Ponyville's Sleuth

by somerandomness1

well......not dead

Sirlen kept quiet vigil on the royal carriage as it made its painfully slow progress through the countryside. Having a caring ruler is nice but not when you are a royal guard or, in Sirlen's case, a sleuth; albeit a royal sleuth. You see for every shining intimidating body guard, there is a sly unseen sleuth. At least that is how the saying goes, in truth there is only one per royal family member. There are a dozen or so guards for every royal sleuth, but people are superstitious and sleuths are never seen unless they want to be.
Something is off today, he could feel it, but he had checked and triple checked the perimeter, a fifty yard radius around the carriage, but still nothing. As the day grew old the little caravan stopped and set up camp. As he stepped out of the tree line one of the guards jumped a little and cursed under his breath.
"Holy Jerome, Sirlen we have got to put a bell on you or at least take off that charmed cloak of yours." said the same guard with a grin. This particular guard happened to be Markus, one of the finest blades in Venettas Queendom and Sirlen's lifelong friend.
"Mark, I am pretty sure you cleared a foot off the ground that time, some captain you are." Sirlen grinned a little and patted Markus on the back.
"I prefer to see my opponent's face first"
"Ah but what if they see you first? I really must teach you how to walk quietly instead of that lumbering oaf approach you are so fond of."
"Oh ha de haha!" In a more serious tone he added, "You'd better go report then get some rest you look like hell."
"Thanks."
"Anytime."
As he approached the carriage he almost got within arms length of the guards before they noticed they jumped a little but announced him.
"Your sleuth is here my liege."There is a muffled reply then the door opened and he stepped inside. Venetta was one of the worlds most hated and loved monarchs of all time. Sirlen gave a stiff bow in the tight space.
"Oh, no need to be so formal, there is no one around to care." Vanetta said.
"That is exactly what I am worried about my liege. I really wish you would reconsider going back home and sending a someone else to inform you of the situation."
"That is my call, now report."
"Yes my liege. I saw nothing of note today but.."
"But what?"
"I have had a bad feeling all day."
"Well no wonder, you haven't slept in days. You are not meant to live off of that herbalist's brew of yours. Now get some sleep that is an order Sirlen. Goodnight."
"Goodnight...my liege."
"What am I going to do with you?"
He felt dread wash over him as he walked away.
He slept away from the rest because of the guards superstition, so he laid his roll out a little ways into the trees under a gnarled old tree.
"That is one ugly tree." he thought just as he closed his eyes.
"click" "Click" Sirlen was awake instantly but continued to breathe calmly so not to alert the newcomer that he was aware. Then in a second was kneeling knife at the ready, but there was no one or nothing in sight.
"Probably just a rodent in the trees." With that thought he looked up and saw something that would have made a normal man shat himself. In the tree was a milky green spider like creature the size of a large dog with glowing blue eyes. It turned its head like an owl to stare at him but it didn't seem to focus its eyes on anything. It closed it's eyes then opened them but instead of the cold blue they were now a fiery orange looking right at him. It let out a blood curdling hiss.
It pounced. Sirlen just barely had enough time to put his short sword between him and it. "Thank god for all those endless hours of sparring" By sheerest luck he had managed to hit the creature in the right eye. Sirlen stood frozen as its hard exoskeleton twitched then hardened. He threw it to the side and pulled out his sword now green with the creatures blood.
"The Queen." He thought as he dashed to warn the others but befor he could break the treeline into the small clearing he stopped. Right before him a battle was taking place friends and foe dying alike in eerie silence. He walked forward into the clearing felt a tingle crawl down his back then the sounds of battle came to him all at once. The agonized cries of men and creature alike reached a crescendo in his ears.
He quickly studied the scene before him realizing that all that was left was a tight knit group of men surrounding the royal carriage led by Markus. They were themselves surrounded by dozens of carapace covered abominations each a little different but each was insect like. Markus and his men were a whirlwind of blades, but Sirlen could see the signs of fatigue in his friend. There were just too many and too few.
Their line broke as a soldier went down. Sirlen didn't think he just reacted. Faster than the human eye he readied his powerful longbow and with a resounding "thwack" "thwack" "thwack" he released three arrows in half as many seconds. He hit his marks but the heavy carapace of the creatures only cracked. Although it did give the soldiers enough time to close the line, but two of the creatures noticed Sirlen and rushed at him. He pulled out his five slightly heavier arrows each of which could go through a fully armored man and into another at one hundred yards.
He aimed and fired two more shots of his longbow. Each creature face planted with a shaft coming out the back of their heads. He aimed once more only to be struck with an incredible force. He was thrown through the air and landed on the royal carriage. The wind evacuated his lungs and his ribs seared as he landed. The world just faded away.
He awoke and sat up the pain in his chest made the world go fuzzy for a few seconds. He eventually got to his knee to see Markus kneeling himself with a blade made of the same carapace as the creatures held to his neck. The thing holding it was like none of the others it was tall, sleek and almost feminine in nature. Surrounding the two was a small crowd of the creatures from before.One of them was holding Vanetta. Markus looked Sirlen in the eye, a look that he will remember for the rest of his days, just before he was unceremoniously delivered the deathblow.
Sirlen let out a small
"No." He was too late again. it felt like the air was once again knocked from his lungs. The creature pulled back its now scarlet blade, turned and walked over to Vanetta. "NO!" He shouted and readied the bow that had never left his hand and fired two more of his special arrows. With a blur of motion the abomination was suddenly standing on the roof not three feet away. Having moved ten yards faster than he could blink. In its right hand it had its weapon and in its left it had his arrows.
It reared back its left hand ready to skewer him with his own arrows. Vanneta's scream is the last thing he hears before all he can see is a bright light.
"So that is the light at the end of the tunnel but....... why is it violet.”

* * * * *
Twilight was out of breath and frustrated.
"Twilight, are you ok?"
"Yea Lyra. 'pant' I 'pant' I just don't know what happened. That was way too much energy for such a simple spell. I hope I didn't do anything or lose that statue you worked so hard on."
"Don't worry i'm sure it is just fine. I will just have to go over there tomorrow and levitate it here instead. It may take a bit longer but I have worked so hard on it that it will still be worth it. Thank you so much for trying though."
"Ok, but what I don't get is if the spell failed why didn't the magic just disperse again. Where did it all go?"
"I don't know but don't worry like I said I am sure everything is perfectly fine. Anyway you need to trot right on home and get some rest."
"You’re right Lyra, bye."
"Bye."
The whole situation made a bad taste mouth, but she tried to follow Lyra's advice and forget about it. Though she did not plan on getting rest she had to clean up after her "studying". She could leave it for spike but "The little guy deserves some rest. I hope he is having fun following Rarity around while she shops. "He is probably on cloud nine, aaaannnd buried up to his neck in bags.
"Spike sometimes you are too much."
"Whoyatalkinto?
Twilight is almost not surprised to find Pinkie two inches to here right.
"Heeeey Pinkie. I was just thinking out loud.”
"Ooooo oooo ooo! I do that all the time. Like just know I was thinking about a question I was asked three months ago I was asked 'what is better vanilla or chocolate.' and I said 'I don'tknow.Ihaveneverthoughtaboutitbefore.' SoIwasjustsayingtomyselfchocolatecupcakesaregoodbutcakeswithvanillaicingarealsogoodandwhataboutstrawbMmmm.."
"Pinkie! please. calm. down." Twilight says removing her hoof from pinkies mouth.
"Okie dokie lokie!" she says as she opens the door to the library and goes inside.
Twilight shakes her head and follows her inside.
"So Pinkie what brings you by?"
"I'm waiting for Rainbow Dash."
"What?"
"TWWWWWWIIIIILLLLIIIGGGGHHHTTTTT!!!!"
“Hu?”
"Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Twilight Imesssedup Imessedup Imessedup!"
Rainbow Dash flew in the library and started shaking Twilight.
"Dash! please. calm. down.” Wow, that is twice in the last five minutes. She thought. Sadly it didn't have quiet the same effect.
"Come on Twilight we have to go NOW!”

* * * * *
Sirlen opened his eyes to a almost painfully colorful ...forest?
"Yep definitely a forest. Well am I dead?" He tried to sit up and his ribs answered that question. "Damn! Nope not dead. He lifted up his shirt to see a small half inch puncture wound from the arrows "Damn that was close." and a dark purple bruise from his less than graceful landing. "Purple....?" he could almost remember....something..? "It doesn't matter. First off, where am I and where can I get some help around here?" All he could see was tree after tree.
"HEEEEeeeelp!"
"Sounds like a good place to start as any." He grabbed his bow off the ground and dashed off towards the sound of the screaming. "What on earth is a woman 'or child I guess' doing in this forest.” He thought as he dodged through the undergrowth. His ribs were all but forgotten as he burst into daylight and rubbed his eyes at what he saw before him. What appeared to be half lion and half bat
"Don't want to think about that parentage." was standing above a small hors...no a small pegasus "Young lady, where are you!" Sirlen shouted. He couldn't see the girl anywhere. His shout attracted the attention of the ...lionbat. "and oh look it has a scorpion's tail,must have been a really complicated relationship" He readied his last heavy arrow and released it into the beasts "yea lets go with that name" chest. It went right through its chest and out the other side. The beast howled in pain and pushed Sirlen aside as it ran off into the forest leaving a deep gouge in Sirlen's back as it went.
"Ahhhh" He struggled to his feet. Still no sign of the girl who screamed. Sirlen winced as he imagined her fate. " too late again" ,He berated himself "always too late" He looked up to find the little yellow pegasus still laying on the ground staring at him. He slowly walks over to try to calm it but as he reaches out it curls up and starts...Crying? He is so shocked by this he pauses for a second.
"GET AWAY FROM HER YOU MONSTER"
A cyan blur connects with his face and sends him into a tree. "Crack" "There goes the other ribcage" ,He thinks before he passes out from the pain.

Comments

[The Audible Blink]

I read this out loud. I hope you don't mind, but I'm posting the video to YouTube in a few minutes and I'm posting it here in the comments as well.

[The Audible Blink]

Dere.

If I'm being a dick, don't worry, it gets better.

[somerandomness1]

2867191 Hey glad you liked it. Sorry about the grammar though. I don't know how to get an editor, and yes this is an original. Ps what possessed you to do a reading of this? It hasn't even been up three days.