For Science

Dewey Brook Court. A very peaceful neighborhood composed of different apartment buildings. The streets are cleaner than some others, but the gas lamps still glow through the haze wafting in from the industrial district and from the wood and coal smoke used by everypony to heat their homes.

A very particular apartment bore the address of 670, a good five story tall wood and brick building that looked indistinguishable from any others in the neighborhood. It had running water and had an elevator that could reach all of the floors. It was usually operated by teenage colts living in the building in exchange for a free room or reduced rent for their family from the landlord. It wasn't mechanical in nature, just a simple wooden box on a pulley that would lock into place once it reached its destination.

The building had its usual mix of ponies living inside, except for one unusual one. Inside room 3E, 3rd floor 5th door, resided the newly semi retired Blue Lightning, a long time resident since he took a job as a simple designer and moved up to the position of chief engineer at an unnamed company. The elder pony poured through his design and research notes, trying to find something to busy his time with. Working years as both a factory floor planner and machine designer had left him without the creative spark he had in his youth and now searched for a long lost creative nugget in the proverbial muck.

It was on the door of this pony that Renaultar knocked. He wasn't entirely sure why he had come here. Perhaps it was his isolacion that had gotten the best of him, or the fact he was not well enough to be back on the job yet, or maybe because he just didn't feel right since his encounter with Loyal. In any case, he was drawn to be in the company of somepony he knew.

He was thankful he had healed enough to have his casts removed earlier that day. There was no way he would go out on those 'wheels' again. The fact that someone might be after his life too kept him from going out much, despite the guardponies telling him that there was no such evidence.

With all these troubles, Renaultar hardly looked to be in any good spirits. Hopefully his friend would give him something else to think about.

The pony inside growled silently to himself. What he needed was something to busy his retirement time with, not house callers. If he didn't find anything soon he'd grow fat and broke by spending all of his time in the cafe down the street...

He begrudgingly moved toward the door and proceeded to undo the locks and latches, pausing a moment to straighten out his cloak before opening it. His annoyed face was quickly replaced with one of surprise.

"Deputy Shielder... Well this is quiet unexpected. What has it been, a week? And you're already out of your casts. I wish there was a way I could gut you open and see what material you're made of."

Renaultar smiled slightly at Blue's banter. "I would let you, but you would only be disappointed to not find any nuts and bolts to work with. May i come in?"

He let the smile fade a little. "Just thought we could both use some company...With you retiring and all and...well, i don't have anything to do. I have been spending my mind on far too many troubling thoughts."

Blue stood aside to allow the former physically broken guard inside and reseals the door. The first thing noticed upon stepping all the way inside the small apartment was the furniture or any decorations, but the stark contrast between the apartment air and the city air, the air inside the apartment smells nearly as fresh as an undisturbed meadow.

"Well get on inside here and have a lie down on a couch."

Renaultar was more than happy to take a seat. He was still feeling raw in the legs and limped his way to the couch. It made him feel a little better to be somewhere that didn't smell so....city like.

"Thanks. I trust you wont have me being your guinea pig for any of your crazy ideas. I just needed the...company.." He stared at the table, already looking troubled. Renaultar already felt he had brought a storm cloud with him. He was hoping to avoid bringing any glum.

Blue moves over and lies down on the couch directly in front of Renaultar.

"Heh... Right a guinea pig for one of my crazy ideas..."

He looks off to the side, mumbling. " If I could just have a blasted crazy idea..."

"You'll think of something....." Renaultar let his words go to silence. More uneasy quiet. It really was getting to him.

"..Blue...Do you think...its ever acceptable to...kill another pony? Even if you mean to do good?" Renaultar gave into the quiet and just threw out one of the things bothering him. He knew he was guilty of dropping his troubles on his friends, but this was really important to him.

Blue raises his head at attention.

"Hrm..?" Oh yes certainly! You don't find them very often, but there are some that will gut you for looking at them, and you have to do the same to them or they'll do it to some other pony. You're saving several lives by removing one, it's the best case scenario."

He rests his head on an upturned hoof.

"Why do you ask?"

Renaultar sighed. That was a question that he knew expected to answer, but was afraid to do so.

"I went to see Nameless the moment i could leave the hospital. I was glad to see her, but...Her parenting maid had a fair amount to say. I just....feel like i need to get in this fillies life, but this maid, Loyal, she is so protective...And she is right. Somepony is trying to kill me. And Nameless would only be in danger to be around me. What she said that hit me the hardest was that willing to die for someone isn't enough. You have to be willing to kill for them. To have others that would die for you..." He closed his one eye and hung his head. "I don't think i could do that. Kill another pony...I already failed that once."

"Well... so long as this isn't a sting operation, and I'll break out of any cell you could put me in, I've killed several. Monkey wrenches tend to be bad about caving a skull in..."

He turns away, his voice growing quieter.

"I can tell you one thing... It never gets easier, and I spend more time in the slums than you do.

He sighs heavily.

"Killing doesn't protect everypony though.... I learned that one night."

Renaultar took this news by surprise. He did not expect this from Blue. He did not even know he trusted him that much. It took him several long moments of processing that before he could speak.

"I...didn't know you had...." He wasn't to sure on how to proceed. "...Wow...And here i am in the opposite situation..." Renaultar let out a big sigh. It was time to stop keeping this to himself.

"The reason i got demoted...was because i could not do just that. Some ponies died because i...was afraid to kill another. Cornered a dealer that ran into a store front. Said he would start killing customers in there if i didn't leave....I had a chance too...Several chances...But i locked up after he killed the first one...Second one, i ran...Don't know why they didn't remove me from the force. Or why a false name was put in the paper. Someone must have thought i was not worthless after all that and the corrupt gaurdponies...." Each word lifted a bit more of a burden off his back. Both ponies were letting out their terrible secrets.

"...Now we are even. We each have our sins...I want to fix them. I can't do things like this anymore or ill end up dead drunk in a bar." His choice of intoxication at a bar was not lightly chosen either, since he prided himself on being a sober pony.

Blue slowly shakes his head.

"Heh... So long as you're giving details... Same circumstance, different choice. I... My first... The first time I ever killed.... I arrived too late. Back when I was just making a name for myself I stayed in a little rundown hole in the wall. It wasn't much, but I didn't have to stay with my family anymore. I was seeing.... I was seeing the most fantastic mare I've ever seen in my life... A unicorn filly two years my younger. The most beautiful face, curvaceous body... Her voice could calm a dragon. I..."

He sniffs loudly, bracing himself to bring a painful memory fully to the surface. Despite his mental preparation his voice cracks from holding back tears.

"I saw two colts leave her apartment building and when I went to her apartment the door was wide open and... There she was... In her room.... Raped to death..."

Renaultar could feel the pain more than he knew he was capable of. He got up from his seat and went to Blue to put a hoof on his shoulder. They both had seen a lot of terrible things.

He thanked his eye patch as he hid his now potentially tear filled eye from view. He had seen such things before, but to hear it from someone he knew, it hit him hard. It made him tear up, it made him long for something better, it made him furious.

"This city has so many ponies in it, and it has so much evil to inflict...Its why i joined the guardponies. I even gave Nameless my whole cutie mark story and how i got started....but it just...feels so wasted when there is so much wrong. I feel like i'm wasting my time.....I would give so much to do more. Heck, ill be a vigilante if i have to." Renaultar never thought he would be saying such things tonight, but with all that had happen in the last few weeks, he really didn't know if he cared.

Blue steels himself, trying not to let the tears of weakness shine through, and fails miserably for it as tears freely soak into his fur.

"I wouldn't have even brought this up... I'd tell you a different story if I hadn't seen you with that round peach girl at the coffee shop..... The two of you blushing and laughing... It reminds me of how we were all those years ago... Stealing glances at each other only to turn beet red, lead to escorts home, eating together, dancing, staying the night..."

His voice becomes more feeble and helpless.

"All of it gone... taken away... Gone forever..."

And suddenly grits his teeth, his voice becoming consumed by hate.

"I became a vigilante. I killed them one by one. I searched night after night and hunted them both down. I killed them with my own hooves and those were my only easy kills. Not in self defense, but revenge."

"Peach Dream..." He said to himself. Renaultar nearly forgot to check up on her after all this. How could he forget her. But that thought would have to wait. His friend was here.

"Im sorry...Sorry that you had to lose someone...Its...sickening!" He banged a hoof on the couch. "As a Guardpony I'm bound by law that all ponies are innocent until proven guilty...You words, by law, make you a murderer that i am to arrest...But that doesn't feel right. Sins they are, but there are so many more sins on the other end."

Renaultar moved to take a seat next to Blue before looking him in the eye. "I may not agree with your methods....but i want to fight it. I know what ponies to ask, but can't because 'law' says they can't be touched. I know i can find out who it is that is trying to kill me...And who stole those snowflakes. Maybe even find that clock maker..."

Blue ducks his head between his forelegs and lifts it back up after a few minutes, his tears gone and eyes red. He didn't exactly feel better for putting everything out in the open, especially not for being weak in front of another stallion and thus felt the need to be curmudgeony.

"Ah, spare me the speech you honor bound simpleton."

He tried so very hard to keep his composure, but Renaultar couldn't help but burst out laughing. They were very welcome laughs to lighten up the rather terrible mood. "Oh you old goat you."

With that breath of fresh air he felt his thoughts were as clear as they had been that whole day. He knew what he wanted to do. "Blue, i think i figured it out...I need to play it dirty. And i can't just do it like some angry pony either. I need to be careful and crafty....You said you needed some ideas right? To make some things? I might be in need of some. Standard issue guardpony gear wont cut it."

Blue almost didn't hear the solution to his creativity problem. The urge to play the part of a chastising old pony was too great.

"Careful and crafty huh? I don't know if even my experience can help you change your personality."

He scoots a few notches away from him.

"And unless you're about to kiss me, don't get so close."

Renaultar laughed again and backed off. "Sorry to disappoint you." He chuckled some more before getting up to sit on his original seat with a grin.

"But in all seriousness, I want to do something. Even if i have to change, ill try. Once I'm in good enough shape to return to work, ill find who i need and 'persuade' them to give me information....Somehow." He began to ponder to himself. This all was not sounding so easy now that he was not in such an angry and in the passion of the moment like he was seconds ago.

"...Blue, can you....help me? As a friend?"

Blue tosses his head side to side for a moment, thinking.

"Possibly... What do you want exactly?"

Renaultar thought for a few moments. He honestly didn't know yet.

"Im not sure...But some thing to better defend myself. They won't let us carry weapons other than weighted horse shoes. Maybe a collapsible spear or something. Your the genius."

Blue turns to look at him in seriousness.

"Yes yes, I'm a genius. But usually I'm asked to make something specific or a specific direction. I'm guessing you want me to make weapons for you, then?"

Renaultar shrugged. "I guess so. I need to stay on the more subtle side of things. I don't want to be something right out of a comic book like a flaming moron. I just need to be able to use more force when i can....And learn more about defending myself. They don't exactly give you top notch defense lessons either....Sweet Celestia, i do sound something from a comic book." He facehoofed and shook his head.

"I don't read them so I don't know. So.... You want lessons on how to fight and you want weapons... Do you want nonlethal at first? I can't do this for free, I have rent to pay you know."