//------------------------------// // Finding the Guardians 1: Loyalty – Part 1 – The end of a day // Story: The Life of an Engineer - The unwanted Adventures // by Hoppa_21 //------------------------------// “You are pathetic.” A sentence, which I heard quite a lot during my life. However, it didn’t come from the voice in my head this time. This was a voice from the past. An all too familiar voice, which I wanted to forget. “But…” I said between sobs. “Did I give you permission to talk back?” said the strict voice. “I’m waiting for an answer.” “No. I-I’m sorry,” I said, still sobbing. “Good. And now stop your pathetic sobbing. You will do this until you succeed and until that no dinner for you,” said the pony, while turning around. I didn’t protest. I didn’t have permission to talk back. I just endured it. This was my life, I had to accept it or that’s what I thought back then. Things have changed over the time and so did the future for me. But that didn’t mean, that I would just forget the past, even if I wanted to forget it, it was always there. I sobbed some more, as the pony went out of the room and I ended up crying, while I did what the voice demanded. “G!” I heard somepony screaming. I didn’t realize at the moment, that the voice meant me. It all seemed so surreal. “G, wake up!” I heard it again, while tears streamed down my face. “Come on, G! God, tell me you are not dead!” said the voice quite panicked. “Don’t tell me I have to do CPR. God… Ok G, I’m not letting you go anywhere!” she said, as I reluctantly opened my eyes. Maybe I should explain at this point, that she forgot to check my pulse and breathing. If she would have checked them, it would be obvious, that I didn’t need CPR. But she probably slept through half of the medical lessons, so that it didn’t even puzzle me, that she was really going to try CPR out. Well, where were we? Right, I just opened my eyes. Her face was so close. I didn’t realize, what was going on at the moment. I just opened my eyes and a face was right in front of me. Of course I panicked. “Ouch!” could be heard in stereo, as I stood up so fast, that our heads clashed together. I wallowed on the ground in pain, holding my head in both hooves. Rainbow Dash rubbed the place with her hoof meanwhile, but could gather her posture quick. She approached me and talked to me, before I could gather my thoughts. “That hurts, you know?” she said a little sore, “But I’m glad that you are not dead,” she begun smiling. “Dead?” I wondered. “Yeah. After the light covered you we got teleported outside somehow, but you didn’t move a bit. The only reaction were tears. I thought you would die or would have died through…whatever that just was back there,” she gestured in the direction, where we probably came from, “I mean, those stones just sank into your body. I don’t even know, what to say about this.” I tried to recall the events that happened and she was right. There were those gems, which sank into my body and then, there were those…images and the…voice? Elements of Harmony, what is this supposed to mean, I thought silently to myself, but Rainbow didn’t like that I exclude her from my thoughts. “What do you know about it?” she begun, “You seem to be pretty meditative, as soon as I mentioned it.” “Well…there was this voice, that was talking about, I don’t know, the Elements of Harmony?” The end sounded more like a question, since I didn’t know, what I should think of it either. I mean, some gems just sunk into my body! How do you react to something like that! Actually I didn’t want to think about it for a moment. I hate it, if I can’t understand something. Probably comes from my job. I get easily frustrated over things that can't be explained logically and I didn’t have a explanation, let alone a solution for this. “Elements of Harmony? What the hay is that?” she asked. I just shook my head. I just didn’t have a clue. Or I had a clue. Maybe an old fairy tale, but this was only a suspicion. Maybe I was wrong. “Whatever. We should still figure that out later. But first, we should keep going,” she said determined. “Keep going? Where?” I said slightly confused. “The military base, duh!” she said, while rolling her eyes. “Remember the thing, about kicking the changelings flanks with the military to get a promotion. And I need you to testify the story anyway. Ponies tend to believe two ponies more than one, especially after the crazy stuff, that has happened down there.” “Oh, right…” I trailed off a bit, as she led the way. I didn’t move though. “What are you waiting for?” she asked. I blushed slightly, as I began, “Well…I’m naked…” She tilted her head incredulous. “So what? It is not like we need to wear clothes always anyway.” “I-I-I…” I stuttered, unable to say it out loud. “What? Just spit it out!” she said impatiently. “I can’t just walk into a crowd like this! I will collapse! I need some stability in my life, I need my clothes! I need my top hat! I can’t just walk in front of them naked! Everything is exposed! They will see my stallion parts!” With the ridiculous thing being said out loud, Rainbow Dash begun laughing uncontrollably. “Bwahahaha!” It took her a while to gain her composure again. Hey, believe it or not, I was serious about it. I can’t walk there naked in front of a huge military crowd! Maybe my choice of words was bad, but still no need to laugh at it like that, right? I sighed humiliated, as her laugher died slowly. “Stallion parts, seriously?” she said still giggling. I was deep red at this point. Can’t I just die now? I thought to myself in deep embarrassment. Why? I’m enjoying the show, said the voice in my head. Really thanks for that! It helped me feel better a LOT! Stupid voice. “I hope you know, that your clothes don’t really hide it,” she said still grinning. “Yeah, could be, but it feels like they are hiding it and that is what matters to me.” Stupid explanation, right? But I don’t feel naked with the clothes and that’s what matters to me. I have a very sensitive sense of shame, you know. “You are really strange, G. Whatever, your house is on the way, if I remember it right. You can ‘cover your stallion parts’ *snicker* if you want to. But do it fast, we don’t have time to lose,” she said amused. I nodded. My face was still a deep shade of red at this point and it would probably take a while to go back to its normal green colour. God, this was a lot more embarrassing than the drooling scenes. I tried to forget this scene and to never speak of it again. We reached my house after a short while. I immediately ran inside to gather my clothes. At this point I was glad, that I had a spare top hat. It didn’t take two minutes until I was ready to go. I mean, I knew how important this was for Rainbow Dash and I didn’t want to let her down. I never want to let anypony down. Especially the ones that treat me well. We hurried to the military base, but were stopped by the military itself shortly before we could reach it. “Rainbow Dash and Steam Gear?” asked a pony in armor. “Yeah, that’s us. Good that you are already here. I need to talk to the captain of the guard,” said Rainbow determined. “You are under arrest, because of the strong suspicion, of a collaboration between you and the changelings,” declared the guard, as the other guards surrounded us. Neither of us were pleased by this. Rainbow Dash protested loudly and asked, what this ‘crap’, her words not mine, was about. She had quite the vocabulary, when angered. I looked around, while she argued, what we had no time for this. I agreed with her, but our situation wasn’t that good. We were surrounded by pegasus and unicorn guards, all ready to strike, if we would try something stupid. It was a fact for me now, that the military was infiltrated. I didn’t want to take any chances on this one and saw only one solution and this solution was to flee. I grabbed Rainbow Dash and prepared for teleportation, but it failed. “What are you doing, G? We don’t have time for hugs!” she said annoyed. I couldn’t teleport and was confused at this. A mint-green unicorn guard stepped closer. “We have constructed an anti-magic-barrier. You can’t flee from us.” I was quite shocked and panicked immediately. Looking around for an opening. My pulse raised, as well as my breathing, which quickened. No escape, no hope. I almost hyperventilated, as Rainbow Dash turned to me and deoxidized me. Thing weren’t looking good. Rainbow looked around and knew, that we had to follow along. There was simply no escape. “Fine then. But I need to talk to the captain, as soon as possible. Got it, Lyra?” she huffed and then we followed the unicorn guard along after she nodded. The guards took their time to place a Nullifier on my horn, a small device, that technically nullifies all magic of the carrier. These devices were useful to get criminal unicorns under control. Getting treated like a criminal... I felt numb. It was all like a bad dream. Every time, when I thought thinks would lighten up, they just got worse again. The more the military was infiltrated, the easier they could get us back to the hive. The sun was already setting. I wished, that I would have just slept through this day. Why did I have to stand up on this day? It was just bad luck. No pony could have seen this coming. Soon we reached the base and were led down into a cellar, where we had to go into two separated cells. I took it better than last time, probably because I just escaped another cell a few hours ago and that Rainbow Dash was my cellmate, since she was in the cell right next to me. I slumped onto the bed without hesitation. I know, that I just slept through, but I was still really sleepy. I guess the stress was really getting to me. My life was this morning so uncomplicated and now it was a real mess. I didn’t know, what would happen next and this was the worst, the uncertainty. Rainbow on the other hoof, seemed to have a lot of energy left, since she annoyed the guards constantly, urging them, to get the captain here immediately. I let out a sigh. “The military is infiltrated. We don’t even know, if we can trust your captain.” Rainbow turned to me, anger in her eyes, “The military is not infiltrated! We have to do checks every morning, to ensure that!” I never really asked her about her work, but now I was curious. My question was cut off back then, as she covered my mouth with her wing. The memory alone was enough to elicit a dreamy sigh. Focus on the task on hoof, I heard the voice in my head say. I didn’t argue with it, since it was right. I had to focus. I slowly breathed in, before I asked the question, which was on my mind. “What kind of tests, exactly?” I said, as I was wondering about it. Rainbow tried to get calmer again and answered, “Easy. It is about the three tribes of ponies. Changelings are only average at everything, while pegasus ponies are the better fliers, earth ponies are stronger and unicorns better at magic. Ponies are specialized by tribe,” she was suddenly wondering, “Although this should be common knowledge around here, since we technically live next to the changelings wasteland. However, that is why pegasus have flight tests every morning, like unicorns have magic tests and so on. It is the best and fastest way to tell, if you are one of them or not. Blood tests take days, that’s why we use those physical tests.” “I understand and there is no way in cheating or just skipping them?” I asked curiously. “No. Our captain is the only one, who could let a pony skip a test, if something important is the matter, but since he is a minotaur, changelings can’t replace him anyway.” she answered with confidence. She really seemed to trust this system. However, I didn’t understand the last part and needed to ask again. I’m just no expert, when it came to changelings. I didn’t care much about them. “So…why exactly can’t they replace him?” I asked and regretted it immediately as Rainbow Dash groaned and facehoofed. “Have you ever seen a minotaur or do you just don’t have a clue, what changelings are capable of?” she asked rhetorically, before she continued, “Changelings can’t transform into something, that has a completely different shape or is a lot larger than them. And a minotaur is of course a completely different shape and too large for them! I can’t believe, that I have to explain something like this.” Well, that was a little rude of her, but also understandable. It was easy to see, how frustrated Rainbow Dash was with sitting in a cell. She wanted to take the changeling hive down and get promoted, but the chances of promotion got smaller, since the changelings seemed to control the situation we were in. Even if the changelings didn’t infiltrate the military far, they somehow did infiltrate it at least a little, I mean, I’m sitting in a cell here! Maybe they influenced their captain somehow. I don’t know. Best thing is to let the topic drop, since Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to like ponies who bad-mouth about the military. With nothing left to do, I just took the blanket and tried to sleep, but for some reason, Rainbow Dash disliked my action. “Geeze, G. This is not the right time for sleep. The captain can arrive here, any minute,” she uttered. I personally doubted that. Who said, that he would even come down here? It is possible, that he works for the changelings or is influenced by them and in this case, we couldn’t really count on him anyway. And I really didn’t want to stay up, doing nothing. “Do I really have to stay up?” I asked, still hoping, that she would change her mind. “Of course you do!” she sighed, “Sometimes you are a real pain in the ass, G.” I sighed then too. That’s it with my well-deserved rest. Ok, maybe not well-deserved, since I didn’t do that much at all, besides getting ponynapped, but I really could have used it. God, I was so tired back then. Maybe I should have tried the puppy eyes technique I read about in some books, but then again, I didn’t know how that works. Mental note to myself: Learn the puppy eyes technique. You could really need it in the future. If there is a future, that is. But now I had other problems. I was bored. I know. Maybe hard to believe, if you consider, that I panicked not long ago, but the sleepiness can change your point of view very easily. I looked around, trying to find another way to keep myself occupied. I soon found something. The guards in front of our cells were pegasus ponies and they were standing with their backs to us! Who said, you couldn’t have a gorgeous view from a cell? While I leaned back, I enjoyed the precious wings of the guards. Really a lovely view. It put me at ease. “What are you doing, G?” Rainbow Dash asked puzzled, as I looked dreamily at the guards wings. “Just enjoying the view. Those guards have some gorgeous wings,” I said without thinking about my words, as they left my mouth. Seems like sleepiness can let your mouth a little loose. Rainbow Dash looked more than just a little confused. “Their…wings?” I just realized what I had said then and tried immediately to backpedal, “I-I-I mean, there is nothing else to look in here, is there?” I rubbed my head sheepishly and let out a nervous giggle. She didn’t buy it. Probably, because of the word ‘gorgeous’. Why did I have to say that? She gave me an incredulous look, “You know, I’m waiting for a real explanation, G.” Well, seems like I have to put my fascination into words, that are not creepy. Let’s give it a try. What can possibly go wrong? Maybe I should start at the beginning, the purest form of fascination. “I always wanted to fly. I just wanted to fly away from my problems and be free, like a bird. Not that I disliked being a unicorn, I loved it, but I still wished that I could fly too. With such gorgeous, feathery, soft…” And here I go again, but at least I could stop myself, before it got creepy and I would have started to drool. I didn’t want Rainbow Dash to connect these two. But I didn’t have time to think about it, since somepony just entered the cellar. It was an old minotaur and Rainbow Dashes eyes lit up with hope, as soon, as she saw him. “Captain Iron Bill! Good that you are here,” she pressed herself against the iron bars, “You need to listen to me. There is an entire hive under the town. The changelings already begun infiltrating the city. We need to take them down now!” she said emphatically. The minotaur stepped closer, “Iron Bill will hear your side of the story, but Iron Bill hopes for you, that it is convincing. Iron Bill has quite some evidence against your friend here.” That sounded serious and it got me worried. Worried enough, so that I didn’t even mind his strange way of speaking at the moment. However, Rainbow Dash wouldn’t turn her back on this matter now, so she started to tell him everything she knew. The most interesting point for me was, the part at the beginning. I had no clue, how she even knew, that I was kidnapped. It seemed like she was ‘patrolling’ through the city, when she saw me walking into the park. My money is still on sleeping on a cloud though. Anyway, a pony was following me and at the end I came out there a whole lot later, than I should have been and the other pony behind me didn’t show up at all. This rose her alarm bells, so she thought, she could ask about her order and see, if she finds something suspicious about me. She could immediately tell, that it wasn’t me, because and here I quote: “He didn’t smell that bad like Steam Gear does, with all the metal working and oil.” Of course I took a sniff at me immediately, to see, if I really smelled that bad, but it didn’t occur to me. Maybe I was just used to the smell. But it definitely didn’t help my self esteem. Thanks Rainbow! You always put things so bluntly and unadorned! She then moved on to the finding me part, where she at least skipped my mental breakdown and moved on to the blocked door and then to the dead end, with the tree. I’ll be honest. She should have just lied about the blocked path, because, let’s be honest here, a white light, together with a blue tree and flying gems plus teleportation at the end isn’t very convincing and that was also the way Iron Bill saw it. “A white light, which let you escape?” Iron Bill snorted, “Iron Bill is not convinced by that.” “But it is the truth!” defended Rainbow Dash. “Let Iron Bill explain you the way, he sees it,” he said in a calm tone, before he started his side of the story. “Iron Bill believes that your friend Steam Gear here is a mercenary, who was hired by –“ “That is ridiculous!” shouted Rainbow Dash. I thought the exact same thing at the same time. I mean, me a mercenary? Rainbow Dash saw my mental breakdown and my crying and all the weirdness of me, so she knew exactly, that this story wouldn’t fit at all. She continued, “Did you even take a close look at him? No offense, G, but you are not the type, who has nerves of steel or anything remotely like that.” I didn’t take any offense out of it. I mean, she was right. I probably would make the worst mercenary. I’m just no mercenary material, like I’m no hero material. I only got out of the hive because of Rainbow Dash. So he could trash this idea immediately. Not that, he would give it up so easily. He seemed convinced of this ridiculous idea and I soon found out why. “It is, as it is. Iron Bill heard about Queen Chrysalis seeking the help of some infamous mercenaries and one of them seems to be an engineer, just like Steam Gear. Of course, this is not enough to accuse him of that,” he made a small pause and then rummaged some papers out of his jacket. “Iron Bill has a witness, who told us about strange devices in your shop, which you gave to some suspicious ponies. It seems, that those devices are magic blockers, which can block of unicorn magic, for example, as well as devices that can capture Iron Bill and his companions, with a magic barrier. You wanted to trap us!” he said accusingly. This order was for a special customer, who liked to hunt down magical creatures, he can’t blame me for that! “It is-“ I said, but was immediately cut off by him. “Iron Bill already checked your records and couldn’t find your customer for this in our data base, but not only that, as soon as the guards checked your identity, they found out, that it was faked. There is no such pony, like Steam Gear registered in the data base. The name is false, as well as your behavior to disguise your actions. And I'm not even done yet, right Lyra?" I just noticed the unicorn guard from earlier then. I really am inattentive. She seemed to perform some kind of spell, since her horn glowed. Then it suddenly stopped glowing. "Yes, Captain. I can now clearly say, that he uses illusion magic, to disguise his looks. It will probably wear off in the morning." Iron Bill seemed content. "Illusion magic to disguise yourself. Combined with your behaviour I have to admit, that this was very clever. Most ponies wouldn’t believe, that such a coward could be a thread. Well played.” Rainbow Dash snorted, “Please. This is getting more and more ridiculous. I mean, illusion magic? Fake name? It is obvious, that you made a mistake there or the data was stolen by changelings. Of course this is his real name! Right, G?” she turned around to look at me smugly. I just looked away, as I answered, “What’s in a name? It doesn’t define who you are.” Rainbows eyes widened. “Hold up. I was hanging out with you the whole time and you tell me now, that I don’t even know your real name? What ist this when about the illusion magic? Don't tell me they are right with that too!" she asked incredulous. “It doesn’t matter!” I said quite panicked, “It is still me, right? You know me, right?” “I don’t know anymore,” she uttered, “I thought we were friends, and friends tell each other at least their names or show them how they look like! I don't know anything about you!” At the end of the sentence you could clearly hear the anger in her voice. But that wasn’t what hurt me there. She said, that she thought we were friends. I never thought, she would think of me like that and to lose a friend in the moment you recognize, that you have one is tough. It really teared me up. “Let Iron Bill continue on, with his theory,” he began, “There is no such thing as a hive. It is just a trap, to capture all the military of this town at once. Therefore you even brainwashed Rainbow Dash and placed fake memories in her mind. You thought, that Iron Bill wouldn’t doubt the words of his guard and run straight into your ambush.” “Woah, that goes too far captain. He might be an idiot for not telling me his name and the illusion magic, but I don’t believe he could just brainwash a pony as awesome as me. I never even heard of such magic before,” interfered Rainbow Dash. Iron Bills expression darkened, “It is a forbidden magic, which is protected by the guards in Canterlot, but Iron Bill heard, that there are ponies, who obtained that knowledge a long time ago and passed it on. Not many places are known, where you can find it, but it is a known fact in the inner military circle, that Queen Chrysalis is in possession of such magic. She probably taught him everything about it.” My expression darkened with every new accusation. It was hard to hear him say such things about me! I mean, mercenary, trap, dark magic? But the most terrifying thing was, that it all made sense or at least a lot more sense than our own story! Rainbow Dash probably saw that too and I didn’t know, how she would react. There was a silence for a while, before Iron Bill spoke up, “Cat got your tongue? Iron Bill guesses, that he is right then.” “You are not!” I said with a lot more panic in my voice than before, so you could say, that I didn’t sound very convincing. “Rainbow Dash, Iron Bill knows that you were dragged into this by him. Recognize the truth and you can be a guard again. You don’t need to sit here in a cell,” offered Iron Bill. It shocked me quite a bit. I didn’t know what to think of this situation. I was screaming ‘no’ in my head on one side, but on the other I thought, that I would drag her down with me otherwise. I couldn’t say a word and it seemed, that she couldn’t say a word either. “You need to realize the truth. It is probably hard to believe for you, but this was not real. Just forget about him,” said Iron Bill in a calm tone. I couldn’t let him just influence her like that. She needed to make a decision by herself. “You can’t decide, what’s-“ I started, but was interrupted by Rainbow Dash. “Just stop it, G,” she said meekly, “I can’t trust you now. He made some valid points. I will go with him.” Iron Bill nodded, “Yeah. It is the best if you listen to Iron Bill. Our doctor just needs to check you up, to make sure, that you are not suffering under more of this dark magic and then you are free to go back to your normal life.” She turned her back to me and didn’t say another word, as she followed Iron Bill, who has opened her cell and so she made her exit. It hurt so much. There she went, my only friend at this time. I just lost her. This was it for me. The perfect time to give up all hope. Tears streamed down my face, before I could realize it. She took one last glance, before she went with Iron Bill. I couldn’t bear this. I wanted to scream and to kick the cell door, but I was too tired for this, instead I just let my head sunk into the pillow and cried into it. The voice in my head, tried to convince me, to get up and fight, but I couldn’t do that. I was done. I lost all will to fight. I just cried and then cried some more. I cried until I fell asleep. I thought, that I had to accept my fate at this point. You could probably call this the worst day in my life, even though it had some nice feathery moments in it. Things didn’t look that great and I doubted, that it would change. Now that I think about it, I probably broke a new crying record at this day, if there is such a thing. But that was not important at the moment, because I would soon discover, that I have gotten myself into something, that was so much bigger, than I could ever have imagined it. Oh and yeah, this was by the way 'Mental Breakdown Number 2'.