//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 — Playing With Fire // Story: In Sheep's Clothing // by Kydois //------------------------------// Celestia “‘Ello, Miss Ligh’bringer!” I blinked. The name “Lightbringer” had not been used for centuries, and it jarred me to hear such a term of reverence in this day and age. “Oi, down ‘ere!” Refocusing my thoughts quickly, I turned my gaze down towards the source of the voice, a slender lime-green earth pony with a disheveled magenta and orange mane. Judging by the affronted faces of the nobles crowding me after I had raised the sun, she had pushed past them heedlessly to stand before me, her front hooves propped up onto the edge of the wooden stage and her eyes wide with wonder. Cake had been smeared indiscriminately over her muzzle. “Hello there, my little pony.” I smiled warmly as I knelt down closer to her, ignoring the scandalized expressions of the nobility. “‘Ello!” she called out, waving a hoof at me. “Cor, never thought I’d meet the Lightbringer ‘erself!” I chuckled lightly. “It is nice to meet you too, little one. My name is Celestia.” “Ooooohhh,” she said with a nod of understanding. “‘Ey there then, Celestia! M’name’s Lilywater, but’chu can call me Lily!” The mare offered a hoof, as if for a hoofshake. Some of the nobles seemed to have collected themselves, and one of them raised his voice above the agitated murmurs of the crowd. “I say, are you daft? That’s the princess herself! You cannot address her as some common pony!” Lily turned around halfway with a look of chagrin as she looked at the speaker. “Oh bugger, did I do something improper?” she said with a sheepish smile. “Sorry! Didn’t know ‘ere was a right way to introduce myself to somepony else ‘ere.” I suppressed a chuckle. “It was fine, Lily. I love meeting all of my subjects,” I said, prompting her to look back at me with the same childish glee she had before. “I have not heard somepony refer to me as the Lightbringer in a very long time. May I ask where you heard of such a title?” “From the elders, o’ course! They kept sayin’ that they know a lot more than I do, but those tossers also told me that I would never be able t’ see you with m’ own two eyes, yet here I am!” she exclaimed proudly, thumping a hoof against her chest. “But wow, how’d you get so big?” I let out a contemplative hum. “Well, I ate all my fruits and vegetables and made sure I got plenty of proteins when I was growing up.” “That’s pretty impressive!” she said with a grin. “Think I might ‘ave been neglectin’ my fruits, but I’ll definitely keep that in mind!” “Your conduct is improper!” a nasally voice called from the crowd, and I quickly spotted the stallion speaking. “Get the guards over hear-uh. This breach of securiteah requires immediate attention!” “That will not be necessary,” I said calmly, my eyes flickering to the guards present around the stage. As expected, they weren’t responding to the noble’s frankly silly concerns, but I could tell the two closer to me were paying closer attention to the conversation. “She is merely curious.” “But Princess! No commoner should be allowed to act so wantonleah in your presence!” Lily reached a foreleg up at me, tentatively poking her hoof inside my ever-moving mane and waving it around. “Whoa, why does your mane do the thing?” I raised an eyebrow. “The thing?” “Yeah, the wavy thing!” She circled her hoof a couple more times in my mane, to the renewed horror of the nobles behind her. I looked at my mane, running my own hoof through it. “Because I like the wavy thing.” “Lily!” a voice called out from within the crowd. The green earth pony turned around just as a diminutive charcoal unicorn mare tiptoed urgently through the crowd, levitating two plates of cake behind her as she dodged through the nobles around her as if they were hungry predators ready to jump her. My brow furrowed almost imperceptibly as I looked closer at the new arrival. She looked familiar somehow. Was she in the guard? Why was she not in armor if she was? “Lily, what’re you doing?” the newest arrival hissed, passing over a piece of chiffon cake into Lily’s hooves before pulling out a napkin and offering it to her. “At least wipe off your face before you go out and embarrass yourself in front of the princess.” “Oh, sorry! I’ll be sure to next time. Thanks, mum!” Lily chirped happily as she shifted the cake to her back and wiped off her face with a foreleg. “I’m not your mother,” the unicorn replied flatly, glaring at the newly cake covered foreleg. “C’mon, we don’t need to be bothering the princess.” She tugged over Lily’s leg with her magic and began wiping it off roughly, her hooves shuffling around uncomfortably as her eyes darted around the crowd. Realization struck me. The scarf should have given it away immediately, but I finally remembered who she was. She was part of the scouting expedition I sent into the Everfree, the one nearly killed by a manticore. My gaze moved to the spot above her left shoulder, where the ends of three faint scar lines peeked out from under her heavy scarf, just as Captain Brave Blade’s report from his son stated. “Oh, don’t worry ‘bout that. She said it was alright,” Lily said, completely oblivious to the unicorn’s discomfort. “Celestia’s pretty ace in my book!” The unicorn shot a fearful look at me, but I let out a hearty laugh, hopefully putting her mind at ease. She certainly looked like she was going to bolt at any second. “I’m glad to be so, Lily.” The charcoal unicorn let out a nervous laugh and used a hoof to rub at her neck under her scarf, jostling something heavy within its folds. “W-well, if it’s alright, we’ll just be going now. Right, Lily?” she squeaked out. Her gaze flickered over to the guard on my right, and after a moment, she waved hesitantly at him. I turned to look at the stallion there, and my mind drew the connection. “Ahh, Corporal Steel Blade. You are friends with this lovely mare, are you not?” “Y-yes, Princess,” the stallion guard sputtered out. “Her name’s Corporal Overwatch, ma’am.” “I see,” I said, turning back to the charcoal unicorn. “My regards to you, Overwatch. I understand you were involved in a life threatening situation recently, and I am relieved you are doing better.” Her face turned bright red as she stammered out, “I-I well, uhh…” I heard a soft huff from my left, and I turned over to see Sergeant Flash Point rolling his eyes and muttering, “Rookies,” at a volume only I could hear. My warm smile never left my face as I once again faced Overwatch. “I apologize for having to keep your friends on duty until the conclusion of the celebration, but I hope you will enjoy the rest of the day. Until next time, Corporal Overwatch.” “I uhh… T-thank you, Princess,” she said, bowing deeply before backing away into the crowd, tugging Lilywater away by the leg. “And you too, Lily,” I continued, straightening up. “Do not be afraid to talk to me.” “Sure thing, luv!” the green earth pony said, before disappearing into the crowd. “Wait up, mum!” “I’m not your mother!” I let out a light chortle as they left before turning to trot off the back of the stage, followed closely by Flash Point and Steel Blade. The day was still young, and with everything I needed to do as a princess, I was going to be on my hooves throughout the whole event. If anything, I hoped the day would prove enough of a distraction to keep my mind from wandering to darker places. Nymph “Lily, I can’t believe you just did that,” I groused as I trotted down the road back towards my condo. Most of the ponies I passed were walking the other direction towards the center square, eager to interact with their fellow ponies. I was willing to stay close to a few ponies for a while, but after extricating Lily from in front of the princess herself, I felt like I was going to die of embarrassment. “Did what? Talk t’ the Lightbringer?” Lilywater replied, bubbling with excitement. “I’m finding it hard to believe I met her too!” I let out a groan, resisting the urge to rub my forehead with a hoof. Using my magic, I ripped off a giant piece of my cake, which was starting to dissolve into a messy glob from the melting layer of ice cream, and shoved it into my mouth. If there was a time for comfort food, this was the time. “You do know that if we return to the condo now, your watchers may be suspicious, right? They might already think you are acting weird.” I rolled my eyes. “I could excuse it as jitters from meeting royalty with Lily. I’m not staying anywhere close to the princess after that. The nobles have it out for me too. Did you see the way they were glaring at me and Lily?” “I recommend communicating through the hivemind out here, and no, I did not see the nobles glaring at you and Lily. I cannot see much of anything from here.” I blinked. “Oh, right.” I rolled my shoulder to adjust my scarf, feeling the weight of the red beryl tucked into the heavy scarf I wore. Crystal had requested that she be hidden away as I was making my way through the nobility, and there was really only one place to hide her. It made sense why she would request such a thing. If I didn’t have to drag Lily away from the princess, I would have hidden away myself. I shuddered. I could tell exactly when Princess Celestia recognized me too. The shift I felt into sympathy and guilt couldn’t have been anything else. For a pony, those emotions should have prompted me to feel apologetic and guilty, but I only felt fear. Princess Celestia knew who I was. I could no longer pretend to be a nameless face in the crowd. I was a changeling masquerading in front of the immortal ruler of Equestria, pretending to be one of her deceased little ponies. It felt like just one misstep would alert her and bring her divine wrath down upon me, and I would rather avoid death by sun strike. I let out a sigh. “Fine. Well, they were staring at me and Lily, and not in a friendly way either.” I shoved another piece of cake in my mouth, more to have something there than to enjoy it. “I just want to be alone right now.” “You’re not going to be alone as long as there is a changeling following you. There is still a changeling following you, by the way.” A chill ran down the length of my neck, and I aimed a glare into the folds of my scarf. “Thanks for the injection of paranoia.” “Paranoia means ignorance. It is not paranoia if it is true.” I snorted. “Sure. Know of a way we can get away from my stalker?” “You could try hiding your link and breaking line of sight. I am unsure where our follower is at the moment, but with this many ponies muddling up the emotional spectrum, they would have to be able to see you to properly follow you. “Of course, you would also need to leave Lily. She is both highly visible and has no control over her emotional output, providing a beacon straight to you if you two were isolated together.” My eyes drifted over to Lily, and my mouth twisted into a pained grimace. “You did say ‘alone.’” “If you want, luv, I can take care of m’self for a while!” Lily chirped. “Surface customs ain’t that ‘ard t’ figure out!” One of my hooves caught on a piece of cobblestone, and I stumbled forward. “Wait, when could you listen in us?” I whispered. “Ever since Crystal decided t’ let me in on you two,” she whispered back playfully. “I believed it was in our best interests that we not keep Lilywater out of our conversations.” I blinked, before turning to look back at Lily. “Are you sure?” “Course I am! When am I not sure?” She gave me a wide, confident grin. “I…” I shook my head. “No, no need for that. I know I said I wanted to be by myself, but that’s a lot of effort just to get some alone time. We’ll figure out something.” We continued trotting down the road, where the crowd of ponies was already thinning out. There was a brief inner struggle as I debated on whether I would rather isolate myself for the stalker or mingle with the ponies more. I turned around, merging into the tail end of a group of ponies. Better the danger that I could see than the danger I couldn’t. A quick look around revealed that I was in the Sunlight Plaza, and a thought popped into my mind. The Penumbra Guardhouse was a mere block away, and it would most certainly be empty with all of the guards working overtime. It wouldn’t be too out of place for me to visit, and as long as I was inside, I could at least have a modicum of privacy from my follower. That, and I really wanted to go back to the guardhouse. If I was going to be taking Overwatch’s place, I needed to figure out what I had, something I hadn’t done on my first trip there. “Hey, Lily,” I said, turning my head over to my companion. “I got most of the reports from yesterday’s incident filled out, but I’d like to formally question you and get a transcript. Would that be okay?” The merpony perked up, looking at me eagerly. “Sure thing, luv! I’m keen t’ help wit’ anything you need.” I smiled back. “Right this way then.” — Are you in yet? No, not quite. The order only just came down from the queen to move forward. You might have a bit of a problem headed your way. What kind of problem? You know that botched operation to replace those guards in the Everfree? Yes. I was part of that. They never showed. Why? One of them’s showing here. Who? The unicorn. The queen wanted me to watch her in case she was a changeling. If she turns out to be from a rival hive and she detects you in the guardhouse… I’ll keep my wits about me. Just keep her on your empathy sense, and alert me if she starts coming up. Alright. You know what you’re looking for? I do. You know where it is? I do not. No intel besides where the captain’s office was. That’s reassuring. I’ll take care of it. Just… play it safe. I said I’ll take care of it. Nymph In my previous life, Overwatch went through specialized training to hone her skills as a scout and a marksmare. It wasn’t so different from my training, but one of the great things to come out of her past was her habit of finding alternate pathways, entrances, and the strangest of shortcuts. She knew the streets around here like the back of her hoof, and she believed that one should always know how to break into their own workplace. It was such that I found myself with the knowledge that if I climbed up a nearby dumpster and balanced myself against the drain pipe, I could bounce open the upstairs window by hitting it with my hoof in the bottom right corner. The front door was actually locked, presumably because there was nopony inside, but I was technically a guard and that theoretically meant I should be allowed access into the guardhouse, right? I was slightly concerned that I could be revealing an alternate path into the guardhouse to my stalker by doing so, but between this and revealing that I knew how to pick locks, albeit poorly, I chose the option that hid any new skills Overwatch may have acquired. Play it safe. Play it baseline. My hooves landed lightly onto the tile floor as I dropped into the upstairs office area and closed the window behind me. The walls were fairly devoid of decoration, save for a few sporadically placed workplace notices and the occasional plant, but the cubicles were filled with all sorts of personal effects. I stuck my tongue out as I passed them on my way downstairs. I hated all kinds of classwork back at the hive even though I did well on most of the examinations, and Overwatch’s opinions on paperwork weren’t too far from complete apathy. I don’t think I could ever spend my entire life in a tiny cubicle. Trotting over to the back door, I twisted the lock and popped the handle to let Lily inside, and she slipped in with a happy bounce to her step. “Nice nick y’ got ’ere!” she said as she trotted further into the guardhouse, her eyes taking in the new environment. Lockers lined the sides of the back hallway for the other guards to place their belongings in while on duty, which usually consisted of saddlebags and spare readings or shopping bags. I walked over to my own locker and began working the combination lock. I couldn’t remember the exact code, but my muscle memory knew well enough how far to turn the knob each time, and with only three tries, I managed to break into my own locker. I let out an audible groan as I looked inside. There was only a spare squirt bottle in the back corner and a few notebooks, but the rest of the locker was spotless. With a snort, I slammed the locker closed. I should have figured that I wouldn’t keep important things in my own locker. I was half tempted to use my newfound lockpicking skills and attempt to break into some of the other padlocked lockers, but I decided against it, opting to check on Lily first. I peeked into the main lobby to find her admiring the large fish tank in the center, her face pressed against the glass. With a roll of my eyes, I went into the back again, reasonably certain she’d be fine alone. The fish, however, I was less certain of. I might have to check back in a couple minutes. Besides the break room and the stairway going up, there were only two other things of import on the first level. I passed the iron door to the holding cells in the basement without a second glance, stepping into the armory after popping the door open. The armor and weapon racks against the side of the room were mostly empty, so it wasn’t a great leap of logic to deduce that the lone set of Royal Guard armor not among the spares was my own. I walked over to the rack and stood silently in front of my armor. Unlike changelings, unicorns were spectacularly unequipped to scale buildings, but that hadn’t stopped me from trying during my night shifts in the past. A fair number of scratches adorned my golden peytral, only a few of which came from scuffles with delinquent ponies. The saddle guard and croupiere that protected my back and hindquarters had also acquired their own share of scratches, though the pieces of armor that had accumulated the most imperfections were my hoof guards. Dents deformed their worn surface, but like the rest of the armor set, I had polished them to a mirror shine. It was a point of pride for me, though a lot of the higher ranked veteran guards stopped seeing the point in spending so much time in getting them perfect. I finally turned to the helmet. The plume tracing up the back of it was made from donated mane hairs, colored a pure white by the same illusion spell that made all unicorn guards look the same. Reaching out with my hooves, I lifted my headgear from the rack and held it before me, staring into the reflective metal as if daring to see myself in it. After a moment, I turned it around hesitantly and, after a deep breath, brought it down over my head. It was a little large for me, even with all the extra padding inside. I could’ve sworn that I’d been using this helmet for most of my training years, and it was a perfect fit for the whole thing. Did my transformation magic fail to bring me up to size? It would make sense. I was a fair bit shorter than myself before I became me, and my ability to disguise myself had always been sub-par compared to that of the infiltrators. Perhaps a little more padding would do the trick? I pulled off the helmet, shaking some life back into my mane before setting the headpiece back onto the rack. I leaned to the side, finding the weapons I generally carried around on patrol hanging neatly in a line to the side of the armor set. There was the standard issue club and a sword, though the sword could probably rust into its case and it wouldn’t have made a difference. The job of a guard was to stop the disturbance, not make a mess of it, and I tended to stick to magical methods anyways. In any case, I wasn’t particularly practiced in close-quarters combat, though I knew the basics. The last piece of equipment was the crossbow I had specially requested. I technically had my magic to shoot with, but feeling the weight of a physical alternative was comforting. I reached for it, but just before my hoof made contact, my ear perked up. There was the sound of an object tumbling to the floor from somewhere upstairs. I slipped into my empathy sense, and there, around the captain’s office, was an emotional signature that hadn’t been there before. “Did you detect that too?” “Tartarus,” I muttered. How had somepony slipped past me? They couldn’t have gone past through the back door since that door led to the hallway right behind me, and I doubted that they went through the front lobby and not said anything about Lily. The only other entrances that could have avoided the bottom floor entirely were the windows up top. My method wasn’t the only way in, and a flying pony could at least be able to access more of the windows. It would’ve been very difficult to distinguish the pony upstairs from the general atmosphere on my empathy sense outside, but here in the empty guard house, even a subtle emotional presence was distinguishable, albeit with a little concentration. “Do you know how they got in?” I whispered, my eyes flickering over to the club beside my armor. “Not quite. They just appeared upstairs. Seems like window access.” I snorted. “Figured. So what should I do? Nopony should be in here.” “Confront them. They could be part of the changelings trailing you.” I raised an eyebrow, glaring at the bump in my scarf. “Are you sure? Kicking the beehive isn’t exactly what I’d call a good decision.” “You are not going to get anything done if you ignore them. You have an in-character reason to ask why there is a pony upstairs, especially if all the guards should be out for the celebration.” A groan escaped me. “But what could they be doing up there that I’d need to intervene?” “No idea, but I can guarantee you that if you do nothing, somepony is going to get hurt,” she said, and I took a sharp breath. “No sensible pony or ling breaks into a guardhouse to steal cookies.” My eye twitched. “Right, let’s go have a look then,” I growled, pulling the club off the rack. I stashed a few hair bands nearby to keep the entirety of my mane under my helmet, and after blowing a stray strand of hair from falling into my eyes, I took one of them to tie my mane back into a ponytail before trotting off. I took the stairs quietly, keeping my club held at the ready as I passed the cubicles over to the captain’s office. It was situated in the corner of the upper floor with only a frosted glass window to allow anypony to know what was inside. I checked my empathy sense again, reaffirming that there was still a presence inside before tapping a hoof on the door. “Hello?” I asked carefully. “Who’s in there?” Silence. The indistinct dark blobs in the window did not move. “I heard somepony moving around.” I checked the knob. Locked. “Who’s in there?” There was more silence, but eventually, a padding of hooves crossed the room. The door clicked open, revealing the red-orange face of Sergeant Flash Point. He wasn’t wearing his armor. “Oh, morning, Sarge!” I said, snapping a salute. “Didn’t expect to see you here, sir. Thought you’d be out working the celebration instead of coming back to your office, sir.” “Corporal Overwatch?” he said, his eyes scanning me carefully. “What’re you doing here? I thought you were off on leave.” I twirled the club with my magic before resting it on my shoulder. “I was, but I felt bad about taking so much time off and I wanted to keep in practice, sir,” I said innocently. “I heard some sounds coming from your office, and I thought that somepony might have broken in. When’d you get back?” I tasted it. There had been a brief hiccup on my empathy sense at “broken in.” “Just now. I needed to dig through a couple of my files, but I can’t seem to find a few of the schedules. Probably just senility hitting me early,” he said, opening the door further and inviting me in. “If you want, you could help me search.” I blinked, scanning the inside of the room. Most of the drawers were pulled out, and the window was open. A desk sat in the center amidst a pile of papers, and bookshelves full of awards and reference material lined one of the walls. The picture frame on the wall concealing the safe was untouched. “It is most certainly a trap. Be careful.” “Misplaced them, sir?” I said, cautiously stepping in. “Sure, I’ll help, but I thought you’d…” My gaze fell over the desk. “Sir, the schedules are already out on the—” “Watch it!” The door clicked shut behind me, and his emotions shifted from wary suspicion to cold blooded emotionlessness. I spun around immediately, bringing my club around in a wide arc, but he was prepared. He threw a spell, a sickly green ball, and it splashed over me like acid. My entire body was shocked, instantaneously numbed by the effects of the bolt, and though he showed a little surprise at my reaction, he dove in without hesitation. With a powerful uppercut, he brought the forward edge of his hoof right into a pressure point on my gut, knocking the breath right out of me. I stumbled back, wheezing, and my club fell out of my levitation and clattered to the ground. He plowed on, diving in again and bringing his right hoof across my face with a meaty smack. The force of it threw me sideways, and I collapsed onto the table, scattering the papers across its surface into the air. “Get back! Create space!” My hooves scrabbled across the smooth tabletop, sending a few more papers flying before I finally found purchase. I shoved myself backwards, falling to the ground on my back just as his hoof slammed down onto the table with a loud splintering wooden crack. He reacted quickly, turning to me immediately after he realized he missed, and lunged at me again. I bucked, driving my rear hooves into his chest and pushing him backwards, giving me barely enough time to stand up before he launched his next attack. Rearing up, I threw a left hook at him as hard as I could when he charged, but he countered it well, shoving his foreleg into the crook of my elbow. A sharp pang of pain burst out from the impact point, and a wave of weakness rushed through my entire left foreleg, causing it to go limp. He wrapped his right foreleg around my fallen limb and pulled me off balance with a twist, using his other hoof to shove me into the tall bookcase beside the desk. Framed accolades and trinkets rattled around as my head impacted the edge of a shelf, and a few fell to the ground with a shatter of glass and porcelain as I bounced off the bookcase. I fell to my knees, my mind spinning and my vision out of focus as I struggled to stay upright. He threw his entire weight at me, charging my body into the empty wall. My breath was knocked out of me again as I made impact, and he pinned me against the wall by my neck with his foreleg. My right foreleg pawed feebly at his back as I tried to gasp for breath, unable to get enough leverage to knock him off. I still couldn’t feel my left foreleg. “Struggle, you stupid nymph, struggle!” My horn sputtered weakly and I tried to kick out with my hind legs, but he had me solidly immobilized against the shelves. I could do little more than squeak as my vision began to go dark. The growing tears in my eyes blurred my vision as my strength ebbed away. Flash narrowed his eyes at me before he growled, “Your close quarters combat still needs practice, Corporal.” My hopes began to fade. I shouldn’t have tried this. I shouldn’t have tried to confront him, especially at a range where I fell squarely on the lower end of the bell curve. Even though I was expecting it, he still landed his initial strike, and the fight was over from there. I’d lost before I could even get a good hit in. My struggles had all but died off. He easily shrugged off any further ineffectual attempts of mine, pressing further and further into me and denying me the life giving air I needed. There was a slam of the door against the wall, and the force choking me lessened considerably as my attacker twisted to look at who had just entered the room. “You bloody tosser! Get off m’ mate!” Lily’s voice cut sharply through the haze over my mind. I drew a desperate breath. With the little extra space between me and him, I twisted on the wall, using the leverage from my shoulder to force him off of me. Bracing myself against the wall with a foreleg, I brought one of my hind legs in like a spring before bucking my rear hoof into his inner thigh with a final defiant scream. Flash Point cried out in surprise as his leg crumpled under him, but he managed to redistribute his weight to his other legs before Lily or I could take advantage of his weakness. With his three remaining limbs, he beat a hasty retreat, sweeping up a few of the papers off the floor before leaping out through the open window. He landed with a loud reverberating clang, presumably having moved the dumpster beforehoof to break his fall. “Bugger! He’s gettin’ away!” Lily cried as she bolted over to the window and stuck her head out, watching as the thief limped his way through the alleyway. I slid the rest of the way down the wall, slumping to the side onto the tiled floor with a grunt. “Overwatch? Overwatch?!” Lily’s panicking face appeared in my field of view. “Mum, are you alright? Can you speak?” I let out a few wheezing coughs before groaning pitifully and curling up slightly. “J-just stay right there! I’ll go get some help!” Lily said, before galloping out the office. I snuggled into the cool, hard floor and let out a sigh as my eyes began to droop closed. “I’m not your mother…”