//------------------------------// // 42- Moros // Story: Changing Expectations // by KKSlider //------------------------------// Star Armor sat behind the front desk, trying his damndest to not fall asleep while listening to the pony in front of him. Between him and the pony was a solid inch of glass, and Star Armor had to resist the urge to bang his head against it. Honey Cupcake had been going on for half an hour at this point about her missing shipments from New Horseleans. Despite receiving an invoice for the shipment of her organic blueberries, Honey Cupcake never received anything. Star suppressed a sigh as she finished, and lifted his head off his hooves to speak the same phrase he had told her half an hour ago after he finished taking a police report when she first came to the Cincinneighti Royal Guard garrison. “I’m sorry we can’t help you, ma’am. As I have said before, you must take this issue up with both the Duchy of Appleloosa’s and the County of South Hoofington chambers of commerce. Once again, I am sorry the Royal Guard cannot help you recover your missing berries.” “But I already went to the D.A.C.C.! And they said to file a police report for the missing shipment!” “And we now have a report on this. Any further–” “So you’re going to go get it for me? I’m a busy mare, I can’t make the trip all the way south and run my business at the same time!” Star Armor suppressed another sigh. “As I said, the Royal Guard have too much on our hooves to help you. I’m sorry, ma’am. Have you tried contacting the Royal Guard garrison in New Horseleans?” “I tried! They said to talk to you ponies!” ‘Typical. Somepony in New Horseleans is trying to get out of doing some paperwork and legwork, leaving this mare out to dry.’ “Look, I can send an inquiry about this to them, but ultimately it’s out of our hooves.” “I want to speak with your officer!” Star groaned and his head fell into his hooves again. “Again, Sergeant Emerald Aura is out at the moment. You’re more than welcome to come back tomorrow, ma’am.” “Hmph! And just where is this missing Sergeant?” “Responding to a domestic.” “Where?” “I’m afraid I can’t give you that information, ma’am.” “I am a sovereign citizen of the Principality of Equestria, I know my rights! You are required to find my missing property!” “Have you asked your supplier where it is?” “I’ve sent a letter, but they haven’t responded!” “How long ago was this letter sent?” “Yesterday!” Star Armor felt very thirsty all of a sudden as he was filled with a desperate need to drink his sorrows away. Thankfully, he was saved from his misery when the front doors were pulled open, and Sergeant Emerald Aura came in, two privates in tow. “Sergeant Emerald! Am I glad to see you!” Emerald stopped and gave Star a smile. “Corporal Star Armor. I hope front-end duty isn’t wearing you down too much.” “You’re this guards superior?” Honey Cupcake interjected herself into the conversation. “That’s right, ma’am.” “My name is Honey Cupcake, and I need you Royal Guards to help me find my missing shipment of blueberries!” “Alright. Have you asked whomever you were purchasing from where the shipment is?” “Yes! They are ignoring me!” “Have you filed a report with Corporal Star?” “Yes! He’s been most unhelpful!” “.... Uh huh. Hmmm, let me guess, the shipment is from New Horseleans?” “As it so happens. I order only the most healthy and organic blueberries from top quality producers!” “Then I’m afraid I can explain your missing shipment. Word has come in that some unplanned storm from the Everfree has caused increased rainfall, which made the rivers flood way past their normal heights. I’ve got traders and travelers telling me that there’s no current way across the Father of Waters River.” “But I need my supplies now! Tomorrow night is the Summer Sun Celebration, this is the busiest season past Pancake Tuesday! And you no doubt know how I can’t open my doors if I don’t have blueberry pancakes in stock!” Emerald gave Honey a sad smile, “I’m sorry ma’am, but many are awaiting delayed friends, shipments, or special someponies coming from the New Horseleans area. There’s simply nothing we can do.” “Unbelievable. I’m writing to Princess Celestia about this!” Honey Cupcake huffed as she stormed out of the building, pushing past the two privates still lingering near the door. Star knew he would unfortunately see her again. Despite having to introduce himself, he had met her already. Several times, in fact, for she was a regular here. Honey Cupcake always had something to make a fuss about, and always found a Guard to harass. “To answer your question, no, I am not enjoying the front desk.” Sergeant Emerald snorted. “Don’t be such a sourpuss, Star. You can’t let one pony bring down your mood. After all, we’ve got donuts in the breakroom!” Emerald unlocked the thick security door next to the desk, entering it and trotting out past Star and through the swinging doors behind him, the Privates right behind her. Star watched as one of the Privates stopped to talk with him. “You look like you could use a break, Corporal Star,” Private Baton said. “I could use eight of those, Private Baton. How’d the call go?” “Oh you know the drill. Noise complaint, we go over, ask some questions, nopony knows anything, we go back empty hoofed.” “You managed to ask around the entire block in…” Star leaned back and looked at the clock on the wall next to him behind the desk, “An hour?” “We split up to cover more ground.” “Hmm. Well then Baton, I think I’ll take one of those eight breaks I’m due. Take over the front desk, I’m grabbing a donut.” “Alright, Corporal Star.” As he entered through the swinging doors, Star Armor saw Private Breeze taking a drink from the water fountain just to the side. He gave him a nod, which was returned after Private Breeze finished drinking. He was about to strike up a conversation with breeze when Star’s rumbling stomach reminded him of his goals, namely a chocolate covered donut which had his name on it. ‘Hopefully there are chocolate donuts. If they’re all glazed again…’ The doors swung shut behind him. As Corporal Star Armor made his way down the hall to the break room, he didn’t see the thirty ponies that had entered the building just after he left the front room, nor did he see Private Baton unlocking the security door, letting them in. The break room was a small rectangle room, filled with tables, chairs, bulletin boards, and a small kitchen at the end. Two ponies, Corporal Hooves and Private Nimble were playing cards at one of the tables. One one side of the room were metal lockers. On the other, the bulletin boards hung above a table. The table beneath the boards had a colorful cardboard box that made Star’s stomach rumble just looking at it. There were indeed chocolate donuts, much to Star’s delight. He grabbed a donut out of the box, and sat down in a chair in the corner of the break room, happily munching away for the next few minutes. Afterwards, Star brushed the crumbs off his coat as he got out of his cheap, uncomfortable wooden chair. He made a mental note to petition Colonel Comet Wing to raise the budget for furnishings. Specifically, to get something to sit on in the break room that didn’t make his flanks sore for the next two hours. He stopped in the hall when he heard a rumbling echo through the building. ‘There’s no storm planned for today. That rogue storm must have messed up all the schedules, I hope this doesn’t ruin my weekend plans.’ The pause also made him reconsider the idea of going back to the front desk and doing nothing but read old newspapers, books the previous attendants left, and listening to ponies drone on and on about non-issues. ‘I’ve been working hard today, and what better way to complement a donut than with a nap?’ So, Corporal Armor Star made his way to his favorite sleeping spot, an out-of-the-way janitor’s closet, and collapsed on a sack of cleaning powder. The door closed behind him, plunging him into darkness, the only light coming from beneath the door. He yawned, and shut his eyes. Outside, he heard what sounded like Emerald having an argument with somepony. ‘Oh no, somepony’s forgotten to make a new pot of coffee when they emptied the last one. Celestia help them, they’re going to need it for somehow managing to get on her bad side!’ When he woke, he saw the light beneath the door had dimmed considerably. ‘Oh ponyfeathers, I wasn’t supposed to nap that long! The Sergeant's going to have my hide!’ He jumped to his hooves and pulled the door open. He made his way over to the front of the building, where Private Baton, or his replacement, was no doubt fuming. A scorch mark on the wall stopped him in his tracks. “Is this what the argument was about?” He mumbled to himself before slinking back to the front. When he got there, he couldn’t find anypony behind the front desk. Then he checked the break room. Tables were overturned, chairs too. I could see the cards spilled out over the floor where the ponies were playing earlier. But he didn’t find anypony here. ‘Nopony at the desk. Nopony in the break room, and it’s a mess...’ He trotted out and up the stairs, to where the offices were. As he reached the last flight and pushed the doors open, he was met with an empty office. Nopony was at their desks, filling out the tedious, unnecessary paperwork. Nopony was cracking jokes at the water cooler, wasting time. Nopony was asking suspects or victims questions, taking reports, or anything Royal Guard related. Nopony was here at all. Corporal Star Armor looked out the nearest window. The sun’s rays were reflecting brightly off the glass windows of the brick seven story apartment building next door. His eyes snapped to a clock hanging on a wall. ‘Nearly six o’clock. That’s not closing time, where is everypony?’ “Hello? I swear, if this is another surprise party, I’m eating everypony’s lunches out of the fridge for the next week!” Nopony answered. “Aaaa HA!” Star yelled as he jumped and turned around. But again, he saw nopony. Needing answers, he headed back down the stairs, down the hallway, and into the lobby area. When he reached for the front door, Star saw that it was unlocked. The security door, which policy stated must be locked at all times if not in use, was unlocked. This has never happened before. Tentatively, he pulled the door open, and slowly walked through the lobby to the front doors. Taking a moment to calm his breathing, and dismissing a thought of this not being some kind of elaborate prank pulled on him when somepony found him sleeping in the closet and told everypony, Star Armor then pulled the front doors open. The Streets of Cincinneighti were thankfully not empty. Star let out a sigh of relief as he saw that he didn’t wake up alone in the world, and there were indeed strange bug ponies here with– “What the buck?!” He screamed, stumbling and falling back and onto the ground. His scream made every single pitch black insectoid pony monster stop what they were doing and stare at him. They had blue eyes, black bodies, and massive fangs. Star started to shake. “This is a horrible nightmare. This isn’t real. I’m still asleep.” Star repeated to himself as he began to hyperventilate, pressing his hooves to his head rocking back and forth. Then he got hit by thirteen glowing darts and one fireball. Everything went silent and very painful. As he slumped over against the front door of the Guard garrison, two of the monsters flew over and spat goo onto him, and also put out the fire. He couldn’t move his head to see just what exactly they were doing, but he felt something hit his hooves and then his muzzle. Crossing his eyes, he could make out something green on his face. Star Armor tried crying out in disgust, dismay, and distress but his body didn’t respond to him. He was still under the effects of the stunning spells that hit him. However, the ringing in his ears that started when he got hit began to fade, and he heard the monsters that looked like ponies talking with each other. They spoke with almost a buzzing undertone to their voice. “...with the fireballs! Seriously, I know one of you loves them, but you need to stop! Panar…! How many ponies do we miss with each target, Chamberlain?” Star’s eyes darted around, trying to get a look at the speaker, but with his angled towards the ground, he couldn’t see much other than the strange hooves of the monsters. Hooves was a generous term, as they seemed to have more in common with cheese than a pony’s leg. “Just a few, sleeping ponies produce no emotion detectable, but the commotion usually wakes them all. This one must have been quite the heavy sleeper, and considering there are no beds in the Royal Guard barracks, who knows where he was sleeping? Back to the matter at hoof, My Prince…” A second speaker, coming from wherever the first was, trailed off. ‘Prince? What was going on? Was Prince Blueblood here or something? Why won’t this horrible nightmare end?!’ “Our estimates did not account for the time it would take for infiltrating. Despite the extra days you’ve allotted, we will not make the rendezvous tomorrow.” There was a long pause. “.... Reduce the number of targets we will hit. Prioritize reaching the rendezvous in time over hitting Canterlot’s outlying communities. I’d like to hit as many targets as possible, but a community seeing what’s going on in Canterlot and warning the rest of the Principality is far less of an issue than missing the rendezvous.” Star’s head was lifted by a hoof, and he saw a monster right in front of him, looking him in the eyes. “This one’s good, mark him for pickup.” “We won’t have time for any targets, outside of the few small hamlets along the way, My Prince.” “Then so be it.” Though the monster in front of him dropped his head again, Star felt strong enough to at least roll his head to the side, giving him a view of most of the street. The two speakers he had been hearing were more of the monsters, and they were walking down the road in a group of three. A far one was mostly obscured, but it resembled every other insect pony monster he had seen so far. A close one was wearing strange orange armor. And the one in the middle of the group… It was tall. Tall like an alicorn. It had one large, curved horn jutting from the top of its head, a red fin on the back of its head with a similar red tail, and an orange torso. It wore a green peytral, and wherever it walked, the monsters bowed. ‘Prince, they called that thing.’ He saw levitating next to it, in an orange aura, was a massive hammer, the metal end of it as big as Star’s head and neck. ‘Oh Celestia, what is this nightmare?! I have to wake up!’ But Star Armor could do little more than twitch and roll his head around. “Nothing else matters but reaching Canterlot in time. We have one good shot at defeating the Princesses, missing it jeopardizes everything.” 'Defeating the Princesses?! No no no no, this is not real! Not real! Not real!' Eventually, the Prince monster and the other two walked away. Two more bug pony things flew up to him after a short while. ‘C’mon! Wake up! This isn’t real!’ No matter how hard he tried, Star Armor never woke up from the nightmare. “This is the one. Let’s get him over to the storage,” one of them said in their buzzing voice. They moved to grab him. He tried to scream and back away, but all he could manage was a grunt and falling onto his side. Hooves grabbed him and carried him away. Eventually, after being taken away from the Royal Guard garrison building by the apparently flying monsters, he was taken into an old warehouse. Inside were a lot more of the bug monsters, flying around green glowing pods hanging from the old wooden rafters. He saw the shadows of ponies inside of them, before being placed himself in a pod filled with warm liquid. He slowly slipped back asleep, and had dreams of nice, comfy chairs in the break room, with boxes of donuts piled to the ceiling.