Expeditionary

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 8

Chapter 1

Expeditionary

Captain Shining Armor walked into Princess Celestia's office. "You sent for me, Princess?"

"I did. Take a seat." Celestia smiled. "And stop acting so stiffly, Shining. You're royalty, too."

Shining did sit rather more casually than he had been standing, but still was not completely relaxed. Despite marriage to a princess, and his sister’s conversion to the same, his bearing was still as professional as he was.

Removing his polished golden helmet, Shining ran a hoof through his mane, straightening the blue stands. He looked every inch the Royal Guard, not needing any spells to keep his coloring uniform with every other pony in the service.

He waited while Celestia shuffled some papers and then pushed them across the desk. "There's been a new development in the case of the pirate Hookbeak."

"Oh really?" Shining picked up the papers and scanned them with interest.

"As you know, we've had problems getting him and his crew pinned down. They seem to have mastered the art of raiding Equestrian merchant ships and then slipping back to port in the Griffon Kingdom. The griffons can't touch them because they have been careful not to commit any crimes in Kingdom jurisdiction."

Shining nodded. He'd studied the problem for a while.

Celestia leaned forward, smiling. "But we've just made an agreement with the griffons. They don't have the resources to devote to finding and extraditing a criminal who isn't causing them problems, but they've agreed to let us send a team of our own."

"We're going after him?" Shining asked hopefully.

Celestia nodded. "We are indeed. I think a Royal Guard expeditionary team would do the trick nicely. However, there are some restrictions as is usual with the griffons. They didn't want very many foreigners coming in, but after some bargaining I did manage to get them to allow a larger number."

"What's the larger number?" Shining asked.

"Twelve," Celestia replied. Seeing the look of consternation on Shining's face she added, "I recommend you pick your team carefully."

Shining nodded, his thoughts turning inward, already working on the problem. "What kind of support can we expect from local law enforcement?"

"They're sending two griffons to liaise with you, although I am not aware if they are willing professionals or merely babysitters to keep a group of ponies from running amok in their country."

Celestia moved another pile of papers across her desk. "What I've given you is all the information I have. I recognize that you'll have to do most of the heavy lifting yourself to get this organized. This came together quickly and without time to study the problem. I'm afraid that we don't even know what we don't know. However, I believe in your ability to go to the Griffon Kingdom and get the job done."

Shining nodded and forced a confident smile. "I'll do my best.”

He left Celestia’s office carrying the files of information with him. It occurred to Shining that the Princess might have actually understated the challenge. Going to a foreign country with very little information and being expected to build a case on one criminal hiding among the populace was a monumental task. Also, it seemed the Royal Guards had no arrest authority in the Griffon Kingdom and would have to work with the local police to apprehend their target. On top of that, the Royal Guard didn’t have an expeditionary unit ready to deploy and Shining would have to create one from scratch – preferably as quickly as possible.

Shining took a calming breath before setting his mind to work in earnest. He decided that his first step was to create a group. Once a capable team was at work, they could begin to unravel the problem.

The next day, eleven ponies reported to the conference room at the Royal Guard headquarters in Canterlot. Shining was already there, hiding his lack of sleep the previous night behind a cup of coffee and a trove of paperwork.

When all twelve of them were assembled, Shining stood up at the head of the table. “Good morning, everypony. I’ve called you here to go over a task Princess Celestia has given us. You’ve each been picked carefully for this mission.”

That got the attention of the assembled crowd. Usually Royal Guard duty was basic police work, enforcing the law around Equestria and doing ceremonial duty at royal events.

Shining went on. “We’ve been given permission to enter the Griffon Kingdom and begin a hunt for the pirate Hookbeak. Even the griffons don’t have much intelligence on him, so this is basically going to be us creating a case from scratch.

“What we know so far is that he is probably residing in the city of Port Talon.”

There was a pause. Shining let it continue for a few seconds. “Yes, that’s all we have. I hope that drives home to you what kind of task we’re facing. However, I believe it’s not impossible. You’re all competent Guards. Working together, we can do this.”

A few heads were nodding in agreement now. Shining decided it was time to introduce the ponies he’d picked for the team to each other. “This unit, while rather small, has the same tiered organization of the regular Guard. Lieutenant Magnifier will be my second in command. I selected him from the Guard Intelligence Branch. Mag, would you like to say a few words?”

The lanky yellow earth pony nodded and stood. His red mane was a little more relaxed than most of the guards, as his duties very seldom required him to don a uniform. His cutie mark was a magnifying glass.

“When Captain Armor asked me to organize a group for a special project, I decided to bring along two of my best Detectives, Dim Sun and Soft Touch.” Mag paused to nod towards a pair of mares next to him. “The three of us have complementary skills to process the information we take in. That could be forensics, interrogations, or other forms of evidence.”

Shining nodded. “Thank you. Sergeant Rough Ride?”

The called pony got up. He was a unicorn stallion outfitted with guard armor, appearing to be white with a blue mane. The magic uniformity spell made him, and in fact most of the ponies in the room, appear to be almost twins of each other.

“Captain Armor put me in charge of the ground team,” said Rough. “I’ve brought along Senior Guard Hound Dog, Guard Pikop Andropov, and Guard Cyrus.”

Rough gestured to three earth pony stallions that he had named. “We’re ready for orders involving covert surveillance and raids.”

“Good to hear,” said Shining. He pointed to another Guard, a pegasus mare. “Sergeant Skydancer?”

Skydancer remained seated because getting up wouldn’t have done much good. Even with the uniformity spell, it was clear that she was shorter than average. She jerked her head at three pegasus stallions beside her. “My group is Senior Guard Airborne, Guard Ace, and Guard Flash Sentry. We’re ready to do recon and support. Also, Senior Guard Airborne is a qualified medic.”

Shining’s eyes narrowed slightly at hearing the name Flash Sentry, but he did not comment. “All right, that’s everypony. I’ve organized a ship to take us across the sea to Port Talon. It will also serve as our headquarters while we’re there. We leave the day after tomorrow.”

It was short notice, he knew, but every Guard had volunteered for the job and right there in the contracts it said to “expect the unexpected.”

“I’ll let you get your affairs in order before departing. We’ll develop the plan of action on the sail over. If there’s a library near where you live, it wouldn’t hurt to do some reading on the Griffon Kingdom. Also, leave your polished armor at home. This is going to be low-key. We’d like to avoid alerting Hookbeak to our presence for as long as possible.”

Shining paused, and then added, “To that end, I am also hereby relaxing grooming standards for the duration of the mission. You can stop shaving, if it suits you. This starts now.”

At his word, the assembled Guards began to remove their armor. The appearance of each changed back to their natural colors and styles once free of the uniformity spell. While this was going on, Shining shuffled his paperwork and then glanced up. “Are there any questions?”

Skydancer, revealed to be a blue mare with a magenta mane and a pair of winged ballet shoes for a cutie mark, put up a hoof. “What does Hookbeak look like?”

“We don’t have a physical description as he usually isn’t directly involved in pirating attacks,” Shining replied. “We do have some information on his small fleet, but those ships are likely anchored in a secret place away from Port Talon.”

“What about our ship?” asked Mag. “What sort of accommodations are we looking at?”

“Princess Celestia has approved the acquisition of a decommissioned Navy frigate and crew to sail it. The ship is a little old and the weapons have been removed, but it’s still perfectly serviceable for our purposes. There should be plenty of space for living and working. You can probably bring as much kit as you need to do your job.”

Rough, a sandy-tan stallion with a brown mane and a barbell cutie mark, asked, “What about workout facilities aboard?”

Shining gave him a quick knowing smile. “It’s been taken care of.”

Cyrus, an emerald stallion with a blue mane, lance cutie mark, and an eye-catching crystal coat, asked, “What are the demographics of Port Talon? You asked us to go incognito, Captain, but will there be enough ponies for us to blend in with?”

It was a good question, especially with Cyrus’ unique look. Shining checked his paperwork and found the answer. “Approximately five percent of the population consists of ponies. Some of them are Kingdom citizens, born and raised by immigrant parents, and some are native Equestrians who moved there.”

Shining paused, and when no further questions were asked, he picked up a piece of paper with some final notes on it. “We’re lucky that there isn’t a language barrier between us and the griffons, but that doesn’t mean we’re the same as them. Their country is completely different than what all of you are used to here at home. They think differently, and solving this case might not be as straightforward as it seems. We’re basically walking into new territory and having to relearn what we know about doing business.

“Where we’re going, there is no set procedure already in place. There are no books to look up the answers and we won’t be able to ask somepony who is more experienced. This is something that hasn’t been done before.”

Shining looked around to make sure every set of eyes was focused on him. He smiled. “So let’s do it.”

Author's Note

Hello and welcome to Expeditionary - the story that is what you make it. The rules are simple. Each chapter, a new set of clues will be presented. With your team of twelve ponies and two griffons, how do you proceed?

Using reader input through comments, I will craft each chapter. The decisions you make have a real effect on story progression. Your comments can be as detailed or simple as you want - assigning every individual by name to a specific task, or just general commands. I'll condense all the responses and start writing. To make it sporting and give everyone a chance to comment, there will be no less than 48 hours between chapters.

Chapter 2

“Land ho!”

Shining glanced up from studying a map of Port Talon. One of the ship’s crew popped his head into Shining’s office. “We’ll be there in about an hour, Captain Armor.”

Getting up, Shining stretched. The trip had been longer than he would have liked, but at least it was at an end and they could soon get started on finding Hookbeak.

Leaving the office, he passed by the ship’s gym where Rough Ride and Cyrus were busy pumping iron. Other than their love of fitness, the two were almost nothing alike.

Rough was perhaps the bulkiest unicorn Shining had ever seen. He was a very competent squad manager, but was happy with his current position and had no aspirations to higher leadership. Initially he was reluctant to partake in the expedition, concerned about his ailing mother, but she must have convinced him to go. He was now with the team and committed to the job.

Cyrus had joined the Guard soon after the Crystal Empire reappeared. Obviously, his manner was a bit old fashioned and he wasn’t very good with technology. He was very good at weapons handling, although his manner was more like a big teddy bear and he had no qualms about hugging. Despite his size, he was a bit of a picky eater and protested the sailor chow they had been served during the trip.

Walking further, Shining passed through the quarters where Hound Dog, Pikop Andropov, and Ace were lounging.

Hound Dog, called “Puppy” because of his canine cutie mark, was a brown on brown earth pony with a knack for working with animals. He was generally easygoing and playful like his name. Puppy was shooting the breeze with Pikop about their destination.

“Port Talon isn’t a terrible city,” Pikop was saying, “although not my choice for vacation in the Griffon Kingdom.”

Pikop had done a lot of free-spirited traveling before joining the guard, where his excellent sense of direction had come in handy. His cutie mark featured both kinds of compass - the one for finding heading and the one for drawing a circle. His coat was burgundy and his mane was yellow with a single black streak through it.

Ace appeared disinterested in the conversation, turning away to run a hoof through his black and green mane and preen a few green feathers. Shining had observed that he wasn’t an easy pony to get along with, but not a troublemaker. His cutie mark was a martial arts belt, and he had received top marks for unarmed combat.

In the intelligence office, Shining found the staff setting up their equipment. Magnifier , Dim Sun, and Soft Touch were getting prepared to start their jobs immediately upon arriving.

As Mag quietly hung maps and organized paperwork, Dim was arranging a chemistry set that looked a lot like her test tube cutie mark. Shining had heard she joined the Guard after tracking down her mother’s killer. Her work was certainly good enough to have matched evidence to a perpetrator.

Soft had some papers to review, including those on griffon psychological notes. She was well practiced at emotions and empathy. She sometimes seemed disconnected, but was always able to find something in common with others, hence her Venn diagram cutie mark.

Dim and Soft were both grey unicorn mares, although Soft’s mane was white while Dim’s mane was mauve and she wore glasses.

Shining headed up to the deck. There was a nice breeze and he could see the coast drawing closer.

Overhead, Skydancer was instructing Flash Sentry on a few flight intricacies. Shining could hear her barking Manehattan accent, the volume and tone left over from her days as a drill instructor. She’d also been a Wonderbolt, and sometimes Shining wondered what she was doing in the Royal Guard.

The first time Shining had met Flash, the junior Guard made an embarrassment of the organization’s standards by forgetting his uniformity spell right as Shining’s sister, Princess Twilight Sparkle, was visiting. While everypony else was cloaked in a modest white or grey, Flash had drawn attention like a Las Pegasus neon sign with his bright orange coat. At least his shield cutie mark indicated that perhaps he wasn’t totally incompetent. Skydancer had requested that he be brought along for more training. Shining had decided that it was a good idea so he could keep a closer eye on Flash.

Standing on deck, Airborne watched the aerial exercises with a bit of concern on his face. He was a bit concerned about everything, it seemed, but especially health. Airborne read medical journals cover to cover, usually learning about some new disease to keep him up at night. Because of this, however, he was a very fine medic. He even looked a bit like a bandage, being colored khaki with a white mane and white cross cutie mark.

Shining turned to look towards the city again. He could make out individual buildings now, especially a tall lighthouse. Port Talon was built at the mouth of the Talon River. There was sheltered berthing a short distance up the river, and that was where the ship was headed.

A pair of griffons appeared above the skyline, headed in the direction of the ship. Shining watched as they drew closer. One was female and svelte, colored mostly white. The other was grizzled and sturdy, charcoal grey with white feathers around his head.

The young female made to land on the ship, but the other griffon put out a foreleg to stop her. He called, “Request permission to come aboard.”

Shining waved them in. “Come on.”

Both visitors touched down on the deck and the white griffon offered a shake and a smile. “Hello, I am Báistí, representative of the Port Talon city council. If there’s anything I can do to help while you’re staying with us, don’t hesitate to ask.”

Shining finished shaking with her and engaged the other griffon. Up close, he saw that this one wore a badge. The griffon said, “My name is Stormfeather. I’m the Port Talon Police liaison working this case.”

“If you don’t mind me saying, you look like you’ve seen a lot more than just police work,” Shining observed.

Stormfeather looked mildly surprised. “Yes, actually. I was an Admiral of the Griffon Empire airship service before I retired and became a cop. It keeps me busy, even with the drop in rank.”

“Well sir, I’ll call you Admiral if you like. It’s good to meet you.” Shining turned to Báistí. “I wasn’t expecting someone from the city council.”

“I’m not here in an official capacity,” she explained. “I don’t have any duties to perform. Mostly I’d just like to see things go smoothly.”

“I appreciate it.” Shining nodded. “Why don’t the two of you come with me and meet our team?”

He led them on a tour of the spaces aboard the ship, introducing Guards along the way. Shining made sure to highlight the things he thought would impress Stormfeather, but politely answered any questions Báistí had. To make the job easier, it was important not to ruffle any figurative feathers among their hosts.

“Where did you get this ship?” Stormfeather asked. “It looks military.”

“It’s ex-Navy,” Shining replied.

Stormfeather considered it and then shrugged. “I suppose it won’t draw a lot of attention. Surplus vessels are put into service all the time. However, you may want to add a little decoration just to make sure no one gets suspicious.”

Shining nodded. He heard the sailors calling back and forth as the ship entered the river and headed for a berthing. He turned back to the two griffons. “Now that we’re here, do you have any leads for us to begin with?”

“A very good one, actually,” said Stormfeather as the ship docked and tied up. “A few days ago, we located a small utility boat that we believe belongs to Hookbeak’s outfit. You can have a look aboard. It’s moored just down the line from here.”

“Is that it?” Shining asked, a slight touch of annoyance in his voice.

Stormfeather caught the tone and replied in kind. “If you’ll recall, the Griffon Kingdom has no reason to be investigating Hookbeak. This boat is only in police custody because it was found abandoned, not because it’s a crime scene. I didn’t have to mention it at all.”

Shining held up a hoof. “All right, thank you. We’ll look into it.”

He stuck his head into the intelligence spaces. “We’ve got a boat to investigate. Stormfeather here knows more.”

Mag nodded in reply. “I’ll have Dim get on it.”

Stormfeather waited until Dim had packed her forensic kit and went with her down to the boat. Báistí stayed behind, and while Shining waited for results from searching the boat, he engaged her in conversation.

“So what’s Port Talon like?” Shining asked.

“Well, it’s not perfect, but no city is. When I heard we might have pirates hiding among us, I could hardly believe it.” Báistí seemed emphatic. “I’ve lived here all my life. I know the city by heart, as well as many of the residents. I just want to help everyone. It’s a shame that our government doesn’t want to do anything about the pirates.”

“Well, from what I understand, they aren’t causing trouble here.” Shining shrugged. “Maybe your government could get them for money laundering or tax evasion or something?”

“Hmm, I’ll mention that to Stormfeather,” Báistí decided. “He’s the one with the badge; the only one who can actually do something about that. He also told me that he has arrest authority, but you and your team don’t because you’re foreign.”

Shining knew that. The Equestrian Royal Guard had come to Port Talon as guests and had no jurisdiction there. That’s why they needed a liaison like Stormfeather—to actually make the arrests. It was very inconvenient. For example, if the Guard were to conduct a raid on a suspected pirate, Stormfeather had to be there.

Dim came back from investigating the pirate boat a short while later with all the evidence she had gathered. Apparently, it was a small boat. Shining called the team together and Dim gave a presentation on what she had found.

Consulting a small list she had made, Dim began. “The boat had a neat hole drilled in the bottom as if it were supposed to sink. A concerned citizen discovered it half underwater and brought it back to safe harbor. The description of the boat was a possible match to a vessel used in a pirate hijacking, which is why Admiral Stormfeather brought it to our attention.

“Aboard, I found a waterlogged scrap of paper. I’ve got some spells working on restoring the printing on it. There was a broken radio used for two-way communication. Also, there were some Nougat Yummies candy wrappers scattered around. If there was anything else that could be considered evidence, it was either removed before the attempted sinking or too waterlogged for me to use.”

Shining frowned. That was not a lot of evidence to consider. He looked around the room. “Opinions?”

“Based on the fact that someone reported a boat matching that description engaging in piracy, and the fact that the boat was intentionally scuttled, I’d say it’s very likely that it is indeed a pirate boat,” Stormfeather put forward. “Why they decided to sink it remains a mystery, but perhaps because they knew it had been spotted. If that’s the case, I would say it’s likely that nothing left aboard is of any use because they didn’t want anyone to find evidence that could be traced to them.”

“It’s something to keep in mind,” Shining agreed, “but I’ll wait for the evidence to pan out before deciding its value. They may have taken everything they thought was incriminating, but maybe we’ll get lucky. Criminals often don’t get where they are by thinking.

Stormfeather shrugged. He’d given his opinion and didn’t appear to care if Shining took it to heart.

“What can you tell us about the radio?” asked Pikop.

“It was a pretty new one,” Dim replied, “so I don’t think it was broken a long time before the boat was abandoned. I would say that the pirates probably used it for talking to each other.”

“Can we track something like that?” asked Rough.

Dim frowned. “Well, maybe. We know the frequencies that the radio could operate on, but that’s a pretty wide range. If we knew what specific channels they used, we might be able to listen in.”

“The air team could do collections,” Skydancer put in. “We have gear capable of direction finding. A couple of us working together might be able to triangulate a location.”

“Where did the candy come from?” Cyrus asked.

“The wrappers said ‘Silver’s Sweets,’” Dim told him.

“That’s a candy shop in town run by a griffon named Silver,” Báistí said. “I know where it is.”

There was a small ding from a timer Dim had set. She turned around and gently lifted a wrinkled piece of paper. “It looks like I managed to restore the document.”

She squinted at it and adjusted her glasses. “It’s a shipping manifest. Someone named Mr. Thrift received fifty bushels.”

For a moment, the room fell into silence. Ace broke it. “Fifty bushels of what?”

“It doesn’t say.” Dim turned to Báistí. “Do you know anyone named Mr. Thrift?”

“If he has a business, I can look him up in the town registry,” Báistí replied. She quickly left.

The rest of the group continued to talk over the evidence for the next hour. Mag had been keeping notes and summarized it all. “We have clues that point to Silver and someone named Mr. Thrift. Perhaps through interrogating them we could find out more. We also have an indication that the pirates are using radios to communicate. If we learn their channels, we can overhear and possibly find them.”

Just then, Báistí returned. “I found Mr. Thrift. He runs a farm store located on Princess Avian Avenue, between Tenth and Eleventh Streets.”

Mag added the location to his notes and updated the city map. He also penciled in Silver’s Sweets, which Báistí said was on the other side of the city, at the corner of Beaked Boulevard and C Street. Mag paused to consider the overall picture and then turned to Shining. “How would you like to proceed, Captain?”

Shining mulled over the evidence for a moment. “What's your opinion, Mag?”

“I would think it wise to talk to both Silver and Mr. Thrift,” Mag replied. “Soft is our best interrogator, but she can’t be in two places at once. We can either send her to one place today and the other tomorrow, or send her to one place now and get somepony less qualified to conduct a simultaneous interrogation. Of course, if you decide that one griffon or the other isn’t important we could just skip them.”

Shining nodded. “Does anyone else have something to add?”

“I, and the rest of the police, can’t be everywhere at once,” Stormfeather cautioned. “If you decide to arrest someone, call me first. You can’t legally detain anyone until I arrive. Also, I would recommend that you don’t send any of your ponies out alone. No telling how hostile these pirates might be if they figure out who you are.”

Báistí spoke up. “When I was at the courthouse looking up records, the mayor asked me to invite you, Captain, as well as three of your associates to dinner. I think he intended to meet your Lieutenant and two Sergeants. Showing up would be a sign of good faith and may make the mayor more agreeable to providing support.”

“Don’t forget the air and ground teams,” Skydancer added. “I know we can’t do anything targeted until we have more evidence, but surely we can do something. Going around the city and getting familiar, at the very least.”

Shining nodded, taking it all in. Allocating resources to everything simultaneously would be difficult. While they might want to leave somepony at the ship for just-in-case purposes, the sailors should be fine being left alone by themselves. He remembered what Stormfeather had said about perhaps camouflaging the ship.

The weight of leadership bore down on Shining. “All right everypony, here’s what we’re going to do.”

Chapter 3

Shining reviewed his mental list of activities for the assembled team. “I think priority one is talking to Mr. Thrift. That sounds like our strongest lead. Soft, that’s your job. Ace, go with her. Take some comms with you.”

While Shining wasn’t expecting trouble, he’d much prefer to have his ponies not traveling alone. Soft and Ace headed out of the room, pausing to pick up small radios. The electronics might have limited range but they were better than nothing. Exactly how limited their range was in Port Talon remained to be seen. It was also not an entirely covert solution, as anypony seen using a radio too often might look suspicious.

“I don’t know if we’ll get any new information from the candy shop, but we have to consider it.” Shining paused to decide who to send. “Puppy, you go. Be subtle about it, but try to find out as much as you can. Maybe get some tips from Soft. Flash, go with him. I think you could learn a lot from a Senior Guard’s experience.”

Puppy and Flash grabbed radios and left. Shining turned to Mag. “Those are our only leads for new clues. We’ll also have to figure out what to do with what we already have. Suggestions?”

Mag gestured to the large map that hung on the wall. “The roads around here seem very straight and simplified. I suggest finding out if our map of the area is accurate.”

Shining turned a questioning gaze to the two griffons.

“It’s a bit simplified,” Stormfeather agreed. “I could lead a few of your team around to scout.”

Shining nodded. “Airborne, go with him.”

The pegasus and the griffon left the room. Shining added, “Also, we’ll need somepony to comprise a ground element for more accurate mapping.”

“Just a moment,” Mag broke in. “What time did the mayor expect us? And where?”

“A late dinner at the restaurant right next to the courthouse,” Báistí replied.

“Could we possibly get that moved up a bit?” Mag asked. “I’d hate to impose, but it would really work out better for our schedule.”

Shining glanced at the intelligence pony, irked slightly that Mag was speaking out of place, but knowing that he wouldn’t do so without good reason.

“I could probably arrange that.” Báistí headed for the door. “I’ll be right back.”

“I think Pikop and I would be good for mapping the ground,” Mag said. “It’ll probably take a while, so if for some reason I get back too late to attend dinner, I think Soft would be a great candidate to go in my place and talk to the mayor.”

“Hmm, I’ll keep that in mind,” Shining replied, a slight grin on his face. He looked around the room at the team members that still had not been assigned tasks.

“Dim, I’d like you to continue working on the evidence in case anything new comes to light. Cyrus, help her however you can. Rough and Skydancer, come with me.”

Shining and his two sergeants went topside. The midday sun was bright, and Shining put on a green baseball cap. It was a fairly inconspicuous hat and useful, too. He glanced skyward at the ship’s mast, the cap shielding his eyes from the sun.

“I hate to say this, but I think we should take the flag down.” A ship full of ponies was a pretty big giveaway, but at least they could pretend to be from another country.

The sailors had finished getting the ship squared away and Shining convinced them to retrieve the flag from the mast. While he was at it, he gave the crew a quick brief about security. The sailors didn’t know anything about the ongoing investigation, but they did know who the investigators were. Shining cautioned them not to mention the Royal Guards in conversation while they were out in the city.

There was some paint on board, but applying enough of it to disguise the ship would be a large undertaking. Shining was forced to admit that the ship might be a liability. He made a mental note to investigate the possibility of obtaining quarters ashore to base the team of Guards. That might be difficult, as Princess Celestia had only budgeted for the team’s welfare aboard the ship.

Báistí returned a few minutes later. “The mayor will be waiting for you at five o’clock.”

“Sounds good.” Shining threw a look to Skydancer. “Radio Mag and tell him the time.”

The pegasus sergeant went to get a radio. Shining turned back to Báistí. “After riding the ship for so long, I’m raring to get back to solid ground. Care to show us around?”

“Sure, there are plenty of things to see within a short walk of the docks,” Báistí agreed. Shining and Rough went with her down the gangplank. Just beyond the wharf was a small market that sold things brought in on ships. There were goods from around the world, as well as plenty of fish, something not sold at seaside markets in Equestria.

Skydancer caught up with them. She glanced at Báistí before addressing Shining. “Captain, Lieutenant Magnifier is busy with his mapping project. He suggested that when Detective Touch was done with her interview of Mr. Thrift, she could take his place at dinner.”

“Did you get that set up?” Shining asked.

“Yes sir. As a side note, comms effectiveness is somewhat degraded over the distance from the ship to Mr. Thrift’s shop. It’s my guess that the radios won’t reach much further than halfway across the city.”

Shining frowned. It was something to keep in mind. If needed, they might have to set up radio relays to boost the signal.

“Lieutenant Magnifier can’t make it?” Báistí asked.

Shining shrugged. “These things happen. However, I assure you that Detective Soft Touch is very good at making conversation.”

He felt slightly conflicted about deceiving their hosts, but decided that it was justified. After all, they had only met Báistí and Stormfeather that day. They would have to earn his trust.

Báistí didn’t seem to notice and maintained a good attitude as she led her guests along the waterfront. After touring for a bit longer, they returned to the ship to prepare for dinner.

Dim had a little more information about the collected evidence. It wasn’t much, but Shining read over it to see if anything popped out.

There wasn’t anything unusual about the scuttle hole that had been made in the bottom of the pirate boat. It would have sank the small vessel eventually, but apparently it was bad luck of the pirates that a concerned citizen had soon found it and brought it back to safe harbor

The radio found aboard the boat couldn’t be repaired, but it was a fairly common model and wouldn’t require much effort to listen in if frequencies of interest were obtained.

Shining finished reading. He looked around, expecting Puppy and Flash to be back by now, but remembered that they had to trek up north to the bridge and back down to Silver’s Sweets. Maybe it had been a mistake not sending two pegasi.

Just before it was time to head for the restaurant, Soft and Ace returned. Shining excused himself from the main room and invited Soft into his office. Not only was it a more private area for the debrief, but it prevented Báistí from hearing anything she might say.

The two of them sat down on either sides of the desk. Soft said, “It was corn.”

Shining blinked. “What?”

“Oh, sorry sir. I’m talking about the fifty bushels that were listed on the shipping manifest. It was fifty bushels of corn.”

Soft was sometimes awkwardly disconnected. Shining suspected that while she understood ponies extremely well, she sometimes forgot that that they couldn’t understand her the same way.

“I suppose corn makes sense for a farm store that Mr. Thrift runs,” Shining said, “but why would Hookbeak’s associates be handling that?”

“I might have been able to learn that if I had more time,” Soft replied. “It was a bit of a delicate conversation. You can’t exactly walk into a seed feed store and start talking about pirates out of the blue.”

She smiled. “But I did learn who delivered the product to him. It’s a griffon named Gilgamesh. He’s come to Mr. Thrift before with corn. There are some grain silos behind the store where he holds crops.”

As a prince, Shining had to know a little about what kept countries running. Between harvests, grain and other foodstuffs were often stored. Usually, there was some form of depot or grain elevator where farmers would collectively keep their products, almost like a bank.

“Did Mr. Thrift know where Gilgamesh obtained the corn?” Shining asked.

“No, but after I asked the question, he did seem interested as if it hadn't occurred to him before.” Soft shrugged. “In my opinion, Mr. Thrift himself is innocent of anything.”

“Did we get Gilgamesh’s home address?”

“Sure did.”

“That’s great, good job. Add it to the map when you get a chance.”

The two of them left the office. Soft passed her notes off to Dim for cataloging with the other evidence. Soft, Rough, Skydancer, Shing and Báistí headed to dinner. The courthouse was only a few blocks off the river. Shining saw that it was split into an administrative side and a judicial side. The police were lumped in with the courts. It was good to know in case he ever needed the location of police headquarters.

The restaurant was close by and the small group went in. A portly, older griffon waved to them from the back. Báistí headed for him. “All of you, I would like to introduce Mayor Gudgeon.”

The mayor offered friendly greetings. “A pleasure to meet all of you. Please, have a seat.”

Shining introduced himself. “I’m glad for the chance to talk to you, mayor. Hopefully we can get our business wrapped up quickly and get out of your mane.”

Gudgeon chuckled, although Shining wasn’t sure if it was his slip of the tongue in saying mane or if that was just the griffon’s nature.

“I’ve asked the waiter to keep this section of the restaurant clear tonight so we can talk about whatever you want,” Gudgeon said.

“That’s very nice of you,” said Soft, taking the lead on the conversation. “You certainly seem to have the hang of your job. Have you been in office long?”

“This is my second term,” Gudgeon replied.

Soft nodded. “The city looks like it’s doing very well. I do appreciate a functioning government.”

Shining’s eyebrows went up. While he knew it wasn’t a personal shot at him and his princehood, he wondered if the griffons would think so. They hadn’t greeted him that way, however, so perhaps Soft was betting that they didn’t know.

Soft suddenly glanced at Shining. “Oh! Sorry sir, this meeting was supposed to be for you.”

“It’s all right, Detective. We haven’t even had appetizers yet. There’s plenty of time.”

Soft nodded as if that was exactly what she had expected him to say. “Thank you. I don’t often get the chance to talk to public figures and I went a little overboard.”

“Do you have designs on office yourself?” Gudgeon asked.

“I’ve thought about it,” Soft said. “I don’t really know where to start. How do you go about campaigning?”

“Well, in my case I was well enough known around Port Talon that much of the publicity was free.” Gudgeon chuckled.

“What did you do before?” Soft asked. She guessed, “Business?”

“I owned a few.” Gudgeon put on a modest tone.

The waiter appeared with a tray. It was laden with something that was pink and thinly sliced. It smelled like the fish market from earlier.

“Ah, excellent,” Gudgeon remarked. “Salmon, caught right here in Port Talon.”

Most of the ponies looked slightly put off. Shining silently apologized to them and lifted a piece of fish from the tray. It tasted about like it smelled, which to a pony palette was not particularly appetizing. However, it would have been rude to refuse and the rest of the Guards followed his lead.

“You sound knowledgeable about fish,” Soft said after swallowing and taking a sip of water. “Was that your business?”

“Oh no. Textiles, mostly.”

“I could use a nice souvenir for my mother,” said Rough. “She likes scarves.”

“Sorry to disappoint you, then. My business mostly worked with industrial applications.” Gudgeon smiled. “But I’m sure Ms. Báistí could suggest a good garment shop.”

The waiter returned to take their orders. Soft glanced at Shining.

“While we wait for our food, I was hoping to talk to you about a few things,” he said to Gudgeon. “We appreciate the help our liaisons have been able to provide, but I hoped to discuss a few legal boundaries.”

“Like what?” Gudgeon asked.

Choosing his tone carefully, Shining said, “Stormfeather, of the city police, is the only one in on the investigation who has the power of arrest. I was hoping for some permissions that would help us. Stormfeather can’t be everywhere at once.”

Gudgeon narrowed his eyes. “What specifically are you asking for?”

“I’d like to have my team given the power to arrest and serve investigation warrants.”

“I don’t think that’s doable.” Gudgeon shook his head. “As I understand it, the rules for your arrival here were hammered out between our respective national leaderships. As a lowly mayor, I can’t do anything about that.”

“What about getting more police working with us?” Shining asked.

“It’s possible. You’ll have to take that up with the police chief. I can ask him to help, and I will, but I can’t make him assign his officers to a case like this.”

“Thank you,” Shining said sincerely.

“I certainly hope cases like this don’t come along too often,” said Soft.

“They certainly don’t,” replied Gudgeon.

“As a baseline, so we don’t get erroneous crimes confused with our case, what is crime generally like around here?”

Gudgeon looked slightly uncomfortable, although his reluctance to talk bad about his city was perhaps understandable. “I think that would be another question for the police.”

“Sure,” said Soft soothingly. “I wouldn’t want to put you on the spot.”

“Port Talon is a good city. We have a few problems, but what city doesn’t? Getting these pirates out of here will certainly slow some of the crime.”

“I’m sure it will,” Soft agreed. “We’ll do our best.”

“Thank you. It is a shame that the local police don’t have much to pin on them, but perhaps you can pull something out of the air.”

“Oh, speaking of the air,” Shining broke in. “I wanted to talk to you about radios. Our communications need more range and I was hoping we could set up a repeater.”

“That would be the jurisdiction of the city zoning office,” Gudgeon informed him.

“Well yes, but the courthouse looks like the tallest building in town. It’s an ideal place for an antenna. Please, mayor. It’s just a small thing.”

Gudgeon considered it. “I don’t suppose it would hurt, especially if it’s only temporary.”

“Thank you very much.”

The food began to arrive and conversation dwindled. Soft had stopped talking so Shining figured she had learned whatever she wanted to know.

By the time dessert orders were being taken, the mood was lighter and casual words were being passed around the table. Shining talked to Gudgeon about the local fishing. While the two of them differed in opinion on what to do with the fish after it was hooked, catch-and-release versus catch-and-eat, they found some common ground. Shining was slightly envious of Gudgeon’s extensive ocean fishing experience.

The meeting and dinner wound down and after some final goodbyes the Guards got up to go.

“Stop by my office any time,” Gudgeon advised with a smile.

It was a short trip to return to the ship. When they arrived, the rest had finished their assignments in the city and were waiting for them.

Puppy was the first to speak. “Silver, of Silver’s Sweets told us that Nougat Yummies were her top selling candy. It’s also impossible to track who bought some because apparently everyone around here likes them.”

“Silver gives free samples, though,” Flash put in. “I just had to flirt a little.”

Shining shot him a look and turned to Mag, Pikop, and Airbone who had spent the day mapping Port Talon. Shining saw that the large map on the wall had been modified accordingly, but Mag was apparently still not happy with it.

“The streets are definitely drawn simplified,” Mag said. “There are unmarked alleys and nothing is nearly as neat and straight as the map indicates. However, we even stopped at a map store and weren’t able to get something better. For now, what we have will work.”

“How does the city look? Anything noteworthy?” Shining asked.

“It’s pretty much what it shows on the map,” Airborne replied. “To the east there are some farms. It looks like they grow a lot of corn.”

Shining turned to Soft. “And did you learn anything interesting at dinner?”

“Well, there’s definitely something on the mayor’s mind,” she replied. “Despite that, he’s certainly willing to help us. He was hard on the pirates despite many griffons in the city being oblivious to their actions. I think I’d like to know more about his business. He seemed to steer away from the subject. Also, he knows a lot about sailing.”

“How do you know that?” Shining asked.

“It’s related to fishing,” she explained. “The way he talked, I’m guessing he’s an expert.”

Recalling the conversation, Shining decided that she was probably right. It hadn’t registered with him, because he hadn’t been looking for the small details at the time.

He wished that Soft had been able to learn more from the mayor, but she hadn't had a specific piece of information to gather. Covert interrogations were driven by requirements, and without knowing what she was looking for Soft couldn't exactly steer the conversation in order to uncover it.

Shining checked the time. “All right everypony, we had a solid first day. We’ve got some more leads to check out tomorrow but there’s also a lot of work to do in order to establish our base of operations here, so all of you get a good night’s sleep and we’ll start again in the morning. By then, I’ll have an idea of where we should start.”

Chapter 4

The next morning, Shining got up just as the sun was beginning to rise and went up to the deck to do some calisthenics. He may have relaxed grooming standards, but had no intention of losing any physical fitness.

By the time he was done, he’d decided how to proceed with the plan of the day. After a shower, he met the assembled team and discussed a few of the tasks that needed to be accomplished.

“Today is going to start off with public records. We need to know about who we’re dealing with. We’ll also need to get those radio repeaters set up and I need to speak with the Chief of Police.”

Stormfeather and Báistí arrived just then. Shining nodded to them and started passing out orders to his team. “Mag, Ace, and Skydancer, you’ll set up the repeater. Soft, Dim, Puppy, Pikop, and Flash, I want you to comb through the courthouse archive. Mag will get you a list of topics to research. Báistí, could you please go with them?”

The female griffon nodded. “The archives are pretty large. Wouldn’t want to get lost in there.”

Shining nodded, knowing she couldn’t supervise all of the team members individually. While she was distracted, he intended to have her records checked out, too.

Turning to Stormfeather, Shining asked, “Could you please accompany Rough and me to talk to the Chief of Police?”

Stormfeather agreed. “Is this about the request for more officers?”

“It is.”

“I’ll give you what help I can,” Stormfeather said, although he sounded like that was probably not much. Shining hoped he was wrong.

Cyrus asked, “Sir, what about me?”

“I’d like you to hold things down here,” Shining said.

“Yes sir.” Cyrus nodded. “I wonder if I’ll get a chance to go out and do something soon.”

It didn’t sound like a rhetorical question. Shining replied, “I’m sure you will.”

The rest of the team collected their radio gear and notebooks and moved towards the courthouse. The radio team mounted the stairs towards the upper floors. The archive team descended to the basement. Shining, Rough, and Stormfeather went over to the police side of the building.

“We’re here to see the Chief,” Stormfeather said to the clerk on duty. He led his two escorts down the hallway to an office.

The Chief was younger than Stormfeather. Shining hadn’t been expecting that, even with this being Stormfeather’s “retirement job.”

The Chief introduced himself as Glen. He shook with Shining. “So we finally meet, Captain. I’ve been interested to learn more about your operation ever since I was told you were coming.”

The tone was not completely resentful, but Shining was careful to choose his response carefully. After introducing Rough, he said, “Thank you for having us. We’re only here after one criminal, so you shouldn’t notice us affecting your work.”

“I’m glad to hear that. Could you walk me through your operation?”

Shining was not entirely comfortable giving away the details of the plan, but if he couldn’t trust the local police Chief, then there were more serious crime problems going on here than just catching one pirate. He walked Glen through the Guard strategy and discussed what evidence they had collected so far.

“Gilgamesh is not a name I recognize,” Glen said about Shining’s strongest lead. “He probably doesn’t have a record.”

“I’ve already checked,” Stormfeather provided.

“Thank you,” said Shining. To Glen he said, “Stormfeather has really been a great help to us. He can’t be in two places at once, though. If we could get a little more support from your department, we might be able to get this over and done with more quickly.”

“I can’t spare anyone,” Glen said.

Shining resisted the urge to respond in kind to the curt answer. “I’m just asking for anything you could provide. If it’s possible to temporarily grant my team deputy status, or even ask if any of your officers are willing do work with us on a volunteer basis.”

Glen opened his beak again, but Stormfeather cut him off. “If you want them to get the job done, you’ve got to pitch in.”

The Chief looked from his subordinate back to Shining. “If you can bring me a compelling need for more support, I might be able to make it happen. What you’ve got so far doesn’t show much.”

Shining nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

He, Rough, and Stormfeather said their goodbyes and left the office. While it wasn’t the outcome Shining had hoped for, it was better than nothing. He also made a mental note of the effect that Stormfeather had had on his Chief. Something to remember if he ever needed to talk to Glen in the future.

They headed to the archive where the rest of the Guard was still very busy looking up public records. Sure enough, Gilgamesh did not have an arrest record. He didn’t have much of a job history, either.

Since Gilgamesh had been a priority, his records had been pulled first. Now that they had a better idea of his life, Soft made ready to go talk to him. Shining sent Rough, Ace, and Stormfeather with her.

They couldn’t simply arrest Gilgamesh, because the only piece of evidence they had on him was word of mouth from Mr. Thrift. That in turn was based on a scrap of paper found aboard the boat. The possibility existed that the shipping manifest had been planted by the pirates to throw suspicion off.

Still, it seemed like a good idea to send along Stormfeather just in case. While the presence of a cop would probably deter any aggression, it would also raise a lot of suspicion. Stormfeather would probably set up nearby while Rough and Ace went with Soft to speak with Gilgamesh.

After they left, Shining helped his team investigate records. He looked up Chief Glen, just to see if anything popped out. There didn’t seem to be much of interest. He also checked on Stormfeather, finding an impressive military career.

Báistí turned out to be exactly who she said she was, an upstanding city council member. Shining was well aware that pubic records wouldn’t tell him everything, and remembered that he could never let one piece of evidence paint a whole picture.

While a bit of healthy suspicion didn’t hurt, he couldn’t immediately assume everyone in the city was corrupt and untrustworthy just because they were not his fellow citizens. Bias like that was harmful. Additionally, the bias of thinking that griffon society operated the same as pony society could throw the investigation off.

Thoughts like that brought Shining back to the overall problem of this investigation. As Equestrians, they simply didn’t understand some of the cultural underpinnings that every griffon took for granted. While that didn’t affect the raw evidence that they gathered, they might not know the best way to pursue it.

Shining was absentmindedly pursuing this train of thought while poring over the mayor Gudgeon’s paperwork when a shadow fell over him. He jerked his head up to find Báistí peeping over his shoulder. Shining moved a hoof to cover what he was reading.

“Anything I can do to help?” Báistí asked.

“I was just in the middle of a long string of reading,” Shining told her, putting on a smile. “That’s kind of a job for only one pair of eyes.”

Báistí nodded and turned to go. She paused for a long moment. “You know, if you wanted to know about the mayor, you could have just asked him.”

Shining forced himself to keep smiling. “I wouldn’t want to impose.”

Báistí hesitated a little longer and then turned to face Shining. “Actually, I think I’d like to read his records, too. Maybe it would help me do my job better.”

Shining made room for her to sit beside him. They went over the paperwork in silence. It was mostly just business dealings. Gudgeon had once owned a sail loft, among other textile-related companies.

While he was interested in the records, Shining was also careful to note Báistí’s reaction to them, which, as it turned out, was nothing significant. He wondered about her earlier attitude.

The radio crew came down from installing the repeater. Mag pulled Shining aside and informed him that they had been in contact with the group that had gone north to Gilgamesh’s house. The radio reception hadn’t reached to the ground, unfortunately, but it now seemed to cover all but the northernmost part of the city from the air. It seemed that they needed either another repeater, but Shining had no idea where they would be authorized to put it.

By the early afternoon, the archives had been scoured for any clues. This early in the investigation, they still didn’t have very much evidence to use for reference. Shining knew to be patient. As the case grew, more would eventually come in. He hoped it wouldn’t get to the point where there was too much. Deciding what was real and what was a false lead was often the hardest part.

Báistí guided the team to a small restaurant not far away. It was on Queen Gertrude Street, between 7th and 8th. There were a lot of eateries and pubs in the area and Shining noted how many griffons came and went through the area.

The food was great, especially because that particular restaurant had a pony-friendly menu. Báistí nodded modestly, as she had been the one to suggest it. Having an expert on the city was helpful. That kind of experience couldn’t be easily or quickly taught.

A message came over the radio in the middle of the meal and Shining excused himself from the table to speak.

It was Rough. “Sir, we arrested Gilgamesh.”

That made it more likely he was a suspect in their case. Unfortunately, it had also blown the covert aspect of interrogating him. Shining asked, “On what grounds was he arrested?”

“He tried to get violent. We’re taking him in now. I’ll see what the police will let Soft do in terms of continuing the interrogation.”

Shining went back to the table and finished lunch. He saw a few curious glances come his way, but didn’t explain the radio call.

Báistí bid them goodbye after lunch. Shining made sure to get a meal to go before leaving the restaurant. It seemed only fair to compensate Cyrus for staying back at the boat.

Once the team was back in their operations center and assembled, Shining broke the news about Gilgamesh. It was significant, the case’s first arrest. A murmur went through the team. Skydancer asked, “Why did you wait to tell us, sir?”

“I felt that it was a piece of information that I didn’t need to blurt out at the restaurant. If Gilgamesh is charged a record of the arrest will probably appear in the newspaper soon, but for the moment keeping it quiet might be to our advantage. ”

“Stormfeather knows about the arrest because he was there,” said Puppy. “Shouldn’t Báistí, sir?”

“We’ll tell her,” Shining said. He didn’t say when.

For another few hours, the team busied themselves. Some of them worked out, a few examined the evidence again, a couple slept.

Finally, Soft, Ace, and Rough returned. Shining collected the team again for a rundown of the interrogation.

Soft collected her notes and began to speak. “We arrived at Gilgamesh’s house and told him we were interested in corn. I’m not ashamed to admit that I played the species card and said ponies placed higher demand on it than griffons. He let us in to talk business, however he was very evasive. I kept running into dead ends in the conversation. He seemed like a hothead with poor impulse control, so with no options left, I took a calculated risk and asked him straight out if he was a criminal.

“It had the desired effect. He lunged at me. Rough and Ace wiped the floor with him.”

While the Royal Guard did not condone violence, this brought a chuckle from around the room. Shining wondered how Gilgamesh didn’t have a police record with a temper like that.

Soft went on. “Stormfeather arrested him for attempted assault. We went back to the police station and I was able to get a few more minutes with him before his lawyer showed up. He said that his brother Eddy would find us and take revenge for getting him arrested. He didn’t actually admit to the corn being stolen, but I’m pretty sure that is the case. He also mentioned the name of some griffon named Gaston who sounded pretty important.”

That was a trove of information and Shining couldn’t wait to get started. There was still daylight left, and if they hurried they might get some more information from the courthouse before it closed.

While Shining trusted his team not to do anything to put themselves in harm’s way, mistakes did sometimes happen and they had to be concerned if Gilgamesh’s threat about his brother was genuine.

Shining looked at the map on the wall and thought back over the evidence. If they were going to get anything done yet today and move the case forward, he had to make a decision soon.

Chapter 5

Shining sensed the beginning of a long night, especially if the team managed to uncover anything significant while going through the courthouse records a second time. As he looked at everypony in the room, he could see resolve and determination in them to get the job done. Arresting Gilgamesh was the first break in the case, and the only way to keep that momentum going was to keep working.

“I’ll need volunteers to go back to the courthouse.”

Rough, Skydancer, and Soft raised their hooves. Shining nodded to them. “Check into Gilgamesh’s brother Eddy and find out who Gaston is.”

As the three of them left, Shining paused and then spoke his thoughts aloud. “If we get something from their search, the rest of us will have to be ready to move. If we’re quick enough, we can get to Eddy and Gaston before they find out that Gilgamesh has been arrested.”

“Sir, what if somepony comes by Gilgamesh’s house and finds him gone?” asked Puppy.

“It might be a good idea for somepony to watch his place,” Shining allowed. “Any volunteers?”

Puppy stepped forward, and so did Flash. Shining hesitated, but nodded his consent. The two Guards went out.

“Now that Gilgamesh has been arrested, we have a reason to go back to Mr. Thrift and inspect his corn. Mag, Dim, you two would best know if anything seemed suspicious. Ace, go with them.”

Shining turned to Pikop. “I’m going to draw on your previous experiences with griffons. It would help if we understood them better.”

Pikop nodded. “I’ll tell you whatever I know, sir. I’m not an expert, but I have some knowledge.”

Airborne came up to the two of them. “I read a few foreign journals. I might be able to help.”

Shining nodded and the three of them sat down. Cyrus wandered away to go lift weights or something.

Pikop began. “I think the biggest fundamental difference between griffons and ponies is that ponies have a herd mentality. Griffons have groups, certainly, but they aren’t as close to each other overall.”

“It’s species psychology,” Airborne added. “Griffons are naturally hunters and have territorial instincts. They’re less trusting of new faces than ponies are. They also have less inclination to stick together, because as a predator species they had fewer enemies to defend against.”

It was helpful information. The usual Guard tactics might have to be modified to compensate. Shining thought about possible applications of this news, knowing that Soft had probably already run across them in her work. Perhaps the lone-wolf attitude made griffons more likely to be bold and make mistakes while being interrogated. Being less trusting made it harder to start a casual conversation with a griffon, however.

Pikop and Airborne ran through a few more tidbits before Rough, Skydancer, and Soft returned from the courthouse.

“We have an address for Gaston but not much else on him,” said Rough.

“There’s much more information about Eddy.” Soft pulled out a notepad and read from it. “He owns a casino here in Port Talon. There are a few complaints about him, noise violations and rough treatment from his staff to casino patrons, but none of it is serious. The casino is one of the city’s most profitable businesses.”

“Where’s Gaston’s place?” asked Shining.

“It’s pretty far out there, on the road to Kingdom City near the North Bridge,” replied Skydancer.

“And the casino?”

“The corner of 1st and King Kite,” provided Soft.

“All right. Skydancer, Airborne, fly out to Gaston’s place and have a look. If he’s home, call us and we’ll arrange to meet you there.”

A thought occurred to Shining and he smiled. “Rough, you’re probably itching to go pump some iron, so you stay here for now. Go find Cyrus and tell him that he’s finally going to see some action.”

While it may not have been what Cyrus had in mind for a first trip into the city, he was fidgeting excitedly at the prospect of getting off the ship. Shining, Soft, and Pikop accompanied him down the street to Eddy’s place. Dusk was settling in, but if there was one place that could be counted on to be open late, it was a casino.

It was called the Golden Feather. It was located where the river joined the sea just north of the lighthouse. The outside of the building was decorated with glittering lights that reflected off the water.

It was the first time Shining had gotten a closer look at the area. It seemed like a higher-end part of town. The lighthouse was clean and white, casting its rotating beam out to sea in the gathering darkness.

The group paused outside the casino. Cyrus put on a pair of fancy sunglasses and a grin, heading inside. He may have been the only crystal pony, but he was far from the only out-of-towner. Obvious tourists and travelers dotted the gambling hall. Some were griffons in vacation garb, others were ponies, donkeys, mules, zebras, and there were even a few minotaurs.

The abundance of species only added to the variety of sights and sounds that filled the casino: machines clanged and flashed, cards were shuffled, dice were rolled. The carpet was a cacophony of colors while the walls and ceiling were finished with exaggerated trim.

Shining took it in for a moment, watching Cyrus wade into the middle of it all, before making his way over to a griffon who was standing security. “Pardon me, I’m looking for Eddy.”

The griffon cocked an eyebrow. “Oh really?”

Shining gestured to the ponies with him. “We’d like to speak with Eddy. It’s about his brother.”

The griffon regarded them for a few seconds and then turned, gesturing for the ponies to follow. He led them through an unmarked door into a hallway that was quieter and not nearly as decorated as the casino floor. He brought them to another door and knocked.

“Come in.”

The security griffon opened the door and gestured. Shining stepped in. There was a desk and a few filing cabinets, nothing particularly notable. The griffon that occupied the office had a slicked-back crest of feathers and an impatient expression. “What?”

“We’re here about your brother,” Shining said. “Did you know he was arrested earlier today?”

Eddy’s eyebrows went up. “For what?”

“Attempted assault,” Soft said. “The police took him away, but we were concerned that he might not be getting the emotional help he needs. We thought you should know.”

“Frankly, I’m surprised this is the first time that this has happened to my idiot brother.” Eddy rolled his eyes.

“He mentioned someone named Gaston,” Soft said.

Eddy shrugged. “I think they work together.”

“I’d be very concerned about their employee mental health benefits.” Soft paused, as if a thought had just occurred to her. “Do you know how we can contact Gaston? I think we should let him know about this situation, too.”

“No, no idea.” Eddy frowned. “Who are you ponies, anyway? Why aren’t the police telling me this?”

Soft dropped her head. “Well you see…it was me who he attacked. I just wanted to make that Gilgamesh was recuperated so that he doesn’t do something like this again. The reason we knew you were his brother was because he said you were going to come take revenge for getting him locked up.”

Eddy burst out laughing. “Seriously? Yeah, now you see what kind of problems he’s got; that’s why I try and distance myself from him. He doesn’t need recuperation, he needs about fifty more IQ points.”

“You certainly seem to have built a successful business here,” Soft said. “What sort of work does Gilgamesh do?”

Eddy shrugged. “This and that.”

“Well, we first met him when trying to make a deal for corn,” Soft said. “Is he part of some farming group? Do you know where the corn comes from?”

“Farming group?” Eddy was silent for several seconds. He shook his head. “Aw, whatever. He’s already in jail so telling you won’t hurt anything. My brother worked with pirates.”

Soft gasped theatrically. “Really?”

“Yeah, he hung out with this griffon named Anchor and they would go sailing, he told me. It took a while, but I realized what was really going on.” Eddy shook his head. “Anchor disappeared at some point. I think he was in trouble with the police.”

“So who is Gaston?” Soft asked.

“I don’t know. Gil mentioned him to me while he was asking for my help one time. He said I could make a lot of money if I talked to Gaston.” Eddy snorted. “I run the only casino in town. I’m not exactly hurting for cash.”

“Are there any other names you remember?” Soft asked him. “We might be able to go to the police. Maybe if your brother talked to them they would let him off easy.”

“No, I always tried to stay out of my brother’s business.” Eddy let out a long sigh. “I guess I’ll go down to the station in the morning and see what I can do.”

There wasn’t much else to be said and the Guards took their leave. Cyrus, who had apparently been playing well, made a hasty exit from his game to catch up.

“I made a few friends,” he said, chuckling. “Everyone seemed to want to talk to me. Apparently they think that every crystal pony is incredibly wealthy because of a thousand years’ interest in the bank. I think that I make a pretty good tourist.”

They walked back to the ship. Checking in with Puppy and Flash, up north watching Gilgamesh’s house, revealed something interesting. A griffon had come by the house and left after seeing that Gilgamesh wasn’t home. The male visitor had a black head, brown body, and a distinctive scar on his shoulder. He’d headed southwest after leaving the house. Shining made arrangements to have Puppy and Flash replaced with fresh guards in a few hours so nopony would miss too much sleep.

Mag and Dim returned from visiting Mr. Thrift with nothing to show. “All the corn from all the sources gets mixed together,” Mag reported. “If there was anything special about Gilgamesh’s corn, the evidence is gone now. Mr. Thrift even let us look in the silos, but we didn’t get anything from it.”

Shining brought them up to speed on the information garnered from their trip to the Golden Feather, using the map for reference. Mag speculated for a few moments. “The courthouse is closed now, but there might be police records for Anchor, if what Eddy said is true.”

While they were talking, Skydancer and Airborne reported in. Their radio call was scratchy, and Shining had to wait for the two of them to get closer before he could make out the words. “Sir, we inspected the property where Gaston was supposed to live, but there’s nothing here. It’s just a flat piece of land.”

Shining grumbled. They might be able to get records of the land’s deeding, but not until the courthouse opened in the morning.

The team looked to Shining for guidance. It was getting late, but he could see that they weren’t ready to quit yet. He knew what he wanted to do next.

Chapter 6

Weighing his options, Shining started giving orders. “I think we should keep an eye on the casino. Not only does it seem like pirates could pass through there, but we can’t count out Eddy just yet. Cyrus, I’d like you to go back. Skydancer, it shouldn’t attract attention if you go with him.”

“What about funds?” asked Cyrus.

Shining thought about that for a moment. “You’re right. I’ll get you some to work with, although remember that it’s the government’s money, so gamble carefully.”

Turning to Airborne and Pikop, Shining said, “You two relieve Puppy and Flash at Gilgamesh’s house. I’ll send somepony to take over for you in a few hours.”

Shining glanced at Mag. “Come with me to the police station and we’ll see what we can dig up on Anchor.”

He looked at the rest of the room. “Everypony else get some rest while you can. There’s no telling when something is going to happen.”

The assigned ponies departed for their duties. Mag and Shining made the short walk to the police station. It was quiet after dark, and other than some sky or street traffic, very little seemed to be going on. Shining decided that was a good thing. An active night life would have stretched his forces further trying to keep up with it.

The lighthouse had a blocker on the lens so that light was only projected out to sea. Otherwise, it might have kept quite a few griffons up at night shining in their windows. The rest of the city was not particularly well lit, with streetlights only on the main thoroughfares.

Going into the police station, Shining showed his Royal Guard badge to the clerk and asked to see the senior officer on duty. He was eventually presented with a uniformed Sergeant and explained to the griffon why he was there at such a late hour.

“We’re looking for any information you have on a griffon named Anchor,” Shining explained.

“Stormfeather told me you might come by,” the cop said. “I’ll help you out.”

He led them to the records room and after a little digging they managed to uncover some valuable information. They had a mug shot and arrest records for Anchor that indicated his address down on the Coastal Annex Road. He’d been convicted of robbery a few times before. In fact, there was currently a petty theft warrant for his arrest.

Shining looked at Anchor’s address and asked, “If you know where he lives, why hasn’t the warrant been served?”

The cop shrugged. “At the time when the warrant was first written, we might have been dealing with more important cases. Maybe he slipped through a crack. Maybe the address is wrong.”

“We’d gladly go knock on his door if you send an officer with us to make the arrest,” Shining offered.

The Sergeant shook his head. “I'm not able authorize that. Stormfeather is the one assigned to work with you. He comes to work in the morning.”

That was discouraging, but it was only a few hours’ delay. Shining and Mag went back to the boat. He roused Rough and Ace, sending them to watch Anchor’s supposed residence.

Shining stayed awake long enough to hear them report in that the house was dark, and then he went to sleep. It turned out to be a smart choice, as the next day was action packed.

In the morning, Shining went back to the Port Talon Police early to see if anything new had turned up. He also met with Stormfeather and the two of them came back to the ship together.

During the night, Cyrus and Skydancer had come back from the casino with nothing to report. Shining intended to send them back the next evening.

Pikop and Airborne had spent the whole night watching Gilgamesh’s place with no news to report, and when they returned to the ship Shining decided not to send anypony to continue the surveillance. He figured that the pirates now knew that Gilgamesh had been arrested.

Shining sent Dim and Soft to the courthouse when it opened to search for more information on Anchor. They returned with Báistí.

“I’m interested to know what you’re working on,” Báistí said to Shining. “Your detectives told me that I should probably wait and ask you directly.”

Shining nodded at Dim and Soft, signaling that they had done the right thing. He knew that Báistí was a valuable resource, and decided that to make full use of her abilities he was going to have to trust her as much as he trusted Stormfeather.

He gave a brief rundown on what had been collected so far. Dim and Soft added what they had learned that morning, finding records that indicated Anchor’s address was the same as the one the police had on file.

The rest of the team came together for a morning meeting. Shining looked over them, noting how some were looking very unlike their pristine Guard selves since he'd relaxed grooming standards. Many of the stallions were sporting scruffy facial whiskers. Soft wore her mane down out of its usual bun. While Rough and Ace were still watching Anchor’s place, Shining remembered that Rough had tied up his tail with bands while Ace was still a neat freak and kept perfectly shaven. Overall, however, the whole group of them were starting to look more natural and that was just how Shining wanted it. It was starting to feel more like they were ingraining themselves in their new environment.

Shining decided how he wanted to proceed. “We’re going to take another look at that bare piece of land where Gaston supposedly lives. Mag, take whoever you need to get that done.”

The intelligence pony nodded to Dim and Soft. “I’ll take the girls. Plus Ms. Báistí, if you would be so kind as to accompany us?”

“Sure!” Báistí seemed enthusiastic now that she had been let in on the investigation.

The four of them left. Shining turned to Stormfeather. “We have a pretty good idea where Anchor lives. He has an existing arrest warrant.”

Stormfeather nodded, smiling at the prospect of getting things done. “All right. Let’s go.”

Shining decided to take Puppy and Flash, letting everypony else rest up for future assignments. The three of them loaded five sets of armor into a small wagon, covering them with a tarp. Puppy hitched up to the wagon and pulled it down the gangplank. The group set off.

They headed southeast through the city, meeting up with Rough and Ace near Anchor’s house. After a quick briefing, the five Guards put on their armor. Unlike the highly polished sets they wore at the castle, this metal was dull and grey. It was just as strong, however, and carried the same uniformity spells so they couldn’t be identified.

Ace and Flash took to the skies while the rest approached on the ground. Shining sent Puppy and Rough around the back of the house while he and Stormfeather approached from the front.

Stormfeather knocked on the door. A long minute passed. He knocked again, harder.

“Yeah, yeah, hold up,” called a voice from inside. The door opened and Anchor stood there, blinking sleep from his eyes. It was already midmorning, but apparently he had still been in bed.

“Anchor?” Stormfeather asked.

The pirate seemed to come fully awake, staring at the police officer and armored pony in front of him. He spun around and dashed for the back of the house.

“He’s running!” Shining shouted.

He heard the back door slam open as Rough and Puppy burst in. Anchor took a sudden detour, crashing through a side window. With a strong flap of his wings, he shot into the sky.

Flash ducked in front of him, flailing his hooves enough to distract Anchor and causing his path to divert straight into Ace, who dive-bombed into the middle of Anchor’s back, knocking him out of the sky.

As soon as he was on the ground, Rough had a rope ready and trussed up Anchor like a turkey while Puppy piled on top to hold him down. The entire encounter was over in just seconds.

“Your boys do good work,” Stormfeather observed.

Shining nodded. “Amazing how much pent-up aggression you accumulate while waiting for something to happen.”

They loaded the incapacitated Anchor into the wagon and hauled him to the police station. Once he was in custody, Shining told his Guards to go back to the ship and take a break. They’d earned it.

“We’ve only arrested him for theft, but I think I can wrangle some interrogation time,” Stormfeather said.

Shining regretted sending Soft on another assignment, but decided she could work her magic if he and Stormfeather couldn’t conduct an effective interrogation.

The two of them entered the room where Anchor sat wearing cuffs. The shackled griffon eyed the armored Guard. “Who’re you?”

“I’m here to ask you a few questions about your friend Gilgamesh,” Shining said, ignoring his question. “What do you know about Gil?”

“Nothing.”

“Really? We heard that you hung out with him quite a bit. We heard that you’re pirates.”

Anchor looked away. “Gilgamesh is an idiot.”

“No argument from me,” Shining said. “Are you going to let him drag you down into this?”

“What, are you offering some kind of deal?” Anchor asked.

“Why don’t you tell us what you know and we’ll talk about what it’s worth to us?” Stormfeather suggested.

“Do you know Gaston?” Shining asked.

Anchor’s head bobbed. “Yeah.”

“What does he do?”

“Not sure what he does, but he’s kind of important. He might even be one of the three Lieutenants.”

“Who are they?”

“They work for Hookbeak. He’s the top guy.”

“Do you know anything about Hookbeak?”

“No.”

“Do you know who the other Lieutenants are?”

“No.”

“Do you know anything about a griffon with a scar on his shoulder?”

“No.”

Shining concealed his exasperation. “Let’s go back to Gaston. Do you know what he looks like? Where he lives?”

“He’s got a red head, grey body, and blue eyes. I don’t know where you can find him. He always came to me.”

“Where did he meet you?”

“At my house.”

“What times or dates?”

“It was random.”

Shining frowned inwardly. He could devote resources to watching Anchor’s house, but if it truly was random then that might be futile. On top of that, there was no way to guarantee that anything Anchor was saying was true. Still, anything was better than nothing.

Shining asked, “What do you know about corn? Why was Gilgamesh trying to sell it?”

“Well, it’s something everybody needs, right?” Anchor frowned. “Gil was trying to sell it? He wasn’t supposed to. He was supposed to hang on to it. But then, he’s an idiot.”

“Why was he supposed to hold on to it?”

Anchored shrugged. “That’s what Gaston said. I get paid to do what I’m told and not ask questions. Now, what were you saying about this deal?”

It soon became clear that they weren’t going to get anything else out of Anchor without a promise of immunity, and Stormfeather wasn’t sure the police would be interested in granting that for this particular crook.

Shining headed back to the ship. He stripped out of his armor and took a shower. He was just drying off when Mag, Dim, Soft, and Báistí returned. They had uncovered something very interesting.

“We visited the property that Gaston lists as his address and examined it thoroughly. There is a small shed on premises with a lock on the door. It is concealed by a few trees which is probably why it wasn’t spotted from the air last night.” Mag paused, knowing the important bit was coming up. “After leaving, we stopped by the courthouse to check for sale deeds. The property was previously owned by Gudgeon, the mayor.”

Looking worried, Báistí added, “I didn’t know about this. But could it be just a coincidence?”

“We’ll have to figure that out,” Shining replied noncommittally. He turned back to his intelligence staff. “Anything else?”

“I took some soil tests, although I don’t know if it’s worth the effort to process them,” said Dim.

“We saw a pegasus stallion checking us out,” Soft provided. “I don’t know if he was just curious, or knows something about the property.”

“I think I might know who it was,” added Báistí. She gestured to the map on the wall. “He lives near Gaston’s property.”

Shining thought over the evidence, trying to decide where the strongest lead lay. “All right, I think I know what we need to do next.”

Chapter 7

“All right everypony, this is the plan.” Shining looked around the room at the ponies and griffons crowding the small room aboard the ship. He started passing out assignments.

“Stormfeather, could you please accompany Mag to the police station and see if you can get any more information out of Anchor or Gilgamesh?”

The griffon nodded. “I think that would be wise.” He and Mag left.

Shining went on. “Dim, Ace, Pikop and Puppy, I want you to talk to Báistí and figure out what there is to know about this pegasus neighbor to Gaston. After that, go track him down. Keep an eye peeled now that we know what Gaston looks like.”

Turning to the rest, Shining said, “Airborne and Flash, keep an eye on Anchor’s place just in case anyone suspicious shows up. Cyrus and Skydancer, go back to the casino. Soft and Rough, come with me to speak to the mayor. Báistí, if you could please accompany us?”

“I will.” The female griffon nodded. “I might think of a few things to say to him myself.”

The team separated and each member went about their assigned tasks. Shining and his group headed for the courthouse.

It was the late afternoon when they arrived, the sun slanting through the tall windows of the public building. There had been significant progress with the case so far in the day, and Shining hoped to close it off with something even more significant.

The mayor was in his office when the three ponies and their griffon escort came in. Talking on the way over, it had been decided that subtlety wasn’t particularly important, especially since they knew exactly what they wanted to ask Gudgeon about.

The mayor looked up from a few documents laid on his broad desk and smiled. “Good afternoon. How is your case going?”

“Pretty well,” Shining admitted truthfully. “We were hoping you could answer a few of our questions, though.”

“Of course.” Gudgeon folded his talons in front of him. “What do you need?”

“What do you know about Gaston?”

Gudgeon didn’t move, but his eyes widened. “He’s a pirate.”

“Why didn’t you tell us that when we first met?” asked Soft. “Or the fact that you sold him a plot of land up north?”

Gudgeon stuttered. “I don’t know a lot about him.”

“You are aware of the archives we have downstairs,” Báistí said. “Just mentioning his name would have helped.”

“And do you have any idea how suspicious it looks that you knew but didn’t tell us?” Rough put in.

Gudgeon’s eyes swept back and forth across the group of them. “Yes, I understand how it appears. The citizens of Port Talon may not be victims of pirates, but the accusation that I was involved with criminals like that would be disastrous to my reelection campaign.”

While Shining, as a Prince, wasn’t subject to elections, he did understand public opinion. That didn’t sway his sympathies any, however.

“Now that it’s out in the open, why don’t you tell us about how you know Gaston?” Shining suggested.

Gudgeon swallowed hard. “Well, I first met him when he bought some sails from me. This was back before I was mayor. He also bought that piece of land. I passed by there the other day and I can’t see that he’s done anything with it besides putting up that small shed.”

“That’s it?”

“More or less. I didn’t know he was a pirate until I started to hear rumors about some of the griffons he hung around with. We weren’t doing a lot of business together, and when I got into politics, I made sure to tone down my business interests.”

“Mr. Mayor, please tell me that there isn’t anything else you aren't saying,” said Báistí. “From what I’ve seen, these Royal Guards are very good at finding things.”

“I…could tell you a few of the names I heard.” Gudgeon shrugged. “I never met any pirates other than Gaston, though.”

Soft pulled out her notebook and took down a list of names as Gudgeon recited them. Abernathy, Gregory, Happy, Hookbeak, and Pat.

Even if Shining had the authority to do so, he couldn’t really charge Gudgeon with anything. Also, it seemed wise to stay on his good side for as long as they would be in the city. He forced a smile and said, “I understand your concerns about publicity, but remember that my team can’t vote here so don’t worry about that with us. Please get in touch if anything else comes up.”

They went downstairs to the archive. Báistí managed to convince the custodian to keep the doors open long enough for the Guards to pick through the dusty papers and volumes for the names they had been given.

Hookbeak could be crossed off, of course. All relevant information on him had already been searched for. Going over the rest of the list produced mixed results. Abernathy had an address. There was nothing for Happy, so perhaps it was a nickname. Gregory had a hospital bill that interestingly listed treatment for a shoulder injury. Pat could have been short for Patrick, Patricia, or Pattycakes.

“So many variations in names,” Shining commented, shaking his head. The Guards had concluded their search and were heading back to the ship.

“Pattycakes is likely a pony,” Báistí replied. “Griffons tend to have names that are merely names.”

“I’ve noticed some interesting trends,” Shining noted. “A lot of ‘Gs’.”

Báistí nodded in agreement. “It’s a traditional thing, and each clan has their own convention, but more and more parents are starting to move away from that. We’re even starting to get a few pony-like names.”

“I was hoping it might be something that could help us identify potential suspects. Like in Equestria if we were looking for pirates we’d start with those that had nautical or weaponry names.”

“Isn’t that profiling?” Báistí asked.

“Call it what you want if it works. Coming here to the Griffon Kingdom has thrown a lot of our usual methods out of whack.”

They got back to the ship and debriefed with the rest of the team. Several interesting things had been brought to light.

Mag read from his notes. “Stormfeather and I interrogated Anchor and Gilgamesh separately. Other than unwittingly corroborating each other’s stories, we didn’t gain much. Gilgamesh seems to have gone against Gaston’s orders to sell the corn instead of stockpiling it. The pirates apparently hold quite a bit of corn, and Gilgamesh seemed to think the fifty bushels he nicked weren’t going to be noticed. Then again, every griffon we’ve talked to seemed to think he was an idiot.”

Next up was the team of Dim, Ace, Pikop and Puppy. Dim had a small folder filled with information she had obtained, although she stuck to just the highlights. “The pegasus stallion we observed yesterday is named Stormwren. I have his physical description: about the size and shape of Captain Armor with a steel grey body, black mane, and a winged shield cutie mark. He’s not very nice and honestly a little paranoid. He seems to be a weapons dealer and inventor. His shop is at the corner of K Street and Beaked Boulevard. I think he knows what is inside the shed, but he wouldn’t admit to having any dealings with Gaston. We did learn that he’s an Equestrian native who moved here for business purposes.”

“He’d probably be a challenge in a fight,” Ace added. “The way he moved was a signal, but also the fact that he’s a little off-kilter.”

Airborne and Flash returned from stalking Anchor’s house with nothing to report. Soft ran through the new names that had been gathered from Mayor Gudgeon and added their possible addresses to the map. Mag dutifully collected all the data and entered it into the evidence log.

It was getting late, and Shining decided that the team had performed excellently that day. He told them to knock off and they would regroup in the morning to act on all the evidence gathered.

Shining went out on the deck as Báistí and Stormfeather headed for the gangplank. He walked between them. “I want to thank you both for the help you’ve given us. The case is making good headway.”

Stormfeather nodded. “If this keeps up, I shouldn’t have any problem convincing the Chief to give you another officer or two.”

“And I’m just getting started,” said Báistí. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I’ve always wanted to do something like law enforcement. With no regular instance of exciting mysteries to be solve, however, I turned to more mundane civil service. I’ll do whatever I can to help.”

Shining chuckled. “I appreciate your enthusiasm. Your knowledge of the city has been a great help.”

The three of them had covered a few blocks. The night was falling and the street traffic was getting thinner, with only a few griffons still around. Shining was just thinking of saying his goodbyes and heading back to the ship when Flash suddenly appeared. “Hey Captain Armor…oh, you’re busy.”

The interruption didn’t put Flash in Shining’s good graces. He was just turning to irritably address the junior Guard when two griffons dropped from the darkening sky to land in front of the group. One of them bore a distinctive scar on his shoulder.

“I heard you all are sticking your noses where they don’t belong,” he said.

“And you are?” Stormfeather asked, puffing himself up. His badge glinted in the dim glow of the streetlights.

“Gregory,” Shining provided with an educated guess.

The griffon he addressed looked slightly taken aback, but quickly recovered. “Not like it matters. If you know what’s good for you, you’ll turn around and go home, pony.”

“Not until I’ve got what I came here for,” Shining replied. “Now, if you would be so kind as to answer a few questions, that might be sooner rather than later.”

Gregory snorted with mirth and one set of talons fingered the hilt of a knife he wore strapped to his leg. “Is that so? You certainly can't make me.”

“Oh, but perhaps I can,” said Stormfeather, pulling out a set of manacles. “Down at the station.”

“That’s one set of cuffs and two of us,” Gregory said, gesturing at his companion.

Shining’s horn started to glow. “It’s not a problem.”

Things suddenly started to happen very quickly. Gregory jerked to the side and made a grab for a female griffon who was just passing by. His movement put Shining’s aim off, and the bolt of magic he fired instead hit the other pirate.

“Stop! Don’t move!” threatened Gregory, taking a few steps back and away from the stunned body of his cohort. He dragged his hostage with him, talons clamped around her shoulders as her back legs kicked. Gregory’s knife was out of its sheath and uncomfortably close to her throat.

“Let her go!” Stormfeather ordered. “You’re not going to get away with this!”

The hostage screamed and tried to twist free. Gregory jerked, and in trying to keep control the blade of the knife sliced across her neck.

She dropped to the ground, blood spurting from the wound. Gregory leaped into the air and took off like a shot, the other pirate shaking off the stunning spell and also attempting to flee.

Stormfeather tackled the slower pirate. “Go after Gregory right now or you’ll lose him!”

“No!” shrieked Báistí. “This griffon needs help! She’ll surely die otherwise!”

Flash’s eyes were wide but he stood his ground, ready to follow any order. “Captain, what are we going to do?”

Author's Note

Opinions by Dafaddah

And I probably should have mentioned earlier, setup and tracking provided by Goldenarbiter

Chapter 9

“First up, we’re going to need more eyes on Patricia’s place. Puppy, Ace get on that.” Shining paused in his orders, and then added, “Skydancer, you go too.”

The three named ponies grabbed radios and coffee before heading out. The sun was beginning to set, and each of them probably knew that they wouldn’t be getting much sleep that night. Still, Shining felt that he had better send more than just a pair in case the pirates decided to try anything else.

“Next, we need to lean on the police to help us out. Since they’ve got a significant interest in the case now, that will help. We’ll need to take full advantage.”

Shining decided, “I’ll work on that myself. Mag, I'd like you to come with me.”

“Our next priority is learning more about that shed. Soft, I want you to find out what’s inside from Stormwren. If he won’t tell you or you don’t believe him, somepony will have to go see if the door is unlocked.”

Shining made sure to put enough emphasis on his sentence to make sure his point was understood. Breaking in was not following the rules, but the pirates stepping up the game to include assault changed things. He decided that it was more important to get the job done and quickly.

He assigned Rough, Airborne, and Pikop to go with Soft. Shining considered going to talk to Stormwren himself. Maybe they could strike up some common ground with weapons or something. While Stormwren was an expatriate of Equestria, maybe he would be impressed by Shining’s royalty status.

Shining shook his head. And if Stormwren wouldn’t cooperate, Shining would probably get frustrated and that wouldn’t help the situation at all. Better to let Soft, the expert, handle it.

He had decided to suspend watching the casino. Nothing had been turned up there and the budget would support sending ponies there forever.

Shining and Mag set off to make the short walk to the police station. Shining kept his eyes moving, alert to danger from the street and the skies. Mag observed his Captain and did the same.

The police chief had left for the day, but Shining was able to sit down with the night sergeant and discuss a few details of the case.

It was mostly just a refresher, but that was better than nothing. The police had been cooperative enough to send out requests for records around the Griffon Kingdom to see if suspects had popped up in other cities.

And there was a piece of good news. By morning, there should be a new officer assigned to the Guards.

Shining left contact information for the new officer and encouraged them to visit the ship as early as possible. He already had a few ideas on where he wanted to start as soon as there was a police presence again.

While Shining was in the meeting, Mag had been busy talking to the police evidence griffons. He’d discovered something interesting. The griffon named Abernathy hadn’t been seen in a few days and mail was piling up in his box. With a little cajoling, he had convinced the police to make a stop by his house under the guise of a safety checkup.

Leaving the station, Shining, Mag, and two police officers who weren’t doing anything else that night headed for Abernathy’s house a few blocks away.

Sure enough, it looked like his mailbox contained a few days of post. The house was dark and still. The lights were on next door, however, and one of the police officers asked the neighbor if Abernathy had been seen recently. He had not.

The two ponies and two griffons pounded on Abernathy’s door, but no one answered. They took a look around his property, but there was nothing noteworthy and the house still stood silent.

Mag paused near the back door. He sniffed the air, his mouth opening slightly. “Does anyone smell that?”

Shining also tested the air. There was a sour note, like decay. “Yeah. Smells bad.”

“I don’t smell anything,” one of the cops said. He laid a talon on his beak and shrugged.

“Do you think he could be dead?” Mag asked. “You officers have permission to enter a house if you think the occupant is in trouble, right?”

“Well yes, but I don’t think a smell constitutes a solid suspicion.”

“He smells dead to me,” said Shining. He tried the back door, and to his surprise it was unlocked.

The odor that escaped the house as the door opened was strong enough that the griffons caught it. They suddenly looked worried, and completely forgot that Shining had just entered the house against their wishes.

Mag grimly followed Shining into the darkened house, his eyes squinting against the smell. Shining was regretting making light about Abernathy being dead. He was one less suspect to interrogate, if nothing else.

The griffon they found in the front room, however, was all brown and not fitting Abernathy’s description. Upon finding the body, the police told the Guards to leave the house so they could report the death. This was something they weren’t willing to be lenient on.

It was unfortunate they were not allowed to hang around, even if Shining did appreciate the fresh air. The team would have to wait for information on the dead griffon.

After a quick debrief at the police station, Shining and Mag headed back to the ship, hoping that the coroner and the Port Talon forensics team would have the victim processed quickly. Shining made sure the duty sergeant wrote a note to the investigators that the Guards would be happy to contribute help if it would make the process go faster.

Soft and her escorts returned from up north with news. “I got Stormwren to admit that he sold a large amount of flares to the pirates. He seemed pretty sure that they were in the shed. However, when we got there and had a look for ourselves, the shed was empty. We did find a few marks in the dirt floor that could indicate that a crate of flares had been there recently.”

Shining thought that over. Flares could be useful for martime safety, but he couldn’t figure out why the pirates would buy so many at once. Still, it might be important.

Mag laid out the information learned from going to Abernathy’s house. “While we have no proof and may not get any for a while, I believe the dead griffon might be Ganymeade, based on physical description. There didn’t look like much struggle had taken place, and the wound appeared to be a single deep stab wound. I take this to mean that he knew his attacker and the murder was planned. Considering that Abernathy hasn’t been seen recently, he looks like a top suspect.”

It was an interesting conclusion. Ganymeade was supposedly one of Hookbeak's top Lieutenants. Why had he been killed? Did he know too much? What was so important?

It was something to ponder. Shining said, “All right everypony, get some rest. We’ll start again fresh in the morning.”

After a reasonable night’s sleep, the new police officer showed up in the morning. He was a young griffon named Wiz. Shining didn’t observe anything particularly fitting of the name, but as Báistí had explained, that was not really uncommon for griffons. Báistí herself appeared shortly after, refreshed and ready to get back to the case. All of them gathered in the ship’s central meeting room where the map and evidence log were kept.

Wiz received a rundown on the case so far. He nodded. “Okay, cool, it sounds like you guys know what you’re doing.”

His attitude was so incredibly different from Stormfeather that it gave Shining pause. Still, a cop was a cop and they needed someone with local authority. He continued on, introducing Wiz to the team and their contributions so far.

Wiz seemed impressed and sympathetic to Flash. “You’re so brave, fighting that hostage-taking criminal.”

More than just Shining’s eyebrows went up at that, but nopony commented. Báistí broke the awkward silence. “So Captain, what are we doing today?”

By her own admission, Báistí wasn’t practiced at investigation, but he couldn’t help but admire her enthusiasm.

Shining addressed the room. “Here’s the plan.”

Chapter 10

Shining considered his options and came up with a plan of action. “We’ll need somepony to go to Patricia’s place and relieve Ace, Puppy, and Skydancer. During the daytime I feel more comfortable just sending two.”

“Do you mind if I go?” Báistí asked. “I could help, like if I saw someone I knew going into Patrica’s house.”

Shining nodded. “Good idea. Rough, Airborne, go with her.”

He turned to the rest of his team. “At the moment we don’t have enough evidence to proceed with an arrest. We haven’t checked into Ganymede yet. We might be able to find something in the courthouse archives even if he is dead. Mag, Dim, Soft, get on that. Afterwards, go over to the police station and see if you can get anything else out of the griffons that have been arrested so far or from the police evidence.”

Addressing the faces that still remained, Shining said, “Now that we’re beginning to attract more attention, we need to think more about protecting ourselves. I don’t know why the pirates have flares, but one of them could do serious damage to the ship. We need to have guards on deck at all times. Flash, while you recover you would be a good candidate to sit around and keep watch. I’d prefer somepony else to stay with you. Cyrus, there’s still some money left in the gambling fund. I’d like you to use it towards camouflaging the ship.”

Shining paused. He didn’t have jobs for the rest of his team for the moment, and until he did it seemed wise to just order them to help Cyrus.

“Wiz, can I have a word with you?” Shining nodded to the police officer. The two of them left the room and went up on deck. Flash had already positioned himself nearby, poised to watch the ship.

“I think you’re doing well,” the griffon said. “Anything I can do to help?”

“Can you bring some help?” Shining asked. “If we start making arrests, we might need more badges.”

“I don’t know,” Wiz admitted. “I don’t really have the pull with the Chief that Stormfeather does. I’ll try.”

“How about getting us set up somewhere else? As you heard, this ship is both an obvious and vulnerable HQ.”

“Well…maybe we could let you set up in one of the houses where you’ve arrested someone.” Wiz frowned. “I don’t know if that would be an improvement, though, as those houses are obviously well known to the pirates.”

Shining nodded, knowing he would have to make a decision on that. Changing the subject, he said, “I also had an idea. Is there any way we could let Gilgamesh out of prison on bail or something? Maybe we could follow him to his bosses. Either he’ll find them or they’ll find him.”

“That’s an interesting thought.” Wiz bobbed his head. “I’ll see if I can make it happen.”

“Thank you.” Shining said goodbye to him and went back below deck.

He spent some time working out. It helped with the boredom and gave him some time to think. The ponies who had been watching Patricia’s house got back. They hadn’t seen anything they could act on, just more griffons coming and going.

After finishing his workout, Shining had a shower and sat down at his desk. He sifted through his paperwork to see if anything came up that could refresh his memory or reveal something he hadn’t considered before.

The flares came across Shining’s mind again. The pirates might have a few on their vessels for basic safety, but why would one of them buy a whole crate? The only thing Shining could think of was starting fires, and if they were trying to attack the Guard ship, it certainly wouldn’t take that many.

His thoughts drifted to the large scale corn thefts. What was the endgame? Was Hookbeak trying to manipulate the economy? Checking his case files revealed that while corn was far from the only thing the pirates were taking, they still had taken a significant amount. Gilgamesh had been caught trying to sell some, but it was hard to say if the rest of the pirates were slowly selling their haul of grain or holding on to it. If they had been stockpiling, the sum total could be several large silos’ worth, significantly more than Mr. Thrift had.

Getting help from the Port Talon police would help. Hopefully the Intelligence staff returned from the station with something interesting. Shining thought he might get Soft to spend some time with Wiz and find out a little more about him. The biggest thing on his mind, however, was getting more officers. Hopefully Stormfeather would return soon.

Shining heard a few ponies arriving and went to see who it was. Mag, Dim, and Soft had come back, and it looked like they might have something very interesting.

“Ganymede was confirmed as the dead griffon,” said Mag, getting straight to the point. “We have a list of evidence regarding him.”

Dim consulted her notebook. “We got his address and checked out his house. We found his diary. He was having second thoughts about the piracy. He also thought that Abernathy might be eyeing his position.”

“Are we thinking that Abernathy killed him, then?” Shining asked.

“We’ve got the list of evidence from the scene at Abernathy’s house,” Dim replied. “We’ve got a few business papers, a radio, money, and some love letters from Silver to Abernathy.”

“Silver of Silver’s Sweets?”

“Right, they’re dating. The letters mentioned some strange ponies came into her shop asking questions. She told Abernathy about it. I’m guessing he decided it was as good a time as any to eliminate Ganymede.”

Shining frowned. If they hadn’t sent ponies to talk to Silver, Ganymede might still be alive. Alternately, if they had interrogated Silver more thoroughly, it might have been discovered that her boyfriend Abernathy was a pirate much sooner. But there was no way Shining could have known the consequences, and feeling bad about it wouldn’t help.

As if reading his thoughts, Soft began speaking to distract Shining. “Gregory reacted negatively to the news that Ganymede was dead. He was a bit of a hothead about it, of course. Apparently if he didn’t get out of jail soon he was going to send his helper, Yong, after Abernathy. Yong was the griffon who was with Gregory when he attacked. Anyway, we also learned a few other interesting things.”

Soft checked her notes. “Gregory said that Abernathy might have gone out east. He didn’t know where, but had heard something about that. The two of them did speak a few times. Through that, plus watching us investigate a few locations, Gregory managed to figure out we were sticking our noses in and attacked. I don’t think he or any of the pirates realize who we actually are, though.”

While looking at the map, Shining thought about how to act on the new evidence. He might send Soft and somepony to protect her to talk to Silver. However, Silver would probably guess who they were. Better to have Wiz with them to pressure Silver for being connected to a suspected murderer. Hopefully Wiz was busy at the police station getting the help Shining had requested of him.

Flash came in, asking on of the other team members to take over his job for a little while. He came over to Shining, a troubled look on his face. “Captain, can I talk to you?”

The two of them went into Shining’s office and closed the door. Flash fidgeted a bit and said, “I’d like to report a conflict of interest.”

“Oh really? What’s that?” It was important for Guards to be honest and report these things, but Shining silently prayed that it wasn’t something that would break the case.

“Sir, after you finished talking with Officer Wiz and went below, he chatted with me for a little while before going to the station.” Flash paused and then said, “I think he’s interested in me.”

“Oh.” Shining blinked. “I can tell him to knock it off if you want.”

“Well, that’s the thing…” Flash swallowed hard. “I kind of like him. This is kind of embarrassing sir, but I know that I should tell you because he’s working this case.”

Well, Shining no longer had to worry about his sister hanging around Flash. He nodded to the younger Guard. “Thank you for being honest. Just keep it professional, okay?”

Flash nodded and left the office. Shining let out a breath and shook his head at the new wrinkle in things. Still, better to find out now rather than later.

Before he could contemplate the junior Guard’s relationship status any further, the radio on his desk buzzed. The voice was scratchy but sounded like Airborne. “Captain Armor? We’ve got a situation here. A griffon matching Gaston’s description just went into Patricia’s house. Ms. Báistí thinks it’s him.”

Shining grabbed the radio. “How long do we have to nab him? Do you know if he’s staying long?”

“No idea, sir. It could be a few minutes, it could be half an hour.”

It was a golden opportunity, but one that could easily be lost. Plus, Shining remembered all the other tasks to accomplish that had just been shoved to secondary priority since this call had come in.

“Er, can we try stalling him until Wiz arrives?” Airborne asked. “What are we authorized to do, sir?”

Chapter 11

The news that Gaston might be out in the open had to be acted on quickly.

“I’ll get Wiz to go over to Patricia’s house to intercept Gaston,” Shining said over the radio to Airborne. “If he leaves, get Báistí to follow him discretely, and you follow her. Get Rough to follow you on the ground, like a chain.”

“I’ll do that, sir.”

“Give Báistí a few pointers on covert pursuit, but remind her that this is a dangerous criminal we’re following.”

Airborne signed off with understanding and Shining came out of his office. The first pegasus he spotted was Ace. Shining sent the Guard to the police station to fetch Wiz and then accompany him up north to Patricia’s house.

When Ace had departed, Shining mulled over the evidence and tried to think. Gaston could be coming out in the open as a ploy to bring heat onto himself as a distraction from other targets, or he could be trying to lure the guards into a trap. From what Shining had seen, Gaston was himself a big target, so it was probably not the former possibility. The likelihood that it was the latter remained to be seen.

Shining radioed his concerns to both Ace and Airborne. Ace radioed back a reply. “I just formed up with Wiz. He agrees. We’ll try to get there before Gaston leaves. If we don’t however, he doesn’t think it’s a good idea to let Báistí follow Gaston on her own.”

“We’ll have somepony within sight,” Shining assured him.

“I trust you, sir,” replied Ace. Shining frowned at the undertone in his statement. Wiz was definitely not the same kind of cop as Stormfeather.

There was nothing to do but wait. Shining frowned, feeling the detachment of commanding from a distance. He thought about their surveillance efforts so far, considering that maybe there was another way of going about it.

He walked over to the intel spaces. Mag looked up from his data as Shining walked in. “Sir?”

Shining replied, “I was thinking that you could magic us up some impromptu listening devices, either literally or figuratively.”

Mag nodded. “I’ll get the girls working on it. Depending on the situation, we might be able to do a magic-powered bug or a radio.”

That was promising. Shining sat down to pick through the evidence again. Abernathy running was a good place to start. Where had he gone? Could they track him? Was there anyone in the city he could be staying with? Shining went through the evidence found at his place again: a few business papers, a radio, money, and some love letters.

“He’s moving!” Airborne suddenly called through the radio.

Shining picked it up. “Understood.”

Mag pulled out a log and listened as Airborne called out their movements. This was both so Wiz and Ace could find them, but also to keep track of things on a larger scale.

Shining glanced at the rough map that Mag was drawing. Once again, he was reminded of the feeling of being a detached commander. It was nice to see the broader picture, but it felt less personal.

Gaston traced a path almost directly southwest from Patricia’s house. He’d gotten down to the vicinity of the hospital before turning southeast for a block and then heading back the direction he’d come. Shining gritted his teeth. It looked like he was doubling back, and that meant he either knew or suspected he was being followed.

And then came the report that Shining did not want to hear. “He turned east and then we lost him. Sorry sir.”

“Wiz and I didn’t manage to catch up with him before he broke contact,” Ace reported.

“He passed Mr. Thrift’s store and looked like he was continued east,” Airborne said, adding to his earlier report.

Shining thought about that. Didn’t Gregory say something about Abernathy possibly being out east somewhere? But where, exactly? There was a lot of farmland and scattered houses and outbuildings out that way. It would be next to impossible to locate a hideout without some other clues to narrow it down.

“All of you get back here,” Shining said. “We’ll regroup and come up with another plan.”

He drew up some notes while he waited for them all to return. By the time his Guards and the two griffon escorts got back, Shining knew what he wanted to say.

First off, he asked if Wiz had made any progress towards the tasks Shining had wanted him to accomplish.

“The chief is still holding off on assigning another officer to the case,” Wiz said. “However, I did get you permission to set up in Abernathy’s house, if you want.”

Shining hoped the terrible smell of death had dissipated. He nodded. “I’ll see if we can do anything with it.”

“Also, you asked about bailing out Gilgamesh,” said Wiz. He told Shining how much it would cost. The number was disturbingly high.

Shining frowned and quickly considered the team’s finances. If they paid it, they could only operate in Port Talon for perhaps three more days. They might be able to talk to Celestia and get more money before they ran out, but he would prefer to get the funding secured before hand. He had to decide if Gilgamesh was worth it.

“Isn’t that kind of high for the crime he was arrested for?” Shining asked. “Could we talk to the judge and ask if the bail could be lowered considering the situation?”

“That…might be a little bit above my job,” Wiz admitted.

“I can do it,” Báistí put in. “It might take a little while, but I know who the judge is.”

Shining nodded to her. “Thank you.”

He took a moment to glance at the map and evidence log before turning to the rest of the team. “In the meantime, the rest of us need to find something to do.”

Chapter 12

The rest of the day passed quickly with plans being drawn up. The intelligence staff worked diligently on bugging devices and eventually concocted a transmitter that could overhear what was going on inside Patricia’s house.

The bug was small and made of the guts from a dismantled radio. It would need its batteries replaced every so often, so the team couldn’t just plant it and leave it. Still, it was a start and could get them inside Patricia’s place to overhear what the supposed pirate wench was up to.

Mag had also taken the liberty of going over the radio recovered from Abernathy’s place and isolated the frequency the pirates might have been using.

“I’m kind of ashamed that nopony thought of this sooner, back when we first noticed Abernathy had a radio,” he said to Shining. “We could have had the capability to intercept the pirates’ communications a few days ago.”

“Well, try to make up for lost time,” Shining directed. He went to find the pegasus guards.

Airborne had spent a while watching Patricia’s house and might have an idea for a good place to plant the bug. Sending Skydancer and Ace with him would be good for protection. The pirates were well and truly alerted now. They still might not know that they were dealing with the Equestrian Royal Guard, but they would certainly be on the lookout for ponies.

Shining sat down with the three guards in his office. Mag was also there.

“You’ll just need to get the bug into a place where it can listen to the inside of the house,” Mag explained. “But don’t put it somewhere inaccessible, because we’ll need to change the batteries eventually.”

“Sure, sounds simple.” Ace rolled his eyes.

Mag ignored him. “It’s only set to transmit, so we can just listen. We’ll get somepony to monitor it.”

“I nominate Flash,” said Skydancer.

Shining nodded. “I’ve decided to move us to Abernathy’s house this evening under the cover of darkness. It should be a little more defensible than the ship so Flash won’t have too much to do.”

With that settled, the three pegasi took off into the gathering dusk. Shining ordered the rest of the crew to pack up.

They moved carefully away from the ship, going in twos and threes but keeping within about a block from each other. By the time Skydancer, Airborne, and Ace had returned, much of the equipment had been transferred.

Mag and his staff got another radio repeater set up in Abernathy’s house. They also got Flash settled in to listen to the radio. He was equipped with a pen and paper, and told to write down anything that seemed important.

The smell of death still lingered, but Dim mixed up a few chemicals to scrub it clean and mask the odor. Opening the windows also helped. Shining took a tour through the house to familiarize himself with the layout. He hoped it wouldn’t become necessary to defend the location from attack, but it was best to be prepared.

He, and the other Guards not on duty, found places to sleep. Twelve of them in one house required some creative use of bedding materials brought from the ship, but they managed.

Shining actually slept very restfully. Not being on a ship helped. He was not meant to be a sailor.

In the morning, the conversations Flash had listened to were analyzed. Other than confirmation that piracy was occurring, there wasn’t much to glean.

Shining did, however, have another source of information. Ever since learning that Silver the candy maker was involved, he’d wanted to interview her again. Now, Soft was finally free to do so. He sent her with Rough, Pikop, and Puppy.

As the morning wore on, more radio traffic started to come in, not only from the bug at Patricia’s place but from the radios Mag had managed to home in on. It took him, Dim, and Flash just to keep up with everything.

They were starting to get some more information. Shining thought it might be a good idea to get somepony out east to check out where Gaston might have disappeared to the previous day.

“Sir, we’ve got a situation,” reported Rough over the radio.

Shining picked it up. “Go ahead.”

“Soft thinks that Silver is hiding her boyfriend Abernathy in her apartment above the candy shop.”

“What’s your position?” Shining asked.

“We’re down the block, watching the shop. When Soft figured out that we might be sharing a building with a murderer, she cut the interview short and got us out of there.”

“Hold there,” Shining decided. “If you think you can take Abernathy down, do it, but don’t take any risks.” He didn’t have to tell Rough that Detective Soft Touch was not trained for combat.

Shining immediately called Skydancer and Ace, sending them to the police station to get Wiz. He grabbed sets of armor, hastily loading them in the utility cart the Guards had been using. Dropping the yoke on his own shoulders, he was ready to leave by the time the other Guards came back with the cop.

“I think I understand what’s going on, but please fill me in on the rest,” Wiz said. As the group headed for the candy shop, Shining told him what was going on.

Shining didn’t like being the slowest of the group, but he kept his pace to a reasonable canter as he led the pegasi and the griffon through the city, across the river, and towards Silver’s Sweets.

They met up with the interrogation team, distributing armor from the cart. Shining had brought along an extra set for Soft to wear, more out of disguise than anything. It wouldn’t do to have their best interrogator recognized as being associated with the armored ponies who were taking down the pirates.

The three pegasi took off to provide top cover. Shining and Wiz went through the front door of the candy shop.

The inside was brightly decorated and smelled sweet. However, Shining’s attention was focused on the female griffon behind the counter.

“You’re Silver?” he asked.

She looked at the armored pony and the police officer. “Uh…yes.”

“We think that Abernathy, who is wanted for murder, is in the building.”

Silver blanched. “Murder? No way!”

“Ma’am, we need to search your place,” Wiz said.

Silver still looked shocked. She didn’t reply, but moved her talons slightly towards the stairs at the back of the room. Shining nodded to his Guards. Rough stayed outside as backup while Pikop and Puppy came in and headed for the second floor. Shining was with them.

There was a door at the top of the staircase. The three of them stayed quiet as they climbed, hoping for the element of surprise. A muffled voice from behind the door said, “Silver? Is that you?”

There was the sound of talons clicking on the floor as a griffon approached the door. Shining tapped the two earth ponies on the shoulders. They nodded and got into position.

Shining turned the doorknob and gave a shove with magic. Both Pikop and Puppy launched themselves forward the instant the door slammed open. Abernathy was caught flatfooted in the center of the room and took two Guards to the face.

They got him pinned down and Wiz read him his rights. Shining glanced at the window to see the pegasus guards looking in. He gave them a smile and a nod. Another successful arrest. Maybe not the pirate boss, but a suspected murderer was a fine consolation. And maybe he knew something that could help the investigation.

They dragged Abernathy outside and tossed him into the cart for transport to jail.

Chapter 13

Shining, Ace, and Rough hung around Silver’s Sweets for a few more minutes while they waited for a few Port Talon officers to arrive. The scene where a suspected murderer was apprehended was important enough to canvas thoroughly.

Silver took the news better than Shining would have thought, although still not well at all. Finding out your boyfriend might have killed someone was a serious blow.

The Royal Guards handed over control of the scene to the police and then went on their way.

Soft worked on Abernathy for the rest of the afternoon. Since arresting the suspected murderer, the Guards had risen in the eyes of the Port Talon Police. The griffons very much wanted to interrogate Abernathy about the murder, but it wasn’t like he was going anywhere. They let Soft have first crack at him so she could ask questions that related to the piracy.

Back at the temporary HQ, Shining took off his armored uniform and had a shower. He felt the satisfaction of an arrest, but knew he couldn’t get complacent. The big prize was still out there.

As he waited for the results of the interrogation to come back, Shining watched Mag and Dim work on the directional radio equipment the team had brought with them. Now that they had some idea of the frequencies the pirates were using, they could start closing in a little tighter.

Soft came back that evening, escorted by the Guards assigned to go with her. Without much preamble, she stated, “Abernathy killed Ganymede. After I got that confession out of him, the rest was comparatively easy.”

She didn’t look particularly pleased at spending a few hours across the table from a murderer, but forged on with her debrief. “Abernathy was trying to move up in the organization. At his current low position, he wasn’t allowed to know much, but he had heard that the pirates have some operations out east. He doesn’t know where exactly. I did get a list of frequencies and radio protocol from him, though.”

This set off a flurry of activity from the intel staff. With programming the radio direction finders and coming up with a plan, it was a few hours the team before was ready for the next step.

Shining let Mag take the briefing, as he had drawn it up. Gesturing to the drawings and maps he had drawn, Mag began. “We’ll need our three able pegasi to carry these direction finders aloft. For protection, I recommend you stay within sight of each other. We’ll send you on a loop of the land east of the city. The equipment has built in recorders so we’ll be able to track what you pick up. I’ll need you all to pay careful position to your location and heading. Take watches and compasses so you can navigate precisely.”

Skydancer, Ace, and Airborne began to get kitted up. Mag had drawn a course for them over the fields and land east of Port Talon. It consisted of two concentric ovals. This would allow them to cover the most ground and have some redundancy in their signals.

The three of them slipped into dark flight suits to conceal themselves against the night sky. They took off to the east, a package of electronics slung beneath each of them.

Then, it was back to waiting for the rest of the crew. Báistí showed up, and after getting her updated on the situation, the team enjoyed the selection of local teas she had brought. It was getting late, but none of them wanted to rest. If this plan worked, they might be able to pin down the location of the pirate stronghold.

It took hours. The regular status reports from the air team helped break the monotony, but they still had to thoroughly cover a lot of ground, and that was no simple task.

Finally, the three tired pegasi returned to HQ and the data they had collected could be reviewed. That in itself was no simple task. After syncing the playback of the audio with the direction beacon’s recording and the path of flight, hard results could finally be obtained. In real time, however. They playback would only go as fast as it had been recorded.

With a little creative circuitry, Dim managed to get the tapes moving a little faster, accelerating the recorded voices to chipmunk speeds. They were just barely understandable, but it took two unicorns writing as hard as they could to make sure they had a solid copy on the recorded conversations.

It was nearly sunrise when Mag finished pushing pins into the map. They had managed to come up with rough locations for every radio signal recorded. There were a few outliers, but in two areas the transmissions were clustered together. Mag marked them BIG and SMALL.

The names were appropriate. Location BIG had much more traffic. In fact, the conversations recorded seemed to indicate that the elusive Gaston might even be there.

Location SMALL did not get as much traffic, but much of it was transmitted from BIG. That was interesting. It was almost as if someone at BIG was reporting to SMALL.

As the sun started to come up, the haggard team met to discuss strategy. Shining laid out what they knew.

“If we go to location BIG, I think we stand a good chance of catching Gaston. However, based on traffic, it’s possible that we may find Hookbeak at location SMALL.

“Based on the sheer volume of traffic, we might be facing quite a few pirates. We may get some help from the cops, but I still don’t know if we’ll have the resources to conduct simultaneous raids on both locations.

“Ordinarily, I’d want to go with the sure thing and visit a target like BIG where we can count on something valuable being there. The problem is, with so many potential pirates to escape, they could warn the other place and whoever is there would disappear. Or maybe the large group of police showing up would tip them off.

“So we need to decide which place to go,” said Rough.

“If we do get police help, we might try to do both at once,” Mag countered.

“Either way, we’ve got rest to think about. We’ve been up all night,” put in Skydancer, stretching her tired wings. “Waiting a while could also help us come up with a better plan and give us the cover of darkness.”

“But if we wait that long, the data we collected might be worthless,” Dim replied.

Shining processed all their arguments while looking at the map, thinking hard.

Chapter 14

When Wiz arrived that morning, most of the team was asleep. Báistí was actually sitting at the radio intercept equipment, guided by Flash. She had volunteered to help out in any way she could, and the team had grown to trust her enough for direct involvement.

Shining roused himself from sleep, scratching at the buildup of stubble on his chin. He talked with Wiz, the young cop’s eyes widening as he heard the evidence that had been gathered. There was quite a pile of it.

“It’s a lot,” Wiz said, “but you may not have enough for arrests. We just have radio records, not physical evidence. Still, I think that might be enough to take a look. And maybe if a group of cops or Guards approaches their hideout, they might give us a reason to arrest them.”

He and Shining spent a few more minutes discussing strategy and Wiz left to speak with the Police Chief. Based on numbers and resources, Shining wanted the Guards to go after location SMALL.

By midmorning, the team had begun to wake up and gather together in the planning room. The first priority was intelligence. Going in blind was a terrible idea.

“Now that it’s daytime, we may want to get some overhead imagery,” Mag suggested.

“Can we do that without being spotted?” Rough asked.

Skydancer stepped forward, grinning. “I used to be a Wonderbolt high altitude instructor. My personal record is seventy-one thousand feet. Even on a clear day like this, there’s no way they could see me even directly overhead.”

Shining frowned. “Can anypony else on the team match that? We don’t want to send you directly over their base alone.”

“At that altitude, they can’t intercept me if they can't see me, sir.”

Skydancer seemed confident, so Shining authorized the operation. She spent a few minutes with the intel staff preparing the camera and getting a firm fix on the locations that the radio signals pointed to.

“I can help with the lay of the land,” Báistí volunteered. “I may not know the bases themselves, but I know the general area and the state of the ground. I wouldn’t want you to get stuck in mud or anything on your way there.”

Shining nodded. He could feel the plan coming together. “All right, let’s do this.”

By the time Wiz showed up again, designs for a raid were well underway. He stepped in, followed by an older griffon: Stormfeather.

“I'm still on restriction,” Stormfeather lamented, “but I heard there was something brewing.”

The team welcomed him back. Wiz deferred to the more experienced officer and let him handle the conversation. Stormfeather appeared impressed by the preparations so far.

Skydancer came back panting for breath, but with a full camera. Dim hurriedly developed the film, laying out glossy color prints on the table within a few minutes. Everypony gathered around. Skydancer pointed out what she had seen and Báistí added details she knew of the local terrain.

Both bases were carved from the center of large cornfields. They were well concealed, using angular shapes and terrain masking to hide their true size and location. In addition, they were well off normal routes and in places travelers would not normally frequent. Much like their radio traffic, BIG was significantly larger than SMALL.

Stormfeather touched a few of the pictures of location BIG. It was not the target the team was aiming for, but they had gotten recon on it anyway. “You’ve done a lot of preparation. I wonder…let me go talk to the Chief.”

Shining wondered what the cagey old griffon was up to. The team carried on with its plans. When Stormfeather showed up later, he had two police Sergeants with him. He introduced the pair and said, “They’re very interested in anything you can offer.”

The Guards were more than happy to let more police into the planning. They offered a few suggestions and by the time the afternoon was up, two simultaneous operations had been planned. The Guards would tackle SMALL. Port Talon Police would take BIG.

“It’s amazing what you can accomplish with a little help,” Stormfeather remarked to Shining as the two of them pored over the data one last time. Basically gifting the police with all their information and recon made it a no brainer for the Chief to authorize a few officers to check up on BIG.

They didn’t have a specific arrest warrant, but the criminals’ reactions to bunch of police showing up could almost provide reasonable suspicion all by itself.

Wiz and Stormfeather would accompany the Guards to SMALL. Stormfeather was still supposed to be off duty, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t allowed defend himself if a fight broke out. Shining was a little worried about the legality of it, but the look on the old admiral’s face said it all. He was overjoyed to be back in the good fight.

The team caught a nap and woke up refreshed that evening. They left Port Talon in groups of three and four, meeting up at an old barn on the farm road south of location SMALL.

All twelve team members were there. Shining had weighed his options and decided that it was best to bring the intel staff along. If they got into the base and discovered something valuable, this would speed up the exploitation of the information.

After a long talk, he’d also let Flash kit up. The young guard was still not back to one hundred percent, but the knife wound he’d endured was well bandaged and covered by armor.

Báistí made sure they all had their armor adjusted properly and gave a few last tips about local flora and fauna. She waited at the barn with the intel staff as the others moved away.

Night had fallen by the time they were ready to go. Stormfeather checked his watch, synchronized with the police who were on their way to BIG, and gestured for the Guards to begin.

The ponies slipped quietly through the dark cornfields. Shining kept his head low, letting the leaves roll off his armor. He waited for the ground team to fan out around the base and for the air team plus the griffons to get into position.

The base was little more than a few tents and portable equipment that could easily be moved. There were a few lanterns and Shining could smell food and alcohol.

A couple of griffons were on obvious guard duty, but that didn’t stop them from being surprised as the team emerged from the corn.

Wiz dropped to the ground and showed his badge. “Police.”

Pandemonium broke out, but the team was ready. The griffons already asleep didn’t stand a chance as their tents were merely rolled up around them. The rest put up a fight.

Shining saw one grab a flare from a box and light it, tossing it deep into the cornfield. He hit the griffon with a mild force spell, enough to unbalance him so Stormfeather could tackle him. Stormfeather slapped a pair of cuffs on, but looked up in alarm at the sudden fire that had sprung up from the flare.

“Somepony grab a cloud and put that out,” Shining directed. He turned to see that the rest of the pirates had been accounted for. All told, eight of them had been caught.

Skydancer and Airborne put out the blaze with a burst of rain. Quick thinking and weather manipulation had saved the day, otherwise the entire field might have been lost. Shining considered that. Was that the reason for the flares in the first place?

Shining had all the pirates sit in a line shackled while the intel staff swept the camp. They found the radio, as well as a few interesting documents. None of the griffons were in the mood to talk, and Soft mentioned that interrogations would go better when she could get each captive one-on-one.

“Ponies,” spat one of the griffons, a male with leaden, blue-grey coloring.

“Just who did you think would come after you for attacking pony ships?” Shining shot back.

Báistí had tea waiting back at the barn, and Shining sent a few of his Guards at a time for refreshments as the camp was swept. Finally, Mag announced that every bit of valuable information had been gleaned.

The team moved their prisoners back to Port Talon. The police who had gone after BIG had only taken four pirates captive, and an unknown number had escaped. That was unfortunate, but both bases had been sacked.

“Looks like the end of their operations here,” Stormfeather commented as he and Shining watched the prisoners from BIG being brought in by police.

“Hopefully,” Shining replied. “If nothing else, we…” He trailed off as he spotted a grey griffon with red feathers being led into the jail. “That’s Gaston!”

He and Stormfeather hurried over and managed to get the griffon put into an interrogation room away from the others. After that, Shining found Soft and asked her to grill the pirate lieutenant for everything he knew.

In a matter of minutes, she came back out. “He told me which one was Hookbeak. We’ve already got him in custody.”

It turned out that the mouthy grey-blue griffon was the pirate leader. He begrudgingly confirmed that when interrogated.

A palpable air of celebration went through the Guards as the news came down. The mission was complete.

Further interrogation revealed a few more interesting details. Now that they had all the top leadership behind bars, the whole organization would come crashing down. Equestrian merchant ships were safe again.

The matter of the flares turned out to be a long-running economy manipulation ploy. The pirates had been hoarding corn, and when it came to a vital time, they would torch the fields and have theirs as the only supply of grain in the area, creating a veritable monopoly on the market. The citizens had to eat, and if pirates controlled the source of corn it could have put a serious dent in food supply. It was a good thing that the same tactic hadn't been tried in a herbivorious nation like Equestria, where a lack of corn could have meant literal starvation.

Shining left the police station, still wearing his armor. Standing on the sidewalk, he looked as the sun started to come over the horizon. It had been another long night. He could feel fatigue in his bones, but it had all been worth it.

The team could not have performed better. They’d really shown what the Royal Guard was capable of, operating out of their element and in a faraway land, but had still managed to nab the crook.

Shining looked at the sun, one of the few things that had stayed constant on this trip. He smiled to himself and gave a quick salute. “We did it, Princess.”

It took a few days for the transfer paperwork to come through. It was almost like a vacation for the guards. They still didn’t go out alone, just in case, but having a chance to thoroughly explore the city was welcome.

Báistí gave the grand tour and showed them all a bit of heartfelt hospitality. They had, after all, helped clean up her home city.

The order to extradite Hookbeak had to come from national law enforcement, but it eventually filtered back down and the Royal Guard took him into custody. After making sure he was securely locked up aboard the ship, Shining went back down the gangplank to speak with Stormfeather one last time.

“Good working with you.” They shook.

“You do impressive work, Captain,” said Stormfeather. He clapped Shining on the shoulder and they parted company. The ship set sail soon after. Stormfeather had arranged for an old friend in the airship service to escort the ponies to safe water.

Shining stood on deck as the breeze pushed the ship away from the shores of the Griffon Kingdom. The adventure overseas had been interesting, but there was nothing better than going home.

Several days later, Shining was back in Princess Celestia’s office. He was back in his golden armor and he was well groomed. The polish and uniform felt good to be wearing again, but he found himself slightly missing the casual deployed regulations.

Celestia put down the report Shining had written on the trip back. “The expeditionary force was a great success. Hookbeak will stand trial for his crimes. You’ve done Equestria proud.”

“There were plenty of challenges, but we overcame them,” Shining replied mildly.

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Celestia. “It goes to show that the Royal Guard is capable enough to operate in any environment, any place. It takes a certain kind of group and a certain kind of pony to lead them. I daresay the Guard is the best service of its kind anywhere in the world.”

She smiled. “Now, I’d like to talk to you about the matter of Zebrican extremists…”

Chapter 8

“Stormfeather, Flash, get after him!” Shining shouted.

The police griffon was still struggling with the pirate who hadn’t managed to fly away. Grabbing a loose cobblestone, Stormfeather smashed his adversary over the head with it. Blood spurted and the pirate stopped moving.

Flash followed close on Stormfeather’s tail as the two of them shot off in pursuit of Gregory.

Shining lowered his head to the wounded griffon that Báistí was frantically trying to care for. The slice on the victim’s neck looked serious and was leaking a worrying amount of blood.

The first priority was getting the flow staunched. Shining’s barrier spells were usually cast over a large area like a city, and he had to concentrate hard to apply a small one to the griffon’s neck. He carefully refined it, attempting to cover the nicked blood vessels as well as possible.

“Here, take my radio,” he said to Báistí, looking up for just a moment. “Get the team here. Tell them the situation.”

Báistí fumbled with the radio but managed to figure it out. Less than a minute later, the pegasus Guards were there. Airborne had his medical bag and wore a worried expression. Ace attempted an impassive expression.

With directions from Báistí, they started to hurry towards the hospital, also dragging the captured and still comatose pirate along. Shining levitated the injured victim while Airborne hovered overhead, doing what he could. Other guards, having taken the time to don their equipment, had arrived by then and it was practically an armed column that finally moved through the doors of the emergency room. Shining hadn’t had to give the order but everypony already had it in their mind: they would see to it that there would be no more attacks on the Royal Guard tonight.

Shining ordered the pegasus unit to get out and go to the aid of Flash and Stormfeather. He hadn’t remembered Flash carrying a radio, so it would be more difficult.

Once the victim was in good care and the pirate under lockdown, Shining took the time to answer the questions the hospital staff had. Not surprisingly, there were a lot of them. Báistí quietly interceded, letting him off the hook.

There was blood on Báistí’s white body, but she was handling herself well. She volunteered to stay, and Shining left a few Guards with her.

He took Rough and marched to the police station. If the crime hadn’t been reported yet, they would see to it that the event got the attention it deserved.

Fortunately, Stormfeather and Flash struggled in just as they arrived. Gregory was beaten and tied with what looked like clothes line. His limp form was being carried by the fresh Guards Shining had sent.

Stormfeather’s plumage was out of place and he looked weary. Honestly, Shining considered, it was a wonder that the old Admiral had been able to keep up. Despite that, Flash looked worse. Little clumps of his mane had been pulled and there was a shallow knife gouge on his side.

Between the two of them, however, Gregory had gotten what he deserved. The story was told to Shining by Airborne as Flash and Stormfeather made statements to the clerk on duty.

Shining began to reconsider his opinion of Flash. Tonight, the young Guard had done exactly what was expected of his training, and demanded of him.

It was quite late when everypony made it back to the ship. Shining checked at the hospital, seeing that his Guards had been relieved by Port Talon police to protect the injured griffon. Shining didn’t think she was in any danger – just a random victim – but it didn’t hurt to be sure. They were also there to watch the pirate.

Shining grabbed what little sleep he could. In the morning, the team had a lot to discuss. Cyrus and Skydancer had gotten back from the casino late enough to be out of the loop for what had gone down. In bringing them up to speed, everypony got the chance for a better understanding of the situation.

Flash had to retell his story a few times and show off his bandages. Shining kept quiet about his own involvement, at least until Báistí showed up.

She was clearly exhausted, but had gotten cleaned up at some point. Shining gave her the coffee pot and she gratefully poured herself a cup. “You did a great service to the city and the kingdom, Captain Armor. I’m sure you saved that griffon’s life. Her name is Janey, by the way.”

Shining nodded. “How is she?”

“I’m not up on my medical terminology, but I understand that she’ll live.”

Stormfeather came in just then. Despite the physical fatigue he had gone through, he had bounced back well. Shining noticed that he wasn’t wearing his badge.

“I came to inform you that I’m being put under review,” he said somberly. “It’s standard procedure after all violent altercations. They’ll also likely want to investigate the pirate I hit over the head. I’m not worried about brutality charges, but if we’re to be a fair police force these questions must be asked anyway.”

Shining nodded. “Will we get a replacement for you soon?”

“I’ll insist on it.” Stormfeather nodded to him and left.

Despite what had happened the previous evening, there was still work to be done. The first priority was Gregory. He was firmly locked up downtown.

“Mag, take your staff to interrogate Gregory and obtain permission to enter his house. That might be difficult without Stormfeather’s help, but I trust you to get it arranged. Puppy, go with them.”

Mag nodded. He and the three others made the short walk to the police station.

Shining remembered the long list of names that they had obtained the day before. With that, and their locations, in mind, he ordered, “Skydancer, Ace, go across the river and look into Patrick and Pattycakes. Also visit Stormwren and see if he’s decided to say anything new.”

The two pegasi flew off. Shining considered his other forces carefully. “Pikop, Rough, I want you to head north to check into Abernathy and Patricia. Actually, Patricia’s place is way up there where the radios get bad. I’ll go with you.”

Báistí left the ship with Shining and his two guards, but yawned and said she was going to catch a nap. The three ponies headed into the city, swinging by the police station to check into the situation there.

“They did let Soft speak with Gregory,” Mag informed them. “As for everything else, I think I can get it to work out, but it’s slow going.”

Shining, Rough, and Pikop went on to Abernathy’s house. They observed covertly for a few minutes, but it didn’t seem like he was home.

Making the long walk to the far north of the city, they came across Patricia’s house. She was home, and the three Guards took care to make sure they weren’t noticed.

Patricia had a few callers while they observed. She seemed to know some of the visitors better than others. Some stayed inside her house for just seconds. Others hung around for up to half an hour. Shining didn’t remember anything about a private business in Patricia’s records. It would have been nice to have an arresting officer with them to confront her.

After enough observation to gather some notes, the Guards departed. It was a long trek back to the ship. A second stop at Abernathy’s didn’t reveal anything new.

At least some progress could be reported when they returned. Skydancer and Ace presented their findings.

“Patrick is ancient as well as blind,” Ace said. “An unlikely choice as a pirate. Pattycakes is an earth pony baker. Stormwren didn’t tell us anything.”

“From what he did say, I believe he knows or has heard of Gregory,” Skydancer added. “He didn’t try very hard to tactfully avoid our questions, though. Towards the end he started pounding steel on his anvil and straight up ignored us.”

It was the intel ponies who brought in the biggest prize of the day. They came back looking tired – even more so after the long night before – but their efforts had paid off.

“I spent several hours with Gregory,” Soft reported. “I managed to get everything from him I think is relevant to the case.”

“First off, there are three Lieutenants under Hookbeak. Gregory is one of them. Despite that, he himself has never actually seen Hookbeak. He does know that Hookbeak lives on the east side of the river.”

Consulting her notes, Soft went on. “The other two Lieutenants are Gaston, who we knew about, and Ganymede. Ganymede is apparently a completely brown griffon. Gaston always handled the meetings, and Gregory didn’t know where he or Ganymede lived. Honestly, this kind of compartmentalization is quite impressive on Hookbeak’s part.”

“Did Gregory know anything about the corn?” Shining asked.

“No, he handled the enforcement,” Soft explained. “I’m guessing that means Gaston handles the business.”

“What about other names?”

“I tried with the ones we got yesterday from the mayor. Abernathy is a low-level recruit. Happy is a nickname for Gregory himself. Pat – Patricia – is the wench.”

Shining raised his eyebrows. “What does that involve?”

“Being a pirate wench, I suppose.” Soft shrugged. “Gregory told me the griffon with him last night is named Yong. A police officer said that he’s still being held at the hospital.”

Dim stepped up. “We didn’t find much at Gregory’s place, but there was a notebook he kept with some of his exploits. It includes some pirate expeditions. Confirming what we heard earlier, corn was often taken.”

Shining frowned, still pondering why the pirates were so intent on that particular product. At least the rest of the picture was becoming much more clear. One third of Hookbeak’s junior leadership was now in prison, and they had names and descriptions for the rest.

He paused for a moment, considering everything he knew. There were quite a few interrogations, or reinterrogations to perform. They were still waiting on another police officer to be assigned, but hopefully that would come soon. There was also the casino, and deciding whether it was still worth investigation effort. Not to mention the possibility that the pirates could decide to take revenge for the arrest of a hothead like Gregory with further escalation.

Still, Shining knew what needed to be done.

Author's Note

For the big choice last chapter, I had several story branches lined up.

Both Flash and Shining go after Gregory = Gregory caught, victim dies, Báistí gets pissed off at the Guards and refuses to help anymore

Both Flash and Shining stay with the victim = Gregory escapes, victim lives, Stormfeather gets pissed off at the guards and refuses to help anymore

Flash and Shining split up = Gregory escapes, victim dies, neither Báistí nor Stormfeather are pissed off

But you guys presented me with things I hadn't thought of: bash in captured pirate's head, freeing Stormfeather to go with Flash and capture Gregory while Shining uses his force fields to keep blood inside a body.

For balance, there had to be some sort of negative consequence for that, so I put Stormfeather under investigation for police brutality. Still, this is arguably a better outcome than any of the previous choices, eh?

Okay, I'm a terrible DM, I admit it.