They say coin never sleeps, but anypony who’s walked the patrol of Canterlot market at midnight might disagree. The pickpockets and confidence ponies head to the taverns at dusk, the businessponies and nobles go back to their tiny palaces to fret over the ways they got cheated, and the market falls silent.
Lieutenant Shining Armor knew every angle of the market with his eyes closed. Over ten years of patrols had etched it into him so that he walked that beat even in his dreams. The recruit, Flash Sentry, was another story. The ring of steel striking stone told Armor that the kid had stumbled into a column again. His new armor would be full of dents by sunrise.
“Torches would make this easier.” The sound of Flash hauling himself off the pavement was like a tinker’s cart crashing.
“Torches make you night-blind. You’ll adjust.” Armor crossed the square to help the kid to his feet. A breeze scurried across the plaza, sending the banners and pennants shivering and carrying an old, familiar scent. Armor stooped in his tracks.
“Something’s wrong.” His voice was low, warning. He peered into the dark, up at the mezzanine just above them. “Follow me. Be ready for trouble.”
The two guards climbed the dark stairs and there, in a puddle of shadow, found the body. Gold-trimmed satin glittered through the blood.
“Get the Captain,” Armor sighed. “We’ve got a dead noble.”
Fancy Pants’s butler had the air of a pony who had never risen before dawn in his life. He stared down his nose at Shining Armor and his partner, Flash Sentry, as if he were on some lofty balcony above them instead of standing in the parlor in his dressing gown.
“My lord Fancy Pants is indisposed. This can wait until a reasonable hour.” He gestured for the guards to see themselves out.
“The noblepoy is dead,” Armor corrected him. “Wake the household.”
As the butler left, Flash shifted uneasily in his new armor. “Shouldn’t the Captain be here?”
“You want to go back to the barracks, be my guest,” Armor said with a shrug, only half-listening as he studied the collection displayed in the room. A dozen ancient swords lay nestled in display cases, protected from dust and prying hooves. He moved to lift the lid of the nearest one. Flash started to protest, but then the doors opened.
She had eyes the color of violet jewels and a pink mane that fell across her brow like sword strokes. She strolled into the parlor with such dignified elegance that Armor didn’t realize for several minutes that she was clad in a housecoat and not a ball gown.
“You have news about my husband? What’s Fancy done this time, forget to pay his bill at the Brothel?” She seated herself and indicated the guards to do the same. Armor nodded at the recruit to speak up.
Flash started, “No, Lady Fleur Dis Lee, actually—“
She interrupted him with a wave. “Fleur, please.”
“Lady Fleur, your husband has been murdered,” Armor took over for the flustered recruit. “When did you see him last?”
Fleur started at him, her jewel-colored eyes wide, and her voice cracked on, “Murdered? Facny?” But a heartbeat, maybe two, passed, and she again became the perfect picture of noble grace. “I saw him at dinner,” She answered in a tone anyone might use to comment on the weather. “He left before dusk. He said he was going to play a game of cards with Prince Blueblood.”
“Do you know of anyone who might have wanted him dead?” Flash asked softly.
“Ponies want nobles dead on principle.” She gave a wary smile, but her voice grew pained. “Criminals. Political rivals. Even ponies in his district who disagree with him.” She drifted off, lost in thought, and then turned to Armor, eyes blazing. “A week ago, a letter came. Vague threats. I thought it was nothing, but it upset Fancy.”
“Who sent it?” Armor asked.
“It wasn’t signed. But the seal was six crossed swords.” Fleur responded, her voice still in pain.
For the second time in what was becoming a very long night. Shining Armor and his partner, Flash Sentry, found themselves knocking on a nobleponies's door. It was still hours before dawn. The sky turning grey around the edges. The steel of Armor gauntlets clanged against the door. Once. Twice. No answer. He sighed looking up at the dark windows of the mansion. He was getting too old for this shit.
"Maybe he's out," Flash offered. The recruit was nervous. In the guard a week and barely able to walk through Canterlot, too green for a murder case.
"He's hiding. Look up." Armor pointed. "He's shuttered all the windows. There hasn't been a storm in months." He pounded on the door again, louder.
"We should get the captain." Flash shifted and squirmed under his heavy shoulder plates. Armor had forgotten how badly new guard armor fit. He started to tell the kid where to get it adjusted, and the door swung open.
"Come inside, quickly!" “A voice said desperately.
A stallion rushed them inside and through the house. Every room was dark. No moonlight made it through the shuttered windows. No candles flickered. Their way was lit only by a hooded lantern in the hands of their host. He stopped once they had reached a windowless inside room, where he closed and bolted the door behind him.
"Prince Blueblood?" Armor guessed.
The pony nodded. In the dim lantern light, Armor could see that he was dressed in a gaudy brocade doublet, but had thrown a chain mail shirt over it. He wore the helmet from an obviously ceremonial armor set, slightly askew on his head.
"I know why you're here," Blueblood whispered. "Fancy Pants."
Armor’s voice was flat. "Did you kill him, Prince?"
"This is bigger than a murder," the Blueblood hissed, eyes flicking to the door. "Fancy drew the attention of great powers. When dragons do battle, guard, mortal ponies can only take cover. Drop the case. Don't draw their gaze."
After hearing Blueblood’s testimony, Armor and Flash returned to the barracks. Shining Armor didn't stand on ceremony. He strode through the barracks and slammed open the door to the Captain's office without so much as a nod to the guards he passed.
Just barely dawn, and already Captain Wall was buried behind a mountain of paperwork taller than the mountains around the city. All Armor could see of the Captain was her fiery hair and an angry gaze that had stopped more than one pickpocket mid-grift.
"Captain, I need a warrant for Prince Blueblood." Even as the words left his lips, Armor knew they were a mistake.
The Captain rose to her hooves. "Armor." The way she spoke his name was like a portcullis slamming shut. "Where's my report on the Canterlot market body?" It was the kind of question you might ask a truant colt, the kind where you already knew the answer and just wanted to see someone squirm in guilt.
Armor tried to explain. "I'll file it after--"
"You'll file it now, guard." She stepped out from behind the desk. "We follow procedure in my barracks."
"A noble was dead, murdered on my watch, Captain." Armor voice was heated. He could never keep his temper in her presence. "I'm not letting the killer get away."
"You left the scene without a thorough search of the market." Wall began pacing, her voice like cold steel. "You harassed a noble’s widow. And you practically broke down the Prince's door." She turned to glare at him. "All before Dawn! If you want a warrant, you'd damned well better have hard evidence to justify it."
"I know that Prince Blueblood isn't telling us everything!" Armor insisted. "Let me bring him in and--"
"Forget it." She crossed back to her chair. "You've got nothing. You're not arresting a man on a feeling, Armor."
"Captain!" He protested. From behind her paperwork, the Captain waved for him to be silent.
"You're two weeks from your promotion, guard.” Wall was stern, not even looking up at Armor anymore. “You want to stay in the ranks long enough to get there, you follow procedure. Find me evidence and quit wasting my time. Dismissed."
Flash was waiting outside the Captain's office when Shining Armor slunk out, defeated.
"We're not getting a warrant, are we?" Flash looked almost relieved.
"No." Armor met his partner's eyes. The kid was barely twenty and looked like he'd walked straight to the Canterlot barracks from somebody's potato farm. Taller and broader than the other guards, Flash slouched as if he didn't know how to fit into his own limbs, as if he thought he should be smaller. Hunched over in his brand-new, too-large armor, he looked like a colt playing at being a guard. He was too green for a murder investigation.
"Maybe it's for the best," Flash said, almost speaking Armor’s thought out loud. "You're on your way to being the next Captain, and I'm..." he trailed off, then sighed.”Questioning nobles in the middle of the night wasn't covered in training."
Armor glared at the kid. "I'm a city guard. And so are you, recruit. Nobody gets away with murder while we're on duty."
Flash stood a little straighter. "What do we do, then?"
"The Captain wants proof." Armor smiled. "We bring her proof."
The estates of Canterlot fall into three types. The donkey palaces in their enclave, huddled around their counterfeit statues for shelter against the onslaught of pony ideas that surround them. The foreign quarter, where the wealthiest Pranch and Germane merchants stay during their twice-yearly visits to criticize the ship captains and shop clerks and accountants in their employ. And the noble mansions, where families who can trace their lineage back to Pranch conquerors and Chineigh landlords perch to look down on the rabble of ordinary folk scurrying at their feet. But whoever they belong to, all of the Canterlot estates have two things in common: a showy front entrance used when the occupants want to be seen and a hidden back way when they don't.
The servants' door to Prince Blueblood’s mansion was in an alley hidden by overgrown plants. Shining Armor picked the lock while his partner, Flash Sentry, kept an uneasy lookout. They had left their armor at the barracks, but even in civilian clothes, the recruit managed to look like he was wearing an older brother's hand-me-downs.
"I don't think this is what the Captain meant when she said to get evidence," he muttered.
The lock clicked, and Armor gently pushed it open.
Only a few slivers of light slid through the shuttered windows. Silence hung in the air like a cheap tapestry. Armor and Flash crept through the dark rooms. Alert for any sign of servants, but nothing broke the eerie quiet except their footsteps. In fact, there was no sign that anyone had been in the house at until they found the room whose door had been torn apart in its hinges.
Inside, the Prince lay in a pool of blood, one hoof clutching a loaded crossbow, a dagger hilt protruding from his back.
Shining Armor searched Blueblood’s office. The Prince lay dead, murdered while armed and barricaded inside his own home. The servants' rooms were all empty, and from the pulled-out drawers and abandoned trunks, they had been sent away in a hurry. The Prince had clearly expected trouble, and trouble had come to call.
The Prince kept all of his letters. Decades of correspondence sorted by, apparently, kingdom of origin filled his writing desk. Armor rummaged through them, looking for darker ink, fresher pages, anything that might indicate that it was recent.
And then came the shattering sound of someone kicking in the front door.
"Hey, Milord Princey! Get your ass down here!"
Flash and Armor ran for the foyer.
A mare stood over the splintered door, her eyes glittering brighter than the daggers in her teeth. Her body was heavily cloaked, aside from the pair of light blue wings sticking through holes in the cloak.
"You there!" she snapped at the guards. "Where's the Princey? We need to have some words. One of them will be 'coin,' and another will be 'now.'"
"Canterlot guard!" Armor barked back at her. "This is a crime scene! Identify yourself."
"Guards, are you?" she smirked, squinting up into the dark towards him. "No suits of armor outside. Man poking around a noble's house in the dark. This does look like a crime scene.
Armor didn't flinch. "Your name."
"Sea Breeze. Captain Sea Breeze, of The Siren’s Jewels." She executed a florid bow that somehow managed to be insulting. "Where's the damned Princey?"
"He's dead," Armor said, watching her reaction. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
She cracked a wry smile. "Trust me, sweet thing, if I were going to kill him, I'd have waited until he paid me first."
"What was your business with the Prince?" Flash spoke up, startling Armor. He'd almost forgotten his partner was there.
"Cargo transport." she glowered at the recruit. "He hired me to deliver some antiques and I've been sitting at anchor for a fortnight without being paid." She peered up into the dark balconies overhanging the foyer and shouted, "Anypony here? You want this rubbish, come to the docks tonight and pay me fifty sovereigns for it. Otherwise, I'm dumping off the side of the mountain." With that, she turned on her heel and flew away.
It wasn’t until a couple hours later, Armor and Flash returned to the barracks; and they got a mouthful of Captain Wall. Both guards were taken off this “case” and were to patrol the lower section of Canterlot. Shining Armor left his partner, Flash, at the barracks. The recruit was even more jittery after their run-in with Captain Sea Breeze, and although Armor himself was starting to feel his limbs weighed down and aching after such a long shift, he finally had the scent of something in this case. He wouldn't let it get away. Luckily for Armor, he never mentioned Sea Breeze to Captain Wall and the lower part of conveniently close to the air ship docks.
The city of Canterlot has a legacy of collectors. It was built in ancient times by early Equestrians who collected their suffering as if it were rare coins, and they passed on their obsession with obsession to future generations. On any street from Lower Canterlot to the Princess’s Palace, you can always find somepony who'll always buy tapestries or who has ever owned spoon made in Pranch. Or somepony who hoards odd bits and scraps of historical knowledge like it's their grandmother's crockery.
Which is how he found himself knocking on a brightly painted door in the slums.
"Oh, a Guard! What a nice surprise! No one's been mugged, have they?" The street filly beamed up at him. She had green eyes so wide, they barely fit in her face, and she seemed to be made of nothing but elbows and knees. A tiny yellow earth mare, with not even a cutie mark on her flank. Armor once caught the filly stealing from some nobles in upper Canterlot, but instead of arresting her, Armor has been using her as his informant. If she kept it up, Armor would make her a guard when he's captain.
"No muggings today, Hay-Bit." Armor had to duck his head slightly to get through the door. "I have something you might be interested in." He handed her the letter Fancy Pants’s wife had given him the night before.
"Well, this doesn't look very interesting at all." Hay-Bit frowned, disappointed. “‘What you have claimed belongs to greater powers. You will answer to us.' That's a lot of rubbish."
"Not that. Look at the back." She flipped the letter over and cooed as if she'd found a lost puppy. "Oh! Just look at you! You're just perfect!"
"Hay-it." Armor spoke in a loud, firm voice, trying to remind her he was still in the room. "Whose seal is that?"
"Oh, it's the Executors, of course!" Hay-Bit peered excitedly at the wax seal, holding it up to the window for better light. "I should have guessed it from the silly 'greater powers' nonsense. There's only been one example, on the letter claiming responsibility for the assassination of Queen Umbra over four hundred years ago! And this one is so much better! Just look at that imprint!"
"Any idea how I'd contact these 'Executors'?" Armor asked.
"Oh, they're not real, of course. Everyone knows that." Hay-Bit responded.
Shining Armor was running out of leads to chase. He had only two week until his promotion, just two weeks to find the pony who'd murdered a noble and a Prince--if Captain Walls didn't kick him from the ranks first.
The docks stank of piss and rotting vegetables, as foul as the stallions and mares who worked there. But that was where Armor had to go to find the raider Captain Sea Breeze who had broken into Prince Blueblood’s home.
The Siren’s Jewels was a big ship. She liked big boats. The pointy bits towered over the hanging air. That roundish wooden part seemed like it could crush an armada beneath its ... shit, I don't know. Wood. It was the greatest boat in the history of boats.
But even from the dock, Armor knew something was wrong.
He ran up the gangplank to find a dead sailor on the deck and a blood trail leading down into the hold. Armor drew his sword and followed. His eyes still hadn't adjusted to the dimness of the lower decks when he tripped over another dead sailor, stabbed in the gut and left where he'd fallen. The body was still warm. The ship creaked with every swell of the waves. Armor held his breath and crept deeper into the hold.
He barely deflected the blade in time.
Steel rang against steel. Armor parried a second blow, still half-blind in the low light. The third swing got past his guard and left a wicked slash on his forearm.
"Nobody attacks my crew, you flaming pile of dog shit!" the attacker swore, and Armor recognized her voice.
"Hold! Canterlot Guard!" he shouted, barely bringing his blade up in time.
"You again!" Armor’s eye finally began to adjust, and he could make out Captain Sea Breeze. She was clutching her ribs with her right hoof, a dagger loosely in her mouth, and was covered in enough blood Armor was sure is wasn't all hers, and she wasn’t going to make it. She glowered at him. "Could have used a guard not five minutes ago. Useless as ever." She grudgingly lowered her weapon.
Armor sheathed his sword. "Who did this?"
"Don't know. Didn't care to ask." She sniffed. "Bastard killed two of my crew. Before I cut off his hoof and he galloped off." She waved indifferently towards the rear of the hold. "It's over there somewhere."
"Did he take the Prince’s shipment?" Armor asked.
"No. If that's what this was about, you can have it." She limped over to a trunk and removed a bundle of cloth tied with twine. She threw it at Armor’s hooves. "Good riddance."
Back at the slums, Armor paid Hay-Bit another visit. Forcing himself in just as Hay-Bit barely opened the door, Armor placed the bundle of cloth on the table.
“What can you tell me about this?” Armor asked, his tone more angry than usual.
Looking over the bundle of cloth, Hay-Bit didn't see anything odd. Aside from the fact that these were the finest Prench cloth she's ever seen. Hay-Bit was about to tell Armor the cloth had no real significance, but then she saw something in the breast pocket. It was a small locket, made of some old looking metal, maybe iron or something.
"What's this?" Armor looked at the locket, trying to open it but it seemed stuck.
"Might be important." Hay-Bit smiled a little.
"Might be." Armor said, ticking the locket in a pocket in his armor. "Since you helped me and promise not to tell anypony about this locket, you can keep the clothes. I don't need them."
"Thank you guard." Hay-Bit smiled.
Wandering the streets back to the barracks, Armor's mind raced back to the locket, the two murders, Captain Sea Breeze, 'the Executors', everything. Something just wasn't right and Armor just couldn't put the pieces together. The sudden sound of clanging steel woke Armor from his thoughts. Drawing his blade, galloping towards the sound, Armor was ready for a fight.
"Canterlot Guard!" Armor shouted.
In the small square, was Flash Sentry, surrounded by no less that five other ponies, all blades in their mouths, some had blood on it. Flash didn't look too good either, he was barely holding onto his blade, and his right hoof was missing. Blood oozing out of the gaping wound. He was staggering, loosing balance. Armor sprang into action, cutting down on pony with a swift strike to the neck, coating a section of Armor's blade red.
"You all right Flash?" Armor asked his partner.
"A bit." Flash said. "Bastards cut off my hoof."
"Who are these guys?" Armor asked.
"Don't know." Flash said. "They called themselves 'the Executors' when they attacked me."
"'The Executors'?!" Armor was amazed at how quickly this group responded. But to attack Armor's own partner instead of going after him. "Leave one alive, I need to ask him a few questions."
"Right." Flash nodded, gripping the blade handle in his teeth. "Let's get them."
The battle between Armor and Flash against 'the Executors' was a bloody one. The steel of their blades clang together, chipping a little at the sword's edge, but Armor was all too familiar with fights. He was trained against bandits, thieves, and other loons with swords, he can handle these ponies. One pony swung his sword down at Armor, but he quickly parried, and twisted his head, stabbing the pony in the side of the mouth. Quickly turning his head sent the blade through the head and half of it flew off in the air, leaving a large blood stain on the ground. Looking over, Armor saw Flash was out numbered. Building up some quick strength, Armor leaped into the air, cutting off the attackers from Flash.
"You okay?" Armor said, not looking back at his partner.
"I'm fine Armor." Flash said, his tone was much calmer than before. "But it's over."
"What do you-" Armor couldn't finish. He felt the sharp pain of a blade enter his own neck. Looking down to his side, Shining Armor saw Flash Sentry, the blade in his teeth as it sunk into Armor's flesh, a cold stare in his eyes and a small grin on his lips. Armor dropped his sword from the attack, the other ponies stood and watched as Flash stood up, reached into Armor's pocket and pulled out the locket.
"Really that was a close one Armor." Flash told his dying, former partner. "When I told you we should've let this go, you should've listened. I'm amazed you didn't notice that I lost my hoof fighting that sea Captain. But then again, you overlooked a lot."
"Who-" Armor tried to ask but only coughed up blood, his vision was fading and he was going numb.
"We are those who answer to a much higher power. We are 'The Executors'." Flash told the fading guard. "Fancy Pants, one of us in fact, threatened to expose us to Princess Celestia. Prince Blueblood, another one of us, was afraid we'd kill him too. But after meeting him, I knew he would crack, so I him cracked. Don't worry my dear friend, your death serves a greater purpose." Flash gestured to the three other ponies around him. "I'll tell Captain Wall you died valiantly, saving me against some bandit attack. While these exceptional citizens helped me survive. So when Captain Wall hears of this, she might make me lieutenant."
Armor tried to lift his blade but he lost too much blood. His body no longer moved as he wanted. The last thing Armor saw was Flash's smile, though it was a smile that showed his purpose, it also showed a small bit of regret.
