Unknown Disturbance

Azure Star woke up slowly. She sat up and looked around, finding herself on a cot in the guard barracks. Apparently, she had fallen asleep on the ride back, and they had carried her back here, ‘here’ being Canterlot.

“Good, you’re awake.” A familiar voice to her left said. Turning, she immediately noticed a light blue pegasus; her brother, Azure Star.

“Azure!” She said, kicking off of the bed, taking flight, only to crash into her brother a second later. They crashed to the ground, and quickly got back up.

Azure shook the blow off and turned back towards her. “Hey Amber. Good to see you awake; Princess Celestia wants to talk with you about what you know about the creature. They just enacted a translation spell on it through its dreams, and apparently it IS capable of intelligent thought.”

“I already knew that.” Amber stated. “Staying a captive of it for several days goes to show it is capable of intelligent thought, plus the fact that, several times, it had the chance to kill me, but did not take it. Go easy on the thing if you meet it, ‘kay?”

“Alright, Amber.” Azure said, motioning towards the door, “Come on, we’re late enough as it is.”

They quickly made their way outside the barracks. Upon reaching the staircase, they both took flight, quickly ascending it towards the top. Both of them had their armor on at the moment, minus the helmets, making their flight harder, but not too much so. Amber still didn’t know why Azure had chosen to have a pair of miniature iron wings as an emblem on his armor, but she just chalked it up to her brother’s usual antics.

They quickly took off down the halls, making their way towards the throne room. They landed in front of the entrance, right in front of the two unicorn guards.

“We’re here to talk to the Princess.” Azure stated. The guards moved aside, letting them walk in. The large doors opened, to the sight of Celestia standing at the end of the room. She was standing at the base of the throne dais, obviously waiting for them. Azure and Amber walked forward, doing a quick bow upon reaching her.

“Rise, Amber, Azure.” Celestia said in a calm voice. They rose slowly, looking up at her. “Azure, thank you for grabbing Amber. You are dismissed.” He bowed and walked out, shooting another happy glance at Amber before walking out the door.

“Amber, we know much about the creature, but we want to know your observations.” Celestia said. “It has woken up, and right now we have a scientist questioning it, though as of the last report it seems to be not responding to many questions. What can you tell us about your time during your capture?”

Amber responded quickly. “Well, it was obviously intelligent. When I arrived at the clearing, I saw the hut, and walked up to it. However, the creature walked outside of it and delivered a kick once it saw me, obviously out of surprise. I was knocked out, and tied up with Hzunt vines, so I couldn’t get out.

“The next morning, it gave me an apple, definitely one of the ones that it stole. There are several things that can be gathered from this. The first is that it is obviously intelligent, since it did not kill me in the first place, but rather captured me. Another is that it fed me; this leads to the conclusion that it is defiantly intelligent, and capable of rational thought. It can obviously speak, as it managed to have a conversation with you, or so I have heard, after you did the translation spell.”

Celestia grimaced. “Conversation is hardly the word for it. Luna and the creature immediately got into an argument over you of all things, which escalated into him ejecting me from the dream rather painfully. After that, Luna ended the dream, and he woke up, leading us to now.”

Azure nodded in understanding, then spoke up. “How did he eject you from the dream?”

“He used some sort of metal thing that he conjured up.”

Azure nodded to herself. “You’ll have to ask it about it.”

“That I shall.”

Celestia dismissed her, and she went down to the guard barracks to find her brother.

“Azure!” She said. “Let’s catch up. First off, what are you doing still here? You’re supposed to be the captain by now, or is what you told me in that bar when I got sent off hot air?”

Azure looked at her with a look of sheer misunderstanding on his face. “I don’t even know WHAT I said that night, and you expect me to follow up on it?”

“Yes, I do.” Amber responded in a scolding tone. “So, what happens now?”

One of the other guards spoke up. “The Princesses are going to interview it, and then search through its memories. Azure, remember, you have guard duty outside the throne right about now.”

Azure groaned, before slipping on his helmet, a small golden glow accompanying it as the color of his fur turned a brilliant white, the disguise spell activating.

“Don’t worry,” He yelled out to Amber, “I’ll be back in, say, three or four hours.”

Azure walked out onto the staircase and unfurled his wings, with two quick beats, he was off the stone and climbing quickly. He flew up the wide shaft, the staircase tower being around fifty feet wide.

Half a minute alter, he landed at the top of the staircase, settling into a walk as he went towards the throne room. He passed a couple guards on the way, nodding to his friends, but it seemed like a slow shift today. Ten minutes later, he reached the throne room, and relived one of the unicorn guards on duty.

He sighed to himself, ready to begin his shift. He stood at attention in front of the door, pronouncing for the entire world to see that he was practically a statue. For that he thanked the designer who had come up with a brace for the legs of the armor; it held the legs perfectly straight, letting him simply rest them, allowing him to turn his attention towards the surrounding, which he quickly got bored of.

An hour and a half into his shift, however, he suddenly heard a loud voice from the throne room. “Guards!”

He and the unicorn quickly turned, letting another pegasus he didn’t recognize go in first.

“Take the… Human back to his cell.” He heard from Celestia, followed by the – Human, was it? – and the guard walking out. He and the unicorn guard followed them, forming a rear guard. They quickly made their way back to the cells, the unicorn unlocking the door before the unknown pegasus turned towards the Human.

“If I had my way,” He said, “You wouldn’t even get the comfort of a cell, beast.”

“Yea, yea.” The creature said dismissively. “Tell it to the judge. I don’t care.”

Azure stifled a small giggle as the Human walked into the cell, the door closing behind it. Azure simply went back to the guard barracks while the other two guards went off somewhere else. Azure really wasn’t paying attention.

Amber had already gone to sleep, the long days recently taking a small toll on her mind. Azure plopped down on the bunk above her, willing himself to rest while he had the chance.

Slowly, he fell off into his sleep, content.