The Birth of a Flash

Ivory Shadow flew through the darkness above Vesalipolis, squeezing every last bit of enjoyment out of the wind that passed below her leathery wings, the strain on her muscles a comfort she would not have thought to feel out here. It was peaceful, simple, so much unlike everything else she had done in the past year.

Life felt like a play to her, now - from the oaths and the training to the long months spent getting used to life in the changeling capital, it was all a blur. Like the director of her life simply decided to make a montage in order to skim over the unimportant parts, to make the daily struggle she felt more digestible for those viewing it.

And only now, up in the air above the edge of the single most important city in all of Equus, did that director decide to pick her story back up. To give it more meaning. Perhaps even a conclusion.

She surveyed the street grid below her, suburban houses illuminated by a thousand little lights. The families that lived there were not the ones she swore to protect - those lived in and around the Queen's Tower, protected by a veritable legion of her fellow Jagers. Four divisions called Vesapolis home, the few formations of troops that led the last and final line of defense around the Queen herself as beacons of undying loyalty.

The Tower remained the single best protected structure in the world. Ivory Shadow knew. She and her thestrals had helped make it so.

The Tower stood as the single largest building in the city, a claw reaching for the sky itself, somewhere behind her back. She didn't turn to look back at it. She didn't have to. It was always there, always reminding her of the unending ambition of her changeling overlords. Just a few meters taller than the peak of Canterlot Castle. Just a little more magnificent.

She found it vain and pointless, but kept her muzzle shut. It was not her place to question the Queen, lest Dieter make her life a living hell.

So instead she flew through the night, content to survey the quiet suburbs below and enjoy the wind like she once did back home. It was her own kind of peace. For a moment, she could pretend the war never happened.

For a moment, she could close her eyes and pretend she was anything else but an oathbreaker.

Another gust of air under her wings shifted her weight again, forcing her to correct with a flap and open her eyes to check the cause of the disturbance. A stormfront approached from the south, just as the meteorologists had predicted. With a heavy sigh, Ivory Shadow forced herself to drop into a dive towards her target - it would do her no good to be caught up here in a storm.

She aimed for the edge of the suburbs, a small hill that could easily have been a park - were it not for the tall fence with razor wire coils on top surrounding it. A lone guard stood at the entrance, probably bored out of his mind, but fulfilling his duty nonetheless. His rifle laid beside him, propped up against the chain link fence. The guard immediately snatched it to himself the moment he heard the impact of hooves against asphalt.

He tensed up when he saw her, and immediately saluted her. Ivory could see the little glint of fear in his eyes as they rested on the lapel of her Queen’s Guard uniform. Ivory merely gave him the stink-eye as she nonchalantly passed into the compound. It was expected of her. Had the soldier been unlucky enough for tonight’s inspection to be handled by one of the more cruel officers, he’d receive a verbal lashing for letting his rifle leave the safety of his hooves.

Ultimately, it would be pointless. This place was protected by hundreds of thousand of Heer conscripts placed between it and the nearest hostile pony. The guard had performed adequately in his post - though “adequate” never seemed to be acceptable among the Queen’s Guard. Ivory Shadow merely kept up appearances. She was too tired to yell, anyways.

The walk up to the building was a short, brisk affair. Few trees still held onto their leaves at this time of year, but the gravel path remained clear of them, no doubt the work of some poor changeling who drew the short stick in this week’s duty roster, or perhaps irritated their immediate superior a little too much. The guard in front of the building also saluted her - this one had his rifle in his hooves. She paid this one no mind as she marched past, into the concrete hall.

The whirring of machines and buzzing of electronics welcomed her, like so many times before. The officer on guard turned around from watching his subordinates stare at screens for a moment, nodding to her almost imperceptibly. She nodded back, and trotted right up next to him. Her eyes surveyed the green of the radar readouts, searching each one for information - nothing. The no-fly zone had been observed, as it has been for years before.

“All quiet, ma’am,” the officer told her, his voice little more than a whisper. He was calm, bored. Like everyone else here. His eyes didn’t betray any hint of suspicion as he turned to her, one hoof gesturing towards the pot in the corner. “Would you care for some coffee?”

Ivory Shadow shook her head, and used the moment to conceal the discomfort the bomb vest under her uniform had been causing her.

“Thanks, but not today.”