Arc 2- 3 (Investigating the Investigators)

“Gooooood afternoon, Canterlot! DJ-Pon3 here to bring you the news about what’s going on in Equestria! I know, I know, you’re all thinking ‘But DJ, we could care less about the news! Give us some music!’ and I say to you: Relax. You’ll get your music. We’re going to spice things up a bit from the regular schedule to introduce some new rising stars. Including: Three Barns Up, Ghostie Hunter, some Firefly, Dissipation and Chain Link Park. But news comes first!”

DJ-Pon3 clears her throat and for dramatic effect shuffles papers in front of her microphone.

“Let’s see here. First thing’s first, the Martial Law that’s in effect is to be taken very seriously. I’m serious guys, don’t screw around with the Guards, they’re on a hair trigger here. Secondly, the terrorists responsible for the attacks on Ponyville have been, I quote: ‘Eradicated with extreme prejudice’. End quote. That’s right! Those guys that have been terrorizing our beautiful nation have been taken out by our brave mares and colts in armor. Be sure to give them a hug and a big, generous thank you if your special somepony wears armor. They deserve it. However, that’s not to say that the terrorists are out for the count. So be careful and vigilant when helping our guardians. Thirdly, this one is interesting, there is a rumor that Shining Armor is doing a full investigation into the Equestrian Investigation Bureau. This little investigation is definitely ruffling Brisk Wind’s feathers. Let me see if I can find a quote from her in this messy pile of... of... huh, so that’s where my snack went. And here it is!”

DJ-Pon3 clears her throat before she talk again, this time she’s using a poor impersonation of Brisk Wind’s voice. “‘I’m sure Shining Armor is a nice colt with the best intentions, but there are places for brawns and there are places for brains. Our ponies protect the citizens of Equestria using brains while Captain Armor’s ponies use brawns. We do not try to understand why the Guards do things their way and they should not try to understand why we do things our way’.”

DJ-Pon3 makes a drawn out whistle, followed by a seething sound, and when she talks again, she’s using her normal voice. “I don’t know about you guys, but Brisk Wind sounded snappy there.” DJ-Pon3 makes a feisty cat hiss, then she chuckles. “Okay, I got one last piece of news for you before I give you guys your daily dose of music. The Rehabilitation Program is in full swing! Yep, you heard me right! Under a plan crafted by Brisk Wind herself, the Rehabilitation Program will take jailed ponies -that are still serving their sentences, mind you- and reintroduce them into society by rehabilitating them to be better ponies. Send me a letter or give me a call about what you guys think about this move. But not now, now is the time for music!”

++++++++++

Shining Armor limps into a large, brightly lit, crowded room with ponies doing analytical work. They had recently assaulted the League of Justice’s headquarters, and thanks to what Trixie had shared, their victory was quick and decisive. He couldn’t join because of his injuries, even though tradition said that Captains of the Royal Guard always joined their troops in major battles. But apparently a doctor’s note, a long and painful argument with the misses, and a scolding by Celestia overruled that tradition. But now that the battle is over, the teams of analysts back at the Royal Guard Headquarters are analyzing the flood of audio recordings and notes. There is a lot that they have to go through, crowding the room to near suffocation levels with large tables that have tape recorders playing back audio recordings, tables with ponies comparing notes -and in some cases, deciphering horrible writing-, and then there are the ponies with the most mind numbingly boring of jobs: organizing and storing all the data. Because there is so much activity going on in the already stuffed room, Shining Armor had ordered the air conditioning to be put on at full blast. The cool rush of air being pushed down from the ceiling from the giant fans doesn’t do much, but it’s enough to keep the analysts from falling asleep due to heat fatigue. If anything, the sudden brushes of cold air might jolt them out of their boredom induced trances.

Shining Armor sighs heavily and limps through the rows of analysts, occasionally listening in to what they are saying, but mostly to see if they are doing their jobs. Some of the analysts glance at Shining Armor and realize how weary he is. His movements are even more sluggish, the bags under his eyes are more defined, his eyes are distant, and now his mane and tail are not  as well kept as his uniform, which is still kept in pristine appearance.

Shining Armor had arrived at the analyzing room, much to the dismay of Cadence, because he needs to see what his soldiers went through. He couldn’t be there for them so this is the least he could do. Besides, he got an urgent letter regarding an audio recording that had something to do with Roar Shock. Just that name alone makes Shining Armor twitch with anger. He believes Roar Shock to be the catalyst of all the chaos that’s going on in Equestria, and he sincerely hopes that the terrorist leader is dead, but the one who analyzed  the recording, a new mare named Aural Wave, sounded very nervous in the letter she sent. So he’s guessing that the news regarding Roar Shock is not as good as he’s hoping it will be.

When Shining Armor gets to the very back of the analyzing room he enters a smaller room where Brisk Wind and Aural are waiting for him. Aural is an earth pony that has with a buttery coat and a green mane and tail with red streaks, and her cutie mark is a megaphone in a circle.

Shining Armor and Brisk Wind exchange cold glares as he enters the room, and as soon as the door closes he looks at Aural.

“What did you find?” asks Shining Armor.

“I don’t think Roar Shock is dead, sir,” says Aural uneasily.

“Okay, now that Captain Armor is finally here you can play that tape.” Brisk Wind says moodily.

Aural nods her head quickly and presses down on the play button. The device clicks on and tapes make a whirring noise as they spin. A few seconds later the audio plays. It’s jumbled at first, but Shining Armor can make out someone talking, and it gets clearer after a good twenty seconds have passed.

“So this is the Bird Cage, huh?” snickers the soldier using the device, pot shots of gunfire can be heard in the background.

“Oh man, just look at the size of this place,”  another soldier says in wonder.

“Okay, you know the drill, get inside and clear it out.”

There are jumbled responses that acknowledge the order, some are professional but most are childish at best. They hear the soldiers stomp down the steps while orders are being casually said. But Shining Armor jaw tightens when he hears something that sounds like turbine engines whirring to life. It’s faint at first, but it gets louder and the soldiers start swearing and firing blindly at whatever is making that noise. Then he hears familiar electric shots, explosions and soldiers screaming in pain and fear as metal groans and snaps, causing whatever was shot to collapse.

“Take it out!” barks the soldier with the recorder.

The soldiers shouts are incoherent over the gunfire, explosions, and feedback on the device. Shining Armor finds himself inching closer and getting more and more nervous as the electric shots continue to tear apart the troops. Then there is another explosion and what sounds like the engine sputtering and whining in protest followed by a loud banging noise and more objects collapsing to the ground. The soldier that shot down the mysterious attacker is congratulated as the soldiers move in.

“Flank it! Flank it! Make sure it’s dead!” shouts the same soldier.

The crackling fire and sparks are barely heard over the thunderous hoof steps that dominate the sound from the recorder. When they reach whatever it is they shot down, they gasp and murmur in confusion at what they’re looking at. Shining Armor’s ears twitch when he hears the engines sputter their last breath. He knows this is not over and he has a gut wrenching feeling that’s telling him what happens next will be horrible.

“What the hay is that?” wonders one of the soldiers.

“I don’t know, it kinda looks like an alien robot or somethin’,” says another.

“Well I think it’s dead, it’s not moving,” says the soldier with the recorder.

One of the soldier’s kicks the “machine”, making a dong noise.

“Dibs on that tail blade,” jokes a soldier, obviously fresh from camp.

The soldiers get into a playful argument about who gets what for their trophy. Then a stallion in the background shouts something in a mix of fury and anguish. The soldiers swear and the chaotic shooting returns with orders being barked and over the soldiers swearing.

“Up top! Up top!”

“Their flanking us!”

As the group listens in, the blood drains from their face when whatever it was that the soldiers shot down gets back up. The pieces of this “machine” whir and click, and it stomps on the ground, surely leaving prints where it stomped judging from the deafening banging noises that it made when it got up.

“Oh shit! That thing is back up!”

“Kill it! Kill it!”

“Our bullets aren’t working!”

There is muffled voice that screams for whoever the assailant is to take cover; the name said was hard to understand over the chaos in the room. The surviving soldiers continue firing and shouting and one by one they die with agonizing screams mixed with wet slices or bone crushing blows. A minute later, there is mostly silence. Shining Armor listens in carefully as he hears someone painfully and weakly gasping for air mixing with that of muffled panicked, grief stricken breathing.

“I-I’m sorry, Shock... I-I’m sorry... I thought they killed you,” whispers the fallen weakly.

“Stay with me, okay?... Look at me. Stay with me... Stay with me, you’re going to make it,” cries this thing, most likely Roar Shock, softly. “No, don’t close your eyes. Look at me.”

Shining Armor is sure that Roar Shock removed his helmet when he hears a hissing noise, followed by a pop and metal clanging to the ground.

“See? Look at me. You see my eyes right?... Yeah?... Good. Good. You’re going to make it, okay? I’m going to get you out, I just need you to stay awake and look at me,” says Roar Shock, his voice sounds gruff and scratchy without his helmet on, but the listeners can picture the tears flowing from his eyes just from his tone.

His fallen comrade whispers something that no one can understand except for Roar Shock, and they can hear him sob and whimper and beg his friend not to go.

“No, no please. Please don’t go. Oh please, Luna... No. Not him too. Not him. Nononono. Oh no. Luna, no!” sobs Roar Shock.

There is more sobbing and begging, and the soldier with the recorder groans and shifts in his spot. His breath is labored and painful at first, but something happens where they hear his breathing change to sporadic fear and hear his hooves desperately scrape on the ground to get away. The metallic stomping and the terrified begging and agonizing screaming sends shivers up the spine in everyone’s room. Roar Shock shouts something indiscernible and the soldier howls in pain as the tail blade stabs him; the screaming is brought to an end by what sounds like multiple, furious stomps. Everyone in the room cringes as they hear bones snap over the furious screaming and mechanical stomping; the audio is so horrifying that it brings Aural to tears. When the gruesome execution is finished, heavy breathing is heard on the other end, really close to the microphone. Roar Shock sniffles and and brings the recorder up and starts speaking.

“I tried to save Equestria from the vermin and corruption that have violated my home, our nation, our lives! And rather than helping us you interfer. Rather than fighting for what is right you do this! You come into my home, spill the blood of my FAMILY! MY SISTERS! MY BROTHERS!... I now see that Equestria is beyond salvation... You may have won this battle, but you will lose this war... Justice is coming for all of you.”

The audio abruptly ends and Shining Armor stares at the tape as it lazily slows to a stop, then he glances up at Brisk Wind and sees that she looks worried for once. Aural also looks like she’s ready to puke from the anxiety she’s feeling, and when Shining Armor looks at her she starts talking.

“When the soldiers got there, they found the whole team dead and the tape recorder was in poor condition. There was nopony around, except for the fallen soldiers and some fallen terrorists,” says Aural anxiously.

“What about the pony Roar Shock spoke to?” asks Shining Armor.

“We’re still identifying the bodies, but I’m guessing he took the body with him to give him a proper burial.”

Shining Armor dismisses Aural, and when she’s gone he turns his attention to Brisk Wind; her icy blue coat is paler than usual and her eyes are transfixed on the the slowly spinning tapes.

“We need to tell Princess Celestia that Roar Shock is still alive,” says Shining Armor sternly.

“I’ll tell her the news, you don’t look so well,” says Brisk Wind, she’s still staring at the tape recorder.

“I think we should both tell her.”

“Captain, look at you. You look like you’re about to collapse on the job.”

“Now is not the time for naps, Director.”

“How can you even think straight when you’re running on an hour of sleep?”

Shining Armor furrows his brow, she does have a point, but he doesn’t trust her. He trusts diamond dogs more than he trusts her. Brisk Wind looks at Shining Armor, expecting him to answer her question, even though it sounded rhetorical in nature to the Captain.

“Director, I appreciate your concern for my well being, but this is a matter that pertains to national security on the highest levels and I must be present to tell her,” says Shining Armor as patiently as he can muster, which at this point is not much.

“I understand that, but you are in no condition to meet Celestia,” says Brisk Wind sternly. “Go home, go to your wife, and sleep. You’ll feel and look much better and you’ll think clearer.”

“Fine, I’ll go home.”

Brisk Wind smiles.

“But only if you give me the files I requested,” says Shining Armor abruptly.

Brisk Wind’s smile is instantly replaced with a large frown and her eyes narrow to that of slits.

“Are you serious,” sneers Brisk Wind.

“If I’m going to be relaxing at home then I might as well do some work,” says Shining Armor coolly.

“That’s not how relaxing works! When you relax, you go home and you sleep! You don’t go asking for more work! Especially when that work is an investigation that Celestia doesn’t want you doing!”

“Technically she didn’t say she doesn’t want me doing it, she just doesn’t like the idea-”

“Which means you don’t do it.”

“Of me doing it because she-Director, in this time we must be cooperative and our departments must be open to one another!”

“You’re unbelievable! Cooperation doesn’t mean investigation!”

“Right, cooperation means we’re open to one another. You show me what you have and I’ll show you what I have and together we can get Roar Shock.”

“And what could you possibly have that will be of value to me?”

Shining Armor smirks and limps out of the room without saying a word. Brisk Wind stares at him, not convinced that he has something, but when the door closes something snaps in her mind and her wings extend from excitement. Maybe he does have something after all. And if he does, in fact, have something that she doesn’t, then she wants it. And she wants it now.

Brisk Wind hastily pushes open the door and marches with determination after him. As they weave their way between the rows of working ponies, Brisk Wind tries to hold her dignity even though she’s borderlining begging Shining Armor to tell her what he knows. When they are near the exit, Brisk Wind flies over Shining Armor and blocks his way out. Shining Armor stops and yawns for the first time in hours while Brisk Wind ruffles her feathers to show the she is in charge now. She will get those mysterious files one way or the other.

“Captain Armor, you will tell me what you know right this instant!” orders Brisk Wind.

“Give me your files then,” says Shining Armor tiredly.

“Fine, I’ll send them to your office, but I want what you know on my desk no later than tomorrow.”

“Deal. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to tell Celestia about the threat.”

Shining Armor winces and his horn sputters pathetically as weak magical sparks shoot out the tip and magical fluids trickle down through the unhealed cracks on his horn. Brisk Wind is briefly covered in the rosy aura of his magic, and she shifts slightly to the left of the doorway, but not enough for the unicorn to pass. His attempt to move Brisk Wind only leaves him with a skull splitting headache and the fond memory of him at the hospital being told to keep magic use to the bare minimum. Shining Armor grumbles and rubs his horn, it has a throbbing sensation in it now, and this time it’s Brisk Wind’s turn to smile smugly.

“Oh, it looks like that horn of yours is giving you a nasty headache, you really need to rest,” says Brisk Wind sardonically.

“You don’t say,” Shining Armor says in a tone that matches Brisk Wind’s.

Then, with a quick motion of his good forehoof, he slides Brisk Wind out of the way and she scoffs hatefully with the massive amount of disrespect she had just received. Shining Armor limps down the polished hallway, doing his best to marvel at the beautiful snow white pillars and the gold trims they have, as well as the stained glasses that depict epic stories of Equestrian history. Then, of course, there is the tiled floor, which is polished so well that he can see his reflection on the artistic rendering of Celestia’s power. However, all that great sight seeing is hard to enjoy when one is stalked by a narcissistic pegasus.

“Captain Armor, stop walking this instant!” orders Brisk Wind.

Shining Armor looks over his shoulder, still limping, and watches Brisk Wind fly after him with a fire in her eyes. She lands next to him and matches her trot with his limp; Shining Armor doesn’t give her the benefit of eye contact.

“The deal was I give you what you want and you go home and sleep,” says Brisk Wind angrily. “So if you go to with me to tell Princess Celestia about Roar Shock then I will declare our deal null and void.”

“Who said I was going in pony? I’m going to my office to write a letter to the Princess, addressing the situation, and then I’ll send it and be on my way back home,” says Shining Armor; he yawns again after finishing his sentence.

“That wasn’t the deal!”

“No, the deal was I wouldn’t accompany you to Celestia’s chambers in exchange for information on both of our accounts. I won’t be going physically but I will still tell Celestia, via letter, of what’s going on because that is the responsible thing to do. Why don’t you want me in the chambers with you anyway?”

“You’re giving Celestia a letter is telling her what she’ll already know is just plain stupid, Captain. And for the record, I don’t want you with me because you look disgraceful and lack of sleep leads to ponies saying and doing stupid things. I, myself, and fully awake and functioning at peak capacity so my thoughts are clear.”

“Well luckily for you I won’t be seeing the Princess face to face, she’ll only see my typed message.”

Brisk Wind stops dead in her tracks, her jaw drops in disbelief and she makes a small, pathetic “Huh”-squeak hybrid. Jealous thoughts buzz in her mind like a swarm of angry bees as she wonders how Shining Armor is able to get a typewriter when she, the Director of the EIB, has to go through a stack of papers just to get a new coffee machine. Shining Armor, on the other hand, smiles again and continues his limping. Another small victory for the Captain of the Royal Guard.

“I’d love to stay and chat, Director, but I have a letter to type and I don’t want to keep you from your duties,” says Shining Armor, still holding his complacent tone.

Brisk Wind grits her teeth and trembles with great anger and annoyance as she watches Shining Armor hobble away from her. When Shining Armor is a dozen or so paces away from the angry pegasus, she whines and sporadically stomps her hooves like a filly throwing a temper tantrum. She absolutely despises the amount of unfairness she’s receiving. She knows he’s getting the good stuff just because he’s married to Celestia’s niece!

By the time Brisk Wind done throwing her fit, her mane and tail have lost their well kept look and the strands of hair are now all over the place. She also finds herself sweating with the loose strands of her mane hanging down in front of her eyes. She takes a deep breath and slowly breathes out through the nose while closing her eyes. When icy blue pegasus opens her eyes, she wipes the strands from her line of sight and then glances at her side to see a couple of Royal Guards staring at her. She knows that they want to laugh at her behind their stoic, stone still expressions. Brisk Wind opens her mouth to say something, but ends up scoffing and taking flight instead; she’s simply too aggravated to walk or talk.

=**********=

Shining Armor walks into his grand office for the sole purpose of typing the letter to Celestia. His office has a great view of Canterlot, and before the population boom that led to the towering steel buildings dominating the view he would enjoy staring out the window to look at the elegant buildings. But now he only sees huge, not-so-elegant buildings and zeppelins floating in designated paths with their messages displayed for all to see. Plus, with all the combustion engine vehicles driving around the once white city now has a layer of smog over it that gives the place a slight gray tint to it.

Shining Armor sighs and closes the curtains, blocking the view and all sunlight and leaving his only source of light to be the crystal chandelier hanging down from the decorative ceiling. He’s glad to finally have a fabled typewriter in his possession, even though it forced him to get another desk since the device took up just about every bit of space he had on his original desk. The typewriter would be a metallic eyesore for ponies of high standards like Rarity; but confound the enormous hooves! They are the reasons why the buttons are so big in the first place! And the big size does make it a bit awkward to use since some of the buttons require him to lean forward a smidge to push. Then there’s the ink cartridge, the cartridge is like a blocky bulge on the typewriter’s backside and has already leaked on him twice, leaving a dried puddle of ink that dripped down the back of the desk and stained the carpet. But despite its aggravating flaws, he can see why earth ponies and pegasi would want to own a typewriter. It’s a horrible experience writing with your mouth, and Shining Armor found that out the hard way after trying to sign his doctor’s contract after he was submitted to the hospital to fix his horn and leg.

Shining Armor sits down in his velvety seat in front of the typewriter and stares at it with one word on his mind.

Sleep.

But he refuses to sleep, and even if he wanted to, he can’t. What happened to him and in Ponyville cannot be allowed to happen to anyone else. And what he saw happened to Trixie is also completely unacceptable. He rubs his eyes as he recalls the nasty experience at the hospital; from hearing Twilight begging the doctors to fix him up, to Cadence being brought to tears when he was transferred to the Canterlot Royal Guard Hospital, and, of course, the healing spells that turned out to be just as painful as his original injuries. But even after the healing spells were performed, his horn or leg didn’t mend all the way, and his horn feels pressure just by lifting a piece of paper. Then there is the incident where he just stood by and watched Brisk Wind torture Trixie for answers. The screams still haunt him and the guilt for not doing anything to stop it is part of the reason why he can’t sleep. Cadence so far thinks his insomnia is work related, and she’s right since he was “working” to find answers as well, but he can’t let her know what he allowed to happen. He sincerely hopes that his investigation into the EIB will bring closure to Trixie and whoever else fell under Brisk Wind’s horrible actions.

Shining Armor grumbles under his breath about his “stupid horn” as he levitates the sheets of paper into the designated slot in his typewriter. He’s about to push the first, jumbo sized button on the typewriter, but stops and bites his lips to think for a moment. Then when he realizes what he has to do his ears droop and he walks over to a large picture of him, his parents, Twilight, and Cadence hanging up on the wall. He nudges it aside, opens up a decent sized safe, and uses his teeth to pull out a stack of paper wrapped in a brown wrapping paper and tied together with thin string. He carries it back to his desk and pulls the string off, which leads to the brown wrapping paper to roll open, making a crackling sound in the process, and reveals the stack of papers on the inside. They are labeled:

Equestrian Investigation Bureau

-Testimonies/Complaints-

Shining Armor smacks his lips together and looks at the typewriter and realizes that he’s going to be in his office for a while. Cadence is going to kill him.

He’s about to type again, but he’s once again distracted. This time it’s by a light rapping on his office door.

“Door’s open,” says Shining Armor as he starts his letter.

A unicorn mare walks in with a basket of files levitating above her head and she informs him that they are all the files he requested. Shining Armor gets out of his seat, takes the basket in his mouth and thanks her with a quick nod. After she leaves he goes back to his desk, puts the basket down, and sits in his seat to continue his letter. But as soon as he sits down he gets a sudden surge of unbelievable comfort. The comforting feeling is so amazing that he closes his eyes, takes a deep breath, and relaxes. His body might as well have sung him psalms proclaiming how merciful he is, since his eyelids have been feeling like they have the weight of Equestria pushing down on them and the rest of him felt ready to fall apart into a messy pile. And now that he has closed his eyes, his whole body is washed over in a blissful, relaxing sensation.

When he opens his eyes he feels like someone smacked his cheek with a board, his mouth feels dry, and his cheek pressed against the desk with an embarrassingly large puddle of drool originating from where his mouth is and seeping over the end with droplets splattering on the carpet below. When he lifts his head up, his cheek refuses to leave the desk for a moment, giving him an awkward tugging feeling. He stands up, shakes himself off and opens up the curtain to find none other than a cloudy night sky and an almost completely dead city.

Shining Armor sighs, rubs his eye and heads back to his seat, then he goes back to staring at his typewriter. Cadence is definitely going to kill him.