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// 262 - Attack 
// Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat 
// by David Silver 
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Silver nodded as they walked down the busy thoroughfare. Without a spoken word, Nefertari and Sheba vanished and he proceeded ahead as if they were never there. Their plan had no room for last minute conversations.

The building he was approaching appeared to be some kind of bank. An overladen pouch of coins adorned its sign, some spilling free in a display of wealth. "Authorized," noted the sign, with a hanging plaque that had some intricate symbol on it. He assumed it was the sultan's seal of approval.

It was for the best that the sultan did not have to march on a building with his own seal on it.

Silver ascended the steps smoothly, matching the flow of traffic. Always walk like you had somewhere to be, it was a thought he had had since his human days. People asked less questions if you seemed to be going somewhere with intent. He passed through the heavy doors into the interior of the building.

It was cool, a wave of chill air rushing over him. Was that magic? He doubted electric air conditioners were being used. He let his magic seep out as he trotted, starting to feel the other creatures around himself as they went about their business. What they wanted would not be in the main hall of the bank, of that he was certain.

He strode for a hallway he could see leading into the back as if he worked at the bank itself, his eyes focused and steps certain. Walk like you had somewhere to be.

"Excuse me." Damn. An anubian cat was leaning against a wall, watching him from just inside the hallway. "I don't think Equestrian royalty works here." He hiked a fuzzy brow. "Lost?"

"I have business," explained Silver unhelpfully, moving to simply walk past the cat in the hopes that his confident progress would be enough.

The cat pushed off his wall and began to follow Silver. "There isn't much business for anyone who doesn't work here down that hall." Despite his words, he hadn't actually stopped Silver, but was following him. "What sort of 'business'?"

Silver turned an ear back at the cat. Part of him was annoyed, but another part reasoned that a guard guarding things was just a person doing their job. "The sort of business that could become noisy." He turned to the guard, his magic pulling free several larger coins from his collection and floating them towards the guard. "See that I'm not disturbed, kindly."

He snatched the coins from the air and out of Silver's grip. "If I hadn't heard you were a nice pony, that would only make me more suspicious. Go on, Prince, but do me a favor and don't tell me what you're doing."

Having a reputation as a softie had advantages at times. He nodded and turned back to the hallway, leaving the bribed guard behind. "That will double if I'm not bothered," he added on the way. The promise of more, he hoped, would keep the guard loyal beyond his immediate presence.

There were many doors, but he ignored them. What they wanted would not be on the first floor, he guessed, perhaps a little groundlessly. Such a thing, in a bank? No... He saw it, stairs that curled downwards at the end of the hall and he was soon clip-clopping in a tight spiral that was uncomfortably tight for his alicorn-fueled size.

His magic hit something and sent a sharp tingle through his body. He had found powerful arcane influences and could feel where his aura brushed against it. It lined the steps in intricate patterns ahead of himself. His pace faltered. A trap? Security?

He pushed his magic into it, feeling and exploring it, trying to discern its true nature. It emitted a field of its own. It covered the stairway, making it almost impossible to proceed without touching it. That hole...

He withdrew the gem he had gotten from Twilight and draped it around his neck. "Time for old tricks." He ceased to be the great alicorn. In his place was a fluttering breezie. There was no sensation of change, he simply was one thing, then another thing. Silver folded his smaller ears at the abruptness of it. Still, it had worked, and he was floating there. "Onwards," he cried in his much higher pitched voice, drifting on the air currents.

He could feel the magic fields come dangerously close to his long limbs. He pulled them in tight and fluttered, gaining a precious inch of height as he passed through the alarming area. He bobbed up and down slowly as he progressed, timing his flaps to stay in the sweet spot, a tunnel that was relatively magic-free. It pressed on uncomfortably long, though he wondered if part of that was due to his tiny size. With an excited little cry, he popped free into untroubled air and floated down the stairs in a lazy descent.

Silver considered reverting to his old shape, but it had been large and clumsy on the stairs to begin with. The breezie form was doing quite well, and so he descended into the embrace of the earth. He could feel something at the ends of his new antenna, a tingle coming from his magical field. A powerful presence was coming closer, or he was going closer to it.

He passed by a metal door and ignored it at first. It seemed more likely that it would be at the bottom. His senses told him maybe he was wrong. The sensation ebbed as he left the door behind. Whatever was making it was beyond it. He looped back around and approached the door, looking it over. It had no slits. It had a handle that implied it was to be pulled. That would be inconvenient for a pony, but they had more cats than ponies, so that made enough sense.

Silver pushed his magic through the cracks and sides of the door, wriggling his way to the other side. He could feel the handle on the other side and gathered his power around it, giving it a push. Click! The door swung forward towards him as he flew around the metal sheet.

With a sudden slam, he was shoved against a wall, glass all around him. A jackal was holding the jar, peering at him. "Is that you, Silver Watch?" That was a jackal he knew, distorted as her features were from inside a glass jar. It was the pleasantly plump nurse.

"Hello?" he called out in his squeaky voice. "What are you doing here? Let me out, please."

"I can't do that," she said a little sadly. "I can guess why you're here. Your loyalty to your wife is entirely commendable, but this is for the greater good."

Silver tensed. There were few times that the 'greater good' was invoked for good reasons, perhaps ironic. "Can we talk about it?" He really didn't want to harm the nurse. She had been kind and seemed nice enough. "You aren't involved with... They want to kill you."

The jar raised, held by the lid in her hand to keep Silver from flying away. "Only the bad jackals will be killed, clearing the way for the ones with some sense in their heads to take us in a new direction. No more insults and no more attacks." She frowned a little, but it turned into a smile just as quickly. "There will be no one left to tell me I can't practice my medicine with pride."

"I would like that," started Silver, smiling at Running Paw, that was her name, he had just remembered it. "And we can make it happen, without staining your pretty paws red. Besides, they don't believe there is such a thing as a good jackal. They will hurt you, kill you, if they can."

Running lifted the jar so that her eyes were equal with the diminutive Silver. "They have assured me. Me and mine will be safe."

"They lied," retorted Silver. "Please, all I want to do is avoid needless death." He tapped down at her paw that held him in the jar. "Let me go and go back to the sick people who need you."

Her teeth clenched. "I can't do that."

Silver was suddenly falling, the jar rotating wildly in the air as it plummeted. He canceled the transformation and expanded rapidly, the glass shattering around him into so much dust. He hit the ground with an oof, blinking at the sight of Sheba holding Running by the throat. "Wait!"

Sheba glanced to the side at Silver. "Good to see you back in your proper form. Do you have a particular way you want me to end her?"

"She's a nurse, not a combatant," hissed Silver as he rose to his hooves. "Please, don't hurt her."

Sheba slackened her grip a little, allowing Running to take a ragged breath. "Does my addled employer speak the truth? Since when do jackals practice medicine?"

Running snorted softly. "This is why they need to die. When there are no more wicked jackals, maybe the world will accept the very idea of one that only wants to heal, not harm." Tears stung at the corner of her eyes as she looked away, looking down the hallway rather than at the one that had her by the throat. "That's all you can see, and I can't even... blame you."

Silver's teeth clenched powerfully with remembered emotions. "No! No... please... Stop that, stop hating yourself." He advanced on them, bumping Sheba out of the way despite her irritated hiss. "Stop that right now. You're a wonderful person, and you being a jackal doesn't change that one way or the other." One of his ears pinned back. "Even as I say that, I know it's not that simple... It's a deep burn, a lingering scar. You always feel it. People judging so quickly, assuming. You walk down the street, they may smile at each other, but you, they wonder, even if just for a moment. Are you trouble? Should they get out of the way?"

Running took deep breaths, released from the hold, but peering at Silver. "What would you know of my plight? You are a pony. A prince at that. When your people see you, they rejoice. When our people see me, they spit. When others see me, they assume I am of the worst."

Sheba gestured at Silver. "What he  knows is only shadowed by what he does not."

"We are wasting time," countered Nefertari, suddenly beside Sheba. "Running Paw, as thanks for your services, leave."

Silver raised a hoof to his chest. "I may not look it anymore, but I have lived the life of the oppressed for most of my life. It hurts, and never stops hurting. I'm sorry it exists anywhere in this world, but violence won't solve it."

Running Paw raised her hands in more of a surrender. "I am not a fool... You have me quite outmatched... Am I free to go?"

Sheba snarled, but Nefer put a paw in front of the cat. "You are."

Running took a few slow steps away from the middle of the group, then dashed back towards the stairs, lost to sight quickly. She did not have the improbable speed of Nefertari or Sheba. Nefertari shook her head softly. "She is a fool, as if they would spare her anything but the truth of knowing her death approached."

Sheba shrugged softly. "In this we can agree. What little I have been told has no room for sparing 'some' jackals, and certainly not by design. Now, shall we destroy this place and be on our way?"

"We shall not," spoke Silver in firm tones. "Subdue those within it, and take it. We must learn all we can learn about it. Hopefully it will lead to the others. Only with that information can we safely remove it."

Nefertari rolled her shoulders. "The catch you release today may yield bounty tomorrow. Let us hold our bloodlust in check, for now."

"If we must," spoke Sheba as if speaking to a peer. The two seemed to understand one another in that instant before they vanished.