War of Sun and Moon

Checkmate couldn’t help but agree as he was forced to use his own method of crowd control. Unfortunately his boiled down to tackling those rowdy enough to be dangerous, and would likely make things worse if they couldn’t get this under control now. By Celestia, he had absolutely no idea how such a simple act had angered so many people here. After all, he felt the Pegasus had acted out of place, and had quite frankly been overly ostentatious about it, but this was Canterlot. Here you just found something the pony had infracted upon, and there were any things of the sort, and told the guard to take care of it. It was a much less violent form of discrimination.

Still, he was getting tired, and the weight of the armor might have been helpful, but it was making this all much harder than it needed to be. He was probably going to collapse on himself soon, all this shouting, and running, and pushing were absolutely no good for him. It dawned on him, that this was basically how an actual battle would be… just one more thing he’d have to work on… though at least there he’d have a weapon, and a magically levitated bit of protection that didn’t actually “weigh” down his body.

Expecting praise, Strange Brew got nothing but, surprisingly, hate. But how could this be? She'd given them a masterful show. Why so upset? "How dare you plebeians mock my work!" she began to shout at the crowd. "You probably couldn't even make sparks!" A yellow flare was sent up by the guards, hitting close to Brew. She would have yelled at them more, but the bard had flown up without her noticing, a scared look on his face, and started shoving her backwards away from the crowd. "Get your hooves off of me!" she started to object as she was pushed away from the mob that had formed. But had she not been moved, she would have been struck with yet another golden flare. Realizing this, she stopped struggling so much as they flew over rooftops. The last things she saw of the scene was some silver unicorn pretending there was an alicorn somewhere.

The pair of pegasi flew for some bit more, eventually reaching the castle that was the jewel of the town... wait, the castle? Surely she wouldn't be accepted there. Wasn't this trespassing anyways? Hopefully whatever ponies there wouldn't catch them. They landed on the outskirts of the castle grounds, where fine grasses covered the massive barrier around the royal manner.

Cursive landed, before pacing back and forth anxiously, wondering what he'd do now. He'd managed to grab his bits in the half second before he acted, so there was that, but now he had to worry that his exit would be much harder. He knew he had to do what he did- there was no conscionable way to react to that besides what he did, but it didn't stop him from being annoyed at the foal. And... had she been yelling at them when he rescued her? what was she THINKING?

He turned to her, and looked at her expectantly, waiting for an explanation.

There was an awkward silence. Brew hadn't said anything herself, waiting for the other pegasus to say something. Maybe an "are you OK?". But that never happened. He had turned to her, and he expected an answer. She didn't want to, but there was only one thing that was truly appropriate for this situation.

"I'm..." the witch began to stagger out reluctantly, penetrating the blanket of silence, "I'm... sorry for crashing your show." She said it. But why should I have done it?, she asked. After all, she could have easily taken him out if she had wanted (or so she thought), and he was just another pleb. But then again, he did have a certain charm that seemed to woo over the females.

Cursive sighed. "It's fine, it's just... well, I don't know why you did that. You must have known there would be a backlash... Did you just not think of it? I don't... I just don't understand why you did what that."

"W-well people were looking!" Brew responded in a tone that sounded like a mix of being offended at (what she thought was) stupidity and trying to come up with a good excuse. "I figured it was what they wanted! Besides, what can they do?"

Thankfully for the two lone guards fighting against the ocean of chaos, reinforcements had arrived. They took the form of on duty patrolmen who saw the beacons, they took the form of guards who had hastily charged out here from their private hobbies or desk duties, and they took the form of those brave colts and fillies who weren’t even supposed to be on duty today. Several of the unicorns began to make loud, concussive sounds with their horns, in an attempt to garner the attention of the people, as those capable charged to put a halt to the mob before anyone could hopefully be seriously injured.

Checkmate was tired and worn out, when the help arrived. He couldn't do much by this point besides keep himself upright and stable amid any thrashing that was going on around him. His armor felt heavier and heavier by the moment, and he could have sworn he was over heating… but they were finally making a dent in the riot it seemed. He had to hope the people would calm down completely, and go on their merry way… only then could they assess damages. Both in the form of damaged property and stalls, and in the form of personal injuries… he’d seen at least one pony go down amid-st the morass of rioters, and there would undoubtedly be more.

Amidst a veritable stampede of frightened, panicking ponies, Hat Trick found himself hunkered upon the ground in a most un-stallionlike position. Shaking fearfully, he attempted to block out the din of hooves scrambling on hard cobblestones and loud, diverse octaves of whinnying.

After an unmeasurable - in Hat Trick's pitiful state - amount of time had passed, a rather lucky blow from a muscular stallion sent the pony flying clear of the 'eye of the storm,' as he saw it, and a desperately disheveled Hat Trick was able to work up the courage to scamper forth and clear the brawl's 'event horizon.'

With a slight limp and a sore hide, he stumbled down the narrowest alleyway he could find - which wasn't very narrow at all, considering that he was in Canterlot - and hyperventilated into an old paper bag salvaged from a dumpster.

Postal, after recovering from her kick to the head, had continued to try, and at times fail, to avoid bucking legs and swinging heads. After awhile reinforcements began to get called in and the riot began to calm itself. Much to Postal's relief. As the sounds of the crowds began to die down and sounds of guards took their place a few thoughts came to Postal's mind. Why had the fight started? Who started it? Was everyone okay? What would be the consequence of this street brawl?

Would she get in trouble? Would she have to pay a fine?

It has happened a few times before, her getting in trouble for doing something she didn't do. Her head throbbed, causing her to hold her head in her hooves, hoping not to get hit again. Postal's head was killing her. She just hoped that this little injury didn't get in the way of her job. But it wasn't like she had ever taken a day off.

Through all this, Bond had been comfortably inside. He had simply sat inside a tea shop, eating a danish from the day-old-discount rack. Now that it had concluded, he opened the door and wandered outside. He hardly had anywhere to go; not in the sense of being destitute, but being somewhat poor and having run his errands already; he was, as one might say, between jobs.

The scene outside was still rather chaotic, even after the populace had calmed down, but one thing stuck out to Bond like a sore horn: a lone earth pony, carrying a mail bag and clutching her head. The riot in general wasn't Bond's thing, but an earth pony in need? That was his speciality.

He approached the earth pony. "Are you hurt?" he asked. "That was quite a brawl out there, and it looks like you were smack in the middle of it."

A voice? Who on earth would be talking to her? Postal slowly removed the hooves from her head, kinda peeking to see who was talking to her. The pony talking to her kinda surprised her, almost startled her. A Unicorn. Postal wasn't one to usually one to think about equality, or inequality in this case, but a unicorn? On every other occasion a unicorn wouldn't bat an eye at her, no less come over and ask her if she is alright.

Suddenly Postal noticed that she had yet speak to this Unicorn, or ever properly and fully acknowledge him. Postal quickly, maybe too quickly, got up and bowed her head slightly, trying to be polite and not make eye contact. "Excuse me." She internally slapped herself, Postal still hadn't answered his question.

"I'm quite alright sir!"

"You mean aside from riot and cause untold deaths even IF you somehow manage to escape from the wrath of a crowd that, statistically, will contain at least five ponies capable of permanently grounding you, and capable of also making this entire town incredibly anti-pegasus for anywhere from the next few months to decades? Because that's what they can do, have done, and will do. If you think I'm exaggerating then you need to spend some time outside of whatever rock you crawled out from under, because not only are those things possible, but they happen a LOT. I've heard of earth ponies killing Unicorns that managed farms or Pegasi who tried to use weather manipulation to increase yield, and that's without generations of higher-than-thou temperament. Honestly, what WERE you thinking?"

The end of the riot couldn't come soon enough for her. Encouraging the remaining ponies to move on, her attention returned to sorting out the mess. Some property had been damaged, which fortunately wasn't too difficult to repair. The ponies that had been injured however would be a different story.

"Alright, take whoever needs help to the hospital, I'll..." Looking around again, the scope of the situation had her rather overwhelmed. "I'll inform Celestia of this once we've cleaned up." Already going around to pick up some of the more dangerous items that could have been hurled, she stopped by to check on Checkmate.

"You'd better get some rest, told you that light armour works out better." Nodding to one of the guards to escort the tired pony, she continued on with her duties.

“No… No… I’m fine. I’m fine.” said Checkmate. He obviously wasn’t fine, of course, but he wasn’t going to admit to any personal failures of this nature here. Besides, with a limited application of magic he could at least grease the wheels, so to speak. Magic surrounded his armor, and buffered some of the weight from his body to his mind, and he certainly would have argued his mind was much stronger anyway. This of course did nothing for how hot it was getting inside of it, but a little at a time.

He brushed off the guard who undoubtedly attempted to then aid him, as he tried to tend to those who needed help as well. He couldn’t just stand there and leave them after all. It just wouldn’t be right. With a small chuckle to himself at the fortuitousness of their arrival when they had, he resumed a grim appearance as he set to work helping those who had fallen up. He knew no one would be blamed for what was done here, and that was kind of sickening… but it was the way things were.

"Are you sure?" Bond asked, trying to maneuver his head into her field of view. "You didn't look like it. Don't worry, though, I'm not like most unicorns. I'm a friend, and I can look at your head if you want me to. My shop's just a block or two away."

Typical. Most earth ponies didn't really get him at first, as he was something of a social anomaly, but they usually came around eventually. He just had to break the ice enough and prove he wasn't just some snob trying to play games.

Postal shook her head quickly, stealing a few glances at Bond. "No sir, I'm fine really." Postal said quietly. She appeared to be telling the truth though, her head already was feeling better then it was when she first got hit. It was odd though, a unicorn being so friendly and willing to help her, despite just meeting her. And her lack of wings or a horn.

Postal suddenly realized how late it was becoming. She quickly bowed her head, dismissing and excusing herself. "Thank you so much sir for willing to help me but I must get going. I have a job to do and I don't want to know what will happen if I don't get everything finished today." Postal said, starting to turn and walk towards the gates.

Brew was not really one to think of consequences, only acts. This was reflected in her magic-making, where she would combine and mix up two substances not for specific effects, but rather "because it would be interesting". But she wasn't going to admit this.

"I told you, people were looking! What else was I supposed to do? Plus if they did try to attack me, I could always use magic shielding. Think of that?" She turned her back (Or perhaps it was her flank? That's a bit suggestive sounding though.) to him. "And for your information, my home is not just a rock, it's a cave. Got it?"

Cursive decided now was a wonderful time to begin grinding his hoof into his forehead. He already knew she would be wonderful fun. "Okay, now, I want you to tell me, if your magic shields are so amazing, does it take less time for a spell to hit you or for you to see it and start the shield up? Because my guess would be the second, and you may not have noticed but a few ponies were already started on casting spells when I got to you, and there was a full riot by the time we were out. And even if you DID somehow get the shield up, how much battering can your shield take before it will fall? How many ponies would it take to bring it down?"
He paused as something she had said sunk in, before giving her a quizzical glance. "And... you literally live in a cave? That's... I'm really not sure what to say to that."

Locating those who had actually caused physical harm, Fleche escorted them into the custody of other guards who led them to the castle. Undoubtedly she'd end up taking the statements, a task she didn't really relish. But at least those who had been kicked and bitten would have some compensation. Checkmate seemed to be holding up reasonably well at least. Understandable that he'd rather continue on than take a rest when there was still work to be done.

"Anyone who was injured, I suggest you make your way to the hospital so we can keep track of what happened. The rest, return to your activities, or get a cool drink and stay out of trouble." She didn't really understand why some felt it necessary to be overly hostile. It merely made the work of the guards that much harder.

Checkmate had instead taken it upon himself to aid the other guards in helping many to their feet, and getting them on their way. He wasn't going to be going to catch a break after this, that was for sure. The sheer level of paperwork this would require was going to be infuriating... if he were going to be here to finish it. A smile worked its way across his face as he slowly turned and followed towards the castle, having rounded up a few straggler instigators.

This was the kind of thing he hated in this land though. There was nothing for a true hero to do, but there was so much hate that needed guards... and he wasn't even in the position to be one of those heroic guards either. Damn his parents and their bureaucracy. They were the ones who 'promised' him this position if he would follow their requests later... they were the ones who intentionally made sure he was made in charge of a group, yes, but of letters, papers, and their dissemination. It certainly was nothing he wanted to be doing...

Well, that had been that. You can't win 'em all, and she probably had business to attend to. Those earth ponies, they always worked. Always. There wasn't hardly anything that could stop them from doing that. Not like a unicorn, or a pegasus. You could stop a unicorn from magicking, or a pegasus from flying, but an earth pony would just keep going, and going, and going... there was just a sort of energizing power source in them. Fantastic, it really was.

But in any case, it was getting late on in the day, and it was time to head home, so that was precisely what Bond did.

"I don't have to answer your questions!" retorted Brew, still facing away from Cursive. "Now if you don't mind, I'm going back to my cave, which yes, I do, live in." She made a little hop before starting to fly away. She only made it about 100 feet before thinking twice and returning to the grounds where the other pegasus was still standing. Maybe he was right.

"Ehehe, sorry." What was she getting into? "Maybe it is safer to stay away from the town. I'd have to fly over it to get back home, after all. Say, I never found out what your name was..."

Cursive suppressed the urge to grin triumphantly, and instead simply answered her question with a gentle, slightly amused smile. "I'm Cursive Writ. Perhaps we should find somewhere safe for you to retire to for the night, and I can escort you out come morning, miss...?"

"Brew. Strange Brew. But dare call me by my first name and I'll- I'll- well, let's just say you shouldn't. Stupid parents." She muttered the last part. there was a slight pause. "But you said that we should find somewhere safe?" She looked at the castle distances off. "Are we even allowed in there?"

Taking names and organizing the clean up left Fleche exhausted by the end. Checkmate seemed to be holding his own under the circumstances, and the general guards had the rest under control. Adventure required a healthy and well rested body, the latter of which she needed to act upon now.

"Good work ponies, keep me informed of any developments." Making her way back up to the barracks seemed to magnify just how mentally stressing crowd control could be. Now she could relax for a bit, until the next crisis came along.