//------------------------------// // Winds Of Change: Disturbance // Story: Shine Of The Silver Sun // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// An earthpony mare took her gold-foiled armor off and let it fall on the floor of the changing room in the guardhouse behind Canterlot castle. The soft light of the fluorescent bulbs slid all over her pure white hair and made the little open window leading to the complete darkness outside just a square of ink. "Finally free!" she let out a long breath of relief as her sweat-drenched mane and coat got loose from the confines of the steel plating, "Can't believe they are making us wear these in this unholy weather." With summer in full swing, Royal Guards patrolling the city throughout the day turned from authority figures promising safety into poor victims of the ongoing heat wave. Granted, quite a lot of them enjoyed the array of free drinks and the occasional icecream pony merchants in the city offered for, let's say, looking the other way in certain things. Not exactly infringements on the law, but slightly shady dealings when seen in possibly completely imaginary context. It made the long hoof of the law get just a little faster to the scene of a bar brawl, maybe turn a blind eye to a pony selling wares of slightly lower quality than their certificate promised, or sometimes take a quick detour when seeing a supply cart parked where it should not be to give the offending sides a minute or two to clear the street. Such is the grease helping the wheels of life turn, and nopony is bothered by it unless it goes too far. "You know, Blackie, I've been at the comicon in Fillydelphia once," another guardsmare, a pegasus, undoing the straps of her helmet and armor followed the quiet complaint, "Let me tell you, the chainmail thongs and leather harnesses don't seem so ridiculous now." The mare called 'Blackie' chuckled and took a step aside to let a batpony stallion carrying a full suit of silvery dark blue armor pass. He nodded as a thanks, put his cargo on a bench by the wall, and started putting it on. Blackie, or Black Shield as she was more commonly known, let her eyes linger on the stallion just a little longer, and then felt a tickle rush through her body. Her white coat darkened, turning brown, but her blonde mane and hazel eyes remained the same. The enchanted suits of guard armor covered their bearers' cutie marks and changed their coats to either white or grey to help guards prevent their work following them home after hours. Outside observers sometimes hinted at the outdated concept of anonymous guards, but after their first few arrests and broken tavern fights the guards were extremely happy with no chance of being recognized in a dark alley. "You and your little plastic pony toys, Petal," Black Shield planted her plot on a bench and stretched all four legs. "Collectible figurines, thank you," the smaller mare frowned and shivered as her pristine white coat faded into dark green and blonde mane went pink, "They are hoof-made and extremely valuable ponyfications of comic personalities and-" "Been to your place, saw some of your little stallion figurines' 'personalities'. And the body pillows... and other things," Black Shield blew her off, "Ponan the Barbarian sticks in memory for some reason." "Ponan is from a book that helped define an entire genre of modern literature, you philistine!" grumbling Petal started picking the pieces of her suit of armor up into an easy to carry bundle. "Never seen a book at your place, only comics and toys." "Collectible-" "I know, just teasing you," Black Shield raised her hoof to stop the huffing mare, "So, we up for a night at Prancing Pairs?" Both Petal and Black Shield were about twenty-five and stuck either patrolling or standing in one spot during the day. Their inner mares needed some serious wild hunt every few days, and Prancing Pairs was a dance club for those looking for a good time. "Of course, Blackie," Petal gave her friend a wide smile and leaned to her ear while giving the Nightguard stallion in the corner almost done with putting his platemail on a hungry glance, "If I'm lucky some batponies might just pop in tonight." "Been reading Dusk again?" "Shut up, vamponies are hot!" The passing thestral coughed meaningfully as he left the changing room. "That book has been nicknamed Toilet for a good reason." "I'm not gonna discuss literature with somepony who thought the main difference between Pondalf the White and Grey was a cleaner robe." "In my defense, the movies didn't explain much on that subject." "That's only because you didn't see the extra long director's cut extended complete full remastered enhanced edition. That, or read the books." Three exactly same knocks on the door interrupted the conversation. A mechanical pony, chassis silvery and shiny, stood there, blue circles in his completely black eyes measuring the two changing mares. "Agent Bucket, is anything wrong, sir?" Black Shield asked, saluting the smaller and thinly built robot. "A report of a disturbance on the Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns campus came five minutes ago. The shift change for the Nightguard was scheduled two minutes ago, which means the report falls under the jurisdiction of the Royal Guard. You two are the only free Royal Guards left. Considering the report is marked as urgent and came from a high-ranked wizard, you are bound to investigate and it will count into your overtime bonus," the robot explained methodically, but in a surprisingly equine voice. A special agent would not have been sent unless this was important, so Black Shield just sighed, gave her suit of armor a sad look, kicked a bench, and shoved a helmet on her head again. "Dammit!" Petal ground her teeth, "I can't do this, go home to take a shower, and then make it to Prancing Pairs before midnight." Petal lived in lower Canterlot, a much less 'noble', but a lot cheaper, part of the city spanning the base of the Canterlot mountain. Black Shield didn't mind the higher rents in upper Canterlot as long as she didn't have to take over an hour of walking to and back from work every day. "I can go check it out alone, Petal," her putting the armor on was much faster than her leisure pace of taking it off after a long day, "I doubt anypony would be stupid enough to try anything serious right under the noses of the most powerful wizards of Equestria. Some idiot probably just broke into their tool shed, stole some gardening equipment, and they are too busy with arcane experiments to go check it out themselves. It can't take that long, so... I don't know, see you at eleven at most? The evening at Prancing Pairs should be in full swing." "You're the best, Blackie!" Petal put the bundle containing her full suit of armor on her back and shot out of the door. The round, body-hugging, shapes of guard armor for both branches, Royal Guard and Nightguard, allowed it to, when taken off, be put together into one quite small tube-like bundle. A miracle of design. Ready and slightly less than willing, Black Shield took the incident report from waiting Bucket. The robot saluted and left for the castle while she made her way through the wide open castle lawns towards the city gate. The entire castle with its grounds and courtyards spanned the eastern end of what was upper Canterlot, a half-circle high up the side of Canterlot mountain. It was walled off from the rest of the city by its own gate, just like the city itself had only one gate on the western end which led to a wide road circling the mountainside and ending down at its base in lower Canterlot. Poor Petal had to walk that route twice every day. "Somepony climbed over the campus walls and broke into the northern workshop," Black Shield read in the light cast by her enchanted helmet while trotting on three legs, "Thought so. Unicorns. Of course they can't just go through due process of reporting a robbery, they need it sorted out right here and now. What would change if they let it lie for half an hour until Nightguard can send somepony? Whatever was stolen, if anything, is gone, and whoever stole it is gone as well. It was probably some students high on mercury fumes anyway." Black Shield's gallop slowed down a little as she neared the highborne neighbourhood where the School for Gifted Unicorns was. What if not, though? What if there really is somepony dumb enough to try to steal some experimental doomsday potion or whatever? Better sort it out before some wizard gets impatient and starts throwing fireballs at the damn workshop. Who knows? They might miscast and set fire to half of the city. Why did this have to happen on Friday? Any other day I would just walk it off and got to my apartment an hour later, big whoop, but noooo, it had to happen on a day when I finally get to have some fun. I think it would even be fine if a gardener noticed, those guys have some common sense. It just HAD to be some bigwig mage to notice and 'require assistance of the law' immediately. Riled up by her own internal speech, Black Shield arrived at the main gate to the School for Gifted Unicorns' campus in record time and only slightly gasping for breath. "I am here to investigate a recently filed disturbance report," she approached a warden, showing her badge. "Oh, come in, miss," the young warden, probably some honor student or maybe a student being punished, let her through the barred gate, "Just follow the wall north, the workshop is in the corner." "You're not going to show me?" "I've been instructed not to get close so that I don't mess anything up for a possible investigation. Sorry, miss. If you want some company you'll have to ask in the main building. I believe it was one of the archmages who sent for the guards." "Thanks, I'll have a look myself first." "As you wish, miss," the warden closed the gate and returned to watching the outside street. Not gonna waste my precious time with some bureaucracy-obsessed mage who last saw the outside of his research laboratory on Hearth's Warming. She slowed down as she saw the workshop. A spacious building barely overlooking the campus walls, white walls, several windows, near-flat roof, no signs of lights anywhere inside, no noise. Black Shield unhinged her spear from her side where Royal Guard armor had a set of very helpful hooks for such purpose and let it drop on the grass. From what she could see, the building was a set of small rooms with low ceiling where an extended weapon like that would only hinder her movement. Not that she needed it per se. An earthpony of her training could, with the help of solid steel horseshoes, likely punch through the wall along with any miscreant in the way. The spear was mostly a sign of status. After all, impaling criminals and civilians was more than frowned upon. Upon her wish, the light emanating from her entire armor dimmed, turning into a spotlight shining from the top of her helmet forward. She examined the open door. Heavy, not fortified or anything, padlocked... no signs of damage. I'm not sure how easy it is to unlock a door with magic around here, but whoever was here definitely did not use force. The light of her helmet faded completely as she entered. Some sort of anti-magic influence then so no unlocking spells. Whoever got in here definitely had a key. A shiver ran down her spine. All senses were telling her that this place was empty, but the little nagging in the back of her head kept saying otherwise. Quietly, she entered the main room. In the glints of light coming from outside she could make out rows of workbenches, chairs scattered around... ...and quiet breathing as if somepony was about to say something. Black Shield didn't hesitate. She knew she should warn any criminal or possibly somepony investigating as well, but being this much on edge she just grabbed the nearest chair and threw it in the direction of the noise. The chair froze in the air and was put down on the floor. So, a unicorn. Black Shield quickly congratulated herself for such a good blind throw and jumped to tackle the shadow she could now that her eyes adjusted to the darkness identify as a robed pony figure. Her legs failed to leave the floor. "So this is who he sent me, an earthpony?" a male, uniterested and slightly annoyed voice commented on her effort to break the immobilizing spell. The robed unicorn whose horn shimmered with dim red walked over, circling around Black Shield, "I sure wish he would find somepony with more use, but sheer strength will just have to do," the unicorn slid his hoof over Shield's backplate, "Plus, I might just plow that plot later when I'm bored." Who does this guy think he is, prizing me like a rodeo bull? Now... come closer to the plot, you perv. Aaand... Asserting her earthpony strength and magic resistance, Black Shield broke the paralysis spell and bucked up with her hind legs. The unicorn screamed. Shield turned to punch him out. She saw a dark purple muzzle, furious eyes, and rusty red mane illuminated by flaring red glow of the unicorn's magic. Her body stopped as if hitting a wall, hard. Red sparks started flying from her body to the unicorn's outstretched hoof. With each spark leaving her, she felt weaker and weaker and her vision blurred. "Maybe you won't be as useless as I thought," the unicorn absorbed the sparks, making his bruised muzzle nearly kicked off by Shield cleanly recover. Black Shield's heartbeat stopped and the hungry stare of her killer was the last thing she saw.