//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twelve 
// Story: A Squire's Tail 
// by BBkat 
//------------------------------//

	The now slightly larger group made their way towards the kitchen, which had been shut down for the night. Only a small section was left open for the Nocturns to get something to eat.
“So what’s the plan?” asked Thundermane as they stopped at the door.
“Well, one of the books said they like milk, I was thinking we could set out a dish of milk for it and when it comes to eat it or whatever I trap it with a modified shield spell,” said Chase. “Instead of putting the shield around me, I’ll put it around the, whatever it is, like trapping a spider under a glass.”
“You make it sound so easy, what if nothing comes? We’ll be watching it all night,” said Cloud Runner. “And before that, how are we going to get the milk? The door’s sorta, locked.”
“Oh, that’s easy, just give me a minute or two,” said Chase, wiggling through the group to the door. A light glow surrounded his horn as he focused a tiny stream of magic into the lock, his face screwed up in concentration. “Now keep quiet or we’ll never get in,” he hissed, hearing them start to speak. He clenched his teeth, feeling around the inside of the lock with his magic. Doing this blind was tricky so he had to work on feel alone. Finally, after several minutes he felt a release as the lock clicked, the door unlocking. “Aha, there we go.” 
“Should we be worried that you know how to pick a lock?” asked Thundermane.
Chase just laughed as he pushed the door open, “Naw, this was just a basic lock, really simple stuff, so it was just pushing and prodding till I got a result. If it were a more advanced lock I probably wouldn’t be able to do it. So don’t worry, no secret criminal ties here if that’s what you’re worried about. I’m just glad it wasn’t magically protected.” 
The kitchen was dark and it became apparent after a few steps that no one, save Wish, could see where they were going. 
“Will you all stop pushing for a moment,” growled Chase, trying to move so he didn’t have a pegasus up his flanks. His horn flared to life as he cast a quick light spell, a ball of light clinging to the tip. “There, now we don’t need to worry about climbing over one another,” he said as they moved apart, no long being crushed into a mess of feathers and hooves. “Now, we need to find the milk and a bowl, and be quiet in the process.” He looked over at Cloud Runner, the last one through the door. “You keep a look out in case, for some reason, someone comes by. The last thing we need is to get caught here.”
“Any particular size of a bowl?” asked Thundermane. “Big, small? Does it matter?”
Chase shook his head, “I don’t care, just a bowl. As long as we can pour milk into it, it’ll work.”
The kitchen where food was prepared for the barracks was separate from the kitchens of the main palace and noticeably smaller. It had a decent sized stove and counter space for cooking, a fridge, freezer and numerous cupboards that were kept stocked with food. A lock had since been placed on the cupboards in an attempt to keep out who or whatever had snuck over the last few nights for a midnight snack. The fridge however had no such luxury, though that could have been in part because it was large and quite heavy, so trying to open it could be difficult. 
Chase sent a few tiny orbs to light up the room so they could see what they were doing and where they were going as they split up, Chase unable to be in multiple places at once. Wish didn’t need the extra lights, easily navigating the darkened room on her own, even before he’d lit his horn up.
“I found the bowls!” she called in a loud whisper.
“I found a bottle of milk,” said Thundermane as Sky Fire shut the fridge. 
“So, where are we setting this all up?” asked Sky Fire. “We can’t do it in the hall, someone will see, and the common room probably won’t empty till later.”
Chase shut his mouth; he hadn’t even thought about that, he was just thinking on his feet. “That’s a good question. We could always set it up here? I mean, if it’s going to be sneaking in for food it’s bound to come back here right? We’ll need to hide though, somehow I doubt it’s going to come out if it sees us here.”
“The pantry section looks roomy enough, like a glorified closest full of food,” said Wish, “We could leave the dish of milk out here and wait in there for it. The problem will be not falling asleep while we wait.”
“Why don’t we take turns keeping watch?” suggested Cloud Runner and he rejoined the group, closing the door quietly behind him. “The hallway’s pretty much dead so I don’t think we need to keep an eye on that. So we just take turns keeping watch and whoever’s on watch can wake up Chase so he can do his thing and catch it, if you’re asleep when it comes.”
They looked among themselves, nodding and murmuring as they discussed the idea.
“Alright then it’s decided, we’ll each take watch and see if anything comes,” said Chase. “Let’s get this set up.”
They set the bowl that Wish had grabbed out in the middle of the kitchen and carefully filled it to just below the brim with milk. 
Dimming his horn down, Chase led them into the pantry room, pulling the door shoot behind them till it was only open by a crack. The pantry was roomy, at least until five adult ponies were crammed in, and filled with various, nonperishable foods; the shelves were lined with breads, cereals, fruits and vegetables, dried fruits and vegetables, bags of various powders and mixes sat along the floor and the bottom of the shelves. 
Getting comfortable took a bit, each trying to make sure they weren’t getting someone’s flank in their face or a leg in their side, or hit by a wing or horn.
“I gotta say, of all the crazy shit I’ve done, this is new,” said Wish as she settled down, wings folded to her sides.
“I hope we’re not taking you away from work or anything,” said Chase. It had only just occurred to him then that while they were doing this because they had nothing to do, this was her ‘day’ and when she had to work.
She waved away his concern, “Naw it’s cool, I have the later shift anyways. Or early I guess it would be. Either way I’m free for a few hours. I just hope we catch it before then. I do not want to be late for my shift or I’ll never hear the end of it.”
“So, you spent the night hanging out with her?” asked Sky Fire. “How’d you not go crazy?”
Chase just laughed and shook his head, “Who knows. Probably because I ended up falling asleep at one point, and playing cards at another. It was certainly interesting.”
“You enjoyed yourself and you know it,” said Wish with a grin as she elbowed him. “You were jittery at first by you warmed up to us after a bit.” 
“Us?” asked Sky Fire.
“Yeah, Chase, me and the twins. Heh, I bet they’d love this, if you could get them to sit still long enough.”
Chase chuckled, somehow he doubted that the twins could sit still long enough, or keep quiet long enough, to stake out and catch something. Of course, he wasn’t sure anyone in the room could for that matter. In the deathly silence of the room he could hear the ruffling of feathers as the pegasi adjusted their wings, the soft scuffing of hooves as they shifted their position and their heavy, tired breathing.
Chase laid his head on his forelegs; he wasn’t tired so much as he was bored. A weight across his back caught his attention and he lifted his head up to look over his back at Wish, who was resting her chin and forelegs across his back. 
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“Yeah, try not to move, you’re very comfy,” she said with a grin. 
“I’m not a pillow,” he protested, but was stopped as she pressed a hoof to his muzzle. 
“Shh, don’t talk. We’re supposed to be quiet remember, and you’re my pillow now, and pillows don’t talk.”
Chase sighed, ignoring the snickers from the other guys, who had now noticed his predicament. There was clearly no talking her out of this, and not quite enough room to move to get out from under her.
The room was quiet though and he did feel warm where he was sitting, so much so that he did in fact nod off at one point, head resting against his legs.



A hoof collided with his shoulder none to gently, jostling the unicorn from his nap with a startled snort.
“Dude wake up there’s a, thing out there drinking the milk,” hissed Thundermane. “I dunno what it is but it’s weird. Not a ghost or ninja that’s for sure.”
Chase rubbed his eyes, taking a few moments for everything to sink back in about where he was and what he was doing.
“Anytime now, before it gets away!”
He stood up, knocking Wish off his back and onto the floor rather abruptly before making his way through the pony pile and towards the door. The Nocturn yelped in surprise, although she hadn’t been asleep she was relaxed enough that his outburst was startling. Peering through the crack he got his first view of the, whatever it was.
It was a small creature that couldn’t have been any taller than his knee. It stood on two legs like a dragon and had long spindly arms and claws, which it was using the scoop up and drink the milk. It had two short legs and a strange tufted tail. Its ears were wide, almost bat like and seemed to flick about as it listened. It had a very flat face and pointed nose, like a strange looking dog. 
Chase wasn’t sure if that was what a boggart looked like, but it probably shouldn’t have been there. Charging his horn he focused on the small creature, which was to busy drinking to notice him. A bubble of magic appeared above it, spreading and widening out as he lowered it, curving it into a dome shape. 
The creature’s ears perked up suddenly and it looked up at the barrier, paused for a moment and took off across the floor, knocking the dish of milk over in the process.
Chase cursed, he’d taken to long and now it was getting away. 
“I don’t think so!” He barreled out of the doorway and across the room towards it. Surely it couldn’t move faster than he could, could it? “Stay in one spot darn it!”
It made a chattering noise, dropping onto all fours to run and sounding very upset. It skidded to a stop as it came to the stove, it couldn’t move any farther forwards. 
“Gotcha now,” said Chase, positioning himself in the only escape it had. “Now let me catch you!” He brought the barrier down, only for the creature to lunge towards him, bounce off his head and run down his back. Chase yelped in surprise and the barrier fizzled out as the creature collided with his face. 
A clang came from behind him and he turned around to see Thundermane leaning on a large pot, an angry growling coming from inside it followed by a rough scratching sound.
“Th-thanks,” panted Chase. “Slippery little devil huh?”
“Yeah, but now what do we do, if I lift this up it’ll get away,” he said, tapping the metal pot he’d trapped it under. 
“I just hope no one heard that, you know how loud that was?” asked Sky Fire as the rest joined the pair. “The answer is really loud.”
“If it’s as dead out there as Cloudy said it was, then I think we’re pretty good.” 
“I told you not to call me that.”
“So, what the heck is that?” asked Wish. “I’ve never seen anything like that. And what do we do with it now that we’ve caught it?” 
“How about we get it to show us where it hid all the stuff it stole?” suggested Sky Fire. “I want that pin of mine back.”
The pot suddenly lurched, Thundermane hurriedly stumbling to keep it pinned down. “Well you better decide soon, it’s trying to escape. Ornery little fella huh?” The pot growled again and a harsh clawing sound could be heard as the trapped creature tried again to escape. “I can’t keep this held forever.”
“Here, I can cast a barrier over that since it’s not about to move,” said Chase, conjuring up a barrier again. It didn’t take as long to form this time and once it was made he indicated for Thundermane to let go of the pot and move back. As soon as Thundermane was out of the way he dropped the barrier, though it made much less noise than the pot had earlier. As the barrier came down the creature shoved the pot again, this time knocking it off. It was too late though; the barrier had already trapped it in place.
“So how do we make it show us where the stuff it stole is?” asked Sky Fire. “It looks kinda grumpy, I doubt it’ll just tell us. Of course we don’t even know if it can even talk.”
Wish smirked, “Oh, let me handle this,” she said as she made her way between them to face the trapped creature. Lifting one hoof she tapped the barrier as if she were tapping a glass case to get its attention. “Oi pint sized,” she said, crouching down slightly as she stared at it. It cocked its head to one side, as if trying to figure out whether or not she was talking to it. “Yes you, you stole some stuff and my friends here want it back, think you can be oh so kind as to show them where you put it?”
It narrowed its eyes at her and made a ‘humph’ noise, folding its arms across its chest and turning its nose up.
“Yeah, I thought you’d say that.” She curled her lips back slightly to reveal her fang-like teeth, and stared hard, her eyes unblinking like a large predatory cat. Having narrow, vertical slits didn’t help, only serving to make her appearance that much more frightening as she stared the little creature down. It was like watching a cat and mouse, and Wish was the cat. Chase was almost surprised that her tail didn’t start swishing with the way she was watching it. Then a change, the small creature made a whimper, ears flattening back as it backed away from Wish as best as it could. 
“So, you gonna show us where everything is?” she asked. A tiny nod. “And no funny business now you hear me?” It shook its head this time. “Good.” She looked to Chase as she stood up, her entire demeanor relaxing and reverting to the way it had been previous, calm and at ease. “Alright, you can lower the barrier, though you might want to keep hold of that thing somehow, just in case.”
“What in Equestria did you do?” asked Thundermane, looking between the creature and Wish. “Threaten it in its mind?”
She laughed, “Oh don’t be silly, I can’t send thoughts into minds, I just let it know how scary I can be and what might happen if it doesn’t do what we want. It’s called intimidation, it’s a very useful skill.”
“We may want to clean up, that first,” said Chase, pointing to the milk that was spilled all over the floor. “I don’t know about you but I don’t want to get in trouble for that. The least we can do is pretend we were never here.” 
The contents of the dish now covered a large portion of the floor and the bowl lay upside down in the middle of it all.
“Or try to,” added Chase after a moment. Even if they did mop it up there was no way someone wouldn’t notice a damp cloth or a wad of paper towels from the clean up.
Cloud Runner grabbed the bowl, lifting it from the puddle and taking it and setting it in the sink before grabbing a few dishtowels to help mop up the spill. It took more dishtowels than expected to mop it up and in the end they tossed them in the sink as well. Everything was technically cleaned up and off the floor, so they couldn’t be faulted for that, but cleaning up the clean up materials was a different story altogether and something they just didn’t have the time to do.
Once cleaned up, Cloud Runner made his way back to the door, peering out through a crack to make sure the coast was clear so they could leave without getting caught. He looked up and down the hall, twice, and sighed with relief, no one was around. He looked back at the others and gestured for them to follow, it was safe to go.
Once in the hall, Chase handed the boggart to Wish so he could attempt to relock the door, the glow around the creature fading as he dropped it in her hooves. She gave it another stern look and it shrank back fearfully. It did not want to mess with the Nocturn.
“Ah close enough,” he thought, drawing his magic back out. It felt close to being locked to him so he wasn’t too worried about anyone noticing it that it wasn’t fully locked. 
He turned back to Wish, scooping the creature back up in his red aura again so it couldn’t run. “Now, lead the way small fry,” he ordered. “And there better not be any more of you around.”
It shook its head quickly; there was just the one mischievous creature here, no others. 
Chase carefully set it on the ground, the glow around it weakening to allow it movement on its own, but so that he had just enough control to yank it back should it try to run away on them, like a leash of magic.
“Now march,” he ordered, giving it a tap with the back of his hoof to get it moving. The boggart made an annoyed squawking sound but started walking, too afraid of Wish to think of stopping anytime soon.
Chase and Wish followed it, Chase keeping a magic leash on it and Wish watching it to make sure it didn’t run off, while the trio of pegasi kept a lookout for anyone as trying to explain what they were doing and what the thing was they were following, was something no one wanted to do.
It galloped down the hall on all fours, pausing every now and then to look back at them before starting again.
Chase rubbed his forehead, he’d never sustained a spell for this long before, and it was beginning to hurt. 
“I hope it takes us there soon,” he said. “Before I end up with a magical migraine. Magical drain is awful.”
“Magical drain?” asked Wish.
He nodded, “Yeah, I’ve used a ton of magic tonight, light spells, picking locks, holding this thing and it’s starting to take its toll. Especially holding this guy because I have to sustain the spell. Strong unicorns can sustain a spell for a long time, but I’m not that strong yet, too many spells in to short a time or held for too long can use up a lot of magic, not to mention the headaches it can cause.” He thought for a moment, trying to come up with an analogy that they would understand. “It’s like, like if you had to fly for a really long time after doing a whole bunch of easy exercises, you’d eventually start to get tired and want to land on a cloud for a nap. But you can’t land because there’s no cloud so you keep going even though your wings are beginning to ache and tired out. I can’t let this guy loose incase it slips off somewhere even though it’s making my head hurt.”
“That sounds uncomfortable,” said Thundermane. “Glad I’m not in your horseshoes right now. Didn’t realize magic could do that to a pony.”
The others nodded in agreement, they all had wings so magic the way unicorns used it was not something they were familiar with.
“Oh yeah, you really have to be careful, overexertion is the worst. Not to mention trying to cast spells that are far beyond your skill level, that can land you in hospital. It’d be like, trying to perform a maneuver the Wonderbolts do without ever having been trained in how to do it. You’ll hurt yourself.”
The boggart made a chattering sound to get their attention, sitting down in front of the doors as it waited for them.
“Outside, you hid the stuff outside?” asked Chase and it nodded quickly. He sighed; he hoped everything was still in good condition. A book outside, especially over night, was bound to get soaked with dew, rendering it a soggy useless mess. “Well we better find them then,” he said as they pushed the door open and followed the creature outside.
Chase shivered as they stepped outside, the temperature had dropped considerably since the daytime and he wasn’t enjoying it one bit. 
“Let’s hurry and find this stuff,” he said, hurrying them creature onwards. 
It led them through the courtyard and out towards the storage shed, where all the training equipment was stored when not in use. It bounded towards the shed, circling it a few times before sitting down in front of it patiently, like a dog waiting to be let inside after doing its business.
“Wait, everything’s in there?” asked Thundermane. “Wouldn’t somepony have seen it by now when they go in to get stuff?”
“Evidently not,” said Chase as he handed the boggart once again over to Wish so he could work on the door. “I really hope this has no alarm,” he grumbled, his headache only adding to his souring mood.
“I don’t think so,” said Thundermane. “I mean would anyone really want to steal wooden swords and punching dummies?” 
“Good point.” With a click the door unlocked and they trotted inside, though this time Chase didn’t bother to cast the spell back on the boggart, it would only make his head hurt even worse. Instead he just let Wish hold onto it. It pointed them to a back corner, hidden behind most everything in there and turning it into a veritable maze of stuff that they had to navigate in near darkness.
Sure enough, at the back of the shed was a large pile of stolen belongings, including Chase’s journal and Sky Fire’s pin. The pegasus just about barreled him over in the process of getting to the stuff, scooping the pin up in one wing. Chase scooped up his book in one leg and checked it over, it didn’t seem to be any worse for wear so that was a good sign. 
“So what do we do with the rest of the stuff?” asked Thundermane. “I mean, we can’t go around returning it to everyone because we don’t know who lost what, or where anyone is.”
“Oh, leave that to me,” said Sky Fire with a grin before he took off, back to the barracks. “Just make sure that thing’s gone before I get back.”