“I don’t care what you want, Long Jump, you’re going to complete your assignment,” Bulwark said, without looking up from his desk. He was a massive Pegasus who barely fit through doorways.

“I’m no longer an Ensign,” Long Jump said, fluffing out his wings, even if he knew letting the other Pegasus literally ruffle his feathers wouldn’t do him any good. “I should be stationed at the palace, just like every other starting Lieutenant.”

“Tough,” Bulwark said. “Now get moving or I’ll have you court-martialed.”

Long Jump stomped out of the barracks, wondering if lonely patrols were the price to pay for a commander not liking him. He didn’t know why, but Bulwark just didn’t like him at all.

His enchanted armor hid his normal slate-blue coat from view, since it was traditional for all the palace guards to look identical. Now, he was going to take this brand new, shiny armor out in the wild and probably scuff it up enough for Bulwark to court-martial him anyway. Maybe he could occupy his time flying to the far edges of Equestria by thinking of new insults to call his CO behind the large Pegasus’s back. The absolute northernmost part of the kingdom would take him weeks to scout. Long Jump would be going this alone, since to quote Bulwark from a few days ago, “you’re a Lieutenant now, are you telling me you can’t handle yourself,” never mind that these types of missions were never done solo out of common sense. Even if he was more than capable of handling himself on a little recon mission, being isolated for so long would definitely get on his nerves. Blasted CO wouldn’t even let him use the perfectly good Equestria rail system to get there. He could have been there in a few hours otherwise.

The Pegasus decided he needed to go ahead and pick up his supplies, since he was going to be out in the wood for weeks. He snuck by one of the barracks, trying to avoid the other Lieutenants marching toward the palace. They’d all know about the recon trip within a few minutes – rumors spread faster here than at a mane salon. Instead of getting angry right now over his assignment, he stepped into the quartermaster’s office.

“I need supplies for a four-week expedition along the northern border, and whatever else I might need to keep this armor in tip-top condition.”

“That’s magic armor, Long Jump,” the Quarter Master said. He was a large golden-coated Earth pony with a trumpet as his cutie mark. “You don’t have to do anything to maintain it.”

“Oh,” he said quietly. He’d only been wearing the armor for three days, so he wasn’t exactly used to the weight or the maintenance of it.

“Let me find one of the saddlebag sets…” the pony ducked under the counter and came up with a huge set of bags that, judging by the thump as they hit the counter, weighed as much as his armor.

“I’m supposed to fly with those?” Long Jump asked.

“Spend your time until you leave practicing, or take breaks when you’re flying out,” the quartermaster suggested. “I know the palace guards don’t have to carry all of this stuff, but you won’t have any support out there.”

“What if I actually find something?” he asked, stamping one of his hooves. Why hadn’t Bulwark assigned him a partner?

“Then drop the bags and fly back here as fast as possible,” the quartermaster said, as though the answer was obvious. “You won’t see anything, though. The north region is all cabins for rich people and small towns.”

“Why is Bulwark sending me up there, then?” he insisted. It didn’t make any sense. He understood general patrols, especially after all these recent magical attacks, but pushing one pony all the way to the edge of the kingdom just didn’t seem smart, unless Bulwark’s personal grudge against him had taken a crueler edge. That was definitely a possibility.

“Be safe, Long Jump,” the quartermaster said. “We need all the guards we can get.”

“Fine, fine.” He hooked the heavy saddlebags around his middle, wondering if he could even get off the ground wearing these. “I’ll see you when I get back,” Long Jump said. He nodded to the quartermaster before turning back around.

There were still some things he needed to do before flying off into the wilderness. He wanted to give Canterlot a sweep today before the sun went down, more to seal the image in his mind than for any security reasons. If Bulwark weren’t being so obstinate, Long Jump would already be touring the palace to familiarize himself with the corridors and gardens. Instead, he’d be spending that time soaring over empty forest.

Long Jump pumped his wings, his muscles protesting the extra weight. He landed on a nearby roof next to one of the barracks guard and took a deep breath before launching himself toward the city proper. He did not like these saddlebags, but it was either this or live off grass and whatever he could forage for the next few weeks. They might be paying him, but he also didn’t want to waste his meager salary on food if he could avoid it. That, of course, was assuming there were any restaurants in what small towns he might pass over while making his way to the border.

He soared as best he could over Canterlot, deciding to not add to his bitterness and avoid the castle. The high-end shops were aesthetically pleasing, but he stayed high enough above to buildings so he didn’t ruffle the coats of any of the high-class ponies. He knew most of the richest ponies lived here, and nearly all of the greatest unicorns. His plan was to keep them safe, even if it meant this terrible assignment. Maybe over the trip he could figure out why Bulwark disliked him.

There was a sweet shop he liked, so he ungracefully landed on the roof, breathing hard from the extra exertion. The smells of baking, icing, and fruit tarts wafted from the windows and chimneys, so he just enjoyed those for a few minutes while his body recovered. Surely, they didn’t expect him to carry this much weight through hundreds of miles of sky. The military voice in his mind told him of course they did, and that he should tough it out. He shook out his mane, got shakily to his hooves, took a deep breath, and launched again. Now wasn’t the time to expect pity, or to go over Bulwark’s head. He needed to prove he was more than capable, so he could be respected. After this terrible assignment, he might even be able to guard one of the Princesses, or maybe even the new Prince.

Assuming, of course, no pony invaded the country in the next month. Between Discord and the Changelings, anything was possible.

• • •

Long Jump did his best to unclench his jaw before he ground his teeth into dust. The flight out this far had been long – almost two weeks, sixteen hours a day. He sat on a hill, chewing a mouthful of grass, with a map of the area spread out in front of him. The slate blue Pegasus had reached his recon area; a couple hundred miles of mountainous forests that acted as a natural border between Equestria proper and the untamed lands to the north. With a pencil he made a tick mark on the map, and with a glance at the rising sun, started to pack his gear back up. Map, blanket, rations, a well-worn notebook, and other bits filled his canvas bags. Then he lifted up the enchanted armor of the royal guard and put it on, shifting it back and forth with his hooves to get his wings situated just right, then stepping into the gilded shoes. Finally he got the helmet on and felt the now-familiar tingle of the armor doing its job, changing his coat color to the uniform white, his mane and tail from gunmetal gray to the customary two-tone blue, and his blue eyes to a much brighter shade of blue.

Hefting his bags over the armor and closing the strap under his belly to keep them in place, the guard crouched down and then sprung into the air, wings beating hard.

• • •

A few hours into the new day and the wonderful weather started to break. Long Jump started flying low under some dark and ominous-looking clouds. During his approach he observed that they just ‘looked’ mean, but they weren’t shooting lightning or raining, just windy. So he continued on his flight pattern under the cloud level, following the edge of a cliff face a few yards up, looking for anything to indicate that the trees and bushes in the area were planning an invasion of Equestria en masse, since no pony else was visible for miles.

He could make out train tracks, which had served as an easy landmark for most of this trip. Every few miles a station sprouted out of the trees, with small boom towns built around most of them. There was one a few miles north of here, and he bet there were cabins and longhouses peppered through the forest under him. However, they certainly all held loyal residents of Equestria, so they didn’t really matter for his assignment Even in the middle of the day, it turned out to be difficult to discern roofs from treetops. The cabins must have built all their housing out of local wood.

However, the attack he’d worried about came not from the vegetation, but the clouds. With a peel of thunder that made Long Jump’s heart skip a beat, hail the size of golf balls began to drop from the sky.

The Pegasus winced as he felt the ice pinging off his back, doing a fair job of denting his so-called ‘Magic so it takes care of itself’ armor. Keeping his head down and dropping down along the side of the cliff face, Long Jump started looking for an outcropping or cave he could hide in before the ice beat him to a pulp. He looked up for just a moment to make sure he wasn’t going to hit a turn in the cliff, and caught a huge hailstone on his helmet edge, above his right eye, buckling the metal to the point that his helmet lifted up on the left. The added wind caught him, and the fact that he was now knocked silly caused Long Jump to lose control of his flight, shaking his head to try to clear his vision. During this attempt he ran full speed into the side of the cliff, shoulder first. Pain exploded down his side, and the next thing he saw was blackness and felt himself beginning to fall.

• • •

Red Ink felt the crash as much as heard it. He was out in the woods when the hail started, but all it took was a little magic to deflect them while he collected herbs. Trees fell, and the unicorn saw a mass of large, blue feathers streak through the canopy and crash into the forest floor. He sprinted toward the direction of the noise. Shots of magic blew branches out of his face, and a few warning shots sent animals scurrying in the other direction. There was a pony wing poking out of a pile of tree limbs. He yanked some of those branches out of the way, careful to not pull at feathers to damage whoever was under this mess any further. Well, there was definitely a Pegasus under all this, though he was not in good shape. Really, really bad shape to be exact. Red Ink squinted, sweat pouring down his sides as raw magic poured out of his horn. It encased the Pegasus, gingerly lifting what was left of him out of the mess. Healing spells started to shoot from the unicorn’s horn, and even if Red Ink wasn’t very good at them, they would serve in a pinch. Could he just bring the injured stallion back to his cabin? There wasn’t really any other choice, since he’d picked this place for its isolation. Floating the broken Pegasus out of the debris, he turned back toward his cabin. If he was lucky, he could save this broken, royal guard Pegasus. It looked like the charms book would have to wait.

Author's Note

Revision 1.2 Punctuation fixes
Revision 1.1 Made the time breaks more visible, no content changes