The guard took a turn down into the main hallway, and kept on walking through it. He wasn't particularly alert, but he knew there was no need to. No one had ever managed to infiltrate the city, much less the castle itself. The idea of someone managing to sneak in there without Queen Nightmare Moon knowing about it was simply laughable. Guard patrols were mostly a formality, the station of working as a guard in the castle more of a status symbol and a reward than anything else. A status he was certainly proud of, but it was foolish to think he could in any way be necessary.
There had, admittedly, been strange reports circulating among the population. He'd heard some rumors about them. Stories of a strange pony who'd appeared in the middle of town out of nowhere and then had disappeared just as suddenly. He didn't think they held much weight, but it was odd how no official statement made had been made on the matter. Perhaps it was a way to discredit the concept, to show it was so far beneath the real problems, so absurd in its conception, that it was completely unworthy of any consideration.
He adjusted his purple mane underneath his helmet, and absentmindedly looked at the tapestry while walking down the corridor. There wasn't much of anything else to see, but at least the sight was always a pleasant one. A very small gust of wind distracted him, likely from beyond a door being opened somewhere along the length of the hallway, and he shook his head, focusing back onto his assigned task. It wouldn't have done him well to be caught slacking on the job, and he had no intention to be demoted. Especially not at a time like that.
With how the situation was shaping up, he'd have most likely been sent north. And he much preferred the weather there where he was. Though he was curious about how things were going there. He'd heard about some experiments of sorts being conducted as of late, but no precise information on what it was about. Just things slipping through the cracks, words caught here and there as he heard other guards and dignitaries talk. It technically wasn't eavesdropping if he just happened to have good ears and pass by at the right time.
He was indeed curious about what kind of experiments were being conducted there. If they were anything like the ones happening in the castle, for example. He wasn't allowed to enter the laboratories, but he'd escorted enough prisoners to them to have an idea of the kind of things happening in there. Especially given he'd never had to bring anyone back to their cell. He'd taken a turn guarding the laboratories as well, once. The job was about keeping the researchers in more than it was about keeping intruders out, as he'd understood it. Not a weird thing, after all, anyone trying to get to the labs would have had to get into the castle itself first. And that was just laughable, as everyone knew very well.