Prey and a Lamb

by Lambs Prey

25.2 Rock Candy is bad for your Teeth

Morning came far too early for Prey.

Some nights, Prey didn't get enough sleep because of nightmares. Other times it was because of guilt. And sometimes it was because an annoying thestral woke him up in the middle of the night to interrogate the grand riot instigator named after a chamber pot.

Prey sat on his bed and stared balefully at Gloom's alarm clock. He hated waking every morning to the ear splittingly shrill shriek of that torture device. It was probably only him who found it so offensive to the ear too.

That made it doubly irritating.

But it definitely wasn't only him who still wished they were asleep. Even Crimson's normally unchanging visage had bags under its eyes. Prey was able to claim a few extra minutes of rest as they got ready, because he had no armour to put on, so pro gratis for being a runt for once. The notion that Gloom had wanted to outfit a lamb in armour was still ridiculous.

Never the less, eventually Prey had to sit himself up. Rubbing his eyes, he saw that Crimson had alighted down from his bunk and was opening the small box he'd bought in the lower Canterlot market yesterday.

There were two things inside. The first was a small earthen ware plant pot, with what looked like a nearly dead twig in it, and the second was a set of metal rings, plain and unadorned. The strange sizing and dull thickness didn't give a hint as to what they were for.

Crimson saw Prey looking and held a ring up, "Mane tie." He said.

Prey arched an eyebrow. Whatever those metal rings had originally been designed for, it was not for tying back a pony's mane. Crimson proved to know what he was talking about though, bunching up and looping his lanky mane into the rings and knotting it off. Well, improvisation also worked, and Gloom had told Crimson to think about getting it cut to avoid a fighting liability, but this also solved the problem.

Thestrals didn't hold the same social perceptions of long manes and tails being solely mare traits. Prey had learnt that in the clans, a long mane was the symbol of a warrior. Prey had yet to see a thestral do anything with their mane aside from simply braid or knot it back, regardless of which gender, unlike so many of the foppish Canterlotian's he'd seen out on the streets.

Thestrals were strange. Then again, Prey was hardly the best person to be judging others by their looks. So he moved on.

Prey pointed to the second item in the box, "What's that?"

"It's a fern. Or it will be." Crimson answered, starting to pull on his armour.

"It seems to be dead. Do you know how to tend a plant?" Prey asked.

"I know what I am doing."

Prey hopped off the bed to get a closer look at the pot plant. There wasn't even enough left of the sorry thing for him to identify what fern it was supposed to be, and Prey knew a lot about plants. Especially poisonous ones. Snake had seen to that. Why would Crimson want to buy a pot plant though?

"Do you at least know what type of fern it is?" Prey asked.

Crimson gave him a slow blink, "Yes. We have them back in the clans. It's called a Blood Fern."

Prey instantly recognised that name. Or at least, he thought he did, if it was the same thing as a 'sanguine fern' or a 'rusted weed'. It was interesting that Crimson should both have recognised the plant, and bought the fern with the intent of growing it.

A sanguine fern, or Blood Fern as Crimson called it, was a small, slow growing plant that could thrive in almost any condition that didn't drop below freezing. It's dark red leaves made it obvious how it'd gotten it's nick name. It wasn't a commonly found plant though, because of its unique nutritional requirements. A few drops of blood every now and then.

Whomever Crimson had bought it from obviously hadn't a clue of the ferns special needs. They'd probably just supplanted an eye catchingly red fern to sell, but without knowing about its growing requirements, it'd started to die. They'd probably been very surprised when Crimson had asked to buy the withered stem.

'Meaning they obviously both had these plants and tended these ferns back in Crimson's clan. That's mildly interesting.'

Prey didn't give any visible sign he'd recognised the name and merely shrugged, loosing interest, "A little piece of home then." He commented.

"I suppose so." Crimson said, carefully putting the pot on the sill of the bunk room's lone window.

"Let's go." Gloom called, drawing Crimson's attention away from his Blood Fern, "I want to find out if it all went smoothly last night."

They didn't find out the answer to that question until long after breakfast, when Captain Nighthawk called in everyone who'd been involved with the operation for a meeting. Until then, they were left to gnaw their hooves anxiously. Gloom was particularly anxious to hear the answer.

Prey was only too glad when Nighthawk's summons had arrived, because it finally brought the Sargent's circle of worrying thoughts to an end, which'd been starting to give him a headache.

Prey, of course, knew the answer the moment they walked into the meeting room, but even for those who weren't mind leeches, from the triumphant smirk sitting on the corners of Nighthawk's lips, the answer was clear. Still, they had to wait for everyone to turn up before Nighthawk confirmed the good news. Which, because it was thestrals and it was their superior who'd summoned them, took less than five minutes.

"For those of you who haven't been filled in, our surveillance efforts paid off last night. We found the criminal, apprehended him, and obtained a confession. This pony is called Copper Pot, who was working for Wheat Plow. For those of you who don't know, Wheat Plow is a major politician and chair of the Crop Sharer party." Nighthawk informed them. He then nodded to the ISND.

"Sargent Gloom was the one to obtain this information," Nighthawk said, which was his way of giving credit, thestral style, before moving on. "Wheat Plow is now in our custody, along with his secretary and campaign manager."

Nighthawk obviously didn't think they needed the details of the raid, if there'd been a fight, any resistance, or attempts at escape. He was back, so obviously that was all the evidence needed. None of the thestral officers cheered, or offered any congratulations, or even expressed their happiness at this successful outcome like any pony would've. Instead, aside from some smiles of satisfaction, they all remained very calm and waited for Nighthawk to instruct them further.

Celebrations would come later, when they were finished.

"This is only the start. We have Wheat Plow, but that's not enough. I want his place thoroughly investigated, and any other properties he owns. I want his records checked and double checked. Review everypony he's worked with, find out who else is in on this. Interrogations, names, cutie marks, faces, dates, facts, reports, I want everything proven and recorded for when we throw him before Princess Luna. She wants this done by the books." Nighthawk told them.

No congratulations or stirring words to go along with his declaration that they needed to work harder. Just statements of fact. No wonder every thestral Prey had come across so far was a fanatical supporter of Luna. All the normal ones who knew what the word 'moderation' meant hadn't been crazy enough to sign up.

The only two non-thestral officers in the Night Guard were both present, a unicorn corporal and a pegasus staff Sargent, being used to the encouraging atmosphere of the Royal Guard, we're both visibly disheartened by Nighthawk's approach. 'You'd have thought that after two months they'd have gotten used to it.'

"Let's get to it." Nighthawk said.

With that out of the way, Nighthawk started assigning out roles and jobs, splitting up the work load for this case. He gave the ISND the 'write up' side of it. Basically, it meant everyone would bring them their own reports, and it was the ISND's job to compile them all while also adding in their own interrogations of Copper Pot, Pebble Mill, and the Apple family.

'-I'm going under in paperwork-', Gloom thought, but orders were orders and everyone had their part to play and he was proud to play his.

Just as Nighthawk was finishing up, the door was shoved open and the Royal Guard Captain stormed into the room. Technically, he marched in, and while his posture and expression were completely professional, he couldn't hide the spark of anger in his eyes as he made a B-Line for Nighthawk. Incidentally, the moods of the two non-thestral Night Guard officers from earlier picked up on seeing their old captain.

By his thoughts and in comparison, Nighthawk wasn't nearly as happy to see his fellow Guard Captain, '-I'd wondered what was taking the career soldier so long-'

"Captain Shining Armour."

"Captain Nighthawk. An explanation is in order." Shining Armour stated, coming to a stop in front of Nighthawk, seemingly uncaring of the rest of the officers present.

Nighthawk didn't seem bothered by the Royal Guard Captain's thinly concealed annoyance. Personally, Prey had put as many bodies and legs as he could between himself and Shining Armour the moment the unicorn had entered. Prey had nothing to base his assumption on, but he got the gut feeling Shining Armour was a particularly powerful unicorn, tier six at least.

"What do you need clarification on? The arrest of Wheat Plow went without a hitch." Nighthawk said.

"Precisely that. The sudden arrest of Wheat Plow and raid last night. Please explain." Shining Armour said, teeth not quite gritted, but not far off either.

"Wheat Plow's been accused of, and substantial evidence has been found, for his direct involvement in a plot to cause wide spread riots. You should have been informed of the details this morning. His arrest was an urgent necessity." Nighthawk stated.

"Yes, urgent. However, we have procedures for that. A warrant is needed, especially for something of this size. Co-operation, a plan, backup. Going straight in with a night raid is not the way to do things." Shining Armour didn't seem to care about arguing with Nighthawk in front of the rest of the Night Guard command structure.

It made sense to Prey. The only authority Shining Armour was undermining right here was Nighthawk's.

'-so you just wanted in on the action, to take the accomplishment like with finding the foal-', Nighthawk thought. He looked over Shining Armour's head and gave the assembled officers a sharp nod, "See to your tasks. Dismissed."

Unsaid was, 'I'll stay here and finish up dealing with this fool'.

None of the thestrals questioned their captain or even looked sideways at the intruder, Shining Amour, instead all saluting and filing out the door promptly with a, "Yes sir."

Gloom and the ISND were the last to leave, but seeing as Shining Amour hadn't waited for everyone to leave before he started in on Nighthawk, Prey heard some of it before the door closed.

"Rushing in could have cost us big if it'd gone wrong or Wheat Plow had gotten away. You should've waited for morning and joint swept in with the Royal Guard. Or just woken the Guard if it really couldn't have waited. Celestia, do you know what the press is going to do with this? Midnight thestral raids? If you'd brought this to Her majesty, she would've approved it anyway so why didn't you take the time-"

"-The Royal Guard was informed, as was Her Majesty."

"-Princess Celestia did not mention-"

"-Her Majesty, Princess Luna."

The door shut.

After all that hype, the rest of their day was spent in the office doing the 'write up'.

Did they get anywhere even close to finishing it? Oh don't be absurd, of course not!

In the beginning, it didn't seem like it might be so bad, '-perhaps I overestimated it-', Gloom had thought.

Four hours later, he was thinking, '-no I didn't-'

Compiling a full report started out okay, if a bit slow, but then as the other thestral units did their bit, more and more paperwork kept getting delivered to the ISND. That meant they had to reshuffle and factor in this new information, as well for building up the full picture of Wheat Plow's activities.

Then those same Night Guard units came back later with more.

The ISND then had to back track, change, or add things all over again. There just didn't seem to be any end in sight, because the list of what Nighthawk wanted scrutinised down to the finest detail was just so exhaustive. It went:

Wheat Plow's diary and personal calendar, (sadly, no secret meetings conveniently marked down).

Interviewing the ponies listed in said diary, (mostly politicians, and thus circumstanitial evidence at best).

His personal bank account, (no one knew if he had more hidden elsewhere).

His Crop Sharers' accounts', (what they could get of them).

Wheat Plow's employment history both before his political career, (Farming. Unsurprising).

His secretary's history, (worked in Canterlot most of her life, so was probably a racist).

His campaign manager's history, (varied, but still painfully boring).

His properties and deeds, (for being an advocate of sharing, Wheat Plow was holding quite a lot of capital close to his chest).

His purchase and sales ledgers, (it would take awhile and delving into the joys of debits and credits to verify those).

Statements from Wheat Plow himself, (all useless bluster).

Statements from his secretary, (didn't know anything, so about as useful as a one winged pegasus).

Statements from his campaign manager, (same as above).

Statements from the Crop Sharers' cabinet members, (mostly demands for an explanation, which were ignored).

Interviews from Wheat Plow's parents, (both in old ponies homes, rarely visited, and going senile).

Interviews from his family, (a dead end. His only other sibling was deceased).

A look into their death, (cause confirmed by coroner thirty years ago to be accidental drowning, age six).

And so on... and so on..... and so on............

The long and the short of it was that if this report took less than a full week of paperwork by every Night Guard involved, Gloom would eat his cloud steel horseshoes. Without any pepper.

Mentioning seasoning...

Salt. They'd gotten nowhere with reviewing the old reports about the drug trade. As Prey had noted earlier, they were at a dead end unless new information was brought to light. Well, Prey had watched that one drug deal go down yesterday in lower Canterlot, but he wasn't going to be mentioning that.

Gloom wasn't willing to put aside everything for Wheat Plow's case however, so he split his time working on that while Crimson and Prey worked exclusively on report compiling.

It still seemed a bit sudden, like everyone wasn't quite convinced yet it could possibly be as simple as arresting Wheat Plow.

All that work, and it was essentially over. Well, Wheat Plow would still have to go to trial and a whole load of investigation had yet to be done, but at this point, the outcome was already known. Perhaps to fully understand the impact and uproar of this arrest, one had to be a civilian looking in, with no clue any of this had been happening.

Gloom's canine teeth were visible in an unconscious snarl as he read through the evening newspaper, spread across their mess hall table.

"Night Guard attacks Crop Sharers?" He muttered, "Wheat Plow assaulted in his house without a warrant...Night Guard Captain refuses to answer any questions...Yellow Pages says the Night Guard Captain must make a statement by tomorrow or else?" Gloom contemptuously swatted the page with a wing tip, "What is this cloud drizzle?"

"It's the popular opinion of ponykind's elite." Prey said through a mouth of potato and broccoli.

"Then perhaps their opinion is not worth much." Crimson blankly suggested.

It would be fair to say that none of them were in a good mood after a log day spent slogging through paperwork in a dusty office until they all had a crick in the neck, all with very little sleep. Not that Prey was ever in a good mood. And Crimson was a taciturn blank wall most of the time anyway.

The Royal Guards, over on their unofficial side of the mess hall, were also not the Night Guard's biggest fans at the moment. But then, when had they ever been?

The reasons varied from Royal Guard to Royal Guard, but the most common reason for today's negative attitude was the sentiment that the Night Guard had deliberately rushed in to arrest Wheat Plow so the Royal Guard wouldn't get any credit.

'-as if we'd be that shallow-'
'-want to play vamponies in the night do they?-'
'-Captain Armour even had to go and reprimand them for it-'

"Quote, 'How can I live in peace when even our best and brightest aren't safe?' Says Iridescent Flower," Gloom repeated with a growl, still reading;

"'Will Her Royal Highness Princess Celestia reprimand her sister?' Yellow Page wonders. This is a blatant indirect attack on Princess Luna! How did this even get published so fast?!"

Prey pushed aside an ear that was threatening to dangle into his plate as he ate, "The Crop Sharer party probably had a hoof in it."

Gloom snorted. Prey saw that Gloom had hardly touched his own food. If he wasn't going to eat it, Prey wondered if he'd let him have it.

Crimson was resolutely making his slow way through his own dinner, one tasteless mouthful at a time. "Sarg-Gloom I mean, what do you think will-?"

"Sargent Gloom."

They all looked up to see Sargent Major Sharp Tang calling.

"Sir." Gloom answered, quickly standing. Sharp Tang had addressed him by his rank despite it being dinner, so it meant he was acting in his official capacity.

"Sorry to interrupt your meal, but it couldn't wait."

"It's no problem sir. What is it?"

"Princess Luna wants to speak with you and your team. Night Court is just about to begin, and you can find Her Majesty there." Sharp Tang informed them, like it was good news.

"We're on our way sir." Gloom said straight away, Crimson right behind him. He hadn't gone more than three steps when he seemed to realise they were missing someone.

"Come on Prey, didn't you hear?"

Prey was frozen in his seat.

"We mustn't keep her majesty waiting." Gloom said impatiently, jerking a wing for Prey to hurry up.

Prey swallowed drily, his hunger vanished. His heart beat had spiked to a staccato within the last dozen seconds after Sharp Tang made his horrible announcement. 'Zoma'Gricka, what does the Moon Wolf want? Was I caught? Does she know?!'

Gloom had little patience for this though, "Hurry up." He snapped, anxious not to keep his Princess waiting. Jerkily, and with lowered head, Prey got down from the bench.

Gloom gave Sharp Tang another quick nod, "Sorry for the delay sir. We'll be on our way right now."

The walk through the Palace to Luna's Night Court was brief. There was no waiting line outside either. The trip could not have been long enough for Prey.

Prey was scared. He could admit that, but only to himself. Not as scared as the first time he'd been brought before the moon alicorn, but that's because he'd thought it was the Sun Wolf instead.

Prey reassured himself it was unlikely Luna had called the ISND here to kill him. It was much more likely that it was about Wheat Plow's arrest.

'Yes, yes that'll be it. That must be it. There's no reason to be afraid.' Prey told himself, 'She just wants to speak to Gloom, not me. I'm fine, this is fine, I'll be fine.'

Prey remembered the strange, predatory feline aura the night alicorn had given off last time. The way she'd cracked his crystal manacles like it was nothing. The golden shackles with spell craft so advanced he couldn't even understand it she'd replaced them with. How she'd blown out his ear with just her voice, by complete accident. The fact that she was an ageless deity recently returned from genocidal madness.

'No, I have my ribbon, and Lemon Pink! I still have my tool, she can help me.'

Scarcely a moment later Prey was mocking himself for such a desperate thought. What was Lemon Pink going to do against a goddess? Lemon didn't even know this meeting was happening.

Prey told himself to breathe, 'No, I'll be fine. See? Still alive, still breathing. I'll be fine.'

Prey's self reassurance didn't help the trembling in his legs. If he was being perfectly honest, he was only making it worse.

The torches and lamps had been lit outside the Night Court's impressive double doors, and the pair of glowing eyed thestrals standing guard didn't help encourage petitioners.

They were evidently expecting the ISND, because at Gloom's approach, the two Guards put their shoulders to the doors and pushed. A creak would've been fitting, but the hinges swung open silently. Prey had no choice but to follow Gloom and Crimson inside.

Prey had not seen the dimly lit audience chamber that served as the Night Court before, where ponies could come to petition Luna. Once again the general assumption seeming to have been that only thestrals and the Night Goddess herself should be able to see anything clearly inside the hall.

The lack of decent lighting didn't hide the spaciousness of the audience room though. Nor the mandatory requirements for any room in Canterlot Palace. Meaning polished marble, silk tapestries, rich centre carpets, broad columns, and high arch windows, through which the first stars of night glittered.

"Welcome, we hath been expecting thee." Came the booming voice of Luna. The alicorn was seated on a distinctly night themed throne, elevated on a dias above the eye level of a normal pony. Just another reminder that you were only ever allowed to look up to an alicorn.

Aside from the two Night Guards flanking Luna's throne, it was just them, and the way the carpet muffled their hoof steps on approach made the room feel even more eerily empty, like a cave.

They came to the bottom of the dias and Gloom bowed low, Crimson joining him in paying respects, and Prey just joining them and desperately hoping the only one Luna was interested in tonight was Gloom.

"Princess Luna, you summoned us?" Gloom asked humbly, holding the bow and waiting to be acknowledged first.

Luna looked down at them, as languid as a tiger on her throne, but no tiger had ever held that tint of cold 'otherness' that emanated from her that only Prey seemed to notice, "Indeed we did, Sargent Gloom. It pleases us that thee were most timely in thy response to our summons. Thou mayest raise thine heads."

Prey was within the five meter range of Luna, far too close for his comfort, but he didn't dare to try and look into the alicorn's thoughts. Usually he didn't have a choice in the matter, but in this case, Prey couldn't have even if he'd wanted to. In place of Luna's thoughts was a void.

Not a defence or a mental wall, but a complete black hole.

Usually that would mean that the person in front of him was either dead or an illusion. But such conventional logic didn't apply to something like Luna. An alicorn. Power incarnate. A deity.

"We serve at your command Princess Luna. What can we do for you?" Gloom asked, finally straightening up.

"Tis' not a task we have to set before thee, no, rather we wish to talk with thee."

Gloom blinked, '-this wasn't what I expected-', "Of course princess. What do you want to talk about?" He responded.

"About thy recent success of course Sargent, thou hast been doing most well in thy new role. Nare two weeks, and thou hast already succeeded in bringing a traitorous knave to light. Tis' merely another mark against these politics mine sister is so fond of, but we digress. We art here to speak of thine accomplishments."

"Er-I mean, thank you your majesty." Gloom said, sounding like Crimson for a moment.

"Come, tell us more!" Luna said/shouted enthusiastically. Prey winced but didn't dare cover his ears in case he offended her.

"We, well, we first went to Hay Steam your majesty, because that was where the latest riot took place. From there..." Gloom proceeded to give Luna a run down of what had happened, starting in Hay Steam with Turf Apple, on to Seed Apple and his family, the capture of Pebble Mill, the suggested surveillance plan, into the discovery of Copper Pot and his confession, accumulating with Wheat Plow's capture last night.

Gloom was not a good story teller, and his retelling of the events was rather dry. It was doubtful whether Luna was taken with his tale, but the ISND was her creation, and their success belonged by extension to her, so of course she would be proud.

"Thou art not a bard from our day, but thy rendition was quite adequate. Tell us, how dids't thou find it, striking for justice and brining down these swine?"

"It was, I mean, we were only doing our duty your majesty. We're proud to have been able to serve."

"But how dids't thou feel when thy duty called thee forth to combat?" Luna pressed, leaning forwards in anticipation.

"We didn't participate in the raid your majesty. The only pony we fought, well, me and Crimson fought, was Pebble Mill when he resisted arrest, but that could hardly be called a fight really. We mainly just investigated things." Gloom answered, a tad uncomfortable at saying anything that contradicted Luna's view of events, but it was his duty to be accurate.

"Ah yes, of course. Thou art correct of course Sargent. But thou hast done well by anypony's standards. Our good Captain has spoken highly of thine effectiveness. Hard work is worthy of reward, for thy efforts on our Royal behalf, we here by promote thee Sargent Gloom, to the post of Staff Sargent, pending probation." Luna declared.

"Your majesty, thank you, but I'm fine where I am. I don't think it would be-"

"Humility is a worthy trait, one we all have cause to learn. Would that ponies would learn the lesson before tis' forced upon them. But in this, thou hast earned thy dues." Luna said. She looked amused by Gloom's protest.

"I...Thank you, your majesty." Gloom said a bit faintly.

It was a rather unprecedented advancement. Just because Gloom had done well this week didn't mean automatic promotion, that wasn't how the Guard worked. There was seniority to take into account, open positions, training, recommendations, experience and need. Promotion for the sake of promotion wasn't how things worked.

But Luna had spoken, and who was going to gainsay an alicorn? She says 'Jump' and you ask 'How high?' As members of the Night Guard, the two sentries in the room had their own opinions on Gloom's sudden promotion, but they were keeping it to themselves.

"We now have words for Crimson." Luna stated.

Crimson blinked once, "Yes your majesty?"

Luna made a beckoning motion with her hoof, gesturing Crimson up closer to the foot of the dias, "Crimson Trace, hast thou carried out the instructions we gavest thee?" She asked seriously, ethereal made wafting across her eye for a moment in some unfelt wind.

The tips of Crimson's pinion feathers shifted, "My pardon, but to what, Princess Luna?"

"To turn aside from thy vengeance. Hast thou followed our words in thine heart?" Luna clarified.

'What kind of nonsensical question is that?' Prey thought. The Myrrdon clan was in hiding. How would Crimson even try to go about getting revenge?

Crimson raised his gaze so he could look Luna in the eye, "I have...not entirely managed to do so. I am sorry, your highness, but I think it will take me time." He answered, voice calm.

Luna was not outraged by Crimson daring to look her in the eyes, or him answering in the negative. Instead of breaking Crimson like Prey expected, she nodded in acceptance! Rather, his daring to be truthful seemed to have pleased her.

"Thou wilt manage it in time. If harmony smiles on thee, thou wilt not have to test thine self control in the near future."

"Princess, does that mean you still want to try and get the Myrrdon clan to rejoin Equestria?" Crimson asked. Now his wing feathers were twitching.

"Time changes many things. We art patient, and will wait for them to return to the fold." Luna stated, as if the fact were already predetermined. It was also telling Crimson that his opinion held no sway in face of her own, although it was a biased contest to start with. An alicorn's opinion always held the most weight no matter the circumstances.

Plus, Luna literally had all the time in the world to wait. Someone not amendable to your designs? Just wait for them to die and try again with the new generation.

"...I will do my best Princess Luna." Was all Crimson could eventually say, bowing his head.

"Do so," Luna ordered imperiously, "Now," She announced loudly, "We wish to speak with thy youngest member, Prey."

Prey's spiked heart almost missed a beat, and for a moment he wasn't able to breathe. 'NonoNo, what does she want with me? Why now?'

"Prey," Luna repeated in a commanding tone, "We wish to speak with thee."

Prey's drooping ears felt like they'd been transmuted into lead, dragging his head down as he was reluctantly forced to look up. His pulse was pounding in his head. "Yes-Imean- Yes, Princess Luna?" He whispered.

"Speak up Prey, we hath not forgotten thee so far as to dismiss thee. It was us who selected thee from prison, was it not?" Luna asked rhetorically.

Prey couldn't look any higher than Luna's silver horse shoe regalia so he didn't know what expression she bore, and he wasn't willing to risk looking into her eyes to find out. Many forms of mind magic required direct eye contact. "Yes princess Luna?" He repeated, forcing himself to speak louder. He hated being so scared.

"Art thou afraid?"

'She knows, she knows!' Mentioning pulling him from prison, then asking if he was afraid, Luna was threatening to send him back. The shivers spread, running up and down his spine. You never stop carrying your fear. It's like a scar. But Luna was still waiting and he had to give her an answer.

"Yes. Princess Luna." Prey forced out. He didn't dare lie.

"Ahh..."

A deep silence settled. Gloom and the two other Night Guards thoughts showed their surprise, quickly turning to anger on hearing his answer. And Luna was an empty void.

"We understand, and must ask for thou forgiveness in this although t'was merely but an accident. Never the less, as Princess, it still behooves us to offer thee an apology, so thou mayest put thy fear to rest."

'Wha-?' Prey thought in confusion, everyone else caught off guard as well. What was Luna saying?

"Yes, we offer thee an apology. Be not shocked, we canst be wrong too on occasion." Luna told them. "We speakest of our last audience with thee, how thou wast not able to bear our Royal Canterlot voice, which lead to an injury on thine behalf. It was merely an accident, but we art sorry." Prey heard no real emotion in Luna's apology, just the tone of someone who knew the concept of remorse, but did not understand it.

'Sorry? You're sorry?! Oh, sorry I destroyed your ear drum, oh well it was a mistake, no harm done. Not sorry for enslaving you or breaking into your dreams though.'

"Thou shouldest have made thy ear injury known," Luna continued with a casual shrug into the shocked silence, "It would have been but mere moments to heal it. But fear not, we shall do so now instead." She announced.

"No no." Prey instantly backed away, "No it's fine. Almost completely healed and back to new. See? No bandage even. I'm completely fine Princess Luna. Better than fine."

For a horrible moment, Prey thought Luna was going to go ahead and use magic on him anyway, but thankfully whatever concept of altruism Luna had been entertaining seemed to have lost her interest. "If thee feel there is no longer a need, then so be it. Thy still hast our apology for thine accidental injury regardless."

"That's, it's, it's fine." Prey lied, bowing his head. Anything to stop Luna taking any more interest in him or using magic on him. "Please just forget about it your majesty."

"Very well." And just like that, the Princess's magically amplified sound assault on him was brushed under the rug and forgotten.

Luna's graceful neck twisted to the left, her vision fixing on some point outside in the night that none of them could see, "Our duty calls us away. There is a nightmare plaguing an unfortunate filly that we must vanquish." She announced, "Thou art dismissed. Night watch over thee, probationary Staff Sargent Gloom." The corners of her mouth turned up as she listed out Gloom's full title.

Gloom bowed again, making a motion with his wing to encourage Crimson and Prey to copy him, "Thank you for your time Princess Luna." He said as they backed politely away.

There was no response from the dark alicorn, and the carpet dampening their hoof steps as they left the audience chamber with its empty feeling and motionless occupants. The doors silently closed after them.

Back out in the hall, Gloom looked at Crimson, then Prey, then back to Crimson. "Good work team?" He offered.

"Congratulations on your promotion sir."

"I, yes. It's a bit sudden...and it's probationary. I'm not an actual full Staff Sargent yet." Gloom added.

"Congratulations on your probationary promotion sir." Crimson stated in exactly the same tone.

Gloom was sure Crimson was messing with him, but that was good. Things were good at the moment, "Why thank you, Private Crimson." He answered back.

'-is a promotion even official if Nighthawk hasn't approved it? No, of course it's official. Princess Luna issued it so it's even more official-'

The two Night Guard sentries outside the audience chamber doors shared a look at overhearing about Gloom's sudden, even if probationary, promotion and shrugged to each other. '-the princess does as the princess wants-'

Prey didn't join in on the congratulations. Unconsciously, he touched his left ear, feeling the ribbon in place of where the bandage had once been.

'Just an accident. Luna literally just spoke too loudly, and that happened. If she ever catches me and has a real reason to get angry...' Prey's eyes were drawn to the gold on his raised fore leg. The shivers came back.

'Still so weak.' Prey hated how when faced with danger, he was forced to remember he'd never change. Inside, he was still just a scared little cry baby runt.

Back in the office, Prey was too distracted by coming out of his second meeting with the younger alicorn sister alive to focus.

Actually, 'couldn't focus' was a relative term.

Prey continued with assembling the myriad required forms on Wheat Plow, but he lacked the required focus to multitask enough to place runes or scheme at the same time. The left over jitters in his legs, the need to blink rapidly even in the low lamp light, and the remnants of dead butterflies in his stomach made it too difficult.

Eventually, eventually, Gloom called it a night and they returned to the bunk room. They were all tired from a long day filled with seemingly endless hours of paperwork and all too few hours of sleep.

While Crimson went through his kata and Gloom removed his armour in preparation for sleep, Prey mainly just sat on his bed and idly rubbed at the runic array blanket. The runes were of course invisible, but he could feel the tingle under his hoof that told him what type they were. It was a small comfort.

Gloom finished winding the alarm clock and leaned back on his bunk with the weary but contented sigh of 'a-hard-days-work-well-done'.

'-by the Night, I'm sounding like my grand stallion sighing like that, and I'm not even half his age-'

"Well..." Gloom reflected, "Today was a good day."

"Gloom, how did Princess Luna return from the moon?" Prey abruptly asked.

Gloom stopped plumping his pillow in surprise, "You don't know how Nightmare Moon was defeated?" He didn't wait for Prey to answer before launching into the story of the Elements of Harmony. Prey didn't interrupt or ask questions, and Crimson also looked like he was listening in even while still running through his exercise routine.

Once the story was done, Prey nodded to himself, 'So he doesn't know the truth of what happened either.'

Gloom's tale had matched with what Prey'd overheard in the Palace, and Gloom's thoughts showed he believed he was recounting the true story.

'As if.' Prey thought derisively.

The official story was obviously a fabrication, put out there by Celestia. And for some reason, all the ponies believed it.

Six mares, all complete strangers, with no military experience or training of any kind, (excluding Celestia's personal prodigy). All of whom happened to be in the same tiny town where nothing important ever happened but the Sun Celebration was conveniently scheduled to take place in? And with only two of the six being unicorns to boot, they somehow stumbled upon supposedly ancient magical artefacts no one knew anything about, that just so happened to be in a nearby abandoned ruin?

And then these six mares somehow went on to defeat Nightmare Moon? A mad, immortal demon who Celestia wasn't able to defeat one thousand years ago, who wielded magics beyond imagining, devoured souls, and they some how won?

Impossible.

Prey would've had to be deaf, dumb, and blind to believe such a tale. It was a blatant ploy, but a good one too, as no one had seen how Nightmare Moon was really defeated, aside from the supposed six mares in the tale, and Celestia herself.

No one could prove otherwise, so this story would be the only one in circulation, and the real weapon or magic Celestia had used to defeat Nightmare Moon would remain a secret. It would be the height of folly to go around publicising the strengths and weaknesses of your weapon after all. The element bearers were obviously just a diversion, bait to draw out more hidden enemies.

What made it such a clever move was that even if the enemies of Equestria saw through the ploy, there was little they could do about it. If they acted preemptively by killing one or even all of these so called element bearers, they would expose themselves, and since it was obvious to Prey that Celestia must be hiding her real weapon, said enemy would accomplish nothing anyway.

Not that an all powerful alicorn who could control the sun needed to hide her power. She was the Sun Wolf. She was enough of an unstoppable threat on her own.

Hence using the Element Barer's as bait, giving her enemies a weaker target they thought they could stand a chance against. Prey wondered if the six mares were getting paid to act as living bullseyes. Perhaps they were just zealously devout fanatics who'd volunteered. Or the Sun Wolf simply said, 'Obey or die', just like she'd done over the Ridgeback mountain range sixty one years ago.

Time would tell if anyone was dumb enough to take the proffered bait.

Prey shook it off and dismissed the tale. None of that had any impact on him, he had no intention of doing anything that might draw Celestia's ire. He wanted to live, and he wanted to live not screaming in agony.

Prey politely thanked Gloom for telling him the story, tucked his ribbon under the pillow, and then crawled under the blanket.

Gloom yawned massively and lay down, *Wauuuuuugh* "G'night 'Rey. Good'ight Crimson." He mumbled.

"Goodnight."

"Night watch over you sir."

"..'Off 'uty...Iz' just 'Loom."

Prey had a dream that night.

He was half in the deeper blue, half out the twilight zone of his mind ocean, and not scheming about much for once.

It wasn't a pleasant dream, (Prey's dreams never were), but it wasn't all the way to a true nightmare either. Or even just a regular nightmare.

Just a mildly disturbing one about some giant moon spider laying eggs in Gloom's eyes, and then the Sargent going mad when they hatched and ate his face, followed by the spider's new thestral skin puppet trying to drag Prey off to feed to the mother spider.

Scary yes, but highly unrealistic, even to Prey's sleeping consciousness.

Still, it was enough to leave a present for him when he woke up.

Prey woke to fiery cramp savagely biting into his back.

The old whip scars had decided to reassert their existence.

Biting his tongue, Prey let out a silent hiss of fury as he frantically tried to work his seized up muscles back to normal, 'Stinger. I hope you rot in hell.'

This was all that stupid dream's fault.

Usually Prey slept motionless, a necessary survival habit picked up from the Deeper Green, but on disturbed nights, well, this was the result. Sometime during the restless night, he'd kicked off his blanket and shifted into an awkward sleeping position on his back. It'd happened before, and no doubt would again. If the night where such happened also held a chill, then this happened.

It was just another way his runt body loved to mock him. 'Didn't sleep well? Still tired? Had a bad night? Well here you go, a lovely wake up call in the morning just for you!'

The last time he'd been tired and restless enough for this to happen had been... 'Four months, three weeks and five days ago, when I was still back in Dreverton. So it could be worse then.'

Prey rolled onto his stomach, hunching up and mashing his face into the pillow so he could properly knead at his back, 'But Zoma'Gricka, do I hate pain!' He thought angrily.

Finally, after what felt like an hour but was only about thirty seconds, his quivering muscles relaxed and Prey slumped with a muffled groan. Twisting his head around, Prey could tell by the light just starting to brighten the window that it was early morning, and almost time for the ISND to get up. Convenient timing.

At least he wouldn't technically be awakened by that hated alarm clock this morning.

Two minutes later, as predicted, said obnoxious alarm clock went off, waking the other two.

"Good morning." Gloom groaned, rolling out of bed and silencing the alarm clock.

"If you slept well, then I image it is." Prey responded.

Crimson was already down and going straight to double check his Blood Fern. Prey hadn't noticed him bleed himself to water the plant, but he must've done so at some point.

'No visible cuts on Crimson. Perhaps the clans have another way of growing Blood Ferns?' Not that it was important.

"Come on, armour up, breakfast and then to the office. We've got tons to do."

That should've been a simple goal to accomplish. It was hardly an ambitious quest Gloom had set them; breakfast, and then go do paperwork.

Yet they didn't manage to make that last milestone. Mess hall, check. Office, check. Continue the reports? Fail.

And now Prey was backed against the scroll shelf while Gloom shouted angrily at him.

Perhaps some context was needed.

The problem had started upon their arrival for breakfast. Crimson had fetched him his breakfast tray as usual, and Prey had exchanged a few sickly sweet words with Cookie to keep up appearances, and they'd sat down to eat. No problem so far.

And then Topaz Honey and a couple of her friends had turned up to say good morning. And of course, Topaz had seen it as her Celestia appointed duty to give Prey a big hug.

Things had gone badly from there.

The ISND had missed the overly friendly Royal Guard mare the last few days because of how the shifts in the Palace worked.

Royal Guards worked the standard four days on twelve hour shifts. Night Guard's were working six, usually seven days a week, averaging between fourteen to sixteen hours every day. Or night, depending how you counted such things. As a result, the two Guard companies shifts mostly didn't overlap.

But that was besides the point.

Usually when Topaz Honey purposefully came around to try and grab him, Prey hid. Hiding was something Prey was good at, and so far it'd worked. Unfortunately, this time Topaz had roped in her friends to lend her a hoof. To them, Prey was just a young foal, not an actual ISND recruit, so there was no harm in playing a simple game of catch with a foal, was there?

Topaz was sneaky. She sent her helpers round the side before making her own approach, correctly guessing that Prey had marked her the moment she entered the mess hall and was watching her.

Prey'd noticed both her enlisted helpers when they got within his perception range, and had hurriedly tried to slip away beneath the table before they could corral him. Unfortunately, it was too late and one of them saw which way he went.

Topaz hadn't taken the fairly obvious hint that he wanted to be left alone. Maybe if she had, the scene that followed in the middle of the mess hall wouldn't have played out.

Topaz had pounced on Prey with a gleeful "Aha!", whisking him up into her legs despite his squeaky shout of, "Don't touch me!"

"You've been avoiding me, haven't you? Aww, that's not very nice." Topaz cooed, snuggling Prey. She didn't even seem to feel him struggling against her. Armour, even the impractical Royal Guard armour, would be worse than useless if it couldn't even block the wild flailings of a runt lamb.

"Let me go let me go! I'm warning you-"

"Ohh just look at you with this ribbon, so cute! Hey, Sargent Gloom, how'd you get this cutie? You never did say." Topaz said, looking over Prey's head to the table where the only other two ISND members sat.

Prey had not had a good day yesterday, what with almost having a heart attack (which should've been a physical impossibility for him), on being brought before Luna. He'd slept poorly, woken to cramp, and now he was panicking because of Topaz grabbing him.

In retrospect, (not that anyone else would ever know), Topaz was very lucky that Prey didn't kill her. He'd held off from destroying her mind before yes, but today was a particularly bad day for her to pull this stunt on him.

"So as I waAAAaaaHH!" Topaz let out a shout as Prey buried his teeth in her foreleg.

Prey didn't have fangs like Gloom, nor were his jaws big, but he caught Topaz's flesh on the edge of her leg and bit down for everything he was worth. Prey tasted the horrible metal tang of blood as his teeth squished together.

Sufficed to say, Topaz had let go of him speedily.

However, as it was in the middle of the mess hall, with both Royal and Night Guards present to witness the scene when Topaz yelled, the aftermath of Prey's escape was less than pretty.

'-that thestral should keep his foal under better control-'

'-disgraceful, I would never let a any filly of mine do that-'

'-this isn't foal kindergarten, what's the Guard coming to?-'

Gloom'd been forced to hurriedly make a bunch of placating excuses to the audience, and apologise profusely to the shocked Topaz Honey, before grabbing both Prey and Crimson and beating a hasty exit. Many a "tsk tsk" followed them.

And now Prey was back in the office, getting shouted at by Gloom.

"What do you think you were doing!? No, scratch that, why did you do that? There was absolutely no justification to bite Topaz Honey."

Prey had yet to offer any excuses. He just was glaring stonily straight ahead of him.

"Am I raising a dog here? Is that why you bit a Royal Guard? Well? I'm waiting Prey. Speak!"

Prey of course didn't.

Gloom fought to keep his wings under control, Prey's rudeness was infuriating him. "Nothing? No excuse? No clever justification?"

Prey could have argued back or spun a clever tale, but currently that would only make Gloom even more angry, so he'd just wait until he judged the situation stable enough before doing so.

"Do you realise that this is a disciplinary offence? You attacked and drew blood from a Royal Guard. And in full view of everypony too! Even if I wanted to, which I don't, I couldn't let this pass."

No excuse was necessary as far as Prey was concerned. He'd warned Topaz, but she hadn't listened. She should consider herself lucky Prey hadn't mind killed her for touching him. As a mildly interesting side note, much like Prey's voice which became squeaky when angry, Gloom's rasp came even more into force. 'I wonder how hoarse he'd go if I told him that last little fact about nearly destroying her mind?'

"Prey, are you even listening?" Gloom demanded.

Prey dangled one floppy ear up by a hoof, "Yes, these hear everything you're saying perfectly."

"Why did you bite Topaz?"

"I told her not to touch me repeatedly, on separate occasions, over many days. She didn't listen." Prey said.

"Do you think that is a justifiable excuse? Your reaction was completely out of proportion, and it's your own fault for acting like a foal wearing that stupid ribbon and you know it. Luna's mane, why do I keep having to tell you this? Didn't you stop and think? You're going to ruin the Night Guard's reputation." Gloom seethed.

"Now you're the one who's over reacting-"

"Stop trying to shift the blame!" Gloom shouted, getting in Prey's face.

"Don't touch me!" Prey yelled/squeaked right back at him, jumping away.

In his frustration, for a moment the temptation to do just that and grab Prey flashed in Gloom's thoughts, as retaliation for his ridiculous aversion to being touched. However a moment later Gloom got a hold of himself and realised what a poor decision that would be.

'-I don't know why this stupid fear is so big for Prey, but I've got to work around it-', He thought, gritting his teeth.

Prey was watching Gloom warily in case the Sargent suddenly changed his mind, "I'm warning you, don't touch me. I mean it." Prey warned. And he did.

They were standing in the ISND office, and although Gloom and Crimson didn't know it, the room was littered with runes. He wouldn't kill Gloom, because he wouldn't get away with it, but he was prepared stun Gloom and wipe his memory if he had to. Crimson too, because he was a witness.

"Prey. I'm ordering you to answer me this; Do you know what you did was wrong this time? And don't give me any horseapples, a straight yes or no." Gloom said, the unexpected profanity clearly showing how 'Not in the Mood' he was.

'This again? Why does he always revert to speculating about how I wasn't raised properly?' Prey thought in exasperation, "Of course I do." He said, intentionally not sticking to Gloom's instructions.

Gloom stomped a hoof in frustration, "So then why did you do it?! I don't get it, if you know it's wrong, why do you keep doing things like this?"

Now Gloom was just asking the blatantly obvious, "Because I need to, obviously."

Gloom had not been expecting that as an answer, '-what does that even mean?-'

"What?" He demanded.

"Because whatever actions I take solves my problem. If I didn't need to, then obviously I wouldn't do it. You think I bite people on a regular basis?" Prey sounded flippant, but Gloom was actually starting to make him seriously angry with the way he kept fixating on Prey apparently not knowing 'right and wrong'.

Gloom took a moment to rub a wing across his face and get himself under control, '-is just going to make things worse at this rate-,' He told himself.

"Crimson, can you step outside for a minute?" Gloom asked.

"Yes sir."

"Why do you think it's necessary to kick Crimson out?" Prey quickly challenged as Crimson went to open the door.

Crimson hesitated in the door way, glancing back to Prey and then Gloom, "Sir?" He questioned.

"If you would please, thank you Crimson." Gloom repeated.

"Yes sir." Crimson acknowledged and fully left this time.

Gloom looked back at Prey once the door had closed, considering what he should say.

"This is going on your record Prey."

'So what? Is that supposed to scare me?' Prey thought.

"-And," Gloom continued, "You are going to apologise to Topaz Honey. Properly, face to face, back in the middle of the mess hall where you caused a scene."

"No, not happening." Prey stated without a moment's hesitation.

"You apologised last time you did wrong, you're going to apologise this time, and every time in the future-"

"Is she going to apologise to me?" Prey interrupted.

"You're the one who bit her-"

"She attacked me too! What would you do if some strange person kept grabbing you every day in the mess hall after you repeatedly told her not to?"

"If you're even suggesting my first instinct would be to bite them because I'm a thestral-"

"-No, you're big enough to hold your own, but you never did anything to help me. She didn't listen to me, but you could've ordered Topaz to leave me alone, but instead you just laughed along with the rest of them. Like all of them. You just laughed at me!" Prey accused.

In retrospect, Gloom couldn't deny that it had been glaringly obvious how strongly adverse Prey was to physical contact from Topaz Honey.

'-or anypony for that matter. Sure, ponies are much more touchy feely here than the clans, but so what? That's no excuse for not listening to me-', Gloom's thoughts faltered as he realised that by that reasoning, he was trying to excuse himself for the same thing Topaz had done; not listening to Prey.

'-nopony would reasonably expect me to foresee this situation. I'm hardly to blame...-' Gloom derailed again as he realised what path he was going down again.

'-actually? No. I'm better than that. I knew that both Crimson and Prey would have needs and problems going into this. It's my duty to be better than them-'. If Gloom was going to blame himself, well, all the better Prey thought.

"Alright," Gloom said after a long moment of silence, "Here's what's going to happen. This is still going on your record, and there'll probably be an official punishment. But you don't need to apologise to Topaz anymore. This is also partly my fault. As the officer, I'm responsible for the actions of the Guards in my unit."

'-I will lead by example, just like Princess Luna wants me to. This is the best path forward-'

Prey felt the need to spit on Gloom's hooves he seemed to think were oh-so clean.

'Think you're so much better than me because you have morals? When you've done what I have to survive in the Resistance, then you can talk to me about morals.' Prey internally seethed. But of course he didn't say that. He couldn't.

"I'll be speaking to Topaz. She won't do that again, nor will anypony else. If they do, tell me and I will tell them to leave you alone." Gloom said.

Prey's instincts immediately warned him it was a trap, but a scan of Gloom's surface thoughts showed the thestral was being sincere. Well, Prey certainly wasn't going to reject such a good offer, even if there was no good reason why Gloom was offering it. Anything that kept him safe or decreased the potential danger to himself, he was going to grab with both hooves.

"Alright then." Prey cautiously agreed.

Gloom maintained his composure, merely nodding, "I'll say it again though, I don't have eyes in the back of my head. I can only help if you ask."

'I don't need your help. But I suppose I'll still take it.'

Prey wasn't prideful. Pride couldn't fill your belly or keep you warm. You've got to be pragmatic about these things. "Thank you sir." He politely said.

Gloom eyed him for a moment. "Alright." He repeated, before raising his voice, "Crimson, come back in now."

Crimson came back into the room slowly, as if waiting for another flare up. The way he looked between Prey and Gloom said it all even if he didn't ask the question.

"It's been resolved for now. Sort of." Gloom said, "That's not to say it's all fine, but it's been dealt with."

It was all very well saying it was all fine now, but those were just words. Almost no one could go straight from angry to completely calm, and Gloom was not an exception. He was in control, but that didn't mean he wasn't still upset with Prey. '-in fact...-'

"Prey, please take a turn waiting outside. I want to speak with Crimson now." Gloom said. He wasn't really asking. Crimson looked surprised that Gloom wanted to speak with him alone, but he didn't verbalise any protest.

Prey saw no benefit to acting stubborn and trying to stay, Gloom had already bent as far as he was going to on this matter.

"Okay." Prey said, and left the room.

Prey stepped into the corridor and closed the office door behind him. He wanted to immediately turn and listen in on what was being said inside, but there was a supply clerk coming down the corridor. So he had to patiently sit and wait for the stallion to pass.

The clerk for his part was definitely surprised at seeing a lamb, '-and in this restricted section of the palace too-'

Prey simply wore a blank, inane smile as the clerk dithered whether he should tell someone, his neck turning to track Prey as he trotted passed. In the end, the pony decided that, '-a foal's not going to be in here unless somepony brought them here, so there's obviously a good reason and it's not my problem-'

'Smart stallion.'

Prey waited until the clerk's tail had fully rounded the corner, and then a second longer in case he changed his mind, before quickly pressing his ear up against the door.

'I should've put in a runic array so I could secretly listen in from outside.' Prey thought, because if anyone came round the corner, it would be obvious what he was up to. Unfortunately, he hadn't had enough time.

Concentrating, Prey closed his eyes to better focus. His hearing was excellent, but it seemed like Gloom and Crimson were standing on the far side of the room on top of talking quietly. Prey was still able to pick out some of it though.

"........ just not sure how to proceed with your squad mate ......... is not your job to have to deal with Prey .......... let me handle him, okay?"

"Yes sir."

What sounded like Gloom sighing in frustration, "......... am open to suggestions however. Perhaps something I've missed?"

A silence, but likely one caused by people not talking as opposed to Prey simply not hearing them.

"He isn't disciplined. Doesn't listen to authority. Prey is smart, but doesn't apply himself in an honest way. It's ......... I think sir."

"....got that much. But what about you, Crimson?"

"Sir?"

"......... both of you here. There's also something I think I need to talk about with you, it's about ......... clans were never on the best of terms, not that you ........."

"........ my father's clan-"

"Crimson, things happen. That's life. They've not got anything to do with you anymore, you owe them nothing ...... only here to assist you. Not help. But assist. Do you know the difference ........?"

"..... to do it myself."

"No, here, look at me. See? This is up to you yes, but ....."

Prey listened as the conversation took place. He could hear enough to deduce what he couldn't. And anything he wasn't sure about, he could merely scan for in Gloom's thoughts later. Typically, any serious conversation lingered in a persons mind for some time afterwards. And this definitely qualified as a serious conversation.

A few more words were exchanged, but Prey missed all of it. Likely, they'd changed positions again. Whatever Gloom was saying to Crimson, it was likely personal. Prey listened util he heard hooves on floor boards approaching the door, then quickly pulled away.

Gloom opened the door, then looked around and down to find Prey sitting unobtrusively against the wall. Prey stopped idly twirling the ribbon around his hoof and looked up, "Done?" He asked, looking up.

"Yes," Gloom said. After a moment, he stepped back, purposefully giving Prey plenty of room, "Come back inside."

Crimson stopped considering the wall long enough to give Prey a blank look as he returned. The pegasus's walls felt changed, somehow...'introspective', if that was the right word.

Gloom shut the door and turned to address them both, "Prey, you know what you did wrong. Don't do it again. And I'm serious. You're still on probation you know. This isn't over, but it is for today. Remember what I said to both of you. Is that going to be a problem for anypony?" Gloom asked in a no-nonsense tone. "If so, let's sort it out now. We still have a duty to do."

'In order to survive, I've worked with sadistic murderers who killed my family and brutalised, degraded, and tormented me on a regular basis. This doesn't even comes close.' Prey thought. "I think I can manage it." He answered.

"There will be no problem sir." Crimson said firmly.

Gloom nodded, "Then let's get back to work."

The final punishment dished out to Prey for his disruptive actions and attack on a fellow member of the Royal Guard was assigned later that evening. As a non-major personnel detail, it ended up being routed through Taffy's department, which meant they were summoned to the happy-go-lucky unicorn's office to sign the paperwork.

Prey's signature, as the offending party, was needed, along with Gloom's as Prey's superior officer. Taffy found the whole report on the incident quite hilarious.

"I'm going to send Topaz one of those joke sets of false teeth, you know, the ones that walk around when you wind them up?" Taffy grinned, while simultaneously shoving an aura full of other paperwork at Gloom, "Say, since you're already here, you may as well do this too."

"Taffy, we really don't have the time. The Night Guard is in the middle of a huge investigation-"

"You think I have the time then? Listen, I've got every officer in both Guards to chase for paperwork. You think I'm not busy? Stop complaining and take your paperwork like a stallion." Taffy cheerfully ordered, completely unrelenting.

"Oh and Crimson, a question occurred to me, like, just now," Taffy said, turning to the greyed out pegasus as Gloom reluctantly took the paperwork, "You come from a thestral clan, but none of the others ever say anything about it. As a foal, did you guys have rubber duckies for your baths?"

Crimson didn't seem able to answer that one.

Prey's official punishment ended up as a mark on his record, a warning, a small fine to be paid to the Royal Guard (not Topaz personally for some reason), a signature that he understood and accepted these charges, and a formal written apology. (That one was to Topaz Honey).

In other words, no punishment whatsoever. What did Prey care about a fine or a warning?

If there'd been a threat of physical punishment, or anything that might've affected his chances for eventual escape, then he might've cared. But as for this very 'ponyish' punishment? Laughable.

Gloom didn't find it funny.

In fact, he was clearly worried he'd have to fight with Prey again when the punishment called for a written apology, after he'd already agreed that Prey wouldn't have to appologise to Topaz. Prey didn't say a word in protest though, and wrote out the letter without delay.

Gloom was glad that Prey was finally submitting to authority, but couldn't help but wonder why. After a an internal debate of some length, (which got to Prey listen in on), Gloom decided to risk asking.

"Why?"

"Because I'm not apologising in person. There's no way I'm doing that. She shouldn't have touched me. Plus, this is just following official orders. You were different." Prey dismissed.

Gloom's first reaction was anger, '-you think because you know me you can get away with ignoring my orders?-'

Then he stopped and thought about Prey's answer. '-the kid doesn't respect authority, so orders to apologise don't make him care enough to fight back-', Gloom thought, working his logic through.

'-but he stood up for himself when it was me. He cares more about what I say than what command says-', Gloom realised as he read between the lines.

'-I...don't know how to feel about that-'

In the end, Gloom decided not to say anything further and let things lie as they were for now. He needed to think on how to improve Prey's attitude before revisiting the topic

Unseen, Prey smiled to himself. 'It's not what you say, but how you say it.'

That should help repair the breech in trust Prey's fight had caused, at least for a while. Prey wanted Gloom unawares and complacent. Prey didn't have a plan for escape, not yet. But he would find a way. It may take years, but Prey was not going to wear these golden shackles for the rest of his life.

'Someday, I will be free.'

The work load in the office continued to stack up. All the files they kept being given on Wheat Plow were forming a huge backlog. Even with all three of them working non-stop on compiling the relevant data, they couldn't keep up.

At least twice an hour, some Night Guard would come in with more work. The problem was, each section of this investigation was working just as hard as they were, but because it was all getting delivered to only the three of them, it was creating a bottleneck.

Put simply, there was only one ISND, but eleven other units working this case.

Gloom was determined, but Prey could see he was slowly becoming overwhelmed. Wheat Plow, the salt trade, reporting to Nighthawk, running the ISND, the newspapers still continuing to harshly critique the Night Guard, little sleep, working days instead of nights, and perhaps most worrying of all, Princess Luna's expectations of him. The mental weight on Gloom was starting to add up.

'-it'll just be for a week. A week until the trial. We can manage that-', Gloom glanced at his two subordinates, sitting amid stacks of reports on the floor, (Still. No. Furniture). Gloom was conscious that out of the three of them, it was actually Prey who was making the most progress.

The lamb frustratingly seemed able to, '-skim read everything and somehow magically pick out the important-'

Prey noticed, even if Gloom hadn't yet, that Crimson was actually struggling the most. He was a young warrior, not a clerk, and research did not come naturally to him. This difficulty was becoming an increasing source of frustration for the pegasus. He obviously felt he was failing in his duties and dragging the team down, especially after whatever Gloom said to him earlier.

'Not my problem.' Prey thought, moving onto the newest file that'd been delivered only ten minutes ago. 'Evaluation of property damage caused: Homestead: Part 4A continued. How riveting.'

They ended up working so late that they more or less missed dinner. By the time they finally made it down to the mess hall, Cookie and the other kitchen staff were already cleaning up.

However, all it took was a smile and a few sweet words from Prey, and Cookie was more than willing to give them dinner rather than throwing the leftovers out. She was very relived to see that Prey was fine after the incident this morning too, and told him to, "Come to me if something like that ever happens again."

She also Gloom a filthy look for; '-not taking proper care of a foal-', and, '-daring to waste my time at this time of night-'.

Gloom had to ask multiple times, in a very polite manner, if Cookie would also please fetch him and Crimson the Grape Wine from the clans. Prey saw that Cookie very much wanted to pour it down the drain instead, but apparently the Grape Wine stock was independent property of the clans, not the kitchen. As part of their job, the cooks had to store and provide it to thestrals only, by strict order of Captain Nighthawk. Interesting.

All in all, it was an unpleasant mood that reigned when they returned to the bunk room. None of them were feeling particularly motivated knowing they would have to get up and repeat all this tomorrow.

Gloom silently put away his armour and wound the alarm clock up, while Prey and Crimson did the usual. Meaning Prey sat on his pillow, and Crimson ran through his exercise kata until he was sweating.

There'd been no recent chance to use the wonderful showers in the gym room, something that Prey wasn't the only one regretting

'-a hot bath would feel really good about now. Or a shower. Or a night flight under the cool stars-', Gloom thought, shoving the hoof locker shut forcefully.

Prey didn't know about the third one, but he certainly would've agreed with the first two, if they'd been options. But Prey was used to not getting what he wanted. Life went on. The weak worked or they suffered.

Prey waited for an hour in the dark, pinching himself to stay awake, until he was sure the other two were really asleep. Once he was sure, he crawled out of bed. Tip-toeing over to the window to make use of the faint moon light, he was able to make out the symbols on the note Lemon Pink had hidden under his pillow.

Prey had no problem reading it, as it was the code he'd invented, and he quickly found the 'shifting cipher' for next time. Part of how this code worked was that it was progressive. He found the two indicated symbols, one old and one new, that showed which symbols would be replaced in the next note. When he wrote a return note, if he didn't correctly use the new symbol while also including his own new 'shifting cipher', Lemon Pink would assume the note was a fake and discard it, and visa versa.

It was an additional safety measure to double check no one was intercepting and/or replacing their messages.

Squinting to make out the tiny spidery script, Prey read the note. Once decoded, it read;

>'Initial search for areas of interest in Canterlot city completed. List complied. Contact required.'

>'Access to Royal Library restricted section denied. Chance of success of forced access: 5%. Chances of relevant information on tracer bands being found if break in successful: 10%. Further investigation placed on hold. Plan required. Contact required.'

>'Objective 8 completed. Progress on objectives 9, 11 and 14 estimated at 50%. Objective 6B found. On standby. Plan required. Contact required.'

>'Continued search on Objective 19 will require travel beyond Ridgeback mountain range. Search on hold. Proceed anyway? Y/N'

>'Position within Palace staff remains uncompromised.'

Prey crumpled the note up into a tiny ball, and swallowed it. He'd write a return note tomorrow and leave it under his pillow, as the notice-me-not runes on his blanket made it the best place to leave notes. Lemon Pink would come by at some point tomorrow during her maid duties to retrieve it.

He needed to set a time and contact place to meet. That's what 'contact required' meant. Further in depth planning needed to be done in person, preferably over a mind share where there was no danger of being overheard.

Delving into anothers mind or exchanging memories was always dangerous, but a mind share didn't have the same requirements. Meeting half way between two respective outer mind scapes was essentially just holding a conversation, albeit one at the speed of thought. Neither side ventured into the others mind proper.

Prey needed to do some planning before that meeting though. Like deciding what was worth risking and what wasn't. The restricted section in the Royal Library was a bust, and he'd have to order Lemon Pink to abandon it for now, but 6B had been located.

His tool had given him a lot to think about. 'How should I proceed?' Prey asked himself. He didn't know yet. Much of what Lemon was looking into was dangerous, and not all of the risk was confined exclusively to herself.

Prey returned to his bunk. He would work on the problem while he slept. Hopefully the morning would provide an answer.

All the morning provided was a headache as the shrill peals of the alarm clock forced their way into Prey's abused ears.

One day soon, he was going to destroy that thing. It never ceased to amaze Prey how whomever had designed that clock had gotten the pitch just right so as to make tired eyes ache.

Getting up, Gloom grimaced as he pulled on his armour, '-my fur's really starting to feel matted-', He thought, making a mental note to get them all to the showers tonight come what may.

They could all use a brush, and for that matter, their armour needed some care too. Those of them with armour. Gloom knew that Crimson hadn't had an opportunity to preen his wings in two days, and if he remembered correctly, that was supposed to be quite important for a pegasus's health or something.

Aside from eating and sleeping, no one had time to do anything for themselves. Prey got to listen to Gloom mentally cursing out Wheat Plow as he got ready and Crimson checked on his fern.

All as ready as they were going to get, they headed for, (where else?), the mess hall. The prospect of a tasteless breakfast before another full day of paperwork wasn't appealing, but it would be even worse doing it on an empty stomach. Prey started to slow down as they approached the mess hall open doors.

Gloom noticed Prey's hesitation, "Feeling any regret now?" He asked, only half sarcastic.

"I regret many things sir. Yesterday is not one of them." Prey quipped back.

Gloom sniffed. But he also slowed as they got closer.

"Something seems different sir." Crimson offered. He was right, there was definitely something different about the mess this morning.

They poked their heads around the corner to see if they could spot what. It wasn't hard. Royal Guards were packed inside the mess hall, far more than usually chose to eat here. Half of the present Royal Guards seemed to be buzzing in anticipation of something, and the other half looked just as up beat, if more verbally restrained.

Because of this, it made the Night Guard's over in their corner stand out even more, as they sat there in silence, eating their meal, and eyeing the boisterous Royal Guards.

What was the reason though? Hadn't they been so aggravated by the Night Guard stealing their perceived glory with Wheat Plow despite the Royal Guard having done nothing on the investigation?

Prey was the first to work it out, "Induction day. Those new Royal Guard recruits must be arriving today."

It took a moment for Gloom to catch up, "Hang on what?"

"The Royal Guards were all happy about new recruits coming in, remember? That must be today." Prey stated.

"Oh, right, that." Gloom realised.

Prey spotted Topaz Honey in the middle, happily chatting away. She didn't even look like she remembered yesterday's events. A small bandage on her foreleg was the only indication of what had happened. Prey estimated the chances of the bite turning septic and killing the mare at less than one percent.

'Unfortunate'.

"But none of the recruits are going to be Night Guards." Gloom said with resignation, commenting on the upcoming recruits.

"How do you know sir?" Crimson asked.

"Captain Nighthawk would've told us if there were any coming, since they get some different training than the Royal Guard recruits." Gloom explained.

Such was the anticipation of the Royal Guards, that they didn't even notice the ISND joining the breakfast line. After the scene Prey caused yesterday, it would've been expected, but it seemed like they'd already been forgotten. More Royal Guard's were turning up by the minute, not wanting to miss out on what was coming next.

Prey was certain Captain Shining Armour had rearranged the schedules to allow as many Royal Guards to be present here this morning as possible. No Solar Guards though, so that was a small mercy. And no Valour.

Prey wasted no time on getting to their seats to start shovelling his breakfast down. By now, Gloom and Crimson were past commenting. Both of them joined in with the rest of the Night Guard, watching he Royal Guard, who were watching the door. It was like the thestrals were performing a social study.

Some Royal Guard officer came through the door, (Prey's eyesight wasn't good enough to see what rank by the pins on his shoulder), and barked an order, "Atten'hut!"

The Royal Guard may have been off duty at the moment, but when an officer gives an order you jump to it. Immediately the chatter ceased and they returned to professionalism. Helmets that had been removed to eat were swiftly donned, backs straightened and seriousness descended.

It seems the Royal Guard wanted to make a good impression on their newest members.

Satisfied, the officer stood aside barked out another set of curt orders. "To the parade ground. First table, single file, fall out in order!"

The table closest to the door rose as one, turned smartly and began marching out the door. One by one the other tables also marched out in sequence.

Huh.

From the way the Royal Guards had been acting, it'd seemed like the recruits were going to be joining them at breakfast. But apparently they would instead be introduced on the parade ground.

'Makes more sense I suppose.' Prey thought dismissively, shrugging and going back to eating.

He had no interest in seeing new, fresh faced, deluded ponies, all blinded by their Sun Princess's idea of equality and justice.

"Come on." Gloom said abruptly, getting up, "Let's go too."

Prey raised an eyebrow. Gloom hadn't been planning to follow the Royal Guard, it had been a spontaneous decision. The desire for something different mixed with interest to see the new recruits having sparked it.

The closest thestrals who heard Gloom exchanged looks, then wordlessly rose too. Technically, they hadn't begun their day yet and were still on break, or had just finished their night shift and were now free. Usually, they wouldn't have the time or energy to spare, but this morning, something compelled them all to want to go and see too.

The Royal Guard assembled under the bright morning sun, on Parade Ground One of the Guard compound. Gold armour and alabaster fur shone in ranks, as the officers strutted up to the front of their units and stood at attention. Every head was held high, and the collective pride was so thick you could've cut it out of the air and served it with a side salad of patriotism.

The Night Guard stood silently on the outer edge of the parade ground to watch, standing in the only shade available. The sun wasn't high enough to blind them, but the Royal Guards armour had all of them squinting, Prey included.

Everyone was watching the Guard Compound entrance gates.

Five minutes ticked by, then ten. Lieutenant Swift Arrow arrived and took his place at the head of the Royal Guards. Then came the *stamp, stamp, stamp* of many hooves hitting paving stones in unison, steadily getting louder from outside the gates.

When the recruits rounded the corner, it was a bit of an anticlimax. They were just young looking Royal Guards. A fast count revealed there to be exactly forty of them as they marched in behind an officer. "Abouuut face! Aten'hut!"

The recruits wheeled in place and came to attention facing the true Royal Guard. The recruits kept their eyes locked straight ahead, but there was a strong current of emotion in the air as they came face to face with what they'd been working so hard to achieve. 'Disgustingly sentimental ponies.'

Into the convening space between the two groups, Captain Shining Amour walked. He came to a stop right in the middle and faced the recruits.

"To those of you who have made it to this parade ground, today you will no longer be recruits." Shining Armour spoke, strong voice carrying. "Today you become Royal Guards. Everypony who makes it this far only does so on their own merits, hard work, perseverance, and dedication. You did not wash out when your class mates did. You stuck it when the going got tough. You can be proud of that, and today you can be even prouder. Today you join the ranks of the Royal Guard."

Shining Armour gave a grin then, abruptly looking much more personable.

"I'm sure you don't need me to tell you all how much of an honour this is. But I want all of you, both those in front of me and those behind me, to join me for a moment. I want you all to take a step back and look at where you are now."

"Many of you didn't think you'd get this far, but believe me, you don't stop here. Remember yourself now. Where will you be in a year's time? Five years? Ten years? Know this, once a Royal Guard, always a Royal Guard. No matter where life takes you, you can look back at yourself during this moment and know who you are."

Although Prey thought his words were utter tripe, he would admit that Shining Armour was a good motivational speaker. It wasn't the words, anyone could say them, but when Shining Armour said them, you could tell he meant every single one. Nighthawk certainly couldn't have pulled off the same down to earth, impassioned speech Shining Armour was.

He continued; "You've all already received your official posting, and had your graduation. But now it's time to make it proper."

Shining Armour turned as Swift Arrow passed him a box, taking it in a blue aura. Walking to the start of the recruit line, he opened it, "Your private rank bar." He announced.

One by one, Shining Armour went up the line, pinning the star to the right shoulder of each recruits armour, announcing each pony by name as he did so, "Proud Flag." "Butternut Candy." "Willow Pike."

He must have personally read and memorised each of the recruits files. It was easy to see why he was so well liked and respected as an officer.

Prey was sure he saw tears in at least one of the recruits eyes as he received his bar pin.

When he was done, Shining Armour stood back, "Royal Guard!" He shouted, "Salute!" Every single Royal Guard on the parade ground, new and old, proudly snapped their hooves up, eyes blazing with fervour.

The Night Guard silent watched from the shade as the Royal Guard filed off, unit by unit, some of them to start their normal shift, and some to start their first shift.

"They really do do things differently." Crimson unexpectedly commented into the quiet.

Thestrals nodded, but didn't speak. Everything they might've wanted to say was communicated between them with just a look or a shrug. At the heart of it, they were still outsiders in Equestria, throwbacks to a different time. What they'd just watched was a reminder of that.

A minute later, on some unvoiced command, they all dispersed from the cool shadow and went their separate ways. For the ISND, that meant going back to the office.

"What do you make of this?" Gloom asked, reading a report.

"Don't know, which report are you looking at? Sir." Prey responded, not looking up from what he was writing.

"Stop that and come have a look then." Gloom ordered.

Prey put aside his work and got up, Crimson joining him to see what it was. What Gloom wanted to show them was a copy of some of the pages seized from Wheat Plow's house.

"It's about Big Fields. His competitor." Crimson said, stating the obvious.

"I would expect him to have researched the opposing party leader, that's only common sense. But this isn't campaign or party related stuff. Here, look." Gloom passed around a few of the pages.

A quick read gave the general gist of what the pages detailed, "This is about the personal lives of the top three ponies in the Crop Holder movement." Crimson said.

"Yes. Most suspicious. This isn't something just anypony could've found out either." Gloom said, still reading.

Whomever had been supposed to analyse this information before passing it onto the ISND to compile it, seemed to have overlooked this strangeness.

Prey nabbed one of the pages and moved back so he could more comfortably study them. It was mainly written in bullet points, with certain things like dates or places underlined.

The information in front of him seemed to have been copied from multiple other sources, because the sentence structure and phrasing changed between paragraphs. 'So someone else was doing their own compiling.' Prey thought.

"This seems... almost like Wheat Plow was planning on targeting these Crop Holder ponies sir." Crimson observed.

"It does, doesn't it? How and why though?" Gloom asked. Then he realised something and looked up, "Prey, you?"

"Yes?"

"You seeing anything we're missing? Any hunches?" Gloom asked.

"It seems simple enough." Prey shrugged, "Wheat Plow had people-"

"-Ponies." Gloom corrected without thinking.

"-People, spying on Big Fields and his two party co-leaders. Look, these pages were all copied out by the same person..." Prey waited with a raised eyebrow, but Gloom didn't interrupt this time. "...Using other people's words. Namely, other people's reports. Spy reports."

"Spies? That seems a little..." Gloom searched for the word, "Fantastical."

"Isn't that exact fear why Princess Luna made this ISND group?" Prey asked rhetorically. "Regardless, spy implies a professional. This-", He waved his page, "-Is just some ponies that Wheat Plow hired to secretly watch and report back. Reading it, it's nothing you couldn't get by having a pegasus sit on a cloud above Big Fields house."

"These things are still private. To Big Fields, I mean." Crimson said.

"Wheat Plow is a criminal. Having illegal stuff is to be expected. Why though? What did he aim to gain? None of this information could really help Wheat Plow in his campaign." Gloom wondered, leafing through the papers, trying to find an answer.

"To blackmail him with sir?" Crimson suggested.

"None of this is really suitable blackmail material though. It's private yes, but nothing here is stuff that Big Fields would be desperate to cover up."

Prey put his page down and slid it back across the floor so he didn't have to scoot closer, "So what? Why does it have to be anything real? I think Wheat Plow was just planning to frame Big Fields for something and let the scandal destroy his credibility."

Gloom straightened in realisation, "That's why he hired Copper Pot. That's the whole reason for all the riots. He wasn't hurting both their chances equally, because at the end of it all he was going to have Big Fields framed. Wheat Plow would've come out the only winner in the end."

Crimson slowly raised a hoof, "Why cause riots at all sir? He could've just framed Big Fields from the beginning."

"No... No think about it. His goal was to destabilise the political situations in the rail road towns by sparking riots between the two sides. Prey, who was forecast to win the election?" Gloom asked. '-Prey remembers pointless things like that-'

"Before the riots started? Those poll things they use showed the Crop Holders were favoured to win more seats."

"So Wheat Plow was set to lose from the beginning. But by doing this, he could shake things up. Then, when he framed Big Fields, every pony would be outraged and many of them would either change to vote for him, or at the very least, vote for anypony but the Crop Holders." Gloom explained, growing animated as he started to see the bigger picture.

"But sir, the Crop Holders are going to win now. I mean, the Night Guard have affected the results, right?" Crimson asked.

That stopped Gloom for a moment as he considered that, "It does seem that way. However, we only did our duty. It is not our fault the Crop Sharers' are now going to lose, it's Wheat Plow's. Nopony forced him to break the law or betray his party. Unfortunately, it's not just him who's going to suffer the consequences but all the Crop Sharers' who believed in him." Gloom sighed.

After a moment of silence, Gloom added; "It's not very fair, is it?"

There was no need to further add that life isn't fair. All of them knew that lesson already.

Prey leaned back with mock contemplation, "Hmm, that brings up another point. The Night Guard isn't going to win many friends with this arrest. With hindsight, Captain Shining Armour is probably thanking his lucky stars the Royal Guard weren't the ones to solve this case." He said with a smirk.

"Prey, stop it." Gloom said.

"Well, on the other hoof, we might win a few powerful friends even if we make a lot of enemies." Prey shrugged.

"I don't think I follow..." Gloom frowned.

"Well, Big Fields is going to like us a lot, yes? Along with all his big, rich, land owners buddies, the ones we basically just won the election for by arresting Wheat Plow."

"I thought the land barons were at odds with both the Crop Holders' and Sharers'." Crimson said.

"Kind of," Prey shrugged, "But out of the two of them, Crop Sharers' threatened their position the most. Anyway, now that Wheat Plow and his party are set for probable collapse by the end of the week, those land barons are actually back in the runnings. Did you forget they've been campaigning since the beginning too?"

"They were never going to win though. Even before the riots." Crimson said.

"Originally yes. But now? Maybe they'll have a chance. Ponies don't like change and are easily panicked. Even if Wheat Plow started it, both sides were involved in the riots. The general public might become disillusioned with both Holders' and Sharers' alike. They might easily revert back to where they feel safe, even if it isn't in their best interests. Ponies are blind like that." Prey said uncaringly, skimming through all of the pages Wheat Plows had collected on Big Fields.

"Prey, stop it." Gloom repeated wearily, despite thinking, '-unfortunately there's some truth in that-'.

"We need to go and inform Captain Nighthawk. I don't think this latest development can wait until the end of the day." He said, going towards the office door.

"I don't think that's going to be necessary sir." Prey called, not get up.

"Why not?"

Prey held up the page that'd been on the bottom of the pile. It was written on a different page size, and thus had been missed.

"Seems which ever unit delivered these already speculated on all this and reported it. The attached note just got misplaced at the bottom of the pile by accident." Prey said with a bright smile.

"Oh... Well that's good too." Gloom said with a cough.

"They already found this out?" Crimson asked blankly.

"Yep."

"Well... that's that then I guess. Back to cutting our way through this jungle of paperwork."

Late that night, Prey hid a message for Lemon Pink under his pillow. It was longer than he'd originally been planning to write, but he'd had to add in an extra line.

'Contact required. Objective 6Q.1 found. Identity confirmed; Big Fields. Add to The List.'