10 - Reflection
The sun peered in through the east facing window and caused Blue Shield's eyes to flick wide open. Without moving his head, he rotated his eyes in his sockets and gathered the information he needed about his surroundings. I'm in a bed. We're in Dodge Junction. We don't need to worry about being found by dragons. There's plenty food and drink downstairs. Today we shall be relaxing on a train.
A deep breath turned into a yawn as he stretched blood back into his aching muscles. Miles of road and days of neglect had caused discomfort to seep into nearly every part of his body. The water of the hot tub had stripped miles of filth and strain from his body but it would take a few days before he was able to completely recover from the strain. A pair of cramps seized his hind calves and he twitched, shaking the sharp stabs away into throbbing aches. Several more deep breaths caused his heart to push richer blood back into the corners of his body and he groaned with the effort of rolling to a stand.
A scuffing snort drew his gaze to where Green River sprawled. The colt's mouth was wide open and one part of his pillow was soaked by a trickle of leaking drool. Shade's bed was empty, and the lieutenant knew this was because the poor unicorn had been on the night watch, messing up his sleeping patterns. The twins had gotten their own room and the damsel, Honeycrisp, was given her own space.
I rescued a damsel in distress from dragons. The smile forced his face to pull back and he was unable to keep his dour expression. The walk down to the saloon was pleasant enough and breakfast was fresh and cooked in an actual kitchen instead of out in the field. Shade approached the table in his bare skin and the two stallions sat in silence for a time as they each ate their meal.
"It's nice to stretch out without the armor," Blue Shield finally said and his companion nodded and gave a grunt of agreement. "I think I'm going to write a letter to my Dad."
"Finally found something to write home about?" Shade asked with an amused expression.
"I rescued a damsel in distress from a dragon," Blue Shield said with his smile from earlier returning. "That's the kind of news any father would be proud to hear of from his son."
"True," Shade nodded, "just don't break OPSEC."
"Operational Security will not be compromised," Blue Shield drolled at his second in command. "Do you want to read it before I mail it out?"
"Nah," Shade waived his hoof absently as he poked at a few crispy bits of hay, "you always get all simpering and poetic then you write home."
"Simpering?" the white unicorn grinned. "That's quite a big word for you, Shade."
"Maybe you're rubbing off on me," the dark skinned pony mumbled as he stuffed the last bits of his meal into his face.
"Let the others sleep," the lieutenant ordered. "I figure we'll move out around noon."
"That's rather non-specific," the sergeant commented with a look of concern.
"I've just spent three months being really blasted specific," the officer sneered, "it's time for some R&R." There was more to that statement than the words themselves, but he did not need to explain the undertones to his friend. Shade had been his almost constant companion for the better part of three years and they had an understanding that nopony else seemed to share. Quite a few off-color jokes about their relationship had circled as scuttle-butt and it had become a bit of a joke between them ... but they knew the score. Comrades sometimes made the best friends ... and that bond would never change.
The Dodge Junction Pony Express was just as dry as the rest of the town but it was a little less dusty than the other buildings. Blue Shield knew that the dryness would allow the paper to retain its consistency better than it would in other places but the dust and sand would inevitably mix with the ink and make it all grainy.
Sure enough, when he bought his writing materials from the attendant and moved off to a writing desk, his ink clumped like cookie dough. It did not matter, though, and Blue Shield mixed the ink until it was usable, took up the fountain pen in his mouth, and carried on an old family tradition by forcing himself to write without magic.
Dear Dad,
I finally rescued a damsel in distress from a dragon. She's an earth pony from Ponyville and my squad is taking her home now. My team and I were watching the Great Dragon Migration, so we were in the area, and we discovered that it is mostly younger dragons that like to raid nearby territories and carry off loot. That is a good thing because the bigger adult dragons are can stretch form one side of a village to the other. Fortunately they tend to sleep all of the time and the one we did wake up only bothered to look around for about ten seconds before flopping back down to continue snoring.
He paused, seeing his father's blue hornless face and his short black mane in his mind's eye. The two of them had disagreed when Blue Shield left home to join the guard and he had to be extremely careful when writing home to talk about his day. He could not give out his position, could not tell his father where they were going, and had to be careful not to talk about the missions themselves. Secrets ... security ... protecting ponykind from the things that went bump in the night without them all knowing about it.
A deep breath filled Blue Shield's lungs and he crossed out a line which would give away their position:
She's an earth pony from Ponyville and my squad is taking her home now.
A few more lines went onto the paper and then he took up another one and rewrote the letter as a second draft. When he was finished, he stared at the bottom for a long moment ... then he signed.
Lieutenant Blue Shield
Special Operations Division
Midnight Horns
Then he scribbled it out and wrote:
Quilliam Bluehoof
He sat there staring at the name which his parents had given to him for a long time and he huffed in annoyance when a single drop of ink dripped out of the pen's tip and splotched onto the paper. He considered scrapping the entire letter and throwing it away. Writing home and giving out any details like this always risky. A truly determined enemy could trace the details about the Great Dragon Migration and put them all in danger ... but if that information fell into enemy hooves he could determine that there was a leak in the mail system.
Blue Shield shook his head. Training had forced him to keep up a constant level of suspicious attention during a mission and it was difficult to turn off. Concern during a mission was necessary but this was a level of paranoia would drive him mad if he kept it up. It's only paranoia if you're wrong, the voice in his head told him ... but it was time to make a stand against that voice. A low level spell could have quick dried the ink but instead he blew across the page and gave it the time it needed to set. Then he folded the letter into an envelope, signed it, stamped it, and gave it to the mailpony.
By the time he finished Green River was awake and the team assembled for a brunch before purchasing tickets for the train to Ponyville. Honeycrisp descended for a quiet bit to eat but her yellow cheeks kept a steady orange blush through most of it. From time to time she stole a glance at Green River, who was sleepily engaged in the art of trying to eat, and not noticing.
Figures, Blue Shield scowled to himself but he kept his expression a careful mask. It was nopony's fault that mares always seemed to go for the bad colts but it still bothered him when it happened. We are told to be gentlecolts and treat a mare with respect and dignity ... then she kicks us to the curb and runs off with the idiot. Then, of course, she comes crying back when it doesn't work out ... and once she feels beautiful again, she goes running back to the idiot. How do we ever survive?
"Sir?"
"Hm?" Blue Shield blinked and looked over at Tock, a look of expectation on his face.
"Are you going to eat that?" the orange pony asked as if he were repeating himself. Heat boiled up inside of the officer and he raised his sandwich into the air with his magic, broke it into a dozen small pieces, and then sent one hurtling at the twin. The reddish hue of his magic caught the morsel, as was his specialty, and plopped it into his mouth. "Mmm ... not bad," the colt said with a nod of thanks.
Blue Shield chuckled, despite himself, and forced himself to eat. The meal resumed without incident and the group checked out of their rooms before moving to the train. Deep blue eyes scanned the train for traps and he even forced Tick and Tock to blink onto the top of the cars for a jog. Once inside, he checked the seats and took note of all of the exits and possible places to hide and take cover should disaster strike.
A metallic shimmer drew his attention and his attention focused upon it. Battle senses took note of the compartment, the positioning of the seats, and the ponies inside. Nostrils flared as he moved forward and found ... a mirror which had been dropped on the ground. And for my next trick ... maybe I'll attack a granny who produces knitting needles in order to make a blanket for her grandcolts.
The train moved out toward their next destination, and the others of his team managed to fall asleep in one fashion or another. Blue Shield tried to relax his nerves but that only led to more pacing. Despite his fatigue, his mind would not stop sifting through the events of the past weeks and so he began to walk through the compartment cars in an effort to work off the nervous energy.
A dozen little pieces of information were spread out in front of his mind's eye and he stared at them each in turn. The things he was discovering did not settle well together but he knew his mind was in a bad place and might be jumping to conclusions. Thus ... he clunked the bench which Shade was napping upon and motioned to one of the private carts.
"You've got that look again," the dark gray pony mentioned in his quietly steady tone once the door was closed and the curtain was drawn.
"I need a sounding board," Blue Shield told his second.
"You're paranoid," Shade told him.
"You haven't even heard what I have to say yet," the big white unicorn scowled.
"Uh-huh," the smaller unicorn grunted in an unimpressed tone.
"Fine," Blue Shield said as he fought to not roll his eyes, "I've got some information that I'm worried about."
"Is it classified?" Shade furrowed a brow.
"Of course." There was a pregnant pause. "I'm worried about Princess Luna." Shade's furrow went slack and his face lost all expression. Blue Shield knew that meant he was actually feeling emotions that might conflict with his normally bland nature and thus this was one of his methods of hiding them. "I think she is removing some of her competition and then she plans to stage a coup."
Shade's silver eyes shone placidly as he considered the words. "What is you evidence?" he eventually asked like a professor who is patently speaking to an intelligent student.
"The princess was imprisoned for a thousand years," Blue Shield finally said as he put into words something that had been bothering him since that horrible day. "Upon returning, she was possessed by some terrible magic that she unleashed all over the place and she was put down by the Elements of Harmony. Then she was suddenly all better and her sister forgave her without a second thought. I have not been there for any of their private conversations, or anything, but I can't imagine someone just waiving a magic wand and being all better like that."
"Not even Princess Celestia?" Shade asked blankly.
"Especially Princess Celestia," the lieutenant declared and then he strode forth to explain. "I love and trust Holy Celestia with all of my heart ... but she is not perfect. If she had been then Luna would not have needed to be imprisoned in the first place. The imprisonment always seemed a little extreme to me anyway ... but if she really did need it, can we really just suddenly forgive and forget?
"Then there are the other prisoners. Luna once told me that she never really had any contact with them and that she is really just concerned that the others are going to attack us or cause some sort of trouble. But I don't see how that is possible. A thousand years is a very long time ... whole civilizations can rise and fall in such a span and I don't see how the prisoners could have just left each other alone."
"Says who?" Shade asked when the pause came.
"Says Nightmare Moon," the white unicorn said seriously. "If Nightmare Moon is not Luna ... then what is she? Who is she? Where is she now? Was she some sort of shape shifting demon? Did she possess the weakened heart of our sad princess when she was emotionally distraught and vulnerable? Maybe she's still in there ... just waiting to return! Maybe the demon has been driven out and is now searching for another host! Shade ... I say something ... back when we were fighting in the crater! I zapped one of the dragons and it turned into ... something else."
"What was it?" Shade asked but his commander only shook his head.
"It was ... black, and armored like a bug." Blue Shield paused as he tried to remember and found the image rushing back along with the memories of the fight ... the heat ... and the pain. "I think ... it was a shape shifter."
"Oh?"
"Yeah ... I remember reading something about them once but I don't really remember the details," Blue Shield shook his head and glanced up at his friend who was watching him carefully. "Tactically speaking, it is really a bad idea to send three crack teams out to seemingly random locations to spy on innocuous targets and collect little to no intelligence."
"Dragons are not innocuous," Shade pointed out.
"True," the lieutenant nodded, "but they rarely cause trouble."
"But they did, this time," the darker unicorn pointed out.
"Right when Luna said they would," Blue Shield pointed out. "What if it was a trap?"
"A trap?" Shade let his brow furrow again.
"What if we weren't meant to survive the encounter?" the lieutenant asked. "What if the civilian is actually an informant or maybe just a distraction?"
"Is she that distracting?" the second in command asked with a hint of amusement.
"Not like that," Blue Shield snorted, "she was exactly in the worse kind of trouble she could be in at a place and time that Luna could have no possible way of knowing. Unless she has some crazy sort of magic to show her such a thing ... in which case, why would she need us out here at all?"
"So, the mare is a spy?" Shade asked in a manner that Blue Shield recognized.
"She was rather convenient," the lieutenant commented, "and now she's in a prime position to keep tabs on us."
"Yeah ... she did sort of seem to be rather into you. That never happens." The gray unicorn's silver eyes sparkled with mischief and the level blue ones met them with narrowed warning.
"She's not my type," he said crisply.
"And what is your type?"
"Strong, confident, graceful," Blue Shield began with confidence and then he trailed off for a bit.
"Wings and horns," the soft-spoken pony added. Blue Shield flinched a little.
"Well ... yeah," Blue Shield thought for several seconds longer before adding, "look, we both know I can't go galloping off with some simpleton. I have standards, and a graceful mare with a keen intellect is very near the top of my list."
"And how has that list treated you so far?" Shade asked with genuine curiosity.
A flash of anger slashed through Blue Shield's skull as he glared at his friend with unnatural hostility. Silver eyes reflected his harsh blue gaze with disinterested ease and the temperature in the room rose a couple of degrees. Is he right? Did he hit too close to home just now?
"I'm going to interrogate her," the lieutenant declared with barely contained fury.
"Be thorough," Shade smirked. "She might like that."
"There's something else going on here," Blue Shield declared as he pushed forward, "and I think we might find the next clue at that little town we're going to be getting off at."
"Will the Dark Hooves be meeting us there?" Shade asked as his business as usual attitude returned.
"Only way to be sure this is not all just a giant waste of time," Blue Shield nodded. "We'll pool our information and get a larger picture. Maybe with more puzzle pieces we'll finally get some answers."
"Which will lead to more questions," Shade warned him. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
Blue shield sighed and then turned his attention to the window that showed scenery as it passed them by. "I can't let this go. If something's going on ... then her majesty needs to know about it."
"What if she really is blinded," Shade offered. "Will she will listen?"
"If enough evidence is put before her," Blue Shield spoke sternly, "then she will act. I don't believe she is perfect ... but I also do not believe she is a fool. While the heart can give us false hope ... I don't believe she would just turn a blind eye if sown the truth."
"Yeah ... emotions can do that," Shade told him, and the friends both nodded in understanding.
"That's why I've got you here," Blue Shield told his second, "to keep me straight."