What's Yours Is Mine

Chapter 7- Temple Raiders

Shining Armour rubbed his forehead again, the spot just below his horn throbbing slightly. Just enough to be noticeable, one of his Guards glanced at him.

"Are you sure your okay, sir? You've been rubbing the same spot for almost half of an hour." The Captain shook his head "It's nothing, just headache. Keep moving and keep vigilant, we have to find the source of Stalliongrad's woe's"

For the past half hour the small band of Royal Guards had searched the nearly deserted streets of east Stalliongrad, searching for anything that might clue them in to the series of plaguing nightmares and brutal murders but had turned up nothing. The only point of interest was that when they entered the area, Shining began experiencing pains at the base of his horn.

"Perhaps it's magical build up, sir? That's common in winter you know." Another Guard offered, Captain Armour growled "I said its nothing, now leave it be!" The irritability in their officers voice made the Stallions shut up. Shining sighed, he didn't mean to snap but between to leads from their search to the annoying pain in his head to the bitter cold of the north, he wasn't having a pleasant day.

"Sir." One of the younger Guardsponies said "This might be long overdue bug what is it that we are actually looking for?"

"Anything suspicious, out of the ordinary. Really anything at this point would be nice."

"....Would that count then?" The Captains head snapped to his side and saw the Guardspony pointing to something across the street, there two darkly dressed and hooded Ponies moved parallel to the buildings and were clearly avoiding detection.

Before Shining Armour could do anything, another Guard called out

"Oi! You!" The two Ponies took one look at the small platoon of guards and took off down the nearest alleyway.

"Idiot!" Captain Armour yelled at the Stallion "After them!" The white Unicorn galloped down the same alleyway in hot pursuit, his guards quick behind him.

"Stop!" Shining called "We only want information!" The fleeing rogue's ignored him and exited the alleyway, taking a sharp right instantly. A few moments later the guards burst from the ally and into the empty street.

Captain Armour stomped his hoof on the ground, scuffing the cobblestone.

"Where in Tartarus did they go?" The Guardsponies exchanged glances.

"Sir... The armour they wore looked like Thieves Guild armour."

"Thieves Guild? Why in Equestia are they here?"

"Well ah, we've been getting reports that the Guild has been spreading out more and more the past year or so."

"How come I wasn't notified of this?"

"Well... You were in the Crystal Empire... Sir"

"....Right, anyway. Where did they go?" The young guard cleared his throat.

"Well their thieves right? So my guess is that they mean to steal something and what better place than a noble household?" Shining turned and spotted the large four-story mansion across the street, he nodded to the Guardspony.

"Good thinking, let's go do a routine security check.

                                                                         ~~*~~

Swift Hoof looked down at the street and watched as the Royal Guards deliberately entered the Star Mansion.

"Well good news is they didn't see where we went." He said "Bad news is that Falling Star will now have eight more dinner guests that originally intended." Swift looked over at Rogue Wind who was perched on the same roof as Swift, looking like a large dark bird.

"Well this is lovely, what's a bunch of Royal Guards doing here anyway? Were you followed?"

"No, I took a less-than-conventional way of travel. They must be here by coincidence and we'll just have to work around them." Spreading his wings Swift prepared to fly.

"Follow me." The grey Pegasus dived and soared silently across the street and directly into an open window, landing with nay a sound. He stepped to the side and was joined by his lovely companion who folded her dark wings, closed the window, and pulled the curtain.

"So where should we begin?" Swift whispered.

"The bedroom." Rogue Wind said, making her way to the door and peering through the keyhole.

"At least buy me a drink first." Swift Hoof said with a grin.

"Stay focused and I'll pay for the first five rounds, now let's go." Rogue Wind slipped through the doorframe with Swift following suite, the Canterlot Thief more focused on the fine piece of plot in front of him more than the job at hoof. They exited out into the dark hallway, the only light came from the windows in the main foyer, Rogue peeked around the corner and cursed softly.

"Found your friends." She whispered.

                                                                  ~~*~~

     The front door opened silently, moving smoothly on it's well-oiled hinges. Shining Armour stepped into the polished floor of the main foyer, followed closely by his Guardsponies.

"Hello?" The Captain called, his voice echoing through  "Anypony home?" No answer came and Shining turned to the armoured stallions beside him.

"Alright, you three search this floor and the rest of you follow me upstairs." The Guards saluted a split up accordantly.

The Captain flinched as the pain in his head spiked, strange as it only did so when he entered the mansion.

"Sir, are you sure your alright?" Captain Armour glared at the offending guard and the stallion looked away.

Shining jerked his head and his choice three Guardsponies followed him as he headed up the staircase with barely audible hoofbeats, he made it about half way up when there was a small gust of wind and fine specs of dust flew gently from their resting places. Shining's eye's narrowed a and he quickly moved up to the top of the stairs, leaning against the corner and steeling himself before twisting around the corner and finding nothing.

"What is it, sir?" Captain Armour shook his head.

"I thought... Never mind, let's keep moving." The four guards moved down the left hallway, watched closely by two Pegasi perched upon the the rafters.

"They're headed the opposite way, we can head into the master bedroom and get out quick." Rogue whispered, her mouth centimetres from Swift's ear.

"Quick? You insult me, I can go all night if you want me too." Under her hood Rogue Winds eyes rolled dramatically.

"You Canterlot branch Ponies are all the same, come on." With graceful movements Rogue jumped to the next rafter and the next, Swift following suite. They headed down the hall to the right until they came to the largest door that marked the master bedroom.

Swift took one look at the door latch and whispered "That's locked, here; hold on to my hind legs and lower me down."

"What?" The mare thief said, confused.

"I need to unlock it and if I drop down or hover the guards could hear, so lower me down."

"Fine, whatever." With silent shuffling, Rogue positioned herself behind Swift and grabbed hold of his hind legs, with slow deliberate movements the grey Pegasus inched off of the rafters and was slowly lowered by his female partner.

"Enjoying the few?" Swift Hoof's voice came.

"You really want me to drop you, don't you?" The mare said, lowering him father. Swift grinned as he came level with the door latch, with practiced ease he flicked out the two quality picks that resided in his gauntlets. With smooth movements and a victorious click the door was unlocked and swung open silently. Swift Hoof replaced his picks and took hold of the top of the doorframe.

"Okay, let me go." Swift said and Rogue Wind gladly let the stallion drop, the Canterlot thief swung into the room and let go of the frame. Landing softly as a cat on the inside, Rogue followed suite and closed the door gently behind her, shrouding them in darkness.

"Looks like his lordship is sleeping well." The dark blue Pegasus said softly, pointing to the large lump on the king size bed "Let's see if he keeps any documents in his room." Before Rogue could move away to begin searching, Swift grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Hold on a minute..." The stallion walked softly over to the bed and peered down at the slumbering noble.

"He's dead." Came Swift Hoof's statement.

"What? Dead? How?"

"Well it appears he was stabbed, seeing as there is a sizeable dagger in the stallions chest." Rogue Wind trotted over and took a look for herself and indeed there was a dagger stuck right in the middle of Falling Star's chest, a piece of parchment caked with dry blood stuck to the body by the dagger.

"A note?" Rogue said as Swift carefully pulled out the dagger, placed the weapon in an ep they satchel before grabbing the note. On it was a black hoof print and a single word above it.

Traitor, it said. Swift Hoof passed the note to Rogue Wind who raised her eyebrows.

"Do you recognize the symbol?" She asked, passing the note back. The grey Pegasus shook his head

"No, never. But maybe Secret Script could turn something up on it." Swift folded the note and stored it away with the dagger.

"See if you can't find anything about what happened to this guy, or if he knows anything about the murders." Rogue nodded and with one glacé at the fresh noble corpse she began rummaging through nearby dresser drawer's while Swift searched the one bookcase in the room, looking closely at the titles he noticed one of them that was slightly pulled out. Curious the grey Pegasus squinted at the title in the dim light.

Ancient World Artifacts and their Powers, an eyebrow raised Swift grabbed the tome and pulled, the book came out about half way before a click could be heard. The thief pulled his hoof back and watched as the clearly fake tome was pulled back into the the bookshelf, the entire structured shifted and moved silently to the left revealing a dark tunnel that lead downwards.

Swift Hoof looked back at Rogue who was staring at the tunnel with a surprised look.

"Well, that's not suspicious." She said sarcastically.

"Yeah, come on let's see what's down there." The two headed down the stairs and took not four steps before the bookshelf slide back before either of them could react.

"Buck." Swift said, completely unable to see.

"I guess we have no choice now, let's head down." Rogue said.

"Alright, just hug the right wall so we don't get separated."

                                                                  ~~*~~

Shining Armour walked back to the main hallway and towards the side they hadn't searched yet.

"Sir, that looks like the master bedroom up there. Should we search it?" The Captain nodded.

"Yes we should, maybe the owner of this mansion is resting. We might be able to get some information out of them." Shining approached the door and knocked.

"Hello?" He called, knocking again. No answer came, the white Unicorn frowned and pushed down on the door latch and found it oddly unlocked. Pushing the door open the Captain stepped inside the darkened room, almost immediately noticed the lump on the bed.

"I'm sorry." Shining Armour said "But we have reason to believe there are two criminals that have infiltrated your home and I also have questions for you." No answer, now Shining was getting a bad feeling and the pain in his horn wasn't helping.

The Captain approached the bed and peeked over the edge, when he saw the scene before him he gasped.

"In here now! And bring a torch!" His guards came in one carrying a magically lite torch that illuminated the dead body of the Unicorn noble.

"Dead." Shining stated "stabbed in the chest, probably with a dagger."

"Did those thieves we saw do it?" One guard asked and his Captain shook his head.

"No, that's not how the Thieves Guild operates. Besides, the wound isn't fresh enough, it's been at least an hour or so." Committing the size and depth of the wound to memory he looked to the three Guardsponies.

"Alright, search the room for anything that would point to what went on here. Obviously this murder is connected to everything else that's going on here, and apparently the Thieves Guild is interested." The three Stallions saluted and spread out in the room, Shining took one last look at the dead Unicorn and sent him a silent prayer for safe passage to Elysium before moving to search as well.

The Captain wondered to the room's only bookshelf, glancing at the tomes and reading the titles via the torches light. He was about to move on before he noticed something; a breeze, coming from the the bookshelf, frowning the white Unicorn activated his magic and grabbed each of the books with his purple glow before pulling, most of them cane out of the shelf easily but one only came out before clicking and drawing back. The bookshelf shifted aside to reveal a tunnel leading downwards.

After a quick appraisal Shining Armour came to a decision "Alright, we'll headed down this tunnel and see what's down there, afterwords we can regroup with the rest of our squad and report to the Duke." A chorus of 'yes sir' and they headed down into the darkness, the bookshelf closing behind them without a sound.

                                                                         ~~*~~

The tunnel eventually gave way to a grand hall of sorts, illuminated by ominous green magical flames in golden basins. The floor an ancient worn stone and the pillars and walks made of some strange bronze-gold metal.

Swift Hoof and Rogue Wind walked carefully down the hall, absorbing their surroundings with appraising looks in their eyes.

"What is this place do you think?" Rogue asked, her voice still hushed for fear of being overheard by... Something.

"A temple I think." Swift said "A really old temple, judging by how worn everything seems. Be careful, there could be anything in here." Thoughts of ghosts and demons stalking the two scoundrels in the dark filled hall filled the mares mind and sent a shiver down her spine. Unconsciously she shifted closer to Swift Hoof and brushed against him, feeling more comfortable with the added warmth radiating from the Stallion. Unbeknownst to her Swift broke out in a grin at the contact but decided not to comment on it.

The hall lead them up a slant and through an open set of doors that were made out of the same golden-bronze material. Pass that was what appeared to be a large dome, low benches lined up on either side and faced a huge statue. The statue itself was that of a large Alicorn, not any of the Princesses but one that was not familiar to either of the thieves. A beam of evening sun fell down from a glass circle in the room and illuminated some sort of staff that was somehow standing upright and ridged in front of the statue.

Swift and Rogue walked between the benches and towards that statue, they stopped just before the staff.

"Who's that Alicorn do you think?" Swift Hoof asked.

"No idea, not Princess Celestia or Luna, certainly not Cadence." Rogue Wind looked at the staff "Is that a... Pony Skull?" Swift looked at the staff and indeed it was topped by a yellowed Pony skull that was surrounded by what appeared to be sharpened ribs surrounded the skull in some sort of morbid crown, the entire thing had an eerie red glow.

"Sooooo, should we take it?" Rogue Wind asked, still staring at the skull.

"Well it's certainly big, old, and probably valuable but it also happens to be sitting in a very obvious spot in a literal beam of light. That kinda screams 'don't touch' to me."

"Yeah well, that also say's 'I'm big, valuable, and I have something to do with what's going on' don't you think." Rogue said in retort, Swift nodded.

"Okay, so how about we..."

"Ahem." The two thieves spun around and spotted three Royal Guards who were blocking the exit and held their spears ready, ahead of them stood a tall white Unicorn in purple armour and an officers plumed helmet, he held his sword aloft with his purple magic.

"Lower your hoods and surrender, you are needed for questioning and possible crimes against Equestria and her people." The two hooded Ponies exchanged a glad before one pulled something off his belt and threw it, the object fell a few feet before Shining before spewing out thick grey smoke.

The Guard Captain coughed and yelled "Don't let them escape!" And charged through the smog, his vision cleared to reveal him only a meter away from one of the thieves, the grey colour of his snout and gleam of his eyes under the hood. Gritting his teeth the Unicorn swung the magically gripped sword at the outlaw's chest, his blade was met with the Guildmembers smaller, quicker one and deflected to the side. The rogue sidestepped to the side, easily ducking the Captain's sideswipe.

"Grab the Skull!" His foe called and Shining Amour looked to see the other darker cloaked Pony rushing towards a staff of some sort.

"Stop him!" He called and in no time at all his three guards appeared to intercept the leather-clad thief, that's all Shining saw before had turned to face his own dance partner. As soon as he turned he ducked to dodge the incoming blow from the rogue's free hoof. The Captain came up from the duck in a vicious uppercut that aimed for the Guildmembers exposed side, unfortunately the thief twisted away with a gust of wind and landed a few meters away. The outlaw's brown cloak pushed away from his armour by his large grey wings.

Taking a pause in the fight Shining Armour glanced to his Guardsponies and watched as the other thief- A mare judging by her size and form -bucked one of his Stallions in a chest with enough force to cause him to stumble back and knock into the staff. The skull top clattered to the floor with echoing sounds and suddenly the room was taken by violent shaking, both rogue's perked their heads and the mare finally punched another guard in the snout before jumping over to join her companion.

Both of the cloaked Pegasi spread their wings and and they took off, climbing rapidly before crashing through the glass circle and disappearing. Shining Armour cursed and sheathed his sword, the Captain scooped up the staff that had fallen before sparking his magic- the pain in his horn reaching unbearable proportions -and extended the spell to his three guards, the sound of crashing atoms was lost among the crumbling stone as Shining and his guards teleported away.

Outside and above ground there was a flash of purple and the four Stallions appeared and watched as the mansion crumbled to dust, their comrades buried amongst the rubble along with any evidence as to what had transpired inside there.

                                                                          ~~*~~

The two Guildmembers had drunk too much.

Arctic Hearth, innkeeper of the Northern Oasis, watched the two thieves that sat at the end of his bar. Drinking their guts out.

The two had arrived an hour ago, hoods down, covered in dust, and very irritable. They demanded hard cider and just kept drinking, for the past twenty minutes they had engaged in heated argument.

Rogue Wind slammed down her mug and glared at Swift Hoof who was chugging his own drink.

"You know we would have that skull if you weren't such a priss about killing that guard captain." She said angrily, Swift scowled.

"And we would of had it even sooner if you hadn't taken your grand sweet time playing with his friends!" The two glared at each other with what appeared to be pure hatred and Arctic wondered if he would have to break up a fight when the mare suddenly dropped her mug, grabbed Swift by the shoulders and forcibly kissed him.

The Innkeepers jaw dropped and watched as the two thieves gripped each other and fell off their stools, still locked in their embrace. Arctic Hearth looked down from the bar at the scene and watched as the two outlaw's activities became more and more explicit.

With a gulp and a burning face he spoke.

"I suppose you two will be wanting a room for the night, then?"