My Mind Isn't Like Your's

It was cold outside, and that was the first thing any guard would tell anypony, and Chaotic Heart would tell them to quit whining. He was one of the newest members of Princess Luna’s night guard. Truth be told, he was more or less drafted for the fact he was in the dungeons before for killing several ponies. All of which he said deserved what they got, and he didn’t give much of a care when he said it.

Nopony dug far enough to know what he did before his imprisonment, but it consisted of a lot of death. He was an assassin before, but when he got caught, the council cut ties with him so they had the plausible deniability if he gave them up. Chaotic didn’t even think about doing that, but it was in the rules, and any that didn’t abide by the rules were killed.

He sat in the dungeon for a year and a half before the offer came, of course he didn’t expect it, as he was a criminal. Though when he heard the details he understood why, Princess Luna’s night guards were the bat pony race that he himself was. Not many knew that they were an actual race though, and assumed any pony that looked like him was just enchanted.

It was a strange offer and nopony would tell him why he was given the offer. Though the jobs requirement was that he does everything his superior said or he would go back to the dungeon, but hey, he had gotten used to the crappy condition down there. He made a point clear though when they said that, and that point was one from his assassin days, if Chaotic didn’t find the reason good enough, then he wouldn’t do the order, and instead go to the dungeon.

Shining Armor, the one that had given him the job, only walked away when Chaotic said that. After that Chaotic was taken back to his cell where he was able to think about it more. And Chaotic figured out on his own that he would have a problem if near the princesses.

Now the reason for this was that he had a very different system of belief than the rest of ponykind. He believed that the princesses were not the goddesses everypony believed them to be. Instead he just saw two immortal creatures that ruled. And if he was ever faced with certain things, he would end up saying that to their faces because as another pony had said before, Chaotic has no real off switch to shut him up.

That problem stemmed from his rather uncontrollable dementia, and that is where his first name came from, as it isn’t his real name; as an assassin that information is need to know and nopony needed to know that. Not even his fellow assassins could place exactly what caused his special case of insanity, but they did know it made him see very bucked up things.

Though after living his whole life with it, Chaotic learned to filter fact and fake, not easy to do with a brain that doesn’t work right, but still, that didn’t excuse him for blurting out things that should be unsaid. He learned to filter the crap he got for it out to, but that’s completely different. In any case though, he was rather well known for being the pony that talks to himself.

How he was sane after dealing with all the delusions was a mystery, and it was even to him. Chaotic never understood exactly what his brain tried to fabricate, but most times he saw half of what was going on instead of the full picture. Only on rare occasion did he see something that was complete or even sentient.

Those occurrences were the strangest, as the delusions didn’t speak so much as they thought to him, meaning that they spoke without moving a muscle. Not that Chaotic cared, they talked to him, and it kept him preoccupied. He never argued with his own thoughts and instead used them to think of new things, which was why he did things very over complicatedly.

All those things lead to where he was now, a little mix of not caring about the cold, his reputation with other guards, his reputation with Shining Armor, and his big freaking mouth. He was standing alone guarding the gardens. He had already patrolled the perimeter a few times and he would do so again in exactly two and a half minutes.

That’s how it was for chaotic, nopony ever volunteered to guard with a criminal, and the night guards were especially hateful towards him. They had a code of conduct that told them to help all ponies in need, and be kind while being scary. Overall they were more active than the day guards. They didn’t like Chaotic, and they made it known.

Not that he really cared; he was used to being disrespected by all classes of ponies. So Chaotic took it in stride and did his job alone, as he would be able to deal with any threat alone, or hold the threat until backup arrives. Chaotic was just that way, and everypony was able to see that, as well as his insanity shining through on a daily basis when he woke up.

That was the real kicker though, as he began walking around again, his little light of insanity sprang up next to him. A little filly that appeared was completely black minus her eyes which were a teal color; her entire eye was teal for that matter. Chaotic only smiled as the little black filly hopped along by his side, as that was what she always did when he was walking. Even when he sat in the dungeons the little filly was there with him.

However, he wasn’t stupid, somepony was watching him, and he didn’t want to risk being caught. The filly, being something inside his head, knew that he wasn’t going to risk talking to her and get yelled at. So Chaotic contented himself with walking with the filly, never once speaking or deviating from his path. That was the pain though, he had to get used to going on a controlled route when he was being watched, because if he made a weird paths through anyplace, he got yelled at. Why they didn’t cut him from the guard yet was a mystery as he always seemed to do something wrong.

So if he wasn’t paranoid enough at being watched, the pony had to make it worse by actually showing herself, as Chaotic saw. Now, regardless of popular belief, most night guards were female. All of them were female in fact; another reason for him being disliked was his male urges as they called them, not that he actually ever did a thing. But the mare watching him was none other than one of the Night Captains upper guards. Upper because Chaotic had no idea what she actually was.

Still she watched Chaotic though, but he didn’t really give a damn; pissed him off, but he didn’t actually care. It pissed him off for the fact that he literally just saw something out of the ordinary, and now shed probably take credit for finding it. Chaotic just shook his head though and went to the disturbed place.

That’s when he heard the filly speak, in her childish yet distorted voice, “What is it? I don’t think it’s much but it’s definitely not a natural thing.” That was how Chaotic analyzed things, with the filly in his head whose voice sounded like it came from a ghost.

Upon closer inspection were hoof prints going deeper into the garden, towards the maze. Chaotic sighed a bit, that was out of the patrol area he was given and no doubt the mare behind him would throw a fit, but if he did his job then the blow would be lessened. So Chaotic just followed the tracks down the path, closer to the maze with every step, and then the stopped and in his confusion, looked up.

When he looked up, he saw the tracks continued a far bit ahead of him, and so the filly made another comment, “That is not right in any way, to Tartarus with that priss; this needs to be checked out.” When the filly said that, Chaotic gave a condescending look to the filly. She gave a humph in reply to it and moved a little faster ahead of him. Now some may wonder exactly how or why he could give a look at a filly in his head, but sadly, not even Chaotic understood that.

So as soon as got to the second start of the tracks he began looking around for anything else out of the ordinary. Chaotic only found that tracks though, and so he kept following them. The mare that was tailing him, oblivious to the fact that Chaotic knew she was there, had also found the tracks if she wasn’t yelling by now. That wasn’t a big deal, but that also meant that now she was expecting him to do a full sweep of the area, including the maze.

So to speed things up a bit, he took to the air with a flap of his overly large bat wings. In a large show of screw logic the filly popped her head up next to Chaotic’s, as she lay on his back between his wings. Right as he got up into the air though, he caught sight of another set of tracks, this one going in the opposite direction, so in a wild assumption, he did a U-turn in midair.

These tracks lead all the way back to the castles Servant’s Quarters, and from there he followed the very insignificant specks of dirt left behind through the corridors. The mare was still following, though now she was suspicious of Chaotic as she didn’t pay enough attention to see the dirt.

Although it was not the kind of thing he was told to do, he still ended up next to a servant’s door. He knocked lightly as not to startle the pony within if they were not awake. That wasn’t the case though as said pony opened the door. It was a green mare with a pink mane and tail, and the look on her face was befitting of the title terrified, after all it’s not every day that a former prisoner is in front of you.

Chaotic did his best not to look threatening though, and instead wore a smile that didn’t pronounce his fangs. It helped a little as the mare relaxed, but Chaotic knew she’d probably freak out when he said what he had to. So he just said, “Hello ma’am I’m the guard on duty in the gardens, and I’m here investigating tracks that I found.”

“Why would you be in here though, surely there can’t be any visible tracks inside, right?” her statement came out as a question. Strike one against her. Not only that but her face got a bit more worried, but that could be for a number of things.

“Well there may not be tracks inside of the building, but I have found traces of dirt from the garden maze, which is where the tracks led me to at first. So I came here following those tracks,” Chaotic said that with a somewhat proud tone in his voice, mainly because that was one of his specialties.

“W-w-well why would i-it lead t-to my door?” the stutter in her question was not the normal type of fear, instead it sounded worried. Strike two on her, but in the back of Chaotic’s mind, he was hoping for more of a challenge than that.

“I don’t know why they would come to your door, but I would like to take a look inside if that’s alright with you.” By this point, the mare was shaking slightly but Chaotic didn’t push that, because once again, that could be from the cold that was coming in from the open window not too far down the hall. Although Chaotic was sure his pursuer would do something stupid in a second, he followed the mare as she led him inside.

The little room didn’t look to suspect, but he did see a couple of closed doors, he assumed they were the closet and bathroom, and would check them later. For the time being though, he just traced his way around the room, now unable to see dirt tracks meant that she had cleaned not long ago. Not uncommon so he wouldn’t comment. The bed didn’t look like it had been used yet for the night, which was suspicious because she took time in getting to the door.

Chaotic did a little test though, meaning that he put his upper body on the end of the bed, sure enough though, it squeaked. Now Chaotic knew that she wasn’t even on her bed at all. The next place he looked at was beneath the bed, nothing but a couple of magazines underneath it; maybe she has yet to clean it, chaotic thought. After that he stood up and as he did that, the mare hopped onto the bed and sat down while she waited, every move was announced with a small noise from the bed which further validated his belief she wasn’t near her bed when she answered the door.

After he looked a little towards the door, he saw it was cracked open slightly, but he didn’t see an eye near the crack so he couldn’t tell if he was being watched. He just rolled his eyes and continued on, searching next to and behind a few items, but never looking in a drawer for courtesies sake. Still, he wasn’t finding much, not even in the closet, although, he did see an outfit that probably should have been a bit better hidden.

Then came the bathroom, and with Chaotic’s deduction skills, the mare was hiding something as she was shifting around on the bed more often. So when he opened the door, he expected something different, but all that was there was a flower….. with dirt.

“I want you to be serious with me, did you try and lie to hide a flower,” Chaotic’s voice didn’t betray any emotion other than annoyance. The mare stuttered for a second though, thinking that he was mad at her. So Chaotic sighed and said, “I’m not mad alright. But can you please tell me why you would try and lie to me about a flower, did you pick or something like that?”

The mare took a breath of air before speaking, “I planted that flower and more without permission in the garden’s maze. I-I didn’t want anypony to know about it because I need these flowers for something really special. Please don’t tell on me I’ll do anything.” By the middle of her explanation, tears streaked down her face.

Chaotic smiled a little in a sad sort of way and said, “I don’t want to tell on you OK, but I need to know what you need them for if I end up having to say something about it. This could get you in trouble, but if you don’t want to do that, can you at least tell me what kind of flower it is?”

The mare beamed a smile from her crying face, and told him, “The flower is called a Zerto. One of the most beautiful flowers in the world.” As she told Chaotic that, she walked over to the bathroom door after hopping out of the bed.

“That’s why it looked somewhat familiar. I don’t know how I could forget those luminescent petals, I used to have a few of these, but a long while ago I put them out in the Everfree Forest.” Chaotic smiled at the memories of taking care of the little garden that he had back at an outpost the assassins had set up. Sadly all the flowers began to wilt after the ground somehow got tainted, but Chaotic was able to save the Zerto’s.

“They are wonderful little flowers though, but I can only hide them so well to where I only have a couple more still in the garden. The properties they have are wonderful as well, and that’s what I need from them.”

“So you’re just using them to get over a little sickness, well that should be OK. But isn’t the most common thing the Zerto is used to treat in……..” Chaotic stopped talking abruptly. He only took a split second after that to say, “I’ll leave now, sorry to have bothered you ma’am.”

“But won’t you get in trouble if anypony finds out? I don’t want you to get in trouble because of me,” she was panicking for some reason. Then Chaotic realized what had probably happened, and sure enough when he turned around, he saw a pissed looking night guard. But before she even got a word out, he motioned for her to get out of the room and he followed behind.

She didn’t immediately say anything; instead she looked as if she was thinking of what to say. Finally the mare settled on saying, “You just let her off the hook. While what she did isn’t a serious offence, it is still against the law.”

“Of what, gardening, she didn’t do anything wrong and before you go into some big tirade, you should know this. If you or anypony else goes near those flowers, and I don’t care if it’s one of your Princesses either, I will hurt them.”

“Are you threatening me?” her look was disbelieving.

“I’m certainly not asking you on a date, now let me finish my patrol, I still have thirty minutes to go.” After those final and rather cold words, Chaotic walked away from the fuming mare. Never once did she stop him though, and in fact, didn’t move an inch from her spot until he was gone.

When he was gone, she turned and went straight to her Captain’s room.