Unknown Disturbance

Azure Star woke up quickly, his long sleep letting him get up faster than normal. He hopped down off of the high bunk, and quickly donned his armor, ready for his first shift guarding the cells below. Specifically, he was supposed to guard the entrance to them. He threw his helmet in the air, catching it on his head, activating the disguise.

He quickly walked down several levels to the dungeons, replacing the Earth Pony guard on duty. Even through the disguise that simulated a pegasi, some telling differences were still noticeable that gave it away. Azure just settled down for a long wait.

An hour later, he heard noises that sounded like explosions and… Something else coming from down the hall. He walked down to investigate, only to hear the noises coming from a cell. More specifically, the cell the creature was kept in.

Azure looked at thre three guards standing outside the door, one unicorn and two other pegasi.

“Hey guys,” Azure said, “Isn’t anyone going to go check out the sounds?”

The pegasus he remembered from yesterday rolled his eyes and walked towards the door.

One of the unicorns unlocked the door, letting the pegasi inside. Azure leaned forward to catch the conversation.

“What in Celestia’s name are you doing?” The pegasi said.

“Meh,” The disembodied voice of the creature answered. “Playing a Video Game. You wouldn’t know, you haven’t even discovered electricity.”

Azure had no idea what a ‘Video Game’ was, or even what a ‘Video’ was in the first place, or what one had to do with games, so he just decided to ask it at a later point.

“Of course we have!” The guard yelled, causing Azure and the others to let out small snickers. “But what does electricity have to do with a game?”

“It’s a simulation of warfare where I come from.” It stated, “You likely wouldn’t understand half of the stuff happening on the screen.”

The pegasi huffed and closed the door, Azure and the other guards erupting into laughter at the scene.

When Azure finally calmed down, he looked towards the flustered pegasi guard. “What was he doing, anyway?”

“Looking at some form of light-giving thing, and sitting on its saddlepack.” The guard said.

One of the other guards snorted. “Just what he was doing yesterday, when the scientist went to question him. I was there, and it WAS pretty hilarious watching one of our best Harmonic Prize winners not understand a word that he, the creature, was saying. Well, we could understand it, just the scientist couldn’t figure out half of it.”

Azure nodded and went back to his post at the entrance to the dungeons. A short while later, a unicorn guard led the ‘Human’ out of the cells and up the stairs. Wherever he was leading the creature, Azure didn’t care.

-=-=-

Amber Star was walking down the halls, headed towards Room 26. That was usually the room where guards were debriefed after a mission, and it was there that Celestia had sent her.

After the absolute failure to get any information out of the ‘Human’, Celestia had asked her to try. She reasoned that, because of a supposed emotional connection the creature might have for her, she would be able to get more out of it. Either that, or nothing would continue to happen, and the effort would have failed. But, at least it could be said that she tried. She walked up to the door, nodding to the guard, before opening it and stepping in.

The human was already there, seated on a cushion. He tensed up for a moment upon seeing her, before relaxing after recognizing her. Amber sat down on the cushion across from him, staring at him.

Around ten seconds into the staring, Amber had finally had enough and spoke up.

“All right, since you decided to tie me up and all that, Shining wanted to see if I could ask you some questions. Is that all right with you?”

The creature nodded, leaving me to ask my first question.

“First off,” Amber said, “Why do you carry around your saddlebags all the time?”

“First off, it’s a backpack, not a saddlebag.” He responded, “And second, it’s so you can’t mess with any of my stuff.”

Amber nodded. She could understand that.

“Second, what is that long club-like thing you carry around, along with the small L-shaped one?” She asked.

“It’s a gun. More on that later.”

The time flew quickly, with her asking plenty of questions and getting few answers. After nearly twenty minutes, Amber felt like she was done. She still didn’t know what the ‘Gun’ was, but she knew she would find out eventually. Strangely enough, he was apparently an Omnivore, meaning he could eat both normal things and… Meat. At the moment she had heard that, Amber knew this would be submitted in written form, instead of face-to-face.

After the creature was taken out, she began to write out her report, dipping her quill in the ink, and writing using her wing. Earth ponies had to use their teeth and unicorns had magic, but pegasi could simply use their flexible wings to manipulate small objects.

Twenty five minutes later, with her report done, she handed it to the guard and began walking back to the guard barracks. She flopped down on the cot above her sleeping brother, Azure, and fell off into her sleep.