//------------------------------// // Chapter Nine // Story: The Gates of Equestria // by SapphireRose87 //------------------------------// Sapphire paced back and forth in her office angry about Pinkie Pie visiting the Guardians at each Gate at a time when the Guardians are on high alert because of a possible war on the horizon. With Pinkie visiting every Guardian at every Gate, she put all of the Guardians at risk making it easier for Phantasia’s scouts to find the Gates. As a matter of fact, any Guardian going back and forth to each other’s Gates puts everypony at risk for the same reason Pinkie's actions did. According to Firewing and Aether, Pinkie thought it was a good idea to visit the Guardians because Sapphire was at the West Gates trying to check on Fancy to see if he was okay. This made Sapphire even angrier with Pinkie.  So Sapphire decided to call every Guardian along with the Element of Harmony they were paired up with to stress the importance of taking being on high alert because of unstable magic seriously. As it stands at the moment the Guardians weren’t taking their jobs seriously. At least to Sapphire they weren’t. Great, just great, clearly the new Guardians I have chosen this time around don't know how to take this job seriously, except for maybe Aether and Rarity. This is another reason why I hate this job. But I was picked for it so I must do my duties for the job.  Sapphire thought. Not only that, I have to choose my words carefully. Either way, this meeting needs to happen. Sapphire took a couple of deep breaths and let them out through her mouth to try and keep her anger at a minimum. Sapphire paused when she heard knocking on the door. She lit up her horn and opened the door and every Guardian along with the Elements of Harmony bearers filed into her office one by one. Once the last of them had come in Sapphire closed the door. “Okay everypony,” said Sapphire, “the reason I called you here today is to stress the importance of taking a high alert situation dealing with unstable magic. Do any of you remember why we’re on high alert in the first place?” “Oh, I know!” Pinkie said. “Because of unstable magic right? Unstable magic is bad news! I don’t-“ “Exactly Pinkie,” Sapphire snapped, “did you realize that visiting every single Guardian puts them at risk?” “I uh… I didn’t know. I just thought that since you were at the-“ Pinkie started. “You would visit every Guardian because I was at the West Gate?” Sapphire snapped. “Did you realize that every Guardians home is very close to where the actual Gates are?” “But I didn’t go to the actual Gate.” Pinkie replied.  “Even still you put everyone in danger making it easier for Phantasia’s scouts to find the Gates,” Sapphire said. “So everypony in this room do you understand the importance of what high alert means?” Sapphire tried so hard not to be pissed when she saw that no one in the room was willing to answer the question so as to tell her they understood their duties as Guardians. “Well, would somepony answer the freaking question so you can let me know that you understand your duties as Guardians, or do I have to replace every single one of you with the reserve team? Because I will do that if it’s needed!” Finally, after a long silence Melody spoke up, “It’s as Pinkie said, unstable magic is bad news and if we don’t protect the Gates to the best of our abilities, it could mean bad things for Equestria’s future.” "Yes, that's correct!" Sapphire confirmed. "With that being said, everypony in this room repeat after me." Once she had everypony's attention she continued. "Unstable magic is bad news." "Unstable magic is bad news," Everypony repeated. "If I don't take my job as a Guardian seriously, it could mean bad things for Equestria," Sapphire said. "If I don't take my job as a Guardian seriously, it could mean bad things for Equestria," Everypony repeated.  "Visiting each other's Gates can make it easier for Phantasia's scouts to find them," Sapphire said. "Visiting each other's Gates can make it easier for Phantasia's scouts to find them," Everypony repeated.  "Good, with that being said," said Sapphire, "I have no choice, every Guardian from this moment forward, until we have dealt with the unstable magic from Phantasia, is under house arrest. What this means is that traveling for Guardians back and forth to each other's Gates is prohibited and that goes for everypony, even me."  Aether gasped, "What? Why do you have to follow this rule? Aren't you the Head Guardian?" Sapphire put up a hoof to silence him. "Yes, I am the Head Guardian, seeing that I can't even visit a Gate myself without somepony using this excuse to put others in danger, I will not be traveling to the Gates anymore. When and if we can get this unstable magic under control, I'm not giving another pony an excuse to put the lives of the Guardians in danger. It is disrespectful in my eyes when somepony puts my friends in danger when they are supposed to be taking things seriously." "But we can't-" Pinkie started. "See the future?" Applejack snapped. "So why stress out about it? I'm sorry Pinkie, but I have to agree with Sapphire here, you need to be stressed out! It's your job as an Element of Harmony Bearer to help keep Equestria and your friends safe! I take keeping Equestria safe just as seriously as I do when it comes down to working on the farm and keeping it well stocked and well maintained. Let me ask you something Pinkie, you take your job as a party planner seriously don't you?" "Well yeah," said Pinkie, "I make sure everything is just right, all the way down the very last piece of confetti! Parties are serious business!" "Do you think that guarding Equestria against harm is serious business?" Applejack said, and Sapphire noticed by the look on Applejack's face, she was just as angry with what Pinkie did as she was. Pinkie sighed and hung her head, "You're right, protecting Equestria is serious business just like planning a party is. I should've known better. But I didn't go to the actual Gates, so I figured everything was fine." She pawed at the ground. "I didn't realize that the Guardians' homes were right by the Gates." "Are you serious Pinkie? Have you let a rotten apple into your barrel?" Applejack scolded. "Of course the Guardians' homes are close to the Gates! Did you know that when you were at the West Gate with Fancy?" Pinkie paused and then her eyes went wide. "Oh boy! Yeah, the West Gate is practically right next to where Fancy's home is! Oh crap!" Fancy rolled his eyes and joined in on Applejack's scolding, "Oh crap is right! How do you think a Guardian is able to get to their Gate so fast? If there's one sign of trouble, a Guardian has to be able to have quick access to the Gate and deal with it! Even I'm not that stupid!" Fancy fumed. "That's enough," Sapphire said putting an end to Pinkie's torment. She sighed because she knew that Hearth's Warming Eve was coming up and everypony would want to celebrate it together. "Yes, I know Hearth's Warming Eve is coming up. I have already worked out a plan for this. You will be able to celebrate the holiday but only in the village where we had the Appointment Ceremony at. Once the holiday is over, you will return back to your gates and stay there. I will not be allowing a mailpony to deliver messages, all communication will be severed for the time being." "I don't get it," Firewing said. "Why can't we have a mailpony?" "For the same reason to keep the Guardians safe," Sapphire answered. "If a mailpony is spotted going back and forth to each Gate, that also increases the chances for one of Phantasia's scouts to find them. I will let each Guardian know the first sign of trouble with their focus magic. You will know that I'm contacting you by the feeling of your magic. If you didn't pay attention when you did your training then that's your fault. Training will be held once a week and more times after that possibly. We need to be the most prepared we can possibly be in order to deal with the threat. So no visiting each other's Gates. And you know good and well that the focus magic isn't to be used for communicating with each other. It's a tool to help you do your job and that's it." Sapphire was heartbroken by the fact that she had to issue such an order of discipline just to get the Guardians to take their jobs seriously. She sighed, "I have given an order and you will follow it! As a matter of fact, you have no choice in the matter." Sapphire pointed at Pinkie's flank and everyone gasped when they saw her cutie mark glowing. Aether and Rarity were the most shocked because they had seen this happen before when Sapphire told them not to do something. Aether and Rarity looked to see that Sapphire's cutie mark was also glowing.  Fluttershy whispered into Melody's ear what was going on because she couldn't see it. When Fluttershy did that Melody gasped as well.  "Oh and as far as the Element of Harmony Bearers go," said Sapphire, "you can work your jobs because protecting the Gates is not your main job. However, the only Gate that you are allowed to go to is the Gate that you have been assigned to protect. Got it?" All of the Elements of Harmony Bearers nodded their head to show Sapphire they understood.  "Oh and Fluttershy?" Sapphire said. "Yes ma'am, Sapphire ma'am?" Fluttershy squeaked. "Let Discord know of this too," said Sapphire, "he isn't allowed to visit the Gates either. As I said, we are dealing with unstable magic. Until it's dealt with, everypony needs to be on their guard. Well, this is the end of this meeting, you are free to go." "Yes ma'am." Everyone mumbled.  * * * Sapphire let out a frustrated sigh when everypony left her office. There was a knock on the door and when Sapphire answered it, she was pleased to see Princess Twilight and her cousin Prince Purple Artist with her.  "Hey there," Princess Twilight frowned, "what's wrong Sapphire? You look upset." Sapphire tried her best not to let her anger boil over when talking to Princess Twilight. "I just had to place an order of discipline on the Guardians." "What!" Princess Twilight gasped. "Why?" Sapphire sighed, "Well it seems that Pinkie Pie decided to take the opportunity with my visit to the West Gate to go and visit every single Guardian." "Aren't the Guardians supposed to be on high alert?" Prince Purple Artist asked. "Yeah they are," answered Sapphire, "and they're supposed to be taking things seriously. But it seems that they are not. With Pinkie going to visit every single Guardian in this time of trouble gives Phantasia more chances to find out where the Gates are." Princess Twilight stomped a hoof on the ground, "Why that Pinkie! How could she be so stupid? She does realize that the Guardians' homes are right next to the Gates that they guard?" Sapphire shook her head, "Apparently not, it wasn't until Fancy and Applejack laid into her about it that she finally got the point." Sapphire paused and then laughed. "Too bad you weren't there to see those two scolding Pinkie. I was too upset to even think about recording it." Princess Twilight chuckled, "Really? Well, at least you had help with dealing with that crazy pony. I'm glad she's not the ruler of Equestria. Why I bet that if Equestria was issued a declaration of war and she was the ruler, she would probably go, 'oh Equestria's getting ready to go to war, I think I'll visit the Dragon Lands for a nice long vacation! La, la, la, la!" Prince Purple Artist snorted, "Wow, Pinkie would actually do that Twilight?" Princess Twilight shrugged, "Not sure really, I'm just poking fun that's all." "I see." Prince Purple Artist said. "Um, Sapphire?" "Yes?" Sapphire replied. "Is there anything I can do to help?" Prince Purple Artist asked. Sapphire shook her head, "I'm not sure at the moment. I'm sorry." "Oh, there's no reason to be sorry," said Prince Purple Artist, "I was just asking." "Okay," said Princess Twilight, "what do I do now? I'm supposed to be working closely with you when it comes down to being a Head Guardian Gatekeeper." Sapphire tapped her chin thoughtfully, "Well you could keep an eye on the Guardians to make that follow the order I've issued." "What's the order?" Princess Twilight asked.  "House arrest, no Guardian or Element of Harmony Bearers assigned to protect the Gates are allowed to visit each other's Gates. They will be allowed to celebrate Hearth's Warming Eve together at the village where the Appointing Ceremony took place, but after that, they are to return to their Gates and stay there until the unstable magic is dealt with." Sapphire answered.  "Wow," said Princess Twilight, "that's pretty extreme. But if that needs to happen then it needs to happen. Trust me, I've had to issue orders of discipline too and it's not easy. So how do I keep an eye on them?" "Remember the focus training I taught you?" Sapphire asked.  Princess Twilight nodded. "Yup!" "You can use that to make sure everything is well. Don't use it to communicate. Don't let the Guardians know you're watching them. But only do it when you can, but please try to give them some sense of privacy okay? Don't get too nosy, got it?" Sapphire instructed. "Got it! Watch but don't pry. I can do that." Princess Twilight said. "And Prince Purple Artist?" Sapphire said. "Yes, Sapphire?" Prince Purple Artist replied. "I think it's time we start teaching you and the rest of the reserve team the focus training as well," Sapphire said. Prince Purple Artist's face brightened at this, "Really? You mean I get to learn that now?" Sapphire nodded. "Oh yes, we need to prepare the reserve team in case I need to start replacing Guardians that don't care to do their jobs." "Thank you!" Prince Purple Artist said. He dove at Sapphire and gave her a big hug.  Sapphire smiled at Prince Purple Artist's excitement. "Okay then. I think that's everything. You can let go of me now, Prince Purple Artist." Prince Purple Artist let go of Sapphire and blushed. "Oh." Sapphire nodded. "It's okay. So why did you come to visit me for Princess?" "Oh, uh I just stopped by for a casual visit that's all." Princess Twilight said. "But with the recent change of events, I'm going to get right on with training Purple the focus training, if that's okay with you?" "It's fine Princess," said Sapphire, "you know what to do, so yeah you can do it." Princess Twilight smiled, "Oh this is so exciting! I have another student to who I can teach something to! I haven't had one ever since Starlight! Let's go Purple!" Sapphire covered her mouth to stifle a laugh as Princess Twilight picked Prince Purple Artist up in her magic and ran out the door.