//------------------------------// // Competent Guards // Story: The Olden World // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// The 'entrance' Gerardo had found was at the utmost top of the Stone District, where the mountain slope became a mountain wall and further construction was impossible. Their road hugged the cliff face, growing narrower and gravellier until at last it ended entirely, a glacial waterfall trickling past just beyond the edge. On the small bit of flat land at the end of the road, the entrance sat, entirely small and unglamorous compared to the majestic arch of the Skyport. It was round, jagged, and looked more like a naturally formed cave than anything else, with room for two large ponies to pass each other and not much more. A pair of guards flanked the entrance, clad in thin armor that sported wing-and-pickaxe insignias and looked designed not to interfere in flight. They blinked, spotting Gerardo. "Good evening, gentlecolts," the griffon announced once they were safely within earshot. "Myself and my comrades were contracted to make a delivery to the Water District, and were informed that we could receive an escort through your base to reach there? Our destination is Warehouse W-28." A guard blinked back at him, slowly and deliberately. "Night shift started twenty minutes ago. How urgent is it?" "Err..." Gerardo glanced back to the western mountain peaks, behind which the orange glow of the sun still permeated the sky. "I would very much like to have it taken care of now, if at all possible." The guard shook his head. "I don't know the policy. Stay here while I go get someone more important..." He turned, tramping back into the corridor, at which his lone companion took up defense. Minutes passed in tense silence, until two sets of hoofsteps sounded down the tunnel. The guard re-emerged with a unicorn, who sported an off-white coat and slender horn. Muscular yet slender, he eyed them, jaw twitching with overconfidence. "My name is Selma," he announced proudly, looking as if he were straining his neck to stare down at the clearly taller Gerardo. "Leader of the Stone District Defense Force, if you care for titles. Who..." His sharp eyes narrowed. "Are you?" "I am Gerardo Guillaume, griffon adventurer extraordinaire," Gerardo proclaimed, "and these are my companions, Starlight and Maple. I take it you have been briefed on our situation?" Selma smiled dangerously. "I've been informed that you're trying to take undeclared goods into the upper districts. Since you didn't catch on earlier, allow me to repeat myself: who are you?" "I told you," Gerardo answered, a touch of nervousness in his voice. "We are independent contractors performing a delivery. We were informed we would be allowed to pass." "I'm sure you are." Selma shook his head, still grinning. "See here, Gerardo... this is my fortress, and where I'm standing, you're making this delivery from..." He raised an eyebrow. "Where, again? Not the Sky District, oh no, or you'd be coming from there. Is it..." He tilted his head, staring owlishly at the griffon. "The Earth District, perhaps? Or maybe those ingrates down in the Steel District who never deliver anything, ever? No... heh... Where I'm standing, you three are bandits with bombs, and you're not getting in my fort without a full inspection of your cargo." "Opening the crates is against the terms of my contract," Gerardo insisted. "I cannot do that!" "Your contract, you say..." Selma tapped his chin, lit his horn, and levitated several pebbles, flicking them at one another in midair as he made a show of thinking. "Did you perhaps miss the part where I said this was my fortress? As in, me who is in charge? Because if someone truly did hire a buzzard like you to deliver unmarked crates, they would either be me or work for me, that means those are technically mine." He beckoned with a hoof. "Open them." Gerardo took a step back. "Would you allow me a moment to converse with my team, please?" Selma shrugged, stepping back into the entrance. "As you will." "Well, this is an unfortunate obstacle," Gerardo observed the moment they were out of earshot. Keeping his voice low, he added, "It's especially troubling because the points he makes are legitimate. If this is his fortress, he would indeed know about my quest, or perhaps be my employer himself." "How long ago did you get this job?" Maple hissed back. "And when was the last time you heard about it? Who gave it to you, even?" Gerardo sighed. "If you must know, I obtained both the job and crates while in Yakyakistan on unrelated business, with explicit instructions to use this roundabout route and avoid air travel. From an agent of the government, specifically. This would have been... many months ago. Almost a year." "How would they have had someone waiting to accept it, then?" Maple asked quizzically. "I wonder if the crates contain some sort of magical beacon. Is that even possible?" "I imagine so, but..." Gerardo shook his head. "Now that you've drawn my attention to the subject, I cannot remember if we know when this Defense Force was established. It is very possible that the Water District was turned over to their control after I was given the job." "Isn't there a yak embassy in Ironridge?" Maple asked. "We could go there, then... Especially if your job came from the government. Maybe the ambassador could just take the crates there." "It's seeming like that's the wisest course of action..." Gerardo admitted. As they talked, Starlight sat off to the side, horn shining. They could talk and plan all they wanted, but she was doing. Her telekinetic field was expanded to its thinnest, resting over the tunnel entrance at the edge of her range, and she gently jiggled it back and forth, feeling for obstructions. Three ponies were in the way, and she could feel the cave walls... more than one set of cave walls. There was some type of room right next to the entrance, and the mountain wall in front of it was thin. Tightning her focus, she probed it more. How sturdy could a wall like that be? It wouldn't be feasible with the guards right there, but it might be possible to break through with enough force... "Starlight?" A dusty brown hoof tapped her on the shoulder. "Come on. Let's go back to the hotel, so we can find the embassy tomorrow..." "Okay." She nodded, letting her horn rest and grow dim. Pulling herself to her hooves, she prepared to follow Maple and Gerardo back down the roadway... when a burst of air nearly knocked her back down. "Waah!" A pegasus straightened up, sporting a goatee and a still-slightly-flattened red and black pompadour. "Hey there, friends," he greeted, slicking back his mane with a wing. "It's your old friend, the Howenator! Miss me?"