Everyday Life With Guardsmares
Chapter 25
Previous Chapter Next ChapterArtemis Sparkshower
Specialist Artemis Sparkshower was having a grand old time with her new comrade, Sergeant Ebonshield. Barring a quick break to go grab some lunch, they had spent the past few hours swapping stories about life in the Guard.
Well, not so much 'swapping,' really.
More like, 'Artemis tells every one of her stories.'
The batpony didn’t share any stories of her own; Artemis didn’t ask her to. 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' was the rule, after all. It was a shame, though, because the pegasus was sure that she must have some good ones. Ebonshield was an older mare, at least in her 30s, and she did admit that she'd been a soldier all her life.
In spite of her silence, it didn’t feel like the Sergeant was really holding back the conversation, because she was still engaged in it. Ebonshield congratulated Artemis for her successes, laughed along with the funny moments, and expressed sympathy for the times when things got tough. And, though she didn’t venture into her own history, she provided some good advice and had a few interesting questions about Equestrian society. She did still occasionally lean in awfully close, though, which could be unsettling. But Artemis had such a good time sharing that it went right through the regular lunch hour, and it was only once they were both feeling a bit worn out that Artemis went to grab a quick bite.
Alone, unfortunately. Ebonshield declined her invitation to the barracks dining room, saying she had some private arrangements in the palace. It wasn’t really a surprise. Artemis could just imagine the stir she would cause walking into the mess hall.
Still, it was a disappointment.
Back in their quarters after a late lunch, Ebonshield was nowhere to be found. Maybe her lunch ran late, or maybe she had another appointment in the afternoon, though she hadn't mentioned anything like that.
Part of Artemis still wondered if her 'private arrangements' for lunch were more... sanguine... than anything the Royal Guard kitchen could serve up. It was not that the hours of pleasant conversation hadn't convinced Artemis that Ebonshield was a friendly pony who could be a cordial participant in a polite conversation. They had!
But still, the mysteries surrounding her race were still there, and so the questions lingered around half-answered, like unconfirmed scouting reports. Without anypony to talk to about it, Artemis found herself slipping back into the same, semi-frustrated, semi-confused, slightly-afraid fugue state as in the morning.
It was a quarter past three when Corporal Bound finally returned from the library to get ready for her shift. Trotting in with a huge book slung over her back, she gave Artemis little more than a polite nod as she walked towards her door.
"Sparkshower."
"Hello, Corporal! How did your reading go?"
As she passed the pegasus behind the sofa, Artemis could see that Corporal Bound’s eyes had a sort of glazed-over look, like somepony hitting the books hard to study for an exam.
"It went."
Gosh, that was a brisk wind just now. She decided to try and clear the clouds to let some sunshine in.
"I had a good, long talk with Sergeant Ebonshield this morning..."
Corporal Bound's eyes didn’t perk up, although she did stop and turn to face the pegasus.
"... She was asking questions about the Royal Engineer, the things we'd done, the Battle of Newstirrup Bridge, that sort of stuff. Then we got more into my own stories, I guess."
Honour Bound just eyed her with that tired, detached stare of hers. It was actually not far from what Sergeant Ebonshield did when she was first introduced, Artemis had to admit.
Maybe a little news would perk her up?
"... Oh! Did you hear that Lieutenant Kilfeather and his squadron packed up and moved their 'Pas de Sabots' to Oldstirrup bridge after we beat them?"
Still nothing. It was starting to feel a bit awkward there, like one pegasus struggling against a whole hurricane.
Artemis forced an awkward smile. "... What a piece of work, huh?"
Corporal Bound stared at her for a good long time.
Then, at last, she sighed. "I'm not really surprised, Specialist. Colts like him don't know how to take a 'no' or accept a loss when they don't have to. Glamerspear was right; Icepone didn't get to be the top Air Superiority Fighter in Equestria without being dangerous."
"Yeah..."
She picked up her shoulders and continued to her room, but there was still something else nagging at Artemis’ mind.
"... So, what do you think of our new team-member?"
Honour stopped where she was, continuing to stare at her door. "You don't want to know what I think of her, Sparkshower..." Still stopped, the Corporal looked over her shoulder at the specialist. "... Especially not if you've been hitting it off with her all day."
The Corporal couldn't possibly believe the same awful stories about batponies that Glamerspear did, could she? Most of that stuff was just rumours and myths, she was sure of it. And wasn't Honour supposed to be the sensible, level-headed leader of their group?
Furrowing her brow, Artemis gave a little confused wave of her head. "I don't understand, Corporal. What's wrong?"
Sighing again, she put down her book and walked back over to the sofa. "Did she tell you why she was here, Sparkshower?"
She shook her head. "She didn't talk about herself very much."
Honour curled part of her mouth up into a scowl. "I figured. Same DADT crap."
The Royal Guard's policy on batponies was frustrating, to be sure. What time Artemis hadn't spent hiking up the mountain in the morning or chatting with the new Sergeant during the day, she’d spent trying to piece together the answers to unanswerable questions about batponies. But that didn't make her dislike Ebonshield. So why was the Corporal so upset?
Clearing her throat and sighing again, Honour stepped over to her. "... I don't like the Sergeant because it's politics that got her assigned to this squad."
‘What?’ Surely the Sergeant didn't have any family in the Guard who could have landed her a (relatively) cushy job like VIP service.
"I'm not sure I follow you, Corporal."
"Listen, Sparkshower, have you ever heard of a Night Guard serving in a Royal Guard squad, or vice versa?"
"No. I don't think we even conduct joint operations with them."
"That's right, we don't. And can you imagine a batpony being assigned as a VIP bodyguard for anypony other than an alien visitor to our world? Somepony who never grew up to fear Nightmare Moon, or who looked worriedly up at the sky on Nightmare Night? Somepony who never heard hushed stories around a campfire or in a tavern about horrible bat-winged creatures coming to snatch away good ponies in the darkness?"
She made a good point. The Royal Engineer took Sergeant Ebonshield with him to a coltswear store to see his new sports outfit. It was one of the few stories she’d shared with her. Artemis simply couldn’t imagine any normal kind of Very Important Pony who actually was a pony wanting anything to do with her kind. Most of them would be just as horrified as Glamerspear was, or as shocked as Artemis had been, and would probably dismiss her immediately.
Only Anonymous, ignorant of the prejudice against her race, would treat her like he did any other kind of pony. And from what she’d seen, he was a courteous and friendly colt. It was little wonder that Sergeant Ebonshield said she thought he was very pleasant, and admitted she was happy to have him as her VIP.
Corporal Bound circled a hoof up in the air. "You see what I'm saying, don't you, Specialist? Somepony up in Command wants to make the first moves to integrate the Royal Guard and the Night Guard. And when they see that the Royal Engineer needs a fourth member for his quaternion, they jump at the chance to put their plan into motion. They don't think that maybe an alien new to our world could use somepony with social experience. They ignore the note I asked Lieutenant Violetta to put in the requisition form on that very topic. And they don't consider the impact that an alien creature walking around with a batpony is going to have on everypony else. Anonymous meets with big names in society: members of the Court, wealthy financiers like JP Mustang, even Galloway Bitsmount is a known name."
Lowering her hoof, the Corporal shook her head. "... They don't even bother to arrange any kind of official introductions or joint training so that we can actually get to know each other. Instead, it's 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' as usual, and they just throw Ebonshield in here, without her even having completed the VIP-service training."
Honour leaned in close, almost whispering in Artemis’ ear. "... It's bullshit, Sparkshower. And a VIP like the Royal Engineer deserves better than to be the victim of a political experiment."
The swear word was a shock. Honour really was upset about this.
Turning over what she said, Artemis could only think of one reply.
"But what if the experiment works, Corporal?"
Honour just shook her head. "It's still a bad way to do things. I told Anonymous the same thing yesterday when I apologized for making the wrong choice at Newstirrup Bridge."
‘What!?’
"The wrong choice? But, Corporal, we swept them from the skies!"
Tensing, Honour Bound’s reply came with a hard edge and a slight scowl. "It was still the wrong decision. I barely won. Glamerspear wouldn't have won without the Royal Engineer bending the rules to act as her spotter. And you..."
Softening her tone, she lowered her haunches, pausing.
Artemis remembered how afraid she’d been, and even though Joker didn’t scare her even one bit now, she started to close up as she remembered how close she’d come to losing.
"I know. If he hadn't given me that pep talk, I might not have won, either."
Honour nodded. "And that's what made it the wrong choice. I didn't know what we were all capable of. I made a decision based on missing information that I should have known."
Artemis couldn’t explain it, but deep inside she felt that Honour must be wrong. It was frustratingly hard to put into words, though. Her vexation came out as she lifted her head and raised her voice.
"No, I don't agree, Corporal! Maybe you made a mistake by not doing enough reconnaissance, but even though I was the one who said we should just give up, I'm glad you chose to fight!"
Almost instinctively, she spread her wings and with a single, powerful, flap, she took to the air. Without her armor to weigh her down, however, she came close to crashing into the ceiling. As if it was all deliberate, she spread her feathers out as far as they could go, as much to stop the upward motion as it was to hold her in the air.
"'A good soldier is compelled to evaluate what's happened, so they can apply what they've learned. But when we're out in the field, we have to push it.'"
It was her favorite quote from her favorite book on the Commandant's Reading List, 'Top Pony.' As she floated back down to the ground, Artemis pounded one hoof into the other and then pointed at Honour.
"... You pushed it out there, Corporal. And you pushed us out there, too. Now that I've fought against a nimble flyer like Joker and not only survived, but won, I'm not going to be afraid like that again! And I bet you even Glamerspear learned something about how her own magic works, too!"
Taking a bit of a reckless chance, she jabbed one hoof into her stone-faced leader's chest. "... And you must have learned something, as well. At the very least, you learned what the guardsponies you lead can do; and you learned that your VIP knows a thing or two about leadership and resourcefulness."
Wearing a confident stare, she looked up into the steady, emotionless eyes of the leader of their quaternion. Leader for now, anyway.
Her expression didn’t shift, but she did nod her head ever so slightly. "Maybe you're right, Sparkshower..."
Looking off to the side, her nostrils flared as she inhaled sharply through them.
"... I'll think about what you said."
Corporal Bound turned back to face her. "... But I stand by my words about Ebonshield. Whoever is pulling the strings on this, is doing it without a good plan. And I'm sure she knows why she's here, too, but she refuses to break DADT even though it's a nonsense rule in this scenario."
Artemis pressed on. "But what if she's a good soldier?"
"Then she's a good soldier, and she'll be useful in a fight. But I still wanted the Guard to do better for Anonymous, because I think he deserves it."
There was nothing Artemis could really say to that. Of course she wanted the best for her VIP, too. At the very least, from her experience in talking with her, Honour was right that Ebonshield was not the one to guide the Royal Engineer through Equestrian society.
That didn’t mean she couldn’t help. Maybe she had some other talents he could use.
Honour interrupted her thought train before it could leave the station. "I've got to get ready for my shift. We can talk about this more, later, if you want."
"Sure, Corporal. Thanks."
Before she walked back to her door, Honour licked her lips and looked up at the ceiling.
"And... maybe I'm wrong about Ebonshield, too. Maybe things are going to sort themselves out on that front as well."
That brought a smile to Artemis’ face. "I hope so, Corporal."
Suggested interlude music: Justin Bell - 'Binder of Fate', from 'Tyranny' [2016]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iAcMsF2Jbzk
