//------------------------------// // Finding the Guardians 1: Loyalty - Part 2 - The start of a night // Story: The Life of an Engineer - The unwanted Adventures // by Hoppa_21 //------------------------------// Some of you might have wondered, if you could call my crying into a pillow a breakdown. Since I broke down crying, I would say yes. But let’s get down to a happier subject. You don’t know any subject like that? Well, that makes us two. Here I was sleeping in a cell, waiting for anything to happen. Or technically I was just sleeping and didn’t think of anything in particular. It is probably not the best to think about future events in my position. I couldn’t expect somepony to just come here and free me, which means, I had to free myself, at least, that’s what my voice tried to tell me. Call it self-preservation instinct. Not that I would listen to that voice in my state of mind and I was still asleep too. I didn’t even notice the noise of fighting. I was a heavy sleeper. “Wake up! It’s time to go!” I heard a sharp whisper, which grew steadily louder in its attempts to wake me. Seems like I could expect somepony to free me. Lucky me. I slowly opened my eyes and locked into a pair of golden orbs. Nice eye colour, really. Maybe I should turn my eyes into the same colour. My eyes were a boring brown, just like my mane, so it would be a good idea and improve my look immensely. But I should probably ask myself, who this eyes belong to. I yawned shortly, before noticing the situation and backing away. “Who are -” I asked quite panicked, before a hoof was plugged into my mouth. I rubbed incredulously my eyes. I just woke up and didn’t realize what just happened. It even took me some time to remember, that I was in a cell in the military base in Ironburg. I slowly gathered my thoughts and stared at the pony, which wore a black camo suit, a head band, some armor, and a pair of googles, the ones, that spy’s use. Not that she was wearing them at the moment. They were resting on her head and I could recognize, that she was a unicorn. And now I was also realizing her hoof in my mouth. Ugh! Dirty hooves are the worst! Why can’t she just use her wing! Oh, right. Stupid unicorns with no wings! Of course I could hear the voice in my head chuckling at this. “Stay calm. I will tell you everything later, but now we need to get you out of here,” said the unicorn, as she removed her hoof from my mouth. “We?” I wondered and saw another pony right behind her. It was a pegasus pony. The stupid black camo suit covered her wings! What a shame! She was wearing a device on one of her eyes. Not sure what the use of it was. Could be something to target ponies or something like the googles from the other one to see in the dark, maybe even both. I had to admit, that it was kind of fascinating. I would have liked to just take it off to dissemble it! And if it weren’t for this stupid suit, I would have measured her soft, feathery wings. God, I could have used some measuring back then. Now is not the time for measuring or dissembling. Move! I nodded at the voice in my head. The two ponies at least didn’t question this action. I was just a confused pony for them. “Come with us, if you want to survive,” said the pegasus pony and then started giggling like a little school filly. The unicorn gave her an incredulous look, just like me. What a cliché line. I mean, how often have I read this? You wouldn’t imagine how many adventure themed books use this line. That’s just poor. But let’s just ignore that comment. You could say, that I didn’t understand what was happening and I just hoped, that these two were indeed friendly. At least they freed me from the Nullifier and opened my cell. I guess, it was the best I could hope for. So I followed them. On the way out I saw the pegasus guards from my cell, who were actually changelings. They were knocked out and only their armor reminded me of who they were. Seems like I was right with my infiltration assumption. At any rate I could say, that they were strong. And this could really help my case or, if you like to say it that way, my escape. The military base here was a real fortress completely out of metal and also really big. For me it was like a maze. I was glad, that I had these two ponies with me. I would never find my way out of this alone and they seem to know their way around or at least I hoped they would. My heart was literally racing. I just hoped it would be strong enough to get through with this stress. I’m just not used to getting ponynapped and breaking out of cells, oh and meeting new ponies at that! Meanwhile the pegasus pony leaded the way, flying with grace, as she came to a halt and opened a door quickly. At us were staring at least two dozen guards. Seems like she just opened the door to their quarter. “Oopsie!” said the pegasus pony sheepishly, “It was the door on the other side.” The unicorn facehooved. “Great, now we have to deal with them.” It’s probably not necessary to say, that my heart sank to my boots at this point. Great. She’s a klutz! scoffed the voice in my head. Indeed she is. Wait… I shouldn’t agree with you! Pegasus ponies are graceful and no klutzes! No, I can’t accept this. “Aw, don’t be like that. We will be done fast. This are probably only changelings anyway. No real challenge at all,” said the pegasus mare smiling or at least I thought she was smiling. It was hard to see under the black clothes, which covered her face. Ok. They are crazy, I thought silently to myself. “Yeah and best thing is we alarm all the other guards too. Do I really have to remind you that we have to get him out of here alive,” huffed the unicorn, before she groaned, “Let’s just get this over quickly.” The pegasus lifted her hoof in a rapid motion and shot a small ball of magic out of a device in her hoof, to destroy the lamps, while the unicorn shut the doors so that it got pitch black. I heard several punches and groans and after a minute it was all over. The unicorn opened the door and the room was immediately flooded with light. It revealed, that they did a great job. Every guard was beaten down, but the most terrifying thing was, that most of the guards were indeed changelings. So much for their foolproof changeling test. By that amount of changelings, it was obvious, that their captain was involved. He was the only one, who could have helped them cheat or skip their tests. Rainbow would be disappointed to hear this. Oh yeah, Rainbow… You should forget about her and concentrate on the escape. I mean, she let you down in a cell to rot! Hey! She didn’t mean it! Besides, I lied to her in the first place. Doesn’t matter. Before I could get into an argument with myself even further, the unicorn spoke up. “Enough time wasted. Let’s move on. I will take the lead this time,” she said in a stern voice. The pegasus just giggled sheepishly and rubbed the back of her head at this. I wouldn’t want those two as enemies, after they took out two dozen changelings! Great. And this are our saviors? They may be strong, but they are acting like children, complained the voice in my head. Beggars can’t be choosers, I retorted. True enough. I just hoped this would be over with quickly. But the question that manifested into my mind was: Then what? I obviously couldn’t stay in Ironburg and I didn’t know, who these mares were, nor that they had in mind for me. I was shaking at this point. “You don’t look so good. Want a muffin?” asked the pegasus mare, as she rummaged through her pockets. It didn’t help my nerves, as I went through every scenario I could think of, involving these two. They don’t have to be friendly after all. I paled. The unicorn turned around. “Please tell me, he is not panicking. Just my luck.” She put on a reassuring tone. “Ok, listen to me Steam Gear. You need to breathe slowly. Everything is going to be fine. We are here to protect you, to bring you to safety. No harm will be done to you. But to ensure that we need to get you out of here, so bear with this situation a little longer. Do you understand?” I nodded at her. Her voice was really calming and it let my mind let go of my ‘worst-case-scenario’ thinking. I tried to calm myself as best as I could. Breathing slowly and thinking of something nice. My eyes wandered from the unicorn, to the wings of the pegasus mare. I sighed. “What is it?” asked the unicorn. “N-nothing!” I felt caught. “Just say what it is and we might be able to help you.” My eyes wandered back and forth, unsure of what to do. “Don’t worry about it. We’d do anything to put your mind at ease,” said the pegasus pony behind her with a nod. “Anything?” I wondered and a wicked grin spread across my lips, as a plan formed into my mind. It was only for a short moment and I think they didn’t notice, since Lyra just nodded. “It is kind of embarrassing, but I’d feel a lot safer, if I could hold her wing. But I guess the fabric would make it hard to hold onto it,” I muttered, making sure I looked sheepishly onto the ground and fidgeting with my hooves. Seems like my act was very convincing, since the Pegasus mare slipped her grey wing out of the cloth and reached it out, for me to hold onto it. I hesitated faintly, to make my act perfect and disguise the real reason behind my actions. I was very good at acting unsure and sheepishly, that’s probably because I’m normally acting like that. You could say, that I’m a natural! Acting unsure and sheepishly is nothing you should brag about! Aw, why not? It pays off. Yeah, holding the wing of a pegasus totally pays off! You are just jealous, because you didn’t think of using a weakness as a strength. You could have at least used it for something useful! You could have asked them about their names or who they are or what they are planning after the escape or if they could give you a weapon for self-protection! Nah, a wing to cuddle with is better! I give up. I can’t argue like that. Good. Now that this was handled it was time to concentrate on the more pleasant sides of life. I took the feathery, soft, smooth, flexible, elastic, ‘I could go on for hours’ wing in my hoof. This made life a lot more enjoyable, but I wished, that I would have tried to access this wing with my mouth. Maybe I even could have gotten away with it! Just a little ‘can I grab your wing in my mouth, so that I feel more comfortable’ excuse! Ok, maybe they would have been more skeptical about this and I shouldn’t push my luck, especially in my current situation. I enjoyed the walk now a lot more and wished, that it would never end. Of course I had to watch my drool production in the process. I don’t want to get caught, since this would probably end the hoof holding. We could suddenly hear some guards moving closer. The two made themselves ready to fight, but they didn’t seem to walk into the aisle we were in. They were in a hurry and were saying something about getting somepony under control. “Great. We don’t need such a ruckus right now, but at least, they were not heading our way,” said the unicorn slightly annoyed. “Do you think they found out about the escape?” asked the pegasus pony. “If this were true, when they would have gone a different direction and ran straight into us, so no. But either way, this can make things more complicated. Whatever this is either distracts the guards or alarms them and I’m not staying here to find it out.” With that said, we started moving again. We tried our best to avoid all the guards, who were rushing to god knows there. It was hard, but we still managed. Those two are very attentive. Finally we made it to the main floor. Freedom was within our grasp, but of course it wouldn’t be that easy. The universe seems to hate me. Did I ever mention that before? Well, now I mentioned it. However, we came to the main gate and were almost out, then we were spotted by the Captain itself. Unnecessary to say, that he alarmed everypony and we were soon surrounded. “You open the gate, while I protect him and buy us some time,” ordered the unicorn. The pegasus pony rushed forwards to the opening mechanism in the control room of the opposite. Captain Iron Bill meanwhile used integrated loudspeakers to make his point clear. It was the usual ‘Give up’ speech, that you could expect from any military leader to dishearten our courage. I’m honest here. I was quivering and my courage was even gone before his speech, especially since my nice little wing, that was here to comfort me was taken from me, as the pegasus pony took off. The unicorn and her friend were at least unfazed by the Captains speech. The pegasus mare just reached the control room, when she was punched by the buff, experienced minotaur. She gathered her composure quickly and was ready to faze him. She fired with her device, which was by the way an Innater. Let me shortly explain to you what that is. It lets the bearer use the source of its inner magic. Or to make it even shorter, it was the new device from the Crystal Empire, which I sold to Rainbow earlier. It was interesting to see, that they had such high advanced technology, since it was new developed and I only got the technology myself today! Or yesterday? Wished I knew the time. Maybe it was already tomorrow and today was already over! But I’m straying again, right? Right… where was I again? Oh, right. The fight. The pegasus fired, like there was no tomorrow. Iron Bill tried to shield himself with an Innater shield! Can’t believe that I’m not working for the military. They always have the newest technology available. I only found out about Innaters through the customers from the military. What should I say? News travel slow around here. The Crystal Empire is on the other site of the country, so it’s only natural, that I’m not informed about new technology. It was hard enough to contact some suppliers from the Crystal Empire to get the Innaters. Bureaucracy makes business contracts over the frontiers of a country a lot harder, including custom dues. But that’s off topic again, right? You probably want to hear more about explosions and fights anyway, than some boring technical details. Better get back on topic then, also I must admit, that I personally prefer the latter. Iron Bill dodged her attacks and took steps further towards the mare. She didn’t seem fazed by this and readied her wing blades, before she rushed right through Iron Bill. Of course he dodged the blades and attacked with an offensive Innater, the same which I recommended to Rainbow. The Mare tried to block it, but was surprised by the intensity of the enhanced punch, which hurled her towards the wall. She hit it hard and fell to the ground, then she grinned. Iron Bill looked incredulous, before realization hit him, as he looked down, but it was too late. The explosives she let drop, right before she was hit were exploding and sending Iron Bill flying. The pegasus mare didn’t waste any time and got to the control room, before he could start to recover. She knocked out some guards and then attempted to open the gate. Well, she attempted. The lights flickered, some doors in the distance closed and even a loud alarm came on! The idea to leave her to that task was so stupid, especially since she didn’t seem to know, how to do it! It took several more turns, until she finally opened the door. I can’t say how relieved I was. I slowly approached the gate and slipped through it. When I looked back, to see how the other two were doing. I could see the unicorn mare slowly approaching the gate, as she fought off some guards. I was really worried about the pegasus mare at this point, but she gladly came into view a short few moments later. She then pressed a button, as she slipped through the door as well as the unicorn. The gate suddenly closed itself again and I could hear some small explosions afterwards. Whatever she did seems to at least buy us some time. But of course it was not over. That would have been too easy. In front of the gate were a lot of ponies from the town gathered and they didn’t seem that friendly. “More changelings,” stated the unicorn mare flatly. What a night. And it only just begun.