//------------------------------// // 70 - On Bloody Parapets // Story: Putting on a Silver Robe and Wizard Hat // by David Silver //------------------------------// Side-by-Side and content, Silver and Night trotted back to the castle. Night gestured upwards with a flick of her head. "We should see what Shining Armor wanted." Silver nodded in agreement, and they veered for the nearest stairs. Ascending with little but the increasingly distant clip-clop and murmur of other ponies, they emerged into the chilly air atop the castle. It was dim there, a fact that Silver raised a brow at. "You'd think they'd put out torches or magic or something?" Night nodded in agreement as she took the first step forward. "The ground's not iced, it should be safe enough." They advanced, subtly pressed to one another for warmth against the chill as they began their search for Shining Armor. Silver's light led the way for them, his glowing horn banishing the dark from before them as they navigated the parapets. "I don't like this." Night frowned. "Less and less of this is in the right pattern. Chances are increasing by the moment that this is a trap." Light emerged from behind them as four guards rushed up from below, two holding torches and two their traditional spears. "Ambassador Lining?" asked one, huffing and puffing as if he had just run a good distance. "What are you doing up here?" Night and Silver turned as one back towards them as Silver shook his head. "Shining Armor asked us to come up here." "We haven't seen him in hours." The guard frowned. "Search the area!" The guards fanned out, one of them, a pegasus, took flight with his torch. It didn't take long for him to find his quarry. "Sir!" He came landing beside what he had found with an alarmed look, but little else could be seen. "Get a doctor!" Silver blinked. "Doctor?" He was no doctor. He remembered earth pony magic could, in theory, be used to such ends, but he was a unicorn, not an earth pony, and it was unproven beside. Night scowled as she moved towards the pegasus. "Do you know first aid?" Silver followed after her quickly, and they saw what had disturbed the pegasus so badly. He was sprawled across the cold stones of the parapet, injured and possibly still bleeding. The source of the wound wasn't immediately obvious. Night took position beside Shining Armor and began helping him as the pegasus collapsed to his haunches, clearly out of his element. The other guards had run off, perhaps to find a doctor. Night scowled as she pulled a scarf from her saddlebag and tied it around Shining Armor's midsection. "I'm not an expert, but I've seen a puncture like this before. He was stabbed, and not just once." The remaining guard squealed in surprise. "Who would do such a thing?!" His wings were flared out and body trembling. Silver raised a brow. "You walk around with a spear. What do you think that's made for?" "Not that!" He skittered back a few timid steps. "It's terrible. Is he going to be alright?" Night felt around Shining's neck. "He's breathing, has a pulse, and we're here for him. I think he'll be alright. Any idea how long he's been here?" The guard shook his head quickly. Silver approached the troubled guard and set a hoof on his shoulder. "Stay with us. Shining needs your help, as one of his guards." The guard nodded and smiled a little at that, his shaking dying down a little. "I'll be alright, for him, sir. You sure he'll be alright?" The lights returned as several guards and a doctor pony arrived wearing a stethoscope. They hurried over to the injured stallion and began doting on him as Night backed away to Silver's side. "Forty percent chance we were meant to be hurt with him, and they took what they got. Twenty percent they hoped to frame us for it instead..." She let out a soft sigh. "I'm glad in the end you decided to go get dinner instead." Silver perked an ear. "They? Multiple?" Night looked around the cobblestones. "I'm almost certain whatever it was, there was more than one. They were ready to take us all on at once, I think." One of the guards approached, it was Flash Sentry. "I'm almost certain it wasn't you, Ambassador, or your guard, but you were the last ones up here before we arrived." Silver nodded quickly. "We didn't, you know that, and being an ambassador confuses that a bit, but we didn't do this." Silver gestured at Shining Armor. "I care for them deeply, Shining and Cadance. They're good ponies, some of the best." Night nodded. "If we were attacking him, administering first aid would be a curious followup to that. Somepony invited us up here, and we imagine the same invited him up here, but we didn't come until now. We were having dinner together, and I'm certain they didn't forget us quickly." Flash let out a little sigh. "Alright, it sounds like you have an alibi. Like I said, I didn't want to think it was either of you." "Cadie?" asked Shining with a small voice. The doctor administering help shook his head. "Afraid not. Please, relax. You're in good hooves." Silver clopped a hoof lightly on the ground, not nearly as loudly as he wanted to, but in no hurry to make his ankle ache once more. "The shadows are a lot faster and pervasive in the real world." Night and Flash both looked uncertain at the words. Night leaned in. "You saw them, in your dreams?" Silver nodded at her. "They were a huge mass, terrifying, but easy to separate from friends. They were a force of outright violence and terror, not subtle actions, like this." He waved at Shining Armor. "This..." He sank a little. "I don't know what to do." Bursting through the door to the castle proper, Cadance hurried out onto the parapets with them. "Where is Shining?!" Everyone there pointed to him, and she fell on him, wrapping him in her forelegs and holding tightly. None were brave enough to even consider being between them. "Silver... What happened? Be blunt, be simple." Silver sat up straight. "We were called a few hours ago to come to the parapet as soon as we could, supposedly by Shining Armor. After earlier, we were very tired and hungry so I took Night Watch out to eat first. We then came up here, where we found the roof darkened. A few guards came not long after, found Shining Armor. Night gave first aid while a doctor was fetched, then you arrived." He tapped his chin. "I think that's about it. Night thinks there was more than one attacker but we weren't here to see it." Cadance sat up and glared at Silver. "Why didn't you come right away?!" Silver shrank from her pink fury. "He said 'at your earliest convenience.' It didn't sound urgent." Night produced the letter from her satchel, holding it out. "Here you are." Cadance snatched the note with her magic, eyes sweeping left and right over it rapidly. "This isn't his writing. It's not even close!" She threw the note to the ground with an angry spark. "Give me one good reason I shouldn't just march right back up that tower and destroy him?" Flash raised an ear. "Him?" Cadance glared at him witheringly and his question was silently retracted. Night took a half step forward. "We have no evidence this was his action. He made his terms clear, and I don't think he's given up on us that quickly." "Then who is it?" Cadance leaned towards Night. "You know something." Night adjusted her glasses a moment. "I have theories, not knowledge. There's an increasing chance the shadow is a separate agent in this conflict. We've been assuming Sombra and the shadow are the same force, but I find that unlikely, and more so with every bit of data." Cadance took a slow breath as she raised a hoof to her chest, then exhaled as she extended that hoof away. "Alright... I'll accept that theory, for now. If they are separate, how do we properly battle the shadow? The Crystal Fair wasn't that long ago! The Crystal Heart should be keeping them at bay, but I have one locked up in a tower, and countless more trying to hurt my Shiny!" Silver raised a hoof. "Getting Sombra on our si--" One of the crystal pony guards peered at Silver as if he had sprouted a second head. "Are you speaking of King Sombra?" "Um, yeah?" He recoiled away. "Please, Princess Cadenza. Send this Ambassador away. He's full of dangerous ideas. To work in concert with King Sombra?!" Cadance shook her head firmly. "Focus on getting Shiny inside and into bed. This is my duty." She locked eyes with Silver. "You'd best fetch that pony he wants so badly. Time is a resource we seem to be running thin of suddenly." Silver shook himself out. "We'll do just that, but there's only so much we can do at night." He glanced around. "I don't suppose there are any phones around?" Cadance sighed softly. "I should think not. The Crystal Empire is far behind the curve, something else that needs addressing, when we're not struggling with... this." Night put a wing over Silver. "We'll do what we can, but we're not everywhere. We can only do so much." Cadance lowered her hoof and rose up to them. "We all have to do what we can. Everypony, inside. Nopony is to come out here without accompaniment." All the ponies began to disperse. Shining Armor was taken by Cadance and the doctor to their chambers. Night and Silver were seen to their room by a lone guard. It was time to sleep, even if they weren't in the best mood to sleep. Silver considered Luna, weighing the benefits and risks of attempting to approach her that night as he slipped in beside Night and cuddled her gently.