fly hard

6:50 AM Manehattan Local Time (MLT), Tuesday 12th, Month of Festivals, 5CE 1001
Private Investigator Carmen’s Office, Horseshoe Cove, Manehattan

A knock on the door. That always meant trouble.

But after a while, you’d expect these kinds of early-morning appointments. A stallion with a strong will, Carmen was determined to work himself back up in the big city. So far his jobs as a PI had been small; day-time murders, stolen goods. He wasn’t about to stop a major case stop at his doorstep.

He answered the door with an off-hooved “Door’s open.” In came the visitor, an authoritative figure in Canterlot garb. Luther waited for the job, but it never came.

“Well?” Luther, who went by the name Clue, was not one to respect Guard members. Celestia could defend herself with her own magic, for pony’s sake. That aside, he had a grudge against--

“Private Investigator Carmen Luther, I presume?” the Guard asked nervously. His saddlebag looked hastily packed, with the lock undone.

“That’s my name,” Luther sat up in the chair. No need to drag it out. “Well? What do you need?”

“A job, sir,” Magicked out of the bag was a letter, with a Royal Stamp on it. “Celestia’s orders.”

Luther snatched the letter out of the air and skimmed the contents. Mostly official stuff, just requesting the PI take the job. “Brief me.”

“I would if I could, sir,” the Guard looked as if he was being forced to say this. “But Captain Armor says you must take the, um, challenge if you want to know about it.”

Luther looked over his desk at the Guard in disbelief. It’s not an everyday job with security like this. “Armor would do that? And Celestia actually approves of this?”

The Guard bowed his head. “All in secrecy. I’m sure you understand.”

Secrecy, huh? “I’ll do this favor for Armor. This better be important.”

The PI’s visitor looked back and forth like he was being watched, which for all Luther knew he could have been. Armor does like to keep his guards in check. Knowing him, anyway…

“There’s a syndicate, the Athraithe. You’ve heard of them?”

“Here and there, I read things. They’re – well, they were – followers of Queen Chrysalis. Disbanded, I think, after her second defeat.”

“Actually, we’ve let the remaining members stay on the account no crime was committed against Equestria. But lately, they seem to have been talking behind our backs. To make matters worse, the Athraithians (ahth-wraith-ee-ens) Sentinel and Gray Area have reportedly gone missing. Armor doesn’t want the exploitation of trust, especially with the Elements gone. It’s obvious we can’t have this alliance continue, but it’s unclear why it even started. We need counter espionage on all cities.”

Carmen could have laughed – he wasn’t sure why – but he kept his mouth shut.

“We have Cadence and her group watching the Crystal Empire, Celestia and Luna overseeing Canterlot, and Princess Twilight observing Ponyville and the Everfree Forest. But Manehattan and other cities don’t have any instantly available help.

“In the places that have been left open – Las Pegasus, Trottingham, and Appaloosa, among others – we’ve left it up to the government of the cities to provide immediate assistance to those affected by the cult. City Council here decided that’s you and Claire.”

At last, a name he knew, though not friendly. Claire was an old competing detective of his from the Royal Guard Academy. She goes by Claire but friends, and rivals, know her real name, Shiny Glass. The Earth mare saw herself as a pretty good detective, which was her special talent, but Clue thought he was the better. She and Luther worked in the same regiment for quite a while. Glass solved a ‘case’ against Luther once; it was a silly Academy thing the recruits used to do, wagering jewelry to those who could find them. But then something happened. It just went downhill from there. Any more details, he wouldn’t want to tell.

After these few moments, the PI became somewhat confused. “Tell me why we are the best choices for this huge job. Manehattan is a huge city, and you’re asking us to investigate it piece by piece? Us two?”

“Captain wanted me also to relay to you that he will be staying nearby as a small back up. He says Manehattan is too large a city to lose.”

Ah, hell. Isn’t it always like Armor to think so highly of himself? Luther wondered if he was really trying to be this intrusive on a two detective-talent pony case.

Luther calmed down but still wondered. “What about the Guard? Why has Armor come down to help us?”

“I’m sorry, sir,” The Guard looked skittish. Pressure will do that to a stallion. “This is all Armor told me. If you want your questions answered you’ll have to go meet them at the Mane Fair Hotel. That’s in the High-Rises, if you didn’t know.”

Answers are what I need, he thought. Luther turned his back to the guard and stared out at the Manehattan skyline. “Thank you. You are dismissed.”

The Guard walked out and Luther fluttered his wings. Sorry, wing. The copper prosthetic that replaced his right wing was his ticket out of the Guard, but it was almost like he’d been born with it; the accident had happened so early in his life. Nurse Redheart made sure it worked just as well, but hopefully he wouldn’t encounter anything that required him to flee for his life.

An entire branch of a syndicate, up to a private investigator and an Academy… ‘friend’. Oh yeah, and the Captain of the Royal Guard.

The window was pushed open. It’s a good day to fly.