//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Your human and you: Harmony and heresy // by An everfree rat //------------------------------// +++2104 hours, downtown, Baltimare+++ Sterling warrant was a fastidious stallion. His name signified the family expectations of going into law or the maintaining of as one of the fine peace officers of Baltimare, luck happened upon his life path first, finding a career as a clerk in City Hall. While not a glamorous, as his family kept implying in biting tones, it was important work, and most of all, safe. No one was angry at clerks when the budget doesn’t meet the public's standards, nor does it put you at odds with dangerous ponies, or other beings, in the line of duty. No, Warrant enjoyed the quiet, sociable nature of the office. The ease of a desk job and the bi-monthly muffin brunches in the break room, where he could bashfully make eyes at Gliding Scholes while Ivy League could give the well worn, employee appreciation speech, followed soon after by the equally well worn, ‘we expect better from you with less resources’ talk. Warrant was sure this week was the week Scholes would ask him to join her meager sized herd, and he could move out of the bachelor apartment and into the new condo sholes and her herd mates just bought! No more having to take three cable cars to work anymore. Snap Blinking in mild surprise before sinking into a frown, he reviewed the damage of a broken quill and the ink now coating his neat columns of numbers. Clucking his tongue in consternation, horn glow already lifting the broken quill, ink pot lid and stained sheets to clear up the mess and set about the job of finding another writing implement. The scuff of his chair echoing over the candle lit office as boards creaked under his slight weight. The door opened with a comforting squeak, reminding him of leisurely days and quiet flirting with his hopefully, soon to be special somepony. The office was a refuge and a buffer between the dark, often wet cobbles of Baltimare. Moving past the more modern gas lights fixed in the halls, where the classic firefly ones were yet to be interchanged with, his hoofsteps drummed along down the hall. A careful eye counting the nails in the floorboards as a novel way to identify his distance from the supply room. This also kept a shadow shifting to detach from a dim cubical to remain unseen. Four years. Four years since the return of Princess Luna and you would think city counsel would opt for a night staff. It wasn’t like there was a lack of work, they could afford to hire a few bat ponies to pull nightshift. It was their city after all. Well, historically. Shame how it all carried on after the newly revealed Lunar fall a millenia ago. A low creak in the hallway, floorboards. Ear perked first as he turned to survey an empty hall, pausing to turn enough to face the way behind. A moment later he takes a breath, steadying himself and carries on. Its an old building, old wood. They always creak, like right now when he put his hoof down. Nothing to be worried about. Regardless, he decided to just look for the marked door and leave the nail counting till later. The clink of rummaging through the quillboxes did much to calm him. Banal, everyday, and best of all, annoying, the task was a decent distraction. They were out of number three primaries. The pegasi staff must have forgot their donations this week, sure a number seven was just as good but it was the little details that- Movement. His heart leapt in his throat. He saw the shadow, he was sure of it. Just past the doorway, in the lamplight. “Just the flame, Warrant, just the flame. Just get back to the office and remember to not have so much coffee at night.” His light voice was certainly not as sure as he wished it sounded. Squaring shoulders, he took a couple Seven’s, glowing in the aura of baby blue, like his eyes, as he peeked out the hall. Nothing, just the occasional lamp flicker. The door squeaked as he gently shouldered his way past, now away from the sturdy wood shield of the door and into openspace. The now ominous, creaky and not any longer comforting, squeaky floorboards. Ears on a swivel, he was sure his own paranoia and caffeine overdose was the cause of his jitters, it wasn't the first time he pulled a late night to balance this or that. He really ought to switch to tea like his mother said. Much more dignified, less caffeinated too. But not as cheap as the beans in the breakroom. Something brushed his ear! He could feel it, like a ghostly claw! He jumped around, four hooves leaving the ground at once and returning in a defensive pose, nothing! His breathing was picking up, coming in and out of his mouth now as his body demanded more oxygen for the fear adrenaline that it helpfully started pumping. Almost whimpering he took a number of steps back, not to entice whatever it was that must be stalking him, from pouncing. A few easy paces back and he was confident enough to turn about to face the direction of the hallway he meant to go, but just as he was halfway about, something shaded the light from behind. A shriek and a clattering of his hooves on floorboards as he galloped hard in an instant. Where to hide? Where oh where to hide? His office was behind a glass pane with a wooden frame that quite vainly like to call itself a door, but it wouldn't stop the thing behind him. Where? Broom closet? No, small death trap, the heaviest door and safest room here should be.. The Mayor's office! The flight of stairs coming up on his right reminded him of the heavy, oak door of her office. Lots of heavy furniture to pile up too if needed. Scampering up the two flights felp like a single landing for all the time he spent climbing, fear motivating him well. He could almost smell the thing as he ran towards the door at the end of the hall. The Mayor never locked her office door, confident of the secured filing cabinet she had built for such a thing, so it was an easy matter to shove the heavy door open and slamming it behind himself, leaning against the hard wood to breath. A moment later and there was a fluttering shadow in the hallway, seen from the hoof wide, obscuring glass work of a decorative window on the door that held the mayor's name and title. A tinking noise, like one tapping at the glass cover of the gaslights. Light, but insistent, almost like.. no. Taking a breath to steel himself he opened the door, peering out through the crack. A solitary Starry moth, the kind the size of your hoof, was battering itself against the glass, two in fact. Down the hall he could see another attempting to reach the light. A shaky sigh of relief flooded from his lungs as he slumped back against the door. He’d been so silly, of course it was starry moth season, what else would be making a nuisance of itself in a dark hallway. He was glad no one was about to see him make a foal of himself, but it did remind him to set about buying mothballs. It was mating season and those things by the next season would have their squirmy offspring chewing out all his good linen! If Scholes could see him now. A creak. He looked up. Meeting eye to eye with a human. Freezing for a moment, he noticed the poor thing was peeking over the large desk at the back of the room near the window. Looks like it was crawling from behind the desk and was now looking at him in confusion and shock. “Oh, hello there. Who do you belong to?” He could tell it had an owner if the tailored outfit it was wearing was anything to go by. Must have been a police or security colts pet, it looked like it was in uniform, badges included. Getting up to move closer he cautiously stepped forward. He liked animals, he could get the poor thing relaxed and report a found human the next morning. “Hey there, it's alright, you can come out from there. Come on boy, come on.” Smiling without showing teeth, he had read that was important somewhere, he motioned for the groomed male biped to come closer, it seemed to be working as he stood up and was looking to Warrant with intensity. Must be nervous. The poor thing was well trained obviously, he was coming when called. Well, it certainly was some ponies lucky night. =][= +++0807 hours, city hall, front doors.+++ Officer Dusty could only shake her head as the poor stallions body was wheeled out on the gurney. His body was stuffed in a black canvas bag like so much broken tools. Warrant, Sterling. His staff ID said he was in accounting, second floor. So it was a shock to find him dead of a broken neck in the bottom of the dumbwaiter, the mayor's personal one. Looks like he fell all the way, as there was only two access points, the kitchen and the office, and a neck doesn't bend like that from falling the tail length of the service door to crawl in. The body was loaded up into the ambulance, thankfully out of sight from the public and the wreck of a mare at the steps. “Hey, Time Date?” She asks, head tilted to the stallion near her in uniform similar to her own. “If it was kitchen staff that found his body this, who’s the mare looking like she needs to hit something?” The white and off grey earth pony turned to look where Dusty indicated with a nod, assuming he had turned to look. His face took a sour twist to it. “A miss scholes, apparently she was going to invite him into her herd. Sometime this weekend.” He shook his head in sympathy. Dusty simply let out a sigh, taking a moment to give the grieving mare one last look before turning back to her co-worker. “Well that's not a great way to start the week. That poor colt’s family are going to eat town hall alive with lawsuits.” “Its a bad sign.” “Oh no, Time..” Dusty groaned out his name with the broken patience of long suffering. “It is the Starry moth season, it aligns with the constellation of the Manticore this decade.” “Time, we talked about this,” “Its as my grandfather said, bad omens and dark tidings in the year of the stinging moth.” His stoic response got an exasperated noise from Dusty as she grit her teeth at the sky like it would come to her aid in dealing with the doofus. “Here comes the deputy mayor.” Looking down quickly to the front steps she could spot the mare in the grey pantsuit approaching and stepped back into position. Straightening up into something resembling a professional officer of the law before the public, or at least someone who would make her day miserable, the mayor’s second was talking to an assistant, or maybe a go-for, and was just about at Dusty and officer Time when a mare in a cleaner suit than Dusty felt she ever owned, finished what seemed to be a mad gallop to the retreating figure. “Ma’am! Ma’am!” Gasping and half stumbling as she came to a halt before her now irritated target, who seemed to be tolerating the interruption with the grace of a hydra, the runner took a few heavy breaths as she managed to cough out something like information. “Door -gasp- office -haah- mayor office -wheeze- symbol-in-door -gasp cough-” Growling at the new method of depriving the good detective of her first morning coffee fate or Discord seemed to throw at her she turned fully to the slighter and more out of shape mare. “What symbol? Where was this when the arriving officers did an inspection?” “Th-the door, was open, so they couldn’t-” she was almost pushed aside as the detective stomped past like a boulder taken to animation. “Forget it, I’ll have a look myself. No one else seems to be able to get details for me.” A few sputtering apologies were to follow by the exhausted mare struggling to keep up on wobbly legs. “Nevermind all that! If it's not one thing it’s another. If it wasn’t for me sometimes I swear things would just blow up.” Dusty would like to claim the timing was fated by some twisted divinity, but the truth was the explosion that went off from the fourth floor window, only let itself be know a few hoofbeats after, but the shock was nothing less than if the Faust-mare herself had smote the window personally. The body of a mayoral aid plummeting from the now shattered, open space would be just one of many shocks that day for a great many beings inhabiting the city. =][= +++0830 hours, temporary imperial HQ+++ The winged ones were all over the place now. Obviously his trap was discovered one way or another. Simple string tied to the frag ‘nade set to trigger when the desk drawer was opened. He hoped it wasn’t a waste of a frag, but it covered more area of effect than the lone krak he had. That he would need as a last ditch effort. The ability to accomplish his mission was as upsetting as it was fortuitous. His ability to understand the speech and writings of the creatures was almost fluent now and was rising by the hour. Words, concepts and slang were becoming legible, names recognisable, locations mappable. This wasn't learning, this was something other. Something was placing an understanding of these things blasphemous words into his mind. It had already bypassed his barriers the Inquisition taught him to errect. It wasn't psyonics by any means, just the tools man was gifted with of will, thought and creativity, but he never even felt them breached. He felt sullied. He felt used and had no way to clean himself, so he did what he could to fight back and to cleanse his soul. He prayed. On his knees, hands clasped in the spreadwing pattern of the Aquila over his chest, he prayed with the humility a good, honest man. “Fa-kch! Fa-chkgh!” The fit of coughing breaking his attempts once again, only goading him further till he was spitting blood from his torn throat and wheezing his breath. Teeth grit bloody pink in frustration, he was forced to recite the creeds in his head once again, mouthing the litanies and hymns as he swallowed at the feel of a lump in his throat that was the sign of inflamed flesh. His hands clenched and unclenched in silent fury. He would spit if he could, but to do so in suplication would be tantamount to spitting in His presence, so he swallowed the bloody saliva. They took his words, now they took his blood, he was going to make sure he took much more from them for whatever vulgar spells they had forced upon him. One did not need to shout the Emperor's truth. Action, after all, spoke louder than words. The litres of kerosene he lifted from the store on the way back would just help out that much more. Ave imperator. Cleanse the impure. =][=