//------------------------------// // Chapter 1 // Story: Ailios Heartstrings // by Phoxxie //------------------------------// The cold Caledonian night air was filled with the distinctive whine of an ornithopter’s twin miniature jet engines. A small group of four trainee air ponies and their pegasus instructor, flew through the darkness in formation. Wings of metal feathers swept back and forth as they passed through a pocket of low pressure, each flap creating a low thumping sound that echoed across the sky. Hung beneath the avian machines, ponies and unicorns swathed in full body flight suits, protecting them against the elements, operated the craft’s controls on the sides of their bodies. One of the larger ornithropers towards the rear of the group shuddered, its wings beating quickly to compensate for a sudden bout of turbulence. “Keep it together back there!” The pegasus commanded into his breath mask. “The heavier craft will stall easily if you don’t pay attention.” “Roger that FS.” Replied a mare’s voice in his left ear accompanied by the sound of background static. The group banked and entered a long glide as they passed low over a grassy hill, the sound wave from their jets kicking up a wave of dust from below them. Beyond the hill the dark shadows that coated the ground were broken by a bright yellow glow that hovered above the valley floor. The wings of metal began to reflect the golden aura from below them. The light revealed a city of half timbered buildings separated by chalky white streets, interrupted with an occasional green space and surrounded by historic battlements. It was unmistakeably the capital of Caledonia, the ancient fortress city of Parleyford. It was at this moment that a mild, though still quite distracting, hissing noise entered the ear of the pegasus sergeant. He was quick to dismiss it as radio interference from the city, but the noise was increasing and soon it was loud enough to get his attention. “Can anypony hear a…” A mare’s voice said in his ear, before being cut short by a loud pop, followed by an ominous silence. On the second floor of what used to be a blacksmith’s workshop, now part of the Caledonian Intelligence complex. Ailios, a pastel green unicorn mare with a lute for a cutie, was slouched against a varnished oak desk. The windows behind her had stopped letting sunlight into the now dimly lit office almost an hour ago and the old desk lamp was not helping to lighten the mood. Ailios’ job could be stressful at times, the waiting she often had to endure was certainly contributing to the problem. It was times like this that made her frustrated that she didn’t get to play the lute as often as she wanted to, but this job had given her all she had needed; a new name, Caledonian citizenship and a comfortable salary. Ailios glanced up at one of the myriad of shelves that lined the walls of her office, which were filled with dusty files and ring binders arranged in no discernable order. ‘Any machine can fail’, she thought to herself. ‘But four aircraft within close proximity crashing at the same time, is no accident. And one of the pilots happened to be the heir of clan Tempest, which makes most political groups prime suspects’. At that moment there was a knock at the office door. “Yes!” Ailios shouted whilst redirecting her gaze towards the door. The door swung open and light began to flood in from the brightly lit hallway, generating a haze of dust that swirled around the centre of the room. Ailios’ eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the outline of the earth stallion that was now entering her office. His coat was beige, with a blue tinted gray mane and his cutie was a magnifying glass. Noticing the squinting unicorn, Eachann quickly stumbled into the room whilst extending a hind hoof towards the door. After a few moments of clumsy waving he managed to push the door shut, much to the relief of Ailios’ retinas. “So?” Ailios exclaimed as she stood up, staring eagerly at the stallion. Eachann replied by impersonating a deflating balloon and rolling his eyes. Taking a step forward to look at one of the dusty shelves he said, “We got some addresses, that’s about it.” The two ponies exchanged knowing glances, it’s seamed that the mood was not the only thing that was dire. “Can you lockup?” asked Ailios, her expression conveying a sense of exhaustion. “I need to get back home to take care of Lyra.” Eachann nodded and proceeded to yawn whilst Ailios reached under the desk to retrieve a light gray trench coat. Donning the coat she walked slowly towards the door also yawning whilst doing so. “I’ll see you later, sweetie.” Ailios commented as she pulled the door open, once again squinting as she entered the narrow medieval hallway. The floorboards had been coated with cheap blue carpeting and the walls had been whitewashed, decorated with scratch marks where passing ponies had rubbed alongside it. Her eyes still half closed she continued to close the door behind her, on which there was a card plaque that read; MINISTRY INVESTIGATORS: A. HEARTSTRINGS and E. HEARTSTRINGS. Most ponies couldn’t stand the idea of working and desk job with their spouse, but working for CI was different. It was like a clan of its own, most of it members where clanless to begin with; a safeguard to prevent infiltration by political double agents. As CI agents where rarely able to socialise with anypony from outside the ministry, everypony within the ministry was both anonymous and family at the same time. Ailios was more than happy to work with her husband. Apart from her sister and her daughter Lyra, he was the family she had. Ailios made her way down a flight of uneven wooden steps at the end of the corridor, wondering how they managed to get the desk into her office. At the bottom was a small room, with another whitewashed corridor leading off it. At the opposite end of the room there was a glass door leading out onto the street and along the far wall was a small sofa, flanked by an office water cooler and a sorry looking potted plant. Ailios gave the water cooler an uncomfortable stare. It always reminded her of one of the few times that she had permitted to enter the paranormal division building. She had been introduced the water cooler over there, who was surprisingly courteous for an office appliance that called itself ARGQUNORXQUEK THE EATER OF WORLDS. Upon exiting the old blacksmiths, Ailios was met with a gust of freezing wind which howled its way around a small courtyard. In its centre was an old well, which had been boarded up a few decades ago when the ministry expanded in to the district. The courtyard was surrounded with tall medieval townhouses and three alleyways branched out from its edge, small piles of snow had been swept into the nooks and corners that lined them. Ailios headed towards the nearest alleyway and began her journey home. Ailios found herself on one of the cities many wide boulevards which where now mostly deserted, aside from the ponies loitering near the entrances of some of the more popular pubs. This one was lined with crimson brick terraced houses; each with a small garden fenced off with low walls toped with iron railings. It had begun snowing again causing the sky to become a murky blur of bleached orange. Street lamps illuminated the gray stone pavement which extended onwards into the moving patterns of airborne snowflakes which hid whatever lay within the distance. On the right edge of the street, Ailios could see a hooded figure wrapped up in several layers of clothing and coated with a cloak that sported a blue moon motif. The mare of ether earth or pegasus geniality was sitting next to a small tin, and appeared to be somewhat content in her task despite the cold weather. Only her face was exposed, reviling that her coat and presumably her mane had been dyed dark blue. Ailios began to search her pockets, eventually finding some spare change. Whilst passing the mare she levitated the assortment of coins with her unicorn magic and dropped them into the tin, causing the loud rattle of several copper and cupronickel pieces colliding with its contents. The donation warranted a response the tins owner: “Blessings of the moon upon thee.” Ailios showed no form of acknowledgement at her remark. Instead she began walking towards the other side of the street. A sickly yellow tungsten filament lamp hung from the kitchen ceiling, directly above the small wooden dining table in its centre. The work surface on one of its walls had a chair pushed against it and was covered in a mixture of breadcrumbs, fragments of crisps and raspberry jam. From one of the room’s exits the sound of a stringed instrument being plucked slightly off key, echoed off the cream walls and wooden floor. A door at one end of the room swung open and a gust of snow laced wind swept in, followed by Ailios. She had just pushed the door closed when she noticed the head of a small teal unicorn filly peering round a corner. “Hi mum!” Lyra exclaimed. The little unicorn grinned happily at Ailios, before retreating back into the living room. Ailios gave a long sigh before removing her trench coat, hanging it by the door. As she did so, she noticed that a gray fedora had been left on the table. ‘I wondered where that went’, she thought. She then noticed the chair pushed up against the work surface. After giving the mess that had been left there a long quizzical stare, she proceeded into the living room. Adjacent to the kitchen entrance was a long padded sofa behind a small coffee table. An ornate wooden radio sat upon a windowsill, next to it was a comfortable looking armchair. Lyra was sitting on it; the blank flanked filly plucked the strings of a small lyre. Ailios began to speak. “Lyra, remember when I mentioned about when you get food…” “I’ll clean it up later!” Lyra mumbled.