Eoin ran for his life, giggling through the black beret in his mouth. The guards that had been escorting Nikhilus were now running after him. Why? Well, the reason why is because the human gave the half-Pony, half-Deer his beret, and now Celestia thinks that Nikhilus is attempting to smuggle out a contingency plan, perhaps a way to escape his prison. It was Discord himself who admitted, while on one of those late night chats from the confines of his own statue, that humans could be much more chaotic than even an avatar of chaos. Very worrying indeed.
And so, while Celestia worked on encasing the soldier in stone, her guards were hard at work under purpose of national security. Of course, they have no need to worry, as Nikhilus gave Eoin his beret as a symbol of rebellion, a rallying banner, if you will, for the Lunar Underground, which is still unknown to most of Equestria. Those that are a part of it are very hush-hush about it.
Really, it was Nikhilus that started the Lunar Underground, a forum for the maintenance of knowledge and information that Princess Celestia allowed to disappear, either through sheer incompetence, or purposeful destruction. Being from the background where the wanton destruction of information of any kind being a felony punishable by death, Mr. N strove to restore and preserve the knowledge of this new world. Thus began the Underground, and it had soon grown to distribute goods and provide safety to those that had no protection of the Princess’.
When Eoin had told Nikhilus where he was from, the man gave the pony his beret with a white-on-blue patch of a crescent moon to use for recognition. Eoin was told to make copies of it with a special difference, a red border around the patch as opposed to the silver of the original, and dispense the copies throughout the Underground to its leaders.
Now, though, Eoin had to escape his new friends.
He bolted his way through the streets of Canterlot, the noisy clatter and clank of their armor just a few steps behind him. Whenever he thought that he lost them, one would be just around the corner, waiting to catch him. This went on for nearly an hour before he had a great thought: he would mingle with the crowds. Eoin decided that he would go to Pony Plaza.
So he charged down Canter Boulevard, sticking to plain sight and slowed his gallop to a light trot, his heavy breathing slowing to a slight exhaustion. Looking around the bustling Plaza, he spotted two more guards, which sent him on edge. Luckily for him, they didn’t have their helmets on, and so he recognized the pair as two of his only three friends in the Royal Guard. Dewdrop glanced his way before smiling and waving him over to Donut Joe’s.
“Hey, Eoin. What’s the matter, running from, some…pony…” that was when she noticed the beret between his teeth. She knew what it meant, as did the Socks twins and her brother, as they were all in the same boat.
Eoin reverently laid the black beret on the countertop, wary of stray sprinkles, “Yeah, we were making the exchange when Celly saw me. I didn’t even think she’d notice.”
“And that’s where you goofed, mate,” White Socks cut in.
“Yeah, you think I didn’t know that? Well, anyway, now I have a bunch of your comrades after me, and so to cut it short: hide me!” and with that, Eoin dove behind the counter as White and Dewdrop just shook their heads. A moment later, Eoins hoof came out of its hiding place just long enough to snag a donut from White’s box.
No sooner as it was hidden had three guards clanked up to the shop, clearly out of breath. “E-excuse me, ah, sir,” one of them panted out, “but have you seen a tall grey pony with a purple mane and tail come by here?”
“Yes, actually,” Dewdrop raised an eyebrow. “He went that way, down Prescolt Avenue. I assume he broke the law?”
“Y-yes, ma’am. He stole a black beret from the human prisoner that the Princess brought from Yadrolev.”
“Ah, then in that case, I’d go after him myself. Unfortunately, I’m off both duty and out of uniform, so you might want to catch up to him?”
The plucky guard nodded tiredly, having chased Eoin through half of Canterlot, before the trio left in that very direction. A few seconds after they galloped out of the Plaza, Eoin whispered, “Are they gone?” to which Joe replied by heaving the smuggler to his hooves. “Ah, thanks for the save, Dewey.”
“No problem, but next time, it won’t be something as important as this,” she pulled the beret out of her guardsmare’s bag of holding. Just after Eoin had hidden, she scooped the article into said bag alongside all of the bits she carries around. A bag of holding, an amazing creation made by the teamwork of unicorn mages and griffon alchemists. Guardsponies are issued one in order to collect evidence, or to carry more things. One for civilians are much more expensive, and are normally purchased by paranoid nobles to lug around all of their cash, or adventurers that delve into ancient ruins or even the Everfree.
“Yeah, I know,” Eoin muttered, scratching his head sheepishly.
Joe pulled out a washcloth and started wiping down his counter. It was already spotless, but the pony always did this when he was either nervous or thinking about something important. His sister took notice of it almost immediately. “Joe? What are you thinking?”
Wordlessly, he nodded. Eoin raised an eyebrow, glancing between Dewdrop and White for an answer before Joe finally spoke, “We’ll have to talk to the Boss.”
[/HR]
Well, this is certainly something I didn’t expect, Nikhilus thought aloud from the confines of his stone prison. It’s one thing to be turned into stone, but to have nothing but your own mind as company for the entirety of your sentence? That’s beyond cruel and unusual, and when it’s a Novan Specialist that’s saying that? You know it’s pretty bad.
Ah, I have a new friend! How kind of Celly to give me another roommate, and one that is actually interesting, too! The statue across from the recently stoned human appeared to be the approximate origin of the voice.
And, ah, if you’ll pardon me, who the hell are you? a pigeon fluttered to land atop Nikhilus’ helmeted head, just about where the beret would normally have been.
If the other statue could, it would have suddenly been wearing an Armani suit with a moustache and monocle. I wouldn’t have expected you to know me anyway, Nicky. My name is Discord, and I am the very embodiment of Chaos! If there is anything you need, please wait until I am released from this blasted shell before getting in line. Another pigeon perched itself on the statue’s lower jaw, looking like it was about to….well, you get the idea.
Well, right now you’re a toilet for the birds, so I’d close my mouth if I were you- oh wait!
The bird flew away, leaving behind a present. Oh, ha ha, you think you’re so funny, don’t you?
Nikhilus laughed as best he could in his immobile position, Yes, as a matter of fact, I do. Just get over it, and wait until someone decides to clean you up, I can smell you all the way over here.
You know, that’s not exactly a good way to make friends, because it looks like we’re stuck with one another until you get free… Great, now Nikhilus almost felt bad.
Almost.
Yeah, well I don’t care right now. If you want to try to be my friend, go ahead! I just might not reciprocate the formalities.
That was that, as Discord just up and gave in. It’s not like he wanted any friends; he lived for a couple thousand years without them. But, still...at least one would be nice.
The two statues just sat there, Discord musing to himself while Nikhilus tried desperately to twiddle his thumbs. He should have made that pose, instead of the ‘heroic’ salute of his people. Holding one’s forearm ramrod straight to one’s right eyebrow all while standing stiff as an obelisk isn’t exactly a smart way to spend one thousand years. Yes, a comical pose would have been much better. Maybe he should have used only one finger for the salute instead of the regular stance?
Sooo....want to play a game? Mr. N offered when he gave up his futile attempt at passing the time.
[/HR]
“...and this is the Statue of Treachery. Can anypony tell me what this particular statue represents?” Miss Cheerilee waved her hoof in a showpony fashion at Mr. N, who just so happened to be singing “99 Trillion Bottles of Beer on the Wall” with the other participant of a practically forced friendship. Turns out, the two statues had a lot in common. Right now, they were on their 976,214th bottle of beer on the wall, and wouldn’t have been surprised if they had to start over after 55 years of their cursed song. As it is, they’re already on their ninth run through of the song, occasionally mixing the beer with rum, vodka, tequila and tonic.
Then a pink filly with a diamond-studded tiara scoffed, interrupting the statues’ song. “Well, duh! Treachery? You said it yourself, Miss Cheerilee.” Already Nikhilus despised the spoiled pony.
Instead of getting angry, which any proper teacher that wasn’t an elementary school teacher would have been, Miss Cheerilee rolled her eyes. “No, Diamond Tiara, but you are close!” If Nikhilus could have even moved his wrist, his hand would have been in a rough approximation of a very well known gesture. “This statue, while indeed representing treason and betrayal, was crafted one thousand years ago by Canterlot’s best craftsponies in order to demonstrate the dark and evil nature of a long-dead species, which was infamous for gaining somepony’s trust, only to betray that trust the chance they got.”
Really?! One thousand years ago? How did they get that from fifty years? And I didn’t betray anyone, Treason is a forbidden crime, punishable by death where I’m from! Mr. N’s rampaging rant was completely internalized, unheard by the ponies at his feet.
Shortly after they had stopped marvelling at the “craftsponyship” of Nikhilus, they moved on to Discord, who was rather smug at how they actually got his history right. Soon enough, three of the fillies had started fighting, one touched Discord’s belly, and boom! A wild crack appeared! H-h-hey! When you get out, wanna bust me too?
Hmmm...let me think… Discord broke out into cackles as Nikhilus metaphorically narrowed his eyes at the draconequus. Soon enough, Discord stopped, his laughter slowly dying down. Oh, all right. Just don’t look at me like that…
Yes!...Okay, so, we wait?
Yup.
Oh....Well, where were we? he said, practically scratching his brain. Ah, fuck it. 99 trillion bottles of beer on the wall, 99 trillion bottles of beer!
You take one down, pass it around, 98 trillion, 999 billion, 999 million, 999 thousand, 999 bottles of beer on the wall! Discord joined in, the pair now raucously jingling their melody, patiently waiting for the Statue of Chaos to break free. Yeah, it’s gonna be a little while…