Got Your Six

by Revel Montaro

Chapter 8

Tempest Shadow did not move a muscle. She just stood, like a statue, sharp jade eyes skimming over the arrest warrant. She had never seen an Equestrian arrest warrant despite numerous calls in the past to have one issued for her and had no way of knowing if the thing was real or correctly filled out. All she did know was that a certain pony who had been a thorn in her side since day one, who had faded to the background and remained quiet since his embarrassing defeat, was back in her face and had an armed escort.

Thankfully, Flash Sentry was having no such hesitations on what to do. He stepped in between Tempest and Flag Staff and held out his hoof to request to see the warrant. “The only way you could have a signed warrant for the arrest of the Captain of the Guard is if you got the princess or her personal assistant to issue it and we both know that didn’t happen, Flag.”

Flag Staff smirked, the pale grey unicorn gladly passing the warrant to his fellow lieutenant. “Only for high crimes such as those against the crown or Equestria as a whole. But a separate investigation that had been underway the moment she stepped hoof in the city revealed enough evidence that we were able to present to Magistrate Fine Hearty for him to issue the warrant. And here we are.”

Flash moved his eyes to the signature. He was not familiar with said magistrate judge, but it looked authentic. His eyes next moved to the suspected charges. The orange pegasus scowled hard. “Felony theft, trafficking of stolen property, and… murder?! You have got to be kidding me! The captain has only been in the city for a week and has been working her flank off to get caught up with her new position requirements. There is no way any of this is true! Where would she even have found the time?”

“We will discuss the details of the charges once we have the suspect in custody.” Flag Staff flashed his teeth. “For her and our safety, of course. It is standard procedure as you know, Lieutenant Sentry. Unless of course you think you are above the law, ‘captain,’ and will choose to resist arrest.”

Flash flared his wings and assumed a defensive combat stance. “This is horse apples and you know it, Flag Staff.”

“Let’s let the evidence speak for itself.” Flag Staff gestured and the three guards raised their crossbows. “How’s it going to be, Miss Shadow?”

Tempest turned her eyes to her left. Flash Sentry was still poised to attack, his focus back on his captain, simply waiting for her order. Not an ounce of hesitation in him to possibly throw his career away and spend time behind bars. They could probably do it too. Two on four when the enemy was armed with deadly weapons were not great odds, but she could see at least seven different first moves she could make that would get them both out of the standoff and still subdue their enemies with minimal injury. The problem, of course, was that they were not supposed to be enemies to begin with. These were all her subordinates, all her soldiers under her care and responsibility, even if they were traitorous little shit stains.

After taking a deep, calming breath Tempest sat back on her haunches. “Stand down, Sentry.”

Flash’s eyes went wide for a second, before he frowned and followed orders.

“Wise move.”

“Whatever you think you have or whoever set this up and is pulling your strings, it will fall through and then I’ll be the one demoting you back to private for false arrest if not worse so you better think real long and real hard about how this is going to go down.” Tempest gestured for the ponies at the door to step back. They did so, lowering their crossbows, but not securing them. Flag Staff reached into his side bag and pulled out a set of leg irons, tossing them at the hooves of Tempest. She glanced down at them and arched an eyebrow.

“I’m not putting those on.”

“Did you miss the part where I said you were under arrest?”

“I am not a flight risk. I am cooperating and allowing you to get your jollies by escorting me to the guard station and holding area, but I am doing it under my own power. If you want me in chains, you better go get yourself a lot more lackies and maybe some artillery.”

Flag Staff scowled, but relented, levitating his irons back into his bag. Thankfully, Tempest thought, there were no reporters or witnesses beyond the other guards as the group made the short journey from the Captain’s annex to the palace guard station and prison cells, which had not been blown off the side of the mountain like much of the castle. Most likely because they were about as far away from the throne room as one could get.

Tempest allowed her despised lieutenant to go through the steps of proper booking as far as her information and occupation and to formally read the charges once again before the desk sergeant to bear witness. Tempest took it all with a level of boredom. She considered even gesturing a fake yawn. That was, until Flag Staff made a demand she was not willing to adhere to.

“No,” Tempest said, a growl in her voice as her horn began to spark erratically. They probably should have tried to put an inhibitor ring on it, not that she would have let them. No creature was ever going shut her down like that again. Tempest shuddered for a moment at the unwanted memories. Never again.

“You are going into the interrogation room. I can’t have you wearing full armor. You need to remove it or else.”

“It’s just armor, Private Clear Stream already searched me for weapons.”

With a gesture, two of the guards raised their crossbows again. “You and I both know it’s not just armor and there could be all kinds of hidden compartments that a simple search could have overlooked. You need to strip or I will be forced to add resisting arrest to the list of charges.” Tempest clenched her teeth and growled, her horn sparking furiously. “And keep that up and I’ll find some way to nail an inhibitor ring on that broken fountain you’ve got there, but I’ll wait until after we’ve loaded you up with a few arrows.”

“You son of a donkey whore,” snapped Flash Sentry. Once again ready to spring into action.

Flag Staff turned to Flash. “And if you lay one hoof on me or any other guard during this sanctioned process, I’ll have you up on assault charges and before a court martial tribunal before the princess even raises the sun.”

Flash, eyes unflinching, made no move to change his battle ready posture. Once again completely willing to throw his career and possibly his life away if his captain ordered him to do so. Tempest, however, raised her hoof. They were being played like a fiddle and she despised being played by anyone. The Storm King loved to play his top generals and commanders, plucking and poking them into confrontation just to keep them on edge. They had to be smarter than the one pulling the strings

“Stand down, lieutenant. I need you not behind bars. Someone has to be free to tell the princess what is going on.” Tempest closed her eyes and tried to calm herself, but all she could feel was bubbling hate and contempt in her chest. When she locked eyes with Flag Staff he at least had the intelligence to back up a bit. “When this is over, you plothole licking goat bucker, I am going to nail you to the wall then use you for target practice.”

Tempest removed her hoofguards and set them aside. Next, she carefully undid latches and straps that held the ferronite plates in place. It only took a minute, but Tempest hated every second of it. She never removed her armor in front of others, it felt more akin to removing a layer of skin with a dull blade. Once the armor was stacked up on the table Tempest gestured to the interrogation room, but Flag Staff did not move.

“The underlayer as well.”

“What? Why!?” Tempest could not help it, her voice cracked as she snapped at her treacherous subordinate. “It’s just a damn body suit to keep the armor from chaffing. You can see there are no pockets! Just use your damn horn to scan it, not a single enchantment.”

“It could be hiding something, lose it or they will fire on my command. Last warning.”

Flash was not sure why, but there was no mistaking the extreme discomfort in her body language. She was shaking, with either fear or rage he was not sure, probably both. Tempest’s eyes locked with his again, then they became downcast, her ears laying flat to her skull. What was she afraid of? No, not fear, shame.

“This is not necessary, Flag Staff. You can just have Clear Stream or one of the other mares give her another full pat down to check for hidden objects,” said Flash as a last ditch effort to help his captain.

“No way. This is the conqueror of Canterlot and as I've heard a self proclaimed a killer. Not taking any chances. Like I said, if I had an inhibitor that would fit that glowing stump on her head I’d have her collard as well. Strip. Now.”

With one last growl and shuddering breath Tempest unzipped the body suit and stripped to where only her fur remained. She was unsurprised by the collective gasps that escaped from their mouths as her last defense and secret was peeled away.

“Merciful goddess of the sun.”

Flash and the others could not tear their eyes away from the mulberry mare or the many scars that covered her body. There were several along her right shoulder and along her neck that resembled the scar on her face that was caused by an ursa as he understood. However, it did not end there. She had scars along her legs and sides that looked like nasty slice wounds from edged weapons and a few bite marks where the fur had not grown back properly. Her cutie mark on the right side of her body was marred and distorted with what looked like burn scars. But worse than them all were the long marks along her back that the fur had not grown back over the scar tissue. There were more than a dozen that crisscrossed one another and while they could have been made by a blade or whip they more closely resembled…

“Are… are those dragon claw marks?”

Tempest shuddered under their gazes and angrily tossed her underlayer suit on top of the other armor pieces. “The only questions you are getting answers to are for why you dragged me down here. Anything else and you can go choke on a yak cock.”

Flash shook his head, he suddenly felt great shame for staring right along side her accusers when it clearly bothered her greatly. “Captain, with your permission I’m going to brief the princess on this situation. She would want to be made aware of these charges.”

“You sure you want to drag Her Highness into this matter, pretty boy?” Flag Staff said, once again regaining his arrogant swagger. “After all, she is the one who invited the suspect here to appoint her as captain and gave her full access to all our inventory, stocks, and private records. She might be in charge, but not even a princess is above the law. The council and nobility will crucify her if she interferes or impedes in an on going investigation that involves the death of another pony. Just imagine the headlines of the papers tomorrow.”

Once again, he was reminded why he preferred to be out in the field instead of the den of oily snakes. Politics. Flash swallowed the bile in his throat and soldiered on. “I know the princess and I know she would want to be made aware of what is going on here.”

Flag Staff smirked again giving a shooing gesture with his hoof. “Do what you got to do, she ain't in charge right now to tell you yes or no. Run along, little lap dog.”

Flash kept his gaze locked on his fellow lieutenant, unflinching until Flag Staff broke first and moved away. He turned back to Tempest, but she had already closed her eyes and marched into the secure room, her head not held as high as it usually was. Without another word, Flash took off.

----------

The orange pegasus flew a few laps around the palace grounds to both clear his head and to see if he was being followed by one of Flag Staff’s minions. He knew in his heart they were probably just following orders, but it still hurt to think about such a schism within the ranks. How did things turn sideways so quickly?

It was wrong. The guard should have rallied behind their captain, trusting the one in charge of their lives and responsible for their well being and the well being of the princess. It was a distraction and a waste of valuable time and resources to turn on one another. It wounded Flash’s pride as a guard and burned at his core to imagine someone not within the chain of command pulling the strings like a puppet master.

It wasn’t like this in the Crystal Empire. The crystal ponies felt as if they owned their lives and their freedom to their prince and princess. They trusted their leaders absolutely and their decisions on who were appointed as officers. Even though he was a prince by marriage, Captain Shining Armor had retained his rank and gladly took his place as the commander of the empire’s guards at their request. Not a soul in the empire questioned that decision. Maybe it would not be a bad idea to write to his former captain for advice on how to deal with Canterlot politics and what could be done to help support Captain Tempest. That would have to be done later. He had enough on his plate at the moment.

Flash landed outside the hotel and marched in through the front door, saluting the guards in the lobby and receiving the same respect and courtesy in turn. Thankfully, no news of the arrest had made it outside the guard compound yet. He made his way to the hotel grand staircase, but only made it up a few steps when he heard his name being called out. Flash glanced about, but the odd acoustics of the lobby made it difficult to pinpoint which directed the voice had come from.

“Over here, lieutenant.” Flash turned his head and found a familiar looking yellow mare with a bowtie on his left. “Out for an evening stroll?”

“Guard business actually. And while I do hate to be blunt with anypony, mares especially, I have urgent business to discuss with Her Highness. If you’ll excuse me.”

Sour Sweet smiled that toothy grin he had seen that was just a little too wide. Instead of stepping back to allow him to continue up the stairs however, she wrapped a foreleg around his neck and pulled him close. Her grip was surprisingly strong even for an earth pony. It certainly got his attention.

“Now, that urgent business wouldn’t happen to be related to a certain mutual friend of our being wrongfully arrested and is currently being brow beat in an interrogation room so as to confess to something she did not do, hmm?"

“How did you… right. Intelligence and information gathering.”

“Don’t feel bad for being a bit slow, boy toy, I’m just that good. Just like I expected. We messed with their money and now they are moving pieces on the board to try and take us down. I guess it’s a good thing whatever guards made the setup are as sloppy as Fizzlepop thought they were.”

“Who? You said that name before.”

“Not my place to say, she’ll tell you when she’s ready, or maybe not, who knows. Grouchy mare takes everything too personal. Annnnnywho, we don’t want or need to bother Princess Twilight with this, not yet at least.” Sour Sweet picked up a saddle bag from the front desk and began walking towards the exit. She stopped and turned to look back at the guard who was still standing at the base of the stairs, eyeing her suspiciously. “Sooooo, you coming or what?”

“I’m trying to decide if I want to bother trusting or listening to you or if I should just go upstairs and pound on Twilight’s door.”

Sour Sweet rolled her eyes and let out a groan. “You ever played chess, Sentry?”

“Dabbled a bit, but not an expert. Why?”

“Well, yay! Then you know how the queen is the most powerful piece on the board and you are all but guaranteed to lose if you use her too often too quick. The enemy is making their first big counterattack to our opening move. You don’t lead your own counter with your best and most valuable piece. We only go to the princess once we have them on the ropes and know we can win. Follow me, soldier?”

Flash was still skeptical, but it did not cost him much to see how this played out so he nodded and followed the EIS agent back out of the hotel.

Tempest was sitting at the table slouched in the chair, head back staring at the ceiling. The interrogation rooms were about as boring as she imagined they would be. Plain, off white, one way in, one way out, with additional guards armed and ready if she tried to do anything. Lieutenant Flag Staff was standing in the corner just watching. That smile she wanted to punch right off his face still mocking her and her entire situation. She could take them all without breaking a sweat. They probably suspected that as well, which was why they were being cautiously on edge. Tempest turned her eyes back to the guard sergeant who was trying and failing to intimidate her into admitting something that she did not do. It was kind of pathetic really. Was the sergeant in on all this garbage? Were the guards with the crossbows on the take or were they just good guards following bad orders? Tempest kept running the entire thing through her head, ignoring about every other word the sergeant was spewing her direction.

“These are very serious charges,” the bulky sergeant said again for the, what was it, fourth time? The sergeant who said his name was, Line something, finally changed pace and opened a folder, spreading a few photos out on the table. That caught Tempest’s eyes.

Finally, now we’re getting somewhere. Wait… Tempest blinked. Is that?

The sergeant took notice of her change in pose. “Ohhh, so you do know the victim.”

“Yeah, I know him.” Tempest narrowed her eyes and straightened her posture. “He tried to bribe me nearly a week ago and I had him put into holding at the constable’s office not far from here until I was done talking to the council, but when I went to retrieve him he had been taken into custody by two guards who did not exist. You can check the record yourself, I even have a copy back in my office.”

“How convenient.”

Tempest stared into the guard’s eyes unblinking. He had a good, solid gaze, but it bounced right off of her. “Isn’t it?”

“Just make it easy on all of us, Tempest,” said Flag Staff. The sergeant glanced back at his lieutenant with a scowl. “We found the body in a hidden storage locker along with a vast fortune of items that had been reported stolen during the siege. You know? The invasion you spearheaded?”

“Yeah, I know it. I was there, but I was also too busy securing the city and chasing after Princess Twilight to bother with something as trivial as looting.”

“I don’t think there is anything trivial about this entire…”

The sergeant trailed off as a muffled exchange was heard just outside the room. A moment later a hoof pounded on the interrogation room door. Flag Staff scowled, but unlocked the door to open it. Once it was cracked wide enough for a hoof to fit through, the door was thrown open, smacking into Flag Staff who barely kept it from hitting his face.

Sour Sweet sauntered in with her too wide grin before she stopped just shy of the table, doing a little spin to wave at all the guards present. Tempest arched an eyebrow knowing exactly what the spy had just done. It was a clever way to count the guards and throw them off by distraction. Flag Staff moved to close the door when Flash Sentry pushed it back open again. The elder lieutenant growled at the orange pegasus. Flash just smiled icily.

“What in the depths of Tartarus do you think you are doing, Sentry? This is an interrogation, not a dinner date! Get this damn civie out of here!”

“Why hellooooo!” Sour set her saddlebag on the table and turned back to Flag Staff, having identified him as the key threat and pony calling the shots. “I am so sorry, not sorry to interrupt, but after I heard about the arrest of the princess’s captain and dear friend I felt it was necessary to step in personally.”

“And who the heck are you?”

Sour Sweet continued to smile adding a giggle that was far too bubbly for Tempest to believe was real. “Who me? Oh, I’m the one that moved in to help secure your crimes scene after your guards left it wide open. Honestly, it is no wonder you needed a new, hard as nails captain to run this show. Such sloppy work. Incompetent. Did I mention incompetent? I should have lead with that.”

Flag Staff sneered and growled, “You did what?!”

“Oh! Where are my manners.” Sour Sweet held out a hoof, all the sweet pleasantness evaporating from her face instantly, twisting into something condescending. “I’m Autumn Fall, Equestrian Intelligence Service. I look forward to comparing the evidence you gathered to what my agents gathered. Won’t this be fun?”

“On whose authority did you-”

“Lieutenant, you DO realize who the EIS answers to, yes? Well, maybe you don’t since you were never important enough to be in charge of a taco stand let alone the guard itself, so let me tell you. We answer directly to Lady Raven Inkwell.” Tempest had to fight down her smirk as Flag Staff balked and gaffed. She risked a glance to Flash who met her eyes and winked.

“Now, since we’re all friends here let me lay it all out for you.” Sour Sweet moved back to the table and retrieved a stack of folders and set them on the table next to the folder that was already there. The new ones were twice as thick with even more photographs of the suspected crime scene. “As I understand it you executed your raid following an approved court order signed off by Magistrate Fine Hearty. However, you should proooooobably be made aware of that the magistrate is now currently barred from his bench pending investigation by the EIS for charges of accepting bribery and general corruption. Regardless of that tiny hiccup, my team still thoroughly swept the scene, photographing and cataloging everything before we had the stolen items secured and moved for safe keeping.”

“You, you swept the crime scene?!” Flag Staff looked more stunned and worried than angry. Something that did not go unnoticed by others.

“Oh, absolutely! I’ve been chasing most of these ‘stolen’ items for months ever since they were reported as such and the insurance holders paid out a substantial sum to the former owners. It was quite interesting to find them in a storage lot all together that we have records of having swept thoroughly a year ago!” Sour gestured for Flag Staff to approach to see the photos she began spreading across the table, that icy, fake smile never leaving her face. Tempest was still having a hard time getting a read on the mare, but there was no doubt the agent was relishing every moment of it. Tempest knew what it was like to have an enemy by their danglers and nothing they could do to stop you. “You know what was also really amazing about this crime scene, lieutenant?”

“No, wait, go back to what you said before,” Flag Staff floundered and stumbled, “you, your agents or whatever moved all the stolen items somewhere?!”

“Yes, but don’t worry! The insurance agency for the central bank treasury will be given their recovered inventory once the investigation is closed. Don't worry your empty little head about that, sweetie.” Tempest came to the swift conclusion that Flag Staff had a terrible poker face. Too bad about all of this, she would have enjoyed cleaning him out at a card table. “That is not really amazing, that’s just the facts. As you may or may not know since they issued payout for the stolen items in the event of their recovery the bank or issuer now owns said items. I’m sure they will auction them off again someday to recover costs in case anypony is wondering. No biggy. Annnnnywho. What I was trying to get you to see were the photos my team took. Notice anything, lieutenant?”

Flag Staff shook his head and approached the table, his eyes locked for a second with Tempest Shadow’s. She could almost hear his heart pounding in his chest it was thundering so loud and fast. He next looked down and examined the numerous photos. He had no doubt they were from the same storage locker that his team had visited earlier.

“Still don’t see it?” Sour said with more than a hint of sass and glee. “Awww, how sad. No gold star for you... in more ways than one. That’s fine, I’ll point it out to you because you are slow. These items have been missing for a while, as we all know, since the siege according to reports filed by both the original owners and the bank. Your accusation on the warrant for Tempest was that the captain had either stolen the items herself or had her soldiers steal them and hide them until she could return to sell a little bit off for war profiteering. Oh, and let's not forget about the poor soul whose body was thrown in on top of the loot.

“However, if you look closely, there is not a speck of dust on a single, solitary item in the room. Not one! You know, as if somepony had just recently set up the treasure and cleaned them all off of any possible trace evidence before investigators went to talk to the magistrate. Then, threw a nasty, nearly week old rotting body in there as a convenient way to get rid of him. How strange, right?!”

Tempest examined the photos and Sour Sweet was absolutely correct. It was all just too perfect. Even a rookie guard should have noticed such a glaring detail let alone a judge and an experienced guard like Flag Staff. Sour Sweet had owned him before she had even entered the room. Game. Set. Match.

“I… I need to talk to…”

“Talk to your supervisor?” said Sour Sweet arching an eyebrow. “That should be easy she’s right, ohhhh, yeeeeah… awwwwwkwaaaaard.”

Without another word, Flag Staff left the room, slamming the door behind him. Tempest glanced to the sergeant who turned to Flash Sentry who shrugged. Sour Sweet groaned and began gathering her photos back into a neat plie to stow again.

“Why is this so difficult for you helmet polishers? Geeze, this is why I left the guard after less than a year. The evidence was obviously planted, which means all the charges brought against Captain Tempest Shadow are either false by accident or malicious intent. The next step for everypony in this room is to apologize to the captain and then get to work finding out who actually killed the poor sod in the photos and planted the evidence. Now, I understand that will be touchy since it could be a dirty guard or two, which is why I am here to help.” Sour gave a courtesy nod to Tempest. “The EIS stands ready to assist, captain.”

Tempest stood and the three guards in the room snapped to attention and saluted. Other than Flash, she was still not entirely certain of their loyalty, but there was another guard she was more interested in at the moment.

“I want the names of all the guards who were supposedly a part of this raid on stolen goods. I want each of them brought in for questioning and I want it done now, understood?”

Sergeant Line gulped. “Yes, ma’am. I will personally collect the information and have it brought to your office.”

Tempest nodded and moved to the door. Flash opened it and waited for the two mares to go first before falling into step.

“Well, while that was fun it’s a shame I had to reveal my hoof in all this as far as our joint investigation. Our enemies will be more cautious now knowing that they have more eyes on them.” Tempest simply grunted. She had continued to march with purpose all the way back to the personal effect storage room where she assumed her armor had been logged and secured. “I have to admit, while I’m thankful my agents were able to take advantage of their sloppiness the boldness of this entire undertaking really caught me off guard, I hate being caught off guard.”

“That’s not what’s bothering me the most,” said Flash. “I’m more worried about too many disloyal guards on the take. Who do we trust to investigate the guard when it’s the guard’s duty to investigate this sort of stuff? You said it yourself, you don’t have the number agents to handle something this big.”

Tempest stopped at the small window counter and started beating on the wall. “Hey! Wake up in there!” An older guard who probably should have retired years ago unlocked the window. His eyes went wide when he recognized who was standing before him. “I want my armor back.”

“Why did they bother having me file it all away proper like if you were just going to come get it a few hours later?”

“Long story that I am too tired to retell right now. Go get it… please.” The old stallion wandered off back down the rows of boxes grumbling to himself.

“While we’re on the subject of who to trust and what the next move should be I have a small request and favor to ask of you, captain. One you should probably not say no to.”

Tempest turned from the counter back to Sour Sweet. Considering the EIS agent had just come to her rescue she felt obliged to at least hear her out before agreeing to any favors. She had also politely not commented on Tempest's scars, which she greatly appreciated. “Go on.”

“The deeper we dig, the more rocks we kick over, the more opposition we will find. That’s not doom and gloom that’s just how these things go and a pony with your background should realize that too.” Tempest nodded and gestured for Sour to continue. “Flash Sentry is right. I don't have enough agents and we need allies, others we can trust to watch our backs especially while we sleep. Not all of us are skilled at sleeping with one eye open, you follow me?”

“Just takes practice, but yes, I follow. Do you have a list of such allies?”

Sour gave a noncommittal shrug. “I could name a few, but I also want to try and salvage our low profile so I would like to only suggest one for right now. However, I need you as her captain and superior to send a letter to have her recalled to Canterlot.”

That caught Tempest’s curiosity. Most of the guard were in Canterlot already. “Where is she now?”

“She’s on rotation as part of the team of thestrals that are assigned to guard Luna and Celestia at their retirement community. Her name is Corporal Sugarcoat.”

“A thestral, huh.” Tempest turned back to look into the storage room. What was taking that old timer so long? Did he forget where he stowed the box? Was it too heavy for him to lift? “And if I may ask why do you trust this particular guard that she’s not bought and on the take.”

Sour rolled her eyes and sighed. “Right, I keep forgetting you’re new here. Okay, one thing you need to understand about the bat ponies as a group is that they are craaaaaazy loyal. Like, nearly fanatically so. The order of their loyalty goes as such. The princess, which is now Twilight, Luna, who oversaw their specific training and change, their commanding officer, which is you, then maybe a spouse or beloved family member after all that. As a twisted example, if their ‘mistress’ order them to kill their spouse they would do it without hesitation. They’d probably weep about it later, but they WOULD do it. I have known Sugarcoat since we were fillies and well… let’s just say I trust her without question even knowing where her priorities lie. I know her well enough she will not refuse an order to return if it’s issued from you and your office. In fact, get Twilight’s dragon assistant to send it so it will arrive even faster. The cute little butterball has to be useful for something.”

“His name is Spike, and don't call him a butterball. He's already helped me with a few things here."

"Right, sorry. Bad habit of mine."

"Hey!” Tempest shouted. “What’s the hold up? You get lost in there?”

“I found the box, but there’s a problem!” Tempest felt a chill run down her spine that had nothing to do with the evening air temperature. The old stallion brought the box back to the counter and emptied its content. The only thing that spilled out was the black body suit that had been under the armor pieces. Tempest glared daggers at the elder.

“Where is the rest of it?”

“It was here when I filed it away. I went to where I left it and found the slot on the shelf empty. So, I looked about and found this in the corner.”

Tempest began to shake as her horn sparked and hissed. Flash tried to place a calming hoof on her shoulder only for her to violently bat it away. When she reopened her eyes, the old guard flinched and stepped back a few paces.

“Where. Is. My. Armor?!” she hissed through clenched teeth.

“I’m, I’m sorry, some pony must of stolen it when I wasn’t looking.”

Tempest roared and turned to the opposite wall and unleashed a powerful blast of energy that disintegrated the stone to ash and scorched the area around the blast zone. Flash, risking life and limb, wrapped himself and his wings around his captain to get her to stop. She struggled for a second, but regained her control and senses before muscle memory took over and she ended up breaking the guard’s ribs and limbs. Sour scurried over to where a fire extinguisher was mounted on the wall and used it to put the remaining flames out.

Author's Note:

Bad enough they tried to frame her, but the baddies stole her most precious possession just to spite her.

Yeah, I'd be pissed to. In fact I once put a hole in the wall of my ceramics class because someone stole my project... I had anger issues. Lucky I didn't punch a stud.

*ahem*

Glad I have a chapter buffer because with the holiday weekend coming up I'm not sure how much I'm going to get done with more family around. Thanks to all of us now being vaccinated my mother wants every holiday weekend to be loudly celebrated. It will be nice... probably.

Any who, questions and comments always welcomed. Till next week!

Comments

[Stet709]

Ok, I take back what I said about Sour Sweet, I'm lovin' her right now. She might still be despicable, but at least it's to the bad guys.

I cannot say the same about Flag Staff who is just bitter he didnt get his promotion. He can just sod off since Tempest is 100x the soldier he is.