Sweet Dreams

Genji cautiously sent a glance down below at the Princess as he cleaned the stained glass windows in the hall she trotted through. He was taking a huge risk with this, but Risk was his middle name. He was confident he could alert the Princess of what had happened without alerting any suspicion from her. Once the Princess had passed and nopony was left in the hall, he dropped down and shifted into a pegasus guard. He swiftly ran to catch up with the Princess, but evened out his pace when he came within earshot.

“Princess, I have something to report.” He said when he caught up. “It’s urgent.” Celestia turned in surprise, and checked his badge.

“A Private… Why are you bringing this to me rather than your superior?” she asked.

“My apologies, princess… but I’m not certain who among the guard I can trust. I witnessed something while on duty yesterday, and…” He shook as if traumatized. “A contingent of the guard attacked… a creature, without provocation. This creature appeared to be attempting peaceful negotiation, but they used Cursed Fire without regard for it… I wanted to be sure you were aware of this.”

“I was not… This assault was not put into a report of any kind. If what you say is true…” Celestia said, clearly troubled. “What did this creature look like?”

“It was black and had large fangs, but it also had pony features like a short turquoise mane. It… looked kind of like an insectoid pony, actually.” Genji replied. Celestia groaned in realization.

“Damnit, we might have a war on our hooves because of those idiots…” Genji caught Celestia muttering. “My apologies, but I’m afraid I must attend to this situation. The guard attacking unprovoked is not something I can overlook, especially if the victim was who I think it is.” She said as she turned and teleported away. Genji smiled as he completed that mission, and moved on to the next. He needed to find out just who had attacked Jade.

Genji then left the throne room, looking for a guard the hive recognised. It took a long time, mainly from having to pretend he was on patrol, but not much came to bear. Many guards read rather dully to Genji’s senses, but still he investigated each one. One stood guard by the kitchen doors, firm in his duty and blindly loyal to the Princesses. Another one, resentful of his new post in the frozen north passed, but his resentment was caused by missing an opportunity to guard the newest embassy headed to the Gryphon Kingdom. However, one of the guards Genji found stood out. His armor held no enchantments, showing his true colors. This pony acted perfectly straight, as though he was having trouble getting them to work. But Genji could sense malice attached to his loyalty to the crown. That was pretty suspicious.

“Ugh… Damn this armor! Why does it have to short out on me now?!” the black coated pony complained. His amber eyes shot up to Genji as he entered.

“Guess I’m not the only one that occasionally forgets to bring their armor to maintenance…” Genji chuckled out loud as he joined the pony’s side. Quickly he went over the scene, using his… er, the help of the Queen’s magic to dilate time perception for him to come up with a plan. Observing that the armor really didn’t have any enchantments on it, he made a decision. He’d plant his own on it.

“Yeah, but my shift starts now, and I can’t go without the right enchantments. Ugh… I might have to skip out on this one.” the black guard groaned.

“Hey, I actually know the enchantments. I learned them so I could take some work off the maintenance team’s shoulders when I had time. I could put them on for you if you’d like?” Genji offered. The stallion looked taken aback.

“R-really? Thank you, I’d really appreciate it.” he replied. “I honestly didn’t think anyone in the guard would do this for anyone…”

“Hey, it’s what I’m here for.” Genji said with a smile as he set to work. First, the color… “Besides, if the Guard can’t stand up for each other, then how are we supposed to stand up for Equestria?” he added. The black stallion nodded in response.

“Too true. I know there has to be more to protecting equestria than just standing around. I mean, what if we have something completely out of our league just next door planning to take over somehow? We have to deal with it.” he said passionately.

“Agreed.” Genji said genuinely. “The question is, who calls the shots? The nobles might be more inclined to point our spears at whatever they don’t like, and the Princess is too kindhearted to recognise when an enemy must be executed. Two extremes I’m not really a fan of…” he lied as he hid a monitoring spell.

“Oh, really? So you aren’t blindly loyal like most of the idiots on this force?” the pony asked. Genji shook his head.

“No. I don’t follow loyalty, I follow reason.” Genji replied. The pony smiled with his true colors, revealing his malice to a degree.

“Even if it means taking it upon yourself to kill that which could threaten our nation before it becomes a threat?” he asked. Genji stopped the enchantments, before quickly finishing them up and turning to the pony.

“Where do I sign up?” he asked with false malice.

“The general, Reaper. Go speak with him if you want to help us.” he replied curtly. Genji acted surprised.

“Wait, ‘us?’ how many is ‘us’ if a general’s involved?” he asked. The pony chuckled.

“You’ll just have to see. I’ll be waiting.” he said as he took the armor and left for patrol. Genji stood there, communing with his queen… er, the possessor, about what he’d learned.

“So a General’s in charge of this… and judging from the name, I know exactly who and why. But let’s meet him just to make sure.” Eclipse said cautiously. Genji sent his agreement. They needed more information. He had to dig deeper.

“Perhaps you could let Celestia know you’re going under cover. Find some way to tell her subtly.” Princess Jade said.

“Understood.” He replied. Soon he left with greater determination.

I smiled as Chryssie started to see things my way. I turned to Jade as I started releasing control. “It’s been fun, but there are other things I should be getting to. I’m going to shadow that pony Genji spoke to for now, but I’ll be back when I find out who leads these bastards.”

As I faded back into the dream realm, I lingered just close enough to the edge to hear what they would say next. “Good luck, Eclipse…” Jade said. She trailed off as she took note of the blank expression chrysalis was giving. “Mother… Are you back now?”

“Yes… Yes, I’m back.” Chrysalis replied, a tear falling down her cheek. Jade noticed, especially when Chrysalis grit her teeth jaw-shatteringly hard.

“M-mother!” Jade cried when she noticed Chrysalis’s lingering rage.

“It’s fine, I’m not going to order the attack again. This is… something I need to sort out myself. I’ll be in my chambers if anybuggy needs me.” Chrysalis said as she quickly took her leave. I left, giving her her privacy instead of sticking around to enrage her to the point where she’d actually find a way to hurt me, if possible.

Thankfully she wasn’t holding me in her anymore with that plate of chitin, so I had freedom to leave. The next pony I planned on visiting wouldn’t be asleep for a while thanks to the news I gave her, so until either Twi or Celestia fell asleep again, I was just gonna patrol the dreamscape. Though I’m not quite sure why there are still a ton of Dream bubbles popping in and out over in Equestria… Maybe I can find out why.