//------------------------------// // Interlude: Hunting One Who Walks in Death's Hoofsteps // Story: The Two Deaths of Fluttershy // by Draco Dei //------------------------------// A Little Earlier: Corporal Nightflitter of the Nightguard scanned the crowd of costumed ponies, considering how to best locate her target. Espying what she initially mistook for a hippocampus (ironically enough of aqua colored coat) floating in a glass vessel securely lashed in the bed of a small wagon she brightened. She has a good vantage point, and probably time to spare to look at the crowd. Oh, a horn, so she's a narpony, not a hippocampus. In either case it is odd to see one of Abyss's little ponies here. None of the kinds of seaponies usually come this far inland. Odd sort of container, it is like a giant jelly jar or something. I wonder what those two cables going into the water are? she thought silently to herself as she flew towards the stationary wagon. She noticed that one of the cables lead to a small disk about a hoof across, and half a hoof thick, the other lead to a box that was large enough she suspected it may have been placed into the jar via teleportation since it never would have fit through the mouth in one piece. Oh, wait, the large one must be her aerator. I hope it is in good working order. Agitating water by hoof and wing to keep it oxygenated makes CPR look easy by comparison and the jar being so tall for its amount of open surface area wouldn't help either. She made a face at the memory of that particular training exercise and flew a little faster gathering a few looks from the crowd below her, and causing a grey pegasus with some sort of eye condition's flight to become even more wobbly as Nightflitter flew passed her with less than two hooves of clearance. I don't see any bubbles, but she seems perky enough. Coming to a hover above the jar she tapped it with a hoof. Two hooves trailing white-streaked membranes that stretched back towards the narpony's tail (rather than the flight-limbs of the aerocampi) emerged from the water to hook themselves over the rim of the jar, followed by a head with a similarly white-streaked mane. "Can I help you officer?" said the seapony, sounding a bit out of breath. "Corporal Nightflitter of The Nightguard. Have you seen this stallion?" said Nightflitter, still hovering on her membranous wings as she showed the seapony a drawing. "Krastos? Oh dear... nope, I haven't seen him tonight. I take it somepony died?" "I'm afraid I'm not at liberty to say." "I'm Lyra by the way." the narpony said, then turned to the front of the cart "What about you Bon Bon?" "I haven't seen him either." said Lyra's sworn housemate from the harness of the wagon fiddling with the plastic axe that was doing a rather poor job of appearing to be embedded in the side of her neck. Lyra submerged and her gills fluttered several times as she gasped for breath before her horn glowed and she surprised Nightflitter greatly by taking unicorn form. Wow, that's a pretty powerful talent for somepony whose cutie-mark doesn't seem to have anything to do with magic directly. She surfaced again and gave the high-powered aerator below her the stink-eye before flipping the air-pump on with rather more telekinetic force than was strictly necessary. "Celestia banish this thing." she said as she pulled herself a little higher with her forelegs to get her head fully clear of the frothing mass of bubbles the water had become. "What's wrong with it?" asked Nightflitter. "Technically nothing. It works fine at home, but the bubbles obscure my 'costume'. It wouldn't be so bad if I had had the time to practice my dirges. All I had prepared was an ancient Coltic murder ballad, and I can't get through the whole thing before the water runs out of oxygen." Nightflitter noticed that the "cable" that wasn't actually an air-hose lead to one of two microphones, the other of which was mounted a few inches above the rim of the jar. She also noticed the lyre laying on the bottom of the jelly-jar. Despite her mission, the nightguard couldn't resist asking "Can't you just use the microphone that is above the water?" "Not very well. I rewrite everything I play for alternation between above and below the waterline. Changes the sound you see... and you wouldn't believe how hard it was to come up with a tuning that worked for it, but when I finally got it... horn-talent, mark-talent, and stunted growth all working together. Plus my physical therapist..." she said, gesturing fondly to the beige earthpony in the harness. Nightflitter filed away the "stunted growth" comment. It seemed she needed to do more research on hippocampi. I really need to get back to business... one more question won't hurt though "Wait. How could a physical therapist help with stunted growth? I mean it must have worked since you don't seem small to me." "My sea-form is bit 'shrimpy' if you will excuse the pun. Having equal weight makes transforming so much easier though. The doctors said I would have been about three hooves longer if my horn-talent and cutie-mark had been something else. As for the therapy, I had gotten my mark before I ever tried walking on four hooves." Oh, so Bon Bon taught her how to live on land. thought Nightflitter. "Well, I gotta keep looking. If you see Mr Gluemaker, tell him to find one of us, or head towards Fluttershy's cottage until he hits the blockade. Spread the word." "Sure thing!" the two Ponyvillians chorused. "You both know what he looks like?" "Err... he is the signal of death, the poor stallion. Everypony notices him most days, even when he is just buying groceries." replied Bon Bon. "Ah, I see. Well, you both understood what I said?" "He should come find you, or head toward's Fluttershy's cottage, and we should spread the word." said Lyra. "That's it. Bye!" "Bye!" Bon Bon said. "Bye!" called Lyra after the retreating pegasus. As Nightflitter resumed her search of the crowd, she heard Lyra say, "Maybe if you got up on the cart and turned the aerator on when I went above the waterline?" A few minutes later: . "Sir!" called Nightflitter after a retreating unicorn with burgundy fur just barely visible under the white makeup The short pony turned around, and tried to look as professional as one can while dressed as a clown (he had bought the costume second hoof from the mayor). "Let's get out of the road." was all he said. "Sir, are you Krastos the Glue-maker?" "That I am." "Come with me." "I don't have my forms or anything with me... this is the one night a year I let myself be less than completely prepared." "You won't need your usual forms." "Where are we going?" asked the undertaker, butcher, tanner, and, of course, maker of glue for use in commemorative furniture. "The house of one of the...", Nightflitter caught herself, remembering that the stations and legal status of the Bearers of the Elements were not to be discussed where word might get back to the bearers themselves. "That is... we are going to Fluttershy Softwing's house." "Is she OK?" "I don't know all the details, and what I DO know I can't say until we are out of hearing of other ponies." said the nightguard, gesturing down the road out of town towards the Everfree Forest and Fluttershy's cottage. "Now look here missy, if you are trying to tell me she bent one of the rules, you got another think coming. She'd NEVER do any such thing. She can be a bit greedy when it comes to her animals, but she would never, and I do repeat NEVER take it that far. Even if she wanted to, she's absolutely terrified every time she handles anything to do with her Class Two. Thinks she will be arrested if not only every i isn't dotted and t crossed, but if the dots aren't all the same size and the crosses all the same length. She got her friend Twilight named her assistant just so Twilight could check her paperwork before she sends it in, and observe her for the first few servings to make sure she is following every procedure. But you know what? I WANT her carnivore-feeding license revoked: Go for it! She can't handle it. She's too delicate for even a Class One, let alone a Class Two. I TAUGHT her how to butcher animals, may Celestia forgive me, for I don't know if I will ever fully forgive myself. But if you hurt her in any way, I swear to Celestia I will see you banished to a comet or something." "Look, I don't know anything about that. Everything I know is for the short-term, and I'm not supposed to go spreading it around. You certainly aren't being called on to testify against her or anything like that. Geez colt, calm down." "I'm probably twice your age." "Then I would recommend that you kindly start acting it... sir." said Corporal Nightflitter. "Well, you can expect an apology when and if this turns out to be anything other than trying to charge the sweetest mare in town on some technicality. I don't like people threatening Fluttershy. She needs protecting." "Whatever", said Nightflitter, rolling her cat-slit blue eyes," let's trot." Some trotting later: "Hold on, let me get out of these pants. The previous owner was a bit larger than me, and I didn't want to deal with Rarity faking a faint when I walked in. I did a good enough job myself with the fore-leg sleeves, but I keep stumbling on the hems in the back." Nightflitter had read the profile on the Element of Generosity, and thus simply waited patiently as the stallion removed the problematic piece of his costume, rolled it up, and stuffed it down the neck of the matching shirt. "So... a rocking chair?" "There is this mare in town by the name of Granny Smith. Got my mark when my grandfather let me help him boil down the hooves of her dearly departed second husband. Or rather when I came along on the delivery of the keepsake chair that Mr Highback made with the glue." "Better than a tombstone I guess." "Indeed. But what is this about Fluttershy?" The guardsmare looked around in a full-hemisphere check to make sure they would not be overheard. "She will be unavailable for the next few days. We are going to formally transfer the animal-feeder post for The Greater Ponyville Area." "Is she alright?" "I'm very sorry, but I simply don't know. You could try asking the officer in charge when we get to her house. I DO know that she is still legally alive." "Wait... LEGALLY alive? Were those the exact words you were told to use?" inquired Krastos the Glue-maker. "Well, yes.That means she is missing and we acknowledge at least a slight possibility she might be dead, even as we will not accept such a conclusion until we have positive proof." "No, that is 'missing, search continues with hope', believe me, it is on the yearly exam I have to take." "Doesn't sound exactly central to your profession." said Nightflitter, her brow furrowing underneath her helmet slightly in confusion. "It isn't. It is on the test anyway. Wish they would take that sort of thing off." "I see." "Well, that means she COULD be undead. Or they are just keeping the options broad to keep things more secret. Maybe she is off on some sort of errand for Celestia. She's been on some of those before, although she squeaked so quietly when I asked her for details I have no idea what she is doing." "Squeaked?" asked Nightflitter. "When she gets really nervous her voice sorta turns into this very quiet squeak with no words in it. In any case, I guess she must be really good with the animals for Celestia to be telling her to do stuff for her." I have no words for how oblivious this stallion is. I suppose that is a good thing? "Ah, I see you found him. Good work!" called out another pegasus guard as they came into view of the barricade of yellow and black saw-ponies linked with police-tape that had been thrown up around Fluttershy's cottage at a radius of about sixty pony-lengths. "Ah, Krastos, this is Staff Sergeant Breaking Hoof, the officer in charge of this operation." said Corporal Nightflitter, saluting him. "Hello. You are the licensed undertaker for Ponyville, correct?" "That I am. Now, just what is it you think Fluttershy may have done wrong?" "I have word passed down verbatim from the Diarchs themselves that she hasn't done anything wrong. She is currently unable to carry out her role as animal feeder, and we were assigned to handle the transition for reasons you aren't cleared for." Krastos turned to Nightflitter, and dropped to one knee with only a touch of the stiffness of old age. "It appears I owe you an apology ma'am." "Apology accepted citizen. Now let's get a move on. The sarge here has informed us that we still have the physical training we were scheduled for tonight after we are done with this mess. Which is, of course, exactly as it should be!" "Choke-tail! Get over here with those forms and then go get a bucket, some soap, and a washcloth!" shouted Breaking Hoof behind himself. Then turning back to Krastos he continued. "I'll need you to get out of that wig and make-up so I can verify your identity." "Err... if I might ask, where is Fluttershy?" said Krastos, sitting back on his haunches to pull off the shirt and wig with his telekinesis. "I am not at liberty to..." "Sir", interjected Nightflitter,"Mr Glue-Maker was quite vigorous in his defense of Miss Fluttershy Softwing. I believe that might be relevant." "In that case, if I can rely on you to keep any information related to Fluttershy Softwing's where-abouts strictly confidential, as a state secret?" "With the provision that I will be visiting her if possible." Krastos said, unrolling the pants and starting to stuff the wig down one leg. "Inadvisable, given it might reveal her position. You could send a certain individual a letter to pass on to her, provided the envelop did not include Miss Softwing's name." "I see. That works." said Krastos "I do solemnly swear not to reveal Fluttershy Softwing's location or attempt to contact her except by mail addressed only to the individual specified by you personally unless I believe her mental, legal, and/or physical safety would be jeopardized by said lack, in which case I shall overstep these conditions only to the extent necessary to rectify said jeopardy." "That wasn't what I specified citizen." "It shouldn't make a difference if this is all on the up and up. I ALSO", said Krastos, arching his eyebrows, "happen to know that as a licensed undertaker, I can not be sworn to secrecy by anything less than direct diarchal writ regarding anything I discover in the course of my duties if I feel it would be contrary to the public good and have not agreed to such in advance. I will also point out that I was not sworn to secrecy prior to my arrival here, and as such if you raise my concerns by not agreeing to my amendments to your conditions I would be perfectly within my rights to explain my concerns to all and sundry on the basis that you might be acting unjustly against Fluttershy." "Hmph... I don't much like lawyers." "I just look after Fluttershy, that's all." said Krastos, looking the Staff Sargent in the eye. It was a firm but patient look, not strong enough to be a challenge, but quietly unyielding. A long moment passed. "Very well, then, but I'm warning you, while I don't like lawyers, I'm not afraid to use them. I want that oath in writing, and Princess Celestia help you if you set even one nose-hair over the line. I assure you Princess Luna will have no such mercy." "Certainly." said Krastos stuffing the clown shirt down the other leg of the pants. Breaking Hoof wrote out the oath while Krastos washed the white make-up off his face in the bucket which Choke-tail had just flown up with. After drying his face on the legs of the pants and hanging them astride his withers Krastos signed the oath with his full title and undertaker registry number... both of which Breaking Hoof checked against the records his squad had brought with them from Canterlot. "Fluttershy is currently receiving treatment from Twilight Sparkle, to whom you may send any correspondence. I should add that it is HIGHLY probable that her treatment will require less than four days." "Noted, Sir. I don't think anypony is likely to die within that time-period, but you never know." said Krastos. "Right, Princess Luna just didn't want to take any chances on the animal's in Fluttershy's jurisdiction missing their treats in the unlikely event." confirmed Nightflitter. "Oh, and speaking of direct Diarchal writ, I happen to have one for this next part." "Really? Let's have it then." said Krastos, taking the pro-offered piece of paper "To whom it may concern, the following object is-" Krastos was interupted in his reading as Breaking Hoof materialized a rod about half a pony length long and about an eighth of a hoof around including the heavy canvas wrapping from his armor into his mouth. He struck the smaller stallion on the shoulder with it. The core of the rod shattered with a sound like breaking glass, and magenta mage-light spilled forth to briefly envelop the undertaker. "What in the world?!" exclaimed Krastos, looking up. "I'll give you this one for free. Its an experimental anti-changeling measure. Since you are under oath about your race of record I am permitted to verify it under these circumstances. Now read the writ and give it to Nightflitter." said Breaking Hoof dematerializing the expended rod back into his armor and materializing another which he mouthed it to Nightflitter, who dematerialized it. Ten minutes later: "Right... that should do it, but we still need to get the transfer entered into the official record before these will be good for more than the next twelve hours." "Corporal Nightflitter, you will escort Mr Glue-maker to the records office and ensure that all goes smoothly." "Well, if you insist, but I DO know how to find the dairy-barn myself, and perhaps Nightflitter has better things to do than follow a creaky old guy like me around." "Normally that might be acceptable citizen. These are NOT normal circumstances, or the Nightguard wouldn't be involved in the first place. We were ordered, among other things, to make sure the transfer of Miss Fluttershy Softwing's animal feeding duties DID happen, no excuses, and happened rapidly and smoothly. You have your orders Corporal Nightflitter." "I see... well, just mind you don't give me any more work than just filling out paperwork tonight. That would constitute a ripple in the smoothness of your operation I do believe?" "Indeed it would, but despite all my best efforts, I appear to be cursed not to actually be able to cause anypony a heart-attack... yet. Now get trotting." said Breaking Hoof, one side of his mouth quirking up almost undetectably and his cat-slitted eyes developing an equally plausibly deniable twinkle to them, in what was almost certainly a completely intentional breach of stoicism in favor of Kindness. Krastos turned and trotted away as ordered, Nightflitter moving after him with her hooves even with his shoulders. Four minutes later: "So what do you think about the whole Bull Problem?" asked Krastos conversationally as they walked towards the dairy district, which, naturally enough, was also the center for many desk-jobs, including various bureaucratic functions. "I can't say." replied Nightflitter. "What? Everypony has an opinion. You think they should be encouraged to use their muscles some of the time, since they don't have any milk to be put off of like their girls do? Or you think such things should just be let be, and they should just go on working desk jobs, same as their girls, if that is how it ends up?" "You misunderstand me. I mean that I am in uniform, and thus not allowed to express political opinions." "Ah, gotcha. So, who you like for college airball this year?" replied the undertaker. "Well, Cloudsdale is always a good pick, but I bet at least one of their stars is going to follow their child into the exile this year." Nightflitter said. "I didn't know that any of their team had any children the right age." "Oh yeah, three of them, and another might be taking his exile period early since there is a husband and wife engineering team who want to hire him for heavier-than-air flying machine research." "Pfft... waste of time if you ask me. That research I mean... not the exile... wouldn't want the pegasi to get too isolated or the next thing you know we got Windigos skulking around the borders. He got the sense to know when to bail out?" "I can't comment on the sense of the research or give you anything personal about the exile, but yeah, he doesn't strike me as the sort to ride an experiment all the way to the ground." And so they passed the time as they trotted. Five minutes later: "We are here to see Judge Mootha Straight-hooves." announced Nightflitter to the secretarial bull behind the desk in the smallest of Ponyvilles milk-barns. "Building three, second floor, room 212. And I am sure you are aware there is a milk-fee for waking up a cow in the night on business purposes?" said the bull, whose job was boring enough that he had taken the time to memorize the list of cows and bulls who might most be needed during his shift. He then returned to his whittling (purely amateur grade, or he wouldn't have been working as a secretary/security guard). "Well aware but thank you for asking." Nightflitter said. "You are welcome. So Krastos, who is it? If you can say..." asked the bull as Nightflitter materialized her expense account purse from her armor and began counting out bits. "Nobody. Just some emergency paperwork." replied Krastos, eager to set the bull's mind at ease. "Ah, glad to hear it.... Oh, and I guess I should mention to you officer that Mootha took her job because she has a very even temperament, so she doesn't get thrown off production as much. She worked it out with the dairy side of things so the milk-fee is halved in her case." When Nightflitter had deposited the requisite amount in the collection box, and gotten a receipt (with annotation explaining the reduced amount, just to be on the safe side) the pair proceeded to the appropriate building, and thence to the correct room. Krastos pulled the bell-pull outside the Straight-hooves' door, but all that happened was a slight glow to the cord. Nightflitter was about to knock, but Krastos held out a hoof in a gesture to stop. "She doesn't like her husband being woken, so she shelled out the bits for a mental alarm. She heard it just fine, I can assure you. Give her a few minutes, unless you want to go back and pay out more of the tax-payer's money." "That won't be necessary. 'Smoothly' was the order, and 'smoothly' it shall be." "I'm left curious about your take on those political matters. I don't suppose you can give me your address so I can mail you?" "As long as you don't go sending me any love letters... I'm a married mare." Krastos snorted at the joke. "Unlike our beloved Diarchs I am not limited by circumstances to my juniors... and I also happen to be a married stallion." Just then the door opened. "Oh, hello." said the brown cow. "Hello Mootha." said Krastos before Nightflitter took command of the situation. "Are you Judge Mootha Straight-hooves?" "That I am officer." "Can I see some ID?" "Just a second... that is one of the things I DON'T keep by the door... unless my judge's stamp will do?" "I'd prefer to see your papers, just so nopony gets on my case." Mootha nodded and moseyed over to a filing cabinet. Krastos choked back a cry as Nightflitter darted after her and repeated the procedure with the rod, deftly breaking the crystalline core across one of Mootha's horns and dematerialized it again before the cow could turn her head around. "Pardon me, what was that." "I've got a writ that explains it. Procedure is to catch the subject unawares." "I seeeeee." said Mootha and began to read the writ. "So, I hear you are aren't put off your milk much by getting woken up in the middle of the night. Does that mean I don't need to go back and pay the full milk-fee?" said Nightflitter conversationally as the cow read the writ. "Not as much, no. There's some better, but I just learned how to keep an even keel early in life. As for the milk fee... well, I think you have a question to answer." "Yes?" "How do I know that wasn't a judgement impairing spell?" Nightflitter sighed. "You don't. The procedure is a bit new. I suppose you could wake up your husband and get him to double check you and take notes he could verify with someone in the morning. Or anyone else you like, although I'm guessing there might be another milk-fee involved for me." "My husband is a para-legal, so I think that should be sufficient. And no, I'm feeling fine, so no second milk-fee will be required." Mootha went into her bedroom and prodded the sleeping bull. "Ferdinand, wake up. No need to get all stampede-y, but something strange is going on." "Ugh?" said the bull. "Get up, I need you to take some notes and double-check me on some stuff." Mootha finished reading through the writ as her husband got up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. Then she went back to the filing cabinet, while explaining a slightly edited version of the events that had transpired since the two ponies had arrived at their door to Ferdinand. Locating her identification card she plucked it out of the folder with her mouth and gave it to Nightflitter who looked it over. "Mr Krastos, you may proceed. I'll have to look over the transfer paperwork when you three are done with it though." said Nightflitter. "Very well then, we are here for an emergency transfer of the animal feeding duties, both beast and sentient-source meat from Fluttershy to", Krastos checked the paperwork he had brought from the barrade, "Officer Twenty-One Cannons." "I assume you brought a copy of his carnivore feeding licenses, and that he will be by within the next forty-eight hours to confirm the transfer?" Mootha asked Nightflitter. "Yes to both." "Very well. Let's get that done." Several minutes later: "Ma'am, I am legally required to have you step outside so I can privately verify that you have not applied any coercion to Krastos. The last case of such a thing was several centuries ago, but rules are rules you understand." "Certain ma'am." Nightflitter flew down the hall, and then returned to her office/apartment suite, and locked the door behind her. She then escorted Krastos and Ferdinand into the couple's bathroom. It was a tight fit, but after Ferdinand got into the bathtub they managed. "If you are free of all coercion or pressure in this matter that might bias the legal nature of this transfer, please raise your left forehoof. If anything has been applied to you, please raise your right forehoof." Krastos duly raised his left forehoof. "With the note that the same thing that happened to you happened to me." he said, doing his best to skirt the issue of the rods. "And believe me, if this Twenty-One Cannons tries anything funny I'll raise bloody Tartarus." "Very well, sir, I think that concludes our business."