covered in verdant moss and occasionally engulfed entirely by the shadowy branches of trees which looked similar to swamp mangroves.  Before long another cliff was visible, with a wooden bridge spanning a gulley, with a large set of buildings adorning the opposite hills alongside stands of trees on the other side.  The bridge was narrow enough that members of the party confined to the ground were required to proceed single-file.  Shadow Wing, along with Az and Lightning Shift, took to the air to proceed to the other side.  Aside from the steady flap of his own wings, the only sounds he could hear were the steady clunking of the carts along the boards of the rickety bridge.  
Az could see the ropes of the bridge beginning to strain under the load of eight armored ponies.  We may need to proceed one at a time on the return trip.  Those carts may be full of armor, and that’s a nasty fall.   He looked at the floor of the gully directly beneath the bridge to see it lined with a row of small stalagmites, likely formed over the centuries by water dripping off of the bridge, combined with the mineral rich properties of streams and lakes typically found in Everfree.  He made a mental note to mention it to Flow before they made to return.  He continued to hover around the middle of the bridge while the party finished their crossing.  
Once Longshot had reached the far side of the bridge, Az descended to meet the group.  He cleared his throat, drawing the attention of the combined teams.  “So has anypony besides me been over here?”  He looked around a faces which stared back at him blankly.  “Bueller? Anypony? Show of hooves?”  More blank stares.  Great.  “Alright, so we need to get to the old Hall of the Elements, it should be easy enough to find.  Big mosaics, lots of statues.  Follow me, I’ll get us to the main street, and we can proceed from there.”  He trotted to the front of the group and began walking into the city.  Free of the tree cover, Luna’s moon bathed the ruins in an eerie light, the once dark grey stone turned to marble by the glowing orb hanging in the sky.  Moss hung off of many of the ruined buildings, their domed roofs showing signs of decay and fatigue from the passing years.  
The Guard teams passed through many side streets before Az led them onto a cobblestone road wide enough for a full-grown dragon to pass without disturbing any of the surrounding buildings.  The sight of the abandoned main road, known as the Grand Way before the Nightmare if Az recalled correctly, drew a few gasps from his compatriots.  He allowed a small grin to form on his lips as he looked around for the Hall of the Elements.  Like schoolfoals awed at the sight of an ice cream cone he thought.  Now where is it, I know it’s around here somewhere…  He spotted the building relatively quickly, as it was clearly identified by its proximity to the palace building, which stood at the far end of the road.  It was a cylindrical building, with a heavy wooden door at its base, and it roof beginning to collapse into the upper level.  Surprisingly, some of the windows remained intact, while others showed broken panes with moss growing around their bases.  
“There’s the Hall we’re looking for” Az said, pointing at it.  There were quiet groans from Heavy Squad, upon seeing the number of floors the building contained.  He rolled his eyes and addressed them “I doubt the room we’re looking for is above ground though, so we can leave the carts on the ground floor.”  The large Earth Ponies’ countenances visibly brightened.  “Chances are there’s going to be a few surprises hidden for us once we find where this room is, though, so everypony needs to be on their guard.”
“And who the hay are you to be giving orders to anypony?”  The commander of Shadow Wing, Lieutenant Iron Feather, spoke up, looking very cross that a new recruit had even spoken at all.
Flow rounded on him and spoke up before Az could retort.  “A seasoned adventurer, archaeologist, and master thief with close to a decade of real world experience. He isn’t some overgrown rooster who’s never set foot outside of Equestria’s borders like you.  I’d take his advice, hay, even orders if I were you, Feather.  The only reason he’s here and not out robbing Princess Celestia again is because the Elements of Harmony managed to track him down with the help of the most skilled magician on the planet.”  Iron Feather had opened his mouth to retort, which switched to a look of anger, followed by a look of awed disbelief, complete with open mouth and wide eyes as Flow finished his rant.  Flow turned back to Az with a satisfied, smug look on his face.  Az, for his part was trying his best not to laugh at Iron Feather’s progression of facial expressions.  He turned around and continued on towards the building at a brisk trot.  
Upon reaching the Hall of the Elements, Az pushed open to doors to find a crumbled ruin, with bits of vegetation growing around the room.  In the center of the room, a large pedestal with five extended arms sat bathed in moonlight that came in through a design of the building that allowed sun- and moonlight to enter uninhibited.  The party spread out across the room and began searching for any trace of something that could lead them to the room.  Five solid thuds announced that Heavy Squad dropped the harness attaching them to their carts.  With relieved sighs, they stretched and joined the search.  
Flow sidled up next to where Az and Longshot were poring over the ground.  “Any idea what we’re looking for in here?  Markings, scratches, off-colored bricks?  Anything like that?”
Az shrugged “I honestly don’t know.  In all likelihood there’s going to be something to do with the Guard.  I found out about the location by finding markings that represented the tenets, but outside of that, we could be looking for anything.”  He looked at Flow apologetically.
Flow let out an annoyed sigh and looked around at the rest of the Guard members spread out across the room.  “This may take a while then.”  No sooner had he spoken than Wise Guy called across the room that he had found something.  
“Oh yeah, I remember why we keep him around now,” Longshot quipped.  “He’s good at spotting stuff.  Still mostly eats and sleeps, but there are redeeming qualities in everypony I guess.”  She gave a small chuckle and Az cracked a grin.  They reached Wise Guy to see what he had found.  
“I have pretty good hearing too” Wise Guy said as they walked up.  Longshot chuckled again.
“In any event,” Flow interjected, giving Longshot and Az an annoyed look, “what have you got?”
“Five marks, too small to see what they are, but they’re there.  The thing is, I have no idea what to do with them.”  He looked to Az, who was rubbing his chin, puzzling over what could cause the markings to react.  The rest of the fifteen pony team had arrived to see what the find was, and were looking intently over each other’s shoulders to get a better glimpse.  Az placed his hoof on the block and gave a slight push.  Nothing happened.
“Well that rules out lever.  Anypony have an idea?”  Az looked back over the group most of whom looked lost in thought.  One member of Heavy Squad was looking in the opposite direction entirely.  All brawn, no brain?  No, that can’t be it, something’s off about him.  Az looked closer at the rear-facing stallion.  Is he…shaking?  Az walked over to him, looking at his face.  The stallion, Granite Hoof, stood as if transfixed by an object in front of him, and as Az thought, he was shaking like a leaf in a gale-force wind.  Az followed his gaze only to see a ghostly Pegasus staring back at him.  
They continued staring at each other for a few moments before Az broke the ice.  “Uh, hi there?”  The rest of the Guard members turned around to see who Az was talking to.  Upon spotting the ghost, they froze as stock-still as Granite Hoof.  I hope this one is as interactive as the last one Az thought.  “Can you hear me?” he asked the phantom, perhaps a bit too loudly, taking care to enunciate his words.  
The phantom spoke.  “Indeed I can, and thou dost not need to speak quite so loudly, I can hear just fine.  What is it that thou would require of me?”  It looked at Az, then around at the group of Guard members arrayed behind him.  “Dost thou and these behind you represent the Order?”
Flow spoke up, and stood next to Az, drawing the phantom’s gaze.  “We are here at the request of Captain Shade, in an effort to find what is familiarly called “the room”.  As to your second question, if by the “Order” you are referring to the Guard, then yes, we are members your Order, albeit we are now residents of the seventh EAD, where you lived in the fifth.”  If it were possible for a ghost to look shocked at a sudden reveal of information, the phantom standing before the group looked shocked.  This expression faded as quickly as it appeared, however, as he shifted his gaze to each individual standing behind Az and Flow.  
“Dost that mean that Princess Luna…?”
“Has been restored, yes.”  A look of genuine relief spread over the ghost’s face as he allowed a small smile to form on his lips.  
“Verily, this is good news.  However, I must express mine concern at the dearth of experience I see before me.  Hast thine age not seen combat?  How have each of thee proven thyselves worthy of the Order?”  He looked at Az, then Longshot before continuing “I do see exceptions, however.  Thief, assassin, explain thine colleagues.”
Longshot looked at Az.  “How did it-“ she began.
“Don’t ask, I don’t know” he interjected.  “The one from the books knew that about me too.”  He turned to address the ghost “to what are you referring when you ask us to explain for them?”
“Their lack of experience, as well as the fact that very few of thee have seen real combat, much less participated in such.”
“Ah” Az looked to Flow for instruction, who simply shrugged in response.  He glanced at Longshot before continuing “Equestria has remained in a state of perpetual peace, minus a few events since the banishment of Nightmare Moon.  As a result, the Guard has not been needed for many operations.  Missions taking it outside of our nation have been few and far between, and the Guard has gained a bit of a reputation within the international community.  To my understanding, those who would have initially wished to do ill to Equestria were discouraged swiftly and violently.”
Longshot spoke up “that explains why not many of us have seen actual combat, as well as why many have comparatively little experience in the type of work that the Guard participates in.  With Equestria at peace, there is very little crime within her borders.  Corporal Wind and I were simply caught, and summarily recruited into the Guard.  Luckily the princesses know that talent can be used instead of thrown in a dungeon.”  The ghost nodded and she continued “as to the rest of our company here, they were recruited because they showed potential to quickly pick up the tools of the trade.  Does that answer your questions?”
The phantom of the Guard member appeared thoughtful for a moment before speaking again.  “It does indeed, I thank thee both for thine candid explanations.”  It looked back to Flow “so thou wish to enter the room?  Very well, I shall open the way, but be warned, the path is harrowing and may only be traversed by the Order.  The hall will know if thou art false.”  The phantom vanished, leaving a smoking residue on the stone floor, which almost immediately rumbled down and then shifted left, revealing a set of stairs descending underground.  
Flow turned to the rest of group to address them “alright, so here’s the plan: Az and Longshot are the only ones here with any adventuring experience.  That being said, they’ll be leading the way down the passage until we reach the room.  Heavy Squad, you guys proceed last as the carts will probably be an encumbrance anywhere else.  Feather, do with your team what you see fit.”  He looked down the tunnel, swallowed hard then took a deep breath.  He turned to Az and Longshot “if you two are ready to lead us down, let’s get started.”
Az and Longshot looked at each other, nodded and began walking down the stairs, which were wide enough to fit two ponies abreast.  The stairs led down for a considerable distance, and the chamber grew colder as the team proceeded deeper.  Az lamented his lack of sleeves as he was soon able to see he breath by the light of Longshot’s lighted horn.  He could feel gooseflesh creep up his forelegs and spread to his shoulders, wings, and spine from there.  This progression resulted in him feeling a shiver roll down his back.  Longshot noticed and chuckled at his discomfort.  “I told you sleeveless was a bad idea, but noooooo.  Nopony listens to the pretty assassin mare with years of field experience.”
“Shaddup” Az retorted.  He snorted and shivered again.  “You forget that when I bought this armor we were doing jobs almost exclusively in Tigra.  Heavy, black leather sleeves would have caused heatstroke to set in even faster and you know it!”
“Excuses, excuses” Longshot teased.  “You just hate being wrong.”  She finished off the statement by sticking out her tongue at Az and trotting ahead.  Lightning Shift walked up next to Az and fixed him with a puzzled look.
“What?” Az asked suddenly, causing Lightning Shift to flinch slightly.  
“Sorry, but you guys were the only noise in the tunnel, besides those carts in the back, and I couldn’t help but here you say that heatstroke would set in faster?  Does that imply that it was inevitable?”
Az, glad he wasn’t being teased any more, sighed at the prospect of talking to somepony about something other than past mistakes, or present purple royalty.  “More or less, yeah.  Heatstroke was inevitable during the day, everypony got it, regardless of how much you drank or stayed in the shade.  It seriously couldn’t be much hotter in Tartarus than it was in Tigra.  It was cooler at night, but only marginally.  Since Longshot and I typically operated at night, I figured I’d probably need something lighter if I didn’t want to die from the heat.”
“Then how do all those big cats get along with all of that fur?  I mean if ponies get heatstroke how do they even survive?” Lightning Shift asked, thoroughly confused.
“I honestly have no idea.  I actually asked this cheetah I know, and he just kind of shrugged the question off.  I came to the conclusion that it must be some kind of magic that the big cats have that’s genetically inherent, like dragons and fire.  What’s going on up here?”  He stopped his story to see why Longshot had stopped dead in the middle of the passageway.  Az walked up beside her to see what she was looking at.  Before him lay apparently open tunnel, which ended abruptly at a turn which sported a small, wooden target.  To the untrained eye, the hallway appeared deserted, but Az knew better.  Upon closer inspection, the hallway was crisscrossed with hundreds of small bits of wire, each coated with a thin layer or dust.
“We have a problem” Longshot stated.  
“Yes, I can see that, looks like a razorwire trap?”  Longshot nodded.  “Good thing you stopped, I might have walked right into it since I was talking.  Your eyes are better than I remember.”  He chuckled as Longshot shot him a glare.  “That target down there is probably the release trigger.  Can you hit it?”  Flow, Iron Feather, and Light Note, the leader of Heavy Squad, had walked up to where the two were talking.
Longshot scoffed at Az’s question.  “You wound me, Azure,” she held a hoof to her chest, sounding as mockingly offended as possible, “you’ve known me how long and you don’t think I can hit it?”
“What’s the hold up over here?” Light Note asked.  “My guys in the back are getting impatient.”
“Razorwire trap, they’re crisscrossed all over the hallway” Az explained.  “I don’t know how good your eyes are, but you can make them out because of the dust that’s settled over the years.  Our best guess is that the target on the end of the hallway down there activates the release mechanism.”
“And if it isn’t?” Iron Feather asked indignantly.  
“We’ll figure something out” Flow growled, obviously in an attempt to once again cow Iron Feather for doubting his team.  His efforts paid off, as Iron Feather shrank back, muttered something about needing to check on his team, and walked off.  Flow waited for him to disappear into the crowd of ponies before cracking a small smile.  “That’ll never get old” he said with a chuckle.  “So, Longshot, you got this target?”
“Shouldn’t be a problem” she replied.  Her horn flared a vibrant green, and a heavy mechanical crossbow appeared in front of her.  It was composed of a type of yew native to Draconia that, for some reason made a better bow than any other wood.  The ends of the bow section sported a set of gears that allowed for greater draw on the string, which stretched back to a heavy steel latch.  The crossbow stretched nearly the entire width of the tunnel, and was twice as long.  Longshot reached into her saddlebag and retrieved an eyepiece which she affixed over her left eye.  The eyepiece consisted of a large brass ring with a pane of glass fitted into it surrounded by a leathern housing.  The glass had a range-finding crosshair on it, which allowed the assassin to make wind judgments if need be, as well as corrections for distance.  Her horn flared again, and a magical ring appeared in front of the crossbow.  An identical ring appeared in front of her eyepiece, allowing her to see directly in front of the crossbow.  She magically pulled the string back to its notch and fitted a bolt which she produced from her saddlebag.  She leveled the heavy weapon, took aim at the target, and fired.  
The bolt missed its target, insomuch as it fell to the ground in three separate pieces, sliced along the length of the shaft.  “That’s, uh, a lot more wires than I thought there would be” Longshot said, shocked.  Her uncovered eye widened as big as a dinner plate as it stared at the bolt pieces on the ground.  “Any suggestions?”  She looked around at the ponies surrounding her, each of who stood in a state of either shock or concentration.  
Az, who had spent the time looking around the chamber, noted some indentations on the floor.  “Hey Longshot, try standing here.  It may also help to try and lob the bolt if you can.”  He moved to the side of the passage so that Longshot could stand in the spot in the middle of the hall he had indicated.
“I’m not sure if I can lob a sniping bolt.  Why would I want to anyways?”
“Keep in mind how old this tunnel is” Az responded.  “It’s likely the last ponies to use this mechanism had nothing other than simple longbows, not assassination-specific crossbows.  Try just slowing the bolt down, use that time dilation spell you showed me in Draconia.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding, nocking another bolt, and taking aim.  As she pulled the trigger mechanism with her magic, her horn flared even brighter, and the arrow was enveloped in a magical aura.  It flew at a speed akin to a regular bow, and fell directly into the target.  As the thunk of the arrow echoed down the hallway, the Guard members held their breath, waiting for something else to happen.  For a moment nothing did, but with sudden hiss and a shower of dust, the wires retracted from their positions along the hall.  Az could hear a subtle clicking noise, denoting that the retracted wires were on a timer.  
He turned to the rest of the group.  “We need to move, these are on a timer, get through as fast as you can.”  The others began galloping to the end of the tunnel and around the corner, which led into a large atrium with three tunnels leading off into different directions.  Upon seeing it, Az cursed under his breath.  He looked over his shoulder to ensure that everypony had made it through the razorwire-laden section of tunnel.  Once the last member of Heavy Squad had proceeded into the room, he began to take in his surroundings.  The stonework was identical to that of the tunnel had been, except there was a shaft of moonlight entering through what appeared to be an abandoned well at its domed peak.  The three exit hallways were each situated at the top of a set of stairs, with heavy wooden doors set within each frame.  Above each door stood a small symbol, each different.  Above the first, a knife was depicted, above the second an axe, and above the third a bow.  
“So where to from here?” Flow walked up beside Az and looked around at the three doors.  “It seems we have a bit of a puzzle to figure out, don’t we?”
“Not particularly” Az replied.  “It’s pretty simple actually.  A door for each of the pony races.  Pegasi use knives, so that’s our door, Earth Ponies use heavier weapons, such as axes, so that’s their door.  All that’s left is the ranged attackers, the unicorns.  We each need to go in through our own door.  I can only assume they link up again on the other side.  I guess if you go through the wrong door you’ll have a pretty bad day.”  Flow nodded and went to tell the other Lieutenants what the plan was.  Az walked up to the Pegasus door and pushed it open.  Sure enough, the opposite side of the door led him to another set of stairs leading down into another atrium, with a single exit on the opposite end.  Once down the stairs, he was better able to inspect the hall on the other side.  There was a faint light shining on the far end of the tunnel, likely more moonlight.  He looked behind him to see that the rest of the Guard members were entering the room through their respective doors.  
He placed a tentative hoof in front of him only to find the stone move slightly.  Dammit, there’s a trap here.  Probably some sort of pattern to how we need to walk.  Longshot walked up, bathing the hall in the light from her horn.  
“Floor’s rigged?” she asked.  He nodded, still looking down at the hallway.  The stones stared back up at Az, bare as when they were quarried from the earth.  He cursed again under his breath, and looked back to see Heavy Squad finally making their way through the doorway.  His eyes dropped into the room to see a small glowing ball illuminating the center of the room.  I guess I wrote that off as a spell, but it may be our ticket in.  
Az approached the ball and poked at it with a hoof.  It expanded suddenly causing Az to give a small yelp and jump back a ways, flaring his wings and assuming a defensive posture.  Flow, Longshot, Lightning Dust and Wise Guy lined up abreast of him and prepared to attack whatever had caused their team member alarm.  The ball quickly turned into another ghostly apparition, this time an Earth Pony, who looked across the room at the now relaxing Guard members.  As he straightened up, Az took in how the new phantom appeared.  Its armor was built significantly heavier than its two ghostly counterparts, to the point where there was not a single area of exposed coat beneath the armor.  Even its eyelets were covered over with a sort of see-through, yet blackened, glass.  The configuration and stylization of the armor matched what Captain Shade had shown Az the previous morning, as the armor appeared to be naturally black, and even looked sturdier than steel.
Az was about to speak when the behemoth barked out a quick laugh.  “Shoulda seen the look on your faces.  Pleasure ta meet ya.  Name’s Marble Chip, or at least what’s left of ‘im.”  The phantom spoke with a strong accent Az couldn’t quite place, and although his face was obscured by his helmet, Az could almost be certain that the ghost was grinning.  “So who’s in charge ‘ere?”  The phantom looked around at the Guard members staring flabbergasted at the suddenly chipper ghost.  
Flow walked in front of the group and cleared his throat to get the ghost’s attention.  “Formally, I am.  Lieutenant Rapid Flow, it’s good to meet you, Marble Chip.”  The ghost barked out another laugh.
“Unicorn, eh? O’ course you’re a bleedin’ unicorn.  Folks in charge usually are.”  He looked around at the group again.  “Lotta fresh meat ya brought with ya, Lieutenant.  Can’t believe the Order started usin’ rank, unbelievable.  But ya got fourteen with ya, makin’ four teams?”  Flow nodded.  “Right, so who’re the others then?”  Iron Feather and Light Note walked forward to stand alongside Flow.  Marble Chip looked them up and down before speaking again. “Ah, good.  Representatives from the other races.  Not a lick of experience with either o’ you either.  Celestia’s fat arse, what has the Order been doin’ these days?”  He looked past the three Lieutenants to see Az and Longshot staring at him.  “Wait, don’t answer that, I found somepony I like.”  He walked straight at the three officers lined up and before they could move out of his way, simply walked directly through them causing each individual to flinch in their own right.  
“A seasoned thief and assassin.  Looks like ya two know each other pretty well too.  I guess the Order hasn’t shit the bed entirely then.  Maybe one o’ ya can tell me what yer business is here then.”  Az looked to see Flow’s agitation that another ghost had snubbed him growing.  He suppressed a snigger before looking to Longshot to start the process of explaining why they had ventured into the Everfree.  She looked back at him expectantly, as if telling him this was his job, since he got them the job in the first place.  Az sighed and rolled his eyes, turning to address the ghost, who now stood no more than two paces from the two of them.
“Azure Wind, and this here is Longshot.  We came here looking for the room.  Apparently it’s been lost to the Guard for the last millennia or so.  Any chance you know how to get past this final trap?”  Az dropped his hood and mask to look the ghost directly in the eyes, or at least where its eyes should have been.  He could almost see his reflection in the glass slits, until the ghost looked to Longshot.  
“Might be I do, thief.  And a mare, eh?  I guess a millennia’ll do that.  Progress is progress I s’pose.  Now, ya want to get into the room?  Ya need to prove yerselves ta me in order to do that.  I’m one of Celestia’s wards, placed on it after we fled the capital.  So I need ta verify that you’re actually members o’ the Order.  And I do mean all o’ ya.”  The ghost glanced over the rest of the party before looking back to Az.  
Az nodded stiffly before giving his response.  “Well then, what do you need us to do?” 
“Answer a bit o’ a riddle.  This shoulda been passed down as a sort o’ tradition within the Order over the years.”  Az looked pleadingly at Flow and the other senior members of the Guard.  Riddles he could do, tradition would be a little trickier due to his greenness within the organization.  The ghost seemed to grin behind its helmet at Az’s newfound trepidation.  “Churned, baked, boiled.”  What?
A collective groan sounded from behind the ghost, causing him to chuckle.  The other Guard members looked at each other before answering in chorus.  “Roasted, stirred, consumed.”  Az looked back and forth at the now facehoofing Guard members around him in confusion.  Longshot stepped up beside Az and addressed the ghost.  “You’ll need to give him a pass on this one, he’s only just joined up with us.”  The ghost looked between Longshot and Az for a moment before nodding.  It then looked towards the tunnel, which became illuminated with a softly glowing blue light which covered the walls, floor, and ceiling.  
“There’s yer passage through, chaps.  Should keep ya from steppin’ on some of the nastier traps my ilk came up with.”  He turned to walk back towards the center of the room, but paused and turned around before reaching the spot his ball form had previously stood at.  “One more thing, if ya don’t mind.  The Nightmare, is it…?”
“Gone.  Princess Luna has been restored and is well, up to her old hijinks if I’m not mistaken” Flow answered.  The ghost barked out another laugh before nodding and continuing on his path to the center of the room.  Once he reached the spot, he vanished.  With the ethereal light given off by the ghost suddenly gone, the room grew significantly darker, with only the soft bluish glow of the hallway’s barriers holding the looming dark at bay.  Flow turned to address the group.  “Right, off we go then, hopefully there’s no more traps lying around for us and this will be our last stop.”  The party began walking down the hallway, which continually grew wider as they progressed further down it.  The stones shifted from the dark granite that dominated the landscape prior to finely polished marble, visible under the now growing moonlight from the next room.  
As they entered the room, many of the group were taken aback by what greeted their sight.  The room was stocked not dissimilar to the Guard’s armory, with full sets of armor adorning ponnequins of various sizes throughout the room.  Racks of swords, daggers, axes, and polearms filled any empty wall space.  Each piece of armor and weapon were made of the same midnight black metal as the helmet in Captain Shade’s office.  On the far side of the room, a rack of midnight-black bows sat by themselves, with full quivers of arrows draped over the corners of each rack.  Under the moonlight, the room seemed to glitter in an ethereal sense, as the bright moonlight contrasted with the darkness of the metal.
What caught Az’s attention was in the center of the room however, and not amongst the vast armory that lay before he and his colleagues.  The middle rotunda of the room descended down an extra fifty feet, creating a pit.  A pit with walls lined with hundreds of books.  A spiral staircase ran down the perimeter of the circle, allowing for those inside the room to peruse any of the books with little difficulty.  Much like the passageway leading into the room, the floor, walls, and ceiling of the room itself were comprised of polished marble, which glimmered in the moonlight.  
“This may take a while…” Az muttered.

> Chapter 13: RTB
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13 – RTB
“Alright everypony, the sooner we get this done the sooner we can get some shuteye!” Flow shouted across the room at the party as they spread out to take in what they were seeing.  He continued barking out instructions as the Guard began picking up various items scattered across the room.  “There’s a lot of stuff here, so we need to be sure everything gets packed away so we don’t leave anything behind.  Clear Sky, you’re in charge of cataloguing everything.  We don’t need the ponnequins, so you can strip the armor off them.  Az, Longshot, Wise Guy, you’re in charge of the archive.  Get those books packed away in one of the carts; make sure we don’t miss anything.  The rest of you, get those weapons and armor loaded up, let’s move!”
Like a well-oiled machine, the party spread out across the room and began taking everything they could hold off the racks, ponnequins, and shelves that they could carry.  Az descended to the bottom of the pit in the middle of the room and began removing tomes from their shelves and balancing them carefully on his back or holding them beneath his wings.  Longshot and Wise Guy collected numerous books within their magical grip and placed them in a waiting cart with a decent amount of speed.  Az placed his load in the cart and made his way back into the pit.  
A member of Shadow Wing, Fall Gust, cried out from across the room, causing many to stop and look to see what had happened.  “Turns out these weapons are sharper than our usual stuff!” she called out.  “Everypony be careful with them.  Oh, and medic?”  Flow rushed over to her and wrapped up the gash in her foreleg.  Az continued into the pit and collected another load, only to find on his way up that Longshot and Wise Guy had cleared the first two spirals of the staircase already.  Looking around the room, he was pleased to see that most of the ponnequins now lay bare, as well as the majority of the weapon racks.  Those Guard members holding the black weapons were proceeding more carefully as well since Fall Gust’s mishap.  
On his third trip into the pit, Az hit a snag.  One of the books refused to come off the shelf, and he did not want to tug on it too hard, for fear of damaging the millennium-old text.  He cleared the shelves around it, deposited them in the cart, and returned to see what the issue was.  Upon closer inspection, the book appeared attached to the marble shelf.  Az blew away some of the dust that had settled on the shelf, and used his wingtip to brush away what remained.  The book actually rested on a small circular cutout in the marble.  I’m surprised the dust didn’t fall in.  Maybe another way of safeguarding some secret.  I should probably let somepony know about this before I start poking around though.  He looked up through the hole left by the staircase to see if he could spot anypony else.  Wise Guy had just departed the pit with another load of books.  Longshot, on the other hoof, had just entered again.  He caught her attention and motioned that she needed to come to the bottom of the pit.  
“Whatcha got, bud?” she asked after teleporting beside Az.  
“Some sort of secret latch.  I had to clear off the dust to see it was there.”  She cocked an eyebrow at him.  “Some sort of magic mumbo jumbo” he explained with a shrug.  “You think we should get somepony else down here?  Like Flow or maybe Clear Sky?”  He looked back up at the mouth of the pit.
“Nah, we should be ok by ourselves.  I doubt there’s some sort of scary monster down here.  And if there is, I’m here to protect your helpless flank.”  She flashed a grin at him, earning a scowl in response.  She chuckled before continuing “so are we going to do this or what?”  Az nodded and placed a hoof on the book-switch.  He tried pushing it counter-clockwise, to no avail.  He reversed his strategy, pushing the book in the other direction.  It resisted for a moment before slowly turning under the pressure he was applying to it.  Once the book was perpendicular to the shelf’s edge, a soft click emanated from the base it was resting on.  Az finally got a good look at what the book looked like.  While the spine had been an innocuous burgundy color, the covers were the same polished marble as the rest of the room.  Az looked around to see if anything had happened, but when nothing did, he winged up to the mouth of the pit to see if there was any change in the remainder of the room.  He was greeted by the sight of the rest of the party finishing packing up the armor and weapons.  The room remained unchanged in size or structure.  
He returned to the floor of the pit to find Longshot inspecting the false book, seeing if there was something more to it.  She straightened up and scratched her head as he landed.  “Nothing new up there.  Maybe there’s a secondary stage to the switch?”
“That’s what I thought, but there’s nothing readily obvious about it.”  Wise Guy, who had finished putting away the remainder of the books from the pit in a cart, joined them.  
“Let me take a look at it.”  He squeezed past Az and Longshot in order to get a better look at the switch.  He poked his head around the false book for a few seconds before taking a step back with a puzzled look on his face.  “It doesn’t look like there’s any other way it can move, unless…”  He placed a hoof on the top of the book and pushed down on it.  The circular panel of the shelf shifted down slightly and issued another soft click.  Az and Longshot, who had been standing in the center of the pit to examine Wise Guy’s musings felt the ground beneath them shift.  At once, they both uttered small noises of surprise and stumbled off the now moving block of marble.  
The panel shifted down and then underneath the floor where Wise Guy was standing.  The low rumbling of the stone moving drew some onlookers around the mouth of the pit, but they went unnoticed by the three examining the new-found secret compartment.  The moving marble slab disappeared under the rest of the floor, and Az could pick out the clinking of metallic gears through the growing noise of the crowd at the mouth of the archival pit.  At the opening of the secret compartment, a glass case slowly became visible under the now waning moonlight that continued to shine in the room.  It rose slowly, taking in and reflecting the light, and as it continued upwards, Az, Longshot, and Wise Guy could see their reflections in the perfectly polished glass.  The case was a cube of five-by-five panels of glass, resting on a platform comprised of the same metal as the ancient Guard armor and weapons.  At each corner of the base, grooves replaced sharp corners, which Az assumed were the mechanism by which the case was raised.  
While the contraption was interesting in and of itself, what resided inside the case caught the attention of every eye in the room.  Underneath the glass sat a ponnequin, slightly larger than those scattered throughout the main room, clad in a set of plate and leather armor that could only be described as magnificent.  Instead of the same black metal as the rest, it was midnight blue in color, and left very little of the fake pony unprotected.  Its structure comprised of shoulder, chest, leg, back, and facial protection.  The gaps between each plate showed worn leather, also colored in midnight blue.  Upon closer inspection, the plate showed signs of wear, with several small gashes and dents covering the chest and shoulder pieces.  What drew the most attention, however was the wing and horn protection that the armor provided.  The option for leading edge protection of both wing and horn showed that this armor belonged to an alicorn.  Its coloration made it clear whose armor it was.  
“No way” Clear Sky breathed from the upper level.  She flew down to the floor of the pit and gazed longingly at the set of armor.  “This must be Princess Luna’s armor from before the Nightmare!  I can’t believe how well preserved it is!”  Az looked over to see her practically ready to burst, the energy apparently spawning from the grin that stretched almost painfully wide across her face.  A chuckle sounded from the top of the pit.
“Uh oh, we’re about to witness another nerd-splosion” one of Clear Sky’s teammates remarked, drawing a few chuckles.  Clear Sky visibly deflated, and a dejected look spread across her face in response to the jab.  Az walked over to her and shot a death glare at the speaker, who shrugged it off and left the rim of the pit.  
“Why don’t you open it, then?” he said to her, smiling.  A small grin found itself back onto her face as she began nodding emphatically.  She walked up to the case and circled around it, looking for a way to open it.  Finding none, she reached up and began pushing and tugging on the case, to no avail.  
“Maybe you need magic to open it” she said, looking to Longshot and Wise Guy, albeit with a disappointment.  The two looked at each other and nodded.  Az heard the clip clop of hooves on marble and looked up to see Flow descending the spiral staircase.  Longshot and Wise Guy began trying to lift the glass off the pedestal, but it continued to resist any attempts of its removal.  Flow reached the floor of the pit and inspected the team’s find.  
“Clear Sky, why don’t you go about cataloguing our new find while we try to get it out of the case?” Flow said to Clear Sky, drawing a nod from her.  She spread her wings and flew up to the main room to get her clipboard.  He turned to Az, who was watching Longshot and Wise Guy struggle to lift the glass case from over the armor.  “Az, would you have any ideas on how to get into this?”  Az drew is gaze away from the case to look at Flow.
“Unfortunately, no.  There might be some sort of magical trigger, or some kind of artifact that opens it via proximity, but outside of that, I have as much insight on this as you.”  Longshot and Wise Guy had given up their effort and stood glaring at the case, breathing a little heavier than they had been before.  Az walked up to the case to get a closer look at whatever may be holding the glass in place.  Seeing nothing, he inspected the contents of the case.  The armor on its own was impressive, and Az noticed that nestled beneath the right wing-joint, the hilt of a thin sword in a blue, metallic scabbard was visible.  I never took her for a fencer, different times… he mused continuing to look at the case.  While inspecting the leg and hoof armor of the suit, the rear of which was emblazoned with a crescent moon, Az noticed a disturbance in the flat surface of the bottom of the case.  He could not quite see what it was simply standing on the floor, so he reared up and put his front two hooves at the base of the glass so he could get a better look.  
As he did this, a slight hiss escaped from around the bottom of the case.  Az jumped back at the sudden release of pressure and landed a pace away from the pedestal.  “Looks like the seal’s popped.  Longshot, you think you can give it another try?” he said over the continuing hissing noise.  Longshot nodded and effortlessly lifted the glass from around the armor.  Az took to wing and hovered close to the armor to see what the disturbance had been.  It turned out to be a sealed envelope, with Her Highness, Princess Luna scrawled across the front of the envelope in elegantly lettered black ink.  The paper of the envelope was inexplicably unyellowed by time, and as Az flipped the letter over, he saw that the black wax seal remained unbroken and untarnished by its age.  The seal was detailed with the moon and dagger sigil of the Guard, and was as fresh as if it had been pressed the previous day.  
Flow walked up to see what Az was holding and looked up at the armored ponnequin on the stand.  “There was a magical release I recognized when you put your hooves up on the case.”  Az tore his gaze away from the pristine letter to look at him.  “It was a stasis spell.  An incredibly detailed, complex one.  I could only catch part of the release conditions, but it seems that only somepony close to royalty could have opened it.  It’s either your ehem relationship with Princess Twilight,” Az shot him a glare “or it could be the fact that you were the first Guard member welcomed into the order by Princess Luna since before the time of Nightmare Moon.  Either way, it looks like you get to present her with this.”  Az nodded and looked back at the set of armor.  
“This can’t be seen by anyone in Ponyville.  We’re going to need to cover up the carts with something.  The trick is, what could we possibly use?” he said, looking around.  Flow nodded, thoughtful for a moment before the metaphorical light bulb clicked.  
“You, Lightning Shift, and Shadow Wing will donate your cloaks and fly around Ponyville, meeting us at the train station.”  Az nodded, agreeing with the idea.  Flow collected the ponnequin in his magic and began walking it up the staircase.  His magic produced more light than the moon, as the dawn was fast approaching.  “In the meantime, everypony should catch some rest, we’ll get going out of here around sunset tomorrow.”

---------

The sunlight in the room was waning by the time Az woke up the next day.  Most of his compatriots were still asleep, and those who were awake were poking around the new sets of armor and weapons they had acquired.  He yawned, stretched his wings, and looked around the room.  The pit was laid bare, as well as every weapon rack and ponnequin in the room.  Princess Luna’s armor was already wrapped up in a cloak and sitting in the same cart as the rest of the armor.  He noticed Wise Guy poking around a section of wall on the far side of the room and walked over to see what he was doing.  
“What’s up?” he asked, yawning.  “Find something useful?”
“You could say that” Wise Guy answered.  His horn glowed and the outline of a door illuminated itself in the wall.  “I think I found an exit, not sure where it leads, but it’s gotta be easier than going back through those traps.”
“Damn straight” Az replied.  “Let’s get this open then, we should probably figure out where it goes.”  Wise Guy tugged magically on the door, causing it to swing open.  After telling one of the members of Heavy Squad to watch the door and ensure it did not close, thereby locking the pair out, Az and Wise Guy trotted through the opening to see where it led.  The passage continued for a decent distance, but light was visible at the end of a lightly sloped tunnel.  The rock returned to the dark granite of the original tunnel, and echoed as Wise Guy’s hoof-steps bounced off the walls.  
“How come your steps don’t make any noise?” Wise Guy asked suddenly.  Az showed him the bottom of one of his hooves, the shoe shining slightly in the gloom of the tunnel.
“Enchanted horseshoes.  Cost me a pretty penny, but they work wonders don’t they?”  Wise Guy nodded and they continued on in silence.  At the mouth of the tunnel, they paused to see where they had been deposited.  “That can’t be right…” Az started as he looked out at the vista.  They appeared to be no more than a mile from Ponyville’s outskirts, amongst the apple grove he had noticed on the train ride into town.  “There is no way we walked ten miles in those tunnels is there?”  Wise Guy shook his head in the negative.  “Then how the hay did we end up here?”
“Magic maybe?  I thought I felt a bit of rumbling when I was trying to fall asleep last night but this seems slightly absurd.”  Wise Guy scratched his head, puzzled.  “In any case, we probably ought to let Flow know, this changes our plans a bit.”  As he was finishing the sentence, they both noticed movement outside the tunnel entrance and froze.
“…tellin’ you, Pinkie.  Ah thought ah felt some tremors comin’ from this section of the farm last night.”  An orange mare with a brown Stetson hat walked in front of the tunnel, looking back at another mare, this one bubblegum pink, that was walking behind her.  Az and Wise Guy stood still as statues, barely daring to breath as they watched the two mares come into view.  
“Nope!  Sorry Applejack, but my Pinkie Sense didn’t do anything last night.  I would have known if there was an earthquake, ‘cause my whole body would shake and by eyes would have gone all whoa!”  She sat up on her hindquarters and screwed her eyes up.  She giggled before continuing “it might have just been your imagination.”  The two continued walking, apparently oblivious to the two black-clad ponies watching their every move in silent apprehension.  
“Ah guess you’re right.  Maybe a bit too much cider.  That Rainbow sure likes her competitions…”  Applejack walked directly in front of Az and Wise Guy and continued on her way without looking at them.  “Anyways, what’s this ah hear about you organizin’ another party?  What’s it for this time?”
“Oh, the new ponies that came through yesterday!” Pinkie Pie answered.  “They were all gloomy and mysterious and went into the Everfree forest!  Since they have to come back through Ponyville to get to the train station, I thought I’d throw them a surprise party!”  She giggled but suddenly tensed up.  He back left leg shook and her right ear flopped forward, causing her to gasp and Applejack to turn around to see what was happening.  
“What is it?” Applejack asked, concerned.  
“Left leg shake and right ear flap!  Somepony’s watching us!”  The pink mare wheeled around, searching for the source of the sensation.  Her gaze passed right over Az and Wise Guy, and settled on a squirrel sitting in a tree a few yards away.  “Oh it’s just a squirrel.  False alarm!”  She giggled and bounced off, humming to herself.  Applejack shook her head and followed after her, chuckling.  
Once they were out of sight, Az and Wise Guy let out a sigh of relief.  “Well, we know to steer clear of the center of town tonight” Az said.  “We’d best get back and get ready to leave.  I guess there was some sort of magical façade hiding the entryway here.  Might be worth a look once we’re out.”  They returned to the room and told Flow about what they had found.  
“A party?”  Az and Wise Guy nodded.  “Great, just what we needed, some random pony throwing parties for a secret mission into the Everfree forest.  We need to steer clear of the town, take a back route in.”
“Should be easy enough” Iron Feather stated from across the room.  “Just a matter of avoiding a large group of ponies, likely waiting for us at the edge of town.  I say we just go around them.”  Flow nodded.  
“Alright, once the sun’s completely down, we head out through that door, get to the station as fast as possible, and get out of here.”
Once the sun had finally descended below the horizon and the moon took its place in the night sky, the eight Guard members with cloaks on departed for the train station, and the other seven departed through the sky.  The group seeming appeared out of the side of a stone wall, etched into the hill on the Apple family’s western orchard.  The flying group spread out to avoid detection, and met with one another on the side of train opposite from the majority of the town.  Fifteen minutes later, eight cloaked figures made their way from the outskirts of town to the train station, loaded the carts, and departed Ponyville.  
Az sighed as he pulled back his mask and hood and gazed out the window at the countryside, which was now bathed in moonlight.  Easy enough job, no snags, I could get used to this kind of work.  He looked around the train’s compartment at the Guard members, who were spending their time chatting and telling jokes.  I really can’t believe this line of work didn’t come up sooner.  He spent the rest of the train ride lost in his thoughts about the last few days.
Upon arriving back at the base, they were greeted by Captain Shade, who nodding approvingly at the full carts unloaded from the back of the train.  “Well done, everypony.  I trust the mission went well?”
“Aside from being berated by a ghost for using rank, yeah, everything went swimmingly” Flow responded.  Some of the party chucked at his remark, and Captain Shade looked at him with a puzzled expression.  “I’ll tell you in the debrief.  In the meantime, I think some food is in order.”  He looked longingly at the long house, which showed signs that food was being served, based on the smoke coming out the chimney.  
“I actually need to speak with you and your team first” Captain Shade said, suddenly growing serious.  Flow looked slightly dejected at the thought and looked back at Shade.  “I have a mission that needs to be taken care of, and your team is the best qualified to get it accomplished.  Meet me in my office in fifteen minutes.”  He turned back towards the building as several ponies stared, dumbfounded, at the back of his head.  
“Great, looks like we have to work some more” he muttered to Az.  “I’d better go spread the word, see you there in fifteen.”  Az nodded and began walking after Shade to hear about the new mission.

---------

Pinkie Pie stood at the edge of the Everfree forest, waiting for any sort of movement to allow her to spring her super surprise party.  She had been waiting for hours and many of the town’s residents had gone home, too tired to wait out the band of cloaked strangers for any longer.  She was beginning to lose hope as well, and really hoped that they would love all the preparation she put into the surprise.  There were streamers everywhere, balloons, confetti, and cake!  So much cake.
The sun dipped below the horizon, and her hoped began to dwindle to nothingness.  Only her bestest of best friends were still with her, and they too were showing signs of fatigue.  She was about to call off the party (a thought which broke her heart) when all of a sudden she felt a small tap at her shoulder and looked over to see a small paper airplane lying on the ground.  Her friends gathered around her as she picked it up.  Unfolding the paper, she was able to see that somepony had written her a note.  


Pinkie Pie, I’m sorry that my friends and I are unable to attend the party you had lined up for us outside the Everfree forest.  We’re kind of working right now and can’t afford the attention.  Thank you for the thought, and tell your friends I said hi.
-Az
P.S.  The cake is delicious.


Pinkie whirled around to see a slice of cake missing and let out a small giggle before showing the note to her friends.
> Chapter 14
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 14 

Az followed Captain Shade into the long house.  The main room was largely devoid of any activity, due in large part to the fact that over half the Guard was still outside, taking care of their finds from the room in the Old City.  The smell of freshly roasted vegetables hit Az’s nose as he entered the building, causing a low growl to emanate from his stomach.  He reluctantly ignored the sensation and continued on to Shade’s office.  The office’s décor remained the same as it had been the previous day, with the exception of an added ponnequin in the back corner of the room.  It remained largely bare, sporting only the helmet Shade had shown Az two days prior.  
“Waiting to complete the set?” Az asked with a small grin as he sat down along the back wall of the room.
“You could say that” Shade replied, as he sat down behind his desk and rested his elbows on its surface.  “I trust you did find more armor in there, right?”
Az nodded “along with an armory’s worth of weapons, a full library, and what seems to be Princess Luna’s armor from eons ago.  Flow seems to think I’m going to be the one to deliver it.”
“’Cause you are” Flow said as he walked in the door, followed shortly by Longshot, Wise Guy, and Lightning Shift.  They each sat down in a line abreast of Az, facing Shade’s desk.  
“Whoa, whoa, whoa” Shade waved he forehooves around in the air, jumping up.  “You found what exactly?  Because it sounds like you said Princess Luna’s armor.”  He eyed each of the members of Nighstalker in turn.
“Exactly what it sounds like” Flow said matter-of-factly, raising a hoof.  “It was hidden under the floor of the archive.  It took some doing, but it seems Az was the one meant to open it, after all these years.”  The other ponies nodded in agreement.  “Which is why I said he’ll be getting it to her, some sort of magical connection.  The case was protected by a stasis spell,” he explained after receiving a quizzical look from Shade, “and I caught a bit of the release conditions, not much mind you, when he touched to case to get a closer look.”  Shade’s mouth had dropped open and stayed open for another few seconds before he shook the surprised look off his face.  
“Right, uh, make sure you take care of that as soon as you can kid, I’m sure she’ll love seeing it again.”  Shade sat back down.  “Now, back to business.  I have a mission for you.  This is a top priority, and I need to reiterate the fact that nopony but the three princesses can know about its details without their express permission.  This includes members of the Guard other than myself.  Any questions before I get into the full brief?”  Five blank faces stared back at him.  “Good, now the mission will be taking place in the Tigran Empire, which as you are well aware is a sovereign nation, not some little island in the middle of the ocean.  Since this is the case, your abilities will likely be put to the test to ensure that you go undetected throughout the course of the mission.  If you are caught, it will likely cause an international incident.”  Az and Longshot exchanged a confused glance, causing Shade to pause in his briefing.  “Something you two think needs to be shared?”
“Uhm, yeah, actually” Az said hesitantly after giving Longshot another glance.  “I don’t know when you were last there, but Tigra doesn’t have a cohesive central government.  It’s governed by a parliament of the most dominant clans, typically those consisting of tigers, hence the country’s name.  Just like in any society, there are rivalries and alliances, sometimes outside of the borders of the nation itself.  Hay, a few I worked for were close friends with the dragons.  That being said, in the unlikely event that we get caught, it’s probably not going to cause an incident, as the clan would probably keep us as some sort of leverage over a rival.  Only if we manage to piss off the top three or four clans in their parliament will we be brought up.”
Captain Shade looked thoughtful for a moment, bringing his hooves together and looking down at his desk.  After a moment, he looked up at Longshot.  “Can you confirm this?” he asked.  She nodded, and he reciprocated the motion.  “That uncomplicates things a little, less international politics to worry about.  Thank you for your insight, Az.  But as you said, it shouldn’t come to that.”  He stood up from behind his desk and walked over to the bookshelf, retrieved a large roll of paper with a pull ring in the middle of the open fold, and attached it to a hook above his window.  “Now that we have that cleared up, I need to get on with the mission details.  Your target is the Javrash family complex in the capital city of Felisa.  Javrash is the top military planner of the Tigran Empire’s army, and it has come to our attention that he has recently been drawing up plans for an invasion of several neighboring nations, to include Equestria.”  He pulled down on the roll of paper revealing a blown-up map of a city.  “While it is doubtful that anything will come of these plans, it is better to be safe than sorry.  Princess Luna agrees with this sentiment and has asked us to go in, copy the plans, and get out.”
“How do we know these plans are final?” Longshot interjected.
“We have a source within the household that has told us as much.  The plans were presented to the Tigran government and approved, “should they ever become necessary.”  Again, the use of these plans is highly unlikely, but we need to be sure Equestria’s safe.  You will be landing the airship-“
“Wait a sec, the airship?  A little conspicuous don’t you think?” Flow asked suddenly, with a degree of exasperation.  
“I know it’s your pet project, but a group of five ponies suddenly showing up via train with sets of armor is also a bit conspicuous.”  Shade replied with a small sigh.  “As I was saying, your landing zone is here, in a small clearing two miles west of the city” he pointed to a point on the map, marked with a red “L”.  “The trick is, you need to trust the airship to land on its own, since you will be airdropping into the city.  Looks like you get to put that auto-land function you installed to the test, Flow.”
“It was mostly Princess Luna though, I have no idea how it’s supposed to function!”  Flow whined as he threw his hooves up in exasperation.  “My beautiful airship…” he lowered his head and began moping.  Shade shook his head and turned to Az.
“When you bring that armor to her, be sure to ask the Princess how the system works.  If she has a manual, all the better.”  Az nodded, taking a mental note to ask about it.  “So like I said, you’ll be airdropping in.  From there, you need to infiltrate the building, copy the plans, and make it out of the city undetected.  As this is a covert op, and largely deniable to the princesses for political reasons, you will be responsible for yourselves; don’t expect anypony to come bailing you out if shit goes sideways.  The operation needs to be completed within four hours so you can get out of there before the sun comes up.  The mission is easy enough, so I expect a complete success.  I have managed to acquire the blueprints of the building, and we will be constructing the layout first thing in the morning.  From there, you will be practicing both the airdrop and the building infiltration for the next week.  Any questions?”
Wise Guy’s hoof went up.  “When you say constructing the layout, you mean that we’ll be working with rough outlines, right?  And not a full building?”
“The building is a single-story complex.  Short, but sprawling, we’ll be constructing walls to mimic the real thing.  Does that answer your question?”  Wise Guy nodded.  Lightning Shift was the next to speak up.
“I’ve heard that the heat can be pretty oppressive in Tigra.  Has this been considered for those of us who typically wear plate armor?  And if so, what are we going to do to rectify the situation?”  He looked over at Az, who gave him a sideways glance before speaking himself.
“I have this one, Captain.”  Shade nodded.  “This time of year, it’s what they consider winter in Tigra.  It’s pretty comparable to summer here, so it’s still pretty warm, but at night the temperature should be downright comfortable, even in plate armor.”  Lightning Shift nodded at the answer before facing Shade’s desk again.  Shade, in turn, cast his eyes over the team one more time, ensuring there were no further questions before dismissing them to whatever they needed to do that night.  
“One thing more, Az” Shade called out as Az was about to walk out the door.  He stopped, looked at Longshot who responded with a shrug, and turned back into the office.  Shade was rummaging through one of his drawers and retrieved a badge depicting a dagger crossed over a crescent moon and tossing it to Az.  “You’ll need this if you planned on getting Princess Luna’s armor to her while she’s awake.  The Lunar Guard takes their jobs far too seriously.  Just flash this and they shouldn’t give you any issues.  If they do, just do what you do best.”  Az looked up from the badge with a grin.
“Easy enough.  I’m assuming no armor?”  Shade offered a nod in response, and Az began walking towards the door.  “Alright, thanks for this, I’ll probably drop it off after I grab some grub, whatever Hammer was cooking up smelled pretty damn tasty.”

---------

Two hours after eating, Az neared Canterlot.  The flight had been more or less smooth, especially up at altitude, and the moon shone brightly at a three-quarter fullness.  The temperature may have been a problem if Az wasn’t struggling against the weight of Princess Luna’s old armor, which, despite the reduced weight of using the mystery metal, was still substantial due to the sheer amount of overall surface area.  He managed to get all of the armor into his saddlebags, but was forced to wear the helmet because of the oblong shape, and needed to sling the sword over his shoulder since it was too long for his bags.  As the helmet slipped over his eyes again, he cursed the decision to wear it instead of tying it off and dragging it like Longshot had suggested.  Az could see the outer suburbs of Lower Canterlot slipping beneath him, dark with stray houselights dotting the grid-like neighborhoods.  He climbed a little more to allow for an uninterrupted flight to the castle.  
As he leveled off, Az could see two dots traveling to meet him at a point ahead of him.  Here come the good guys he thought wryly.  He reached back into his saddlebags for the badge that Captain Shade gave him after the briefing and held onto it as the two dots slowly proved themselves to be members of the Lunar Guard.  They came to a hover a quarter mile in front of Az and waited for him to approach.  Once he was within speaking distance, one of the bat-ponies called out for him to stop.  Az came to a hover and waited for them to say something.
“A little late to be out for a flight, don’t you think?” the bat-pony on the left, a large male said.  “Mind telling us what you’re doing out, and why you have that absurd helmet on your head?” he spotted the sword hanging at Az’s side.  “Or a sword for that matter?”
“What you don’t like my helmet?  Aw, shucks, everypony’s been telling me it looks cooler than you guys do on a good day.”  The two Lunar Guards scowled at him and were prepared to charge him when Az produced the badge.  “Relax compadres.  Special delivery for Princess Luna, courtesy of the Guard.”
“Which guard?” the other bat-pony, a female, asked indignantly.  
“THE Gua- ah wait, you guys probably aren’t allowed to know about it.”  He waved a dismissive hoof before continuing.  “In any event, I was told this badge will get me though.  So what’ll it be?”  The two Lunar Guards looked at each other for a moment before motioning for Az to follow them to the castle.  They continued flying over Lower Canterlot before quickly reaching the base of the mountain, and from there Canterlot proper.  The castle remained another five minutes away, if Az remembered correctly, and he passed the time sightseeing, since his escort wasn’t particularly talkative after being made fun of.  
Once they reached the castle, Az made to touch down, but his escorts continued on ahead, so he continued following them to his final destination.  They approached the top-most tower of the castle, to which a balcony was attached, protruding ten hoof-lenghts into the air before ending abruptly with a golden banister.  In the middle of the balcony, Princess Luna stood behind an enormous telescope, which appeared to be made of solid bronze, and was covered with more mathematical instruments than Az knew names for.  He removed the helmet as he landed on the balcony and placed it between his wings.  The female bat-pony cleared her throat to catch the Princess’ attention.
“One moment, please!  I must finish this constellation.”  She did not take her eye away from the telescope, but placed a hoof on a small, ruler-like instrument and gave it a small push.  “Perfect” Az heard her mumble.  Her horn glowed, and Az looked up to see a single star appear to finish the constellation of Pisces.  She took her eye away from the telescope with a perturbed look on her face to see who had disturbed her.  “So what is it this time?”  She spotted Az and her expression brightened.  “Ah, Azure Wind, how kind of you to stop by.  To what do I owe-“ her sentence trailed off as she saw the helmet sitting between Az’s wings.  The Lunar Princess’ eyes grew wide and she looked back and forth between Az and the helmet on his back, only to be greeted with a sheepish grin on his face each time she looked back at it.  “You may leave” she said quietly to the two bat-ponies, dismissing them with a wave of her wing.  
Once they had left, Princess Luna motioned for Az to follow her inside.  She magically unlatched the doors, whose gilded frames swung noiselessly inwards to reveal what looked to be part mechanist’s workshop, part observatory, and part bedroom.  The Princess’ eyes rarely strayed from the midnight blue helmet resting on Az’s back or the bulging saddlebags he was carrying.  She took a seat at a circular table in the middle of the room, and Az followed closely behind, only taking the time to place the helmet and his saddlebags on the table.  Luna was the first to break the silence.  
“Is that-?  I-I mean, did you find-?  How-?”  Az nodded, and began unpacking the armor plating from his saddlebags.  
“I take it this is yours then?” he said with a chuckle.   She nodded emphatically, almost savoring the view of each piece as he retrieved them from his saddlebags.  “We found it in the Old City, on a little trip we took to collect a room full of artifacts from the early Guard.  Hidden away in a secret compartment under the floor, if you’d believe it.  We also found this” he retrieved the letter from a side-pouch in his saddlebags.  Luna’s sapphire-colored magical aura enveloped the envelope as she brought it up to her face.  She inspected the envelope for a few moments before breaking the wax seal, sending crumbled bits falling to the table.  She opened the envelope, retrieved the letter from inside and began reading it to herself.  As she continued, her eyes began to water, and by the time her eyes had reached the bottom of the page, she had held a hoof up to her mouth, as if to prevent herself from crying.  
“I can come back later, Princess” Az offered, turning back towards the door.  Luna’s eyes snapped up, as if she suddenly remembered he was in the room.  She rubbed her eyes quickly and cleared her throat before shaking her head.
“No, that will not be necessary, Azure Wind.  And please, just call me Luna.  All of them did…” she sadly cast her eyes to the letter before returning her sapphire gaze to Az.  “So you were telling me about how you came by this armor?” 
“Like I said, we found this a secret compartment in the Old City.  Strangest thing, we couldn’t get the case it was sealed in open until Iof all ponies touched it.  Do you have any thoughts on that?”  Luna looked up from the armor, which she was arranging in an order which, it seemed to Az, would allow her to put it on rapidly if need be.  
“Not particularly, you would need to ask the spell-caster regarding such matters” She replied.  With a flick of her horn, the armor came to life, and flew up to surround her.  A few short motions later, Luna was clad in her old battle armor, sans helmet.  The armor was not exactly the same color as her coat, but it was still striking, as her wings unfurled to test the sheaths now covering them.  She cast her head back and forth to see if any of the armor pieces were misplaced before testing it with a few short jumps.  
Satisfied, Luna removed the armor as quickly as she had put it on, and reverently placed it by the section of the room that resembled a mechanist’s shop.  After placing each piece on a workbench, she turned back to the table Az was sitting at.  Upon sitting down, she looked over the items still sitting on the table, her helmet, sword, and the troubling letter Az had presented to her.  She cast another sad glance at the letter before levitating it to a small table sitting next to the large four-poster bed in the corner of the room.  Az could see limited detail on the bedframe due to the low light in that section of the room, but he could tell that its dark-colored linens were bunched and balled up, a point that irked Az to no end.  He turned his attention back to the Lunar Princess as she sat down on the red-cushioned chairs surrounding the rounded table.  
“So, you managed to come by my effects, did you?  I do believe that tonight’s constellations can be set aside since you obviously went out of your way to do something remarkably kind for a pony you hardly know.”  She lifted the rapier off the table, drew it, and stared at it with a critical eye.  She stood up from the table, sword still gripped in her magical aura.  “I’m sure you must have questions for me, the wayward alicorn sister.”  Her tone, although grateful at the start, grew bitter.  She took a sword-fighter’s stance and gave her rapier a few experimental swings before nodding with approval.  
“Princess-“
“Luna” she swung the sword again.
“Alright then, Luna, if this is a bad time, I can come back…” he stood up from the chair and began walking backwards towards the door.  Luna froze mid-swing, her eyes growing wide and looking over towards Az with a look of apologetic shock on her face.
“What? Oh, no, no, no.  Why would this be a bad time?”  Az stopped walking and motioned towards the bedside table.
“Well, the letter seemed to affect you a bit, I thought it might be better if I maybe came back later,” he watched as her expression dropped from that of apologetic shock to one of dejection and sadness.  Az felt a pang of guilt and sympathy hit him once he witnessed the shift in attitude.  “Unless you’d like the company, Luna.”  Her expression brightened as she offered a nod and a small smile, sheathed and set down her rapier, and took a seat at the table in the middle of the room.  She motioned for Az to follow suit, and once he had sat down she cleared her throat of the lump that had formed there and spoke.
“I am sorry, Azure Wind.  That letter brought back some very old memories, ones I wish I do not have, but alas, such is the passage of time; all you can do is look back and sigh.  My mind drifted elsewhere.  Did you have any questions for me?  We have not had time to talk since you were inducted into the Order.”
Az nodded and placed his elbows on the table, much like he had seen Shade do every time he entered the office.  “I wouldn’t be worth my salt as a scholar if I didn’t have a few lined up.  And you can just call me Az, everypony apparently does.”  She offered a small chuckle in response.
“I shall keep that in mind, Azure Wind.  Now, what are your questions?”
“First off, what’s the deal with this room?  I can’t quite figure out what the hay is going on in here.”  Az cast a hoof across the room’s cluttered interior and turned back to see Luna simply staring back at him.  “Did I say something wrong?”  Luna snapped out of whatever she was thinking about, blinked, and looked to Az to answer his question.
“My apologies, you simply reminded me of a…very old friend” she said quietly, a small smile tugging at the edges of her lips.  “As to this room, these are my chambers, I thought that much would be obvious” she stated matter-of-factly.
“I just never would have pegged this as anypony’s room per se.  I mean, the star charts I get, the mess…I kinda get, but the workshop?  You lost me there, Luna.” Luna.  That felt good to say out loud.  And judging by her countenance earlier, it must get pretty lonely being the only one awake, I guess she could use the company.  Luna looked around the room with a confused look on her face.
“I do not understand what confuses you, Azure Wind.  As you said, the star charts are part of who and what I am, as I take charge of painting my canvas each night with the lights of seventeen million, eight-hundred and fifty-eighty thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-one stars.  But my quarters are messy?”  She looked around again, confused.  “And what of my workshop?  Why is it surprising to you?”
“First of all,” Az said, holding up his forehooves, “the fact that you put over seventeen million stars up each night is a work of art, and nothing less.”  She rolled her eyes at him.  “Seriously!” he continued, “my old job took place at night, and only in the last three years have I been able to appreciate the night sky.”
“You are too kind” she said, blushing slightly.
“Not even remotely.  I steal stuff for a living, remember?”  Az chuckled slightly, with Luna joining in quickly before continuing.  “As to messy, I guess I’m just a bit of a nitpick when it comes to that, if you’d seen my place you would understand.  Now, as for your workshop, I just never pinned you as a mechanic, or even a tinkerer for that matter.  I had never heard anything about it before, either, and I read a lot.”  
“Oh that is what you were referring to.  Not many ponies know this about me, but I do enjoy creating mechanical items for a variety of reasons and applications.”
“Like the auto-land sequence for the airship?”
“Precisely!” she replied, her face brightening considerably.  “Why, have you tried it?  Does it work?  Tell me tell me tell me!”  She was practically bouncing in her seat, leaning over the table with an overly excited look in her eyes.  
“We, uh, haven’t tried it out quite yet, but we’ll be using it in our next mission.”  Az was leaning back in his seat, attempting to avoid the alicorn’s foalish onslaught.  “Speaking of which, Flow asked about getting an instruction manual, he’s stumped.”  Luna sat back in her chair with a humph.  
“It does not surprise me that he needs a manual, the dense sod.  I will see what I can do, and send it over as soon as I can.”  Az nodded before thinking of another question to change the subject slightly.  
“How did you get into all this mechanical stuff anyways?”  He regretted asking the question when Luna’s face darkened.  “Um, you don’t need to answer that, sorry…”  Luna waved a dismissive hoof, her face still holding a saddened expression.
“It is fine, Azure Wind.  Only my sister remembers me from before my banishment to the moon, and this has been a small mystery to her as well.  It is not a memory I revisit with fondness.”  She looked to Az, who continued watching her expectantly from his seat across the table.  Luna took a deep breath, cleared her throat, and collected her thoughts before starting her tale.  “As you well know, I returned to Equestria as Nightmare Moon, a version of myself born of the jealousy and hate that I bore towards Celestia.  There have been a number of different metaphysical, philosophical, and psychological arguments made as to why the transformation occurred,” she waved a dismissive hoof, “but I alone know the truth of the matter.  Strong enough negative feelings, coupled with my connection with the Elements of Harmony and the ambient magic native to Equestria combined to create the Nightmare.  While I was under its influence, I was prone to orchestrating deprave acts; I had no mercy, no love, no compassion…”  She shuddered, took another breath and continued.  
“I was eventually stopped by my sister and banished to the moon for the next one thousand years, but the Nightmare lingered with me, tormenting me for all those years.”
“Excuse me for interrupting, but I thought you and Nightmare Moon were one in the same?” Az interjected into the story.  “You keep referring to “the Nightmare” as if it were a separate entity, why is that?”
“Oh, of course, I apologize, you would not have known about these things.  The Nightmare was a physical manifestation of my strong negative emotions.  As I said, it combined with some very powerful magic and took shape about me.  It was not, however, a simple alteration of my physical form and augmentation of my natural abilities.  The Nightmare was…alive.  Somehow, it knew how to keep control of me, forcing me doing what it wanted, and it made me believe, truly believe, that I wanted those things to occur.  It is a…complex matter.”  She looked to Az with a small look of hope, to see him nod in response to her explanation.  “You understand then?  I would not thing one as unversed in magic as a pegasus would quite comprehend what all of this means.”
“I think I got the gist.  But I’ll have you know it’s likely I understand more about magic than the typical unicorn” he stated with a slightly teasing tone.  When she offered a quizzical look he shrugged it off, “years of study and incessant reading.  But anyways, I interrupted your story, please continue.”  Luna, resigning herself to his answer, carried on.
“Right, where was I, ah yes, banished to the moon.  I arrived on the moon, once my charge, my love, my reason for being and found only despair in its luminescent surface.  The Nightmare raged against our fate for five, maybe six years before it discovered something about itself that I wish it never had.  It…retreated inside of me, as if hibernating.  It would resurface after a decade or two, and reassert its control over me, ensuring I was still malleable to its will.”  She could feel a knot forming in her throat and attempted to clear it with a small cough.  “In the interceding years, I learned to shape the rocks and minerals of the moon.  I created massive structures, simple machines, and any number of individual trinkets.  I soon found solace in my growing skills and was able to use my new inventions and creations as an escape from my punishment.  
“Once I was restored by the Elements of Harmony I found myself staying in here, my room, brooding over what had been and what may be as a result of my unjust jealousy.  I found myself beginning to tinker with small metal items, and it soon became a hobby that I could lose myself in after finishing my night sky.  Metal is much easier to work with than stone, after all.”  She finished with a slightly happier tone, casting a look over her work space.  “And now, Azure Wind, you have heard a story none but my sister can have claimed to have heard before.  What say you?” she finished quietly, looking back at her workshop.
“Why did you decided to tell me?” he asked.  “Why not somepony else?  Somepony you know a little better maybe?”
“I-I do now know, Azure Wind.  Something compelled me to tell you my story so I did.  It could be that magical connection you spoke of earlier.”
“Seriously, you can call me Az.”
“Noted.  Now I have a question for you.”  She crossed her forelegs on the table.  Az leaned forward, ready for whatever question she had posed for him.  “Would you like a refreshment?  I have a particularly refreshing wine-cider mix, if you are interested.”  He almost fell out of his chair.  She smirked at his now shocked expression as she hopped from her chair and strode towards a small cabinet situated in the workshop area of her room.  The cabinet was a rich mahogany, with stylized brass hinges and door pulls.  As she reached the cabinet, she pulled it open with magic and stuck her head inside to inspect its contents.  “I also have some brandy, a strangely spicy Draconian whiskey, a halfway decent Tigran scotch, and some juice” she called from inside the piece of furniture.
“I, uh, I’ll have whatever you’re having” he stammered in response.  Luna’s head popped out from the cabinet, a clear bottle containing a light amber fluid in tow, held in place by her magic.  She levitated two wine glasses from across the room and placed them on the table as she arrived with the bottle.
“Wine-cider it is then” Luna stated, hopping back into her chair.  She chuckled at Az’s still shocked expression as she began pouring the fragrant liquid into the two glasses.  “Azure Wind, you must understand how this relationship is going to work.”  Az’s eyes snapped from the glasses to her face, suddenly going cold with suspicion.  “I am a Princess of Equestria,” she continued, ignoring his hardened stare, “and as such am burdened with a great number of various topics that weigh heavily on my mind.  You are now a trusted confidant in some of those matters.”  Az relaxed in his chair before reaching for a glass and taking a deep draught of the liquid.  “However, you are also a member of the Guard, an institution whose core principle is secrecy.”  A small smile crept onto her lips.  “That means I’m going to need to ply you with drinks to get any good stories out of you.”
Had Az not previously swallowed his mouthful of the wine, he would have spewed it across the room.  He was, instead, reduced to simply staring at Luna with another degree of shock generally reserved for none but the direst of situations.  His surprise soon gave way to a small chuckle, which Luna joined in on quickly.  Az took another sip from his glass, an impish grin playing on his lips.
“You’re going to need some harder stuff than this then” he said, chuckling again. 
“Perhaps,” she replied, “but we do have until morning, do we not?”  She appeared hopeful he might agree with her, although her face also betrayed some apprehension.  A night drinking and swapping stories with Princess Luna.  Sure, why not? Az thought.  He nodded with a small smile and she beamed and clapped her hooves together.  “Oh, this is truly good news!  It has been so long since I had a friend to just sit and talk with.”  There’s that word again.  I guess friendship can be contagious, and if nothing else, I have a good bailout system.  “Now, let us start with something I know you will be more than pleased to talk about:  how you evaded the Lunar Guard after they spotted you and gave chase.”
Az grinned and put down his wine glass.  He looked around the room for a moment before he found what he was looking for on one of Luna’s workbenches.  He hopped down from his chair, drawing a confused look from Luna, and walked over to the bench where he retrieved two small dowels with bulbous ends and walked back over to the table.  “I need props for this one” he explained.  “Any chance you can make this one look like a pegasus and this one look like a bat-pony?”  Luna nodded, still confused, and transformed the metal ends of the dowels as Az had asked.  The pegasus was the spitting image of Az himself, sans armor, and the other identical to a Lunar Guard member.  “Wow, you don’t mess around with attention to detail, do you?” Az said to Luna, admiring the statuettes.  After giving a nod of approval, Az reared up on his hind legs, held the figurine of himself in front of that of the Lunar Guard and cleared his throat.  
“So no shit, there I was…”

> Chapter 15
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 15
Flow, Lightning Shift, and Wise Guy stood outside the long house as the sun continued to rise above the treetop parapet, bathing the courtyard of the base in its early morning light.  Wise Guy yawned noisily while Flow let out an exasperated sigh.  He checked the position of the sun, judging the time to be roughly seven.  Looking back towards the doors of the building, Flow could see Longshot returning with a confused and slightly worried expression on her face.  
“Nothing then?” he asked, breaking the silence.
“Not even a note” Longshot answered.  “This isn’t like him,” she said nervously, scanning the sky, “I would have thought he’d be the first one out here.”
“Maybe he got caught up in Canterlot?” Lightning Shift suggested, looking up from where he was preening his wings.  “He was delivering that armor to the Princess, right?  It’s likely he stayed at his place for the night.”  He looked closely at his right wing and continued his grooming regimen.
“Still, he would have been here on time.  He was there when we agreed on six thirty, right?” Longshot said, her tone growing exasperated.  “I mean, what if the Lunar Guard gave him trouble?  He can handle himself in a fight, but he isn’t a soldier by any stretch of the imagination.”
“Longshot, relax” Flow said before she could continue her rant.  “I’m sure Az’ll be along shortly.  And if he isn’t, we have something to do today other than build stuff…” he glanced over at the stacks of lumber that were delivered earlier that morning.  Wise Guy yawned again, but the sound was cut short by blaring sirens going off, indicating an approaching pegasus.  Flow jerked his head over to see his team jumping at the noise.  “Lightning!” he barked.
“On it!”  Lightning Shift shot up into the air, trailing a stream of static electricity as he flew off.  The sirens cut off as Captain Shade came running outside, along with Proxis and Iron Feather, both of whom looked like they had very little time to put on their armor before running outside.  Shade gave a hurried look over the group before turning to address Flow.  
“How long has he been in the air?”
“About fifteen seconds, he should have intercepted at this point.”  Flow let out a short chuckle.  “Tell me again how you managed to pull the Wonderbolts’ top recruit out from underneath them?”  Shade returned the chuckle.
“Promises of adventure and excitement the Wonderbolts couldn’t match.”  He squinted to where Lightning Shift had flown off to, and could just make out two shapes flying towards the base.  “Made for an interesting meeting when that dragon popped up in Ponyville.  All those promises and he got to read about something more exciting that what he was doing in the news.  He was not a happy camper by any stretch of the imagination.”  He shook his head, remembering the experience.  “In any case, it looks like he found whoever was flying in.  Probably Az?”
“It’s likely, how’d you figure it out though?”  Flow looked at Shade with a confused expression.  
“Pretty easy actually.  The kid’s not here, and there are only two ponies flying back.  Simple process of elimination” he explained nonchalantly, turning to Proxis and Iron Feather.  “You two can go about your business, everything here is taken care of.”   The two nodded and walked back towards the long house.   Once they were out of earshot, Shade turned to Longshot, who was watching the two shapes closing in on the base.  “I take it this is abnormal behavior?”  She turned away from watching the sky long enough to glance at Shade.
“Yeah, lateness usually isn’t his thing.  Unless he’s on a job and made plans to meet with somepony for dinner…  But I digress, late isn’t his thing.”  She looked back down to see three curious faces looking at her.  “What?”
“Dinner?  So you two were an item!” Wise Guy exclaimed triumphantly.  His jubilation was quickly silenced with a punch to the shoulder by an irritated Longshot.  
“No, we were not” she said, annoyed, to the group.  “It was to discuss plans for our next job.  It’s much safer to meet in public over a meal than trying a whole bunch of cloak and dagger.  Ponies tend to notice suspicious activity like that, especially guards.”  As she finished talking, Az and Lightning Shift cleared the parapet and quickly descended to join the group.  As the two touched down, Flow cut the conversation short.  
“Nice of you to join us.  Get caught in traffic?” he said, walking up to Az.
“Heh, no, sorry about that” Az responded sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.  “I got caught up talking with Luna.  Oh, speaking of which, the reason I’m late is because she was writing this up for you” he reached back into his saddlebags and retrieved a slim book.  He gave it to Flow who flipped through a few pages before letting out a low whistle and showing it to Shade.
“Manual for the auto-landing mechanism.  This looks like it took weeks to prepare though” he flipped through a few more pages.  “The drawings are beyond precise, it almost looks like they could jump off the page at me.”  He looked up to see Az chuckling.  “Something funny?”
“She predicted you would say exactly that, intonation and everything.  As for the jumping off the page thing, check this out.”  He reached out to the page of the manual Flow had open and tapped on a small mark in the upper right-hand corner of the page.  As he did so, the picture on the page, an exploded diagram of the control board, projected itself into the air, causing Flow to drop the book in surprise.  The book remained open as it hit the ground, and the diagram grew, expanding as it moved further away from Flow’s face.  It glowed a faint blue, weak in the morning sunlight, and Flow leaned in for a closer look, having gotten over his initial shock.
“Well that’s something” he breathed.  “I’m going to need to take a closer look at this later, actually learn how to use the system I guess.”  He shook his head, grinning, as he closed the book and turned to Az.  “You really have it in good with royalty, don’t you?”  Az chuckled softly and shrugged.
“What can I say?  I guess I’m just that charming.”  The rest of Nightstalker chuckled along with him and Shade simply shook his head, a ghost of a grin playing along his lips.  
“Alright, alright.  Everypony’s here, now get to work, you have a lot of construction to take care of today.”  He turned to leave before Az cleared his throat, catching his attention.  “Something else, then?  You never can leave it as it is, can you, kid?”  Az chuckled again, and, reaching into his saddlebags, retrieved a small bag that emitted a faint clinking noise as it moved about in his grip.
“I guess you should have figured that out at this point.  In any case, Luna and I came up with these last night.”  Shade levitated the bag towards himself and retrieved a piece of its contents, a small metal block, sized as if to fit alongside a pony’s head underneath a helmet, with two wires protruding from it.  The thicker of the two wires remained straight after leaving the body of the block and ended with a small slotted section after three inches.  The second wire was curved, and although thinner than the first, was covered with a rubber tube.  After inspecting it, Shade passed it to Flow, who looked it over with a larger degree of curiosity.
“This is the point where you tell us what it is, if I’m not mistaken?” Flow asked, looking up from the small device.
“Oh! Right, yeah, sorry about that” Az said, suddenly realizing the design was not as obvious as he and Luna thought it would be.  He walked over to Flow and took the small block from him.  He fitted the rubber encased wire over his ear so that the thicker, slotted wire sat close to the corner of his mouth.  “They’re communicating devices, enchanted so that you can talk to each other without needing to be near each other.”  He took five more out of the bag and passed them to his teammates and Shade, indicating for them to put them on.  “Wait right here” he said before winging to the other side of the courtyard and stopping to hover.  He began speaking, and much to everypony’s surprise, they could hear him clearly enough to understand.  “So yeah, they pretty much work just like this.  Pretty neat, right?”  He flew back to where the other ponies were standing, each sporting a different variation of a surprised expression.  
“So Luna and I thought these could come in handy so we put together enough for every member of the Guard” Az said, landing next to Longshot.  “We just can’t have more than one pony talking at once.  It was… painful.”  He winced and rubbed his ear, as if remembering having his eardrum blown out.
Shade, as usual, was the first to recover from his surprise.  “Well between you and the Princess, it looks like we have a decently functioning brain” he said, drawing chuckles from the now recovering members of Nightstalker.  “I’ll ensure these get used from now on, they definitely seem like they could help out in a pinch.”  He took the piece out of his ear and placed it back in the bag.  “I’ll take these back to my office, you guys hold onto those, since you’ll be building all day.  Now get to it, you ship out in a week.”  He collected the bag of communicators in his magical aura and walked towards the long house.  
Once he was out of earshot, Longshot turned to Az with a bemused look on her face.  “What is it with you and Princesses nowadays?”   A devilish grin spread across her face.  “Does Princess Twilight know you’re cheating on her?” she said, causing Flow, Wise Guy, and Lightning Shift to almost fall over laughing with the sudden accusation.  Az, in turn, scowled at her.
“As I have told you before, Twilight and I are friends, nothing more.  The same now goes for Luna.”  He coughed before quickly adding “that typically happens when you talk shop over seven or eight drinks.”  The laughing died instantly, and eight eyes focused on Az as he proceeded to rub the back of his head, looking more sheepish as time passed.  
“Wait, seriously?” Lightning Shift asked, shaking his head as if to clear it.  “I had heard she’s kinda, you know, weird.  I mean, after a thousand years on the moon and all…”  He looked around at the others for support.  
“So let me get this straight,” Flow said, “I sent you up there to drop off her armor and she gives you drinks and chats with you all night?”  Az nodded.  “What the buck?!  I should have dropped it off myself!”  He sat down on the ground and pouted.  Az rolled his eyes and began walking towards the pile of lumber in the corner of the yard.  
“Can we walk and talk?  I kinda didn’t get any sleep last night and the sooner we get this done, the better I think.”  The others quickly caught up and it wasn’t long before the questions continued to flow, causing him to breathe an exasperated sigh and trudge forward, his head closer to the ground and ears flattened.  
“But really, is she weird like everypony says?” Lightning Shift asked, pressing forward with his previous line of questioning.
“No more than you or I,” Az replied, “but she does slip into old-timey Equestrian now and then, especially when telling stories about her past.  Other than that, she was pretty cool to talk to once she opened up.”
“And how did you get her to do that?” Longshot interjected, a devious grin spreading across her face.
“Nothing I did, per say” Az responded, shrugging.  “Apparently I reminded her of somepony she knew once, though I was never able to figure out who she was talking about.”  They arrived at the stack of lumber to find it divided by beam length.  A set of blueprints was stapled to the front of the stack, folded over several times to account for the size of the building to be constructed.  “Well here we are, that’s it for story time I think, now we can get started, right Flow?”  Hearing no response, Az looked around to see where Flow was.  While the group had set off towards the lumber pile, Flow remained seated, still pouting that he missed a chance to drink with royalty.  Shaking her head, Longshot whistled loud enough to catch his attention, but also caused those nearby to cringe at its pitch and volume.  Flow perked up, looked around to see he was abandoned in the middle of the field, and hurried over to the lumber pile.  
“So boss, what’s the plan?” Wise Guy asked, grinning, “that is assuming you’re done moping.”  Flow glowered at him, still embarrassed before clearing his throat and walking over to the pile to inspect the blueprints.
“The plan is for you to stop making smart-ass comments, first of all” Flow said, unfolding the plans.  Wise Guy winked at him, causing Flow to roll his eyes.  “As far as the mission goes, we’re going to make the layout today, which should take four or five hours if we push it.  Tomorrow is gear check and planning, and the rest of the week is practice, full gear the whole time.”  Longshot, Wise Guy, and Lightning Shift groaned, while Az looked at them confused.  “Hey, hey,” Flow interjected, “you know how I work.”
“Better uncomfortable now than dead later” the three deadpanned in chorus.
“Right.”  Flow was about to return to looking over the plans when he saw Az staring at the other three confused.  “Oh, sorry, I forgot you’re new.  Whenever we have to practice for an op this big, I like to run it in full gear to make sure we’re ready to go.  I’m sure you did something similar in the past?”  Longshot barked out a laugh, causing Flow to look over at her with an arched eyebrow.  “Something I miss?”
“Plan anything?  Mister Fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants over here?  No matter how much prep I usually do for a mission or job, he shows up totally unprepared every time.”  She continued chuckling to herself.  
“Whoa now, I’m never unprepared” Az retorted.  “Just because I never do run-throughs doesn’t mean I don’t prepare.”
“Whoa, whoa, you’ve never done a run-through before a job?”  Wise Guy asked incredulously.  
“Yep” Longshot answered, still smirking.  “It’s caused a few close calls, if I’m not mistaken?”  Az snorted, causing her to chuckle again.  
“ANYways,” Flow interjected agitatedly, before the conversation could go any further, “we do run-throughs here, and will be doing a lot of them before the week is out.  We’ll do the gear check at noon tomorrow, that work with everypony?  We’ll be working pretty hard today to get this framework done, and I want us to get enough rest this week.”  The rest of the team nodded in agreement.  “Right, so let’s get started with this.  I’ll lay down the pattern magically, and we just need to fill in the frame for now.  We’ll get to securing everything once all the boards are in place.”  His horn flared, and the outline as shown on the blueprint page lit up on the field with an ethereal glow.  “Alright folks, let’s get this done.”

---------

After five hours of placing, fitting, and nailing together the frame of the building, Nightstalker made their way back to the long house to eat and get some much needed rest.  Az, who had spent the previous night awake, was the first to make his way back towards his room.  Sunlight still streamed through his window, although it contained the light gold color of early afternoon.  He set about putting away his saddlebags and gathering up his armor before heading to bed for the afternoon and night.  Az looked his armor over and searched through each of the pockets, ensuring that everything he left in them was still there.  Satisfied that nothing went missing since he left the previous night, Az placed his armor by the door and turned back towards his bed, yawning loudly.  
Might as well close the blinds at least he thought drowsily.  After doing so, he rolled onto his bed to finally get some shuteye.  As he rolled onto his side, he felt a slight crinkling sensation underneath him.  Weird bed, it feels like I’m lying on paper.  He yawned again before his eyes snapped open with the realization that he was laying on a rolled up piece of parchment.  Getting up off the scroll, Az picked it up with a wing to get a closer look at it, but having closed the blinds only moments beforehand, was unable to make out any details about it.  He hopped out of bed to try and avoid messing up the covers too much and walked over to the window.  As he opened the blinds, sunlight once again streamed into the room, hurting his eyes.  
Wincing, Az looked back at the scroll gripped in his wing.  Despite being wrinkled from having been laid on, he was able to discern that it was neatly rolled up and sent by Twilight, as the crest affixed to the ribbon indicated.  What does she need this time?  I thought she went back to Ponyville…  He slid the ribbon off of the letter and unrolled it, noting it smelled more like books than usual.  I guess she did send this then, lives in a library if I remember right.  He was about to begin reading when he noticed the penmanship was different than the previous letters she had sent him.  Instead of the typical flowing script she regularly used, the writing style appeared rigid and rudimentary, as if the quill was manipulated by a hoof rather than magic.  Confused, Az began reading.

Az,
First of all, I’d like to thank you for making Pinkie’s day yesterday.  She was positively ecstatic that somepony actually showed up at her little surprise party.  Admittedly, some of my friends still have their doubts about you, but you definitely won her over.  That being said, I’ve received permission from Princesses Celestia and Luna to bring them to your base of operations, pending approval from your commander.  After you managed to snag a piece of cake from under our noses some of the girls have been itching to see if you’ve “improved” after taking Fluttershy’s Element.  Pinkie also said something about getting some pointers, but I don’t think you need to indulge her in that endeavor.  I know this is a little short-notice, but we were hoping to come visit as soon as possible, there are a lot of things coming up that we need to get ready for.  Could you please talk to your commander about this?  If he gives you any trouble about letting random ponies on base, just tell him they’re the Elements of Harmony, that should smooth things over.  
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle
P.S. Oh, and if you were wondering about the penmanship (I would too) it’s because my assistant, Spike, is writing for me as I dictate.

Az sighed as he finished reading the letter.  He rolled it back up and tucked it under his wing before rubbing his temples in agitation.  “I’m never going to hear the end of this” he muttered, walking towards the door of his room.  He opened the door and almost walked into Longshot as she stood with a hoof raised to knock.
“I was just coming to talk to you” she said, slightly surprised that the door was suddenly replaced with Az’s face.  
“So I noticed” he replied, looking at her raised hoof.  She chuckled nervously before lowering it to scratch at the back of her head.  “So what’s up, L?”
“Just letting you know what the deal is for tomorrow,” she spotted the scroll tucked under Az’s wing, “but more importantly, what’s up with the letter?”  She plucked the letter out from under Az’s wing with her magic eliciting a surprised noise from him and trotted down the hallway, opening it.  “Oooh, it’s from Princess Twilight!  Any good lovey-dovey stuff in here?” she teased as Az sprinted down the hallway to catch her.  Upon catching up, he lunged for the letter, only to have it tugged out of his reach at the last second by Longshot.  He flapped his wings before hitting the ground, and turned quickly to prevent her from getting further down the hallway.  
“Oh, c’mon, Az.  What’re you going to do to stop me from reading this to the whole main room?” she asked, the devilish grin he was beginning to hate spreading across her face.
Better fight fire with fire here, or explosives at least.  The angry expression stretched across his face vanished, replaced with a smug look.  “Oh, nothing.  Later, though, I wouldn’t be surprised if all of my grenades suddenly rolled under your door while you sleep soundly in your bed.”
Her eyes narrowed “you wouldn’t.”
“I might” he narrowed his eyes to match hers, as a smirk spread across his face.  She humphed and held the letter out to him he took it quickly, rolled it up, and replaced it under his wing.  “So what’s the deal with tomorrow?” he asked pleasantly, and began walking down the hallway.  
“We’re meeting up at noon, like Flow said.  Make sure you bring all of your stuff that you plan on bringing on the mission.  After that, we’ll be planning entry and egress routes, shouldn’t take more than an hour or two.  I just figured I’d remind you since you took off pretty early after lunch.”  They reached the main room and Az stopped to go into Shade’s office.  “You’re always in there, you know that?” she asked, bemused.  
“Much to my chagrin, as well as his, I can assume” Az responded, before knocking on the door.  Longshot rolled her eyes and walked back towards the rest of the team.  After hearing Shade call for him to enter, Az opened the door to find Shade looking through some new letters.  He looked up from the papers and cocked an eyebrow at Az.
“Kid, can I get through a single day without you coming into my office for some reason?”
“Probably not.  I do have a question for you, though.”  He took the letter out from underneath his wing and held it out to Captain Shade.  The letter became enveloped in the captain’s silvery-grey magic, and floated over to him.
“Still getting love letters from the Princess, huh?”  Shade unrolled the scroll and began reading.  Once his finished, he levitated the letter back to Az, who tucked it back underneath his wing.  “So the Elements consider you some kind of pet project.  How lucky for you.”  Az chuckled dryly.  “Well, if they have the three Princess’ permission, I can’t see any reason to deny them access.  Do you have any idea how they’ll arrive?”  Az shook his head.  “Fantastic, well you be sure to ask that when you write back and let me know, will you?”  He looked back down at the pile of papers in front of him.  “Have them come in later in the week, like Thursday or Friday.  You can use them for practice, have them wander the building and sneak around them, that sort of thing.”  Az nodded and walked out the door.  He walked over to the rest of this team to tell them what was going on.  
As he expected, they broke into laughter after he told them.  Shaking his head, he made his way back towards his room, yawning the whole way.  Once he reached his room, Az dug his quill and ink out from his nightstand and set about writing back to Twilight.  His response simply read: 
Shade’s ok with it.  I just need to know how you girls will be arriving, and whether Thursday or Friday would work better?  Sincerely, Az
Az rolled up the letter, replaced the ribbon around it and said “send.”  The letter vanished in a puff of green flame and smoke.  Az yawned again, put away his writing utensils, closed the blinds and climbed into bed, falling asleep almost instantly.

> Chapter 16
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 16

The next morning AZ woke up to a letter suddenly appearing in a flash of green flame and smoke above his face.  He bolted upright, half expecting the hair around his nose to be engulfed in flame, only to let out a sigh of relief and chuckle at his own jumpiness.  Wiping the sleep out of his eyes, he unrolled the letter to find Twilight’s assistant’s sharp penmanship staring up at him.  While his eyes were accustomed to the low light from being asleep, it was not bright enough in the room to discern what each individual word actually said.  Az sighed as he left his bed, looking longingly over his shoulder as he left the warm embrace of his blankets.  Reaching the blinds, he pulled on a string, causing them to open and allowing the grey early morning light to fill his room.  It was cloudy outside, with the appearance that a storm would be heading through within the next few hours.  Resigning himself to remaining indoors for the remainder of the day, Az looked back to the letter and began reading.  

Az,
Thank you so much for talking to your commander for me.  The girls are excited to get a tour of the base and see whatever else you have in store for us.  We will be arriving by chariot, much like Princess Celestia, Luna, and I arrived on during my last visit.  As to which day is preferable, Friday seems to be a likely candidate as we can take the day off as an excuse to extend our weekend.  Thank you again, and we will see you on Friday.
Your friend,
Twilight Sparkle

Az rolled up the parchment and looked back outside, where he could see raindrops beginning to fall here and there across the courtyard.  He looked over his shoulder at the clock on the far wall it see it read six-thirty, thus affording him a little extra sleeping time.  He was about to crawl back into bed when he heard a soft knocking coming from the door.  He made his way across the room, and suppressing a yawn, opened the door to find a worried-looking Longshot standing outside.  Upon seeing Az standing in the doorframe, she relaxed slightly.
“Hey, L, what’s the matter? You look pretty spooked about something?” he asked, wiping at his eye.  
“Can I, uh, can I come it?” she responded in a small voice, her green eyes betraying a degree of uncertainty Az was not used to seeing in her.  
“Uh, sure, yeah, come on in” he said, stepping out of the way.  She stepped into the room and he closed the door behind her, following into the main living space.  She gave a nervous chuckle upon taking in her surroundings.  “What?” Az asked, cocking an eyebrow as he walked up next to her.
“It’s just messier than your usual living spaces” she replied, still in the diminished tone that gave Az pause.  Regardless of his misgivings, he still snorted at the comment.
“I was pretty damn tired last night, er, afternoon.  Staying up all night will do that to you.”  When she didn’t return with a snarky comeback, his concern grew.  He sat down on the bed and motioned for her to join him.  She paused at first, unsure, but eventually made her way next to him, her ruddy green coat looking mud-like in contrast with the black covers.  “L, what’s the matter?  You’ve got me pretty concerned right now” he nudged her with a wing, snapping her out of whatever reverie she was in.
“I, uh, you remember those bad feelings I used to get before some jobs?” she asked, looking at the floor.
“Yeah, and then everything invariably went sideways?”  He arched an eyebrow.  “Why, are you getting a bad feeling or something?”
“I’m not sure, it-it’s just that sometimes when I think about the mission I feel like I’m suffocating.  Like something really, really bad is going to happen and there’s nothing any of us can do to stop it.”  She continued looking at the floor and Az could see her eyes beginning to glass over.  “I don’t know why I feel like this!” she growled, clenching her teeth, as if trying to bite back tears.  “I mean, I have you and the other guys and we’re going to be so well prepared, but I just feel, I don’t know, helpless or something…”
“Exactly” Az draped a wing over her shoulders to try and comfort her.  “You’re going to have all of us with you, and I promise you, nothing is going to go wrong as long as I’m around, alright?”  She nodded stiffly, before closing her eyes against what tears were there and sniffing loudly.  “And hey, if everything goes wrong, I’ll be there to pull your sorry flank out of the fire.  Again.”  He grinned and prodded her in the ribs with an elbow, eliciting a small chuckle out of her.  
“Heh, you’d like to think so, wouldn’t you?” she responded, a little more strength returning to her voice, although it still remained shaky.  She cleared her throat and made to get off the bed, allowing Az to furl his wing back alongside his own body.  As she hopped onto the ground, she looked back at him with a small smile.  “And, hey, Az?”
“Yeah?”   He ruffled his wings, feeling that some of his feathers were out of place.  
“Thanks, I really needed that.  I mean, I’m not usually this much of a basket case.  I don’t know what it is.”  
“Hey, don’t mention it, that’s what friends are for, right?”  He looked back at his wings, searching for the offending feathers.
A thought struck Longshot and her eyes snapped wide open before narrowing to look at Az who, in turn, wore a surprised expression on his face because of her change of attitude.  “You better not tell the others.  I just got them to start talking to me, much less liking me.”
“My lips are sealed” he chuckled back at her, ruffling his wings again.  
She smiled at him before turning towards the door.  “Alright then I’ll let you get back to sleep.  See you at breakfast or something.”  He scoffed, causing her to turn around, confused.
“After all that?  I’m wide awake now, not to mention I’ve been sleeping since early afternoon yesterday.  I’m thinking I might do a couple dozen laps around the courtyard, I’ve been getting lazy since I got here.”  She rolled her eyes and continued walking towards the door.
“Just don’t hurt yourself,” she called over her shoulder, “we need you in top shape for the weekend, you know.”  He chuckled as she left the room and quietly closed the door behind her.  Once he heard the click of the latch, Az stretched his wings again, and, furling them, hopped off his bed towards the window.  He pushed it open and placed his forehooves on the ledge and took in a breath of the cool morning air before leaping out of the building, opening his wings as he did so.  Az banked as close as he could to the wall before leveling out and following the perimeter of the base, flapping just enough to get his heart rate up.  A few dozen of these ought to set me right he thought.  Longshot doesn’t scare easy, I’ll need to be sure I’m ready to go once we leave, gotta keep her safe.  He paused in his train of thought, thinking over the rest of the team.  Gotta keep them all safe.


---------


After completing two dozen laps of the courtyard, a combined length of twelve miles, Az landed in front of the long house.  Upon entering the room, he was greeted by the scent of freshly cooked breakfast foods, and walked over to the counter where Hammer had just finished serving Clear Sky, who, after muttering a few words of thanks, disappeared up the stairs and into her room.   Hammer watched her go and shook his head, a wry smile on his face.  
“Yeesh, that kid never stays around to chat.”  He turned his attention to Az, who had also watched Clear Sky disappear out of the room.  “Anyways, what can I get ya? Oh, wait, don’t tell me.  Toast and fruit?” he asked with a grin.
“You got it” Az replied, grinning back.  Hammer disappeared behind the swinging doors to the kitchen, leaving Az to look around the main hall to try and ease his boredom.  I would wonder why Clear Sky is so antisocial if I hadn’t seen her teammates being so mean to her myself he mused.  Maybe I can talk to Flow about it, see if he can work something through Iron Feather.  He could see that he would need to wait for that, however, as he was the only pony in the room at the moment, and likely would be for the next hour.  Hammer returned with the tray of food, a simple meal, but more than enough to get his day started.  I may even get to eat it this time too.  He thanked Hammer and made his way over to one of the benches where he sat down to eat.
Fortunately, his breakfast went uninterrupted by flaming mail.  As he finished the last piece of fruit, he stood up to return the tray to Hammer, who managed to pass the time by reading over the daily newspaper, The Manehattan Times, which he inexplicably managed to receive on time daily.  Hammer looked up as Az placed the tray back on the counter and, folding up his newspaper, got up to retrieve it and put it in the dishwasher.  Az started to walk away before Hammer stopped him by clearing his throat.
“What’s up?” he asked, turning around.  
“You got a little bit o’ time on yer hooves?”  Hammer responded.  
“Until about noon.  Why, what did you have in mind?” Az arched an eyebrow, and walked back towards the counter.  
“Yer team’s doin’ equipment checks today, right?”  Az nodded.  “Then I need to get the new equipment to everypony and you’re in charge of doling it out, since I’m goin’ to be workin’ all afternoon in the forge, tryin’ to figure out how to make that black metal.”  Hammer walked towards a door to the side of the counter and left the kitchen, leaving a “be back in 15” sign up in the open window.  The pair walked to the forge in silence, which Az was thankful for, given the increasing heat and dryness of the hallway as they continued towards the ruddy orange glow at the end of the tunnel.  Upon reaching the forge itself, Az noticed it looked remarkably different than it had when he and Flow had visited the previous week.  Where once swords and armor adorned the walls, notes and pages copied from the ancient Guard tomes now covered every square inch, up to the height where Hammer could see them easily without the benefit of wings.  
“You’ve been busy” Az remarked with a low whistle, looking around at the walls.  
“You could say that” Hammer responded with a low grunt.  He retrieved a piece of paper from across the forge and studied it carefully before looking back up at Az.  “Now, lessee here.  Ya’ve got Flow, Longshot, Lightning Shift, and Wise Guy on yer team, right?”
“Right.”
“Alright, so I only have three things for ya, since I haven’t been able to work out how to modify our crossbows to the old materials quite yet.”  He walked to the opposite side of the forge, where Az could see him looking through a crate that presumably held the weapons that they had picked up on their mission.  “Two daggers and a sabre” Hammer called across the forge, catching Az slightly by surprise.  
“Who’s the sabre for?” Az asked, walking over to Hammer.
“Flow, he was some kind o’ big hotshot fencer at the University or something, likes it better than using a crossbow.”  Hammer pulled his head out of the crate, two daggers in tow in his magical aura.  "Well here’s these, give me a sec to find the sabre.”  He walked over to another crate and poked his head back in.  Az took a moment to inspect the blades, they appeared identical to the one that he was initially given by Hammer when he first arrived at the base with the sole exception being their coloration, black metal with a black grip, inlaid with the crest of the Guard, also in a matte black color.  He looked up as Hammer emitted an “aha!” from inside the crate and removed his head, followed by a long, thin sword with a slight curve to it.  
“Alright, so here’s the deal, kid” Hammer started, giving Az the sabre.  “The two daggers are identical to the ones you and Lightning carry right now, so ya should be all set as far as fitting them into yer sheaths.  The sabre, however, is very different than the one Flow already has, so ya tell him to make his way down here later on today to get a scabbard made up for it.”  Az nodded, looking over the blades with interest.  “And the members of yer team with plate armor pieces need to come by to get outfitted too, sooner rather than later.”  Az nodded again, looking up from the blades.  “Alright, good, now the hell outta my forge.”


---------


Az absentmindedly toyed with his dagger, spinning it around on its point, effectively drilling a hole into the table’s surface.  He sat alone at a table in the main hall, his armor’s contents arrayed in front of him as he waited for the rest of his team to show up.  The sabre and other dagger sat on the table across from him, waiting for Flow and Lightning Shift to take charge of them.  The blades did not reflect any light, rather they seemed to suck it in, much like the dark corner of a room in the middle of the night.  Az had been toying with names for the mystery metal, ranging from simply black steel to hard shadow.  While not seriously contemplating what it should be called, he needed something to do to offset the boredom of waiting around for three hours.  
Longshot was the first to join him at the table, placing her hybrid plate and leather armor next to, but across the table from, Az’s.  She plopped down on the bench on the opposite side of the table and rubbed her temples with her forehooves before looking up at Az with a small smile.
“Hey there bud, feel better after your workout?” she asked.
“More or less, what about you?  Still getting those feelings of foreboding helplessness?” he answered, putting his dagger down on the table.  Lightning Shift walked up and threw his armor on the table next to Az’s.  
“Longshot’s getting a bad feeling?  Shit, the last time that happened was right before the Changeling invasion.”  He sat down next to Az, who passed him the new dagger.  “Ooh, new stuff!”
“It’s nothing” Longshot said quickly, suddenly very interested in the table.  Lightning Shift made a noncommittal grunt, carefully studying his new blade.  Flow then walked up with Wise Guy, each carrying their armor behind them in their respective magical auras.  Wise Guy was chattering on about something that obviously was unable of holding Flow’s attention for any extended amount of time, and was simply reduced to background noise as he continued towards Az, Longshot, and Lightning Shift at the table.  He put his gear down and eyed the sabre suspiciously, then looked at Longshot who directed his attention to Az, who had returned to twirling his dagger around on the table.   
“What’s the deal with the sabre?” he asked Az, who looked up from his spinning blade to see Flow beginning to pick it up in his magic.  
“Courtesy of Hammer.  He said you need to get a new sheath though, your old one apparently won’t work with it.  Oh, and those of you with plate armor you need to see Hammer to get outfitted with the new stuff.”  Flow nodded, placing the sabre back on the table.  
“Alright, let’s get the gear check going, see if we can’t finish up early today.  Longshot, why don’t you start?”  She nodded, shifting her armor on the table so that everyone could see it.  
“Alright, same armor as I’ve been using, leather and small bits of plate, nothing too fancy.  I carry three separate quivers, one with my sniping bolts, two with smaller hoof-cannon crossbow bolts.  I keep sleep darts in a small pouch under the sniping bolt quiver.”  She picked the armor up off the table and placed on the floor in front of her, underneath the table.  Her horn flared, and three crossbows materialized in front of the group.  The largest Az had seen before, it was her specially made sniping crossbow, capable of hitting a target accurately at half of a mile.  The two smaller crossbows looked as if they were designed for griffons, since they were able to be held in a clawed grip.  They were significantly smaller, but still capable of delivering a killing blow at a short distance.  “Alright, here are my toys, sniping crossbow, and two hoof-cannons, pretty self-explanatory.”  Her horn glowed again, and the weapons disappeared.  
“Good.  Lightning Shift, why don’t you go next?”  Flow said, nodding.  Lightning Shift sighed, nudging his armor into the center of the table.  
“I’ll make this painless” he said quickly.  “Standard issue leather armor, lets me be quick on my hooves.  I keep my dagger under my left wing, also standard issue.”
“Thanks for the brevity” Flow said, chuckling.  “Wise Guy, you’re up.”  The unicorn shoved his armor into the center of the table.  
“I have the same deal as Lightning.  Standard issue plate armor, minus a few unnecessary pieces, standard issue crossbow, bolts on my left side.”  He shifted his armor off the table with a small flick of his horn.  
“Alright, I’m up next” Flow said, placing his hooves on the table and standing on the bench.  “I have plate armor, set up for maximum protection when fencing, enlarged left side pauldron and the like.”  He shifted the armor off the table.  “I carry a sabre instead of a ranged weapon since I’m more effective with a sword.  I also handle the defensive spells.”  Az looked around the table to see Lightning Shift, Wise Guy, and Longshot staring off into space, each apparently bored beyond comprehension.  “And that leaves the pony with a thousand pockets.  Az, you’re up.”
Az chuckled as his teammates seemed to perk up given the occasion to actually garner some new information.  “Well, as you said,” he said, looking at Flow, “I kind of have more pockets than I know what to do with.  A lot of them are for storing stuff I’ve stolen, but some actually contain useful mission items.  Primarily,” he placed five small orbs, each varying in color, in front of him, “these.  They’re impact-reactive grenades, each with a different function.”  He motioned to the one on his far left.  “White is flash, it makes a bright, blinding light.  Next is grey, these produce a lot of smoke.  Yellow are what I like to call flash-pop.  Bright flash of light, accompanied by a deafening pop.”  His teammates were paying close attention and nodding along with each explanation.  Attentive crowd for once.  This usually never works… oh wait, I’m thinking of trying to explain it at a bar he thought bemusedly.  “Green is tear gas,” he continued, “and red is incendiary.  That covers the grenades.”  He placed each in their respective pockets on the armor.  
“My armor is custom made, and is inlaid with a number of different runes that offer me protection from any number of things, the most important being that it can’t be manipulated by magic.”  He produced his signature ebony dagger.  “This is an ebony dagger, honed beyond razor sharp, it stays in a sheath in my right breast pocket.”  He pointed out the pocket in question.  “My standard issue dagger sits between my wings so it doesn’t get in my way during a scuffle.  At least that’s how Hammer described it.”  He shuffled through the remainder of his preparedness equipment, from emergency light sources to a host of different antidotes and poisons to help with most jobs.  As he placed the last item back into its pocket, he looked over at Flow, who nodded and produced the blueprints of the complex.
“Alright, folks.  Show and tell time is over.  Time to start planning how we actually bust into and out of this joint.”  He unrolled the plans and smoothed them out, while Lightning Shift and Longshot pinned down the edges with a dagger and a crossbow bolt, respectively.  Flow and Wise Guy secured the other end of the blueprints in a similar fashion, and five heads leaned in to get a better look at the plans.  After a few minutes of close examination, Flow leaned back away from the group.  “So, ideas?” he asked them.  
The group was silent for a moment, before Longshot garnered their attention by clearing her throat.  “Well, we could always go in through the window of the room.”  She looked around at her compatriots, hoping for a reaction.  
“What about neighbors?” Wise Guy asked, looking closely at the blueprint.
“Not an issue,” Flow answered, “the whole complex is surrounded by a fifteen hoof tall wall.
“What about patrols in the yard?” Az asked, looking up from the document.  Flow opened his mouth but closed it quickly, contemplating his response before actually answering.  “Actually, I should have asked what the yard looks like, where we’ll be landing, stuff like that.  I’m guessing we’ll need a wide open area?”
“No, actually” Longshot answered.  “You and Lightning can land wherever you want, and we” she motioned to Flow and Wise Guy, “can simply teleport down.”  She refocused her gaze on Flow, who was rummaging through a saddlebag to find the layout of the complex.
“Then that brings me to my initial question, what about patrols?  Three unicorns teleporting in will create a lot of light.  Not exactly stealthy.”  Flow had found the plans and laid them on top of the blueprint.  Wise Guy leaned in, scratching his chin.  
“What about this stand of trees here?” he pointed to a smaller courtyard in a corner of the greater complex.  “These could give us enough cover if they’re packed tightly enough.”  Longshot leaned in to examine where Wise Guy had just pointed.  
“Perfect,” she said, “it’s a bamboo privacy shade, pretty common in Tigra actually.”
“So will it give us enough cover?” Flow asked.
“Easily” she answered.  “Then all we need to do is sneak past whatever patrols are around and make it in through that window, copy the plans and get the hay out of there.”  She leaned back from the map with a satisfied grin on her face.
“Um, hate to be a Negative Neighncy,” Lightning Shift said, clearing his throat, “but what if we can’t get in through the window?”
“What do you mean?” Longshot answered, suddenly troubled.  
“We need to have a contingency plan, something I learned in the Wonderbolts training camp” he answered.  “Two contingencies, preferably, we need alternate means of getting in and out given the window is barred or something.”
“Sounds like a good idea” Flow said, nodding.  “So let’s say we need to use the back door over here, right next to the window, and if all else fails, the front.  Because if one window is barred, it’s probably safe to say they all are.”  He pointed to the aforementioned spots on the map.  “This just means I’ll need to tweak the fleshing spell to include the yard as well.”  He looked over the scope of the entire area.  “Or I could call in that favor Solemn Chant owes me” he muttered to himself.
“Who’s that?” Az whispered to Lightning Shift.
“Leader of Magelight, pretty heavy duty spellcaster as far as Guard members go” he answered quietly.  Az nodded in understanding, returning his gaze to the map.  
“Alright, so here’s what we’ll do” Flow said, bringing his gaze to bear on the group.  “We’ll go out now and do a few run-throughs, see which way is fastest from each door.  Tomorrow we’ll start full-armored practice runs, starting with the airdrop in.  From there, that’s how the rest of the week will go.”  He looked at Az, and remembered the visit that would be taking place later that week.  “Oh, right, you have some visitors coming in at the end of the week.”  He began grinning, causing Az to scowl at him before turning to address the group.
“Right, the Elements of Harmony are coming in on Friday.  I guess I’ll be the one touring them around, so that’s going to take a chunk out of practice time.”  He could see Longshot beginning to get giddy in the corner of his vision.  Sighing, Az continued: “Captain Shade suggested that we use them for practice though, intersperse them throughout the building and sneak around them.”
Flow’s smile lessened slightly, his eyebrows furrowing as if in thought.  “That sounds pretty helpful, actually.  Friday you said?” Az nodded.  “Ok, we have some work to do between now and then.  Let’s get this done.”  He stood up from the table, magically rolling up the blueprint and map and stuffing them in his saddlebags.  After picking up his armor, he led the rest of the group outside, and dropped his belongings alongside the side of the long house.  Flow walked up to the frame and touched his horn to the wooden beam itself.  As he did so, his horn flared, and he frame responded in kind by flaring up, appearing similar to an aurora.  After another flash, brighter this time, solid-looking white walls stood where once there was nothing but a clear view of the rest of the courtyard.  Flow straightened up to admire his work before turning to the group.   “So, shall we get started?” he asked, grinning.


---------


The rest of the week was spent running practice drills, trying different avenues of approach to the compound, and continually attempting to move faster and faster throughout the building itself.  During their downtime Flow could be found studying the instruction manual for the auto-landing sequence, Lightning Shift did time trials around the courtyard, continually attempting to set a new speed record, Wise Guy disappeared to nap, and Longshot spent her time scoping out the building with Az for possible locations for traps.  Friday consisted of nothing but downtime until the Elements of Harmony showed up, so Az and Longshot walked around the framework, this time accompanied by Lightning Shift, who was on detail with Az to intercept the chariot as it approached the complex.  The morning sun, while not particularly strong, still managed to bake them within their armor, causing them to continually tug on the loose openings to get more airflow.
“So I think we’ve covered every single possible trap location in this building” Longshot said with a small note of satisfaction.  “Unless Tigrans managed to up their security since the last time either of us were there, I think we should be all set to take care of whatever comes our way.”  She closed her notebook, a small flip-top pad that contained all of her notes on potential threats and locations that could cause the team difficulties.  To Az’s surprise, she somehow managed to fill up half of the book.  Between her endless scribbling and drawing, it was a wonder her pencil was still more than just a paper-thin piece of wood and graphite.
“You certainly did a good job documenting it” Az said, and Lightning Shift nodded with bemused agreement.  “How many other notebooks like this do you have?”
“One for every mission like this I’ve done” she responded matter-of-factly, blinking in confusion, “why?”  Az was about to respond when sirens started going off around the base.
“Just wondering if we should be concerned about you wasting paper or something” he said quickly.
“Looks like that’s our cue” Lightning Shift said, spreading his wings.  Az followed suit after pulling up his mask and hood, and the two took off in unison, leaving Longshot standing in the middle of the wooden framework.
“Oh, he was mocking me” she said in sudden realization.
Meanwhile, Az and Lightning Shift sped towards the incoming golden dot.  As they approached the chariot, they spotted a separate dot, more brilliantly colored, yet smaller than the chariot, and speeding along the treetops instead of staying with the group.  Az called over to Lightning Shift and pointed towards the wayward flyer.  Lightning Shift nodded and sped off towards the separate dot, static electricity following him as he increased in speed.  Az continued on coursed and pulled up to a hover two hundred or so yards in front of the advancing chariot.
“Halt! Who goes there?” he called out, mimicking what he had heard Proxis call the last time he was on escort duty.  The chariot detail pulled up to a hover to mimic his fifty hoof-lengths away, and Twilight looked over the side to the chariot, past the heads of the Royal Guard, to answer.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle and the Elements of Harmony, um, minus one” she grinned sheepishly at Az who arched an eyebrow in confusion.  Before he could open his mouth, however, Lightning Shift flew to his side, escorting a rather put-out looking Rainbow Dash back to the chariot where she sat down with a humph.  Twilight coughed out a nervous laugh and forced a painful-looking grin at the two black-clad ponies, one of whom wore a full-faced mask to hide any semblance of expression.  Az and Lightning Shift shared a look, and Az began chuckling once he could no longer contain himself.  Lightning Shift shared in his amusement after a moment.
“If you don’t mind me askin’, what’s so funny?” Applejack asked, stepping up next to Twilight along the railing of the chariot.  She shot Twilight a nervous look, who returned the expression with even more apprehension.  
“Hm?  Oh nothing” Az replied.  He pulled back the hood and lowered his mask, smiling.  “Good seeing you again, Twilight, girls, elephant” he looked at each of them pointedly, finishing with Rainbow Dash, who snorted in reply.  Twilight shot him a glare before shaking her head with a bemused grin.  Her friends shared expressions varying from confusion to indignation.  The sole exception being Pinkie Pie, who could barely keep her hooves on the chariot’s floor she was so excited.
“You know that really wasn’t necessary?  You had us pretty concerned” Twilight said.
“Yeah, couldn’t help myself though” Az replied with a shrug.  “In any case, you girls already know me, but my compatriot here is Lightning Shift, one of my teammates.”
“Wait, you play well with others?” Applejack asked.  “I thought you ran a one-pony show or somethin’.”  
“It’s a new me” Az replied with a wry chuckle.  “Now if you gentlecolts will follow us” he addressed the Royal Guard ponies, who nodded stoically and took off after Az and Lightning Shift towards the courtyard a half mile out.  Az dropped back so that he could fly next to the chariot while Lightning Shift remained in the lead.  “You’d think that one of you would remember that my armor had a hood and mask attached to it” he commented towards the chariot.
“Of course I did, darling” Rarity responded.  “I was just surprised nopony else noticed it was you.  I mean, Twilight, dear, you spent quite some time talking with him, how did you mistake is voice for somepony else’s?”  Twilight grinned sheepishly and blushed under the scrutinizing stares of her friends.
“Well he sounded different yelling” Twilight explained with a nervous laugh.  
“Yeah, whatever” Rainbow Dash interjected.  “Hey thief, did you say that your buddy up there’s name is Lightning Shift?”  Az shot her an annoyed look, and was pleased to see Applejack shove an elbow into her side drawing a small yelp from the technicolor-maned mare.  
“Yes I did, why?”
“Like, the Wonderbolt number one candidate that disappeared Lightning Shift?”  Her voice was steadily growing more excited.
“Uh, I think so, you could ask him yourself you know.”  She had zipped out of the chariot before he could finish the sentence.  Rolling his eyes, Az continued flying alongside the chariot as they approached the base, which was now showing signs of population since guests would be arriving soon.  Az could pick out Captain Shade standing at the end of the landing strip, and had donned his new armor, which refused to shine in the bright sunlight like his last set had.  
“Ladies, if you would please be seated for arrival, we would appreciate it” one of the Royal Guard said over his shoulder.  The five Elements sat down as requested, causing Az to roll his eyes.
“Somethin’ we should know?” Applejack asked accusingly after spying Az’s reaction.  
“Just that our landing strip is the smoothest in the nation.  Not sure why you need to worry about jarring your legs on landing” he replied nonchalantly.
“Why, because the kind gentlecolt asked us to” Rarity cooed.  Az arched an eyebrow but said nothing, and peeled off to allow the chariot to land without incident.  He alighted next to Captain Shade and Lightning Wind did the same on the other side of the pony-in-command.  A flash of green light later, and Longshot stood next to Az, looking over the landing party with a degree of bemusement.
“Don’t you even start with me” Az grumbled to her out of the side of his mouth.
“Why, that’s no way to treat your fellow tour guide” she retorted chucking.  Az’s eyes widened and he turned to look at her, as she continued staring straight ahead with a grin plastered across her face.  “What, you didn’t think I’d let you be alone with six mares, did you?”  She looked over to see Az slack jawed and reddening and chuckled again.  “Plus, I know more about this place than you do, remember?  Liven up, it’ll be a good day.”  Az’s surprise turned into a small scowl as he turned to face the chariot again, now half-empty, given the Elements of Harmony had begun disembarking onto the runway.  Rainbow Dash had ceased in her efforts to pester Lightning Shift and had rejoined her friends, now looking almost as giddy as Pinkie Pie.
As the final member of the party, Applejack, departed the chariot, Captain Shade moved towards the group, flanked by Az, Lightning Shift, and Longshot.  He cleared his throat to get their attention, but found that he was largely ignored while the mares jabbered on about their new surroundings.  He rolled his eyes and cleared his throat again, louder this time.  This caught Twilight’s attention and she quickly quieted her friends, who turned their attention to the four black-clad ponies now arrayed in front of them.
“Thank you, Princess” Captain Shade said, with a small nod.  He turned to address the whole group, straightening up to look more commanding.  “Now, ladies, I understand that you all wished to visit us here due to one of my agents, is that correct?”  The group nodded as a whole, some more emphatic than others, causing Shade to look over his shoulder with a ghost of a grin at Az, who instantly felt his stomach drop.  “Quite the fan club you have here, kid” Shade said teasingly to Az.  “So, I’ll leave it to you to show these fine mares around the base for today.  Oh, and before I forget,” he turned back to the Elements, “I’ve decided to have you all participate in a bit of an exercise later on today, if that’s all right with you.”  The six mares exchanged nervous-looking glances before Twilight turned back to Shade.
“Uh, what would we be doing?” Twilight asked him and shot a questioning glance over at Az.
“Just acting as guard stand-ins, nothing dangerous.  Nightstalker will fill you in once they start the exercise with you” Shade answered nonchalantly.
“Nightstalker?” Fluttershy asked in a small voice, and took the opportunity to hide in her mane when Shade looked over at her.
“Oh, sorry, I forgot you’re not spun up on what that would necessarily mean.  Nightstalker is one of our teams here, the team your friend Mr. Wind is on, in fact.”  Az took the opportunity to step forward and prevent any further damage or insult from occurring.  
“Right, I’ll take it from here, Captain” he said, shooting Shade a slightly annoyed look, resulting in the Captain returning a bemused grin to him.  
“I’ll be in my office you need me kid” Shade said, turning back towards the long house.
“I’m, uh, gonna go see if he needs help with anything” Lightning Shift said, after shooting a quick, nervous glance over in Rainbow Dash’s direction.  Az nodded, grinning slightly, and turned his attention back to the group in front of him.  
“Alright then, welcome to the base, all of the ponies you’ll see around today are highly trained members of the Guard, so please don’t go poking around away from the rest of the group.”  Six multicolored faces looked back at him, with expressions ranging from friendly familiarity to cold skepticism written across each separate visage.  Twilight, alone, showed confusion more than anything else.
“Wait a second, you said the Guard, as opposed to the Secret Guard, which I had heard Luna say before” she said, cocking her head to the side.
“That’s because this organization is significantly older than the Guards that you are familiar with” Longshot said, stepping forward.  “The Royal, or Palace Guard only came about after Princess Luna was banished to the moon.  The Lunar Guard is only two or three years old.”
“And you are?” Rainbow Dash interjected.  Rather rudely, in Az’s opinion.  
“This is Longshot” Az responded, shooting Rainbow Dash a quick glare.  “She and I go way back, but only started working together again after I got recruited here.”
“And here ah was thinkin’ criminals didn’t have any friends” Applejack drawled with a stern gaze.  Longshot took a step back, as if she had been struck, and a hurt expression crossed her face for a brief moment.
“Applejack!” Twilight shouted at her friend, surprised.
“Ah’m just callin’ it like ah see it, Twi.”
“Well you don’t even know what she did before she got recruited, or how she and Az met!”  Twilight fumbled over her own tongue trying to come up with more explanations.
“Well what did she do then?” Rainbow Dash asked heatedly.  She looked at Longshot who gazed back at her, expressionless.  “Huh?  What sort of job did you have before you came out here?”  Az looked over at Longshot and instantly grew more cautious.  She was showing several of her typical tell-tale signs that she was about to attempt to murder somepony.  Her eyes held an expressionless gaze, the right side of her mouth curled up in a miniscule, almost indistinguishable smile, and small sparks had started forming at the base of her horn, indicating she was about to bring her crossbow to bear on the rainbow-colored pegasus.
Deciding to intervene before Longshot did what she typically was best at doing, Az stepped between the two and glared at Rainbow Dash and Applejack.  “I thought you were here to vet me, not my friends.  Longshot has been here for nearly a year and a half, and has probably saved each of your lives a few times when you’ve been around the capital.”  He turned and gave Twilight a quick pleading glance before looking back at the two offending mares.  “Whatever she did before being recruited here doesn’t matter, nor is it any of your business.”  Before either of them could retort, Twilight’s horn flared and Rainbow Dash and Applejack’s mouths were sealed shut magically, rendering them silent.
Twilight smiled sheepishly and let out a nervous chuckle as she turned back to face Az and Longshot.  “So, about that tour?”

> Chapter 17
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Chapter 17

“So, about that tour?”  Twilight Sparkle grinned sheepishly at Az and Longshot, switching her view back and forth between the two and growing increasingly red under their hardened stares.  After a few awkward moments, Az finally sighed, looked back at Longshot, who seemed deeply embarrassed with herself, and refocused back on Twilight and her friends before relenting.
“Fine, but please keep your personal statements to yourself.  I can’t just send you guys back right after you got here, right?”  He forced a small grin to put the remaining four mares more at ease.  Luckily, the non-silenced Elements of Harmony seemed more ready to forgive his past actions, based on the smiles given back to him.  “Can I just talk to these two first?  Like, alone?”  Twilight looked unsure at first, but eventually nodded, removing the gagging spell she had placed on her friends.  Az shot a quick glance at Longshot, who seemed to have relaxed after the impromptu grilling.  She nodded, and looked at the ground, trying to avoid eye contact with the two belligerent mares.
Az motioned with his head at Rainbow Dash and Applejack, indicating that they should follow him just outside of earshot of the rest of the group.  Once Az could be sure that the others would not be able to hear their conversation, he stopped walking and turned to the two mares, who each glared at him, seething quietly.  He looked at each of them in the eye, trying his hardest not to simply start yelling.  
“You two don’t know how lucky you are that Twilight shut you up when she did” he said quietly, shaking his head.  Rainbow Dash and Applejack left their glares behind for confused and shocked looks once Az started talking.  
“And why would that be?” Applejack asked, arching an eyebrow.  Az looked her dead in the eye, fixing her with as cold a stare as he could muster.
“Are you really sure you want to know that?” he asked through his teeth.
“Yeah, thief, we do.  What the hay was she gonna do?  Stare at us to death?” Rainbow Dash asked, brazen as ever.  Her attitude was beginning to grate on Az, despite her earlier giddiness, her disdain for anything related to him was more than disconcerting.  “Oh, and another thing, what gives you the right to talk about Twilight like she’s your friend, huh?  She’s our friend, and you have nothing to do with any of us.”
“First, I have a name. I suggest you use it.”  Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and Applejack looked like she wanted to be indignant, but something held the emotion back.  “Second, because she asked me too.  I’m on a first name basis with Luna too, just in case you were wondering.  I consider them both my friends, and they see me as the same.  Don’t believe me? Ask them yourself.”  Rainbow Dash was about to retort when Applejack, sensing that the bad news was about to drop, put a hoof on her shoulder to silence her.  Az paused momentarily, sensing that his next bit of information would unlikely go over very well with the two, especially considering Applejack’s now worried expression.
“I’ll address the third thing with another question.  Do you have any idea as to what Longshot did before she got recruited for the Guard?”  
“Well, like, uh, like Twi said, she coulda done anythin’” Applejack said, her confidence starting to waver under Az’s scrutinizing gaze.
“True, but I’d like to hear what you two thought she did” Az responded, sounding more like a scolding schoolteacher than he would have liked.
“Was she a thief like you?” Rainbow Dash asked, her attitude fading less than Applejack’s had.
“No, she wasn’t.  Applejack?”
“Uh, a chemist?” she flashed a sheepish grin at Az and winced under Rainbow Dash’s now harsh stare.
“What the hay kind of guess was that?” Rainbow half-yelled at her country friend.  “You just trying not to look bad or something?  Sheesh…”
“Are you done?” Az asked, fixing Rainbow Dash with a cold look.  When the pegasus mumbled something incoherent back at looked at the ground angrily, Az looked back at Applejack.  “She could have been.  Went to University and studied chemistry there, actually, so it wasn’t a bad guess.  Still, her former profession was not as a chemist.  Do you both remember what I said when I first brought you over here?”
“Uh, somethin’ about us bein’ lucky Twi knew that magical gag trick?”  Applejack asked, now more confused than nervous.  Rainbow Dash continued her grumbling.
“Exactly, would either of you know why I said that?”  Wow I really do sound like a schoolteacher.  The two mares shook their heads and Az looked at each of them before sighing and continuing, not entirely dedicated to his course of action.  “It’s because you were about ten seconds away from not being identifiable by next of kin.”  The gazes of the two mares snapped to Az’s face as panicked and fearful expressions crossed their visages.  Rainbow Dash’s scared expression quickly turned into indignation as she looked back and forth between a calm and collected Az and a now panicky Applejack.
“How the hay do you expect us to believe that?  And why were you asking us if we could guess what her job was?”  She flared her wings quickly and furled them again in agitation.
“So I could make you understand that she is likely one of the most dangerous ponies on this base, and that you not only hurt her feelings, but insulted me as well.  We are very good friends, and have been for a long time.”  He looked at Rainbow Dash and narrowed his eyes.  “Now settle down and neither of you breathe a word of this to the other Elements.  Her previous job, before Princess Celestia recruited her, was as an assassin.”
“A what?” Applejack asked in a small voice, her pupils turning into pinpricks.
“An assassin, a hired killer, an incredibly precise mercenary.  She is absolutely unstoppable with her crossbow, and can hit a once-inch, moving target from nearly a half mile away.  Please understand me when I say that she is very good at what she does and you really hurt her feelings.  While she is used to seclusion and being shunned, she is not all that experienced in handling outright cruelty from anyone that wasn’t about to receive a steel crossbow bolt through their chest.”  The two mares had finally been silenced, and shocked expressions sat fixed on each of their faces.  Az sighed, suddenly sympathetic to how they were likely feeling, given the information that he just dumped on them.
“Now, I don’t know if either of you have families, significant others, or what have you, but I can only assume that each of you have something to live for.  Look at me” he said suddenly, drawing the mare’s gaze to his own.  “Twilight just saved your lives because I asked her to.  Give that a moment to process.  Now understand that everypony on this base has received supplemental training from Longshot.”  He looked at each of them in the eyes.  “Alright, so I think I’ve sufficiently scared you two straight.  Will I be having any further trouble from you while you’re here?”  He received two nervous head-shakes in response.  “Good.  Say what you will about me when you leave, I don’t care, just do not go insulting my friends, because Twilight and I may not be there to pull you out of the fire next time.  Now let’s get back to your friends.”
Az walked between the two towards the rest of the group, where he could see Longshot standing further from the group than she had been, looking uncomfortably at the ground.  The other four mares were whispering to each other, occasionally shooting a glance either at Longshot, or at where Az was talking with Rainbow Dash and Applejack.  Pinkie Pie noticed that the trio had started walking back towards and hopped towards them, chipper as ever.  Upon seeing Rainbow Dash and Applejack, she stopped bouncing and cocked her head to the side, confused.
“Heya guys, so, uh, Applejack?  Rainbow Dash? You two feeling OK?”  She looked back and forth between the two mares, each of whom shared a quick glance then looked down at the ground, ensuring they did not look at either Az or Longshot in the process.  
“Yeah, you two are looking a little pale” Twilight said, concerned, as they rejoined the group.  She shot a questioning glance at Az who did his best to feign a smile and shrug it off.
“We’re fine, Twi” Applejack said, forcing a grin.  She turned nervously towards Longshot, who still was focusing on the ground, apart from the rest of the group.  “Uh, hey Longshot?”  The black-armored mare looked up to look at Applejack, her eyes betraying her newfound state of melancholy.  “Uh, Rainbow and ah are mighty sorry we started grillin’ you like that.  We didn’t have the right to say the things we did.”  Rainbow Dash begrudgingly nodded behind her, still reluctant to look at Longshot in the eyes.
Longshot looked back and forth between the two mares, coughed to clear her throat and took a step back towards the group.  “It’s alright Applejack, no harm done, thank you.”  She grinned warmly at the cowpony, although it still looked to Az like she was biting back whatever sadness had found its way through her mental armor.  She rejoined the group, and looked towards Az and gave him a look that he was unable to decipher before Twilight started talking again.
“So, uh, where were we?” she asked the group.
“Ooh! Ooh! I know!”  Pinkie Pie exclaimed, beginning the jump up and down again.  “Azzie was telling us about the Guard and then Longie was telling us why it’s called the Guard instead of the Secret Guard!”
“Please don’t call me that” Az stated flatly, leveling a gaze at Pinkie through the group.
“Awww, why not?  I give all my friends nicknames!” she pouted.  To the surprise of the group, Longshot actually chuckled at what she had said.  Pinkie Pie looked at her, confused.  “What’s so funny about that?  I wasn’t trying to make a joke.  I think.”
“Hm?  Oh, no, it’s not that.”  She grinned at Az, who looked at her with an equal amount of confusion that Pinkie had displayed.  “Only his sister gets to call him that is all, I’ve tried a few times and got my head bit off in the process.”  Az felt his jaw go slack after hearing what Longshot had just told the group.
“Wait, wait, wait.  Az has a sister?” Twilight asked Longshot, then switched her gaze over to Az.  “I thought you told me you were an only foal?”  Az found a grip of his senses, glared at Longshot, who simply grinned back, and then turned to address Twilight.
“She’s your sister” he said over his shoulder at the armored unicorn.  “She just lives with my mom is all, we grew close.”
“That’s one way of putting it” Longshot muttered, still grinning.
“Shut it.  Now, enough about my past, where were we regarding the Guard?  Oh, right, how old it is, especially compared to the Royal and Lunar Guards.”
“Alright, out with it, how old is this place?” Rainbow Dash interjected, having regained her bravado with her color.
“The Guard as it is known today was founded around the time of the Crystal Empire incident.”
“I hate to break it to you, darling, but that is hardly very old.  That only puts your organization at about a year old” Rarity said, looking at a forehoof.  
“What?  Oh, no, not that one.  I mean the first time, when King Sombra was rising to power in the Fifth EAD.”  He grinned with satisfaction as he saw Twilight’s jaw practically unhinge and the rest of the group look at him, confused.
“But, but, there’s nothing about it in any of the history books I’ve ever read!  How is that possible!?” the lavender Alicorn sputtered.  Rainbow Dash began chuckling at her friend, who seemed to be at a loss for words
“Heh, there’s something the egghead didn’t know after all” she said, grinning.  Twilight paused in her spluttering long enough to shoot Rainbow Dash a glare before turning back to Az with a confused look on her face, then turning to Longshot who nodded in confirmation with what he had just said.  
“In any case,” Az said, “we ought to get this tour going.  Gentlecolts?” he addressed the two golden-clad ponies standing stoically behind the group.  When he was sure he had their attention, he continued on “if you need someplace to cool your hooves, you can make your way over to the long house, I’m sure Hammer will be able to whip up some food or drink if you want any.”  The two golden-clad ponies nodded, unhitched themselves from the chariot harness and walked off towards the building.  
Once they were out of earshot, Longshot leaned to Az and whispered “you just sent them into the lion’s den, you know.”
“Hm? Oh, yeah, I was well aware” he stated, looking back at Longshot with a satisfied grin.  “Those two chuckleheads have tried to arrest me a few times.  Never worked out well for them though.”  Longshot barked out a laugh, causing Az to chuckle, thinking about the fate that awaited the two Royal Guardsponies.  “So, where were we?” he asked, turning back to the Elements of Harmony.  “We just finished giving you a brief synopsis as to why this is the Guard.  I guess next is the big tour.”  He looked over at Longshot, who, despite their rough start, looked happy that everything was going moderately well.
“Oh, actually, we can start over at the hanger.  I think Flow and Wise Guy are getting the airship prepped for later today.  It might be our only chance to show it to them before it gets airborne.”  She looked at the group of mares arrayed in front of them.  Rainbow Dash, despite her previous misgivings, perked up significantly at the mention of the airship.  Twilight Sparkle also showed an immediate interest, demonstrated by her ears perking straight up and her eyes widening when she looked over at Longshot.
“You have an airship!?” the two mares asked simultaneously.  They shared a shocked look with each other before looking back at Longshot, who seemed equally stunned at the impromptu synchronization.  
“Uh, yeah.  We can walk over there now if that’s okay with everypony.”  Longshot looked over at Az, who nodded and started walking towards the open hanger door, which rested perpendicular to the end of the runway.  After a brief moment, she had caught up and looked back at the group to ensure that they were following, but far enough away to have a private conversation.  Az looked at her, expecting the same smile he had seen a moment before, only to see Longshot’s face in a twisted state of sorrowful agony as she fought back tears.  “Az, I-I almost k-killed them” she whispered, instantly looking towards the ground.  Az saw a single tear fall to the grass underneath her head.
“But you didn’t, and that’s what matters” he responded, also in a whisper.  “Truth be told, I thought of it myself when they kept laying into you like that.”  He smiled when he heard her chuckle, although the sound remained choked due to the sudden onset of tears.  
“Like you’d have the sack for it” she said, her voice still strained.  Az snorted in indignation before deciding to continue comforting his friend.
“Hey, everything’s fine, L.  Just put it out of your mind and the rest of the day will turn out alright.”  She nodded, and was about to raise a hoof to wipe away what tears had formed when she and Az walked face-first into what appeared to be simply thin air.  As they pried themselves off of whatever they had walked into, they could see Wise Guy just look up from what he was doing inside the hanger and begin walking over to them where they had found their path blocked, an apologetic look on his face.  Az looked around the massive doorway to try and find what they had walked into, only to find that a dim light shimmered around the edge of the frame.
The Elements of Harmony walked up behind them, confused as to why their tour guides had stopped so suddenly.  Upon reaching the new-found magical barrier, Twilight put a hoof up to the barrier to test it, and finding it sturdy, dropped her hoof with a shrug.  Wise Guy finally made it over to the hanger door and smiled apologetically at Az and Longshot, each of whom was rubbing their now sore noses and glaring at him.  
“You mind telling us why we can’t get in?” Az asked, annoyed.  When Wise Guy stared at him blankly, Az knocked on the barrier to emphasize his point.
“Oh! Sorry” Wise Guy whispered.  Az arched an eyebrow and looked over at Longshot, who simply shrugged.  “Flow is putting the new magic crystal cell into the airship and needs almost absolute silence so he doesn’t mess up.”  Az made to respond, but was waved off by Wise Guy, who continued talking in a whisper.  “I can’t hear a word you say, the barrier is set up to block all noise and, well, visitors from getting in” he looked pointedly at the group of mares who had started chatting amongst themselves a few paces away.  
“When-“ Az stopped himself and drew a clock in the dirt, followed by a question mark.  
“Ten, maybe fifteen minutes.  I think he’s almost done.”  Az nodded and turned back towards the larger group, then cleared his throat to get their attention.
“So, we’re going to need to wait a little bit, since Flow is installing the new magic crystal cell in the airship.  Apparently he needs absolute silence or something bad is going to happen” he said.  This garnered a few confused looks before anyone spoke up.
“Like what?” Fluttershy asked in a whisper.  
“Boom” Twilight said simply, causing the pegasus to “eep” and hide behind Applejack, who she was standing next to.  Twilight sighed at the reaction and turned back to Az and Longshot.  “Anyways, now that we have some time, I’d like to hear about this sister of yours” she said, her growing grin matching Longshot’s typically demonic impression.  The other five mares quickly huddled in around Az and Longshot, expectant looks on their faces (with the exception of Rainbow Dash, who attempted to look cool by remaining aloof).  
“Seriously? We’re back on this?” Az asked Twilight, who responded with another grin and a small nod.  “She’s your sister, you get to start” he said to Longshot, resigning to his fate with a sigh.  Longshot gave him an annoyed look before glancing over at the six mares, and heaved a sigh as well.
“First thing I’d like to point out is that Nurana is eleven years younger than me, and ten years younger than Az.  Also, she isn’t a pony, she’s an ocelot.”  The second statement drew a collective surprised gasp from Longshot’s now captive audience.  “There’s a bit of background to that, as well.  See, ocelots are considered lower than second-class citizens in Tigra, which is predominantly ruled over by Tigers, Lions, and various other big cats.  As a result, they are rarely ever able to get actual jobs, and are occasionally forced into slavery.  Otherwise, they typically turn to crime in order to get enough money to scrape by.  This usually involves robbery, smuggling, and selling off whatever they can get their paws on.”
“That’s simply awful!” Rarity exclaimed, holding a hoof up to her mouth.  Her friends nodded in agreement.  “If they are so mistreated, why don’t they just leave?”
“Because the Tigran Empire borders two countries: Equestria and Draconia.  Ponies generally don’t trust any of the big cats, and dragons are, well, dragons” Az responded.  Longshot nodded in agreement before continuing.
“In any event, I was on a job with my dad in Tigra when I was thirteen or so.  We were sent in to…assist in a business takeover.  The identified individual that we would be dealing with was, as luck had it, an ocelot crime lord.  Really bad guy all around.  We got the job done and a lot of bad stuff happened, chiefly some large explosions rendering a small drug ring penniless.  The trouble with explosives, though, is that the resulting fires can destroy entire cities if left unchecked.  This was exactly what happened after my dad and I finished up the job.  We needed to more or less sprint to get away from the worst of the fire.  Once we had reached the outskirts of town, I could hear a sort of mewling cry coming from one of the back allies that had started to fill up with smoke.  I investigated the sound and found an ocelot cub curled up in a ball, crying.
“I’d like to point out at this point that it is not uncommon for cubs to be abandoned at a young age and left to their own devices.  Once the parent feels they can live on their own, they just abandon them in the street.”  Another collective gasp sounded off around Longshot, causing Az to roll his eyes at the group.  He looked back inside the hanger to see Flow slowly moving towards the airship from the far side of the structure, a large glowing cylinder held in his magical grip.
“While I’d like to say that the deed is abhorrent,” he began, looking back towards the group, “every big cat goes through it.  Tigers, lions, the whole lot of them.  The whole “right of passage” thing is an integral part of the Tigran society.  Ocelots just do it ten or so years earlier, and hope for the best with their kids.”  He nodded at Longshot, who continued on with her story.
“So I grabbed the cub and ran to meet up with my father, who instantly gave me an earful about picking her up.  I was about to just leave her behind when we noticed that she had stopped breathing.  Luckily, my dad knew CPR, and we got her breathing again, or at least coughing up some of the ash that she had managed to inhale.  I convinced him that she would die of we left her behind, and he finally relented, and let me take her home with us.  Once we got back to Canterlot, I nursed her back to health, and was tasked by my dad to take care of her, teach her to talk and read, that whole bit.  
“We got along fine for the first few years, my dad working, and me taking care of Nurana at home while he was out.  I actually had to convince her that I wasn’t her mother at first.”  Longshot chuckled at the memory before continuing.  “Once she got older I was able to let her be alone for a few days at a time, or at least have somepony check on her while I went out with my dad on a few jobs every now and then, just enough to keep my skills sharp.  Around my eighteenth birthday, I got accepted into the University, and decided on getting a degree there.  
“Around this time, though, my dad died while on a job.  Without him around the house, I was forced to take Nurana with me to where I was living up at the University.  It had to be really hush-hush, though, since I technically wasn’t allowed to have her living with me.”
“What about yer mom?” Applejack asked uncertainly, rubbing a foreleg with the other.  
“Never knew her” Longshot answered simply.  Applejack’s eyes widened and she looked down at the ground, starting to play with a tuft of grass.  The reaction went unrecognized by Longshot, but Az noticed and filed it away for later use.  		
“Anyways, it was around this time that I met Az, actually.  I had heard some of the girls talking about this “cool guy” trying to pick up University mares by saying that he was an archaeologist, and sometimes claiming he was a master thief.  So, I figured I’d check out what all the fuss was about, and that’s how I ran into him.”  She looked at Az, a small smile on her lips, and a genuine warmth behind her eyes.  “So this is where you pick up the story, right?”  Az chuckled and nodded.
“Yeah, that was a weird period for me.  Can’t say I was ever successful, nopony would believe me, up until Longshot found me and started asking some really pointed questions.  I figured out that she was also in the trade and invited her on a job with me.  She agreed, but we needed to go back to her place since I was still providing for my mom at the time, and was living with her.  Once we got to her place, Nurana practically tackled me, the goofiest grin you’ve ever seen on a cat’s face plastered across hers.  Without ever seeing each other before, she apparently already liked me.  That was how I met her, and after doing a few jobs with Longshot, I volunteered that she could stay at my mom’s house so L didn’t have to hide her every time somepony came over.  She’s been living there since, and we both make a decent effort to drop in as often as possible.  Since joining the Guard though, I guess Longshot hasn’t been able to all that much, since seeing her here was the first time I had seen her in over a year.” 
Longshot looked at the ground briefly before looking back up at the group, most of whose visages had softened from the cold stares she had expected to see from them, given her initial reception.  As she was about to speak, she heard a throat clearing behind her, and turned around to see Flow and Wise Guy standing at the mouth of the hanger.  
“Hey there everypony, we’re all set in here.  No more explode-y crystals or anything” Flow said with a small grin.  
“Well then, I guess story time is over” Az said, turning back to the group.  “Now if you would be so kind as to follow Flow and Wise Guy, they’ll be conducting the tour of the airship.  Longshot and I will wait over here, since neither of us are particularly knowledgeable when it comes to that thing.”  The group nodded intermittently and followed after Flow and Wise Guy into the hanger, and Az chuckled as he heard the gasps of wonder as they actually saw how big the airship was from close up.  
“Well there’s a story I never thought I’d be telling anypony” Longshot said, a small grin on her face.  
“Tell me about it” Az replied, shaking his head, also grinning.  “Especially to those six, and after what happened when they first got here.”
“So how is she, anyways?  I never got a chance to ask before.”
“She was well, the last time I dropped by the house.  It was tough getting home, even before joining the Guard.”  Longshot gave him a questioning glance, to which Az shrugged.  “A lot of jobs cropped up, no idea what the impetus was.  And figures the one job I do for myself I get pinched…”  Longshot barked out a laugh at this, causing Az to shake his head, a rueful smile apparent on his face. 
“Sounds like you were getting a bit soft” Longshot teased.
“Seems like it, doesn’t it?”  Az chuckled softly before looking back into the hanger, where he could see the Elements boarding the airship.  “Applejack seemed to warm up to you, though” he said, his eyes lingering on the orange mare before she disappeared into the black undercarriage of the zeppelin.  
“Oh? What makes you say that?”  Longshot asked, drawing her eyes away from the hanger.  
“Body language, facial expressions, the whole deal.  She probably has a younger sister that she’s raised almost on her own or something.”  He shrugged, looking at Longshot, “doesn’t mean she’s going to be any nicer to me.  I gave her and Rainbow Dash quite the lecture back there” he motioned back to the landing strip with a nod of his head.  
“Well, you just be nice to them, kill her with kindness.”  She paused, then chuckled softly, “just not literally.”  Az chuckled in response.
“At least two of them like me.  I think Fluttershy is still scared, and Rarity seems pretty aloof” he shrugged, “ah well, not my top concern right now anyways.”  Longshot nodded, but said nothing.  The two remained silent for the majority of the time Flow and Wise Guy were showing the Elements of Harmony the airship and its capabilities, which lasted another half hour.  They stood up once the group left the airship and began walking towards the hanger door.  Az could hear them chatting animatedly, with Rainbow Dash still quizzing Flow about the airship’s capabilities, although it seemed Flow was starting to get tired of the incessant questions.  
“Like I said last time, it’s a zeppelin, not a pegasus, I can’t make it do any tricks” Flow said, almost exasperated.  
“Well, why not!?” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.  “It flies! It should be able to do some really cool stuff!”
“It can drop up to ten highly trained operatives into enemy territory and land itself, ready for immediate take-off.  I’d call that pretty cool” Flow retorted.  Az chuckled, drawing an pleading and slightly angry look from Flow.
“Alright Flow, Wise Guy, we can take it from here” Az said, cutting off the stream of chatter.  Flow nodded appreciatively, and walked with Wise Guy back into the hanger, grumbling at the other unicorn.  “So we hope you enjoyed the tour of the airship, next up is the long house, where we might be able to get you into the forge area if Hammer is in a good mood.”  The six mares nodded, in noticeably higher spirits than they had been before entering the hanger.  
It was a fairly short walk over to the long house, where Az and Longshot briefly explained the layout of the building, and the purpose of each individual room.  When it became apparent that Hammer was actually in the forge, Longshot decided it would be better to ask for forgiveness than permission from the grizzled blacksmith and led the way down the long, heated corridor.  Upon entering the forge, several “oohs” and “aahs” could be heard from the six mares as they looked around the room.  
The papers that Az had noticed covering the walls earlier in the week were gone, and were placed in a neat pile on the floor next to Hammer’s main work bench.  The original decorations of the forge, various weapons and armor of every shape and size, had resumed their rightful place, albeit the shiny steel displays were now interspersed with the matte black metal of the Old Guard.  In the ruddy orange glow of the fires, the displays almost looked menacing. Looking back at the group, Az could see Rarity attempting to coax Fluttershy out from behind her mane.
Hammer was working a new sword on the grindstone on the far side of the room.  He looked up from his work momentarily and caught sight of the large group standing in the doorway to the forge.  He carefully put down the sword, took off the protective goggles he was wearing and walked over to them, intermittently wiping his forehooves on an already stained blacksmith’s smock.  “So what can I do ya for?” he asked, arriving in front of the group.  “Six sets o’ armor and matching weapons?”  He noticed Twilight’s wings in addition to her horn, and his eyes widened.  “Wait, nevermind that.”  He turned to Az and Longshot and fixed them with an angry glare.  “Ya mind tellin’ me why ya brought guests here?”
“Just showing them around the Hammer, relax” Longshot responded with a small smile.  “Just figured we’d give them a glance at the armory, maybe ask our master smith a few questions before we move on.”  Hammer rubbed his chin for a moment, smudging it with a fair amount of soot and grease from the various instruments that he had come in contact with since beginning to work that morning.  He looked over the six mares, each of whom were either looking at him or looking about the room, still in awe at the various instruments of death arrayed before them.  
“I s’pose I could work with that” he finally said.  “But the next time ya want to bring somepony down here, make sure ya ask me first” he said, pointing accusingly at the two black-clad ponies, each of whom nodded quietly.  “Right!” he said loudly, turning to the waiting mares.  “Now I’m the smith here, and as ya can see, I take care of outfittin’ the Guard with any manner o’ weapons and armor.  My work is relatively self-explanatory.  Any questions?”
“Why is some of this silver and some of it black?” Rainbow Dash asked, looking around the room.
“Ah, a very good question.  Had ya come a week earlier, all o’ this would have been pure steel.”  He motioned with a hoof at the walls of the room.  “Granted, it’s stainless, enchanted to resist damage, corrosion, and to improve its sharpness.  Not to mention they are also completely non-stick.  Liquids roll right off.”  He grabbed one of the black blades off the wall with his telekinesis.  “Now these black ones, these are new.  Some o’ them are over a millennia old, but you’ll be hard pressed finding them amidst all o’ this.  They’re made of some sort o’ strange obsidian-infused steel.  Extremely durable, very easy to sharpen, and completely resistant to anythin’ ya can throw at it.”  He flipped the blade over in his grip a few times, looking it over.  “O’ course ya gotta be a unicorn to make it, though.”
“Huh” Rainbow Dash answered simply.
“Ooh! Ooh! I have a question!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, jumping up and down, a hoof raised.
“Sure, kid, shoot” Hammer replied with a cocked eyebrow.
“How come everypony has different armor?  Like the Royal Guard all has the same golden armor and the Lunar Guard has their super scary purple armor!”  She stopped bouncing and looked between the three Guard members standing in front of her.
“And here I was thinkin’ ya were gonna ask somethin’ strange” Hammer said, shaking his head.  “Long an’ short of it is that everypony is built different.  That means that different armor fits each individual differently, and each has their own preference.”  He motioned for Az and Longshot to move in closer so that the group could get a better look at their armor.  “There are two types o’ armor that I make: leather and plate.  Different groups tend to like different types o’ armor.  Pegasi, for example, prefer leather armor, much like Az here.  Granted, is set is custom, but that’s beside the point.  Others who simply prefer mobility over solid protection also use leather, like Longshot.  Granted, she had quite a bit o’ trouble when the Changelins invaded Canterlot, which is why you see bits o’ plate here and there.  
“Wait, you were in Canterlot when the Changelings invaded?” Twilight asked Longshot, drawing a simple nod from the unicorn.
“Heh, that’s an understatement” Hammer laughed.  “She took down an entire company o’ them by herself.  Damned impressive work, if ya ask me.”  The group drew back momentarily, each casting wary glances at the now embarrassed unicorn before turning back to Hammer as he resumed talking.  “Anyways, most earth ponies an’ unicorns will wear plate armor, and right now I’m slowly workin’ on gettin’ them phased into the new stuff, which is a hay of a lot stronger than enchanted steel.  A fraction o’ the weight too.  With the plate armor, you’ll see a significant amount of personalization, more so than with the leather.  Who else have ya met?”
“Captain Shade, Rapid Flow, and Wise Guy” Twilight answered.
“Well the Cap’n and Wise Guy aren’t very good examples to work with as far as personalization goes” Hammer stated, scratching the back of his head.  “An’ Flow ain’t much better, but he does have a few personalized bits here an’ there.  For example, his right pauldron is significantly larger than his left one, an’ his left foreleg has very little armor on it at all.  This is ‘cause he uses a sabre in combat, an’ fights in a fencer’s stance.”
“So each member of the Guard has different armor based on their tastes and fighting styles?” Rarity asked.  Hammer nodded.  “As a fashionista by trade I guess I can respect that,” she continued, “but must you use the color black darling?  It’s just so…ugly.  Black is definitely not in this year.”
Hammer barked out a laugh, surprising Fluttershy back into hiding behind her mane, from which she had peeked momentarily to listen to the questions and answers.  Applejack noticed her surprise and gently rubbed her on the back until she had regained herself.  “Black’s jus’ the way it’s always been, ma’am” he said, chuckling.  “Plus, what’s a black ops group without their cool lookin’ black armor?”
“So there are earth ponies here?” Applejack asked.  “Cause Ah ain’t seen any since we landed.”
“That’s ‘cause they mostly keep to themselves” Hammer responded.  “Trust me, they’re around.”  Applejack nodded slowly, not wholly satisfied with the answer, but remained silent.  “Anythin’ else?” Hammer asked the group.
“I have one, actually” Twilight said.  “You said that some of the equipment in here is millennia old, but it’s only now being phased into use.  Why is that?”
“Like I said, we only got it about a week ago.  Without goin’ into too much of the specifics, the exact… recipe for making this style of metal was lost to the Guard when we abandoned the Old City, which is in the Everfree Forest.”
“Well that certainly explains the cloaked ponies moving through town with carts last week” Rarity remarked, drawing startled expressions from her friends.
“Bingo” Hammer replied.  “So yeah, I finally managed to recreate the metal, an’ we’re startin’ to get it into use.  These two are among the first to receive it, along with the rest o’ their team on account of the mission comin’ up.”
“Which explains the training exercise later today” Twilight stated.  
“Yup.  Well unless you fine mares have any other pressin’ questions, I gotta get back to work.  All this metal ain’t goin’ to forge itself.”  When nopony from the group spoke up, he nodded, wiped his hooves off on his smock again and grinned.  		
“Well it’s been nice talkin’ to you, I’ll see you later.  Or not.  Either way.”  He turned and walked back towards the grindstone where he picked the sword back up and continued refining its edge where he left off, as if nothing had happened.  
“Alright, so that’s the forge” Longshot said, starting back down the hallway.  “All that we have left is the obstacle course before we start with the exercise later today.  Oh, and lunch.”
“So what was Mister Hammer talking about when he said mission?” Fluttershy asked Longshot timidly.
“Sorry, but we can’t really go into that” Longshot answered with a warm smile, attempting to hearten the easily-frightened pegasus.  
“Oh come on!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, drawing surprised looks from her friends and the two black ponies.  “We got permission from the three princesses, didn’t we?”
“Yes,” Az replied with a carefully leveled tone, “you got permission to come here, not to be privy to mission details that not even Princess Celestia knows.”
“Why-?“ Applejack began.
“Plausible deniability” Longshot answered, cutting her off.  “There is the distinct possibility that any of us could be captured or killed on a mission, and the less the Princesses know, the less the political repercussions could be.”  She looked over the group, who had stopped dead in the hallway.  “Although, we always make our best effort to recover the individual or body, whatever the situation dictates.  Political ramifications or no, there is still a great deal of sensitive information that we know that many would kill to get to.”  Six horrified faces still stared back at her in the gloom of the hallway, their eyes visible against the glow of the forge behind them.  “Uh, we like the think we’re good enough to never get caught though, if that helps.”  She smiled sheepishly at the group, hoping to relieve some of the tension that was apparent within the group.
“Alright!” Az said quickly, before further damage could be done, “so onto the obstacle course!  I think Pinkie Pie had said something about wanting some pointers?”  This at least snapped the bright pink pony out of her daze, and a smile stretched from ear to ear as she looked back at Az.  The smile almost seemed evil, in its own way.  I’m definitely going to regret saying that Az thought wryly.