Ailios Heartstringsby PhoxxieChaptersChapter 1Chapter 2Chapter 3Chapter 1The cold Caledonian night air was filled with the distinctive whine of an ornithopter’s twin miniature jet engines. A small group of four trainee air ponies and their pegasus instructor, flew through the darkness in formation. Wings of metal feathers swept back and forth as they passed through a pocket of low pressure, each flap creating a low thumping sound that echoed across the sky. Hung beneath the avian machines, ponies and unicorns swathed in full body flight suits, protecting them against the elements, operated the craft’s controls on the sides of their bodies. One of the larger ornithropers towards the rear of the group shuddered, its wings beating quickly to compensate for a sudden bout of turbulence. “Keep it together back there!” The pegasus commanded into his breath mask. “The heavier craft will stall easily if you don’t pay attention.” “Roger that FS.” Replied a mare’s voice in his left ear accompanied by the sound of background static. The group banked and entered a long glide as they passed low over a grassy hill, the sound wave from their jets kicking up a wave of dust from below them. Beyond the hill the dark shadows that coated the ground were broken by a bright yellow glow that hovered above the valley floor. The wings of metal began to reflect the golden aura from below them. The light revealed a city of half timbered buildings separated by chalky white streets, interrupted with an occasional green space and surrounded by historic battlements. It was unmistakeably the capital of Caledonia, the ancient fortress city of Parleyford. It was at this moment that a mild, though still quite distracting, hissing noise entered the ear of the pegasus sergeant. He was quick to dismiss it as radio interference from the city, but the noise was increasing and soon it was loud enough to get his attention. “Can anypony hear a…” A mare’s voice said in his ear, before being cut short by a loud pop, followed by an ominous silence. On the second floor of what used to be a blacksmith’s workshop, now part of the Caledonian Intelligence complex. Ailios, a pastel green unicorn mare with a lute for a cutie, was slouched against a varnished oak desk. The windows behind her had stopped letting sunlight into the now dimly lit office almost an hour ago and the old desk lamp was not helping to lighten the mood. Ailios’ job could be stressful at times, the waiting she often had to endure was certainly contributing to the problem. It was times like this that made her frustrated that she didn’t get to play the lute as often as she wanted to, but this job had given her all she had needed; a new name, Caledonian citizenship and a comfortable salary. Ailios glanced up at one of the myriad of shelves that lined the walls of her office, which were filled with dusty files and ring binders arranged in no discernable order. ‘Any machine can fail’, she thought to herself. ‘But four aircraft within close proximity crashing at the same time, is no accident. And one of the pilots happened to be the heir of clan Tempest, which makes most political groups prime suspects’. At that moment there was a knock at the office door. “Yes!” Ailios shouted whilst redirecting her gaze towards the door. The door swung open and light began to flood in from the brightly lit hallway, generating a haze of dust that swirled around the centre of the room. Ailios’ eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the outline of the earth stallion that was now entering her office. His coat was beige, with a blue tinted gray mane and his cutie was a magnifying glass. Noticing the squinting unicorn, Eachann quickly stumbled into the room whilst extending a hind hoof towards the door. After a few moments of clumsy waving he managed to push the door shut, much to the relief of Ailios’ retinas. “So?” Ailios exclaimed as she stood up, staring eagerly at the stallion. Eachann replied by impersonating a deflating balloon and rolling his eyes. Taking a step forward to look at one of the dusty shelves he said, “We got some addresses, that’s about it.” The two ponies exchanged knowing glances, it’s seamed that the mood was not the only thing that was dire. “Can you lockup?” asked Ailios, her expression conveying a sense of exhaustion. “I need to get back home to take care of Lyra.” Eachann nodded and proceeded to yawn whilst Ailios reached under the desk to retrieve a light gray trench coat. Donning the coat she walked slowly towards the door also yawning whilst doing so. “I’ll see you later, sweetie.” Ailios commented as she pulled the door open, once again squinting as she entered the narrow medieval hallway. The floorboards had been coated with cheap blue carpeting and the walls had been whitewashed, decorated with scratch marks where passing ponies had rubbed alongside it. Her eyes still half closed she continued to close the door behind her, on which there was a card plaque that read; MINISTRY INVESTIGATORS: A. HEARTSTRINGS and E. HEARTSTRINGS. Most ponies couldn’t stand the idea of working and desk job with their spouse, but working for CI was different. It was like a clan of its own, most of it members where clanless to begin with; a safeguard to prevent infiltration by political double agents. As CI agents where rarely able to socialise with anypony from outside the ministry, everypony within the ministry was both anonymous and family at the same time. Ailios was more than happy to work with her husband. Apart from her sister and her daughter Lyra, he was the family she had. Ailios made her way down a flight of uneven wooden steps at the end of the corridor, wondering how they managed to get the desk into her office. At the bottom was a small room, with another whitewashed corridor leading off it. At the opposite end of the room there was a glass door leading out onto the street and along the far wall was a small sofa, flanked by an office water cooler and a sorry looking potted plant. Ailios gave the water cooler an uncomfortable stare. It always reminded her of one of the few times that she had permitted to enter the paranormal division building. She had been introduced the water cooler over there, who was surprisingly courteous for an office appliance that called itself ARGQUNORXQUEK THE EATER OF WORLDS. Upon exiting the old blacksmiths, Ailios was met with a gust of freezing wind which howled its way around a small courtyard. In its centre was an old well, which had been boarded up a few decades ago when the ministry expanded in to the district. The courtyard was surrounded with tall medieval townhouses and three alleyways branched out from its edge, small piles of snow had been swept into the nooks and corners that lined them. Ailios headed towards the nearest alleyway and began her journey home. Ailios found herself on one of the cities many wide boulevards which where now mostly deserted, aside from the ponies loitering near the entrances of some of the more popular pubs. This one was lined with crimson brick terraced houses; each with a small garden fenced off with low walls toped with iron railings. It had begun snowing again causing the sky to become a murky blur of bleached orange. Street lamps illuminated the gray stone pavement which extended onwards into the moving patterns of airborne snowflakes which hid whatever lay within the distance. On the right edge of the street, Ailios could see a hooded figure wrapped up in several layers of clothing and coated with a cloak that sported a blue moon motif. The mare of ether earth or pegasus geniality was sitting next to a small tin, and appeared to be somewhat content in her task despite the cold weather. Only her face was exposed, reviling that her coat and presumably her mane had been dyed dark blue. Ailios began to search her pockets, eventually finding some spare change. Whilst passing the mare she levitated the assortment of coins with her unicorn magic and dropped them into the tin, causing the loud rattle of several copper and cupronickel pieces colliding with its contents. The donation warranted a response the tins owner: “Blessings of the moon upon thee.” Ailios showed no form of acknowledgement at her remark. Instead she began walking towards the other side of the street. A sickly yellow tungsten filament lamp hung from the kitchen ceiling, directly above the small wooden dining table in its centre. The work surface on one of its walls had a chair pushed against it and was covered in a mixture of breadcrumbs, fragments of crisps and raspberry jam. From one of the room’s exits the sound of a stringed instrument being plucked slightly off key, echoed off the cream walls and wooden floor. A door at one end of the room swung open and a gust of snow laced wind swept in, followed by Ailios. She had just pushed the door closed when she noticed the head of a small teal unicorn filly peering round a corner. “Hi mum!” Lyra exclaimed. The little unicorn grinned happily at Ailios, before retreating back into the living room. Ailios gave a long sigh before removing her trench coat, hanging it by the door. As she did so, she noticed that a gray fedora had been left on the table. ‘I wondered where that went’, she thought. She then noticed the chair pushed up against the work surface. After giving the mess that had been left there a long quizzical stare, she proceeded into the living room. Adjacent to the kitchen entrance was a long padded sofa behind a small coffee table. An ornate wooden radio sat upon a windowsill, next to it was a comfortable looking armchair. Lyra was sitting on it; the blank flanked filly plucked the strings of a small lyre. Ailios began to speak. “Lyra, remember when I mentioned about when you get food…” “I’ll clean it up later!” Lyra mumbled. Chapter 2Ailios lay upon her living room sofa, reading a hardback book. The room was illuminated by the bright midmorning light, reflected off the newly lain snow. Outside a snow pony was being built and a snowball fight between the local supporters of clans Zephyr and Concord had broken out. A small lyre had been left on the armchair; its owner had gone to school a few hours before. Eachann had already left for the office where a small pile of first class post awaited him. On the windowsill, the ornate radio was playing a jazzy tune. As the track came to an end, a stallion’s voice permeated its speaker: “And now for our hourly news report. Clan Zephyr announced it intentions this morning to stop funding the Parleyford Air Patrol. A representative said that they believed it was within Caledonia’s best interests to see the end of the pre-civil war relic and that the money would be better severed helping build new industrial centres.” Ailios looked up from her book, the cramp in her neck was telling her that she had been reading long enough and needed to go to work. She closed the book, revealing the title on its cover; The Winged Unicorns of Gallia. As she attempted to stand up, the sound of somepony knocking at the front door beckoned from the room opposite. After a moment of deliberation, Ailios scurried over to the windowsill and timidly peered outside. She gasped with surprise as she witnessed an orange earth mare with a long straight mane waiting outside the front door, her flank bore the crest of the Tempest; a skyward pointing long sword with wings of gold protruding from the blade, surrounded with a halo of fire. “Catrìona Tempest!” she exclaimed. In a state of surprise, Ailios hurried to the front door. Her mind raced with various greetings, finally settling on one that she felt appropriate. Taking a deep breath, she swung the door open and with a forced grin greeted her guest: “Miss Tempest, it is good to see you again. Is there anything that you require of me?” The orange mare looked thoughtful, her stance could have been considered ladylike if it where not for a hint of adolescent slouching. Although still quite young she seemed to have an unnatural aura of wisdom about her, Ailios couldn’t decide whether she found this comforting or disturbing. Catrìona was nothing more than a child compared to her. Yet she was already a decent ornithopter pilot and rumour was that she could boil a cup of water by simply starring at it. Combined with the fact that she was the daughter of a stallion that could in essence call himself some kind of royalty, Catrìona could be more than a hoof full for most ponies. “Agent Heartsrtings, I wish to talk about the incident. That is if you are not to busy of course.” Catrìona asked courteously. “Of course not,” Ailios replied “please come in.” ‘Nopony could possibly be too busy to talk to you’ she thought to herself. The green mare stepped aside, allowing Catrìona to enter. The earth pony scanned her surroundings, apparently unsure of what to make of Ailios’ home. “I trust you’ve heard about Parleyford Air losing its funding?” Catrìona turned to face Ailios, assuming a more agitated stance. “The Zephyrs are idiots, nothing but a bunch of Equestrian flank-kissers! Most pilots are just hobbyists and volunteers, or ponies like me who need somewhere to train.” “What about the Caledonian Air Fleet?” Ailios asked. Catrìona gave her a confused glance. “That’s a non civil organisation. Besides they’re too busy trying to teach natives how to be civilised out in the colonies.” “And by that you must mean that they’re teaching them what happens when they rebel against us.” Alilos said in a gloomy tone. “You shouldn’t believe what they say in the papers.” Catrìona turned her nose up at the unicorns’ remark. “Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk about such matters. I’m here to talk to you about what I got in the post yesterday morning.” Ailios stared at her in bemusement. “Um… and what did you get in the post?” “Oh, I sent it to CI as soon as I could. I assumed that you knew about it.” “And what is ‘it’ exactly?” “The wing piece of course!” Catrìona said with impatience. “It was quite small, maybe part of the port auxiliary. But there is no way to be sure it was from my craft. It could belong to what’s his face, you know the stallion who broke his leg when he hit that tree. I suppose I was lucky when I found that duck pond, even if it was freezing cold!” By this point Ailios had had enough of Catrìona’s arrogance; “Yes, well I’m sure we will send you news if it turns anything up. But I would prefer it if you directed your inquires through official channels.” “But you are official!” Catrìona complained. “I would be if I was in my office.” Ailios responded. “But not at my home! It has a tendency to make some ponies at CI very uncomfortable.” “Oh.” The orange pony said with embarrassment. “Then I suppose I’ll be taking my leave then.” Alios opened the door for her, “Have a nice day Miss Tempest.” A few moments later, Ailios was leaning on the front door gathering her thoughts. She had been expecting some sort of Tempest ‘assistance’ with the case, but hadn’t counted on Catrìona becoming directly involved and subsequently turning up on her doorstep. Ailios looked up to a clock on a nearby wall. It reminded her that she had to get to work, regardless of whether she had been visited by a Tempest or not. Getting back onto her hooves she mumbled, “Huh, where did I put that fedora?” The muffled sound of jingling keys was followed by the metallic crunch of a lock opening. The door was pushed aside to reveal Eachann holding a small bunch of keys in his mouth. The office appeared a lot less gloomy now that the sun was up, and it looked as if the cleaners had swept out some of the dust overnight. Eachann marched over to the desk, leaving the door open. Dropping the keys in to a drawer, he noticed the morning post sat in a pile at one end of the desk. A stack of brown card envelopes stamped with various ink marks, and on top a white folded memo. Ignoring the rest of the pile, he read the message. TO: The Heartstrings. Agents Cottonspinner and Tyler have been reassigned. Lucky for you, you’re getting me instead! From: Dan. Eachann’s eyes lit up, the beige pony hurried out of the office and went downstairs. After almost knocking over the plant pot in the foyer, Eachann cantered into the ground floor corridor. Some of the offices that lined the whitewashed hallway were open and the sound of music could be heard from a nearby radio. Eachann stopped and looked into one of the open offices, the plaque on the door read MINISTRY INVESTIGATOR: DANIEL FLYLEAF. The small room was painted white like the hallway but filled with mountainous piles of files, books and papers. At the back of the room, sat behind a desk was a dark grey pegasus with an open book for a cutie mark. He was reading a stack of papers on the desk in front of him and taking sips from a half drunk and completely flat bottle of dandelion and burdock. The pegasus looked up, “Hey ‘Chann, got my note?” “Yea, I just got in. I thought you were already on something” Daniel let out a chuckle “Had me tracking an alicorn thief, it’s surprising how much the stuff can go for. But since the culprit is actually sane this time and was only stealing from university sources, they figured the police could just bring them in for a civic offence. Now I’m stuck with what got passed over from Tyler’s and ‘Spinner’s investigation.” “At least it wasn’t the same horn thief that the university caught a few months ago!” Eachann jested. “Horn thief?” Daniel sat in thought for a few seconds before beginning to snicker. “Oh, that horn thief! Erm… I’m not sure how much that would go for on the black market, but I think there are a few ponies crazy enough to buy one.” The pair continued to chuckle until the sound of somepony clearing there throat from the next room advised them to calm down. “Anyway now that you’re here, I was hoping you would help me with some archive spelunking.” “Why not?” replied Eachann. “I’ll leave a note for Ailios and meet you over there.” Ailios was wearing her grey trench coat and fedora when she walked in to her office. Removing her attire and placing under the desk she took interest in the hastily written note lying next to the pile of morning post. Aili, I’m working in the archives with Dan. See you at lunchtime! Ailios let out a long exasperated sigh as she sat down, spreading the pile across the desk with a single sweep of her hoof. It took her but a moment to find what she wanted; a brown card folder with the word urgent stamped on it. Using her unicorn magic to flip open the folder, she scanned its contents. It was not what she had hoped to find; the wing piece had been found by a farmer who had then sent it to the Tempest household. There was no lead to follow, just a paragraph asking why it was missed at the scene of the incident. Ailios looked up at the ceiling, groaning in frustration. The investigation was turning up nothing, but it had been ruled out almost from the start that this was accident. ‘Perhaps that was a mistake.’ She thought. ‘One of the unicorns could have had some kind of magical mishap, it could explain why the radios failed. But then again, Catrìona knows a little bit about magic and probably would have noticed.’ Ailios looked back down at the file, deciding to slam it shut with her unicorn magic. Moving on to the next item on the desk was a small unmarked blue envelope. Opening it revealed a postcard with a picture of a stone building with stained glass windows next to a small plaza, the site of her local Lunanatic parish. On the back somepony had written: Feel free to come in and have a chat. Ailios thought back to the evening before as a faint smile crept onto her face. Chapter 3Far beneath the streets of Parleyford, Eachann and Daniel sat in a large dark hall reading a scattering of papers silently by lamplight. The walls where fashioned as bookcases, each row containing thousands of scrolls and books reaching onwards in to the gloom beyond the pocket of lamplight. The floor was coated with a thin grey carpet and the ceiling had been carved out of the rock and was supported with ancient wooden beams. The air was cold but dry; the preservative chemicals conjured the taste of sawdust and soap in the mouths of the two stallions. A whispering echo passed by them, causing the grey pegasus to look up in surprise. Daniel stared into the darkness, unsure of what he was expecting to see. The archives where a place of mystery and wonder for him; all of Caledonia’s history was here, including the parts that the ministry didn’t want anypony to know about. It was as if the place was alive and all of history’s dark secrets would emerge from their hiding places to walk its halls when nopony was looking. Eachann on the other hoof simply dismissed these sounds as the echoes of other ponies working in the archives. Being older than Daniel, Eachann saw the archives as nothing more than a departmental asset. Clues and links hidden within the text stored here were an integral part of his job and his life. But he never saw past the raw information, preferring to leave the storytelling to his wife and daughter. Daniel looked back down at the scroll in front of him. Something about it was bothering him, after reading a few sentences he would begin to feel dizzy, sleepy or become distracted. After looking up for a few seconds his senses would return to normal. Frustrated, he decided to move on to the next of many scrolls that he would have to read. Ailios was sitting looking out of her office window, the sky had once again become a miserable murky grey and raindrops where beginning to make polka dot patterns in the snow. Above the southern part of the city a long flexible pipe reached up from behind the rooftops and disappeared into the clouds, the crew aboard the weather balloons were some of the few lucky ponies that got to see the sun during the early spring rains. This was typical Caledonian logic, to replace pegasi with machines. Since the industrial revolution the Caledonian cities had become stained with factories and the population had expanded to the extent that most of the Parleyford valley had been converted into farmland in order to support it. Even the Everfree forest, the natural barrier between Caledonia and its eastern neighbour Equestria had receeded 10 miles in the last century. Despite being considered rich nation, even after the civil war, the mood was never bright and never would be to an outsider like Ailios. Her homeland of Gallia was a land where the sun shone brightly most of the year and whose vineyards would stretch as far as the eye could see. Equestria on the other hoof was a nation that was obsessed with control. The pegasi where forced to micromanage the weather to the extent that Equestrian subjects would become fearful if they where to stray outside there borders. But despite it’s hatred for nature, Equestria was a peaceful land. It’s subjects where permitted to have any job they wished as long as they all got along with each other. Ailios looked up at the clock. The time had moved faster than she had expected and with haste she put on her coat and rushed out of the open office door. Ailios shook the rain water from her coat as she entered the café. The room was full of ponies sat around round bistro tables eating and talking. Outside the window ponies rushed past trying to get out of the rain. Navigating her way through the noisy and crowded café she spotted her husband and Daniel sitting at a window table. They had already begun to eat their lunch, but on the table next to them were an untouched plate of food and a cup of steaming black liquid. Ailios made her way over to them and sat down. “Hi, I got you your usual” Eachann said between mouthfuls. Ailios looked down at the plate, a mixture of hay and tinned dandelion inside two slices of thick granary sat upon it. Levitating the sandwich to her mouth, she took a bite. As she chewed she looked up across the table to see Daniel staring at her with an excited grin. Ailios swallowed, the sandwich fell back down onto the plate. “Daniel?” she asked Eachann let out a muffled grunt as he finished a mouthful. “Dan found something in the archives.” He said. “He’s had that stupid grin on his face for hours now.” Daniel took this as a que to start his explanation, “While we were working I found this scroll that Cottonspinner mentioned. But I couldn’t read it.” “You couldn’t read it?” Ailios asked. “No, it had been warded or something.” Daniel replied with abandon. “But I looked to see if there was and updated version of the same document available and found a description of something called Nightmare’s Echo.” “What’s this got to do with ornithopters?” Ailios interrupted. “When the relic is activated it supposedly gives the user the power to speak with the inhabitants of the moon.” Eachann explained “It was crated by the Lunanites when one of their patrons was banished into space by her sister, if you can believe that such a thing is possible.” “I’m thinking that she either killed her sister, or…” Daniel insinuated. “Perhaps Luna changed her name.” “Ugh! Not another one of your conspiracy theories.” Ailios exclaimed. “Her Holiness is likely to be related to Luna, but I serially doubt that she is Luna. Besides she had become ‘Nightmare Moon’ by the time she was banished, not to mention the fact that it may simply be all a myth. And you still haven’t explained what this has to do with ornithopters!” “I was getting to that bit.” Eachann said. “The relic has a side effect, it’s ‘echo’ or reply message causes storm clouds to appear and can somehow damage machinations. It’s said that during the civil war it caused an airship to make an emergency landing just north of where Steel Memorial plaza is now.” “So you think it was the Lunanites who caused the plane to crash?” Ailios asked. “No.” replied Daniel “The relic is in possession of the Magicians Guild. It’s on loan from a private collection at Meadtrough castle.” “Wasn’t that the place that Lyra went to on her school trip?” Ailios asked as she turned to face her husband. “Yea.” Eachann said before taking a bite of his lunch. The trio returned to eating their lunches for a moment before Ailios spoke. “I was wondering if you boys wouldn’t mind if I visited the chapel this afternoon. I’ll meet up with you later.” “Sure.” Replied Eachann. “Dan and I will head over to the Magic guild and ask around.”
Chapter 1The cold Caledonian night air was filled with the distinctive whine of an ornithopter’s twin miniature jet engines. A small group of four trainee air ponies and their pegasus instructor, flew through the darkness in formation. Wings of metal feathers swept back and forth as they passed through a pocket of low pressure, each flap creating a low thumping sound that echoed across the sky. Hung beneath the avian machines, ponies and unicorns swathed in full body flight suits, protecting them against the elements, operated the craft’s controls on the sides of their bodies. One of the larger ornithropers towards the rear of the group shuddered, its wings beating quickly to compensate for a sudden bout of turbulence. “Keep it together back there!” The pegasus commanded into his breath mask. “The heavier craft will stall easily if you don’t pay attention.” “Roger that FS.” Replied a mare’s voice in his left ear accompanied by the sound of background static. The group banked and entered a long glide as they passed low over a grassy hill, the sound wave from their jets kicking up a wave of dust from below them. Beyond the hill the dark shadows that coated the ground were broken by a bright yellow glow that hovered above the valley floor. The wings of metal began to reflect the golden aura from below them. The light revealed a city of half timbered buildings separated by chalky white streets, interrupted with an occasional green space and surrounded by historic battlements. It was unmistakeably the capital of Caledonia, the ancient fortress city of Parleyford. It was at this moment that a mild, though still quite distracting, hissing noise entered the ear of the pegasus sergeant. He was quick to dismiss it as radio interference from the city, but the noise was increasing and soon it was loud enough to get his attention. “Can anypony hear a…” A mare’s voice said in his ear, before being cut short by a loud pop, followed by an ominous silence. On the second floor of what used to be a blacksmith’s workshop, now part of the Caledonian Intelligence complex. Ailios, a pastel green unicorn mare with a lute for a cutie, was slouched against a varnished oak desk. The windows behind her had stopped letting sunlight into the now dimly lit office almost an hour ago and the old desk lamp was not helping to lighten the mood. Ailios’ job could be stressful at times, the waiting she often had to endure was certainly contributing to the problem. It was times like this that made her frustrated that she didn’t get to play the lute as often as she wanted to, but this job had given her all she had needed; a new name, Caledonian citizenship and a comfortable salary. Ailios glanced up at one of the myriad of shelves that lined the walls of her office, which were filled with dusty files and ring binders arranged in no discernable order. ‘Any machine can fail’, she thought to herself. ‘But four aircraft within close proximity crashing at the same time, is no accident. And one of the pilots happened to be the heir of clan Tempest, which makes most political groups prime suspects’. At that moment there was a knock at the office door. “Yes!” Ailios shouted whilst redirecting her gaze towards the door. The door swung open and light began to flood in from the brightly lit hallway, generating a haze of dust that swirled around the centre of the room. Ailios’ eyes took a few seconds to adjust to the outline of the earth stallion that was now entering her office. His coat was beige, with a blue tinted gray mane and his cutie was a magnifying glass. Noticing the squinting unicorn, Eachann quickly stumbled into the room whilst extending a hind hoof towards the door. After a few moments of clumsy waving he managed to push the door shut, much to the relief of Ailios’ retinas. “So?” Ailios exclaimed as she stood up, staring eagerly at the stallion. Eachann replied by impersonating a deflating balloon and rolling his eyes. Taking a step forward to look at one of the dusty shelves he said, “We got some addresses, that’s about it.” The two ponies exchanged knowing glances, it’s seamed that the mood was not the only thing that was dire. “Can you lockup?” asked Ailios, her expression conveying a sense of exhaustion. “I need to get back home to take care of Lyra.” Eachann nodded and proceeded to yawn whilst Ailios reached under the desk to retrieve a light gray trench coat. Donning the coat she walked slowly towards the door also yawning whilst doing so. “I’ll see you later, sweetie.” Ailios commented as she pulled the door open, once again squinting as she entered the narrow medieval hallway. The floorboards had been coated with cheap blue carpeting and the walls had been whitewashed, decorated with scratch marks where passing ponies had rubbed alongside it. Her eyes still half closed she continued to close the door behind her, on which there was a card plaque that read; MINISTRY INVESTIGATORS: A. HEARTSTRINGS and E. HEARTSTRINGS. Most ponies couldn’t stand the idea of working and desk job with their spouse, but working for CI was different. It was like a clan of its own, most of it members where clanless to begin with; a safeguard to prevent infiltration by political double agents. As CI agents where rarely able to socialise with anypony from outside the ministry, everypony within the ministry was both anonymous and family at the same time. Ailios was more than happy to work with her husband. Apart from her sister and her daughter Lyra, he was the family she had. Ailios made her way down a flight of uneven wooden steps at the end of the corridor, wondering how they managed to get the desk into her office. At the bottom was a small room, with another whitewashed corridor leading off it. At the opposite end of the room there was a glass door leading out onto the street and along the far wall was a small sofa, flanked by an office water cooler and a sorry looking potted plant. Ailios gave the water cooler an uncomfortable stare. It always reminded her of one of the few times that she had permitted to enter the paranormal division building. She had been introduced the water cooler over there, who was surprisingly courteous for an office appliance that called itself ARGQUNORXQUEK THE EATER OF WORLDS. Upon exiting the old blacksmiths, Ailios was met with a gust of freezing wind which howled its way around a small courtyard. In its centre was an old well, which had been boarded up a few decades ago when the ministry expanded in to the district. The courtyard was surrounded with tall medieval townhouses and three alleyways branched out from its edge, small piles of snow had been swept into the nooks and corners that lined them. Ailios headed towards the nearest alleyway and began her journey home. Ailios found herself on one of the cities many wide boulevards which where now mostly deserted, aside from the ponies loitering near the entrances of some of the more popular pubs. This one was lined with crimson brick terraced houses; each with a small garden fenced off with low walls toped with iron railings. It had begun snowing again causing the sky to become a murky blur of bleached orange. Street lamps illuminated the gray stone pavement which extended onwards into the moving patterns of airborne snowflakes which hid whatever lay within the distance. On the right edge of the street, Ailios could see a hooded figure wrapped up in several layers of clothing and coated with a cloak that sported a blue moon motif. The mare of ether earth or pegasus geniality was sitting next to a small tin, and appeared to be somewhat content in her task despite the cold weather. Only her face was exposed, reviling that her coat and presumably her mane had been dyed dark blue. Ailios began to search her pockets, eventually finding some spare change. Whilst passing the mare she levitated the assortment of coins with her unicorn magic and dropped them into the tin, causing the loud rattle of several copper and cupronickel pieces colliding with its contents. The donation warranted a response the tins owner: “Blessings of the moon upon thee.” Ailios showed no form of acknowledgement at her remark. Instead she began walking towards the other side of the street. A sickly yellow tungsten filament lamp hung from the kitchen ceiling, directly above the small wooden dining table in its centre. The work surface on one of its walls had a chair pushed against it and was covered in a mixture of breadcrumbs, fragments of crisps and raspberry jam. From one of the room’s exits the sound of a stringed instrument being plucked slightly off key, echoed off the cream walls and wooden floor. A door at one end of the room swung open and a gust of snow laced wind swept in, followed by Ailios. She had just pushed the door closed when she noticed the head of a small teal unicorn filly peering round a corner. “Hi mum!” Lyra exclaimed. The little unicorn grinned happily at Ailios, before retreating back into the living room. Ailios gave a long sigh before removing her trench coat, hanging it by the door. As she did so, she noticed that a gray fedora had been left on the table. ‘I wondered where that went’, she thought. She then noticed the chair pushed up against the work surface. After giving the mess that had been left there a long quizzical stare, she proceeded into the living room. Adjacent to the kitchen entrance was a long padded sofa behind a small coffee table. An ornate wooden radio sat upon a windowsill, next to it was a comfortable looking armchair. Lyra was sitting on it; the blank flanked filly plucked the strings of a small lyre. Ailios began to speak. “Lyra, remember when I mentioned about when you get food…” “I’ll clean it up later!” Lyra mumbled.
Chapter 2Ailios lay upon her living room sofa, reading a hardback book. The room was illuminated by the bright midmorning light, reflected off the newly lain snow. Outside a snow pony was being built and a snowball fight between the local supporters of clans Zephyr and Concord had broken out. A small lyre had been left on the armchair; its owner had gone to school a few hours before. Eachann had already left for the office where a small pile of first class post awaited him. On the windowsill, the ornate radio was playing a jazzy tune. As the track came to an end, a stallion’s voice permeated its speaker: “And now for our hourly news report. Clan Zephyr announced it intentions this morning to stop funding the Parleyford Air Patrol. A representative said that they believed it was within Caledonia’s best interests to see the end of the pre-civil war relic and that the money would be better severed helping build new industrial centres.” Ailios looked up from her book, the cramp in her neck was telling her that she had been reading long enough and needed to go to work. She closed the book, revealing the title on its cover; The Winged Unicorns of Gallia. As she attempted to stand up, the sound of somepony knocking at the front door beckoned from the room opposite. After a moment of deliberation, Ailios scurried over to the windowsill and timidly peered outside. She gasped with surprise as she witnessed an orange earth mare with a long straight mane waiting outside the front door, her flank bore the crest of the Tempest; a skyward pointing long sword with wings of gold protruding from the blade, surrounded with a halo of fire. “Catrìona Tempest!” she exclaimed. In a state of surprise, Ailios hurried to the front door. Her mind raced with various greetings, finally settling on one that she felt appropriate. Taking a deep breath, she swung the door open and with a forced grin greeted her guest: “Miss Tempest, it is good to see you again. Is there anything that you require of me?” The orange mare looked thoughtful, her stance could have been considered ladylike if it where not for a hint of adolescent slouching. Although still quite young she seemed to have an unnatural aura of wisdom about her, Ailios couldn’t decide whether she found this comforting or disturbing. Catrìona was nothing more than a child compared to her. Yet she was already a decent ornithopter pilot and rumour was that she could boil a cup of water by simply starring at it. Combined with the fact that she was the daughter of a stallion that could in essence call himself some kind of royalty, Catrìona could be more than a hoof full for most ponies. “Agent Heartsrtings, I wish to talk about the incident. That is if you are not to busy of course.” Catrìona asked courteously. “Of course not,” Ailios replied “please come in.” ‘Nopony could possibly be too busy to talk to you’ she thought to herself. The green mare stepped aside, allowing Catrìona to enter. The earth pony scanned her surroundings, apparently unsure of what to make of Ailios’ home. “I trust you’ve heard about Parleyford Air losing its funding?” Catrìona turned to face Ailios, assuming a more agitated stance. “The Zephyrs are idiots, nothing but a bunch of Equestrian flank-kissers! Most pilots are just hobbyists and volunteers, or ponies like me who need somewhere to train.” “What about the Caledonian Air Fleet?” Ailios asked. Catrìona gave her a confused glance. “That’s a non civil organisation. Besides they’re too busy trying to teach natives how to be civilised out in the colonies.” “And by that you must mean that they’re teaching them what happens when they rebel against us.” Alilos said in a gloomy tone. “You shouldn’t believe what they say in the papers.” Catrìona turned her nose up at the unicorns’ remark. “Anyway, I didn’t come here to talk about such matters. I’m here to talk to you about what I got in the post yesterday morning.” Ailios stared at her in bemusement. “Um… and what did you get in the post?” “Oh, I sent it to CI as soon as I could. I assumed that you knew about it.” “And what is ‘it’ exactly?” “The wing piece of course!” Catrìona said with impatience. “It was quite small, maybe part of the port auxiliary. But there is no way to be sure it was from my craft. It could belong to what’s his face, you know the stallion who broke his leg when he hit that tree. I suppose I was lucky when I found that duck pond, even if it was freezing cold!” By this point Ailios had had enough of Catrìona’s arrogance; “Yes, well I’m sure we will send you news if it turns anything up. But I would prefer it if you directed your inquires through official channels.” “But you are official!” Catrìona complained. “I would be if I was in my office.” Ailios responded. “But not at my home! It has a tendency to make some ponies at CI very uncomfortable.” “Oh.” The orange pony said with embarrassment. “Then I suppose I’ll be taking my leave then.” Alios opened the door for her, “Have a nice day Miss Tempest.” A few moments later, Ailios was leaning on the front door gathering her thoughts. She had been expecting some sort of Tempest ‘assistance’ with the case, but hadn’t counted on Catrìona becoming directly involved and subsequently turning up on her doorstep. Ailios looked up to a clock on a nearby wall. It reminded her that she had to get to work, regardless of whether she had been visited by a Tempest or not. Getting back onto her hooves she mumbled, “Huh, where did I put that fedora?” The muffled sound of jingling keys was followed by the metallic crunch of a lock opening. The door was pushed aside to reveal Eachann holding a small bunch of keys in his mouth. The office appeared a lot less gloomy now that the sun was up, and it looked as if the cleaners had swept out some of the dust overnight. Eachann marched over to the desk, leaving the door open. Dropping the keys in to a drawer, he noticed the morning post sat in a pile at one end of the desk. A stack of brown card envelopes stamped with various ink marks, and on top a white folded memo. Ignoring the rest of the pile, he read the message. TO: The Heartstrings. Agents Cottonspinner and Tyler have been reassigned. Lucky for you, you’re getting me instead! From: Dan. Eachann’s eyes lit up, the beige pony hurried out of the office and went downstairs. After almost knocking over the plant pot in the foyer, Eachann cantered into the ground floor corridor. Some of the offices that lined the whitewashed hallway were open and the sound of music could be heard from a nearby radio. Eachann stopped and looked into one of the open offices, the plaque on the door read MINISTRY INVESTIGATOR: DANIEL FLYLEAF. The small room was painted white like the hallway but filled with mountainous piles of files, books and papers. At the back of the room, sat behind a desk was a dark grey pegasus with an open book for a cutie mark. He was reading a stack of papers on the desk in front of him and taking sips from a half drunk and completely flat bottle of dandelion and burdock. The pegasus looked up, “Hey ‘Chann, got my note?” “Yea, I just got in. I thought you were already on something” Daniel let out a chuckle “Had me tracking an alicorn thief, it’s surprising how much the stuff can go for. But since the culprit is actually sane this time and was only stealing from university sources, they figured the police could just bring them in for a civic offence. Now I’m stuck with what got passed over from Tyler’s and ‘Spinner’s investigation.” “At least it wasn’t the same horn thief that the university caught a few months ago!” Eachann jested. “Horn thief?” Daniel sat in thought for a few seconds before beginning to snicker. “Oh, that horn thief! Erm… I’m not sure how much that would go for on the black market, but I think there are a few ponies crazy enough to buy one.” The pair continued to chuckle until the sound of somepony clearing there throat from the next room advised them to calm down. “Anyway now that you’re here, I was hoping you would help me with some archive spelunking.” “Why not?” replied Eachann. “I’ll leave a note for Ailios and meet you over there.” Ailios was wearing her grey trench coat and fedora when she walked in to her office. Removing her attire and placing under the desk she took interest in the hastily written note lying next to the pile of morning post. Aili, I’m working in the archives with Dan. See you at lunchtime! Ailios let out a long exasperated sigh as she sat down, spreading the pile across the desk with a single sweep of her hoof. It took her but a moment to find what she wanted; a brown card folder with the word urgent stamped on it. Using her unicorn magic to flip open the folder, she scanned its contents. It was not what she had hoped to find; the wing piece had been found by a farmer who had then sent it to the Tempest household. There was no lead to follow, just a paragraph asking why it was missed at the scene of the incident. Ailios looked up at the ceiling, groaning in frustration. The investigation was turning up nothing, but it had been ruled out almost from the start that this was accident. ‘Perhaps that was a mistake.’ She thought. ‘One of the unicorns could have had some kind of magical mishap, it could explain why the radios failed. But then again, Catrìona knows a little bit about magic and probably would have noticed.’ Ailios looked back down at the file, deciding to slam it shut with her unicorn magic. Moving on to the next item on the desk was a small unmarked blue envelope. Opening it revealed a postcard with a picture of a stone building with stained glass windows next to a small plaza, the site of her local Lunanatic parish. On the back somepony had written: Feel free to come in and have a chat. Ailios thought back to the evening before as a faint smile crept onto her face.
Chapter 3Far beneath the streets of Parleyford, Eachann and Daniel sat in a large dark hall reading a scattering of papers silently by lamplight. The walls where fashioned as bookcases, each row containing thousands of scrolls and books reaching onwards in to the gloom beyond the pocket of lamplight. The floor was coated with a thin grey carpet and the ceiling had been carved out of the rock and was supported with ancient wooden beams. The air was cold but dry; the preservative chemicals conjured the taste of sawdust and soap in the mouths of the two stallions. A whispering echo passed by them, causing the grey pegasus to look up in surprise. Daniel stared into the darkness, unsure of what he was expecting to see. The archives where a place of mystery and wonder for him; all of Caledonia’s history was here, including the parts that the ministry didn’t want anypony to know about. It was as if the place was alive and all of history’s dark secrets would emerge from their hiding places to walk its halls when nopony was looking. Eachann on the other hoof simply dismissed these sounds as the echoes of other ponies working in the archives. Being older than Daniel, Eachann saw the archives as nothing more than a departmental asset. Clues and links hidden within the text stored here were an integral part of his job and his life. But he never saw past the raw information, preferring to leave the storytelling to his wife and daughter. Daniel looked back down at the scroll in front of him. Something about it was bothering him, after reading a few sentences he would begin to feel dizzy, sleepy or become distracted. After looking up for a few seconds his senses would return to normal. Frustrated, he decided to move on to the next of many scrolls that he would have to read. Ailios was sitting looking out of her office window, the sky had once again become a miserable murky grey and raindrops where beginning to make polka dot patterns in the snow. Above the southern part of the city a long flexible pipe reached up from behind the rooftops and disappeared into the clouds, the crew aboard the weather balloons were some of the few lucky ponies that got to see the sun during the early spring rains. This was typical Caledonian logic, to replace pegasi with machines. Since the industrial revolution the Caledonian cities had become stained with factories and the population had expanded to the extent that most of the Parleyford valley had been converted into farmland in order to support it. Even the Everfree forest, the natural barrier between Caledonia and its eastern neighbour Equestria had receeded 10 miles in the last century. Despite being considered rich nation, even after the civil war, the mood was never bright and never would be to an outsider like Ailios. Her homeland of Gallia was a land where the sun shone brightly most of the year and whose vineyards would stretch as far as the eye could see. Equestria on the other hoof was a nation that was obsessed with control. The pegasi where forced to micromanage the weather to the extent that Equestrian subjects would become fearful if they where to stray outside there borders. But despite it’s hatred for nature, Equestria was a peaceful land. It’s subjects where permitted to have any job they wished as long as they all got along with each other. Ailios looked up at the clock. The time had moved faster than she had expected and with haste she put on her coat and rushed out of the open office door. Ailios shook the rain water from her coat as she entered the café. The room was full of ponies sat around round bistro tables eating and talking. Outside the window ponies rushed past trying to get out of the rain. Navigating her way through the noisy and crowded café she spotted her husband and Daniel sitting at a window table. They had already begun to eat their lunch, but on the table next to them were an untouched plate of food and a cup of steaming black liquid. Ailios made her way over to them and sat down. “Hi, I got you your usual” Eachann said between mouthfuls. Ailios looked down at the plate, a mixture of hay and tinned dandelion inside two slices of thick granary sat upon it. Levitating the sandwich to her mouth, she took a bite. As she chewed she looked up across the table to see Daniel staring at her with an excited grin. Ailios swallowed, the sandwich fell back down onto the plate. “Daniel?” she asked Eachann let out a muffled grunt as he finished a mouthful. “Dan found something in the archives.” He said. “He’s had that stupid grin on his face for hours now.” Daniel took this as a que to start his explanation, “While we were working I found this scroll that Cottonspinner mentioned. But I couldn’t read it.” “You couldn’t read it?” Ailios asked. “No, it had been warded or something.” Daniel replied with abandon. “But I looked to see if there was and updated version of the same document available and found a description of something called Nightmare’s Echo.” “What’s this got to do with ornithopters?” Ailios interrupted. “When the relic is activated it supposedly gives the user the power to speak with the inhabitants of the moon.” Eachann explained “It was crated by the Lunanites when one of their patrons was banished into space by her sister, if you can believe that such a thing is possible.” “I’m thinking that she either killed her sister, or…” Daniel insinuated. “Perhaps Luna changed her name.” “Ugh! Not another one of your conspiracy theories.” Ailios exclaimed. “Her Holiness is likely to be related to Luna, but I serially doubt that she is Luna. Besides she had become ‘Nightmare Moon’ by the time she was banished, not to mention the fact that it may simply be all a myth. And you still haven’t explained what this has to do with ornithopters!” “I was getting to that bit.” Eachann said. “The relic has a side effect, it’s ‘echo’ or reply message causes storm clouds to appear and can somehow damage machinations. It’s said that during the civil war it caused an airship to make an emergency landing just north of where Steel Memorial plaza is now.” “So you think it was the Lunanites who caused the plane to crash?” Ailios asked. “No.” replied Daniel “The relic is in possession of the Magicians Guild. It’s on loan from a private collection at Meadtrough castle.” “Wasn’t that the place that Lyra went to on her school trip?” Ailios asked as she turned to face her husband. “Yea.” Eachann said before taking a bite of his lunch. The trio returned to eating their lunches for a moment before Ailios spoke. “I was wondering if you boys wouldn’t mind if I visited the chapel this afternoon. I’ll meet up with you later.” “Sure.” Replied Eachann. “Dan and I will head over to the Magic guild and ask around.”
