Lawmare

by Jade Ring

Chapter 3

The hooded pony looked around furtively. It was said that in the old days it was safe to walk Canterlot at night. That it was the one genuinely safe place in the whole of Equestria. But these days... well, one could never be too careful, could they? He took a deep breath before approaching his target. He'd been eyeing it for days, waiting for just the right moment to strike. He looked around one last time to make sure the coast was clear. When he was satisfied that his only spectators were stars and crickets, he set to his work. He worked diligently, carefully. He didn't make a sound. Red dripped to the stones below, but he was careful to keep any from spattering on him or his robes. He grinned as the shape took form, moved in to begin the next step...

"I'm a little foggy, Moon Dancer; what's the penalty for defacing city walls again?"

The hooded pony didn't even turn. He bolted at the sound of the voice, running as fast as he could.

"Oh no you don't!" A lasso of golden magic lashed out and encircled the robed pony’s barrel.

He cried out as it tightened and lifted him wholly into the air, spinning him to face those who had discovered his act of vandalism. His eyes widened at the sight of leathers, hats... and badges. "L-lawmares?" He gasped. "But you're all..."

"Hush, maggot!" Moon Dancer's hoof struck the pony's face. He cried out in pain as his hood fell, and his captors stared in shock.

"Moon Dancer, he's just a colt." Lyra whispered.

"Keep hold of him" Moon Dancer shook off her surprise and turned to her dinh. "Twilight?"

Twilight was still a few feet behind, staring hard at the crudely painted sigul that now adorned the wall. It was an image she was becoming all too familiar with these days; a large hoof-print centered in a winged heart.

The sigul of the Good Mare.

"Twilight?" Moon Dancer repeated, slightly louder.

The Lawmare turned her attention from the art to the artist. "Put him down." Lyra's magic faded, and the colt hit the ground, his body already tensed to flee once again. "Take one step, and we'll kill you." Her tone was icy cold.

The colt froze, his wide terrified gaze on the three Lawmares. "I'm... I'm sorry, I just..."

"Hear me very well, maggot." Twilight's voice wasn't raised, but was deadly even, somehow making it that much more terrifying. "Because your answer to my next question determines whether or not you end up hanging from the palace walls."

The colt was shivering now, his eyes wide. He nodded.

"Did you do this of your own volition, or did somepony put you up to it?"

The colt swallowed hard. "I... I'm not a follower of the Good Mare, if that's what you're implying."

"So you're just putting up her sign for fun?" Lyra took a threatening step forward. "Is that it?"

The colt looked away. "I didn't see the harm. I thought it would be funny..."

"Funny? FUNNY?!" Moon Dancer struck the colt's muzzle again, and he cried out in surprised pain. "Ponies are dying at the hooves of the Good Mare, and you think that's funny?!"

"I don't understand!" The colt flinched away from the Lawmare as she raised her hoof to strike once again. "If she's such a threat, then why doesn't Princess Celestia just do something about her?"

Twilight reached out lightning quick and caught Moon Dancer's hoof as it struck out, her eyes not leaving the colt’s. "You're a tremendously stupid little pony. But you're also very lucky."

"L-lucky?"

"Lucky that times have not gotten so bad in Canterlot that we hang colts just for being tremendously stupid." Twilight leaned in, and the colt shrank under her gaze. "You're going to clean up this mess before the sun rises and somepony sees it. If there's even a drop of paint left on that wall by the time Princess Celestia raises the sun, I'm going to have no choice but to arrest your parents under suspicion of sedition." She bared her teeth. "Do ya ken?"

The colt, very close to wetting himself, nodded frantically.

Twilight's magic flashed and a mop and bucket of water appeared against the offended wall. Her eyes left the colt's, noticing his attire for the first time. "Where did you get this robe?"

"I... I found it, sai. In the alley behind the library."

"Give it here."

The colt hurriedly did so, tossing the robe to the ground and rushing to complete his cleaning assignment.

While Lyra kept an eye on the youth, Moon Dancer approached Twilight as she examined the robe. "You think he's telling the truth?"

"He's practically a foal. Truth is subjective. If the followers of the Good Mare genuinely wanted to send a message, they would’ve sent someone a bit more competent." Twilight lifted the robe with her magic and rotated it, looking for clues. "Does this look familiar to you?"

Moon Dancer adjusted her glasses and peered at the black fabric. "Not really. Should it?"

"It's the same style that street preacher wears in front of the palace. Trixie." Twilight dropped the robe and rubbed her eyes. "Or maybe it's just a simple cassock and I'm seeing connections where there aren't any."

Moon Dancer put a comforting hoof on her dinh's shoulder. "It's getting late. You've had a stressful few days. We all have."

Twilight thought Moon Dancer was understating the obvious. Stressful didn't even come close to describing the past fortnight. Trying to hide from the public in the day, hunting the city for clues by night... and no word from the Lawmares in Ponyville, good or ill. She'd been to see Celestia every day, but she wouldn’t discuss it. Nor would she discuss what she'd told Sunset in regards to which Lawmare had betrayed them. If it weren't for the days spent with Rarity, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo, Twilight likely would have broken from the stress already.

But Lawmares were built for stress, weren't they? They had a job to do, and they would follow every lead, no matter how obscure or chance.

Twilight looked back at their night’s catch. "When the pup is finished, we'll retire for the night. And tomorrow..."

"Tomorrow?"

She kicked at the robe. "Tomorrow we're going to take a look at that alley."

/////////////////////////////////////////////

"Sai Lawmare?" The colt paused in his scrubbing and looked to Lyra. "May I ask a question?"

"So long as you can scrub and ask at the same time, maggot." Lyra growled. "Time's wasting."

"Yes sai. Thankee sai." The colt quickly returned to work. "It's just... I've always wondered... well, with the Lawmares..."

"Spit it out!"

The colt flinched. "Why can't stallions be Lawmares?"

A bemused smile snuck across Lyra's face. "What, you want to be a mare? I can make that happen if you don't keep scrubbing."

"No sai! I mean..." The colt struggled to find the right words. "Lawmare isn't your official title, is it? You're Agents of Harmony. Ponies only call you Lawmares because you're all, well, mares." He chanced a look back. "I'm just curious."

Lyra opened her mouth to reply, but paused. She'd never thought about it, really. Why were only mares permitted to wear the badge? Stallions could be Royal Guards, say true, but so could mares. So why couldn't stallions...? "I guess... I guess it's just because it’s always been that way."

"My brother wrote me a story once. The Lawmares were the heroes, but there were stallions there too. It was neat."

Lyra sniffed. "You should focus more on the task at hoof than reminiscing, young..." She paused. "What is your name, anyway?"

"Rumble, sai."

"Young Rumble." Lyra put her troubled thoughts away and made a show of looking in the distance. "Say, is that Princess Celestia I see ascending her tower to raise the sun? My, she's early today..." She giggled as young Rumble's cleaning became faster and more frenzied. Still, the colt's question buzzed in the back of her mind like a troublesome fly.

Why couldn't stallions wear the badge?

And a second question, more irksome than the first; was there really no better answer than 'that's just the way it's always been?'

She resolved to ask Twilight about it before the night was out. Surely her dinh would have the answer.

////////////////////////////////////////////////

The ka-tat said their good-byes not long after dropping Rumble back home. They ensured he confessed to his crime of vandalism, and made doubly sure to extract vows from both him and his parents to keep the Lawmares' presence in the city quiet.

Lyra slid silently into the bed she shared with her wife, quietly disappointed that Bon Bon was already up and away but too tired to think much about it.

Moon Dancer looked in on her mother before turning in, making sure the old mare was still breathing and sleeping as comfortably as she was able.

Twilight considered heading straight for Rarity's manor, but something drew her back to the barracks instead. It was eerily quiet with the apprentices all asleep. The fillies had been instructed to keep up their studies while their teachers were on the roads, but that didn't mean they couldn't take advantage of their absence to sleep in a little before their return also brought the return of exercises at the crack of dawn. Twilight found herself in the common room, her gaze drawn to the large map on the wall. Something didn't feel right, but she couldn't quite put her hoof on it. Ponyville was a day's journey by train, two by hoof. What could Sunset and the others have found there that would impede either return or communication for three whole days?

There was a noise behind her, and she spun, her horn already alight and ready...

Princess Celestia stepped into the room, smiling gently. "I didn't mean to frighten you, sai."

Twilight's magic faded at once, and she bowed. "Your Majesty. To what do I owe the honor?"

Celestia crossed the room and eyed the map herself. "I thought I would lead the apprentices in their lessons today. I recall the days when I took the reigns were your favorites."

Twilight smiled at the memory. "You were a gentler instructor than Sunset."

Celestia grinned. "Ah, but you need both, the gentle and the hard, to forge a good Lawmare."

"Say true." Twilight's eyes returned to the map.

"You're worried about them."

"Aren't you?"

"I worry about every stallion, mare, and foal in the whole of this land, Twilight Sparkle. Every hour of every day, I worry about them. Every single one... save nineteen very special exceptions." She reached out and put a hoof on the Lawmare's shoulder. "They wear the badge, and that is comfort enough for me."

Twilight smiled a little at the praise. "I guess I'll just have to worry for you, then."

Celestia laughed lightly and turned from the map and started for the big table. "Be patient, Twilight. It won't be long now."

"How do you...?" She started, but stopped herself short. Celestia knows, she reminded herself. Somehow she always knows. If she says they'll be back soon, then they'll be back soon. Instead, another question came to mind. "Princess Celestia?"

"Hmm?" The statuesque mare had just manifested a steaming pot of tea and a pair of cups.

"Lyra... One of the mares in my tet..."

"Lyra Heartstrings. Good humored, light of spirit, but deadly with her aim." Celestia looked back with a wink. "And your bondsmare now, so I understand."

(Celestia always knows.)

"Yes. She had a question for me that I didn't have an answer for this morning." Twilight made her way to the table as Celestia poured.

"It is a wise dinh indeed who seeks the answers for her bondsmares when she doesn't know the answer herself." Celestia sipped her tea and nodded for Twilight to continue.

Twilight sipped her own tea, letting the herbal mixture soothe and relax her. "Why are only mares permitted to be Agents of Harmony?"

Celestia swallowed and pursed her lips. "That's an interesting question, but I'm afraid the answer is far less so." She lowered her cup and took a breath. "One thousand years ago, when it became clear to me that I needed to do something about the chaos that was infecting our world, I envisioned the formation of the Agents of Harmony. I looked to my School for Gifted Unicorns, and I found many little ponies who showed the spark necessary to go on such a crusade. Fillies and colts both. By the time that first batch had come of age and earned the first badges, I noticed something was... off, however. These fillies and colts had grown up together, come of age together. A few had fallen for one another. A select few even more than that. They’d married. Some had foals of their own. I loved them all, and I celebrated these developments, but trouble soon became apparent."

"Trouble?" Twilight was as enthralled with Celestia's storytelling now as when she'd been a filly. “Wouldn’t those who’d found mates amongst their number be more devoted, more protecting?”

"Yes, but it was more complicated than that. I'd picked these ponies to be my right and left hooves, remember? My enforcers in the wilds of Equestria. I needed them totally devoted to the cause, to the service to which they'd been chosen for. Mothers could not bear their little ones on the roads, could they? It was too dangerous. Husbands became jealous of wives who found themselves in another stallion's tet. Long months on the road can bring loneliness when you've become used to sharing your bed with another every night."

Twilight thought of Lyra's quiet mumblings for her wife in the dead of night. And she thought of Rarity.

"I knew the Agents of Harmony had to endure, so I made adjustments when the next crop of students were chosen. I instituted strict rules against fraternization. Agents were more than welcome to find mates and start families here at home, but amongst each other? I had to forbid it." She shook her head in a bemused fashion. "Of course, there was one enemy that I couldn't have prepared for."

"Which was?"

"Biology. The new batch of agents still found each other tangled in the dormitory sheets more often than not. This continued on the roads, with more stallions and mares than I'd like to admit choosing their tet partners not on the basis of how well they worked together, but by how compatible they were when night fell. In the end, the best solution was the easiest one; I just had to choose between the two." She shrugged. "And I chose mares."

Twilight thought about it. "And the problem worked itself out?"

"In time." Celestia nodded. "I ensured that new crops of Lawmares were exposed to more than just those they trained with. Such ample choices in the populace lowered the chances of fraternization. I keep a close eye on each newly formed tet, ensuring that each is formed for the right reasons and not the wrong. I know that some Lawmares still find comfort in each other from time to time while on the roads, but these entanglements are less messy than those of old."

Twilight nodded slowly. "No foals."

"Yes." Celestia took another sip of tea. "Which is not to say that a Lawmare cannot start a family. She can. But she must never forget; the badge comes before everything. Even blood."

Twilight touched a hoof to her own metallic sun.

"Does that answer your question?"

"Yes. Thankee-sai."

"Good. I'm glad." She polished off her tea. "Now; do you have any news from last night? Any new developments?"

"Not much. We do have a lead we'll be following up tonight, though."

"Then you should go get some rest." She tipped her cup in a mock salute. "I need the only Lawmares still in these walls at their best, after all."

/////////////////////////////////////////////////

The mare in black ducked out of the crowd she’d been slinking through and into the alley. She glared at the stallion who had summoned her. "How dare you contact me in broad daylight! Your aide was barely even disguised! Why not just have him announce your name in front of Celestia herself next time and save us all the tro..."

"Lawmares." The stallion hissed. "There are still Lawmares in the city. I saw one of them in the palace this morning."

Trixie rolled her eyes. "Of course there are still Lawmares in the city, you dolt. You didn't think she'd sent them all away, did you?"

"You knew?" The stallion blanched. Trixie hated the stupid look on his face. Of all those conspiring for the Good Mare in Canterlot, it was him she disliked working with the most. "You knew and you didn't tell me?"

"And what good would telling you have done, you idiot?" Trixie growled. "What, did you think you could take the city all by yourself so long as the Lawmares were gone?"

The stallion pouted (actually pouted, for the Good Mare's sake!) and looked away. "I have the guard..."

"The Good Mare has the guard, and it's no thanks to you! Never forget that you're only in the position you're in by virtue of luck. Were you anypony else, you wouldn't be worthy of the Good Mare's spit." Trixie chewed her lower lip. "…Which one was it?"

"Which one was what?"

"Which Lawmare did you see, you great fool?!" Trixie wanted nothing more than to throttle the stallion, but she restrained herself. "Who was in the palace? Was it Heartstrings?"

"No. It was that Sparkle mare."

"And what was she doing?"

"Just having tea and chatting with Au...!" He cut himself off by jumping at the noise of a cat knocking over a garbage can.

Trixie considered this new information carefully. Twilight Sparkle had been having a morning chat with Celestia, then. She had no idea their relationship was so easy-going. Perhaps this fool had provided her with something she could use after all. "Don't contact me again. Do ya kennit? I'll come to you when the time is right."

The stallion pouted again, but nodded his understanding.

The mare in black adjusted her hood, peeked around the corner, then melted back into the crowd. She was gone in an instant, already making adjustments to her plan with the information the poor excuse for a stallion had provided her with.

///////////////////////////////////////////////////

The marks of recent activity were plainly visible in the pale moonlight. Twilight knew what that meant in an instant. "Whatever they had here, it's gone."

The ka-tat were in the alley behind Canterlot's grand library. The library's plain white walls on this side were covered in dust and grime from years of neglect... save a perfectly rectangular outline in the stone. Moon Dancer's magic traced the outline, and she grimaced.

Lyra noticed the look and took a step back. "Booby trapped?"

"No. Not anymore, anyway." Moon Dancer tensed and pulled with her magic. The hidden door in the wall swung wide, revealing a flight of steps that spiraled down into darkness. "But they definitely had some kind of lock here. Real dark magic. Probably rare too, since it looks like they took it with them when they cleared out."

The three mares trotted briskly down, their horns lighting the way and making their shadows dance in shades of violet, gold, and scarlet. The stairs didn’t go down too far, and just past the last step reached the stone floor was a wooden door carved into the wall, hanging slightly open. With a nod to her bondsmares, Twilight pushed the door wide and took in the room.

The chamber was circular and plain. A raised dais was by the door, and cold torches lined the walls at regular intervals. The rest of the room was empty.

"Looks like one of the library’s old store rooms. Could be hundreds of years old. They must’ve been meeting here." Lyra sniffed at one of the torches. "Still smells like smoke. They could've dropped the robe while they were cleaning the place out last night."

"This place was relatively well hidden. Why abandon it?" Moon Dancer swept the room with her magic.

"Maybe they became too numerous for so small a chamber to hold them." Twilight murmured.

All three Lawmares were silent at that horrifying possibility.

Moon Dancer's magic zeroed in on a scrap of fabric caught in the door's frame. "Twilight. Take a look at this."

Twilight pulled the scrap loose and examined it closely. Oil from the door hinge had rendered it’s color unknowable. She held it to her muzzle and sniffed lightly. Her eyes widened at the sudden rush of familiarity; old stone, ancient dust, and a special detergent only used in one place. "This is... this is from the palace." She swallowed hard. She scraped the fabric against the wall, staring with wide eyes at the familiar shade of red that was revealed. "This is from a Royal Guard's dress uniform."

Lyra stared at her with dawning horror. "Sweet Celestia, you’re telling me they've infiltrated the guard?!"

"Of course. The timing of their first attack makes sense now." Moon Dancer sat heavily. "Only Lawmares, guards, and palace staff know about Celestia's recuperation periods. They have somepony in the palace. It's how they knew exactly when to attack."

Twilight dropped the fabric but kept staring at it. It lay there like a dead rat. "My brother has to be told about this. Now." Her bondsmares nodded, and the trio raced back up the stairs.

Each felt the same way; like the walls around them were starting to close in. Like something terrible was inching ever closer.

Like their enemies already had knives at their throats.

Comments

[ponepony]

" Biology . The new batch of agents still found each other tangled in the dormitory sheets more often than not. This continued on the roads, with more stallions and mares than I'd like to admit choosing their tet partners not on the basis of how well they worked together, but by how compatible they were when night fell. In the end, the best solution was the easiest one; I just had to choose between the two." She shrugged. "And I chose mares."

Time to replace them with magitech.

[Thranx]

I don't know if this is just me overthinking or there is something going on here and it could probably be sinister but I wouldn't go that far. It's about the stallions can't into Lawmares topic, I find it curious on why it should be brought up. Of course, it could've been the author explaining to the readers on how Lawmares came to be. I know that. But the tiny cynical part of my brain tells me that it's a Chekov's Gun and something related to that is gonna pop out in the future. However, for now, red flags hasn't been raised yet and I assume it's me overthinking.

[DMDash71]

Nineteen. I see what you did there.

[Prince Leviathan]

Oooo
Dramaaaaa!

11292505
I feel it too.
Probably a reason why Trixie is with the Good Mare.

[Rambling Writer]

11292505
There's also the fact that all of Celestia's reasoning is actually about why tets can't be gender-mixed, not why stallions can't be Lawmares. If you can't trust ponies to obey a simple law of "no stallions and mares in the same tet to prevent pregnancies", then you can't really trust them to be utterly loyal to the Crown, can you? Besides, if you must choose between stallions and mares for that reason, it actually makes more sense to go choose stallions. Even if a mare obeys all the laws against fraternization, by Celestia's own comment, she can still get pregnant by her own non-Agent-of-Harmony husband and potentially get taken out of commission before heading out -- or worse, she doesn't realize she's pregnant until she's actually on the road. That's not a problem for stallions, though.

Something's up.