//------------------------------// // Conspiracy // Story: An Affliction of the Heart: Volume Five // by Anonymous Pegasus //------------------------------// Warden glanced back over his shoulder at the praetorian guard coasting along silently behind them, blue eyes flashing in the dark like eight hovering balls of light chasing them through the shadows. The little indicator on Warden’s necklace kept fluctuating; the gem flashing different shades of brightness as they passed over houses that were emitting magic. A stage show was happening in the square, and Kuno had already tilted to avoid it, heading down a side-street, her smaller wings buzzing enthusiastically, no more than a low drone beside him. “Do you see the guard following us?” Warden asked quietly, just loud enough to be heard over his wife’s wings. Kuno tilted her head back, looking over her shoulder at the far-off sight of a pegasus guard following them at a safe distance, and then flashed him a toothy grin. “I saw them, yes. Not surprising, considering my… aggressive exit.” “Celestia might have to punish all of us collectively for it,” Warden cautioned. “Worth it!” Kuno grinned, flashing him that toothy smile again. The six of them came to a backwinging stop at the top of the main gate into the changeling consortium. Kuno waved a hoof, dismissing the praetorian guard, and they quietly fanned out, disappearing into the castle walls. “Do you practice that?” Warden asked. “What?” “That whole,” Warden waved his hoof the same way Kuno did, “and they all just vanish. You have to have practiced that.” “What, no!” Kuno protested, but her toothy smirk told otherwise. Warden smirked, and then paused, eyes narrowing over the edge of the castle gates, following a figure in the distance wearing a familiar suit. “What are you…” Kuno asked, following his line of sight, before tilting her head very slowly to the left. “Is that…?” “It is,” Warden said, before he took a step up onto the parapet and then dropped down off it, wings spreading out into a glide, until he could hit the ground and give a reflexive limping step before straightening up and remembering his hoof didn’t hurt any more, chasing after the figure in the suit. “Hey!” The changeling blinked, paused, and then rounded to find both Kuno and Warden staring at her. She was a smaller changeling, with a red feather tucked in a hole in her horn. But most notable of all, she was wearing a Wonderbolt flight suit. Blue and yellow, with matching goggles, the flight suit, normally skin-tight, was loose and baggy around the changeling’s form; or at least, this particular form. A single lightning bolt marked one side of the suit, so it was a female wonderbolt’s outfit. “Pinion, where did you get that suit?” Kuno challenged. Pinion smiled, revealing her sharp little fangs, giving them both a sweet giggle. “How do you say…? A covert meeting,” she grinned, wings buzzing. “I know it doesn’t fit me but I like it so much I thought I’d keep wearing it!” “Someone gave you a flight suit?” Warden asked, stepping closer and reaching a hoof out, tugging on the material for a moment, finding it stretchy and pliable. And moreover, from his experience with the wonderbolts, he could feel that it was authentic. The fakes all had less elasticity and bad seams, but this particular flight suit was flawless. It had to have been made for a wonderbolt themselves! “The owner of it said that it would… accentuate the experience. In not so many words,” Pinion hummed, giggling to herself happily, little wings giving another buzz. “Demanded that I wear it, actually, as part of the session!” “Oh, were you performing?” Kuno asked naively. “One of them sick and you had to fill in?” “Not… exactly,” Pinion responded, blue eyes flashing mischeivously. “It was a freaky sex thing, wasn’t it?” Warden asked blankly. “A lady never kisses and tells!” Pinion said with a wise nod. “And my contract swore me to secrecy!” “It was a female wonderbolt, wasn’t it?” Warden pressed. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Pinion sing-songed, turning on her hooves and prancing away, loose flight suit wobbling with her steps. Warden watched the changeling go, head tilting slowly to one side. “You don’t think it was…?” “Honestly?” Kuno responded, giggling to herself for a moment. “I would be stunned if it took her this long.” Swarm slowly wrapped and unwrapped the pencil from her violently-green mane, staring glumly down at the pages of the book. “I don’t understand the question,” she whined. Wrought Iron looked over top of his own book, squinting. “What question is it?” “Number fifteen! It asks which pony is most attuned to magic.” “Unicorns, obviously,” Wrought Iron said smugly.  “Changelings, definitely!” Swarm growled. “They can change shape at will! That’s way more magical than a unicorn!” “But there’s no changeling answer in the book!” “Exactly!” Swarm growled, pursing her lips. “There’s only pegasus and earth pony and unicorn! But neither of them is right. I’ll just put ‘changeling’ down the bottom.” “That’s now how it works,” Wrought Iron said with a shake of his head. “You have to choose from the answers there. You can’t just go writing in your own answers because the right answer is one of the answers right there!” Swarm opened her mouth to respond with a ‘well obviously not’, but then paused, puzzled. She closed her mouth, and looked up to see a mare storming towards them. They were in the library, in the ‘research’ section, doing homework, and it was definitely somewhere where they were allowed to be; in fact, it was one of the few places they never got in trouble for being in. But this mare was staring pure venom at them both as she advanced. “Hi mom!” Wrought Iron chirped as the mare prowled right up to them, before he clocked the look in her eyes and shrank backwards, tail giving a nervous flick. “Hello ma’am,” Swarm said as courteously as she could. “Wrought Iron, outside, now!” the mare almost snarled, and Wrought Iron shrank back further, ears flattening.  “Y-yes mother,” he stammered, submissively picking up his book, not even using his magic to do it, holding it in his hoof lamely. He glanced at Swarm, and then bowed his head. “Sorry, Swarm,” he mumbled. “What?” Swarm asked blankly. “Is Wrought Iron in trouble?” “Don’t you talk to him!” the mare hissed, and rounded on Swarm. “You and I need to talk.” “W-what?” Swarm asked again, blinking, shrinking back herself, her wings giving an anxious little flutter. “Did I do something wrong?” “Yes!” the mare growled, pointing a hoof at her accusingly. “Stay away from my son, do you understand?” “W-what? But I didn’t do anything-” “-Do you understand?!” Swarm’s ears flattened back all the way and she lowered her head. “But… but he’s my friend…” “Stay away from him!” the mare reiterated, her voice a low, dangerous hiss. “You do not speak to him! You do not walk with him! You are not friends! Do you understand?!” Swarm’s eyes sparkled with tears, and she bit her bottom lip, shaking her head. “N-no! I don’t understand! What did I do wrong?!” “I don’t care if you don’t understand, missy, stay away from my son!” “Is something wrong?” a stern voice cut across their conversation, and Swarm looked up at the librarian, who had appeased from between a row of shelves. The mare didn’t even spare a glance for the librarian, instead holding a narrowed, venomous stare directly at Swarm. “No. There’s no problem. We’re done here,” she snapped, turning on her hooves and marching away towards the front door. Wrought Iron was loitering near one of the shelves, and he shrank backwards as his mother snapped at him, ordering him outside, leaving a confused and teary-eyed Swarm all alone. “Kuno!” one of the praetorian guard rushed into the queen’s bedchambers, and Warden struggled up out of the embrace of his larger wife, wings limp and mane unkempt, blinking at the guard. A moment later, Kuno lifted up as well, staring at the intruder. “Hmmm? “It’s after midnight,” Kuno groaned. “You have a visitor!” the praetorian guard announced. “It’s after midnight!” Kuno repeated. “I assure you, you’ll want to hear what I have to say,” a deep voice said from the doorway, one neither Kuno nor Warden were familiar with. “Who’s there?” Kuno asked, voice trembling for a moment as she summoned up the correct inflection to befit a queen. The batpony in the doorway smiled, revealing his pointed fangs, and then gave a bow that Warden didn’t feel was quite sincere. “Sir, madam, I am Shadowwing, spymaster and leader of the dark guard.” Warden tried to drink quietly, pouring a large volume of coffee into his muzzle and swallowing heavily. They were seated at the quiet table that Kuno and Warden often ate meals at; a rough-hewn wooden table with legs that were all different lengths, one of the very first tables made by the changeling consortium and a table that Kuno refused to part with. “Spit it out,” Kuno stated. “I know who killed Green Hoof,” Shadowwing smiled from across the table. The batpony looked almost menacing. In proper light, he was slightly mangy, with enlarged canines and a curious scar that cut from his cheek, bisecting his left ear, and leaving a split in it that added to his unsettling appearance. His voice was deep, smooth, and somehow soothing, and completely at odds with his bizarre appearance. “I’m listening intently,” Kuno stated, her gaze not wavering from Shadowwing’s own. “I do not know how far your investigation has progressed,” Shadowwing started, and Kuno snorted, rolling her eyes. He paused, arching an eyebrow at her. “You’re the spymaster, you should know more about how far we are into the investigation than we do,” Kuno pointed out. Shadowwing gave her a long stare, humming thoughtfully, before carefully choosing his next words. “Well, given that I am the spymaster, it would also be prudent that I not… play all my cards, so to speak.” Kuno’s eyes narrowed intently, and she, in kind, measured the batpony. “You already know that we know it was a batpony.” “Indeed I do,” Shadowwing said with a warm smile that was made slightly terrifying by his scar. “You are very astute,” he complimented, and Kuno inclined her head in acceptance. “And you are very shrewd,” Kuno responded bluntly. Warden watched both of them, looking back and forth, his coffee now forgotten, drinking in the details of their conversation and trying to understand the subtext. Kuno waved a hoof. “You know how far we have progressed, and now you’re here to offer information, jumping the gun to ‘reveal’ to us that it was actually a batpony.” “You wound me,” Shadowwing responded, feinging distress. “Having a murderer in my company is somewhat of a… thorn in my side. I can hardly remain a true and virtuous leader while I have that in my employ, can I?” “No, you could not,” Kuno said suspiciously. “So let us dispense with the facades,” Shadowwing stated, stamping his hoof on the table with an air of finality. “I am not here to ingratiate myself, nor to foment distrust. I am merely here to clear my name.” “And how are you going to manage that since I already cut off your big reveal?” Kuno asked dubiously. Shadowwing smiled, revealing his teeth and making Warden immediately distrust him. “Because, madam, I can not only reveal the species of the perpetrator, but I can tell you exactly who did it.” Kuno paused at that, eyeing the batpony with slight distrust but reluctant excitement. “You’re… you’re certain who did it?” “Completely,” Shadowwing said smoothly. “In fact, I have a witness who can attest to finding the perpetrator shortly after the murder, acting quite suspiciously.” “That’s… that’s hardly concrete evidence,” Kuno grimaced, looking at the spymaster with narrowed eyes. “You’d be hard pressed to find another batpony who was caught washing blood from their hooves and face on the same night as the murder.” Kuno sucked air over her fangs, her wings buzzing anxiously. “I’m listening.” Shadowwing gave a peculiar whistle, and a figure appeared at the window, carefully climbing through it. At first, Warden thought it might have been Spectre, but this batpony was larger and heavier. He stepped completely through the window, dropping down onto the floor and then bowing in Kuno’s direction. “Madam?” Kuno stared at this new intruder in her home, and pursed her lips. “Yes?” Shadowwing turned to the new batpony, and nodded. “My name is Onyx, madam. And I caught my superior washing blood from her face and hooves on the night of the murder. Right after hearing commotion from the grounds here. I am certain she is the murderer.” Kuno fretted, her front hooves dancing, weight shifting from one to the other and back again. “You’re certain? She’s the murderer? You’re really just telling me?” “Really,” Shadowwing responded calmly. “It is in my best interest, after all.” “Yes, yes it is,” Kuno almost growled. “Spit it out, who murdered my friend?” “A batpony by the name of Umbra.”