NaNoWriMo2015 Oneshot Colletction

Flux could only look at Moonlight. “Fun? Fun?!” she asked in a tone Neutral knew well. And really wished Moonlight hadn’t been able to bring out. “That was not fun! What made you think in any way that it was a good idea to antagonize a Royal Guard like that!”

“That he was a Royal Guard in the first place, part of the Solar House Guard, rather than a Police Guard, Intelligence Guard, Lunar Agent or even MP,” Moonlight answered without anything that could be called hesitation or nervousness. Neutral was beginning to think she had something against Royal Guards. “Those ones at least ostensibly follow enforce the law. Royal Guards are traditionally the right hand of the Princesses,” she explained with a shrug, causing Neutral to amend his earlier thought to her having something against the Princesses.

“Why?” Event asked, voicing the question all three of them had. “What do you have against them or the Princesses?”

Moonlight looked between the three of them with a frown for a moment. Then, she gained a sort of dawning look of comprehension. “She never told you, did she?” Moonlight said more than asked. “Well, suffice to say it is direct relation to Starry’s roasted alicorn. I’m pretty sure a Royal Decree prevents me from saying any more, if even that much isn’t blocked.”

It took a moment to process, but very suddenly, Neutral had at least some idea of what had made Moonlight so easily angered by the Royal Guards. “And what do you mean, what do they want us for?! You broke a Royal Guard’s leg!” Flux added, finally answering the second part of Moonlight’s question Neutral couldn’t help but agree with both the question tone it was delivered in.

“Oh, I mean before I gave them a real reason arrest us,” Moonlight explained cheerfully, letting Flux’s frustration and Event’s incredulity roll right off her. “I can’t think of any reason. If we were going to talk to Starry, then they wouldn’t have tried to arrest us, right?”

Flux and Event just continued to stare at the mare, as if unable fully comprehend her audacity. Neutral finally voiced all three of their thoughts. “True, but did you really have to give them more reason?”

Moonlight shrugged. “No, I needed to give them an actual reason,” she explained. “Getting to deal with that plothole like that was just a bonus.”

Before any of them could pull together enough thought to actually respond to that, a gigantic Pegasus entered the room. He was easily half again as big as the average stallion, build of almost pure, rippling muscle that Neutral could see. The pony’s wings were probably almost proportional to what a pony might actually need to fly, versus the normal size. He was also striped like a zebra, his stripes a navy blue to match his Mohawk and short cropped tail. He walked in, took one look around at them, and sighed. “Moonlight, why are you in my interrogation room?” he asked her with a flat look.

“Because the Royal Guard put me here?” she suggested impishly. Neutral frowned, wondering just how the two knew each other. There was something familiar about the guard, but he just couldn’t think of what at the moment, which was rather odd, considering that the Zebrasus seemed like one that would leave quiet an impression. Neutral figured it would hit him later.

“And why did the Royal Guard put you in my interrogation room?” the Guard asked with a sigh.

“Because they were going to bring us with them anyway, so I made one a promise for the wrongful reasons he was dragging us along, and he forced me to follow through on it,” Moonlight explained concisely and confidently.

“Right… and the rest of you?” he asked, looking at Neutral, Flux, and Event with a flat expression, before his gaze tracked back over to Neutral with a raised eyebrow. “Dr. Charge?”

“Oh… we’re here for associating with Doctor Starlight Dancer, who supposedly did forbidden magic,” Neutral explained softly, after glancing around to find Flux and Event currently speechless, the latter staring at the zebra with dumb amazement and the former blushing a fair bit.

“She did what now?” Night asked, before turning to look at Moonlight, giving her a look that clearly asked her to Explain.

“She tried her healing spell without supervision, telling any of us, or giving any sort of notice that she might be making the attempt,” Moonlight said to him, going a little more serious, which just seemed odd to Neutral. He couldn’t even say he really knew her, but already she seemed like the type of pony that should always be happy.

“I told her to at least have one of us around when she went and attempted that,” Night groaned angrily, turning around. “I’ll be back in a bit. Right now I need to go make sure actual protocol is being followed at the hospital,” the zebra said, leaving the room. When he left the room, Neutral heard a pair exhales, one sounding relieved, while the other sounded somewhat wistful.

“He means he’s going to go smash some heads if they’re doing anything in a Police Guard Facility that’s Intelligence Guard style,” Moonlight put in after the door was shut, going back to perfectly cheerful.

“You know him?” Event asked, his tone a little shocked. “How?!”

“Oh, that’s Nighty. His family and mine are good friends, and he’s personally a great friend,” Moonlight explained cheerfully.

Then it dawned on Neutral with the name. That’s where he knew the pony from! Just as suddenly as the memory surfaced, it was perfectly understandable why he’d repressed it. The zebra was dropping off a double ended dual bladed crescent axe that could probably cleave a pony in half by the weight of it alone. “He’s been to the lab before to talk to Starlight. You two were out at the time,” Neutral said to Flux and Event. “You know Balance? That thing is his.”

The look of comprehension on their faces would have been hilarious if Neutral didn’t know full well the looks of that ridiculous axe. “He carries that thing?” Flux asked, somehow sounding unsure whether to be impressed or scared.

“Yeah, and wields it with quite a bit of skill,” Moonlight answered Flux impishly. “It’s quite amazing, actually. You’d think it would be unwieldly.”

Neutral shuddered. That thing was not something he was a fan of. “So, how long do you think we’re going to be stuck in here?” he asked his companions. He really hoped it wasn’t too long, but given what they were being accused of, he really couldn’t be too sure. He’d really rather be beside Starlight, ensuring she was alright. He didn’t like being stuck where he couldn’t do anything, especially when he couldn’t do anything productive.

“No clue. Until the Royal Guard comes to grab us?” Moonlight suggested with a shrug. “I’m banking on Night coming back first and dragging us to proper cells. Whatever the Royal Guard is up to is probably going to take a while. It might actually take longer now that it’s just that Earther, and he needs to go make sure his partner is fine.”

Event groaned. “So we’re stuck here?” he asked with a sigh. “What about my running experiments?” He paused, before his eyes widened. “They won’t go through my experiments, will they?! A lot of that is sensitive,” he said, suddenly sounding far more worried.

When Neutral thought about it, there really was plenty of stuff among their experiments that qualified as very sensitive, at least magically speaking. On the bright side, Neutral new for a fact that all of the ones of extreme sensitivity were labeled as such, and any risk was assumed by the one making an attempt to crack it, though that would also mean plenty of redoing of a lot of magic, something Neutral was not looking forward to.  He glanced over at his companions once more. “There really isn’t much we can do about it now, is there?” he asked them with a resigned shrug.

“We’re stuck here until they either come get us or let us go,” Flux added in with a resigned look. The inability to do anything about their situation was going to grate on her almost as much as Neutral. More so when she still had no proper idea of why the buck they were in the interrogation room in the first place.

It was some time before somepony came to get them, and when that pony did come, it was most definitely not the Zebrasus from earlier. The unicorn slipped into the room with silent grace, the noise of the shutting door causing the four ponies to jump. “Hello, I’m Agent Shade Stalker,” he greeted them in a polite, amicable tone. “I have a few questions for you, if it wouldn’t be too much trouble.”