Two equestrians, both outside the norm, are forced together. One on assignment, the other for her own wellbeing.
Stalwart Drone has been a Night Guard for a little over two years, and now he's being reassigned to the Crystal Empire, forced to leave his home and his talent behind only to have to readjust to living up in the frozen north.
Ruby Swift, conversely, has been in Equestria for most of her life, and recently she's taken a... darker look on life.
Forced to live in the same house as one another, the unlikely duo are going to have to live with what they fear. At least, for now anyway.
Cover image can be viewed in its full resolution by clicking on it (or right-clicking and opening it in a new tab.) Spent a couple days working on it and I'll be uploading it to my DeviantArt gallery soon.
The Night Guard, a special subdivision of the Royal Guard made specifically to protect the Royal Sisters during the night when their daylight brethren are asleep. It used to be made of regular Royal Guard ponies whose sleeping habits were somewhat more nocturnal than the norm.
Almost four hundred years before what the Guard were calling ‘Night’s Return’, an alchemist trained at Princess Celestia’s School for Talented Unicorns concocted a miracle ‘wake up’ drug that would give ponies great resistance to fatigue. At least, that was its intention; the drug had barely made shelves before the exhausted Royal Guard were given their first doses and its incredible side-effect was discovered.
It had been made using a sample of bat fur, and a few other undiscovered ingredients which were created through heavy manipulation of magic, and once they had been introduced to the bodies of the Royal Guard these magics ran amok.
Records of the events were detailed; from otherwise painless effects such as fur growth and colour shifting to their eyes changing shape, becoming dagger-like and often causing blindness. Pegasi underwent the most painful of these transformation effects, with their wings twisting and warping into those not unlike the creatures from which the medicine was based. The pain from this transformation was often crippling, with several of the affected passing out from the pain.
The Night Guard had been crippled for weeks, and the alchemist had been on Canterlot’s ‘most wanted’ list for only a few days before the Day Guard had found him overdosed on his own medications. Still, the damage had been done, and almost every Night Guard affected had withdrawn from service. To compound the problem, several hundred civilians had been exposed to the dangerous drug as well, with reported cases coming in from as far away as Applewood. Since then, the bat ponies had become part of Pony society, living north of Canterlot in Hollow Shades.
When the Regent of the Moon returned, she became aware of the special nocturnal breed of ponies and went out to the town personally on a mad recruiting spree, returning to Canterlot with fifty bat ponies signed up for Royal Guard training.
*&*&*&*
It had been three months since the Changelings invaded Canterlot, and Stalwart Drone had been part of the officially named Royal Night Guard, sometimes called the Lunar Watch, for two years. He had already become a sergeant and was being trained in training recruits. It wasn’t what he’d call his ‘dream job’, but it paid the bills… and for his bees. His friends found it strange that he, a creature of the night, would have earned a special talent in apiary. Bees, after all, are not nocturnal creatures. In the end, what made him happy was his business.
Today he was worried. He’d been woken in the middle of the day, having only had a few hours of sleep, and been summoned to the castle by Princess Luna. Had it been anypony else he would have complained, but he, and the other bat pony guards, owed the Regent of the Moon much. She had returned and offered them a place, a job to pay their expenses and a roof over their heads should they lack one. Stalwart of course had his own home in Canterlot; he had saved up half a year’s worth of pay to afford it, but it was worth it to have somewhere to care for his bees.
He strode confidently through the halls of Canterlot Castle and stopped only at the doors to the Hall of Court, where he figured that Prince Blueblood was—no, no, he could certainly hear that pompous brown-nosing unicorn sucking up to the princesses for something or other.
When the doors opened and Blueblood strode out, he heard him grumbling under his breath about the Royal Guard defending royals and something about that including princes. Stalwart sighed as Blueblood moved out of hearing range; that boy needed a good mare to chill him out or rein him in.
He stepped into the Hall of Court, stopping before the throne and bowing before removing his helmet.
“You called for me, highnesses?”
The princesses considered him for a short moment before Luna nodded to Celestia and levitated a sealed envelope from beneath her cushion beside the throne. The letter found itself tucked into Stalwart’s armour.
“Stalwart Drone, recently we have received word from your prior superior, Prince Shining Armour requesting somepony to assist him in training Night Guard.” She announced. “Upon review of the personnel files, your name has been suggested by your current Captain, Rapid Parry, for the role. We would like you to take this letter of recommendation to the Crystal Empire and deliver it and yourself to Prince Shining Armour for duty. You have a train reserved for your departure in three hours.”
Stalwart blinked, stunned at this sudden change to his life which the Princess had decided to ‘bless’ him with. “B-but your highness, what about my home here in Canterlot..? I don’t mean to sound ungrateful for this opportunity, but I’ve only just finished paying for it. A-and what will happen to my apiaries? I can’t just take bees on a several-hour train ride to the frozen north…”
He cringed as her attention bore down on him silently for a few moments. He felt like she was attempting to burn his eyes from their sockets with her gaze alone.
“Sister, he raises fair points.” Celestia stated. “He has yet to be informed of the arrangements.” She added, her hoof on her sister’s shoulder managing to calm her down. She gazed down at her still-cowering subject stoically. “Your home and the furniture within you shall be reimbursed for, and you have accommodations at the Crystal Empire being allocated as we speak. As for your apiaries; your bees will be added to Canterlot Castle’s own private orchards and you shall be reimbursed for the expense of your queens and the apiaries they reside within. Judging by the gossip of your fellow guard about you being an avid apiarist yourself, they will likely fetch a handsome price.” Her stoic gaze turned into a warm smile as she let this information sink in. “I would recommend you go home to pack whatever private possessions you wish to keep into boxes for later delivery to your new residence, several guards will be sent to retrieve them shortly.”
Stalwart sighed, knowing that he had no real say in the matter, before nodding and saluting. “Yes, your highness.”
*&*&*&*
Stalwart spent almost half an hour packing away his most nostalgic belongings into carefully marked boxes; photos of his parents, his novels signed by their authors, his stainless-steel apiarists tools along with his gear, and a stuffed animal he had received when he was newborn that he had possessed for his entire life… He hadn’t much to pack away, but what he did have he felt he couldn’t live without. He had also spent a few minutes saying farewell to his bees after locking up his house.
He felt… strange, on the flight to the train station. Granted he wasn’t used to flying during the day, but at the same time he wasn’t used to leaving everything behind either. He wanted nothing more to return home and ignore his orders; but while depressed he may have been, wanting to commit treason he wasn’t.
He sat on the platform for a few minutes while his train was prepared hoping that his friends or any of the guard would show up to bid him farewell and walked with heavy hooves when the driver informed him that it was time to go.
Not one. Not one of his friends or fellow guards had shown their hide to send him off.
He barely held back tears as he watched Canterlot move away from him rapidly. Had nopony cared about him at all? Was he just the hanger-on apiarist that everypony was friendly towards to placate? He thought back through all the fun times he had enjoyed with his fellow guard. The cider they had packed away together, the bar-room brawls and apologies to the Captain they had gone through. The pranks they played on one another. It made him laugh thinking of the time they had managed to tie and ball-gag Feathered Bulwark to Princess Luna’s bed sans her armour and left her to her embarrassing fate. Princess Celestia hadn’t been as entertained as the Guard and her sister were, but they had gotten off with stern words and no real punishment.
Luna had gotten them back, of course. It was all in good fun.
He brightened up a little; fun. Was that all this was; just an elaborate prank to see how far he was willing to be pushed? He hoped so; he had really put his heart and soul into those apiaries and their queens and he didn’t want it to have all been in vain.
He sighed and lay down on the leathery seat and placed his head onto his forelegs, closing his eyes. It was still midday, and he really needed some sleep before he arrived at the Crystal Empire.
He awoke to the train lurching and the sudden deceleration launching him from his makeshift bed. Blearily he lifted his head and looked about, wondering why they had stopped. Not seeing anything from within the train carriage, he pulled himself to his hooves and moved to where the carriage had a door to the engine compartment, pushing it open and poking his head out only to find… nothing.
The train had run out of coal, something he was sure was supposed to have been restocked at Canterlot, and the driver missing. There was a small scorch mark on the floor where somepony had teleported away.
“Great, here I am in the middle of bucking nowhere on a train with no fuel and no driver!” He shouted angrily as the lights failed from lack of power. “Guess I’m going to have to walk to the Crystal Empire! I swear to the moon that if I ever find that driver I’m going to cover him in newspaper and use him as a piñata!”
He continued to grumble as he dragged down some curtains to wrap around his wings and face, moved to the exterior door for the train carriage and pulled it open. Snow and biting wind smothered him as the raging blizzard made its presence well known. He only grumbled louder as he stepped out into the snow, closing the door behind him before starting to follow the tracks.
“If I follow the tracks, I should be there in no time!” He told himself optimistically. “If there weren’t a goddamned blizzard raging I’m certain I’d get there sooner!”
He huffed in the cold as the train fell out of sight behind him, swallowed by the snowstorm. If a train can get there in a few hours, how long could this take?
*&*&*&*
The day was idyllic for the Crystal Empire. Celestia’s sun was high in the sky, the blizzard that had been raging beyond the Empire’s protective dome had passed, and ponies were going about their usual day-to-day business.
A group of foals, fresh out of school for the afternoon, were entertaining themselves by following Prince Shining Armour on his afternoon walk. He was well aware of their presence, and was half-tempted to turn it into a game to see how well they would follow him before they grew bored and went to play elsewhere.
That was until a pony wrapped in dogged brown fabric, shivering and covered in snow stopped near him and snapped a wobbly salute.
“S-sergeant S-Stalwart D-Drone reporting for d-duty sir!”
Shining Armour blinked before using his magic to remove the fabric and snow from the pony, revealing a very weathered bat pony in the majority of Night Guard armour.
“I-I was told t-to report t-to you o-on the d-double, s-sir.” Stalwart said. “M-my train b-broke down and I-I walked.”
Shining blinked at him. “You walked?” He asked incredulously. “Sergeant, how long have you been walking?”
“Three d-days sir.” Stalwart replied. “S-solid.”
“You’ve been walking out in that cold for three full days? Wait, wasn’t there a two day blizzard?”
“Walked through that, s-sir.”
Shining looked the bat pony over; he certainly looked like he had been walking for a solid three days. His facial fur had grown a good several inches, giving him a bearded look and his fur was matted and dirty. His bat-like wings hung at his sides and almost dragged along the ground and he had icicles –icicles- hanging from the mithril armour he wore.
“This is a hay of a state to meet a Prince in, sergeant.” Shining said teasingly. “Where’s your helmet? And why are your wings not at your sides?”
“L-lost my helmet t-to the b-blizzard sir,” Stalwart replied as formally as he could, “a-and I-I can’t feel m-my wings to h-hold them up.” He looked down at his wings stoically. “Hope that I d-don’t lose them…” He mumbled, before scrunching up his face curiously. “Huh, vision’s gone blurry.” He said nonchalant. “I-I’m afraid I n-need to do something s-somewhat u-unprofessional now sir. Many apologies.” He added, before slumping forward.
He was asleep before he hit the ground.
*&*&*&*
Stalwart woke slowly lying in a soft and warm place that, while he couldn’t remember knowing anything about, he couldn’t care about that small fact less. He was, for the first time in his recent memory, comfortable and warm and there was very little that would drag him from this happy state.
Still, even as he lay here he couldn’t deny overhearing somepony’s voice as it bled into his hearing.
“… He has shown impressive dedication, walking for three days solid without rest. He had even been woken during the day this all started, we have to admit that we are impressed.”
His mind slowly and sluggishly wrapped around these words and the way they were spoken. He knew a pony who spoke like this…
“The train driver has been suspended from work for his negligence, and the train has since been discovered half-buried in snow and pulled to Canterlot by way of a second engine. Since we did not receive word of any incidents, we were under the impression that he had arrived without incident.” The voice paused for a moment when Stalwart groaned, only to speak once more soon after. “Ah, he wakes.”
Finally it clicked who had been speaking, and he struggled to sit up at attention only for somepony to hold him down.
“Please don’t strain yourself; you’re recovering from hypothermia and second degree frostbite to your wings.” A female pony to his left said worriedly. “It was a good thing you wrapped your wings or you’d have lost them.”
He groaned again as he was forced back onto his back and his wings gently splayed out. He struggled to open his eyes, wincing at the bright lights as they assailed his senses.
“Dim the lights.” Princess Luna’s voice ordered. “His eyes are sensitive, that light is only doing him harm.”
He sighed in relief as the lights dimmed and became easier to tolerate, finally able to look over at the Princess of the Moon thankfully.
“P-Princess,” he groaned with a nod, “w-why are you here?”
“We are here because one of our guards went missing for three days only to appear at the Crystal Empire exhausted and frostbitten.” She explained calmly. “We are surprised that you walked all the way to the Crystal Empire through a blizzard and survived. Yet more proof that you are deserving of the position I suppose.”
Shining Armour, who had been standing beside Princess Luna, grumbled and shot her an irritable glance. “Speaking of the position you have been sent up here for, I think there has been a miscommunication.” He huffed.
“I… I’m not needed here?”
Shining chuckled. “There is no training position available or required.” He said.
The words made his stomach sink, and he looked pleadingly at the princess. “B-but my transferral! The letter!”
“The letter has been received and read.” Shining informed calmly. “Which is where this understanding of miscommunication comes from, actually; without it I would never have known that you were here to train Night Guard.”
Stalwart sighed and turned his face away. “This is great.” He grumbled. “And because it has taken three days for this mess to be sorted, my house and the furniture within have been sold and my bees taken by the royal apiarist. Guess I’ll be moving back to the barracks for a while.” He gave a pained groan as his left wing was inspected by his nurse. “Next thing I know, I won’t get sick leave either.” He hissed to himself. “This is just the worst week ever.”
“Stalwart Drone, you are not required here as a trainer, and were never requested for that role. It is our failing that has led to this… misinformation; you are still required here, however, and a home has been acquired for you and already furniture and your personal belongings have been moved in.” Princess Luna said. “You, also, have been promoted to Captain in accordance with your new position.”
He took a few moments to remember where he’d put his voice before simply saying: “What?”
“Allow me to clarify; we don’t need a trainer for Night Guard as we can train regular Royal Guards and switch their sleeping patterns.” Shining said flatly. “I sent word to Celestia that we were in need of someone to lead them. The previous captain of the Night Guard in the Crystal Empire retired about a week ago, and there isn’t enough experience in the rank to promote anypony here.”
“But I’ve only been in the service for three years!”
“And the Crystal Empire Night Guard has been in place for a few months.” Shining countered. “Half of the ranks are fresh recruits and the other half are Day Guard members who’ve been switching day and night shifts almost every week; they can’t keep that up forever. We need some… fresh blood to make up the gap and help with the newbies until they’re experienced enough.”
Princess Luna glanced down at him curiously. “So he would still, technically, be training recruits?” She asked.
“Well, within a technicality I guess…” He replied sheepishly. “But he’s taking more of a management role than an active one.”
“You were a Guard Captain for a few years Sir Armour, and yet you kept an active position.” Luna pointed out. “I did not send him here for you to hoof off some paperwork to because you feel yourself overworked.”
Shining Armour didn’t respond except to give a hearty laugh.
“And as for you, Stalwart; you shall be taken off of active duty until your wings have healed, be that one week, two, or even several months. I would advise taking that time for you to acclimatize yourself to the Crystal Empire; even at night it is rather bright.” Luna said authoritatively. “Is there anything you require from Canterlot to make your settling in easier? It would be the least we can do for the trouble you’ve been through due to our failings.”
Stalwart chuckled wheezily. “Princess, you know I would never blame you for any of this. If anything I brought it upon myself by hiking in the cold for three days.” He replied. “You have no debt to pay; I just… went out of my way to complete my assignment and nearly got myself killed.” He smiled up at her cheerfully. “If anything, that makes me stupid, not worthy of reward.”
“It makes you a well-trained guard, if anything.” Shining grumbled quietly.
“If I can speak freely; does it make me a well-trained guard or a well-trained idiot, sir?” Stalwart hissed. “Walking through a snowstorm for three days is not something that would be a good idea to impress onto rookies.”
“Walking through a snowstorm despite the risks to complete an assignment, however, is.” Shining retorted just as sharply. “We Captains called it ‘dedication to duty’. I’d take one pony that does stupid things to do their duty to fifty guards who don’t.”
For as weak as he was feeling, Stalwart laughed. “I dunno sir; you’re going to be short a few guards if you think that, especially after that one guard gets himself killed.”
Shining Armour chuckled. “If you say so, Captain.” He chuckled. “Get some rest, I’ll see if anything can be done about your beekeeping; who knows, you might get lucky and be the first pony in a thousand years to keep some rare form of bees from the Empire.”
“I’m sure that the Empire has its own apiarists, but thanks for the thought.” Stalwart huffed.
“We shall return to Canterlot and think over what we might be able to recompense you with.” Luna said, turning towards the door. “Do say hello to our niece for us, Sir Armour.”
Shining Armour nodded. “Of course, princess; thank you for coming on such short notice,” he replied.
Luna scoffed. “Shining, you’re married to our niece; you need not be so formal with us. Just Luna will do.”
“And I’m still a royal guard, princess; there are rules.” He replied cheekily as he followed her out the door. “But, if you insist, I suppose I can; just don’t expect me to start calling you ‘auntie’.”
*&*&*&*
She’d been waiting in line for an hour, the other petitioners giving her odd looks at her appearance; it was a rare day indeed to encounter a pony in such clearly deteriorating health. Hell, encountering a pony that was down on their luck was an uncommon event in and of itself. She didn’t smile, never talked besides to the secretary to assure that she would be seen, and she would sway ever so faintly on her hooves as she struggled to keep herself standing.
After what had felt, to her, like an eternity, the doors to the throne room sounded a heavy thud and began to swing open. The petitioner who had been ahead of her in line stepped back out with a smile upon his lips, clearly happy with the results of his meeting with the crystal princess and her prince, Princes Cadance and Shining Armour. Finally it was her turn.
She’d been waiting for this for so very long.
With a little difficulty she strolled into the hall of court, stopping before the throne and giving a polite curtsey, as was expected. She didn’t know much about attending open court, but she did at least know a thing or two about procedures when interacting with royalty.
The royal couple looked between one another worriedly for a moment before Cadance spoke.
“Welcome, my little pony. It’s rare we get those who are not crystal ponies coming to us in court with a petition. Usually Princesses Celestia and Luna handle them rather exclusively.” She gave a short, girlish giggle before continuing. “I digress; state your name and home for the record, please.”
The pony, still struggling to stand, nodded. “I… I call myself Ruby Swift, highness.” She announced, eliciting curious glances from both Cadance and her husband. It was a somewhat fitting name for her, really; her pelt, though currently marred with soil and snow, was a vibrant red. Her mane and tail, also sullied by the elements of nature, were a golden yellow, and her eyes were one of the most crystalline blue that the royal couple had seen outside of the crystal ponies they governed. “I hail from just outside Coltorado.”
Cadance nodded faintly. “And what is it that you wish of court?”
Ruby Swift groaned faintly, swaying more heavily for a moment as a small, unseen burst of emerald fire licked across her sunken stomach. “I wish… to die.”
She barely heard the worried gasp of the Princess, because with these words her vision swam and she slipped to the polished floor with an audible thud.
She couldn’t keep going anymore; getting here had taxed her body to its limits. The flimsy, thin illusion she had been forced to maintain upon herself had drained what little energy she had, and upon striking the floor it simply collapsed around her with a burst of emerald flames.
Left lying in her place, breath heaving and body shivering, was the all too familiar black chitin of a Changeling.
Shining Armour, forever the Royal Guard, shouted at the guards in the room, ordering them to detain her and drag her away. Dutifully the guards in the room hurried over, surrounding the offending changeling before Cadance could voice a word.
“Halt!”
The guards all stopped in stunned confusion, looking up at the princess as she strode towards them. With a wave of her wing they parted for her.
“Back away, give her some air.” She instructed calmly as she closed the distance between herself and the changeling now wheezing on her floor. The guards, sworn to do their duty and follow orders, complied and backed away a few steps, but nothing more. Shining had been sure to drill into every guard the dangers of changelings, and the closer they were while still doing as they were told the better.
Cadance came to a stop before the changeling and she sat down, looking over her thin form.
“Cadance, what are you doing? She’s dangerous!”
Cadance chuckled and looked back to her husband. “She could barely stand before, and now she cannot even keep up an illusion.” She said calmly. “I don’t think she could harm anypony bar herself right now.” She turned her calm face back towards the figure lying limply before her. “That being said please try not to move, you are in no shape to do very much right now.” She waved a wing idly at the guards to her right. “If one of you could be so kind as to fetch the castle medics, we shall be quite safe here.”
As a guard hurried off, Shining strode down from his place beside his wife’s throne with a scowl. “Cadance, you can’t possibly be thinking-“
“Shiny, if she is a prisoner, what royal decrees are there about such a situation? Imagine she were a Gryphon or Minotaur.” Cadance replied with an irritable snap. “And if she’s just an immigrant from their Hive who has, as she has said, hailed from one of our own towns, we have a duty to care for her. What would Celestia say if I simply turned her away in her time of need? I’m not exactly happy about it either, but we have to treat her as we would treat our own. I’ll write to Celestia about…” Her voice grew faint as she talked, but not to her talking quieter. No, Ruby couldn’t hear any better as her strength left her.
Ruby sighed as her eyes drifted shut, staring at the golden clad hooves of the crystal princess.
*&*&*&*
Ruby’s eyes strained against the light that assailed them, unyielding in its intensity and without flicker. She groaned and allowed her eyes to open faintly and looked around the room she was in. It appeared to be a regular hospital room, complete with a curtained window and an annoying beeping machine that seemed to be connected to her torso. A vase on the bedside table to the right of her bed held a bouquet of flowers she recognised as roses but couldn’t place the species of. They were most peculiar, their petals almost crystalline.
“They’re lovely, aren’t they?” A familiar voice asked from her left. “Crystal Kingdom flowers have such a unique look, and they can taste fantastic in a nice salad.”
Ruby spun in the bed, her eyes wide as she looked back at the pony who smiled down at her disarmingly.
“I hope you’re feeling a little better, Ruby, at least that we can talk.” Cadance said calmly. “Princess Celestia is on her way up to assist me in handling this… unique situation, but until then I’d like some more… ammunition to defend your case.”
Ruby gave a confused look to the princess sitting at her bedside. “’Defend’..?”
Cadance sighed and nodded. “We’ll get to that when Celestia arrives.” She said. “Please, tell me about yourself, if you can.”
Ruby shifted in the bed faintly, unsure if she should really say anything before sighing and nodding.
“I… I call myself Ruby Swift, and I do come from just outside Coltorado.” She said, gaining a little confidence as she spoke. “I lived alone in a cottage I built myself within a nearby forest. I… kept to myself, usually; entering the village was always something of a chore. The townsponies were afraid of me, you see. They called me the ‘Black Witch’ and I usually hid my form beneath a long and hooded robe, so as to not scare anypony when I went into town to get supplies. I never used a disguise, as I’m not very good at them and must maintain the spell as long as I want it active, unlike other changelings who can make it last even when unconscious.
“Though my name hardly suits what I did for bits, I chose it all the same. I always liked the colour red, despite what you may think of changelings having a preoccupation with green. We’re not named at birth, not given a name until the queen thinks us worthy, so I had to choose my own. I fled the hive when I was young, after my mother died in a cave-in. I was tagged as unwanted, a waste of resources, and I would have been culled had I not fled to Equestria. I learned to read and write mostly on my own with books, though I did ask questions to a townspony who was kind enough to help me.”
“You mentioned your name not suiting what you did for bits.” Cadance mentioned calmly. “Could you tell me what it was?”
Ruby nodded a little, her muscles hurting her to use. “I was a wood carver.” She said. “I would plant and grow trees which, after they grew to a useful size and age, I would cut down and use to make wood carvings, which I would then sell in bulk in town to other merchants. Toys, book ends, knickknacks… Anything I could carve, really. For a time, life was kind; I didn’t have any real worries until… until the Hive attacked Canterlot and ruined your wedding.”
“Were you there that day?”
Ruby shook her head. “No, I was at home working on a train set.” She said. “Some days since then I wish I was.” She added sadly. “Some days I wonder if it would have been better to have been there, to have been caught between the shield that repelled the invasion and a wall to cut my misery short.
“I walked into town the day after, when newspapers had rolled out Equestria wide with news about the attack. The looks I got from the townsponies…” She hissed a breath and shut her eyes tight, shaking her head trying to force the image from her mind. “They looked so… furious. Betrayed. I had no idea what was wrong until I was cornered by a group of them and angrily shown the newspaper. Despite my protests that I was innocent, that I would never… I’ve never been beaten so viciously, not before or since. I luckily had my bit pouch on me, and my cloak, because within the hour I didn’t have a home to return to.
“They burned it to the ground and left a sign warning me to leave or risk the same fate.”
Cadance shifted uncomfortably at the news of Equestria’s citizens being so heartless.
“And so, with what I had left, I began to travel. At first I figured I could just move to another town, but at every town I approached, out would come the torches and pitchforks until I had been well and truly driven away. After a few months of pointless travelling and shrinking hopes, I managed to find out about your kingdom here in the north, reading about it in a newspaper I was using to keep warm with one night.
“I remembered what the others did to you and your husband at your wedding, and, well, I’m not exactly in what one would call a happy place. I was dying anyway, Princess. Not of the cold, but mentally and physically, I’ve not eaten in a month. I… I didn’t want to wait for death to come to me, so I figured that, if anypony would… willingly kill a changeling it would be you and your husband. I lost my cloak during the walk here and had to use my ability to disguise myself to enter the kingdom at all.” She heaved a long-held sob and a pair of tears snaked across her cheeks as she stared down at the blankets of her bed before giving a mirthless and sarcastic laugh. “But even after all that, I can’t even get myself put out of my misery by those who should hate me the most. I suppose they were right, back before I fled the hive.
“I really am a waste of space.”
Cadance gazed down at the crying changeling sadly, unsure of what she should say. She’d never really had to deal with this sort of situation before.
“Did you try Ponyville?” She asked curiously. Ruby shook her head.
“It’s common knowledge that Twilight Sparkle and her friends live there, and during the time I was near that town I wasn’t exactly… broken like I am now.” She huffed. “I just wanted to find somewhere to live, somewhere I’d be accepted. That is unlikely to happen for a changeling where Twilight Sparkle lives.”
There was a polite knock at the door, followed by a voice.
“Cadance? Are you in there?”
Cadance shifted to her hooves and moved to the door, opening it with a flick of her magic.
“We’re in here, Auntie.” Cadance called back, looking out the door at the mares on the other side. “Oh, and you’ve brought Aunt Luna with you, too!”
Luna grumbled. “We were sleeping when your letter arrived.” She said irritably. “’Tia dragged us out of bed for what she was calling an ‘urgent matter’. We were here only yesterday, why could this not have happened then?”
Cadance giggled. “Nice to see you too, Auntie,” she retorted before letting them in. She closed the door behind them and hurried over to the bed. “This is the changeling I told you about in my letter. She’s calling herself Ruby Swift.”
“What do you mean by ‘calling herself’?” Luna probed with a yawn.
Cadance looked down to Ruby, who seemed to have gone rigid and was evidently unresponsive from the look on her face, her fear of what might happen as an outcome of this encounter clearly first and foremost in her mind.
“Changelings aren’t named unless they prove themselves to the Hive, or so she says.” Cadance informed. “She had to assume her own name when she fled the Hive for Equestria.” She said before quickly adding, “Something about being labelled as excess weight on the Hive and marked for culling,” with a raised hoof.
“You mentioned that she came to you a petitioner,” Celestia began calmly, her gaze tearing away from the changeling sitting ramrod still on the bed to her niece, “was she able to voice her request before she needed to be brought here?”
Cadance shuffled her hooves nervously and nodded.
“Might I be able to break the confidentiality of court to ask what it was?”
Cadance looked back at Ruby, whose eyes looked back at her. She gave a faint nod and Cadance sighed.
“She… she wanted me to… to kill her.” She managed to say.
Celestia sighed sadly and Luna only blinked incredulously at her niece. “We think our sleep deprivation has befuddled our ears, did you just say-“
“Yes, Luna.” Cadance snapped. “I. Did.”
Again the moon princess blinked.
“Surely you are aware that such a wish cannot be granted, yes?” Luna asked.
Cadance only glared at her. “’Are you aware’, of course I'm aware, Luna! I’m not stupid!”
The door clicked shut once more, accompanied by Shining Armour’s voice. “You married me; you should find a second opinion.” He said jokingly, earning himself a hard punch on the shoulder from his wife.
“Could we, perhaps, stop yelling and hitting one another? We seem to have frightened the patient.” Celestia voiced.
The arguing trio looked back to where Ruby was currently sitting on the bed with a pillow over her head, hiding her face from the royals.
“Fantastic, I asked to be put out of my misery by the most dysfunctional royals on the planet.” She grumbled her voice barely audible to the ponies present. Celestia gave a faint laugh before using her magic to prise the pillow from her head.
“Don’t worry about them.” She said calmly. “Tell me; why would you wish such a thing?”
Ruby sighed. She’d only just finished telling all of this to Cadance and really didn’t feel like going through it all again, but… she supposed that Celestia at least deserved the basic facts.
“I’ve lived in Equestria since I was young, until the invasion carving things out of wood and selling them to merchants.” She said emotionlessly. “The town I settled near beat me, burned down my home, and ran me out of the countryside. Since then, that’s been my life. No home, no food, no friends, I wasn’t even a part of that stupid attack on Canterlot, yet here I am suffering because of it.”
Luna huffed. “Your request was silly.” She said, earning glares from the others. “What? It was. She could have asked for a home here in the Empire.”
“Or be forgiven for being a member of a hostile race?” Ruby shot back sharply. “Because that will totally happen simply by asking for it; I didn’t have a broken rib for three weeks the last time I did that at all.”
Luna glared. “Is that any way to talk to royalty?!”
“Luna, calm down.” Celestia said, holding a hoof up. “Miss Swift is right to be angry if her claims are true. While I have the royal guard investigate her claims, she’ll need to be bunked here in the Empire.”
“For now she can stay here in the hospital to recover,” Cadance said matter-of-factly, “she needs to recover from her malnourishment and fatigue, and she doesn’t have a bit to her name at the moment. As it stands, we’re covering her recovery on the royal vaults, but we cannot just support her indefinitely.”
“We could bunk her with Stalwart Drone?” Shining asked, “I mean, he’s only just got here too and could probably do with the company.”
Ruby looked hesitant, but Luna shrugged. “We cannot see any drawbacks to this.” She said, before stepping a little closer. “Actually, this presents an opportunity… Miss… Ruby, is it? You said before you were a woodcarver, correct? Would you be willing to take a royal commission?”
Nervously Ruby nodded.
Luna smiled. “Are you aware of what an Apiary is?”
Stalwart Drone looked up from his new kitchen table where he had been eating breakfast at a knock on the front door to his new home. He was still on a wonky internal clock, and as such it was in fact the correct time of day for breakfast. He’d only been released the day before after almost a week of being cooped up in the hospital for observation and had a fortnight of sick leave to get himself back into what the prince was calling ‘working order’.
He’d been told that he would have another sharing his residence with him for their own safety and, again in the prince’s words: ‘your sanity you blizzard-walking loon.’ He wasn’t sure why anypony would need to be bunked with a royal guard just for their safety; even those on the witness protection list usually just get shipped to Ponyville where the resident nutter (better known as Pinkie Pie) would somehow manage to not only guarantee their safety, but manage to tip off the guard should any possible danger be even approaching them.
He picked his sunglasses from their place on a table just within the front door and placed them over his eyes, a precaution that Princess Luna had advised to him and given him the sunglasses for. The Crystal Empire, while beautiful, was really, really reflective; especially with the roads polished to the mirror-shine they were, and the last thing he wanted was to be blinded for a few days due to sunstrike.
He opened the front door to find the current head of guard, Prince Shining Armour himself, waiting patiently on the other side. He gave a smile of amusement, so Stalwart assumed that the stunned look on his face was real. Beside him stood another individual wearing a long white cloak with the hood up and hiding their face, and behind him several guard were unhitching themselves from a wagon with a few dozen assorted sizes of wood upon it, including what appeared to be large, several foot long by at least two foot in diameter logs. A tool box, shiny in that freshly new way, was currently being fished down from the cart.
“S-sir, to what do I owe the pleasure?”
Shining Armour chuckled and urged him inside. “You recall that I said you would be getting a housemate, yes?” He asked as he and the cloaked figure followed him in to the lounge which still smelled of new furniture. “This is her, Miss Ruby Swift.”
Stalwart nodded to her, and the hooded figure nodded back.
“Sir, that’s all well and good, but what’s with the cart of tree carcass out front?” He asked curiously.
“Miss Swift is a carpenter and wood sculptor by trade; we’re going to need somewhere to set up her workspace… Is the attic free?”
“I’m using it for long term storage, sir.”
“Garden shed?”
“I don’t have one.”
“Basement?”
Stalwart paused. “I… don’t think it’s being used at the moment?”
Shining smiled and tapped a hoof against the floorboards. “Excellent; I’ll just go tell the guard where to ship your things, Miss Swift; you two get to know one another while I’m gone.”
“Sir, why is she wearing the cloak?”
Shining paused, looking back past Stalwart at Ruby for a moment before sighing. “She will explain. I trust you not to judge her; Princess Cadance and I have both heard her case, as have Princesses Luna and Celestia, and we all have come to the conclusion to have her put here for her protection. Princess Celestia has the Canterlot guard conducting an investigation into her claims, but for now we’re giving her the benefit of the doubt.”
“’Innocent until proven guilty’, sir?”
Shining nodded. “That’s correct.”
Shining stepped out of the room, and Stalwart looked back at the cloaked pony still sharing the room with him curiously.
“So, Miss Swift…”
She sighed and shifted uncomfortably before throwing her head back and making the hood fall, revealing her face. Stalwart took a step back, finally being aware that he was face to face with a changeling. Quick as his surprise began it ended, switching around into duty and dislike of the creature before him. He raised a hoof accusingly and she shied away, turning her face and clenching her eyes shut as if preparing to be struck. When he hesitated, lowering his hoof a little as bemusement stole his thoughts, she cracked an eye open to look at him fearfully.
“Y-you’re not going to hit me?”
He blinked at her and shook his head. “Why on Equestria do you think I would-“
“The last guard I encountered in my true form broke three ribs.” She countered in a breath. “What do you want to break? My ribs, my legs… perhaps my neck..? Go ahead, it’s not like I can stop you.”
“You’re-“
“A changeling, yes,” she finished for him, still not looking directly at him. “Before you ask me; no I was not involved in the Canterlot invasion. Instead I was accused of being a monster and driven out of my home and left to wander the countryside for three months with barely a bit to my name. I do not feed on emotions but rather food. As it stands, I do not have a home, nor do I have a family to return to.” She turned her face to him, glaring at him weakly. “I don’t expect you to like me, nor do I expect the opposite to occur either.” She huffed and started to walk past him to the stairs. “I’m going to go find my room, I’ll know if it is yours by scent, so don’t worry about me stumbling in on any dirty magazines you might have.”
As the Changeling stepped up the stairs, Stalwart grumbled and turned towards the front of the house, walking quickly and heavily until he came upon Shining Armour telling the two guards who were unloading the wagon what needed moving and how.
“This is some kind of joke.” Stalwart growled at his superior. “You must be under her control or something. She’s-“
Shining’s hard stare bored into him and made him stop nervously. The prince waved a hoof. “The work table next, boys.” He said. “Be slow.”
The pair of crystal ponies looked between one another worriedly before lifting the table from the wagon and taking it inside, moving beyond hearing range.
“Now, is something the matter, Captain?”
“She’s a Changeling!” Stalwart growled. “By the Princess’s glorious moon, how do you-“
“I know she’s a changeling, Captain. We know she’s a changeling, Captain. As I said before, Princess Celestia has her best ponies checking her backstory. I’m expecting a letter any day now, seeing how those boys and girls work. Also, I was unaware that curse existed; works wonders as a double entendre. I’ll have to tell Cadance, she’s sure to get a laugh.”
Stalwart Drone blushed faintly and looked away for a moment. “Sir, you’ve got to be out of your bucking mind, these things are monsters!”
Shining glared and rounded on him, striding towards him menacingly. “Now you listen here, Captain Drone,” he began with his tone just as firm, “once upon a time, Equestria classified Gryphons as monsters, yet I know a Gryphon within the guard who I would trust to the ends of time, who currently teaches advanced inter-species combat to the rank and file. Once upon a time, Sphinxes were classified as monsters, but now the Royal Vault in Canterlot is guarded by not one but two, who are almost as trusted by the Princesses as the Captains of the Guard.
“When the Princesses’ report arrives, I will tell you how well she can be trusted, but for now we are giving her the benefit of the doubt. She appears to have been through much, and the last thing she needs is for a Royal Guard Captain to label her a monster when for all we know she’s just another victim of the Canterlot Attack.” As he had managed to back Stalwart up against the doorframe, he poked him sharply with a hoof. “Is that clear, Captain?”
Stalwart nodded furiously, his sunglasses dislodging and making him flinch and shut his eyes tight against the sunlight before pressing them back against his face.
Shining Armour leaned back, holding his head high. “Good.”
“Sir, aren’t you going a bit far for this… changeling?” Stalwart asked. “I mean, you just berated a guard Captain…”
Shining chuckled. “Hey, I’m married to Princess Cadance, I had to get it from somewhere.” He said cheekily. “And to answer your question; if Celestia’s investigation turns up that she’s been telling the truth, that changeling has been an Equestrian citizen for most of her life. As it stands, the worst she’s done is become an illegal immigrant, and I’m sure that the Princesses will be more than willing to overlook such a small technicality. Yes, we will have to keep our eyes on her, but if she’s telling the truth, we’ll be keeping our eyes on her to protect her.
“We’re in the Crystal Empire, the most northern hold in Equestria, surrounded by the snowy lands where the Windigo rest; we cannot afford dissent of any kind else we risk waking the beasts. If you won’t befriend her, all I ask is that you at least tolerate her. If she’s not telling the truth then I’ll interrogate her myself and send her off to Canterlot to stand trial, but… Cadance and Princess Celestia seem to just have this feeling from her. Princess Celestia mentioned that it felt as though Miss Swift herself doesn’t like lying. From her own admission, she only used a disguise within the Empire to get into the castle because she had lost her cloak, which we’ve replaced for her. Just follow orders and leave her be, alright?”
Stalwart sighed and hung his head. “Yes sir.”
Shining chuckled. “Good; now, the day guard has informed me that there are a couple of beekeepers on the north western boulevard, what they’re calling ‘Glimmer Road’. I’d suggest making yourself acquainted with these ponies; who knows, you might be able to buy some bees from them or something. I would also advise going through the markets on the main northern road, I believe it was named ‘Quartz Drive’ or something like that; you’ll have to excuse my ignorance, we’re still learning the Empire.”
Stalwart shrugged. “You spent your whole life learning Canterlot, I’m honestly not surprised. Just so long as you don’t forget your wedding anniversary; your princess would skin you alive.”
Shining chuckled as he pointed out another hefty piece of wood for the two guards to move inside, “Oh, I don’t know about skinning me, she’d probably shave me though.”
Stalwart chuckled at the mental image of Shining Armour shaved bald. “I’ll be sure to check them out, sir.”
Shining nodded and turned his face up to the second story. “That goes for you too, Miss Swift; it would be good for you to become acquainted with those you can trade with. We’ve got a purse of Bits for you down here in the wagon somewhere; it should be enough for you to get by for a little while.”
Stalwart looked up in time to see Ruby’s head duck back until just her ears were showing, then slowly poke back out to give a nod.
“I hope you don’t mind if she ends up planting a few trees in the back yard.” Shining said. “She’s likely to want to grow her own supplies.”
Stalwart sighed. “So long as there’s space for a beehive or two she can do what she wants to the back yard.”
*&*&*&*
After the guards and Prince had left, Stalwart said something about checking out some things in town and flying off, leaving Ruby alone in the house. This didn’t bother her, as she had hidden her purse of Bits down in the basement she now called her workshop and began work on the commission she had received from Princess Luna.
She had sketched out the rough design she was going to use, marking where holes for the bees to enter and exit were going to be cut out with pencil and also marking a design on the external faces. She was going to need some paint and coat to protect it from potential harsh weather, but she could worry about that when she went out after starting on the front face.
Her mind went to its usual vacant happy-place as she began carving, using a chisel and her magic to carve the fiddly curling details into the wood. There was only one thing that the princess had told her that she most certainly wanted on the hive and that was the image of a crescent moon on the front face. She spent a few minutes getting it as exact as she could for a waxing crescent moon before carving out the holes for the bees with utmost care; if she splintered the wood now, she’d have to start all over again.
With that taken care of, she carefully placed the panel down on her workbench and began with the second, only for her internal clock to start screaming at her for some reason or other. With a sigh she placed the wood down on her workbench and strolled from the basement, shaking the wood shavings from her form before she mounted the stairs.
The sun had moved a fair amount in the sky, letting her know that she had been down there for longer than she had thought and she quickly returned to the basement to get her purse before pulling her cloak from its hook behind the door and throwing it over her form, tugging the hood over her face before leaving the house and locking the door behind her. The Prince had been sure to give her a copy of the house keys so that someone could always lock up, and after what had happened to her last house, locking the doors felt like a good idea.
She walked through the Crystal Empire idly, observing the beautiful crystalline structures around her and only stopping when she noticed that the sounds her hooves made upon the crystalline road had changed, looking up and directly at the Crystal Heart itself. She blinked, marvelling at the crystal before a hoof found itself resting on her shoulder and she startled, turning her head to the pony beside her. Princess Cadance herself.
She’d taken on a glassy appearance, her coat now looking as if it were made of rose quartz and her mane neatly tucked away into a hairstyle matching those of the original residents of the Crystal Empire. Her face turned apologetic, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Ruby sighed and looked away momentarily before giving a quick curtsey. “It’s alright, Princess; I guess I was just spacing out.”
Cadance nodded. “It’s not uncommon for tourists to come right here to see themselves as a crystal pony, especially pegasi who want to know what it’s like to fly with wings like that. It can be amusing to see them become somewhat unhappy to find out that, after the first hours of being within the Empire the crystal appearance fades unless within close proximity to the Heart.”
Ruby shuffled her hooves. “I… didn’t even know it would be on public display like this.” She admitted. “I was only heading to the markets. I thought maybe I could find somepony selling saplings.”
Cadance gave a short giggle. “Who knows; it’s entirely possible. If not, I’m sure we can arrange some saplings sent up from Canterlot. However…” she gave Ruby a conspiratorial look and a sly grin to which she didn’t feel entirely welcoming, “I have wondered what a changeling would look like under the effects of the Crystal Heart…”
Again Ruby shuffled uncomfortably; looking away nervously before her magic gripped the cloak she wore and gently removed it from her form, folding it neatly upon the ground nearby. Cadance gave a gentle ‘ooh’ of fascination.
Under the influence of the Crystal Heart, Cadance had seen a whole manner of creatures in a Crystal form, from ponies to her technical nephew Spike, who was a young dragon, and even a Gryphon or two. They always appeared in a gemstone colour similar to their natural colours. Brown gryphons turned into amber or smoky quartz, and Spike had become a mixture of amethyst and chalcedony. She’d always wondered if changelings would become an emerald or other greenish-blue colour gemstone. What she saw was not what she had expected.
Ruby had become a glistening black, her chitin turned into a deep polished coat of obsidian and the shell on her back, in which her wings were hidden when not flying, was a single piece of flawless and polished sapphire. Her wings, also, had undergone the change and were crystalline and ghostly, as if they were made from single pieces of paper-thin clear quartz.
She hummed curiously, circling the changeling and eyeing details she hadn’t seen in her natural form. She poked at an imperfection – a flaw along the Changeling’s side on her ribcage to which she suppressed a ticklish giggle and shifted.
“Where a guard broke three of my ribs,” Ruby informed.
Cadance poked another imperfection, this one on her left thigh.
“Stabbed by a unicorn in an alley in Trottingham,”
Another poke prompted another response.
“Electrocuted by a Pegasus with a storm cloud just outside of Fillydelphia,”
“You’ve not had very nice travels in Equestria, have you..?” Cadance mumbled sympathetically.
Ruby looked back at the princess curiously. “How do you know where my past injuries are..? They didn’t scar…”
Cadance chuckled. “They show up as imperfections in your crystal coat. It’s peculiar; I’ve never seen injuries do it before…” She gave a sigh and looked at Ruby sympathetically. “Though I’ve never seen anypony with wounds that match scars on their soul, either…”
Ruby looked down at the ground sadly before a clamouring of hoofsteps met her ears and she looked up into the sharpened tips of a garden fork, startling and jolting backwards. Her eyes darted around as she shrank down to appear smaller, her ears and head drooping significantly as she looked at the angry faces of the ponies surrounding her.
She heard somepony yell something, her ears barely registering the demand to step away from Cadance before she leapt into the air in fright, flying over the crystal ponies and making a mad dash down the road.
Her mind went back to all the previous times she had been chased out of towns; the mobs, the yelling, the anger. Images of ponies trying to hurt her with pitchforks and spears and fury, chasing her to the ends of their towns and beyond just to get a piece of her flashed through her mind and causing her to move faster as the adrenaline of fear hit her muscles.
Tears were streaming down her face as she ran past house after house, the residents within or around them watching her run confusedly, and then watching in even more confusion as a mob of their angriest-looking neighbours followed behind.
She was barely watching where she was going anymore, straining her still-taxed body to its limits in her efforts to escape the lynch mob. As she was just about to give up, to fall to her legs and simply slide to a halt and let them do whatever they wanted with her, a pair of hooves grabbed her and halted her sprint, wrapping around her protectively.
*
Stalwart had enjoyed talking with the crystal pony beekeepers that Shining Armour had advised him on, they’d told him a few things he already knew, which was inevitable, and a few things he hadn’t known, such as things about the local flora and their effects on the honey and wax that the bees produced.
After the initial confusion had worn off, anyways; for the first few minutes they had looked at him as if he had a second head and he had calmly explained the history of bat ponies, after which they had calmed down and opened up to him. He’d even been out long enough for his eyes to tolerate the bright sunlight, though he did still squint hideously to minimise the impact on his eyes.
He was heading to the markets now, in the hopes of finding something to occupy his time with until he could arrange for a hive and some bees to be shipped to him from Canterlot. He was hoping that they had some books, or maybe even some recipes he could try in the meantime.
As he turned out into a main road, one of the half dozen or so that branched out directly from the Crystal Palace at the centre of the Empire to the outskirts of the Empire itself. From above, the city had an appearance not unlike a snowflake thanks to this. He could see, down the street, a black shape running towards him followed by a large group of crystal ponies.
He quickly realized that the black shape was Ruby Swift, and that the ‘large group’ of crystal ponies would be more aptly described as ‘angry mob’.
She didn’t seem to notice him until he grabbed her and wrapped his hooves around her, turning his back to the mob and flaring a wing to cover her terrified form protectively. She was hyperventilating and tears streamed down her face as she cried into his embrace in fear. He turned his angry face to the mob now hovering near him staring at him dumbstruck.
“What in the name of Princess Celestia’s royal boxer shorts is going on here?” He barked. “What in Tartarus are you all doing?”
One of the obviously less dumbstruck ponies motioned his shovel in their direction. “That’s a changeling.”
Stalwart’s eye twitched. “No really? I never would have guessed.” He retorted with a snarky tone. “What next, you’re going to tell me that I’m a bat pony? Maybe that you’re all crystal ponies? Here’s a good one, how about you all tell me who would like to be charged for attempting assault or forming a mob?”
“You can’t charge us with anything, you’re no guard!”
“Guess again, smartass; you happen to be looking at the new Captain of the Night Guard!” Stalwart hissed. “Captain Stalwart Drone, currently on sick leave until my wings heal from frostbite, but I’m pretty sure I can still fill out paperwork; so who wants to go first?!”
The mob of ponies all looked amongst one another nervously; evidently worried that he might follow through with his threat. A shadow passed over their heads and landed next to the guard and changeling; Princess Cadance looking down at Ruby worriedly. One of the mob shouted.
“Princess, step away, that thing is dangerous!”
“The only dangerous things here are you.” She snapped, managing to get them to flinch. It wasn’t often that she would take such a tone with anyone except her husband when toying with him, but her face displayed her far from toying mood. “Look at her; she cowers from you like a foal cowers from a thunderstorm; is this what the Crystal Empire stands for, the terrorizing of others?” She huffed and glared at them disapprovingly. “Your blind hatred will only serve to darken the Crystal Heart.”
“But…”
“She’s a changeling, yes;” Cadance stated firmly, “but she’s as much a pony as any of us in here,” she motions to her chest meaningfully before continuing, “and that’s the part that matters. Now please, go about your respective days.” She sighed and places her face beside Ruby’s, looking at her worriedly and shushing her crying as if she were caring for a child. “You’re okay, Ruby, don’t be scared; you’re safe in the Empire remember? I promised you that, remember?”
Ruby nodded, her face buried in Stalwart’s shoulder for what little comfort he offered her to recover from her sprint and fear. The guard stood sternly silent, his face firm and set as he allowed her to cry onto his shoulder. Cadance noticed a twitch of his flared wing and for an instant pain flicked through his eye and face before being smothered by the stern glare once more. Cadance sighed and put a hoof onto his wing, lowering it slightly.
“You may fold your wing, Captain; thank you for your courage in holding it out this long, I can only imagine how much it must hurt.”
He carefully lowered his wing, folding it back to his side with a wince. “Can’t feel the tips, ma’am; guess I’m in for a long bath tonight. Still; following orders and all that; do you want me to escort her home?”
“Actually, I think she was interested in heading to the markets; if you could accompany her we would be most grateful.” Cadance said with a smile, watching as the now defeated mob cleared out and returned to what they had originally been doing.
Stalwart nodded. “Yes, ma’am; I was headed there myself before all this nonsense began.” He nudged Ruby with his nose gently to get her attention. “Calm down Miss Swift, otherwise I’ll not buy you any ice-cream.”
She giggled faintly between huffs, lifting a hoof to wipe the tears from her cheeks. “Meanie.”
“Well, I’m hardly paid to be nice.” He retorted, sticking his tongue out at her.
*&*&*&*
The pair walked through the markets, looking about at the stalls curiously; ponies were selling all sorts of things. One store sold books, the one next door sold instruments, and next door to that was somepony selling jewellery. Stalwart stopped at the book store and looked about for something to occupy his time with, ending up buying a few adventure books and waiting patiently as Ruby purchased herself a pair of romance novels and something on wood carving.
After this, they strolled along until they came upon a toy shop, whereupon Ruby stopped in and talked with the store owner. She introduced herself and mentioned that she might be interested in selling hoof-carved toys to them for their store. While they were initially a little nervous about her, they seemed to eventually warm up to her enough to accept that they could purchase whatever she brought in, provided she not expect any promises; word of their business hadn’t spread to all of the ponies in the Empire so they might not have anything to really offer her. Before leaving, Stalwart bought a pair of saddlebags from them, mentioning that he hadn’t thought that they would be buying much but that he was growing tired of balancing the books on his back.
On the way out of the toy store, Stalwart commented to her that the Guard was always looking for wooden practice weapons such as swords, spears, and shields to replace those damaged in exercises and sparring matches. She could probably manage to get a stable income by providing these supplies regularly.
They stopped at a garden goods store next. Stalwart looked at the tools and such on the shelves while Ruby negotiated the purchase of a few trees, including a fruit tree that she was hoping could at least offer a reprieve to their wallets every time it bore fruit. Once she had managed to buy four trees she could grow for the wood, she made a purchase that Stalwart didn’t take much notice of and they left the store in high spirits and headed to the confectioners.
It was a small store, few tables for those who would buy a doughnut, muffin, or cupcake with a coffee or cuppa tea for the afternoon, and a veritable wall of available confections. They were evidently well supplied, with candies ranging from chocolates to sour lemon drops and everything in-between.
Stalwart and Ruby stood in line quietly, ignoring the looks they were getting from the few other patrons as they waited their turn and quietly discussed between one another what they were considering getting. Stalwart, true to his bat-like heritage, was interested in something fruity while Ruby was mumbling something about honey crumble, having noticed that it was available on their list.
She, also, hoofed Stalwart some Bits for him to buy her some assorted candies. He’d asked what she wanted, and she had simply replied with; “Anything except liquorice.”
He was polite and calm to the crystal pony at the counter who eyed him as if he were some form of enormous mushroom. With a practiced ease he ordered the two flavours of ice-cream, splurging out a little and buying them in tubs rather than just as cones, and the assorted candies that Ruby had asked for. After paying and placing the purchased goodies into his saddlebags.
One last stop procured them some bathroom necessities; soap, shampoo, a toothbrush for Ruby and some toothpaste. They also got some assorted groceries to use for meals and a rag which Stalwart said was for shining his armour and spear.
When they finally returned home the sun was almost at the horizon and the Empire was growing lazy and quiet; the only sounds on the breeze were those of pets loudly asking for their nightly meal or ponies conversing near enough to be overheard anyway.
Upon the porch they encountered Princess Cadance and Shining Armour waiting patiently, watching the sun in its descent together quietly. Shining was the first to notice them arriving home and he nodded to them.
“Evening,”
Stalwart snapped a lazy salute, “Sir,” he said before unlocking the door and letting everypony else in before walking in himself.
“Had a good day?” Cadance asked, to which Stalwart nodded.
“Fair enough after the… midday mob.” He replied before moving to the kitchen. “Make yourselves at home; I’ve just got to get these groceries into the fridge before the ice-cream melts.”
The royal couple obliged and sat next to one another in the lounge on the room’s couch, with Cadance motioning for Ruby to seat herself.
“So, Ruby, how have you been since this afternoon?” Shining Armour asked. “I heard about the… incident; I’ll be sending out a report on your presence in the morning and you shouldn’t have to suffer from any more such incidents.”
Ruby shrugged meekly, evidently not in the mood to talk about what had happened earlier at all, and soon enough Stalwart joined them in the lounge, sitting in a soft and remarkably deep chair before dipping his head to the royal couple respectfully.
“Captain Drone, I have news.” Shining stated cheerfully. “Just after fourteen hundred hours we received a letter from Princesses Celestia and Luna in regards to the investigation; evidently ponies are only too willing to tell guards about a changeling they encountered even months back. I assume you would like to know the result of the Princess’s investigation?”
Stalwart nodded, and Shining moved forward in the couch to lean forward before speaking with a more authoritative tone.
“The investigation began with the dispatch of a squadron of Pegasus guard to Coltorado. Upon arrival, the local townsponies were questioned about any changeling activity they had encountered, and the guard were promptly led to the site of a burned-down cottage. Once here, they were told about how a changeling had lived within the town for many years until the day after the invasion was publicised, at which point they chased her out of town.
“Using your own testimony, Miss Swift, questions were asked about whether or not the building was burned down before or after the changeling had left, and their response was a blanket ‘before’. Of course, all ponies involved in the alleged assault of Miss Swift were, as the lieutenant put it, stupid enough to boast. All of the ponies involved in the destruction of private property, namely the arson of Miss Swift’s home, and the ponies who assaulted Miss Swift were fined and given six months of compulsory community service.
“The next step was to send a dispatch to the towns you stopped at on your meanderings across Equestria. Without fail, at every single town or city your presence and the actions taken against you were rather proudly boasted to the guard. As a result, four towns have managed to, altogether, accumulate a total of four counts of inciting panic and a further fourteen accumulative charges of assault. A guard in the city of Trotsdale by the name of Scorch Hottrot has been put on probation and tripling of duties after his admittance to breaking three of your ribs without provocation.
“The report has painted for us a picture of multiple cases of assault, willful acts of dissent and disorderly conduct, and these could potentially be seen as diplomatic incidents, as you are the only known changeling residing within Equestrian borders peacefully and could be portrayed as a diplomat of sorts.” His horn flared and a pair of saddlebags were hoisted onto the coffee table, the sound of many Bits held within making itself audible when his magic let go. “In total, the report has accumulated this rough estimate of twelve thousand Bits in damages recompense, with a possible ten thousand more to be added on top as an apology for the royal guard’s gross misconduct.”
Cadance shuffled in her seat. “Ruby, are you alright?” She asked worriedly.
Ruby had gone stiff as a board, staring at the saddlebags of Bits as if she had never seen anything like them before her eyes rolled in her head –not that any of the ponies could really tell- and she flopped to the ground unceremoniously. The three still-awake ponies in the room blinked down at her in collective stunned shock.
Stalwart sighed and stood, moving over to the changeling and gently lifting her into the chair she had fallen from before carefully slapping her awake. Ruby gabbled away pointlessly for a few moments before returning to her senses and managing to find her tongue.
“T-twelve thousand Bits..?” She asked incredulously. “I… I don’t even know what I’d do with so much money…”
Shining chuckled. “That is, as the rookies say, your problem Miss Swift.” He said. “Though I would advise spending it wisely, I would also like to reiterate that this is only what you deserve in damages for the pain you have suffered over the last few months; the guard knows that money could never make up for your suffering, and we wish to extend our most heartfelt apologies.”
She nodded faintly, still processing what she had been given, and Stalwart took the moment to speak up.
“Sir, how have the Empire Guard been handling combat training?”
Shining grumbled. “Not well; we’re having difficulty getting training weapons shipped in from Canterlot; one of the pencil-pushers back home seems to have this thing against spending Bits on the Guard.”
“Sir, perhaps Miss Swift could plug the gap? She is, after all, a carpenter by trade; perhaps she could make wooden training weapons for the Crystal Empire guard in return for a stipend?”
After a moment’s thought, Shining chuckled. “I suppose that could be arranged; just so long as she’s aware that she’ll be in for a fair amount of work.”
“I need to finish that request from the princess first… everything else needs to take a back-seat until it’s done.” Ruby mumbled, still staring at the saddlebags as if they were some mysterious and exotic puzzle. She mumbled ‘twelve thousand’ under breath, clearly still trying to come to terms with the number. For that kind of money she figured could probably buy her own house and have enough left over to fill it with furniture, though she would have found making her own to be more fun.
Cadance held her hoof up to her face to daintily hide her laugh. “I think she’s still struggling with coming to terms with her sudden income.” She said before standing and motioning for her husband to follow her. “We’ll get out of your manes so you can enjoy your evenings; have a good night.”
Stalwart stood and followed them to the door, letting them out into the night with a final cheerful ‘goodnight’ before closing it and returning into the house. Cadance nudged her husband and giggled.
“You made a good call, putting them together.” She said conspiratorially.
Shining sighed. “Cadance,” he began with a tone not unlike that of parents scolding a child, “you remember what you promised your aunts; no love spells on ponies. Celestia knows how badly I’ll get chewed out if you did, and you’d never hear the end of it.”
Cadance only laughed haughtily. “Oh, Shiny, if you only knew.” She replied, punctuating her sentence by sticking her tongue out at him. ‘After all; when things are done right, it’s as if nothing was done at all.’
Two glowing eyes turned on the stallion, their lack of pupil not hindering the way they seemed to gaze into his very soul. She spoke, her voice with tones of spring blooms, honey, and many moons of experience echoing into the world around them.
“I am one of the unconsidered, a being with soul and heart of one of your own, but a body which has struck fear into the hearts of many.” She looked down at herself, gesturing with a foreleg vaguely at her body. “Gaze upon the last of her kind, as many have. Be afraid of the unknown, as many are. The only thing that differs between all who have stumbled upon me has been their reaction to this fear and uncertainty. Most flee, afraid of something beyond their comprehension. Some have attacked, attempting to end my existence if only to silence the terror in their soul.
“Yet I stand. I have met these challenges and found myself victorious. I am not immortal, unlike those who rule the lands, but I do not age like you.” Her gaze drifted skywards and stared into the blue abyss above. “I suppose it has been many moons since last I discussed my longevity, the days blur together after a point unless one makes a point of counting them or they have any particular important value. More than eight hundred cycles of the seasons I have seen in my lifetime, most of them without much merit.
“So now we come to your presence, the first in almost three lunar cycles. What will you do with your fear, hmm? Run in terror and tell tales of the monster you met? Cower until I move on and then return to your home? Or maybe you’ll attack me like so many others, and join them in the graveyard I manage, to add to the soil some nutrients for my blossoms? What you will do I have yet to see - but never have I been wrong in my predictions of the mortal world.”
After voicing these words, she grew silent and only watched in disinterest the stallion as he contemplated her speech. With slightly trembling hooves, he began to walk towards her, his breath catching in his throat as she moved to ready herself into a defensive stance, only to freeze as his lips met hers. Her brow launched skywards and her eyes grew wide with shock as he pressed himself into his kiss, as brief an affair it was. It was not long before he pulled back and only gave her wide-eyed disbelief a cheeky smile.
She found her voice unwilling to cooperate for a few moments before she managed to breathe, “That… was unexpected.” She focused her gaze back upon him, now curious and untrusting; “For what purpose did that serve, save that you can say you have kissed a monster?”
He chortled amusedly. “You sell yourself short, calling yourself a monster. You stated it yourself, you have heart and soul like any of my peers; your eyes betray your aloof display untoward myself, windows to the soul as they are. If within my eyes you could see my fear and doubt unto yourself, imagine what I can see, for I see not a monster, but a mare that has gone without peer, without company or contact of intelligent life beyond that fear and doubt. I see a mare who is lonely, desperate for warmth, companionship; a mare desperate for someone to help shoulder her burdens and her own fears.
“I don’t see a monster poised to brutalize me or which seeks to impose fear, I see a soul who is hurt, and is desperate for somepony to soothe or share her pain. Tell me, what is your name, dear girl?”
She gave a heaving sigh through her nostrils before replying. “Pitaya, that’s what my mother named me.”
“A suiting name for an element of nature,” The stallion commented, “especially so for you, Miss Dryad.”
“In what way could you mean?”
He smiled disarmingly, “the Pitaya, or Dragon Fruit, comes from a type of cactus. It is suiting, as within the thorny embrace of your outer visage and attitude lay a sweet and beautiful delicacy; untouchable by all but the most daring.”
She blinked down at him, curious as to his peculiar analogy before speaking again. “Pray tell, what name did the world grace upon you? Such a curious young unicorn must have been named aptly.”
His smile turned cheeky once more, running a hoof disinterestedly through his dark brown mane. “It was a cruel fate that I would be best suited not for magic like my brethren.” He said. “Though I suppose what my parents called me is but another showing of the world’s oddities; my name, fair Dryad, is Oaken Orchard.”
“And what is this… oddity of which you speak? It sounds perfectly normal to my ears.”
He stole another kiss from her lips, catching her off guard before breathing into her ear, “I’m an Arborist, my de-“
“Miss Ruby, are you down here?” The voice of Stalwart Drone called, effectively pulling her from the little world in which she would secret herself when engrossed in a book. It had been an interesting read so far, this book written by some stallion out in Trottingham. The story told of a unicorn stallion born in Canterlot who was spurned by his peers for his odd talent based in the environmental world rather than magical. Late one night he heard tale of a monstrous creature with pony-like attributes, a creature of wood and leaf and bark. A Dryad, a spirit of nature which few had seen, that dwelled in the forests surrounding Canterlot Mountain.
While the other listeners had only heard tale of a horrific and dangerous monster, he had heard of another like him, spurned by the world around them simply for being different.
She felt she could relate.
“What do you need, Captain Drone?” She called back, tilting an ear to the sound of his hooves coming down the stairs.
It had been almost a week since she had nearly been run out of the Crystal Empire, and her project for Princess Luna had been completed and taken to the Crystal Palace for later shipping to the princess herself, or whatever her Highness wanted to do with it, Ruby didn’t really mind. She’d done her task to the best of her ability, poured her heart into her craft like usual and created something she was sure that the princesses would like.
The mentioned thestral wandered down the stairs into the basement wearing his guard armour and eyed the rack of finished and half-finished wooden training weapons off to one side. She’d presented the first of these to him the day she’d finished it, and the only feedback he’d given was ‘it’s perfect, more like this.’ Admittedly there were things that he thought they could do without, like the scrollwork on the wooden blades and handles, but he figured that trainees would be somewhat encouraged by the fancy look to the spears, swords, and shields.
“I’m headed off to my shift for the evening. You have a visitor waiting for you in the lounge, I would advise going up and greeting her before long.” He announced. “Once she’s gone, you know the drill; lock the doors, secure the windows, use the ventilation I showed you, and no magical crafting after dark.”
“Mm-hmm,” she hummed in response while sliding a bookmark into her novel, hoping to get back to it later. His hooves thudded away back upstairs and through the house, eventually fading altogether after the sound of the front door opening and closing moved through the house.
Not wanting to leave any particular guest waiting, nor to leave herself in the lurch over who the guest might be, Ruby absent-mindedly dawdled upstairs and through to the lounge, where she was quite surprised to find Princess Luna seated upon the couch and levitating a cup of what appeared to be coffee before her. Well, ‘seated’ is a loose term, really. The princess didn’t so much sit on the couch as lounge into it, reclining gracefully on one side as she sipped gracefully at her coffee. She glanced over at Ruby, who quickly ducked into a polite curtsey.
“Ah, Miss Ruby; please sit, much to discuss.”
Ruby blinked confusedly before complying with the princess and sitting in a nearby chair, finally noticing the two Night Guard bat ponies standing at attention inside the room, one giving her what she would call a ‘murderous glare.’ She wasn’t sure she would enjoy them being here, though she was certain that she did not like the staring.
Lune only smiled disarmingly to her, taking another sip of her coffee before lowering the cup to the coffee table between them. “I take it that your stay within the Empire has been quieter than your travels?” She asked.
“There was a… slight hiccup on the first day, but it’s been rather quiet since, your highness. I’ve been tasked with building training weapons for the guard, and they’re coming along nicely.”
“I am told that the commission I ordered has been completed?”
Ruby nodded. “I had it taken to the Crystal Palace to later be delivered to you, your highness.”
“I see; tell me, do you know of where bees might be purchased nearby?”
“Stalwart goes on and on about some beekeepers in the northern parts of the empire whenever we’re eating lunch, though I’m not sure of the exact address.” She replied in a detesting manner before cringing. “I’m sorry, princess I didn’t mean-“
The princess waved a hoof dismissively. “Tis quite alright, Ruby, I am well aware that what interests one may not interest another.” She drank the last of her coffee before looking over to her guards. “If one of you would be so kind as to head to the castle and fetch the beehive, I believe I shall look into the bees myself.” A guard gave a quick salute before stepping out, and the princess turned her gaze back to Ruby. “Thank you for your hospitality, Ruby -as brief a visit as this was.”
“Of course, princess; I hope you are not offended if you can show yourselves out, I have some work to get back to in the basement and I’d rather my first order not be late...”
“It is no trouble, have a pleasant evening, Ruby Swift.” Luna replied before gracefully leaving, her guard following close behind her.
After a moment of catching her runaway nerves, Ruby returned to the basement, where she lifts a wooden shaft into a lathe and begins the arduous task of carving it into a handle.
*
“Your highness, if I might take a moment, I wanted to ask Miss Swift something pertaining to your commission?” Luna’s guard asks, not looking in her direction as is his training.
“Of course, do not dawdle, however.”
“Thank you, highness.”
He turned and hurried back into the house, navigating his way down to the basement where he could hear her carving something. With a quiet series of movements he shifted down into the makeshift workshop, grabbing what looked like a wooden spear from a rack near the stairs as he crept closer.
‘This is for Canterlot you Moon-blasted monster.’
*
He returned soon to the side of his princess, closing the front door behind himself. He’d made sure that he was free of wood dust or chip, clean of any sign of his prior task, and he gave the princess a respectful bow before spreading his wings and following her flight to the northern parts of the Empire.
*
The guard that had been sent to the Crystal Castle arrived without incident and landed at the check-in point for visitors, waiting for a superior to allow him access to the castle proper. As he was a lieutenant, it would take a Guard Captain to clear him access. He didn’t mind the wait, really; the castle was a marvel of gemstone engineering and he was indeed marvelling at every inch his eyes could see.
A set of hooves behind him pulled him from his inspection of a support column and drew his attention to a fellow bat pony who looked down at paperwork in his hooves, supplied by a nearby crystal pony guard.
“Storm Striker…” Stalwart mumbled to himself as he looked through the paperwork, “Princess Luna Entourage, Lieutenant first class, address blah, blah, blah… You check out, Lieutenant; welcome to the Crystal Castle. You were at my house when I left for work, weren’t you? What need has the Princess for us?”
“Princess Luna has sent me to retrieve the craftwork of Miss Swift designated for her highness. I’m to meet up with her back at your home, so it would be good to not dawdle, hmm?”
“True, true.” Stalwart chuckled as he signed a visitation permit, folded it, and slid it into Storm Striker’s chest piece. “That has you permitted to be within the castle for the next four hours. Do not lose it; I loathe signing a second one.”
Storm Striker laughed and waved Stalwart on. “Of course, sir.” He chuckled. “If you’ll lead me to the pickup I can be on my way.”
Stalwart nodded and began walking, waving a wing. “This way, Lieutenant; the interior is a no-fly zone except in emergencies so we’ll have to walk.”
“That’s fine; gives us time to catch up.”
“It does.”
After a minute or so of awkward silence Storm Striker tried to break the ice. “So, Stalwart, how’re you liking the Empire? I heard the trip up was… less than as advertised.”
“The Empire is a nice enough place I suppose, and ‘less than as advertised’ is understating it quite substantially. I almost lost my wings on the walk in, Striker. My wings. After leaving for the Empire in the middle of the day with not a peep from any of my so-called friends to see me off, it would have been the cream on the cake of bucking terrible weeks.”
“Stalwart, we didn’t know!” Storm Striker protested defensively. “We weren’t told until our shifts that evening! Tartarus, who do you think coined in on the driver arriving at the station? One of Crescent Squad was doing his rounds in the station when he popped out of thin air and tried to act all cool. Took us a day to break the stallion, and we were setting up search groups when the letter from Princess Cadance arrived. I volunteered to join Princess Luna on this trip. Your parents are still being cleared through Canterlot customs, but at the rate those lot work they should be up here by the weekend.”
Stalwart grumbled. “At first I thought it was a joke, some stupidly elaborate prank orchestrated by Princess Luna and Prince Armour themselves just to poke fun at how far the Night Guard would be willing to be pushed before we snapped. Egg’s on my face, I live up here now.” He signed and waved dismissively at a Crystal Pony guard who gave him a look. “Not that I don’t like it, it’s just different. You try being uprooted and moved in a day without being told beforehand.” He said, managing to get the guard to look pensive before nodding.
“So, anyway, Stalwart; tell me about that… young lady you’re bunked with.”
“Ruby you mean?”
“That’s her. What in the name of Princess Celestia’s ruby boxer shorts is a Changeling doing out here, and why’re you living with her?”
With a sigh, Stalwart fixed Storm Striker a stern gaze. “Storm, you remember that enquiry that swept the nation at Princess Celestia’s order? That investigation into Changeling activity at select towns that went on for a week or so that the princess ordered?”
“… Yes?”
“Ruby Swift is the reason for that enquiry; she’s effectively here under Sanctuary from her Hive, which has orders to kill her on sight, according to her. She’s… had a rough life. I trust you saw how underfed she is? She’s been out of house and home for the last three months. Poor filly walked all the way up here because she couldn’t afford a train ticket.” He snorted faintly, “She had a coat to protect her from the blizzard we walked through, but she lost that before she got into the Empire proper. She almost starved to death on the throne room floor when she got here petitioning to have Princess Cadance and her husband put her out of her misery.”
Storm Striker gave him a confused look. “What’re you saying to me here, Stalwart?”
“She doesn’t live with me because I want her to, Striker, she lives with me because she has to. I’m practically her bodyguard. It’s like the Witness Protection program, only there is no foreseeable end. Tell me, were the doors locked when you left the house?”
“Not that I know of, sir.”
Stalwart sighed as they stepped into a balcony courtyard, where the craftwork that Ruby had made was waiting alongside a cart. “Alright, hitch this thing up onto the cart and then we’ll head down; I’ll just go find a Lieutenant to cover for me a little while.”
“Yes sir.”
With a deliberate pace, Stalwart stepped back into the castle and flagged down another guard, one of the few mares who held an overnight shift. “What’s your name and rank solider?”
“Lieutenant Emerald Shimmer, sir!” She barked in return, her face holding a stern expression that he found rather cute -ah, the perks of the job.
“Alright, Miss Shimmer;”
“Mrs, sir.”
He chuckled at her intrusion. “Not every captain would take interruptions lightly, but thank you for the heads up; I’m still getting through the personnel files. Now, Mrs Shimmer, I am headed out for a short while to check in on a safe-house civilian, I need you to ensure that anything that requires my attention is either queued or sent to me via gem-channel, got it?”
“How will I know the difference between them, sir?”
“If it needs my immediate attention, call me. If it can be postponed for a little while, instruct them to wait or petition the princess at their earliest convenience. If anything comes up within the ranks, I want it recorded and filed to my desk for future review, understood?”
“Understood, sir.”
“Oh, and one other thing; don’t file a boat-load of sexual abuse reports based on the behaviour that the boys may send you through, alright? Just write a list of names and place it with the folder on my desk marked ‘Internal Affairs.’ It’s magically sealed, so don’t try opening it or you’ll be bucked down the ranks so hard you’ll have a flat arse when you land.”
She chortled at the mental image. “Yes sir.”
He nodded to her and snapped a salute. “Alright, Lieutenant, carry on. I’ll come find you when I return.” He informed her before walking back out to the balcony where Storm Striker was buckled onto the carriage. How he’d managed to buckle himself up when it was a two pony job was beyond Stalwart, but it at least saved time.
Spreading his wings wide, he kicked into the air, flying a little away from the castle and waiting for Storm Striker to lift and join him. After a short wait for him to get close, Stalwart began to lead him to his home. It had taken a few days for Stalwart to commit to memory where his home was from the air, the Empire looked so different from above after all. It didn’t take very long for them to arrive at the building. Stalwart assisted Storm Striker in unbuckling from his carriage before walking to the building and trying the front door. After a quick jiggle of the handle it popped open, evidence that Ruby had not locked up the house. He sighed and waved Storm Striker in.
“C’mon, make yourself at home for a minute while I check on Ruby. If you hear the Princess at the door, get her a cup of coffee or tea in the living room.”
He stalked through the house to the second floor, knocking on the door to Ruby’s room. “Ruby, are you in there? It’s Stalwart; I came to check on you?” After a moment or two of no responses he clicked the door open and looked inside gingerly. He’d only done this once before, and she’d nearly yelled his ears off for breaking her privacy. In one corner an array of vials could be seen around a gas burner, her efforts into ‘mutating’ her tree seeds and saplings into faster-growing trees. It was rocky and dangerous business, but she’d managed to get a tree to age five weeks in one already, so she must have known what she was doing. Sadly, while there were books and bed, and even a marequin in a corner that she had hung her cloak on, there was no sign of Ruby.
He closed her door and checked the bathroom, knocking loudly and calling through the door, again earning no response. He couldn’t hear water running, so he knew she wasn’t in the shower, so he turned and tried other avenues.
His next destination was the kitchen, where he supposed she might be making dinner for herself. Instead all he found was a bare countertop and Storm Striker eyeing the cider in their fridge.
“Water, Lieutenant.” He hissed, fetching out the cooled pitcher. “You’re still on duty and I greatly doubt that Princess Luna will appreciate you drinking when you have a carriage to fly to the station. I am not filling out that paperwork.”
Storm Striker chuckled and poured himself a glass as Stalwart headed back through the house to his last ditch hope that he didn’t have to call a missing pony case, the basement. The door was ajar, and he gently nudged it open and called down. “Ruby, you down here?” When his call managed to get no response, he eased his way down the stairs, looking out into the basement proper.
All pretence of not startling her was thrown to one side when he saw her on her side, a broken training spear laying near her and her natural body armour covered in cracks and oozing blood. He looked her head and neck over, finding a large bruise on the back of her head where he assumed she had been struck, and he could hear her breathing in heavy strained wheezes.
“Oh by the moon and stars, Ruby! Ruby, wake up! Striker, call an emergency!”
Ruby coughed and opened her eyes faintly. Her eyes drifted up and looked into Stalwart’s face and she stretched a hoof out to him.
“St-Stalwart… the cabinet… in the corner;” She paused to heave in a breath, “Aid… kit.”
He hurried over to the cabinet and wrenched the door open, almost off its hinges, and pulled out the large red first aid kit, along with a pillow that he knew she had down here for if she wanted to rest for a short while without leaving the room. He paused when he returned to her side to place the pillow beneath her head before popping open the kit.
Her injuries were severe, he’d once seen this sort of beating when a flying pony had to crash land through a wooded area. No bones appeared to be broken, her chitin taking most of the beating for her, but she certainly had bruised lungs and a mild concussion.
Storm Striker came hurrying down into the basement and wordlessly took up place opposite Stalwart, taking some bandages and alcohol wipes and beginning to bandage the worse of her injuries.
“Stay awake, Ruby, help is on its way. Don’t talk too much; your breathing is laboured so lungs might be bruised.” Stalwart said calmly as they finished wrapping her. “Can you remember what happened, or who did this? Was it a Crystal pony?”
She shook her head faintly, groaning at the pain this action brought her, before pointing feebly at Storm Striker. “One… one of them… one of you, but like... him.”
“A bat pony?”
She nodded. “I thought… it was the princess… at first.” She wheezed, her eyes drooping slowly. “I… I want to sleep. So tired.”
“I know you’re tired, Ruby, but you need to stay awake until the medics get here, alright? You’ve been struck about the head and you have a concussion. You need to stay awake until they let you sleep, okay?”
“Okay...” She replied sleepily.
Stalwart glared across at Storm Striker angrily, but he only held his hooves up defensively. “Hey, don’t look at me like that; the Princess and Dizzy were still here when I left. I headed directly for the Castle, no stops and no delays. You know me, have I ever been the sort to do this kinda crap? Tartarus, I let my wife kick the hay outta me when she found out she was pregnant, despite it being her idea to have a foal.”
“Tell me about Dizzy, I’ve not heard of him before, and I was training some of you lot.”
“Dizzy Spin, Lieutenant second class, Princess Guard division, he got his posting because his father is one of them hoity-toity nobles in the Rise and he had leverage behind him.” He sighed faintly. “His dad’s a pompous jackass who backed an attempted petition to have the Changelings hunted down from within Equestria like vermin. And a petition to have Gryphons barred from Canterlot… and one to have Zebricans searched when they cross the borders… come to think of it, the only subgroup he hasn’t protested against are us.” Storm Striker said, scratching his chin at his last comment. “The dude swings his ‘noble rights’ around like Prince Blueblood the Pompous himself.”
Their ears twitched as loud knocking sounded from the front door, and Storm Striker hurried up the stairs to get it. He returned soon after with a couple of crystal ponies in medical uniforms with a large bag carried in one of their mouths. Close behind came Princess Luna, who had a worried look on her face that only became more worried when she saw the state that Ruby was in.
“What happened?”
Stalwart released Ruby into the custody of the medical ponies and stood, putting a hoof onto Storm Striker’s shoulder. “Stay here, report to me anything important. If they need to move her to the hospital, tell me; I am not coming back down here to find it empty, got it?”
“Sir.”
Stalwart turned his glare at the Princess and saluted before growling, “Your Highness, where is Dizzy Spin?”
The princess balked at his short and sharp tone before regaining her composure. “For what reason do you require him, Captain?”
He pointed back at Ruby’s prone form on the floor, the words of the medical ponies cutting the silence as they informed her that she was clear of any internal cranial damage and that she could finally rest, and he gave her the shortest look he could manage. “Questions.”
She nodded silently before sweeping back up the stairs, shifting a wing to indicate that she wanted him to tail her. For a short few moments they walked to the front door, and here she told him she wanted him to wait with a silent and minor shift of her wing before she stepped out, turned to her left, and -for lack of a better word- bellowed.
“Lieutenant Dizzy Spin, attention at once!”
Her words were not so much her voice causing the air to vibrate into audible and recognizable sound; rather it was like she had weaponized her lungs and throat into the most powerful hypersonic device imaginable. Dizzy Spin had, all at once, stood to attention, jumped a foot into the air, and fallen over like a fainting goat. Stalwart leaned back a bit in mild shock; he’d heard tales of the Royal Canterlot Voice from Storm Striker and Sunny Springs (that poor girl’s father, a Pegasus, had been blind, and therefore his taste in names was unnoticed by him as Sunny Springs is a horrid name for a bat pony with a black coat.) He’d heard that it had whipped up a storm, how it had made almost the entire town of Ponyville cower in their horseshoes as if she were Nightmare Moon once again.
She shifted her wing again, the signal that he was to come forth and do his duty by detaining his subordinate. With a steady and heavily restrained pace he stepped out into the early night and turned on the stallion who was struggling to stand to attention.
“Lieutenant, I have a question.” Stalwart began with, again, as much restraint as he could manage to muster.
“Yes, sir?”
Stalwart bared his teeth and bore down on him. “Who, in the name of Princess Luna’s moon, do you think you are?”
“… Sir?”
“Answer me!”
Dizzy Spin sighed. “Lieutenant second class Count Dizzy Spin, Princess Guard division; heir to the Highcollar estates-“
“Wrong!” Stalwart bellowed, cutting Dizzy Spin off rather abruptly. “You are a Royal Guard; name, title, social status, they all mean nothing once that uniform is about your coat! I don’t give a damn who you are when you’re at home with your mommy, here you’re bound to the rules for a damned good reason, you understand me, Lieutenant?!”
“Yes, sir.”
“So tell me why Miss Ruby Swift is currently lying in my basement, battered and bleeding, and telling me that one of us is responsible?”
“I don’t know what you-“
Stalwart pressed his nose against Dizzy’s. “Lie to me again, Lieutenant, and I’ll see if I can have a new rank created below private and cadet just for you;” He snarled, “A rank which will involve nothing but cleaning out the latrines in a lacy pink apron and a matching maid’s hat.”
“Captain, I believe that would be a bit demeaning.” Luna informed from behind him. “I mean, where would we ever find somepony with low enough self-esteem to make such a thing?”
“Y-you can’t just threaten me, I’ve done nothing wrong!” Dizzy protested. “And my father would never-“
“Your father has no say in Guard business, regardless of who he is.” Stalwart snarled. “I apologize, Princess, but I am about to say some rather uncouth things.”
“Go ahead; I have yet to hear all of the colourful language of this era. My sister tells me that there have been some improvements in the less than courtly words over the last thousand years.”
Stalwart chuckled. “I’d say,” he muttered before glowering at Dizzy Spin, “Your father is not here, and I couldn’t give a damn whose spawn you are, you little shit. You are a Royal Guard, you protect one of the most important ponies on the planet for a living, you protect Equestria for a living, and you spit on the honour of the Guard by thinking that your daddy can pull your worthless arse from the fire whenever you buck up. Well let me tell you something, cupcake, your daddy isn’t here. I am. Miss Ruby Swift has positively identified one of our kind, a bat pony, a thestral, as her assailant, and of the only three in the Empire at the moment, you are the only one who I both know nothing about and don’t know your movements after I left this residence. So you’d better have a really Celestia-damned good excuse, you son of a mule.”
“Clearly there is another thestral in the Empire you don’t know about.”
Stalwart’s eye twitched, and he looked back to the Princess. “Your highness, I request assistance in this matter before I beat this pompous little bastard into a crater and leave him for the city’s caretakers to scrape up.”
“Now see here, if you did your homework you would find that I am of a most prestigious stock, you’ll find no poor breeding-“
“Be silent, sergeant.” Luna hissed. “Captain, I would suggest you go inside and check on your charge. I will take over here.”
Stalwart nodded before giving Dizzy the dirtiest glare he could and snorting in his direction spitefully before stalking back inside with heavy, rage-draining hoofsteps.
“The hell is his problem?”
“Sergeant," she spat the word disdainfully, "when a guard is tasked with protecting a civilian, they become quite invested in the task. Failing such an assignment is a failure of the highest regard, and it has ended lower rank careers rather unceremoniously due to the ponies in question ‘retiring’. Tell me, sergeant, how he should feel that his assignment to protect Ruby Swift has been failed?”
“Like a useless-“
“Mind your words, sergeant, he is your superior officer and I have read far too many cases of guards with such assignments committing suicide over such failures; I doubt that he will be as drastic, however. Stalwart is too intelligent for such a thing. No, he has instead some very justifiable anger that the pony who has caused this fracas is not some civilian out for blood, but from within the guard itself clearly acting on some form of self-righteous vendetta.
“I may not know all the newest and most interesting cusses, sergeant, but I assure you that I will at least call you a mule. You… dare to assault a civilian while in uniform, and then act like nothing has happened? You dare to breach the faith and trust my sister and I have in the guard so you can assault a changeling? You dared lie to me about your intentions when you returned to the house before? The Captain was right when he said your father cannot help you, as you’ve done more than just break the law and assault a mare in her own home, you’ve besmirched the Night Guard’s reputation and lied to your Princess.” She snorted at him in disgust. “What say you, corporal?”
“They assaulted Canterlot! Threatened to take over Equestria! They made a mockery of the Royal Guard and Princess Celestia!”
“She was in Coltorado at the time, unaware of the actions of her kind.” Luna hissed. “We had a rather interesting investigation into it, actually, the result of which has sparked an internal investigation into the Royal Guard ranks. If she had been in Canterlot, she would most likely have been assaulted by those Changelings as our ponies were. When we get back to Canterlot, private, there will be a strict hearing on your actions and further disciplines will be inflicted should they be required. You will be sent back through training like a rookie because you acted beyond your station and don’t seem to understand your bounds.
“I will be having words with your father about his reach within the Guard, and they will be most unkind!” She almost shouted at him. “I am not afraid of the nobles, and I am not beyond stripping their position from beneath them. Do not think I am, is that understood, private?”
“W-wait up, you can’t just take my rank from me on a whim, who do you think you-” He managed before shoving a hoof over his own mouth.
“I am Princess Luna, co-ruler of Equestria, Regent of the Moon and Night Sky, commander in chief of the Night Guard.” She hissed. “I answer to only my sister, and she me. Don’t you dare question otherwise.
“Do I make myself clear, private?”
*
Stalwart returned to the basement door to find Storm Striker waiting for him, and the Lieutenant gave him a quick yet lazy salute as he approached.
“How is she, Striker?”
“She should be alright. They’ve done what they could and are waiting for you to guide them to her room so they can put her into bed for the night.” He said before sighing. “Dizzy really bucked up, I’ve never seen the princess this angry, not even when Philomena burned her bed into ashes.”
“That phoenix needs to learn who not to prank.” Stalwart grumbled in acknowledgement before brushing Storm Striker aside and opening the door to the basement. “You colts need me to guide you to her room? C’mon, let’s get moving.”
The two medical ponies carefully carried Ruby up the stairs and onto the first floor before following Stalwart through the house and up to Ruby’s second floor room. There they gently lay her on her bed, placed her thick blankets over her heavily bandaged form. They pull Stalwart back out into the hall and close the door to her room.
“She’s to get plenty of rest for at least three days.” One said quietly. “She’s taken quite a beating, though much of it is relatively superficial. Her natural armour seems to have taken most of the blows, but she has managed to get minor damage to her left lung and her windpipe. She is not to exert herself, and if she wants to use her magic to do any woodcarving in the basement, as we assume that is her workshop, she is to wear this.” He held out a cloth face-mask for Stalwart to take. “Sawdust will not help her internal injuries.”
“Thank you for getting here so quickly. I’ll see to it that the fee for this is taken care of out of Guard responsibilities.”
The two medics nodded and wordlessly left the house, returning to where they had come from, most likely the hospital on Aquamarine Avenue. Stalwart grumbled and pressed his head against her door.
“You’re a lot of trouble, kid.”
“She has her more fussy side, I must agree.” Luna’s voice called from the stairs. “But I doubt that this will continue for too much longer, ripples upon ponds eventually settle. Now, Captain, I believe I owe you a debt; come with me.”
Wordlessly he followed her through the house and out into the back yard, where the beehive that Ruby had built was being set up by Storm Striker. He was currently sliding the last of the hoof-made and carved frames into place. The wood around the lattice was exquisitely carved with minute detail, everything coated in something to keep rain from ruining it. The main hive was painted a midnight blue with a large white crescent moon carved and painted onto the front. What etching and scrollwork was on it was painted in careful strokes of silver paint; the whole thing looked fit for the royal apiaries.
“I commissioned Ruby Swift to craft it not telling her what it would ultimately be for,” the princess began, “her work is rather stunning if I say so myself. You should find a box of ready-to-hive bees with the Lieutenant.”
At the mention of his rank, Storm Striker blinked and took a wooden box from his armour and held it at hoof’s length now that he knew it was full of bees. Stalwart sighed and stepped over, gently taking the box from him and opening it before pouring its contents into the open beehive and closing the lid. “They’re asleep, Striker. Magic boxes like this have been used for centuries for transferring bees. They go to sleep in the box and will wake up with the next sunrise. They’ll wake up, place their queen in a safe place, and then establish a hive. I’ll have to make some sugar water for them quickly if I don’t want them to starve…”
“The keeper who sold us the bees actually gave us a bottle.” The princess said as she procured the so-named bottle of nectar. “While I am unsure as to its actual function, I’m certain that you know what to do with it.”
Stalwart nodded and took the bottle, moving over to the house and finding a stray nail in a toolbox and using it to poke small holes into the lid. He looked about, then finally at the beehive, before grumbling faintly and placing the bottle down on a windowsill.
“My feeder is in the attic, I’ll have to fetch it down later.” He said before bowing. “Thank you, princess.”
“No thanks are needed, Stalwart Drone,” she replied with a dismissive wave of her hoof, “I am merely repaying a debt. Now, unless there is any other business to attend to, I believe that I shall take my leave. Storm Striker, fetch your subordinate from the front of the house; I believe you’ll find him strapped into the cart on which you brought this apiary. We shall walk to the station; the night is young, and that stallion has much demeaning to endure before we are through with him.”
Storm Striker gave a chuckle that the princess did not seem to mind in any way before he saluted to her and hopped into flight, soaring over the roof of the house.
“Thank you for taking over that unfortunate incident earlier, Princess.” Stalwart said as she spread her wings. “Any longer and I may have done something unbecoming.”
She gave him a wry grin. “As you say, Captain; it was our duty to see to your subordinate’s unruly behaviour, and I believe his father wouldn’t want him alive after this fiasco; it’ll be a nice stain on his noble family name.”
“You have it out for the nobles, if you don’t mind me saying so, your highness.”
“Few are what they should be; the Sparkle and Fire households in the minority of actually noble families. The rest have become greedy with power and the lax eye that my sister had over them has given them much more than they deserved. They are steadily finding that I am not so forgiving or naïve as they thought I was when I returned.” She grinned spitefully. “If Prince Blueblood hadn’t tried to get us to allow him to privatize the medical systems for Equestria, we may have never noticed how weedy they had all become. This will be but the first of them that topple from their own self-righteousness.”
Stalwart bowed to her. “As you say, Princess Luna; I shall see to having two guards sent down to watch the front and back doors of this building for added security for the night, should you approve.”
She nodded. “Please do, and say hello to my niece and nephew for me. That will be all, Captain; goodnight.”
He watched her fly over the house before sighing and stepping back inside, locking the back door behind him before going to check on Ruby. He found her still asleep in her bed, having not moved since he had gone outside, and he left her where she lay. His only other stop was the attic, where he recovered his beekeeping tools, almost all of which he left in his room.
He strolled out the front door, making sure to lock it behind himself, before flying over the house and affixing the bottle of sugar water to a feeder he had taken from his tools and placing it in a likely looking spot on the hive. After one last look at his home to ensure that all was well and he hopped into the air, flying back towards the castle.
How he hoped that Emerald Shimmer hadn’t made a mess of the rank and file while he had been gone.
Green magic swam around the twelve foot tall tree, clipping branches away and letting them pile down around the trunk. This magic, an almost violent green, contained sparks which appeared more like embers from a campfire than the usual small sparkles that unicorn magic gave off. The owner of the magic being a female Changeling was most likely what caused what Twilight Sparkle would be calling an ‘interesting anomaly’.
The tree split into four two-foot long logs and a four-foot log, each individual log levitating over to a cart just outside the back door to the abode that she shared with a Thestral guard who was watching her from the doorway itself. He’d been given leeway to do as much work as he needed from home to ensure that his charge –her- was protected from those who might do her harm. Besides watching her and ensuring that she didn’t hurt herself, he was currently waiting for the arrival of his lieutenants and day-guard compatriot, so that he could go over the week’s meeting.
Since Ruby had been assaulted, by a fellow guard no less, Stalwart had been sure to keep an eye on her as closely as he could without being intrusive. She was still showing some late symptoms of her severe beating, and he was making absolutely sure that she didn’t overexert herself or agitate her still-healing injuries. Being as underfed as she still was she would likely be healing for a good while yet.
Said Changeling turned to the pile of branches and leaves she had left in the wake of her wood-cutting and magically lifted most of the pile off to a wood storage shed that had been installed during the days she had been bedridden. It was for when winter finally fell, as even the magic of the Crystal Heart would not get in the way of natural seasons, and the branches could be used for kindling or minor fuel for the fireplace in the living room.
As her magic moved to engulf the remaining pile of loose twigs, sticks, leaves and branches, one of the guard, the day captain himself Captain Dawn Guard announced his arrival by yelling across the back yard to them. Naturally, as she had not expected the yell, Ruby’s magic jolted around the wood she was lifting when she gave a jump and startled yelp.
The bundle, now glowing eerily all on its own, moved.
“Oh no, not again…” She mumbled to herself sadly as the wood snapped and splintered, rearranging itself into a familiar shape which bounded towards her gleefully.
“Miss Ruby, are you alright?” Stalwart asked as he moved towards her. The bouncing animated wooden creature growled at him protectively before he stopped just short of being within hoof’s reach.
“I-I’m fine, Stalwart; he startled me is all.” She replied dismally while waving at Dawn Guard.
“Is that what I think it is..?”
She smiled up at him sheepishly as the little animated bundle playfully batted at a loose piece of gauze hanging from her neck, which was still bandaged from her beating. “If you think it’s a timberwolf pup then yes, it is.” She said nervously. “I’ve not made one by accident in years, and even when I did they were easy enough for me to undo, but I’m still feeling unwell from my head injury and I don’t want to risk trying. I could do something really, really bad.”
Stalwart Drone eyed the pup critically. “Timberwolves are predatory though, why is it so… friendly?”
She sighed. “Timberwolves are created the same way that I made this little bundle of sticks. Magic can do some pretty silly things when it surges. I’ve never let one get away from me, and most wild Timberwolves are descendants of ones like this little menace here having been turned loose by the original creator’s passing.” She grabbed the timberwolf by its back leg with her magic and lifted it into the air. “This little pest will be about as loyal as the Element of Loyalty herself until I can dispel it.”
“How do you keep it fed?” Stalwart asked, nosing towards it critically.
Ruby huffed at him. “It’s a plant, Stalwart. You fertilize it. Any fertilizer would do; other than that it just needs water and sunlight. I don’t advise us keeping it, really. They make for terrible pets because ponies can only see the beast and not the magic. As I said, I've not made one in years, and even when I did it was a better idea to dispel it than keep it. The ponies in town would have gone bananas if I had a timberwolf hanging around.” She shuddered faintly. “Coltorado had a field day when they turned against me, I can’t imagine what they would have done if I’d had a timberwolf companion; probably have burned it alive.” She hissed as the pup flailed about wildly and managed to hit her chest rather hard, aggravating her already tender injuries.
“I don’t think we can let you ‘undo’ it, ma’am,” the day guard captain commented from across the yard, “Technically it’s a living creature now. You’d be killing it, and the killing of a perfectly healthy passive creature without authority is inhumane and illegal.”
Ruby sighed and looked down at the excited and hyperactive pup irritably as it writhed in her magic to gnaw on its own paw. “I can’t just give it away, it’d come right on back the next day; I should know, I’ve tried.” She groaned. “You sure you want me to keep this little pest, Stalwart? Ah, stop that!” She snapped this last bit at the pup as it managed to collide with her again, the pseudo-canine stopped dead at her shout and began giving her what she thought was the creepiest puppy-dog-eyes ever.
“It’ll need some obedience training, but I’ve no problem with you owning a pet, particularly if it’s one that is as loyal as you suggest.” Stalwart said, stepping closer and poking the quiet yet curious creature of wood and twigs. “How would you advise we feed it? Fertilizer from the same place you got your trees?”
Ruby huffed and let the pup go. “That stuff smells, Drone; but if you’re really so interested in having this little pest as a pet, we have to feed it I suppose. High carbohydrate fertilizer with supplements from other sources would be best, as it’s sort of a tree and he’ll need lots of energy. I’ll have to check what they have myself to see if I can find something that would suit a plant like this, we may have to make our own.”
It was about now that Stalwart Drone, in a case of either total brainwave or confusion, asked a question which made Ruby stop all thought processes. “What gender is it even?”
She blinked at him for a moment. “Genderless.” She said confusedly. “It’s a plant; technically it’s both. It’ll flower once or twice during the spring, should give your bees something to do.” She looked down at the pup in a way that made it tilt its ears back. “But we are not having any offspring, so if it gets a gender it’d better both flower and do nothing or become a fruit-bearer; I am not handling any future pups.”
“Flower, huh? I suppose we can just call it female and assume that it’ll behave with some training?”
Ruby huffed. “It’ll do what I tell it to, basically; magical constructs typically obey commands.” She grumbled, glaring daggers at the timberwolf as if daring it to argue. “And if it doesn’t become the calmest and most obedient living stack of twigs, leaves, and sticks, then I’ll clip its flowers.” She groaned for a second after saying this, her throat protesting her continued use of her voice.
At her threat the wooden wolf cringed and nodded, shying away from her slightly.
The trio of equines –and one wooden wolf- all jolted when a shout came across the yard. “What in Equestria is a timberwolf doing all the way out here?!”
Captain Shining Armour hurried across the yard and lifted it in a bubble of magic, glaring daggers at the diminutive predator.
After a short and uncomfortable pause, Ruby found her tongue. “Y-your highness, she’s mine.” She managed to stutter. “I-I made her by accident.”
He gave Ruby a critical look. “You created a timberwolf?”
She nodded meekly. “They’re magical constructs; it’s something that just… happens. Ponies that use magic to manage tree trimmings and have a magic surge do it from time to time, though their creation is extremely rare these days... I don’t want to risk dispelling her, either; last time I tried that with stunted magic, the timberwolf sort of… exploded. I had spots in my eyes for days.” At this she coughed and levitated a glass of water from a table just outside the house over to take a long drink.
Shining Armour looked at the pup critically before lowering it to the ground and releasing it. “Very well, Miss Ruby, I’ll leave its care to you. Be sure to have it registered and tagged.”
Ruby chuckled. “She’s unlikely to want to leave my side ever, your highness. And other than potentially running off, which is a non-issue as she won’t, the only threat is theft, and who in their right mind would steal a timberwolf?”
The prince nodded. “You’ve got a point there; then again, who in their right mind would want a timberwolf for a pet?”
“I wanted to remove the spellwork that brought it to life,” she grumbled, “Stalwart insisted that I keep her, blame him.”
The prince nodded. “Very well, Miss Ruby, you may keep it.” He said calmly. “Ensure that it is licensed and kept control of; keep in mind that the guard will not protect a pet which has become violent, especially not a timberwolf.”
With a bow, Ruby replied. “Thank you, Prince Shining Armour.” She said before coughing faintly. She turned to Stalwart. “I need to go into town to get her some feed; since you won’t be able to escort me as you did yesterday for our trip to the castle, will it be possible for a guard to accompany me?”
“Take mine,” Shining Armour said before Stalwart could respond, “While I’m not supposed to be without a guard accompanying me, I’ll be within this building with the night, shadow, and day guard captains and their lieutenants, so I’m sure I can spare a corporal to accompany you.” He turned his head to the crystal pony guard standing just beyond the backyard’s edge, where the grass met polished marble sidewalk. “Tourmaline, get over here!”
Meekly the guard walked over, clearly giving Ruby and her young companion a wide berth, and saluted the prince.
“Corporal Tourmaline, this is Miss Ruby Swift; Miss Ruby, this is one of my guards, Corporal Tourmaline. She was selected for me as a Shadow Guard by my wife, and she will be accompanying you through town.” He turned to look at the crystal pony critically. “Corporal, for now you’re to follow Miss Ruby.”
“Sir, I don’t understand why?” Tourmaline voiced curiously.
Stalwart cleared his throat. “Miss Ruby is under guard protection, however she has no guards of her own; normally I would be accompanying her into town, but I am required here for this meeting. As such, you will be going with her to keep her from being abused by anypony, as well as to ensure that the opposite does not happen.” He gave Ruby an apologetic glance. “While we trust you, Miss Ruby, we are unsure about your love-feeding instincts, as well as the instincts of your new companion. Keep her on close watch, understood?”
Ruby nodded mutely, and then nudged the wooden dog with a hoof to get her attention. “Come on you bundle of sticks, we’re going for a walk.” She sighed when the beast gave a noise of glee and began hopping around her excitedly. “Yes, yes, this is all very fun. Let’s go.”
As she walked out of earshot, Shining Armour gave Stalwart Drone a strange look. “She’s almost rude to it, isn’t she..?”
“I don’t think she likes that she’s made it, sir.” The captain replied. “I’m not sure I should have pressured her into keeping it, either… I can’t protect her all the time, though-”
“So you thought that it could prove itself as a kind of guard dog and make your life easier?” Shining Armour interrupted with a grin. “You prove yourself captain material more and more every day.”
*&*&*&*
Ruby, Tourmaline, and the timberwolf wandered through the glittering empire, headed towards the market district. For what she was worth, Tourmaline tried to ignore the bouncing bundle of wood and energy as it explored its new surroundings. It wandered over to a fountain and took a quick drink of the glittering water within before returning to following its master, several leaves sprouting from its shoulders, ears, and tail. Now it rustled as it bounced, and it was slowly becoming very irritating.
The sound soon halted when Ruby and the timberwolf stopped outside of a garden store. The changeling appeared to be talking to the timberwolf sternly for some reason, but Tourmaline wasn’t particularly paying attention, content to survey the crowd. There were some interesting residents within the market district today. A gryphon mother and her chick entering the toy store across the road, a pair of Pegasus ponies looking about the fruit market next door to the garden store they were at, a group of mixed ponies following a tall blonde-maned white-coated unicorn stallion glaring at and approaching her charge-
Oop, that was important wasn’t it?
“Might I help you, citizens?” She asked, stepping between the group and Ruby.
“You could arrest that changeling for a start.” The unicorn snapped, to which several others agreed.
She sighed. “This changeling is a citizen of Equestria and cannot be arrested without due cause.”
“Due cause? How about the invasion of Canterlot?” The stallion sneered.
“I’m sorry, sir, but I cannot arrest her. If you have issue with this, please feel free to bring it up with Princess Cadance at your convenience. I must ask you to move along, thank you.”
She then turned and followed her charge into the gardening store, the timberwolf bouncing alongside its master dutifully, still rustling like a tree in a gale. The trio wandered through the store to the organic fertilizers, of which a bag was slung over her back. She found herself thankful for her armour, really. A little further to get a large mixing bucket with a solid, sealable lid and a container of supplement plant nutrition were collected by her changeling charge and held on to until they paid and left the store.
A small walk later and they arrived at a stand selling herb bundles, at which Ruby purchased a large bundle of mint. One last jaunt through the area led them to a small registration stand, one of several set up across the Empire to ease the travel on those with young pets, and she had the timberwolf registered and a tag issued, which was literally stapled to the pup’s ear like an oddly-shaped ear stud. A complimentary pair of food and water dishes were handed to the changeling, and she thanked them before leaving the stand.
They then turned tail and headed back to the house from which they had come. Ruby seemed to be trying to appear small, almost cowering the whole way back home. She was limping slightly when they finally entered the back yard, and she took the bag of fertilizer from Tourmaline and placed it by the back door before wandering inside, taking the small timberwolf with her.
Tourmaline was a little confused at her behaviour; was she… afraid of being in public? She supposed so, having a basic understanding of what had led the changeling mare to the Crystal Empire in the first place. Heck, she had been in the hall of court the day that she’d arrived.
She followed Ruby into the house and found her down in the basement, applying polish to a group of wooden practice spears with a brush and a mask over her mouth and nose. Her pup was snuffling about the floor, snapping up chips of wood as she found them and gobbling them down as if they were the most delectable treat imaginable.
‘She works to relax.’ Tourmaline thought as she observed the changeling put a lid on the bucket of polish and stow it away in a cupboard. ‘Well, there are worse things to relax with.’
She turned back through the house to where she could hear the guard’s higher-ups conversing. She knocked on the door and waited for a response.
“Come in.”
She pushed the door open and stepped in. “It’s just me, sir. We've returned from town just now.”
The ponies at the table, which she noticed was covered in paperwork, all looked amongst one another as if wondering who would give her orders. Finally it was Stalwart Drone who answered.
“Very good, corporal; get comfortable and make yourself at home, but do keep an ear out for trouble.” He said firmly across the room. “Miss Ruby may require assistance, as she has yet to recover fully from both her injuries and her malnourishment, so please keep an eye on her.”
She snapped a salute and barked, “Yes, sir,” before closing the door and moving through the house to what appeared to be a family room, near enough to the basement for her to hear Ruby Swift if she shouted out for aid, but far away from the dining room enough to avoid hearing anything that the higher in command were discussing. She slid a book she had discreetly hidden within her armour out onto the couch cushion in front of her and flipped it open to the page her bookmark held for her.
“Now, Mr Long, where were we?” She mumbled to herself as she returned to reading the novel she was certain that her captain would be most displeased she had with her.
*
Ruby turned the spear she had resting atop a bed of nails for polishing so that the polish would dry smoothly –she would need to sand it down a little and re-polish it at least once more before she was done, but for now she could leave it be. The timberwolf had settled her snuffling and eating of wooden chips and scraps from across the floor having died down when she’d finished polishing half of the spears she had on the nail bed before her. Now the wooden dog lay resting on the floor beside her, the leaves she had sprouted having all curled up to conserve energy that would be otherwise wasted as no solar light reached her down here.
She had been surprised that Stalwart hadn’t pressed the point on how she knew what the timberwolf would be like, or how to care for it. She was thankful for it, too, as she didn’t particularly want to go into detail.
It would be hard to explain that she had owned a timberwolf in the past.
That wolf hadn’t lasted long, sadly; she’d only had it just under a year before the ponies from town had found it and hunted it down, tearing it apart piece by piece until the magic had faded and it was truly and utterly dead. They hadn’t known that it was tame; they had just assumed that, as a timberwolf, it had been feral and dangerous.
Oh yes, herbivores could be just as dangerous when faced with a purposed threat… she would know, she supposed.
After nudging the pup back up from where it lay, she walked back through the house to the back yard. To others she was walking fine; but neither she nor her new timberwolf were fooled by the act she put on. Walking hurt, and she was limping ever so faintly as she moved.
She pushed out into the bright sunlit back yard and moved the mixing bucket over to where a garden hose lay in wait for future use- not that she would be putting it to any right now. She then tore open the fertilizer bag and poured its contents into the bucket, followed by the large amount of mint she’d bought. The mint had no nutritional value for her wolf, but it should keep her breath from becoming too rank from her food. Letting her gnaw on a hardwood branch or two would help as well.
She took a large sturdy branch from the pile she had moved earlier and used it to stir the mixture, which began to at smell a little better than before. With the bone meal powder mixed in, she hoped that it would at least not reek badly when her wolf ate some.
Having finished mixing, she then snapped the branch in half and tossed the messy end to her wooden companion, who took to it like the stick were a gift from some sort of deity. The lid clicked into place on the bucket and after filling one of the bowls with water and placing it near the back door, she sat down to watch her wolf devour her treat.
The wolf had grown leaves from almost every vantage point she had, and they were wide and facing the sun as she all but inhaled the treat.
Today threatened to be a long, boring day.
*&*&*&*
Prince Blueblood tromped through the Crystal Palace with his head held high, not even wasting a dismissive glance on guards or servants in the halls. It wasn’t like they were worth his attention.
He reached the double-doors to the hall in which his adopted cousin held court over the Crystal Empire and spoke with the receptionist, a pretty mare that he wiggled his eyebrow at before taking his seat. Court was quiet today, and he would be able to see his cousin within a few minutes.
The receptionist hurried into the hall when the next petitioner swap occurred and whispered into the princess’s ear who was outside waiting for her. A momentary scowl crossed her face before she regained her regal smile and thanked the receptionist; she would handle this pain in the flank when it came.
Sadly the petitioner who was between her and her cousin only wished her to grace his Crystal Rose Wine with a taste and accept a gift of a bottle, which she humbly accepted and allowed one of her guards to take for her –one cannot just give edibles to a royal after all; it must be tested for potential hazards first. One could never be too careful.
Finally, with a respectful bow, the petitioner left the room and Princess Candance was left with the headache that was to come. She had a feeling she knew what her cousin would want, but he could be utterly unpredictable at times and assuming things with him left her open to surprise –a weakness he would exploit to the hilt.
Finally the doors opened and Prince Blueblood saunters in with the accompanying rhythm of hoof steps following him across the polished crystalline floor. Well, saunter was a kind word for his movement; Blueblood was a noble, and like all nobles with more power than brains –or possibly more teeth than brain cells in her opinion- he considered himself the most important pony in the room. As such, he didn’t saunter as much as swagger.
It wasn’t like she needed to be impressed by him, but she’d known him long enough to know that he could out-swagger the best of them.
She forced a smile to grace her lips, though she was gritting her teeth beneath them. “Cousin Blueblood, what an unexpected surprise.” She forced herself to say cheerfully, though within her own head she continued with ‘and an unwanted one.’ “Welcome to the Crystal Empire; what do you wish of the crown?” She then sighed audibly. “And please know that I am not here as somepony you can just use to step around Auntie Celestia’s rulings. If she has said no, I will say no.”
“Of course, Cadance,” Blueblood replied suavely, earning a disapproving glance from several guards, “No, today I bring dire news; a short while ago my colleagues and I encountered a changeling in the streets. After pointing it out to a nearby guard –who was of no help whatsoever- the creature was left free to roam. I believe you may wish to have the guard reprimanded or punished for disobeying simple orders involving dangerous threats to Equestria, as well as apprehend the monster so it can be removed.”
Cadance held her voice to respectable tones when she probed for more information. “Blueblood, did said guard say anything about the creature when you ‘pointed it out’ to them?”
Blueblood scoffed. “Foalish mare said something about the cur being an Equestrian citizen, but surely that is nonsense; such a monster would never be sheltered by-“
“Silence.”
Cadance had spoken not in a shout or with any anger behind it, but with such conviction and firmness that Blueblood had no choice but to heed the command.
“Guard, to me.”
Again, an issued command had been given and the guard in turn had responded. One she had been looking at sternly moved across the room and bowed to her before speaking. “Yes, my Princess?”
“Gem-channel to Stalwart Drone and request the movements of his charge for the last few hours immediately.”
“Yes, Princess.” The guard replied, turning away from the throne and heading into a side-room. Cadance turned to look down on her cousin sternly.
“It’s quite weighty what you have come to me with, Blueblood. It could mean the difference between a court marshal and dismissal and an Empire-wide changeling hunt, and a potential innocent being harassed for nothing.” She stated firmly, thoroughly enjoying the fact that he looked angry that she would speak at him as if he were but a common pony. “How has Canterlot been treating you since we left?” She asked, not really caring for an answer. She knew that if she didn't create some form of small talk then he would.
Blueblood seemed to chew his lip as if wondering if being snippy would be worth the trouble. “Auntie Celestia still kowtows to the demands of the common ponies while refusing my perfectly reasonable requests.” He said dismissively to which Cadance huffed internally. His ‘perfectly reasonable requests’ usually amounted to some outrageous demand that ‘common ponies’, which for him meant anypony that wasn’t a member of the royal family, would end up paying for or suffering because of and would serve only to inflate his already bloated ego. “And Auntie Luna has been too busy seeing to the affairs of some Guard she sent on a special assignment to find time to attend the soirees I’ve arranged for her to meet my companions.”
Cadance nodded, fighting off the need to rub her temple to soothe the headache she could feel growing beneath. Such an action would be seen by her cousin as offensive and rude and would open her up to a whole barrage of nonsense she didn’t have the pain tolerance to, well, tolerate.
Thankfully she was saved of any more awkward small talk when the guard returned and strode up to her throne and gave a salute. “Princess, I have a report;” he stated with a professional firm tone, “Captain Stalwart Drone has reported that upon the arrival of your husband, Prince Shining Armour, his charge wished to go for a short jaunt to the Market District to manage some errands pertaining to her new pet, a tame timberwolf pup which the Prince has sanctioned she may keep. She was accompanied by corporal Tourmaline of the Shadow Guard who, upon questioning, reported being accosted by a stallion matching Prince Blueblood’s description.”
Cadance smiled to him and dipped her head. “Thank you, sergeant; you may resume your post.”
After another salute, the sergeant returned to his position in the hall. Cadance then turned her gaze upon her adoptive cousin.
“Blueblood, I must request you to drop your complaints.”
“But Cadance!”
She held up a hoof to stem off his argument. “The changeling you have accosted is a citizen of Equestria under protective watch to ensure that she is not assailed by other citizens or her own kind. While my husband and I are both still suspicious of her, as would be expected of anypony who was the target of abuse as severe as what her kind did, we are reasonably comfortable that she is of no harm. She even provides wooden training tools for the Empire’s trainee guards, and my husband is overseeing their quality upon every shipment.”
Blueblood gave her a disgusted look, to which the guards nearby scowled angrily. “How can you tolerate that thing in the Empire? It could be an advanced spy, or an insurgent waiting for you to let your guard down!”
Cadance chuckled dismissively. “I hardly imagine that a trained spy or insurgent would live in Equestria for most of her life only to be driven out of her home and left to die in the wilderness.” She said. “I also doubt that such a solider would come to the ponies that they intend to plot against, starved and fatigued, and beg to be put out of their misery. Can we tolerate her to remain in the Empire? Yes, because she seems to have nowhere else to go, and we are certain that we can handle a single changeling. Do we trust her? To a degree; past hurts make truly trusting her almost impossible, but we shall give her the benefit of the doubt until she does something to break any trust we have.
“We, also, have her under constant guard –at least as of a few days ago in any case. So far she has been a model citizen, even under her peculiarities and the persecution she is under wherever she goes. I must ask you, also, to not spread this information to the masses beyond the Empire, for the safety of said changeling.” She smiled at the shocked look on her cousin’s face, imagining the chewing out he’d get once he brought this all to their aunt’s attention in his own way. “Now, if there is nothing further you request of the Crystal Empire, I bid you a good afternoon.”
Her cousin huffed and left, his hooves clattering against the crystalline floor loudly before the doors closed unceremoniously behind him. Cadance clapped a hoof against the floor firmly. “I request a short recess, unless there are no further partitioners.”
“None on list, your highness.” The receptionist replied curtly. “I believe that this was to be a short day in any case upon your request.”
“Thank you, Amber Scroll, after records have been filed for this day’s court, feel free to take the day off yourself.” She said with a friendly smile. Her hoof clapped the crystal floor beneath her again. "I call this session of the Crystal Court closed." She announced. Her eyes then turned on the orange coated and blue maned Pegasus guard standing alert just inside the door, one of her husband’s hoof-selected lieutenants Flash Sentry. “Lieutenant Flash Sentry, please accompany me through town.”
He saluted to her. “Yes, your highness.” He snapped, before following her step. “If I might, what are we headed out into the Empire for? I assume you selected me for flight, but I cannot imagine much other purpose to head out of the castle.”
She chuckled, “You don’t imagine I would like to have a relaxing flight after handling my cousin’s outburst?” She asked playfully. “You’re right though, I do have a purpose. I need to see my husband.
The changeling struggled to breathe as she lay in her bed on her back, her sleep punctured only with wheezing breaths; at the foot of her bed, the pile of wood that consisted of her canine companion slept on peacefully. Relying on sunlight for much of her energy as she was, in essence, a quadrupedal plant, the timberwolf fell into what could be considered a coma once the sun went down.
Still, Stalwart admitted to himself as he observed the comatose canine, Maple was kind of cute while she slept. Still, he couldn’t just leave Ruby struggling to breathe as she was; he’d been told about her difficulty breathing by one of his corporals, and he’d found time to stop by the palace medical wing to talk with one of the staff on duty, who had informed him to gently turn her.
Stealthily he crossed the floor between the door and her bed, and with as much care as he could he rolled her onto her right side. Sure enough, once positioned she shifted in the bed to get more comfortable and her breathing evened out, changing from wheezing, almost pained breaths to slightly raspy yet much cleaner breathing.
Smiling at a job well done, Stalwart crept out of her room as stealthily as he had entered. He closed her door with the faintest of clicks before nodding at the crystal pony that had waited outside patiently.
“Thanks for informing me of that, corporal; I’ll talk with her about it when I return home after sunrise.”
“Yes, sir,” the guard replied somewhat stoically, “I feel that I need to inform you that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard her breathing difficulties during the night, sir…”
“Oh?”
The guard nodded, “I heard her breathing difficulties three nights ago, and then the next night; I must have caught her having difficulties just before she shifted in her sleep into a more comfortable position.”
Stalwart nodded, “Alright, thank you for telling me; I’ll have a chat with her about it in the morning.” He said, before saluting idly with his wing, “Carry on, Facet.”
“Yes sir.”
Stalwart dawdled back through his home, slowing only to scoop up the paperwork that he had left on the kitchen table with his wing; a captain’s job is never done it seemed. He idly looked through them, bill, bill, a report about Prince Blueblood’s visit, a report about when Princess Cadance came to his home to talk with her husband and meet Maple… The next one made him pause and stare, reading through the report with barely contained dread.
Oh, dear, this wouldn’t be a fun weekend.
*&*&*&*
He’d been given the weekend off, courtesy of Princess Cadance herself, Ruby was down in the basement carving yet another practice weapon, and the timberwolf was chasing bees in the backyard. She’d flowered already, surprising only Stalwart, and Ruby had spent a few minutes discussing a few aspects of their wooden companion with him that could be changed.
For instance, the colour of the nectar that her flowers contained could be changed to whatever colour they wanted. Through a little negotiation, it was decided that she would go with blue.
The colour of the sugar that the bees consumed, in this case nectar, would correlate to the colour of the honey they produced. With a different coloured honey came an opportunity to have a unique product that they could sell through novelty. The first batch, due to likely be ready in a week or so, would be gifted to Princess Cadance, if only to see the look on her face at receiving blue honey.
Still, he had spent the whole day so far cleaning and finding ways to lock down the house and pretend there was nopony home, and had managed to avoid having to tell Ruby why exactly by way of either distraction or a tried and tested method that ponies had honed over the years: lying.
Eventually the moment he had been dreading the entire day arrived, and he almost yelped when he heard the front door knock. This was followed by hushed voices, some scuffing of hooves on his doorstep, and then another knock at the door.
He sighed sadly as the ponies knocked a third time, knowing he was unlikely to avoid this encounter if he just hid long enough, and unlocked the front door, swinging it open only to have a thestral mare with a dark blue mane attach herself to his face by way of vigorous hugs designed either to convey affection or to crush him.
His parents had come to visit.
“Stalwart, how lovely to see you,” the mare with a bunch of roses cutie mark currently attempting to crush his head chimed, “You don’t write enough!”
Stalwart sighed, giving up on attempting to pry her loose, “Hello to you as well, mom; could you let go, it’s hard to breathe.”
The elder thestral mare released him and wandered into the house, “This is the thanks I get for years of love and dedication… Oh, your house is clean; did you sleep at all today? I'm not sure we have the right house...”
The stallion that Stalwart recognized had his father’s shaggy purple mane and cogwheel cutie mark laughed. “Sorry about that, you know how she gets.” He said, “It’s been a while, how’ve you been?”
“Oh, you know, the usual;” Stalwart replied, leading his father through the house into the living room, “reports, training, promotions…”
“To captain of the guard no less!” His mother piped up from where she sat, bouncing in her seat, “You make me so proud!”
Stalwart’s father nudged him, “Your mother has been talking about that non-stop the whole way here.” He said through his teeth, “it’s gotten kinda annoying.”
Stalwart sighed, “Sorry, dad, but it’s not like that’s something I can control. She's your wife, you do something about it.”
“Stalwart?” Ruby’s voice echoed from beneath the house, “Is there somepony here?”
The eyes of his father and mother shifted to the floor, then one another, and then to their son, each grinning in a manner that sent a shiver down his spine. “Who was that?” His father asked curiously, before his mother piped up as all mothers do.
“My young man has a mare?! By Princess Luna’s glorious moon, why didn’t you say something, or write to us?!” She hopped off the couch and once again attached herself to his face by way of hug, “Oh, is the pretty? Or smart? Oh! Oh! Is she an earth pony, or a unicorn? A pegasus? Ooh, did my colt get a thestral?!”
“Mom, you’re hurting me.”
“Stalwart, are you in here? Do you have guests?” Ruby asked as she stepped into the living room, stopping abruptly and staring at the two thestral ponies who stared back in shock. Ruby took a step back, “I… I’ll just… yeah…” She mumbled, before fleeing back out of the room.
The silence that followed her swift departure was the kind of silence that would be not talked about for decades. It was thick and awkward and hung around like a bad smell, and slowly the eyes of Stalwart’s parents turned on their son.
“Stalwart, was that a changeling?” His father growled.
“What is a changeling doing in your house, young stallion?”
Stalwart grimaced and turned his head, “Uh... stuff?”
“Stalwart…”
“Dad..?”
“You are, if my ears have not lied to me recently, the captain of the night guard in the Crystal Empire, correct?”
“… Yes?”
“Then what in the seven layers of Tartarus are you doing with a changeling in your house?!”
“You’re not dating it, are you?” His mother asked threateningly.
“What, her? No!”
She nodded, “Good, then we can have this all settled by going to Princess Cadance and reporting it; it’ll be out of your house and in a dungeon where it belongs by nightfall.”
Stalwart sighed, “Mom, she’s here on Princess Cadance’s orders.” He huffed.
“What?!” She shrieked at the top of her lungs, “Why?! That thing is a changeling! They’re dangerous!”
Stalwart stared at his mother deadpan, unblinking. “Ruby Swift, dangerous?” He asked, “Really, you expect me to believe that she’s dangerous?” Be finally blinked at her, “I have a report on my desk from two days ago that states she complained for hours because she apparently got a splinter.”
“Yes! She’s a changeling, they’re all dangerous!”
“She’s a carpenter and is here for her protection, mom.” He snapped back.
His mother huffed, “I’m not surprised, seeing as you’re the one who isn’t reporting her to the authorities!”
“Mom, I am the authorities!” Stalwart finally shouted, “And the only pony that Ruby Swift is a danger to is herself because she’s seriously injured and won’t go to a Celestia-damned hospital to have herself checked!”
“I can’t afford it, Stalwart!” Ruby shouted at him as she re-entered with a mug of tea.
Stalwart stamped his hooves in frustration, teeth grit and bore and his face going red, “Ruby,” he gestured to her with his hooves, “witness protection! Stalwart,” he gestured to himself with his hooves, “royal guard captain! Medical care,” at this point his hooves switched between the two of them spastically, “free!”
“You don’t need to shout, Stalwart.” His father stated bluntly.
Finally Stalwart snapped, giving a roar of consternation and slamming his head onto the coffee table. “I swear this is why I don’t visit more.” He groaned into the polished wood. “This and the ‘when are you going to give me grandfoals?’ speech mum gives every time.”
“Well, when are you going to give me grandfoals?” She asked, earning a groan from Stalwart, whose head had yet to leave the table. "I'm not getting any younger over here."
“I hate my life.” He groused bitterly.
“I’m loving this;” Ruby said as she sat down in a recliner and sipped her tea, “It’s like having a show come to you.”
Most of her seemingly mollified for now, Stalwart’s mother eyed Ruby like a teacher with an essay, putting little red circles around the bits she didn’t like and finally writing ‘see me’ at the bottom. “My goodness, what on Equestria do you do with yourself?” She asked, “Does Stalwart not feed you? Skin and bones, I swear! And your coat is so marred and scuffed! It’s like you’ve been fighting somepony and came out second best! And your tail! So many knots, I can just see them!”
“And then the show calls for volunteer participation.” Ruby sighed.
“She did, mom,” Stalwart groaned from the table, “One of the Princess’s guards decided to try and kill her a couple days ago.”
“She’s under witness protection in the house of the night guard captain and she was assaulted? Are you sure you’re our son?” She asked in a hiss.
“There are days I ask myself that very question.” He groused in return.
His mother huffed and wandered off through the house, “I’m going to see if you’re at least looking after your bees correctly!” She snapped as she left.
“No, wait-”
“Ah, let her go, Ruby,” Stalwart said from the table, “let her find out for herself, it’s more fun for everypony else that way.”
“Find out what?” Stalwart’s father asked nervously, “What are you not telling your mother, Stalwart?”
A scream echoed from the back of the house, and hooves frantically echoed running back through the house followed by barking. “We have a pet timberwolf.” He said smugly.
His mother came running into the room, followed close behind by a little wooden wolf shedding flowers as she moved, wooden tongue lolling out of her mouth as she eagerly kept up with the fun new pony who smelled like master’s friend and looked like master’s friend but wasn’t master’s friend and was therefore new and exciting!
“Get it away from me!”
Ruby watched the mare run circles around the room, chased closely by a timberwolf pup whose only real goal was for her to continue the game that she thought was being played. Stalwart, from the coffee table, tilted his head to watch his mother run past, fleeing from the diminutive and honestly harmless predator with a cruel smile upon his lips.
“Yeah, get her, Maple! She’s getting away from you!” He cheered amusedly.
Finally Ruby had enough, putting a hoof to her forehead to try and stave off the approaching headache, “Maple, heel;” she hissed, shifting a little in her seat as the canine heeded her command and bounded over, hopping up into the recliner next to her.
Stalwart’s mother leapt over to her husband, hugging him and trying to inch away from Maple at the same time. “Oh Clockwork I was so scared!”
“Primrose, you’re… you’re choking me!”
“Oh, look, he’s turning blue.” Stalwart said with his head still resting on the table. “Maybe he’ll pass out and I can use that as an excuse to drag Ruby to the hospital with him.”
“Stalwart, I don’t need to go to the hospital, I’m fine!” Ruby protested.
“Oh? So I didn’t have to come home last night specifically to roll you onto your side so you could breathe while you were asleep?” He retorted at her, finally lifting his head. “And I’ve not been informed that you struggle to breathe almost every night? You’re under my care, and you’re going if I have to knock you out and drag you.” He gave his father another sidelong glance, “Whether or not dad has to go for medical reasons himself is up to my mother to decide.”
Finally letting the stallion go, Stalwart’s mother gave a sheepish chuckle, “Sorry, I, uh…”
“Mom, the timberwolf you were running from is Ruby’s companion; Maple is about as harmful as y- well, I would say you, but you’ve already tried to suffocate two members of your own family in the space of an hour, so…”
Stalwart’s father coughed, inhaling entire lungfuls of air and groaning in between. “By Celestia’s beard honey, don’t do that again…”
“I said I was sorry!”
Rather than respond, the stallion merely stared deadpan at his wife before coughing in her direction.
She sighed, “Alright, fine, I’m sorry, honey. Can you forgive me?”
“I’ll find a way.” He muttered before leaning against her. “Anyway, Stalwart, you said you were protecting this… changeling?”
“Yes, dad, Ruby Swift is here on witness protection policy, but it’s an informal protection plan. Her hive would kill her on sight, and it’s not like Equestria is the friendliest of places for a changeling these days, so she’s being kept under watch from anypony or changeling out to cause her harm. Sort of like diplomatic guard, only she’s not a diplomat.”
“Well, if you’re going to take her to the local sawbones, we might as well come with you,” his mother said, “we wouldn’t mind seeing the Empire, and knowing where help is if we ever need it would be handy.”
“You just want to see the mares in town and suggest I date some of them.” Stalwart grumbled.
“Well, if it gets me some grandfoals, it’s time well spent.”
Her son sighed at her, “Mother, one of these days you’ll get your wish and you’ll regret ever making it.”
She only tittered at him amusedly before dancing around him, “Ooh, you’ll have to prove it first.” She sang at him, earning another irritated groan in response.
*&*&*&*
“And that, over there, is the local day spa,” Stalwart said, waving a wing at the building as they walked past, “Not been myself, but some of the guardsmares say it’s worth every bit spent.”
“Do you think the mares that work there are cute?” Stalwart’s mother, Primrose, asked curiously while giving her son a sly look.
Stalwart shrugged, “Mom, I just said I’ve never been; I wouldn’t know if they have a fire extinguisher.” He replied, continuing to walk, “That building over there is the Éclair, one of the Empire’s eight most expensive eateries and our least problematic. By that, of course, I mean we have to arrest the fewest drunks from that place.”
“You paint the empire in such a lovely light, Stalwart.” Clockwork deadpanned.
“Well excuse me for having the job of solving all of these problems.” Stalwart grumbled back, “I just do what I’m paid to do.” He nodded to a guard as he passed, earning a nod in response. “It’s not always the most popular work, but it’s important.”
“And it pays for your bees.” His father added.
“That too; that building is the local smithy, not been myself, but supposedly that’s where I’ll need to go to replace or repair any damaged gear.” Stalwart said, waving a wing at a building with a large chimney spouting from its roof. “Ah, here we are, Aquamarine Hospital,” He mumbled as he swerved into a building, “this is our stop, for now.”
“I am really not comfortable being here, Stalwart.” Ruby mumbled.
“And I’m not comfortable with the risk that you suffocate in your sleep.” Stalwart countered, “Your unease lets me sleep; now let’s go.”
They walked up to the front counter where a homely mare sat fiddling with some paperwork and rang the little bell, making her look up at them. “Yes, dears?”
“Royal guard business, I need a checkup for miss Ruby Swift here; she’s having breathing difficulties during sleep. Medium priority, if you could.”
“Of course, dear; take a seat and we’ll see to you as soon as we can.”
Stalwart nodded before urging Ruby to a nearby pair of seats. “Mom, dad, you don’t need to stick around if you’d rather be out doing something else. The castle has regular tours, or there’s a market along Quartz Drive, the main boulevard to the north of the Empire, if you want to do some souvenir shopping.”
Clockwork shrugged, “I suppose we could get some sightseeing done.”
“We’ve not booked a hotel or anything, we didn’t know anywhere to contact; the Empire is still rather new to the rest of Equestira, so… ”
Stalwart sighed, “Can’t believe I’m saying this,” he muttered under his breath, “We have a spare room you can stay in a couple of nights if you need to.”
“Well, if you insist…” His mother mumbled unsurely, “If we’re not imposing..?”
“Take the room, mom, it’ll save you on hotel fees.” Stalwart pressed.
She smiled and nodded, “Alright, Stalwart; thank you for the room.” She tapped her husband with her wing to get his attention, “Let’s go see the castle and maybe the market? We can hit up a restaurant for lunch.”
The stallion shrugged, “Yeah, alright. Will you be alright here, Stalwart?”
“Well it’s not like the doctor is going to attempt to extract my liver without a fight.” He replied.
His father nodded and, after a quick hug, walked off with his wife muttering about the castle. This, of course, left Stalwart sitting in a hospital lobby with a flighty and nervous changeling. She kept glancing at the exit, or at other ponies who wandered in or out. Stalwart attempted to pass his time grooming his wings, but his distraction tactic didn’t manage to relieve Ruby of any of her nervousness. Finally, after a good hour of their lives had slipped away waiting in the lobby of a hospital, their turn arrived.
“Miss Ruby Swift?” The nurse called, “The doctor will see you now.”
“Right, let’s go;” Stalwart said, standing and tugging her up from her seat.
*
“So, Miss Swift, what seems to be the trouble?”
The doctor, a rosy quartz coloured stallion with a slicked back purple mane and tail and a stethoscope for a cutie mark, had been waiting patiently for them in the exam room, and he hadn’t been surprised at all at her appearance.
“I, uh… why aren’t you wary of me..?”
The doctor chuckled, “Miss Swift, who do you think cared for you while you were here the first time?” He asked jovially, holding out a hoof that she shook, “Doctor Suture, at your service. Now come, tell me what wars you’ve been in since you left my care; you don’t look like you’ve been caring for yourself much at all.”
“She was assaulted by a thestral royal guard about four nights ago and, after being medically seen to by two EMTs, was released back into my care. She’s recently developed a difficulty breathing while sleeping, and it was so bad I had to take a detour on my rounds to roll her into a better position.” Stalwart said firmly, ignoring protests by Ruby to stop talking. “She’s also started to get headaches, which I’m going to assume are from the blow to the back of her head and consequent concussion she suffered.”
The doctor nodded with a hum, “I see; Miss Ruby, if you could climb onto the bed for me, we’ll see about that breathing issue.”
Meekly she complied, sidling up and onto the bed, turning around, and sitting while waiting for further instructions.
“Good, now, open wide and say ‘ah’.” He ordered, again getting compliance from the changeling. Curiously he peered into her mouth and down her throat, depressing her tongue with a little flat wooden stick before closing her mouth, putting on his stethoscope, and listening to her chest. “Breathe deep for me, Miss Swift.” He instructed, listening intently as she did so.
“Is it anything we need to worry about, doctor?” Stalwart asked worriedly from near the door.
Removing his stethoscope, the doctor smiled and took a hold of Ruby’s head, turning her to see the back. “No, not really anything I can do about that one I’m afraid; from the look of her throat and the sound of her breathing it would seem to be a minor contusion to her left lung and some of her lower windpipe.”
“That’s what the EMTs said when they released her into my care, I was just worried that this was developing into something worse.”
The doctor shook his head, “No, no, everything should be alright. If it develops into a routine heavy cough, persistent heavy wheezing even when awake or, worst case scenario, haemoptysis, that is, coughing up blood, then come and see me and we will be more thorough and come up with a treatment plan. She should be fine with rest and relaxation. Worst case scenario, we can request the Princess or Prince Consort to come and assist with clearing her lung, but it isn’t severe enough for it to come to that in my opinion.”
“I relax by working…” She mumbled, earning a laugh from him.
“And judging by the small bits of wood dust in the holes in your hooves and your tail, you work in an environment with wood shaving and dust. I trust the EMTs gave you a mask for when you work?” He asked, to which she nodded meekly. “Good, then so long as you wear that during your work there shouldn’t be any complications surrounding it. Now, onto your headaches; my cursory look leads me to believe that you likely have a minor cerebral contusion, that is, a bruise on the brain, due to heavy blunt force trauma to your skull giving you a concussion. The healing crack in the chitin on the back of your head would support this diagnosis.
“Again, the best solution is simply rest and relaxation. Little to no bright lights, no reading in the dark, no overtly loud noises, and plenty of bedrest are best for this. I insist that you get some painkillers from our pharmacy, painkillers that you will get before you leave today. While they are common, over the counter pills, they will help in your recovery greatly. As for your breathing, I suggest sleeping on the side which produces the least pain for you.”
He held his hoof out for Ruby to shake, for which she had to hop off of the bed to do, before leading them from the room. “Captain Drone, I cannot stress enough to you that if her breathing worsens you must return her here. Lung injuries can be dire if not correctly managed.”
“Yes doctor, the minute she worsens she’ll be right back here.”
“She, also, does not look like she has put on much weight, and as such I insist that you increase her dietary intake. It will be harder for her to heal if she lacks the nutrition required.”
Stalwart nodded, “Of course, doctor, thank you for your help.”
“It was no trouble at all, have a good day.”
With another nod, the door was closed and Stalwart led Ruby out through the hospital to the pharmacy, where a homely-looking mare passed them a box of painkillers for a couple of bits. Finally, walking out the door, Ruby took a calming breath.
“I hate hospitals.” She breathed.
“I’m sorry for having to drag you here, Ruby, but it’s for your own good.”
She sighed, “I know, Stalwart; that doesn’t mean I have to like it.” She replied, “I just want to get home and get back to my woodwork.”
“That’s fine, Ruby, just so long as you wear the mask and take a painkiller when you start to get a headache.” He shifted as he unlocked their front door, hearing the box of pills rustle in his saddlebag. “Just… read the instructions and follow them, alright? I don’t want to have to carry you to the hospital from overdose.”
“By the Weave, Stalwart, I’m not a foal!”
Stalwart shrugged, tossing the medicine onto the kitchen table idly, “Never suggested you were, Ruby. Drugs of any kind can be dangerous if not taken in moderation, and the last thing I need is an inquiry into why I let the mare I have been tasked with protecting has drugged herself half to death.”
“It would get me some peace and quiet for once…” Ruby muttered, earning herself a thwap on the nose with his right wing.
“It would likely kill you, end my career, and set Maple feral. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen what feral timberwolves can do.” His eyes bore into hers unrelentingly, “Not here, not in the Empire. These ponies have seen enough horror, and I won't let you do that to yourself.”
The staccato of hooves out front their home caught their attention a little less than the sudden furious pounding at the front door. With a sigh, Stalwart wandered to and opened it only to receive a punch to his nose.
“Oh, I’m so sorry honey, I just-”
“Celestia damn it, mom; what was that for?!” Stalwart snapped.
Looking as apologetic as she could –that is to say, not at all- the mare smiled broadly and waved a hoof. “Your father and I found the most adorable little restaurant in the market district, and we wondered,”
“She wondered, I had to nod along like some kind of plastic toy,” Stalwart’s father interjected irritably.
“That’s nice dear; we wondered if you and Ruby would like to go out for lunch, our treat?”
“My treat, as it’s my wallet she’s gotten hold of.”
“Not now, Clocky.”
Stalwart sighed and looked over his shoulder at Ruby, who froze with a glass of water and a pill halfway to her mouth. Her eyes stared back at him like a deer caught in a magic lantern, and she nodded jerkily before continuing with her medical needs.
“Yeah, I suppose we can go with you.” Stalwart said in an exhale. “I need to call for an escort guard. The trip to the hospital was fine, but I’m going to need an extra pair of eyes as I’m likely to be distracted with food.”
“That’s fine, take your time.”
Stalwart let his parents in, closing the door behind them and moving through the house to the kitchen, where his armour stood on a standing ponyquin. He slid the helmet on and tapped the gem on the breastplate of the set.
“Guard central, this is Night One requesting an escort for a protected civilian. This is not an emergency, over.” He sat and waited for the response to come before tapping the gem again. “Appreciated, Guard central, will confirm on arrival of backup, out.” He snapped before sliding his helmet off of his head and back onto the ponyquin.
