Silent Artemis

by Hokusai3211

3) Castling

---

It had been almost two weeks since the creature of the Everfree, or C.O.E as the papers had been abbreviating it for the laissez faire type of pony, who was too busy for those pesky extra syllables had been hospitalised. Two long weeks of speculation, intrigue, gossip and downright fabrications, yet still no pony, not even the Guard seemed to have any idea what to make of it all.

Most it seemed were sympathetic to the creatures plight, alone in the woods, narrowly escaping death, so close to civilisation when suddenly, it was viciously attacked by the very monster that had been terrorising there own kind these past few months now. The news papers were more than happy to ride along with that claim and state it for what it appeared to be, another attack by The Ripper.

Firstly to sell papers, everypony in the media knew anything to do with the killer sold like diamond cupcakes, a guilty treat that was hard to swallow. But there was also more to the story, as like the mare in the edge of the woods, who had chosen to remain anonymous, it was perhaps a hope that this Ripper was losing it’s touch ever so slightly, because now if anything, there were two supposed victims alive.

In fact, many ponies were hoping that this creature might even shed light on the true identity of this killer. None more so than the Royal Guard, who were being hounded every single day since the creatures arrival for answers and statements to the fact.

Unfortunately, "No comment" seemed to be the new official moto of her majesties guardsman, when questioned about the incident, the Ripper or the very creature itself, and any hopes of an interview or even seeing the creature first hoof was very quickly quashed with a similar response, if slightly abbreviated.

But as the days progressed, the papers and by extension the ponies themselves, where growing more and more frustrated with any lack of answers.

None more so than the residents of Ponyville themselves. To the point where the frustrations had boiled over into outright threats of demonstrations and protests, not just in Ponyville but around cities across Equestria, all wanting nothing but an end to this nightmare.

That had forced her majesty Princess Celestia herself to step in, much to the chagrin of the Royal Guard, and deliver a speech not only to the house of nobility, but also to the house of Representatives as well. She had started her speech knowingly, as a practiced veteran of her craft would, by reminding her fellow kinsmen that the stallions and mares of her Royal Guard where working diligently day and night for their safety.

Urging them to understand that these things take time. Then as to compound the point she asked for patience at this time, as the grieving victims of previous attacks still needed time to mourn there loved ones and perhaps more importantly the relatively new victim at Ponyville hospital was still healing from her grievous wounds even at that moment. The princess then went on to extend an olive branch of peace to the new creature, ending not on the attacks themselves, but with hope and possible branching relationship with an entire new species.

The effect as one would expect from the beloved silver tongued monarch of the country was almost instantaneous, the negative miasma surrounding the investigation and the frustrations of the populous dissipated over night.

But every Royal Guard worth there salt knew, that would only last for so long.

Inside the hospital itself, there was no shortage of their own controversy and chaos. The creatures wounds had been mending well and fortunately it had gained consciousness on only the fifth day, much to the amazement of the doctors and nurses who had been talking of an induced coma the moment the creature had arrived in the operating room.

Unfortunately however it seemed upon awaking, the creature itself had not taken well to it's new imprisonment as it now doubt saw it, and when it seemed to realise that it was staying for the foreseeable future, took issue with that fact and tried to escape. Hammering home it's displeasure on being imprisoned, by fracturing the Guard on duty's leg as he fought to keep the creature restrained, with mixed results.

It had taken four of them to successfully pin her back on to her bed, with considerable time and strength wasted as the doctors who had not fled the scene, had made there voices heard about watching for it's neck wound, which was even then still barely healing. There magic had managed to seal the wound, but there was no replacing time and rest when it came to recovery for such a grievous attack.

Somehow they had managed to restrain her, without reopening wounds, but they had not been kind about it, to the point where one Guard mare had been placed on temporary suspension for negligent use of force. An unpopular disciplinary action as it turned out, with the other guards grumbled and none to subtly wondered aloud, just who's side was there new superior on?

Still even now the discontent among the guards themselves was reaching newer heights, It seemed no pony or creature in Ponyville was quite happy with there new current circumstances.

At least, that was the thought going through one older Guards head at this very moment as he and another far younger stallion stood at attention outside the door of the acting Captain, overseeing the Ponyville investigation, and currently overseeing a full blown dress down of their newest Lieutenant .

The room itself had been quite for a long time, but that did not mean it had been that way for the whole hour. In fact the volume of the room fluctuated often enough from deadly quiet to loud hollering and yelling that reminded them both of there worst days at boot camp.

All of it one sided, all coming from there commanding officer, except for the occasional "yes sir," or "my apologies sir," that peppered the bouts of silence like a poorly seasoned soup. The older of the two stallions had been trying his sun dried hardest not to listen to the conversation, he had learned long ago nothing good came for sticking his muzzle in his superiors affairs, but these paper thin hospital walls where making it hard to focus on anything else.

It did little to help his concentration as he glanced over at the younger guard besides him, who appeared to be doing everything in his power to pretend he wasn't hanging on every word of this conversation, which if anything only screamed to the world, 'I'm hanging on every word of this conversation.' The older stallion rolled his eyes, gritted his teeth and pretended he wasn't right now hearing at this very moment the words:

"Two weeks Lieutenant, it's been two weeks and what exactly have you brought to the table?" The voice of the Captain boomed.

Silence followed by an almost world weary, "nothing yet sir, we need more ti-"

"Don't even think about finishing the sentence I swear to the princess's throne," the Captain warned, and the older Guard pretended he didn't hear the almost growling of the last syllable.

"I was told by you lieutenant, that I would only need another week, precisely one week ago, I was told all I needed was to give you and that vile moon kisser carte blanche on this creature to get her talking" and the older Guard again pretended he didn't feel the grimace from the Lieutenant at the words 'moon kisser.'

"What we need is results, yet in two weeks, you have brought me nothing at all, you don't even have a name, a goddess damned name Lieutenant! I know bumbling recruits that could have tripped into a name in that time, why haven't you?"

"She's proving rather... stubborn to questioning and all other means of communication have had... complications."

"Complications, like what?"

There was a sound of a scroll being unfolded and placed on a table, then their was silence.

"Lieutenant, what is this?"

"I believe it's," there was a pause in the room that was almost palpable, "a stick figure drawing of me and a phallic object being, well how do I put it-"

"I know what it is, I mean what the hell are you doing showing this to me!"

The old guard heard a nervous cough, and it didn't take a genius to work out where it came from, "I'm trying to emphasis that this is the closest form of communications we've had sir, for whatever reason she refuses to cooperate with us, regardless of what we do, I need more time, sir, unless you want me to produce more picture, of which I unfortunately have many."

There was another pause in the conversation, and even behind the wood and the stone of the wall, the older guards shifted uncomfortably, ancient memories of boot camp came flooding back into his mind, like they happened yesterday as he felt more than heard the deafening silence in the room silence.

"If I don't get results out of you by the end of this week, Lieutenant, I swear, I'll replace that sun damned drawing with my very real hoof and-"

The older guard focus shifted as he caught something in the peripheral vision and turned his eyes towards the guard on the right. Catching the younger stallion flicking an ear towards the door, he wasn't even being subtle about listening now. The older stallion frowned and coughed just loudly enough to get his attention, the younger guard froze, turned towards him and flashed an apologetic grin.

Why do I always get stuck with the damn rookies, he thought as he lamented the office job he had turned down to be here, a stones throw away from his wife and new-born foal, and was about to ponder his life more, when the door suddenly flung open, almost taking the hinges with it, before it slammed back shut.

The two guards standing at attention somehow stood even more so when the blue hulking, (even by comparison to the two muscular ponies,) unicorn marched out, muttering to himself as he did so. They both noticed the tensing in his shoulders and the bulging vein in his neck as his muttering grew louder, until the stalwart unicorn finally turned at the end of the hospital hallway, then opened a door seemingly at random and slammed it shut behind him.

There was a second and a half of near perfect silence, quickly followed by what sounded like the epicentre of a one pony earth quake, as metal clanged and wood splintered around the room, even at that distance, the sound was almost deafening.

“Should we go in after him?” The younger guard said with a stutter, after a moment.

“Should you shut the buck up before you get us both fired.” the older pony whispered hoarsely, his eyes fixed right in front of him as if nothing had happened, and nothing did, because he didn't notice those types of things, he was a professional.

But he did notice the long drawn out sigh behind him, because it sounded like it was coming from behind his ear.

“Oh and I was sure he had it that time.” A sullen and mockingly sad voice sighed out from behind them both. The younger stallion dropped his spear with a long vibrating clatter as the older one collected himself and aimed the spear tip with both hooves at the intruder.

The disembodied voice moved through the shadows, almost materialising through them to reveal a white pegasus. Perfect in every shape and curve, save for the incongruous sunglasses that never seemed to leave her muzzle. She watched as the younger stallion fumbled to get his spear upright and at her, before she casually looked down with exaggerated ease at the now two spears pointed at her, she smirked at them both.

“Easy studs, a mare might get the wrong impression if you go poking those big things at her.”

At once the two stallions brought there spears back to there sides, there faces shocked and abashed, “Apologies Sergeant Night Light,” the senior of the two stallions said with a stutter, “I didn't see you go in, you just startled us is all.”

Her smirk only grew, “I have that effect on ponies.”

Then her gaze turned back towards the cacophony of collateral damage coming from the room across the hall, “well at least he found a broom closet this time, he apologised to that mare for a week last time he had one of these episodes, I tried to tell him that room was occupied but,” and she inclined her head towards the the noise in the room, “still, no harm done, at least, I do not think he meant to caused that heart attack anyway.”

The younger pony’s jaw opened in shock.

“That was a joke,” Night Light said with a sardonic tone to her voice.

“Begging your pardon miss,” the older guard asked, “but I had heard he was one of the more level headed of the lieutenants, not to speak out of line, but with the way things are heading with the investigation at the moment-”

She shook her head and turned back to the guard, “He is, but right now, he's under a lot of stress," and her smirk changed almost imperceptibly towards a frown for just a moment.

"But don’t worry!" Night Light said, beaming once again, "once this business is all over and we’re back home, I’m sure he’ll go back to breaking new recruits instead of furniture.” She gave the two an exaggerated wink, no small feet in glasses that covered a large part of her upper face, before chuckling to herself and trotting over towards the sound of the noise.

Humming a tuneless melody, she waltzed towards the door, sure in the knowledge that he must have broken everything by now. Flicking an ear towards it, sure she could hear no more cracks or clangs she opened the door, then slammed it shut as she felt the crack of something on the other side of it.

Then she giggled when she remembered, ah yes, głupi you always forget, the shelves themselves.

She leaned against the door nonchalantly and after the final crashing sound, drew back and opened them again and saw the pony in question, huffing and rubbing his forehead, she opened her mouth to speak but stopped as his horn lit up.

A sudden flash of magic sparked and lit the room in earie glow for just a moment, then a locket materialised into his hoof. The behemoth of the stallion paused, flicked it open, looked inside of it, then despite himself seemed to clamed down somewhat, Night Light could almost see the ghost of a smile on his face.

“Before you make fun of me, do you mind if we have a drink, I think I‘m a bit worked up.” Checkers said, turning his uneasy smile towards Night Light.

---

“So this is where my guard sneak off to after there shift ended, it’s got eh, charm, I guess?” Checkers said, surveying the rustic dank smelling bar around them, and uncomfortably lowering his head to a hunch, so as not drag his horn against the roof.

It wasn't exactly metropolitan, but at least it was clean, well clean enough for his low standards of the place and it certainly was low. But if anything it had a lively, lived in atmosphere, if that was supposed to be a positive thing. Most likely like every small village in the countryside this bar was the closest thing Ponyville had to a night life, as besides the depressingly small library, which for some reason doubled as a tree, there wasn't exactly much else in the way of entertainment this far out of civilisation.

Around them, older stallions and mare sat or leaned on the tables, content in there peaceful chatting or occasional laughing merriment after a long day working in the fields. The bar in question seemed split on two sides, one holding tables and chairs close together, the side he and Night Light had occupied.

The other was much more open, with higher tables and stools populated the younger generation. It looked to Checkers almost like a unconscious timeline of a ponies lifespan, if you turned your head quickly enough. But he supposed there was some rhyme or reason for it. If anything, it probably stopped the two sides from spoiling the others evening, and allowed the younger colts and fillies to make there own little weekend mistakes, away from the prying eyes of there seniors and family.

“They call it Rosey’s!" Night Light yelled cheerfully, over the cacophony of other voices around them, as she brought the drinks down on the table. "Because the owners daughter's called Rosey, I tell you you can’t get anything past z’hese geniuses,” She laughed disdainfully, and Checkers gave her a slight questioning glance, as he heard the slightest leanings of her concealed accent peppering her voice, but got his answer as he surveyed there drinks, a glass of lemonade sat on his side and as for hers...

“Need I remind you, we’re still on duty, Sergeant Night light.” He said with a warning to his voice.

“Oh relax-” she froze and caught herself “Checkers, you’re always a stick in the mud, It’s a virgin Bloody Mary, well, at least,” She smirked and pretended to stretch out her wings, in doing so she obfuscated the flask in her hoof, which tipped into the glass in one quick motion and then quickly flicked it back into the other hoof before settling it back into the nape of her wing, “it vas.”

Checkers rolled his eyes, that explained why her accent was back, and why she seemed to be in a more agreeable mood right now. Just like his right hooved mare, he expected nothing less. She was a promising young mare, it's why he had tutored her so early in her career. She had it seemed, a bright enough future in the guard, if only she actually had what they needed, discipline, or anything other than contempt for every pony other than him it seemed.

And even then he wasn't sure if she was just humouring him, it certainly felt like it some days.

He sighed and thought how today of all days he wished he was back with those older stallions enjoying a nice game of chess with a coffee instead of this. He was not very good in these types of environments, too much talking, too much movement, too many ponies to keep his eye on. His days a beat guard ruined his enjoyment of these places, always looking over your shoulder for fight to break out, or a glass to be smashed over his head. Perhaps it had only heightened his latent distrust of these types of places in the first place, who could say?

But anywhere was better than back in that hospital, trying to talk to that thing.

“Have you calmed down yet, can we sit at this table and have a nice conversation,” she said flashing him a mocking smirk, “without you throwing this table over?”

Checkers hung his head low, “I’m sorry, that wasn’t right.”

“I’ll say, do you know how much paperwork I’m going to have to pass onto some poor lacky to pay for that, without the wrong ponies getting involved, you do understand, they are gunning for you anyway they can right?”

He gave her a weak smile, “don’t you think I don’t know that.” He took a long sip of his lemonade and settled it neatly on the coaster. “I really thought I had her with that last one, I really did, but it’s like talking to a brick wall, worse actually, a brick wall doesn’t stare back at you with those icy eyes of hers.”

Night Light, taking a note from Checkers own book took a deep sip of her own drink and sighed with a happy gasp, “Oh yes, tastes like piss water mixed with indifference, really reminds me of home.” She chuckled and then her expression grew serious, “Wait, the creatures a filly?”

Checkers blinked, his jaw opening wide, “How did you not-.”

“-I’m how you say, messing with you,” she laughed and took another sip then placed it down and pushed it away from her, “honestly, you ponies really cannot take a joke, but moon this drink really does taste awful, want a sip?”

Checkers lifted his brow at the blood red drink and shook his head, he didn’t like drinking at the best of time, he hated his head being cloudy and thought the whole idea of drink rather stupid in the first place. But even if he didn't, if Night Light had said it was terrible, and she would drink anything with a high enough alcohol content, then he would rather drink what it supposedly tasted like.

“Suit yourself, just trying to ingratiate you to our little local bumpkin's dishwater,” she took another more hesitant sip and pulled a face. “I don’t think I’ve made this very clear, usually it takes more than six or seven attempts for you to listen, but let's just suppose this creature, and I want to make this very clear, has no idea what the hell you’re even saying to her, has this run through your head?”

Checkers stared at her until she rolled her eyes and finished, “sir.”

“Thank you,” Checkers said evenly, “and yes, I have taken that into consideration Night Light, your opinions are very hard to ignore, especially because you remind me of them loudly and at the worst time. But I respectfully think you’re wrong on this one, I believe the creature knows exactly what we are talking about.”

Night Light rolled the drink around in her hoof, “and you’re evidence is?”

He bit his lip, trying to somehow put his Guard instincts about things like this into words, a hopeless endeavour, “I can tell, by the way she looks at me.”

Checkers anticipated the mocking laughter, but it still hurt a little when Night Light did it anyway.

"Oh that’s so cute of you, sir, might I point you in the direction of a dog, smart little beasts that they are, you must get a world of conversation out of them, honestly throw a treat at them and they’ll bark there merry heads off, you should do the same thing to this creature, maybe that's where you're going wrong?”

“She’s sentient, Night Light, I know she is.” Checkers growled with confidence, yet still could not meet her gaze.

“How do you know she’s not just a scared wild animal, hells the only reason ve’re even talking to her is because that hayseed dumped her in a hospital, instead of a vet, I’d be amazed if zee’s ponies knew a pig from their own cousins here. But lets say she isn’t a giant dumb animal, lets say she can understand you, so vhat then, if she isn’t going to give us anything then what are we going to do?”

“We just need to get her talking,” Checkers said evenly, but his temper was raising, mostly because now that he was saying it he knew how stupid it was sounding.

Nightly chuckled darkly, clapping her hooves together mockingly, “Amazing, but sir might be hard, don’t know if you’ve heard, but she’s got this little thing wrong with her neck.”

“Enough Night Light, Celestia, don’t play stupid you know what I mean, I know she can talk, you know she’s not stupid, you saw how she looked at us the other night, there are other ways of talking, play these games with your little victims, not with me.”

Night Light lifted her hoof to her heart and drew back a dramatic gasp, “Ouch, that was biting, almost sounded like our old commander got his wit back, but that can’t be right, all I see is little Checkers here, Checkers did you hear our old commander?”

Checkers looked sideways pursing his lips.

Night Light waited for his come back, but when nothing came she drew closer, looking long at Checkers until finally she drew back her glasses ever so slightly, red rimmed iris's gleaming in the candle light, “What is that look, you want to say something, vell come on, tell me, I promise I won’t blush, about the only mare in here that won’t tonight.”

“What if,” he paused thinking very carefully about what he was about to say next, “what if the reason this creature isn’t talking, is because it knows something more about The Ripper?”

Night Light rolled her eyes, or at least she seemed to, almost impossible for anypony to tell behind her glasses. “Well, I thought you were just trying to get it talking to find out what it’s hobbies are, but now your saying that a victim might know something about the killer?” she said with a sneer, but when she caught the look in his eye and seemed to rethink his question.

“You mean," she said slowly, and her tone suddenly got a lot more serious, "what if she’s not saying anything, because there might be a connection?”

Checkers nod was so slight, it was almost impossible to tell.

Night Light paused again, pressing her tongue into her bottom lip, “I’d zink, that you would probably need something called evidence sir, before you throw that allegation around, especially considering the Princess just issued a formal speech condemning the attacks, wishing for a speedy recovery of the creature and a bridging between it’s species and yours, printed on just about every piece of paper from here to Canterlot.” Night light said with almost comical ease, given the severity of the statement. “I ask again, do you have evidence?”

“Call it a hunch.” Checkers said with a wince.

Night Light brought a hoof up slowly up under her glasses to message her eyes “I give up, you keep digging that grave with your own hooves, the Captain and the rest of them in Canterlot already hates you, and now you really want to be ostracized by every pony on this side of the country as well?”

“Look, just stop with the back talk for one second, do you have the report I asked for?” Checkers said.

Night light stared at him, then huffed out a response took a long hard pull on her drink, then reached for a saddlebag behind her. She placed the file down and Checkers made sure to angle himself against the wall so no pony could chance a look inside the grizzly contents.

“Here,” she said hoofing them over, and Checkers wasted no time pouring over the file, he supressed a grimace as he surveyed the details of the latest attack, the latest fatal one anyway, not counting this supposed mare attack in her home. It was still just as brutal as when he had read the first report, perhaps more so, as it seemed the killer was getting bolder with his trade, for lack of a better term.

It didn't help that this forensic science, a relatively new and experimental study that the guard had adopted, spared no detail at all as they listed and explaining ad-nauseum each attack to the body and what it meant antemortem and post-mortem.

Sometimes he wondered if some of them enjoyed their job a little too much.

“Look Night Light, the report is inconsistent, at first glance it’s as gruesome as all the other victims, save the Ponyville mare that lived of course, but on the other, the M.O’s all wrong, for one thing, the attack was during the day, The Ripper attacks at night. Another, this creature only has one slash wound to the jugular, the rest of them all had three.”

Night Light shrugged, “so, it’s getting lazy, the Ponyville mare had none, and you can also tell the reports are inconsistent because they're both still alive.”

Checkers just shook his head, “but see, the depth of the wound is the same consistency, the wound is on the exact same part of the neck, the same depth, the same length, but just the one and see here, no bite marks,” he paused, “I mean no recent bite marks anyway, ignoring the creatures other scars. All the other victims had post mortem marks across their body, some even before the victim passed away, why doesn’t she have any?”

“Luck I suppose.” Night Light sighed, “Look this is all very interesting, but maybe it’s just because she’s bigger and stronger than all the other victims were, heck, she’s a lot taller, I'm surprised this Ripper could reach that high up.”

Exactly!” Checkers said ignoring her sarcasm, “Look, let's see the facts here for what they are, this creature seems to live in the woods of the Everfree, right?”

“She doesn’t exactly seem to live in upper Cloudsdale.” Night Light said sardonically.

“She’s been hitherto unknown to all of ponykind, until recently. Carnivorous, or at least an omnivore based on the dental reports from the hospital.”

“Most monkey’s eat bugs, from what I understand.” She said examining her drink tiredly.

Checkers frowned, "She also proven to be violent enough to break a Guardsman's leg."

Nightly shrugged her shoulders, "as would I, if I woke up on a bed with a stallion trying to pin me down." She paused and then said, "well, actually maybe not-"

“And," Checkers said, slightly louder than before, "all of a sudden she turns up right in the middle of this investigation, as another victim of the Ripper, who has hitherto only gone after griffons and Ponies.” Checkers said pointing, he was on a roll with this one, every day more and more inconstancies where just flaring up.

Night Light leaned her head back on the chair, "I still have no idea what you’re trying to say.”

“I’m saying that this whole thing is just very odd, what if she’s the reason we’ve not been able to find anything, because we’ve been looking for a griffon or a Pony and something we understand, not an unknown, or perhaps, what if the reason she’s not talking is because she knows the Ripper on a more intimate bases, it could be the reason she got attacked herself, perhaps there was a disagreement, what if it’s another one of her kind?”

Night Light, seemed to look down at the table for a long moment, behind those blackened sunglasses as she pursed her lips, “I think that’s a lot of what if’s sir, and not a lot of evidence, and it all mute if she's not going to give us anything, is it?”

Checker faulted slight, looking back at Night Light, his expression was almost one of hurt, "you don't agree with me, do you?"

Night Light lent against her hoof, she flicked a glance at the crowd around her then back at Checkers, "I think it matters little vhat I personally think, but you might want to cut the speech a little short, I hear jury's get bored very easy with all zee technical talk."

“Why did I bring you with me," Checkers growled, as he threw his hooves up in the air, "I should have just kept talking to that creature, at least at this moment, I would actually welcome the silence.”

“You know why you brought me, because I can get zee job done quickly for you, just let me work my little tricks on this creature, I’ll have her singing by the end of the night.”

“No!” Checkers said, almost before she could even finish her sentence.

“Why not, you know my way is so much faster?”

This time it was Checkers turn to message his eyes, “Because right now she’s innocent, your method is a last resort, and not one other ponies tend to look kindly on at the best of time's, you're right it would be easier, but I’m in enough trouble as it is without resorting to those methods." he said and lent inwardly, almost whispering the next few words to her "and besides, if it turns out I'm wrong, not only are we going to hurt her for nothing, but potentially we make an enemy out of an entirely new species, you want that on your resume?”

She thought about that for a long moment, her eyes getting wider and wider at the notion she had apparently not even considered, then finally, she sighed and slumped backwards in her chair.

“Point taken, I suppose, can’t say I vant a potential war on my hooves, my anya would have my head for one.” She said, then bit her lip, Checkers raised his brow, it had been a while since he had heard her slip back into her old language.

She grimaced, almost at herself and she watched as her brows knitted together and she flashed Checkers an angry look, though, he supposed it more anger at herself, “then come on big brain, what the heck do ve do, time is running out, the rags are frothing at the mouth for results, we need to get this thing talking, if it can and soon, before another victim shows up this time dead, moon only knows The Rippers getting bolder, any sooner and it’ll be strolling up Canterlot to take a pop at the princess herself."

Checkers rubbed at his tired eyes, “I know I know, I just need, I need to come at this differently," he said rubbing his chin with his hoof, he just needed some way of letting this creatures guard down.

Maybe it’s me, or the uniform, maybe I need to swap things around, get somepony who she won’t suspect, get somepony who isn’t official, I need to castle.

“Castle?” Night Light said.

Checkers blinked up at her, "What?"

"What about a castle?"

He blinked again, had he just been thinking out loud? Damn it, he really was slipping back into old habits, “It’s a chess thing, castling, it's when you swap your king and a rook and," he paused when he caught the expression on her face, "forget it.”

“Checkers..." she said slowly, her voice for once taking on an almost gentle tone, "how long has it been since you last slept more than a few hours?”

Checkers blinked, then flicked his eyes back and forth as if counting something, “When did I get off the train, I slept five on that, I think?”

Night Light shook her head, “I think you need some sleep, I’m going to get you something strong to knock you out for the night, then in the morning, we can talk about this, without you babbling like a őrült pony.” She said standing, then caught herself and cursed aloud as she walked away, "maybe I need something strong as well."

“I don’t drin-” he tried to yell, but quickly gave up, what was the point, she was right, he probably sounded like a lunatic. But something about this creature screamed something more was going on, he knew this was more than what it was the moment he first laid eyes on the reports all those months ago.

This felt like the only consistent lead they had had in months and he could work wonders, if he could just get the stubborn blasted thing to communicate!

But she just lay there staring at him, all the time, smiling one moment, frowning the next, it was infuriating. Groaning, he slumped onto the table, laying his head on his hooves and with little else but his racing mind, which was starting to throb with the pain of thinking, he stared around at the clamorous and if he was being honest irritating ponies having a much better time than he was.

It was getting louder by the minute, normally he would not have minded so much, after all, he had spent much of his twenties inside a barracks with fifty other stallions and mares twice as boisterous and twice as loud.

Goddess he wished he was back in Canterlot, asleep in bed with her again, alone together, just the two of them, lazily watching the morning sun rise without a care for burden or duty or much of anything except perhaps breakfast.

"These damn guard are useless." Somepony spat from behind him, and he lifted his ear and turned slightly, but couldn't place the conversation.

"I bet you this whole thing is just a farce, probably ain't even a real creature." Another pony said somewhere in the background, what worried him was that they where two separate conversations, yet it seemed to be the same topic.

He sipped his lemonade bitterly, his eyes passing over the crowd, if only they knew what he was sacrificing for these ungrateful plebs. Let them try and do better, I'd love nothing more than to leave them alone with this thing and see what they can-

He sucked in air and calmly released it through his nostrils, no, keep it together, this isn't personal, they don't know any better.

But the thought did little to help.

He kept his gaze wandering around the bar, his frustration growing steadily until almost out of the corner of his peripheral vision, he spotted a rainbow maned mare on the other side of the bar and stared at her. He watched her for a long moment wondering why her face seemed so familiar.

She seemed to be holding court around a table at the other side of the room, mares and stallions alike where standing and seated with bewilderment and awe in there eyes. He swore some of them where swooning, and not just the mares.

He watched as the rainbow mare, still talking, brought her hoofs to the back of her head and let her hind legs rest on the table, the crowd laughed, then laughed harder as the bartender, the supposed legendary Rosey of Rosey's bar, smacked the rainbow mares legs off the table with the plastic glass holder, just loud enough for the bar to give a playful cheer and for the rainbow pegasus to give an apologetic smirk.

Checkers lent up from the table, he knew that mare, she had been the one that had beaten him at chess, the one that had saved the creature, the one that had given perhaps the least helpful post incident report in guard history, half vague nonsense details in one part and the other half about how amazing she had been.

But as he watched her there at that table, a thought came to his mind. He couldn't help but notice the oddly charming nature of the mare, and how it seemed all around her, other ponies where listening, waiting, even leaning into her story as if at the apex of a grand finale of some theatre play. He had to say that she seemed oddly captivating, even from this distance.

He also noted, by the none to subtle looks she was getting from one mare in particular, who was acting far too interested, that her unlikely charm was not entirely unknown to the rainbow mare.

He sat back in his seat, playing with the thought in his mind, it was growing more and more insane as he considered it, and yet the more he did, the more the smile grew on his face, until it had developed into a deep, toothy grin.

“Oh no, I know that look, tell me vhat it is now, I’m not letting you rope me into another one of those plans without detail Checkers, not again.” Night Light said, dropping the drinks once again onto the table.

Checkers turned that grin towards her, "Night Light, this might be the worst Idea I’ve ever had, but I think I just found my castle!”