What's Yours Is Mine

Chapter 5- Long Roads

The cart moved steadily down the dirt road, both it's canvas covering and driver becoming steadily damper from the unrelenting misty rain steadily falling from the sky. There were no sounds about besides the creak of the carts wheels, the splish-splashing of the cart drivers hooves on the muddy trail, and the soft pitter-patter of the rain.

The carts journey was and is uneventful, nothing out of the ordinary about it, it carried several pounds of sugar, hay, apples, illegal salt supplies, strawberries, and a master thief. The cart was eventually brought to a crossroads, two roads leading in different directions; one went in a linear path north, the other in a more north-easterly direction. A sign placed there stated that Vanhoover was to the north-east and Stalliongrad was to the north.

The cloaked cart driver stopped to catch his breath, the long trip and increased load taking a a toll of his elder body, after a moment or two the driver unlatched the carts harness from himself and walked over to the back of the cart, hitting the wood firmly with his hoof.

"This is as far as I go." The travelling merchant said to seemingly no one, after a pause the cart rocked softly from movement inside of it, before a grey Pegasus clad in brown leather wrappings and a coat emerged from the back of the cart, jumping off and landing on the muddy trail with a loud squelch.

The Pegasus produced a single gold coin from his cloak and tossed it to the merchant who caught it expertly, admiring it's shine.

"For your troubles and your silence" the Pegasus said, the merchant looked back at his passenger from under his hood.

"You know...." He said casually "I have an exceptional memory for somepony my age, and I'm planing on sinning quite a lot at the Vanhoover bar tonight, something might... Slip." The grey Pegasus frowned and reluctantly fished out another golden bit and grumpily tossed it to the merchant.

"That's all your getting Swindle, now bugger off." The cart driver chuckled from under his hood.

"Is that anyway to speak to one of your favourite fence's? No matter, good luck in Stalliongrad, Swift Hoof." Swindle Scam chuckled again and reattached his harness, before taking off towards Vanhoover with surprising speed.

Swift Hoof sighed, still slightly annoyed at being scammed out of an extra bit, but he forced himself to just forget it, adjusting his cloak's hood the rogue headed north towards Stalliongrad and his assignment.

                                                                ~~*~~

The Broken Hoof was one of Trottinghams seedier dives, being mainly a bar the was well known to offer salt supplies to its customers and also was the site of several bar fights and Guard raids, this had gained the establishment quite a sinister reputation which scared off the average citizen of Trottingham, but didn't deter the rougher underbelly residence that were the ones who had given the bar it's reputation in the first place.

All of this of course, made The Broken Hoof a choice spot for the Thieves Guild.

The old wooden door of the bar creaked open ominously, casting a beam of light into the dim dining area, the fresh air cutting into the miasma of smells that had been trapped inside of the building. The newcomer stepped inside and closed the door behind him, the current patrons blinked the scalding light from their eyes and gave the newcomer a look-over. It was a Unicorn, his horn sticking out of a dark brown hood, the rest of him cover in a brown cloak.

After their assessment most recognized the Unicorn as a Guild representative, they were common enough as The Broken Hoof was an informal base of operation for them in Trottingham, those who didn't recognize the armour decided the newcomer wasn't worth their time.

Silver Lock grinned as the normally violent patrons backed off from him, clearly he was just so physically intimidating that they feared for their lives if they tried to mug him. Still grinning to himself the Unicorn sat down at the bar, leaning back and awaited his contact. After a moment or two the kitchen doors opened and a bleach white Pegasus came out, even his eyes lacked colour, the bar tender approached Silver at looked at him from across the counter.

"What brings you here Silver?" He asked softly "In for a bit of.. Spice? I just got a fresh shipment." The rogue shook his head.

"You know Goldy banned that shit White, ever since that one time...." White Powder giggled abnormally at the memory.

"Those were the days... But anyway, what do you want then?"

"I need information."

"Ahhhh, well you've come to the right stallion, what do you want to know?"

"The Ruby Estate, some sort of library, what do you got?"

"Oooh? Raiding library's now are we? The Guild has become less ambitious lately."

"Shut up, what do you know?"

"Shush now, The Ruby Estate is located in upper Trottingham, it's library is several levels below that, you'll have to evade private security, mercenaries and the like but I can get you a way in."

"Go on."

"One of the guards rely's on me for his.. Fix, I can persuade him to leave one side of the estate unguarded for you to slip in."

"What's the catch?"

"The catch is that I don't work for free." Silver's eye twitched slightly at having to give away wealth, but reluctantly he pulled out a small pouch of gold, placing it on the counter.

White Powder eagerly pulled the bag towards him and shook it, it's contents clinking around merrily.

"Be there at dusk, and you'll have your entrance, but be warned; they do regular sweeps of the library, you'll have a half-hour window."

                                                                  ~~*~~

The train screeched as it pulled into the snow-caked station, giving off a final whistle as to brag at it's achieved journey, the car door opened and the train was emptied of its passengers, all of them exiting that warm train and into the cold Stalliongrad morning.

Among the passengers was seven armoured stallions, six of them clad in golden armour and carrying sheathed swords and shield and covered in traditional-looking red capes, additionally they were all Unicorns as specially requested by their leader, Shining Armour was clad in purple armour and carrying a sword of his own, his taller plumed helmet marking him as an officer.

They all walked down the snow-covered cobblestone roads of Stalliongrad, looking around at the buildings and resident Ponies.

"When they told me it was cold up here they weren't joking." One guard commented, shivering and pulling his cape closer around him "It's worse than Vanhoover, even without all the rain."

"Aye" another one said "But I've heard it's easy enough to find a beautiful mare to keep you warm." This got a few chuckles from his companions.

"Beautiful you say? Well I might disagree with you, seeing as I can't tell them apart from the stallions." A few more laughs were shared before Shining felt the need to interject.

"That's enough." He said sternly "If you weren't too busy goggling at the resident mare population, you'd notice the obvious abnormalities."

"Sorry sir, but what might you be referring to?" The guard closest to Shining asked.

"Think about it, I've only been to Stalliongrad once but I could still tell you that the citizens here are very unfriendly and untrusting of outsiders, normally they bombard newcomers with angry glares and the like, but look at them now." The Guard Captain gestured to a few passing resident citizens.

"They're scared, heads down, avoiding our and each other's gazes. There's an aura of fear about, can you feel it?" The Guard nearest to Shining's right nodded.

"Aye sir, there's a tension in the air that could be cut by a dull dagger, something's clearly not right, perhaps we should hurry to the Duke's residence?"

"Good idea, come on it's this way." Shining Armour lead his squad through the cold streets of Stalliongrad, heading towards the large mansion-like building that acted as the cities centre of government, outside a pair of guards stood. In contrast to the ornate golden armour of the Royal Guards, the North Guard as they were called were clad in a grey steel armour with warm-looking cloth wrappings in between.

As Shining approached the North Guard crossed their spears in front of the stairs leading up, glaring at the Captain from under their steel helmets.

"State your business." One of them said, his speech tilted by a thick Stalliongrad accent, Shining Armour frowned at them.

"Shining Armour, on a mission ordered by Princess Celestia of Equestria, the Duke of Stalliongrad has requested our assistance." The Guards exchanged glances and moved their spears to allow Shining to pass.

The Captain gestured to his squad and they headed up the stone stairs and to the large door of the building, another pair of North Guards pushed open the doors for them and they entreated the main hall, inside was a large chamber similar to Princess Celestia's throne room; a lush red carpet ran through the centre and lead to a large stone chair in which a imposing Unicorn sat.

As Shining Armour approached the throne he was able to get a better look at the Duke of Stalliongrad, he was a dark blue Unicorn with a silky black mane which was tied back in a warriors braid and he was clad in a large blue cloak and several layers of clothing that gave him a bulky appearance.

The Captain came close to the Duke and saluted.

"Captain Shining Armour of the Equestrian Royal Guard at your service your excellency." Technically that wasn't his title anymore, but the former Captain would rather not flaunt his 'Prince' title around.

"Ahhh, seems Princess Celestia answered my call." The Duke said softly, his voice rather lacking in the rustic accent of the north.

"Always willing to help an ally" Shining Armour said "What is the situation?"

"You come at a dark time Captain, my Ponies live in fear, as they are plagued my nightmares every time they go to rest, in addition some of my resident nobles have been targets of murders, found in their beds with daggers in their chest, I think the two are connected."

"This is indeed troubling news, do you have any leads?"

"I'm afraid I have very little, except for one thing. On the eastern side of Stalliongrad the nightmares are worse and more potent, I think it's in that area were the darkness is originating from."

"Well it's not much, but I promise you I will discover the cause of this your excellency, you have my word."

"Thank you Captain, this is a load off my mind." Shining saluted again, and turned back to his colts.

"Come on, let's go see what we can see."