Canterlot. A city of grandiose, glamour and dreams, founded many centuries ago and the capital of the fair Kingdom of Equestria. It's night lights are astounding when seen from the balcony of the hotel room, and the cool breeze blown from the mountains is the icing on the cake. Surely, a magnificent evening.
You could go into the streets, to see the world famous restaurants opening, the equally famous theatres all over the place, showing a wide variety of arts, such as dances, musical performances, poetry, movies… You could also see the bars, now starting to fill up with the everyday workers, all seeking to have a good time with their friends, and blow away the steam of another day of hard work, the well-lit parks were starting to fill up with romantic couples… Night life on Canterlot was something amazing to behold.
All of this, under the gaze of the fabulous Canterlot Castle and the two watching eyes of the two goddess-princesses.
In fact, Canterlot is one of the few cities that weren't deformed by the new age, with all its smoke, big machines and noises, all because their magic - the one provided by the two princesses and their mighty scholars - is enough to keep the city on par with any of the bigger, uglier, more modernized ones, such as Crystolia or Griffonia, which recently became symbols of development.
Remarkable, considering that both those cities are ruled by greedy military oligarchies. Canterlot, though, was by far the greatest cultural and magical center in the known world, and even dictators such as Sombra admitted that.
I went inside as a blast of cold wind hit me, closing the glass doors, when I found something on the entrance carpet. An envelope, with no markings regarding the sender, but three words written in a dark shade of red: "To Mr. Winter".
I didn't bother to check the hallway for the pony who left it, for if he did his job decently, he would be long gone. I rip the unmarked wax seal off, and pull the paper from within, to find a message written in beautiful calligraphy:
"Mr. Fledging Winter,"
The letter said,
"I hope you're properly settled in the accommodations I arranged for you, and enjoying your stay at the Canterlot Mountaintop Hotel. I also hope you're getting properly rested, for you have a lot of work on your hooves for the next few days.
Your target this time goes by the name of 'Lavender Breeze', and has been showing suspicious behavior for the last few days. Since this letter has been written in such short notice after the discovery of the facts, no background research could be made, except for her appearance, and her supposed workplace.
'Lavender Breeze' is a young unicorn mare of lavender coat and burgundy mane, and works at a small flower stand at the Princesses' Plaza. Your task is to follow her, discover where she is keeping the assumed hostage, clear the situation, and inform us of the extent of the damages.
If you are half the hunter my sources say you are, this task shall be no challenge.
I shall congratulate you personally,
The Duchess"
The letter meant that the next few days would be busy if nothing else, and enjoying Canterlot's night would be something for a later visit. In fact, this job was the main reason I came here in the first place.
I slid the letter back into the envelope, and went to lie down on the couch by the fireplace, in hope of getting a proper night of sleep before a job with full potential to be wild goose chasing. Still, it's a work that must be done, and I would do my best on it. And, details aside, the pay is quite good.
Sleep filled my eyes as I got comfort from the gentle heat of the fireplace, and before I knew, I was in the land of dreams.
I woke up as morning came, ready for a day's work. I checked my saddlebags for all the equipment I might need; lockpicks, rope, a temporary "Servant of Equestria Security Force" badge, an enchanted, filled gemstone and my most important possession, my gun. The latter was a work of art, having been made especially for me by a dear friend at times now past, with a beautifully worked silver handle, and many runes engraved at the barrel, should things go awry and in need of, say, flaming bullets. A truly unique revolver, and given it's medium size, also not much of a burden. Along with it, there were two ammo boxes, one with some eighteen normal bullets, and the other with six bullets engraved with runes.
The morning ritual went on; I took a bath, brushed my teeth, groomed my marvellous brown mane and cream colored coat, and thought about getting some breakfast before going on to the "battlefield". I found a shirt and a long coat on my luggage, quickly fit in, and concealed my gun in a hidden holster.
Once ready, I went to the hotel's coffee shop in order to get some breakfast and read the news, and apparently the tension among the gryphon's borders were getting hotter. Times war of were coming, and soon.
And thus, with some food in my stomach and a cup of coffee, I took the tram to the mountain's base, the city proper. Finding the Princesses Plaza was rather easy; above it were two enormous bronze statues, one for Celestia and the other for Luna, displaying all their might. The statues were not only a great feat of art and engineering but also greats feats of magic, for they were enchanted, and capable of changing their poses, once commanded to do so. Extraordinary artwork, and symbols for this city where magic had beaten industry.
The plaza itself was a lovely place, a vast circle of white tiles with the towering statues in the center, and quite a few fountains and gardens dotting the surroundings. On the very edge, there were the commerce stands, most of them selling artisan products or imported goods from the surrounding provinces and nations. It was a truly comfortable, enjoyable place to be in, especially because it didn't have a lot of movement during a weekday.
And there it was, the flower stand, ran by a mare fitting my description for Lavender Breeze. By then, it was a matter of paying attention, and keeping out of her sight. All seemed to be going normally, a morning with few sales, enough to get through the day's meals, and occasional jolly chit-chat with the other stand attendants... Nothing out of the ordinary. If I really wanted to confirm the Duchess' suspicions, I'd have to put on a more daring plan.
Following the mare home when she went for lunch proved to be a fruitless idea; she just went and had a sunflower sandwich at a nearby restaurant, never being too far away from the flower stand, or even far away enough for me to inspect it… It took the whole evening for her to close the shop and go home, and were it not for the few aged stallions playing chess, I'd be obviously spotted by anypony who wondered why would somepony do nothing for the whole day, sitting on the plaza of one of the busiest cities of the kingdom, during a fair summer Thursday.
As the mare went home, I made sure not to be noticed by her, shuffling through the crowd of ponies coming home from work, and also taking care not to lose her from my sight, as she went through avenues and side roads, until she finally stopped at a white, two story red roofed house in a common neighborhood. Nothing roused my suspicions about the place from the outside, seemingly well-kept, with several flower patches on the small backyard, each with more than a dozen differently colored flowers, probably those being the ones who sustained her living.
As the sun fell behind the horizon, and the movement died down, I came close to the front door to inspect the lock. It was a common model, but I also sensed a charm had been cast upon it. Any pick-locking attempts would be foiled either by a magical block or an alarm ringing through the house, and neither would be a good option for me. Checking the back door, I found it to be on a similar state.
The next step were the windows, and I was lucky to find that the kitchen one was closed, but it's lock had not been latched. Pushing it up, I made it inside the house, and what I saw shocked me. The kitchen was in pieces, as if raided, and there were signs of fighting all over it. Coincidentally, it seemed to not have been used in quite some time, for spider webs were starting to appear around the chairs, and dust was mounting over the counters.
Then, the Duchess' accusations were right, there was something wrong here. Maybe I was really hunting for a changeling. But they never came this deep in the city, or stayed so much time! Not only the risks of being caught were high, it was also practically impossible for someone to disappear and not be missed! And a changeling could only feed for so much time on the same victim, they needed to find new prey frequently, so what was this one's reason to be there?
Deep inside, I still wish I hadn't discovered.
Magically drawing my revolver from the hidden holster, I explored the rest of the first floor - an abandoned living room, a recently used toilet, and a stairway to the second floor.
I knew what I should find when I climbed the stairs, there would be a changeling, a dead body, some blood and a shot being fired from my gun, as it always happened, but this time my curiosity was aroused. I was going to ask some questions to my quarry, before the arrest.
I opened my gun, and switched the normal bullets for my rune-engraved ones, and my horn lit to activate a paralysis rune on the barrel, now glowing yellow. Floating it in front of me, I dashed stairs up. Up there, was a small corridor and two doors, one on the left, and one on the right, both of the same white that covered the walls, but there was also a strange, greenish glow coming from underneath the left one. Gun pointed in front of me, I bashed it open.
The changeling, now in its real appearance, full of holes, slim horn and the wings of a fly, was sitting beside half the body of a mare, presumably Lavender Breeze, which was held by magic over what seemed to be some kind of altar.
Shoving aside the will to puke, I once again readied my gun, and fired a shot at the changeling, whose eyes darted to the door the moment I smashed them open. Surprisingly, the bullet splattered away inches before hitting its mark. A changeling using advanced shielding magic? That was surely something new for me. Also new was to see a sacrificial altar in the middle of a mare's room, and the upper half of said mare's body floating upon the altar. No matter what, this wasn't a simple infiltration mission on the changeling's part.
I fired another three shots, and though the shield held the first two, the third one broke through the shield, which was, even if strong, an amateur job, and hit the changelings front leg. After a second, a wave of electricity spread out from where the bullet had hit, and the changeling was paralyzed, a puzzling smirk on its face, its eyes following me as I trotted towards the "altar". Actually, it wasn't made of stone, but pieces and planks of wood covered by a white, thin blanket, that had glowing runes written over in a dark tone of red that looked sickly like blood. Most certainly, it was from the victim.
The mare in question, most certainly Lavender Breeze, was missing from the waist down, and the would be wound had no signs of ever bleeding, but there clearly was blood still on the body, as I could see the blood vessels from the cut. It was strange, as if the blood stopped pumping, and the whole body stopped working, as if it was… Frozen in time? But freezing time is a high level spell, something even a specialist would have a hard time creating, and sustaining it for this much time, would require enormous amounts of magic…
"The new runes we developed are great," said the changeling, and I quickly turned to see that it had escaped from the paralysis spell, something that should've last for at least one hour before fading… "What, you're surprised I freed myself so quickly from that petty spell? You didn't really think I would be bound by it for much time after draining those two, did you?"
"Those… Two?" I said, my eyes widening, my gun floating up to point at the changeling.
"What? You didn't know? One hell of a hunter you are, not even making a background check on your cases…" Said the changeling, a cruel tone on its voice. "Didn't you wonder why I'm so powerful? It's because the love they felt for each other was so great… And the foal was specially delicious."
At the sound of the last sentence, my reason went away. In my blind rage, my horn fired magic towards the gun, and another set of runes, red this time, lit up. The two shots came out like the breath of a dragon, flames coming out of the barrel and in the direction of the changeling. As if that wasn't enough, I fired blasts of wild magic in its direction, in my blind rage. Once I recovered control, the changeling's body was laying on the ground, covered in still smoldering burns and bruises.
A blind rage, brought forth by memories of the past… But quickly after the last breath of life escaped the changeling's body, I heard a lump sound, as that of something falling, and then a squishy sound… I looked back, and saw the mare's remnants laying on the makeshift altar, no longer levitating, and the blood flowing from her massive wound.
I noticed how her eyes opened and she looked at me, how her mouth opened and she grasped for air, and the frightening shriek that came once the pain got to her, and how she passed out from the pain and loss of blood, and how the last breath of air left her lungs, and how I stood there, doing nothing on my shock, not even trying to kill her so she didn't need to go through the pain…
My legs gave away below me, and I fell to the ground.
