Enigma

by steampunkwatchman

Chapter 10: Transmodification

Some time after I had left Little Strongheart to her own devices, I flew and arrived on the outskirts of Canterlot, just as night was beginning to fall. Pulling back with my powerful wings, I alighted on a tree and from there, took a survey of the city.

I needed a way into the city, and as menacing as I looked, drenched in blood and earth and the like, the Watchmares in their towers of gun turrets would blow me to bits before I could ever approach the front gate. Once inside the wall, I’d have to maneuver my way through the streets without being spotted by any district Overseers or their underling Seers, all of whom would blow me to bits on sight. Once past them, I’d need to somehow break into Princess Twilight’s chambers within Canterlot palace without being spotted by any of the numerous guards or leaving any evidence that I had been there.

It was necessary for me to go through all this trouble because it was imperitive that I met with the princess that night; waiting until dawn would waste too much time, and as terrifying as I looked, there wasn’t any time for a rest or a bath; agents from Sweet Apple were definitely tracking me.

“Just another day at the office,” I muttered.

Well, in order to get past the guard towers, I’d need some sort of distraction. A rock maybe? I figured the guards would be gullible enough to slip past if I tossed ‘em a rock. It’s not like they were on high alert; Sweet Apple was many leagues away and there was no reason to suspect that I’d be headed to the capital. With that reasoning in mind, I dug around in the mud and found a decent sized stone not far from where I stood.

A rock might distract a couple guards, but sentry guns aren’t programmed to be stupid. I figured an ElectroMagicnetic Pulse would fry the circuits, but that’d do just as well to fuck up my wings. A stunt like that would have to be a last resort.

Princess Twilight’s pet dragon once tried explaining to me how the turrets worked, but alas my eyes glazed over and my mind wandered elsewhere. All I could remember was that the guns were pretty hard to mess with and that Canterlot was not a place you wanted to wander around past curfew, because those machines were pretty bad at discriminating friends from foe.

Suddenly my mind made the connection The turrets were machines, and machines have off switches! With my plan all figured out I set it in motion by tossing my rock as far from the primary guard tower as I could. The soldiers all ran to investigate, save one to watch the tower, but a second stone took care of him. Thank Celestia the engineers didn’t trust the turrets enough to let them watch the tower.

I dumped the unconscious guard into the nearest shadow, dropped through an open window, crept down a hallway, bonked a second guard on the head, and took his place at the controls, setting the turrets to be a little less aware.

For the first time in a while things were going according to plan. My work in the control room done, I exited through a conveniently placed door at city street level, and merged into the shadows to avoid the Overseers’ watchful gaze. Overseers, of course, are those giant robot heads with a thousand eyes and a head propellor, which patrol every major city following the war.

I bounded through the streets, ignoring all the dated pre-war political propaganda that I had seen a million times, along with the bums burning trash in the back alleys and the thieves who gambled on the rooftops where the Overseers did not fly.

The thought of all those sleeping ponies whose homes I was passing, and the fact that Princess Luna could see all their dreams and therefore knew their private lives and personal information made me snicker, but I quickly silenced myself as one of the Watch’s thousand-eyed drones buzzed past and I turned my attention to other things, like stay pressed against the nearby wall, and finding the killer.

Very few guards patrolled the palace grounds; nopony really expected intruders to get through the city’s outer walls, so it was easy for me to approach the princess’ chambers and fly up towards the window.

I rapped lightly on the glass, and she stirred in bed, ever so slightly. I rapped slightly harder and her torso shot up as she sat up in bed and jerked her body in my direction before unceremoniously tumbling out and collapsing on the floor.

She unlocked the window with her magic, and as I entered I could see the same lavender aura at the far end of the room, placing a tea kettle on the stovetop.

“Ed.”

“Good evening, my Princess, I hope you don’t mind my dropping by.”

Twilight rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she took a seat on a nearby sitting pillow and gestured for me to do likewise, “Bit late for a stroll, isn’t it? Especially for a blood-stroll, the kind of stoll where you’re completely covered in blood.”

“It’s important,” I told her.

“Yeah, that’s pretty obvious.”

I took a look at myself and examined the crimson stained on my claws, and the dried, coagulated blood that had formed a sort of red dust which now coated my feathers. I wondered how I would explain this to her.

“Sugar?” she asked, indicating that an explanation might not be required.

“No, thank you”.

“Alright then,” she said, levitating over a pair of china tea-cups and the kettle, “ Let’s hear what you have to say, I trust you have a good reason as to why this meeting could not wait”.

So I told her all that I had been up to, and by that I mean all that had transgressed and all that I had investigated since we last spoke, and when I had finished, it was her turn.

“Interesting…..” she pondered for a moment “You know you can’t go out in public again; she’ll send hitmares after you and I can’t afford to become politically involved in this.”

“Bit late to worry about her when there’s an even larger evil afoot”.

“Well we need to resolve this Sweet Apple incident sometime”.

I told her that I’d deal with it once the murders had been wrapped up, and then I made a request.

She told me that she’d never tried it on a griffon before, and I told her that there’s a first time for everything, and now I’m telling you to get those dirty thought out of your head.

“Well, what are we waiting for?”

The princess’ horn lit up and she informed me, “This is only temporary. You have until this time tomorrow to do what you need to get done”.

I’ll admit, I screamed a little when the spell hit me. I’ll have you know, though, that it was a dignified scream, and nothing more than a vocalization of the intense agony that I was in.

It was over pretty quickly, but the pain I was in during that brief time was excruciating. It was like when you burn yourself on a hot pan, it’s only for a moment but it hurts like a bitch. Now imagine that that burn was all over your entire body, and that it wasn’t a pan, but literally the sun. Like, if somepony asked me to describe what the inside of the sun felt like, I would ask them if they’ve ever violently changed species.

Once my new eyes had adjusted and my vision returned, and my extremities had pretty much stopped tingling, I took inventory of the changes. My eyes weren’t as sharp, that was obvious almost immediately. The other change that was almost immediately obvious was the fact that I expected the tingling in my nerves to extend to my claws but it did not, since they had been replaced by a dull gray stub. I guess I couldn’t complain about the color, it was pretty much the same.

“You alright Edwa-”

“I’m fine." I said quickly. "Sorry to ask for a favor and then duck out, but like you said, I’m on a time limit, and the guards are probably searching for me”.

The princess offered to cast a cloaking spell, and I accepted, swearing I would solve the case and find the murderer. She of course thanked me/reminded me that I had better ‘cause that was my job and also kind of super-important, and then told me that she had just thought of a way to deal with the incident with Little Strongheart in the Everfree, and that I should get going so she could work.

“Thank you, princess,” I said, bowing my head and turning to leave.

“Hey, remember, just because I said I could clean up the Everfree incident doesn’t mean I can deal with Sweet Apple altogether. That mare and I have a history together. Once that pegasus disguise wears off you’ll have all sorts of trouble on your tail”.
I nodded and took a dive out the window, towards the rising sun. The cloak would only protect me to the edge of town, and I prayed that this new body would be enough after that, because I’d need some time adjusting to my new wings.

Author's Note:

I apologize for such a long wait my friends. I have been busy with reality and it has kept me from writing lately. I hope that the next chapter will be longer and out faster then this one. Thanks for stick with this story though means alot! As for the story I hope you like some espionage, danger, and of course a new town to see. Cloudsdale!

Comments

[Sparky Brony]

Yay, new chapter!

[Sparky Brony]

Holy crap, I just saw this, I named a character in That Vagaries of Fate Enigma as well. I had totally forgotten this when I wrote it!

[steampunkwatchman]

5506126 Wow! Funny how things like that work right!