Equestria: Awakening

by Fighterx345

Chapter 20: Messengers

"...We need to get back to the Queen, now." A faint whisper hissed in a dark alleyway, just outside of Canterlot's upper circle. It came from a Royal Guard, a nondescript white unicorn in uniform, supposedly off-duty.

"Obviously, but we need to get out of here first, not to mention how we'll get these two back into their posts," a second Royal Guard responded. This one was a brown earth pony who looked suspiciously just as nondescript. "But getting these two back unnoticed will be nearly impossible in the middle of the day, all thanks to you." The guard shot a withering glare at the first.

The first pony's eyes met the ground, and he snorted. "Well, it wasn't exactly easy to get them out in the first place."

After saying this, his gaze panned around to what looked like two vagrants, huddled dejectedly in a corner. They were covered in rags, faces obscured.

"I have to give you some credit, though. You did manage to drain them enough to keep them unconscious through the entire night, and most of the day."

The unicorn felt a surge of pride as his form seemed to melt into a shell of phosphorescent green. "I try my best." The shell effused into vaporous flames, which flashed brightly but dissipated quickly. A changeling was left standing in the unicorn's place.

The earth pony wrinkled his snout. "You need to work on containing that light." The second guard's armor glowed mutedly, and shifted fluidly into chitinous plates. "I understand the Queen picked you for your unusual magical capabilities, but it still confuses me why a conspicuous spy would be chosen for such an important mission."

"Because she values power and loyalty, and I have both." The younger changeling replied.

The older changeling, slightly larger in stature, slumped with false fatigue. "Her Highness also cares--just a little, about not having her children caught in the middle of Canterlot's Mane Square!"

"Hey, you can't blame me for that! I'm still learning how to maintain multiple spells at a time."

The larger changeling's hoof met his face, which let out an exaggerated sigh. "...Well, at least you were clever enough to blind all the onlookers with your 'flashy' attitude."

The younger one looked ambivalent. "I don't know whether to slap you or thank you."

The former earth pony huffed. "You can forgo slapping me, and you can thank me by coming up with a plan to get these two back into their beds in the barracks."

Saying this, he nudged the two slumped figures in the alleyway. They fell sideways, hooded rags falling away to reveal two very similar looking guards: a stout brown earth pony and slight white unicorn, both unconscious and looking rather pale.

The smaller changeling rubbed his chin. "We could give invisibility another try."

His elder simply balked. "And risk being caught in the middle of the square again? I'm sure you improve quickly, you damned little prodigy, but I'm not trusting this entire mission's success on your unstable powers."

"Well what should we do, then?" he grumbled.

It was the elder's time to ponder. "You can hold one spell reliably enough, and in case you've forgotten, I'm not useless. In fact, I can almost match you in terms of simple telekinesis..." He narrowed his eyes at a murky puddle on the alleyway floor, to watch a stray drop from a gutter splash into the muck. He looked at a garbage bag to his right, and noticed they were standing behind the local tavern. He smiled. "I have an idea."

~~~

"Where are those two?" Shining Armor grumbled to himself. "I swear, if I find them hung over from drinking late at night again..." He was making his way to the doors of the barracks, looking for two troublemakers of guards. The unicorn and earth pony were more often than not tardy and disrespectful, and the captain had reached his wits end trying to discipline them.

He brought the matter to Princess Celestia's attention last week, who patiently suggested to Shining, "Show them that you have a little faith, and I'm sure they'll shape up."

The captain simply replied, "But with all due respect, Your Highness, I have no faith left in them."

To which, Celestia responded more firmly, "Just give them a little responsibility. It will help them learn their importance in keeping this city safe. As a matter of fact... I'm expecting a royal visit later this week. The two could personally guard my doors during that visit." She smiled mischievously.

Shining Armor smirked at this. He was very well aware that the Princess was perfectly capable of defending herself against anyone and anything that her own Royal Guard could handle. The two posts outside her throne room were purely ceremonial; they looked important, but served nearly no purpose other than to impress foreign dignitaries. "That's... actually a great idea. Thank you, Princess. They'd feel very important, but leave nothing to risk."

Celestia nodded in her sage-like way. "You may inform them of their--ahem, 'promotion', at once." She masterfully concealed her mirth. Shining Armor had gratuitously bowed and left. After the meeting with Robin, Celestia informed Shining of his two guards' stellar behavior on duty. Shining proudly wished to award them that night off, but couldn't find them directly after the meeting. He assumed they simply caught wind of their reward and wasted no time making their way to town.

Now, the day after they held that post, Shining Armor was questioning whether this was the best decision, when he was nearly thrown off his hooves by a cacophonic thud and crash, which shook the dirt grounds outside the Canterlot Barracks. A cloud of dust from the earthy training grounds obscured his senses; he coughed a couple times and waved a foreleg in front of his face. "...What in Tartarus?"

As his view cleared, he saw the two guards he posted outside the throne room last evening, crumpled on the ground and completely out of it, though they seemed to be coming to after the impact. He rushed over to make sure they were unharmed. "Men, men?! What happened? Are you oka--"

Shining Armor abruptly stopped as the sound of broken glass mingled with the two guards' groans. He looked down below his left fore hoof, to find a bundle of rags, concealing what sounded to be a delicate package. He raised an eyebrow and looked his soldiers up and down; excluding their pale complexions, they both looked unharmed. He suspiciously unraveled the clumped up bag of rags to find assorted empty bottles of alcohol, mostly broken. His face met his hoof. Hard.

"What am I going to do with you two?!..."

~~~

Magically concealed midair far above the barracks, the changelings grinned at the captain chewing out their two poor scapegoats.

"Well, that was fun." The younger changeling looked on as the two real guards vainly tried to convince their captain of being 'assaulted by mirror images of themselves', interspersed with drunk-sounding gibberish. He worriedly looked at his senior, who was floating next to him. "Actually, we should leave disguised as those two, before the rumor of more changelings possibly gets around."

His larger friend chuckled. "Good idea, but don't worry: no simple hang-over can compare to the disorientation of being over-drained. I learned that the hard way one long night in the hive. Those two are gonna be rather incomprehensible for a while, which we can spend making our way out of here. C'mon boy, we have a message to deliver."

The normally boisterous changeling adopted a serious expression, which was hidden by the cloaking spell he had cast over both of them. "Yes... the human has returned."

Author's Note:

A change of pace and two more characters to both lighten and deepen the story.

Comments

[HB_DS2013]

Did I miss anything!?

[Fighterx345]

5293803 Assuming you were following the story before, you might've missed how Robin noted the two guards outside of Celestia's doors mysteriously vanished after his meeting without much of an explanation =3

[HB_DS2013]

5294132 I was, I swear!

[zeldawolffang]

and then things happened

[Texus]

do you still write this story?

[Marowak47]

What's that white thing behind Chrom and Lucina? Is that Celestia? Why is she all like "er mer gurd swurd furght!"