Silent Artemis

by Hokusai3211

4) Fate Comes Knocking

---

“The Lieutenant wishes to speak to you.” The guard spoke not a moment after Rainbow had opened the door of her home.

It was a bright sunny Sunday morning and as such Rainbow had taken to the idea of sleeping through most of it, after a Saturday of many drinks and merriment that had lasted well through the night and now well into the morning.

As such when she was greeted, (if it could be called that,) by the guards at her door step, it was not really a ‘ready for work, clean-cut and smart Rainbow Dash,’ but a Rainbow Dash that father sleep had taken a bat to and noogied hard.

Swaying slightly, Rainbow lifted a hoof up to her forehead to parry the rays of burning sunlight before blurting out, “I told you all, I’ll pay the rent when you fix my window!"

"Eh?" the squeaky voiced Guard, who looked to be much younger than the one who had spoken said, before nervously lifting a book up to his muzzle and flipped through his training manual for the correct response.

“Rainbow sweetie, who is it?” A feminine voice roused from sleep, called from inside the house. All three of them turned, though the cyan mare had to catch herself as she almost collided with her door frame doing so.

“No idea, got costumes on, think they’re strippers, or som’ in!’” Rainbow yelled back into her home, swaying slightly as she looked back up and squinted suspiciously, ”you guys strippers? Cos’s cool if ya are, but I didn’t order that… yet.”

"Hey, I had to pay for this armour!" The younger Guard yelled looking up from his manual, before the other one lifted his hoof up to silence him.

“Ma’am, who's in the house with you?” The other, much older Guard asked, leaning past her to glare into the cloud home.

Rainbow lent inwards conspiratorially, waving a hoof for them to do the same, the Guards gave each other a sideways glance and followed suit, leaning in as though in the middle of football hustle. “Between us strippers, I got no idea, but she’s like, really freakin’ hot!”

The older Guards instinctively wrinkled his nose, as the smell of whiskey invaded his senses.

The other looked back at his manual again, before sighing and throwing it over his shoulder, “Ma’am, are you alright?”

Rainbow drew back her eyes widening them with indignation, “You no damn well, I’m awesome! I'm Rainbow Dash, maybe ya heard of me?" She stated triumphantly, hitting her hoof to her chest before puffing it out, then turning slightly green from the over exertion, "Talk 'hic,' talk to me like that again and I'll knock your face into your face.” She slurred out taking a threatening step forward, before falling flat onto her face snoring loudly in an instant.

There was silence for a long moment then save for the whistling wind and the buzz saw snoring of the mare on the cloud in front of them.

The older guard sighed, "guess we should try tomorrow, somepony's got to get her back to bed, can't leave her like this." though he almost wished he could do just that.

“Not it!” The younger Guard spoke instantly, pointing a hoof to his nose, as his fellow guardsman sighed and went to pick her up, muttering about his days as a young colt and his dreams and aspirations that had not turned out quite as he had planned.

---

It was a bright sunny Monday morning and as such Rainbow was readying herself for work, or more accurately, sleeping until the final moment when she had to actually get to work. When she was awoken by the hammering of what sounded like a jack hammer against her door.

Rainbow woke to a sense of deja vu, despite remembering nothing of the last day, as she shook her head and grumbled, flying down towards the jack hammering and the jackass hammering it. She grunted at the queasy feeling inside her and this time Rainbow answered not with a stomach full of firewater, but with one desperately in need of ice-cold water, painkillers and something greasy to eat.

Memory somewhat (completely) hazy about yesterday morning, when Rainbow opened the door this time, she also opened her mouth to give the pony responsible a unpleasant word or ten. However instead of the mail pony or some goddess damned, news pony who even still after weeks of telling them to get lost, had still been buzzing around her home like fly's she couldn't quite swat away.

Instead of that however, she saw two burly, fully armoured Royal Guards towering over her at the foot of her door.

She snapped her jaw closed almost instantly and fought with her instincts to simply slam the door closed and flee as fast as her wings could carry her; as her mind went into overdrive at that moment. Much like any ponies does, when confronted with the strong hoof of the law, all of a sudden every petty crime she ever committed in her youth, (and some in her adult life) came flooding back to the forefront of her mind.

Alright brain, she thought, as her eyes nervously flicked between the two hulking brutes in front of her, we gotta' think of something to get outta' this one, quick and smart, you got it.

“Ma’am, the Lieutenant wishes-”

“Oh my Celestia, that space ship's coming right at us!”

The younger of the two turned almost instantly, eyeing the sky for the flying vessel, rising his spear so quickly he didn't think to the trajectory of it, which swung in a perfect angle into the back of the older guards head, knocking the helmet over his eyes.

Scanning the horizon he saw nothing but a blue sky and white clouds another blissful morning in the small hamlet, not a space ship to be seen.

The older Guard cursed and pulled the helmet from his head just in time to see the door slam and hear the sounds of wings flapping and it was only by catching the tail end of the prism of light trailing in the air, far far above there heads, that they finally caught on to what had happened.

There was another pause, as they slowly lowered there craning heads down, and towards each other.

“Oh the Sargent’s going to be so mad.” The younger Guard said with a gulp, then with only a moments hesitation, he sucked in his breath before yelling, “No-

“-Not it! The older guard said with gruff finality as he pressed his hoof firmly into the younger pony's nose knocking the helmet over his eyes, "defiantly not it."

In the distance a white pegasus with thick black sunglasses lay sprawled on a cloud above them all, filing her hooves. She gave a long an haughty sigh. Bóstwo, when you want something done right, she thought as she blew on her hoof.

---

It was on the third morning that Rainbow had begun to catch on to the knocking, She only had to peer downstairs through the banisters of her clouded staircase and see the glint of the gold on the stallions that she knew this wasn’t going to go away.

She groaned as she ruffled her mane with her hooves, what the heck was with these dudes, they where nothing if not persistent, who did they think they were?

She groaned, maybe she should just give up, it was only going to get worse, it didn't seem like whatever she had done was going to go away.

She frowned and hit her pillow, no that was loser talk, she was an innocent pony, sort of. Well she hadn't done anything bad recently anyway, she had right's goddess damn it! if they where going to harass her like this, then she was going to make them work for it. She could always play dumb later about it anyway.

Still this was getting to be a drag, she was going to have to do something about this at some point. She grimaced as she heard the knocking on the door grow louder. Well not this point anyway, maybe tomorrow, yeah she would deal with it tomorrow, she had stuff to do today anyway, it would be tomorrow Rainbows issue, she was sure future her could handle it.

Not a mare to give up and resign herself to her fate, with a smirk she snuck back into her bedroom, looking around the window at the back of the house, she cast her gaze around.

There where no Guards, Rainbow smirked, rookie mistake fellas she thought triumphantly as she opened the window.

All the time she thought about where she was going have to hang out for the next few hours, perhaps training, maybe even see if one of her old flings would be interested in a fun evening, heck, maybe even go see Fluttershy, it had been a while since they had hung out together, why was that? She had been kinda reclusive lately, more so than usual, that worried her, maybe she should go see Flutters toda-

“From a grin to a frown, thinking of something sad?” A voice came from above her and being a mare as brave as Rainbow she let out a roar of shock...

Okay it was a scream, but seriously only a small one.

Looking up she could see the white mare hanging by her tail from a cloud in the sky, upside down to the world. However the sight of a mare hanging upside down and smiling at her was not the first thing she noticed, as unusual as that was, it was the red eyes peering back at her that concerned her the most.

Red as a ruby soaked in blood and no pupils of, it was like the sight of a yawning mouth stretched wide to swallow her whole if she so much as moved an inch further. Yet Rainbow entire body screamed at her to back away and she felt her back legs almost trip over themselves as she angled herself back towards the window, but the red eyed mare only shook her head slowly and tutted.

"I'd rather you didn't do that."

"Nah, I think I'm going to do that," was what Rainbow wanted to say, but instead it came out as a series of grunts as she stopped moving backwards and instead stared up at the mare.

"There's a good little foal," The white mare said, smiling wider, though from the angle as was hanging from it looked far more sinister, perhaps it did just the same if she was facing the right way up.

“Can I help you?” Rainbow said slowly, shaking with the effort to even talk, for whatever reason, it felt like it had been taped shut.

“My what a gorgeous little scruffy foal, you're shaking, don't be scared of little old me, I'm almost harmless," she said with a giggle. But Rainbow found nothing funny about it, "Oh, the look on your face, I could just eat you up.” The white pegasus said, her eyes widening to an almost frightening degree, her hooves came closer guide Rainbow up to her gaze, not that Rainbow could look anywhere but into those sanguine eyes.

"I ain't scared of some crazy dangling weird-"

"- I didn't say you could talk," The white mare said sharply, and Rainbows words died on her lips.

Rainbow wanted nothing more than to bat those hooves away, finish calling her a creep and get the hell out of there, so why couldn't she, what the heck was going on!

The white mare giggled as she studied Rainbows face for a moment, as if appraising some furniture or a piece of decretive art, before she lifted Rainbows cheek up to meet her gaze full on.

“As fun as it was to see you play around with my Guards, I have orders to follow,” She said with a sigh, as if the idea of a it all was a tedious task, “so little foal, I’m afraid you're going to have to follow me somewhere, you don’t mind do you?” She asked patting Rainbows cheek like she was a misbehaving child.

Rainbow grunted at the slight pain and discomfort of it, she wanting to push it away, tell her to buzz off, but instead she found herself shaking her head enthusiastically. "N-no, I'll come!"

The mares smile grew until it almost touched both her ears, “Good little foal, off you come now.”

---

The flight was not long, it never was when it came to Rainbow, in fact she could have done it in half the time even at the speed there where going, if it wasn’t for the white mare in front and the two guards behind her going at a pace that would have had a tortoise rolling it's eyes impatiently .

Already she was in a fowl mood, wondering why she had given in to the mares request so easily, and the way she had called her a foal, she wanted to spit, so uncool. But whatever thought she had she kept it to herself.

She kept her gaze on the ground, surveying Ponyville, it was another day like any others, farmer ploughed the ground and Pegasus groomed the sky, they had kept up high and for once Rainbow was thankful for that. She didn't exactly want anypony noticing her being led away by Guards, not only was there already too much gossip going around this small town, but too much of it was always about her it seemed.

And as she passed a certain Boutique, she wondered what some loud mouthed seamstress would be saying about her if she saw her now.

Just what had she done now anyway? She thought idle as they turned and veered off left away from the library. Well that was a list far too long to count she supposed, in fact it was probably easier to rule out what she hadn’t done, but it wasn’t worth this, she felt like a criminal being led to a court room.

All at once they stopped and Rainbow in her brooding thoughts almost collide with the white mares tail, she caught herself just in time and the white mare looked back at her, her eyes now concealed back behind those thick black glasses, still the white mare smiled and even through the glasses Rainbow could see the wink.

Rainbow huffed, "why'd we stop?"

“We’re here little one.” She said pointing down to a square building bellow them.

“Stop calling me that!” Rainbow grumbled, but it only got a small chuckle from the mare, as she descended quickly down from the clouds and onto the roof of the building. All at once Rainbow realised where she was and tried to stop herself from gulping.

It had been hard to make out so far up in the sky, the clouds carpeting most of the lands below them but as she rapidly descended she could make out the long building, the white figures like ants all around it, the smell of sweat and the musk of ponies living together in a communal setting.

It was the old community building formally, now it was better known unofficially to the townsfolk as the barracks, the guards unofficial headquarters.

Rainbow stopped, hovering just shy of the sky entrance of the building, most buildings had this, even in Ponyville that was primarily an Earth pony village, it was never normally used, most pegasus having grown accustomed to the formality of a front door, but in the cosmopolitan areas it was used quite often.

“Look, okay I know what this is alright, so stop playing with me.” Rainbow said folding her forelegs, and giving them both a glare, before looking down at the ground.

The white mare raised her brow and looked back at the other Guards who shrugged.

Rainbow lifted a hoof to brush the back of her mane, “If this is about Bridleton, I’m gonna tell ya' now, that thing with the garden hose and fireworks, that was simple mistake okay, but I swear, I never even saw the chicken, alright!”

They all stared at her for what seemed like a lifetime, one of the Guards let out a short chuckle before coughing and going stoic once more.

The white mare, who's smirk had not left her face since she had first laid eyes on the cyan pegasus, grew slightly wider, “Yes this is going to be a most entertaining disaster."

And with that Rainbows life suddenly got that little bit stranger.

---

Rainbow squirmed in her seat, it wasn’t that it was uncomfortable or that it was too big, actually it was both of those things. But none of it helped that the two guards beside her leered like living gargoyles on either side of her chair or the fact that she was in the heart of a Guard barracks with no idea of what she had done.

She frowned down at the desk she had been sat by for nearly ten minutes now, it felt like she was back at school once again. Only this time the table wasn't some all conquering oak monolith she had to crane her neck to look over, instead it was a understated poorly built chipboard desk with nothing but a quill and a blank peace of parchment, and the pony she was waiting to be told off by wasn't some decrepit old mare from a bygone age who still lamented the days where the ruler or open hoof as the acceptable forms of punishment. But a lieutenant of Her Majesties Royal Guard of Equestria.

If anything at this moment, if she only got off with the ruler, she would count herself lucky.

The white mare had been gone for sometime now, leaving without warning, replaced by the biggest stonewall stallions she had ever seen. She had tried to get some small talk out of them, if anything to try and cut away some of the horrific tension in the room, but she might as well have been trying to get some conversation from a tree, they might as well be, considering their size.

Seriously, she thought Ain't Unicorns supposed to be all prissy, nerdy bookworms, what the heck are they feeding them over in Canterlot?

Somehow she knew it was going to end this way, no pegasus can live this free without society dragging her down. But really she thought in those moments, she would at the very least have gotten to wear the Wonderbolts suit once, before it had happened.

A mare could dream.

The sound of the door behind her creaked open and she flicked an ear to it, but kept her face steadfast forward, her forelegs crossed her lips pouted. If she was going down today, she wasn't going to go down blubbering, and she wasn't going to be so uncool as to show them that she was worried about it, because she wasn't worried.

She was frankly terrified.

She heard the soft clank of horse shoes on helmets and out of the corner of her eye, she caught one of the guards salute somepony, before he and she presumed the other guard as well, about turned on the spot and marched away under the soft wooden floorboards until only the sounds of her own breath and that of another pony could be heard in the room.

“Mrs Dash, how are you?” A voice came from behind her, she flinched slightly at the deep voice, so thick and formal it could no doubt shake the very windowpanes in there frame if it was even raised a fraction. But somewhere buried in all the iron of his voice was a little bit of softness also, as if he was trying to effect an emotion he was somewhat out of practice with.

She kept her gaze facing forward, ignoring the voice, until she saw the giant hoof extended towards her in her peripheral vision and slowly looked up to meet the eyes of the pony behind it.

“I just heard everything, I’m so sorry how they treated you, I should have gone myself.” He said with a worried frown on his huge face that looked almost comically out of place on the stallion and Rainbow blinked up at him as recognition started to form in her mind.

His blue met her violet ones as he looked down at her apologetically as she raised her hoof apprehensively, his hoof was soft when she shook it, almost laughably so, considering the obvious power behind it which was more than enough to send Rainbow flying through the wall with the wrong application of pressure.

“That mare, sometimes she just takes it to far.” He said with a disapproving shake of his head, was he talking about the white mare?

“Wait, I’ve seen you before?” She said with a suspiciously, as he took a seat behind the desk between them.

He smiled warmly back at her, “I thought you might have been too distracted with the board to remember me?”

Realisation dawned on Rainbow, “Wait, Checkers right, you're that pony that was playing with my Uncle, right?” she said pointing at him.

Checkers nodded happily, leaning back into his chair as he rubbed his mane and shrugged. “You gave me a good thrashing, I’m still trying to study the board to see how you did it really, not that I have the time, you never did give me that rematch?”

Rainbow furrowed her brow, leaning over the desk at him, “please tell me you didn’t bring me hear just for a game, dude you can just ask for pony’s sake, also what the hell you didn't say you where a guard, were you spying on us!”

Checkers held up his hooves defensively, “You have me wrong, I’m not here for a game, as much as I would love a rematch and no, until recently, I had no official business with you or your uncle, But I did called you here today because of what happened.”

Rainbow sat back in her chair and raised her brow, “What do you mean what happened?”

He let out a long and world weary sigh, as he leaned back on his chair, hooves together, “Look Mrs Dash, I know Ponyville doesn’t like the presence of the guard, I know some of you distrust us, I understand. I want things to go back to the way there were before all of this,” He gestured to the room, which had once been a storage room for chairs and tables, back when Ponies would come here to vent at there local council meeting or sowing circles.

“That’s why I came looking for you, what you did, saving that creature, that took courage and bravery." he said with a point of pride in his ton, " Bravery I haven’t seen in a long time, and it didn’t go unnoticed," he said with a smirk and Rainbow raised her brow slightly, she thought she was already past the point of answering questions about that, it had been like almost forever ago anyway.

"I don't want the guard to be here like some sort of punishment, I want to reward ponies who go above and beyond, the every day stallion and mare, to bring the guard and the community together against this evil, and really I can't think of an pony more deserving to help me start this initiative than you” He said and his smile grew warmer.

Rainbow opened her mouth to deflect his praise, but found herself instead blushing, she told herself she was immune to flattery, but that one hit the mark all right, “Heck anypony would have-”

“-done the same?” Checkers said tapping his hooves together thoughtfully. “Perhaps, but most would have failed, and those that did, would want there name in the papers, but you didn’t, why is that?”

Again Rainbow opened her mouth, but had nothing to say, she didn't have an answer for that, she didn't actually know why she had said no to an interview, In fact she had been pretty tight lipped to almost every pony around her.

Well okay, she may have run her mouth about it to some of her friends... and maybe some of the mares at Rosey's, the ones she wanted to get with. But she hadn't actually told any reporter anything, mostly because she hated those jerks following her and harassing every pony around her, but even still, why didn't she?

Maybe because she didn't feel like she did anything to deserve it. maybe it was because she didn't decide to help, she never actually made the conscious effort to say, "I'm gonna help that thing," her body had acted by itself, if anything, that should have got the medal, not that she was about to tell this stallion something that sounded that crazy.

Much to her chagrin, she felt her blush deepen as she fumbled with the feeling, trying to put it into some sort of coherent sentence, “well, I mean, I, it was just something that had to be done, so I didn’t like, think was anypony special, you know?" she shrugged, "'sides, I didn’t really want the hassle, all those reporters cramping my private life you get it?”

Checkers nodded, he knew all to well after all. “Well you might not think it’s special, but stuff like that, it’s enough to get the right sort of pony to notice.” he said, then without breaking eye contact with her, took out a scroll from under the desk and passed it over to Rainbow.

“I know it was wrong of me, but I did some digging after everything came out.” he said and tactically avoiding the gaze of the mare in front of him who crinkled her brow disapprovingly. “Sorry, but it comes with the job some times, look if it makes you feel any better, I didn’t find anything too bad at least in the criminal side, but I did find one thing.”

Rainbow felt her face go red, but it wasn't out of anger, she thought about what he meant by looking into her record, sure there was some stuff she wasn't exactly bragging about, somethings she wasn't too proud of, but there was only one thing that she did not ever want brought up.

She had been told that her application would go on record, it was a standard practice, and it wasn't like it was anything to be ashamed about, the mare had told her, a lot of ponies tried and failed the entrance exams, it's why they where so exclusive after all, but it still didn't make any of what the mare had said true.

Please don't say it, she thought. It still hurt even now, she was stupid to think she was ever going to get a real chance, she was naïve, she had the speed, the fitness, heck she even had the heart, she knew she did. But none of that mattered when they sat her down in a hall with a hundred others, put the papers down in front of her and she realised, worse she didn't have the brain for it.

There were few things in her life that had stung more, in fact other than the last time she saw her mother, she couldn't really think of one.

She fought the urge to not cringe openly as the memory of it all came flooding back, she had tried to burry it all. But really, that had been like putting a bandage on a broken leg. She couldn’t take it if he knew about that, she had torn that part away from her, why did he have to bring it up.

“Look" she said rubbing her foreleg with the other, unable to meet his gaze, "I know I was never going to actually make into the tea-”

“-Just, before you say anything, give this a quick read for me.” He said tapping the scroll lightly, pushing the scroll towards her with a reassuring smile and despite the explosive diatribe of regret and dissuasion she had been planning to spew forth she stopped herself, looked down at the scroll, cracked the seal and glanced at the writing.

After a moment she looked up at Checkers again, then down at the scroll, then back up at him again as he nodded with a smile and she looked down again.

"That's not?"

"It is." He said and she lifted the scroll closer to her face, as if the words where likely to shrivel away under her stare.

She read on, devouring the contents of the scroll, she even went as far as to mouth out the words, just to be sure she was reading them correctly. Her chest tightened and she almost went to read it again, but the idea was too much, the offer was too good to be true, she had to know from the stallions mouth.

“Is this… really from her?” She said like a little filly in awe of a note from the the Easter beaver of the Tooth Gnome, she didn’t care that she sounded like one, or that she had now asked the question twice in a row now, if this was in anyway true she would run completely shaven her fur off and gone prancing through the streets of Ponyville without a care in the world.

“We started out together, me and her," He said almost nonchalantly, "I went one way, to the Guard and she, well, you know," and he pointed towards the sky outside his window. "But we still keep in touch when we can, I remembered about a month ago, she was asking for a recommendation from any promising recruits, apparently being Captain doesn't leave you with a lot of time to find promising young pegasus," he chuckled.

Rainbow stayed silent, she didn't want to jinx whatever it was he might have been getting at, Clestia only knew, her mouth had lost more deal than it had won.

I didn’t have any pony in mind until I saw you that day with your uncle, the speed in which you blew away the cloud, the way you’re mind worked when we played, I think you have real potential Rainbow, and so does she.” Checkers said, pointing at her.

Rainbows hooves where shaking, she felt a slight dampness on her cheek and she almost dropped the page to wipe it away, she thought that her dream was over.

She never said it but deep down she thought that it was gone, when she heard about the entrance exam, the hours of writing and work that she told herself no pony like her could do, she wasn’t smart enough she wasn’t gifted enough, it was like all her life had been stripped away before her eyes, she had never officially excepted it, but she had resigned herself to the fact that she was never really going to be a Wonderbolt.

Now thought, now it was here in her hooves, all her dreams right on a little piece of paper, for nothing! Well it wasn’t for nothing, but just to do something she thought every pony would do. It felt like the universe had given her this, and she was going to grab onto it with both hooves and her teeth if she had to.

“I-I don't know w-what to say, thank you!” Rainbow stuttered out, a slight waver in her voice, but it was said with conviction, fire lit in her eyes and it was almost enough for the blue stallion to chuckle, they where too much alike.

“Hold on, a second” He said but she stood up and walked towards him.

“You don’t know what this mean,” she said moving closer to him with each word, until he was backed up against the wall, she was smaller than he was, almost half the size but in that moment she towered over him like a alicorn over a foal, “ I'd have given anything for this, I would, I'd-”

“-Rainbow, hold on one second," he said gently placing his hooves on her shoulder's and pushing some distance between them both, before giving her a firm glare. "Look this recommendation, it’s only a start, like an audition to the real task, to show that you can prove yourself, there's something else you need to do.”

“I don’t care if I have to…wait what?” Rainbow said, suddenly snapping out of her rambling diatribe.

“There's something you need to do for me, if you really want this position.” He said getting more serious than before, the light in her eyes dimming somewhat as she looked back at him.

Wait...he can't be serious? she thought with a worried glance to the closed door behind them, realising now that she was very much alone at the moment.

“W-what do you want me to do?” She asked, suspicion suddenly trading places with the passion that had once been in her voice, involuntarily she clutched the paper closer to her chest.

He took a long breath then lent in towards her and spoke, “I need you're help to relive tension...

Oh heck, please don't tell me he's going to-

"-with that creature."

Rainbow's words froze on her tongue and all was deadly silent for a moment, her thought taken over with the chill of those blue eyes on hers, but she couldn't help that her lip was curling into the slightest bit of a grin.

He seemed to notice this as his expression grew more dower than before, “She's been indifferent at best, and well hostile at worst with us, but she's expressed an interest in talking to you Rainbow, this is important, we've hit a dead end on the Ripper case and she might be the only lead we have open still, but she won't talk to any pony else so I need you to act as our proxy." He glanced sideways as if what he was asking of her was beyond comprehension, "What I’m asking of you Rainbow, it's a lot of responsibility, it could even be dangerous, we don’t know what the creature is capable of, but if anypony could get information out of her, I believe it’s you.”

Rainbow looked down and Checkers thought he could see her shaking, he almost sat up but then stopped when a chuckle escarped from her mouth, as she fought to keep it in,

“That's it?” she said, body shaking as she scrunched her lips together.

Checkers for once it seemed to Rainbow was at a loss of words, as he sat back staring at her, “it’s more serous than you think it is, it's going to be a long hard task.” he said hoping the emphasis on the difficulty would make her understand him.

It seemed to have the opposite effect, as not a second later she burst out laughing.

“Oh colt, the way you said it just there for a second, like seriously I thought you were asking me to-” She paused to laugh again, Checkers couldn’t see where the joke was coming from, but he smiled somewhat nervously anyway.

Eventually though she clamed down and wiped the tear from her eye, flashing him the most determined look she could muster under the circumstances, “But hay, you want responsibility, do you know who your talking to here, my middle name is Responsibility, Rainbow R.e.s.p.o.n.s.o.b.i.l.i.t.e Dash, that’s me alright, so you want me to chat to this big gal, sure I’ll get her talkin’.”

Checkers grinned, he wanted to correct her spelling, but he was enjoying the passion in her words, in some ways it really did remind him of his younger, more cocky, definitely more naïve days as a simple recruit. A touch of melancholic feeling grabbed at his chest for a moment, but he pushed it down.

"I'm serious thought Miss Dash, this goes above civic duty, she might be what we need to solve this investigation, but it's imperative that-"

"Yeah-yeah, sure that's all good, what time do you need me to start?" Rainbow said with a nod as her eyes skimmed over the letter again, unable to help herself.

Shaking his head, he sighed good naturedly, before made his way back to her chair and she did the same before he said, “How about tonight, just before sun down, it’s the easiest time to get you in there without alerting the media of anything?”

Rainbow shrugged, “Sure, I’m a night owl anyway, that works for me.”

Fearless, a good start, Checkers thought, but I wonder how much of that will change after first contact, first proper contact anyway?

“Alright," Checkers said, slapping his hooves onto his armrest with some finality, "I’ll have my second in command fill you in with the details at the hospital, properly this time,” He said emphasizing the words as he gazed over to the corner of the room. Rainbow raised her brow for a moment as she looked around, thinking the white mare might have been standing behind her .But saw nothing but the bland grey stripped down wallpaper in desperate need of re-plastering.

“Oh and Rainbow, I don’t think I need to tell you this, but just so we’re clear, this mission is top secret, tell no pony, not your friends, not even family, understand?”

Again the mare shrugged, “sure, I don’t like gossip anyway.”

He studied the mare for a moment, feeling for anything in the way of a lie, but when she stared back at him with only blank resolution he nodded, “alright then, we'll start this off small for now, it will only be a quick meeting tonight, once your done, you’ll come back here and tell me everything you can remember, got it.”

“Got it,” Rainbow nodded, thinking she might needed to salute the stallion, but settling instead with a firm nod of her head.

“Alright, dismissed…" He paused an apologetic smile creeping onto his lips. "Eh, sorry force of habit, I mean that’s all for today, I’ll see you tonight Mrs Rainbow Responsibility Dash.” he said, lighting up his horn to pick up a quill and paper. With little else to do, Rainbow smirked ,dropped down from her chair and began to canter towards the door.

Then she paused, it was just long enough that Checkers noticed, and raised his head from the desk, quill still touching paper as he cocked his head inquisitively at her.

“Oh, eh not to be rude,” Rainbow said with a smile that held to much teeth as she leaned back into view, body already halfway out the door, “but like, maybe next time you should prolly have done that the other way around."

Checkers raised his brow at her, unsure of what she meant, or why that smile from before was returning with force.

"For a moment there, it sounded like one of those bad prono stories where the mare has to get the promotion from the boss. Just sayin.”

She winked at him then shut the door and Checkers dropped both the pen and his jaw.

From the shadows Night Light stepped forward eyeing the door, then smirked back at Checkers who had somehow gone whiter than she was.

“I like this one.”