Merchants of the Market

"... and that is the entire meeting." Night Light's horn went dark, his mind somewhat worn as he projected his memories to Princess Celestia. He was in Princess Celestia's personal room, and considering his uneventful return to Canterlot, this had been the highlight of the past few days. Granted, his sparring session with Onyx had been a change of pace, but a royal guard member not guarding royalty rarely brought excitement. Sand, buildings, and horses larger than him lost novelty on day 1.

A secluded room in the Royal Castle had been the location of his briefing with Princess Celestia, and though it lacked the usual decor of the Palace chambers, the wooden tables, chairs, and overhanging lights did add a touch of personality. The two ponies sat at a large square table, with Night Light standing and Celestia sitting atop what looked to be a giant pillow. Throughout his presentation, Celestia had largely been quiet, and seemed unresponsive up until she noticed Onyx giving Sela a kiss. She had returned to stoic observation, but her lapse had not gone unnoticed.

"Thank you Night Light." Celestia still seemed to be going over the visual display in her head. "Is there anything you would like to add before I dismiss you?"

There was not much else to add, for Celestia had seen everything that he had seen during the meeting. The only thing to add really were his thoughts on everything, and though she had not explicitly asked for them, Night Light decided to pitch his opinion on what he reasoned had Celestia's attention the most.

"Prince Onyx's show of affection, I am sure, is not much more than a tool to advance our cause. I doubt-"

"Thank you Night Light for your thoughts, but I know my nephew well." Celestia sighed and closed her eyes in thought. "I should consider withdrawing him before this becomes anymore personal for him."

"Well, Princess, if I may add," Night Light trailed, waiting for Celestia's nod before continuing. " there is a possibility that Sela may be pregnant with Onyx's child."

Night Light would have expected the princess to reel with surprise, shock, maybe even mild anger at the accusation. But contrary to any of the expected, she looked more ashamed than anything else.

"That is a rather bold suspicion to be made, even by one of Onyx's personal guards on the trip. However, the prince has never been well known for his politically correct methods of conducting diplomacy. Should that be true, I can assure you, it is neither unexpected nor unplanned."

Celestia either believed or knew it to be true, Night Light guessed, as otherwise it would make far more sense to deny any validity in the suggestion.

"It is not unintentional that I sent Onyx on this mission, knowing full well from the Gala how much he favors the princess. I of course do not expect him to break chastity without informing me of it at the least, so put aside your concern as it is not likely the case."

Well, there went his earlier assumption about what Celestia believed. Still, Night Light could not shake that there had been some reason Sela had shown up in the desert completely out of dress for the event. The griffons showing up in darker clothing as to not attract unnecessary attention and avoid stirring up a panic, the Guard and Onyx showing up in their very recognizable and standard wear. Sela, on the other hand, showed up as if she were going to the Gala, or meeting not for the fate of the world, but for the fate of the next master of the ceremony.

" All that aside, you have the remainder of the day off; report back to my throne room in the morning five minutes after sunrise for your next assignment. I suggest you get some rest."

"Yes Princess." Night Light nodded and bowed, his thoughts racing on how to spend the rest of his evening.

"And remember Night Light, these matters do not leave this room nor your head." Celestia looked down on the still bowed Night Light with a stern expression. "Should I find out that you intentionally or unintentionally divulged the contents of our meeting, the full penalty of the law will be brought upon your neck."

"Of course your Highness." To divulge anything, even if coerced by magic, labelled one as a traitor; and to date, the only penalty found suitable for convicted traitors was death. It was rarely doled out nowadays, but a thousand years ago, an entire section of the guard had "vanished" under that very label of traitor; little evidence suggested that they had just buggered out of medieval Equestria.

"You are dissmissed."

And with that, Night Light rose and left the room, feeling Celestia's magic grip at the door ahead of him. The large door swung out, the two guards flanking it still present with their spears. Upon leaving the room, the door closed shut behind him, locking and once again undergoing the various enchantments that kept the room secure.

The pegasus guard to his left smiled upon seeing Night LIght. " You look about ready to shit yourself mate. What's gotcha down?"

"I can't speak on it." It was the truth, although he could have admitted that he was still feeling tense after having a private audience with the one pony in the entire country who could have her will done at the stomp of a hoof.

The guard to the right shrugged and directed with his spear down the hallway. "Well, you should be getting back to your post then. Nothing like some fresh air and time to think to clear your head of unsavory thoughts."

"Pretty sure 'e was more interested in not displeasing the fair princess, 'is employer and ruler."

"Whatever, I have yet to meet a stallion who did not at least once think about what it would be like trying to rut Princess Celestia. Most would probably struggle just to mount her-"

"Stow it, Celestia is just behind 'ese doors here, she could 'ear ya talking gutters and have ya shipped off with your bullocks in yer mouth before yew could shut your trap."

Night Light started to walk down the hallway, not wishing to be around if said foretelling became reality; he already did not want to mention his day off should that have been under the earlier secrecy clause's fine print. Of course, if any pony were to actually attempt to mount Celestia, nevermind the height differences, they would have to first get past the male royal guard members, figuratively and perhaps even literally, just to get within sniffing distance.

Night Light shivered at the thought, wondering how her personal escorts tolerated it. Then again, they were silent most of the time, and it was becoming more and more evident why the guards were generally silent in her presence. To utter anything short of a directive or interrogative might would reveal some unsettling culture beneath, especially among the guilty members of the Guard who no doubt had fantasies about the Princess in their dreams.

Oh well, at least they were safe to dream without her noticing.

The two guards behind him had gone silent again by the time Night Light reached the end of the hallway, his long walk down a winding flight of stairs accompanied only by the sound of his own metal shoes on stone.  By the time he reached the bottom, his mind had been cleared of his previous discussions, and he instead focused on how he was going to use his day off. He had rested up on the train ride here, and while presenting to Celestia his memories had been a chore, he was still chipper enough that just going home and falling asleep would simply have been a waste of his day off.

Going through the guarded double doors leading outside, Night Light squinted at the noontime sunlight for a few moments before absentmindedly wandering down main street, heading for the general direction of home. Most of the ponies that Night Light would have recognized were all either deployed in Saddle Arabia or sound asleep from night shifts.

Of course, now that he looked at it, the streets were, well, near deserted. And not the kind of deserted where every living being was attempting to hide from the observer. The kind of deserted that signaled that something was wrong, or at the very least off. It was the high point of the day, ponies should be returning or heading off on lunch breaks, or simply working shops; the streets were empty, shops visibly devoid of life or magic.

Straying towards the center of the main street, Night Light perked his ears for the sounds of snoring or the soft tap of hooves on cobble. Only the wind greeted his efforts. Continuing his walk, at last, the sound of snapping lenses and a dull roar at last directed Night Light's attention to his left. Coming to an intersection, he took this opportunity to begin heading in that direction, only to turn and see a long row of night guard members blocking the street with spears at the ready. One of them noticed Night Light and pointed his spear more directly at Night Light.

"You there, where are you going?"

Night Light stopped, and though he knew his royal guard armor should have identified him at least as a member of the guard, he felt no need to risk any confusion leading to anything greater.

"My name is Night Light of the 234th Royal Guard platoon currently assigned to Saddle Arabia to guard Prince Onyx. I just finished a progress report meeting with Celestia. I was just now on my way home when I noticed this scene. What is going on?"

The unicorn looked confused for a moment before his eyes lit up wide. The guard raised his spear back up to the air, a small frown on his lips.  "Well, hurry on home. There has been an incident, and until it is cleared up, no pony is allowed in the streets. Good luck."

Really? When Night Light had first came through, granted, it had been dark so he had not expected there to be many ponies in the streets, but this could not have just sprung up in the hour or so he had spent talking to Princess Celestia. But nevermind that, the guard had just stated "good luck" as if he needed it.

What if the incident involved his household? Night Light galloped past the guards, his hooves practically flying down the street, a large tent coming into view in front of a particular two story residence. Ponies milled about, most of them in guard armor, with an eerie silence broken by the sound of galloping hooves. Many of the guards looked in Night Light's general direction, originally surprised to see him coming full speed towards them, and looked ready to arm themselves.

"Twilight?" Night Light shouted, and as perhaps could be reasoned, the guards returned to their regularly scheduled milling about. He could feel their eyes to him as he reached the tent grounds, and could see that inside the tent, ponies dressed head to toe in police uniforms spoke to each other. Rather than being stopped from barging in, Night Light was actually permitted to rush several feet into the tent before one of these officers called out for him to halt.

He stopped almost on a dime; had there been a rug beneath him he might would have slipped, such was his stop. The tent closed behind him, and within moments Night Light noticed that all of the officers were unicorns. Normally, that would be a sign that Canterlot's finest were enjoying an uneventful evening off duty with a game of cards.

The large wooden table in front of him was not empty, and in a chair sitting directly across from it was the relieved, but tear-streaked Twilight Velvet.

"Night Light!"

Before Night Light could respond, he felt his body become restrained by magic, only his head free to move about in alarm. Eight of the officers had him restrained, and from their faces alone Night Light could guess that they were at relative ease, and that this was not a sudden reaction to his entry. This had been a planned, perhaps even rehearsed action.

Night Light was walked up to the table and forced to sit in front of his fiance'; needless to be said, his discomfort at having walked into what felt like some sort of trap could have been expressed by his facial expression alone. Twilight offered a small smile of encouragement, but her nervous eyes betrayed her lack of confidence that all was right with the world.

"One of Captain Chivalry's most trusted. Never thought I would see you in here, like this." The voice was that of a stallion, and the tone was very grave. Night Light turned his eyes to the left to notice a large, burly red stallion walking up to the table. Wearing the bright purple, yellow rimmed armor specifically designated for the Captain of the Day Guard, the red coated stallion took his place at the leftmost portion of the table, his amber eyes going from Twilight to Night Light, as if searching for a sign.

It was Captain Redcoat, Chivalry's day guard counterpart, affectionately referred to by his subordinates as Captain Redshire as a reference to his prior occupation of police work in Manehatten before switching over to the royal guard.

"Night Light, you have any idea how this all looks?" When Night Light returned only a blank stare, the Redcoat laughed knowingly. "Of course not, you just got back from speaking with Celestia. Well, let me give you a brief look at what you are dealing with here."

Well, nice to hear that him meeting with Celestia was no secret among the day guard. Would not surprise Night Light at this point if they had heard briefly about it from the two guards right outside of her door, or any of the day guards in the Castle.

A large piece of parchment was dropped in the center of the table; likely the work of one of the other unicorns in the room. The Guard Captain nodded towards the parchment, which opened with the sound of cackling flames. It was enchanted, that much Night Light could conclude. Though no projection came forth, a list of names with crossbones next to them suggested that this was a list of recently deceased.

"13 unicorn households were attacked roughly an hour ago. Of all of the households with evidence of forced entry, yours is the only one with a witness left to tell us what happened. As you can see, there is hardly a scratch on her."

Redcoat looked towards Twilight, who merely returned the gaze. As if it were a signal, she opened her mouth as if to speak, only for her to close it back again, as if thinking better of it. When a few minutes had passed, Redcoat turned his gaze to Night Light.

"Graduates from Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. 20 missing horns, 20 bodies, and only a single witness. Your fiance's story suggests that she fought off her attacker for a brief moment, but increasingly it is apparent that she may have talked her way out of it rather than fought. Either that or a little spark of magic unable to leave behind a mark sent the would-be assailant running. Which is unlikely-"

"The sound of royal guard members breaking down the door sent him scurrying after I showed that I was not going to be an easy victim!" Twilight's angrily leaned over the table towards Night Light, accenting her protest to the besmirching commentary of Redcoat. "He teleported before anypony else could see. How many times must I tell you-"

"That's quite enough Twilight Velvet." Redcoat leaned backwards, never taking his gaze from Night Light. "You two can swap stories later. Right now, I need to know if there was anypony that might would spare your fiance' and young colt in what was clearly a homicidal horn snatching job?"

Night Light was not the most popular member of the night guard, but because of his relationship with Chivalry, he was one of the better known members among the night guard; it was entirely possible that he had unintentionally made an enemy just by that fact alone. After all, not many night guard members got the chance to join Prince Onyx's escort, nor were trusted with a report straight from Chivalry. However, most of his nights were spent patrolling the streets of Canterlot, when most were asleep, and he was skeptical that a member of either guard would go so far as to draw attention to him via sparing his dearly beloved. Far more could have been gained by kidnapping her and holding her for ransom, or trying to blackmail Night Light.

"No, there is no one that I can think of."

Redcoat sighed and nodded. "Well, until we get this figured out, your wife is going to have to be under witness protection for some time; after all, even as sketchy as it is, she is the only living pony who saw any of the attackers, and we do not want to risk them coming back to rectify what may have merely been an error in judgement."

The magical grip that held Night Light in place finally released, allowing him  to relax his posture some. He shook his head, as if in a daze. " Protection? But whoever attacked those other unicorns clearly is no longer around."

Redcoat chuckled as two officers flanked Twilight on either side in preparation for escorting her out of the tent. "Maybe. We do not want to risk her bolting for any reason either."

"Are you suggesting that Velvet is also a suspect?" It strongly seemed as such, and though Night Light knew he was not in the bargaining position, he had to point out the ridiculousness of the notion now while her tale was no doubt fresh in their minds. "She was recently assaulted and she is instead going to be treated as a potential if not the prime suspect? What-"

Redcoat waved a hoof for silence. "Listen, I understand that you're upset, but we want to be absolutely sure. You would also be suspected if you did not have such a concrete alibi in Princess Celestia, because again, it seems kind of suspicious that out of all of the households attacked, yours is the only one not needing to plan for a funeral in the near future."

Night Light looked towards Twilight, who worriedly looked back and forth between the two unicorn police officers at her flanks. Night Light offered her a small smile similar to the one she gave when he first entered. "Don't worry Velvet. I will get to the bottom of this. Whoever is behind this will not get away with it."

Twilight offered a smile of her own, even as she was ushered away from the table by the two royal guard members. "I know, but be careful. Those unicorns may have had you as the target rather than me."

As she was ushered off to the other side of the tent, where an opening allowed the trio to leave, Night Light shot a look in Redcoat's general direction. Redcoat rolled back up the parchment, his face untelling of what thoughts were running through his head with Twilight's warning still faintly ringing in the tent.

"Captain Redcoat, is there anything that you all might can tell me to help me get to the bottom of this?" Granted, were it not for his alibi he too would have been suspect, but it didn't hurt to try and see if the Captain would be any help at all. So far, he had been a major hindrance, since getting the full story from Twilight had largely been stunted by her abrupt shoving off.

"There is too much unknown really," Redcoat dryly stated, walking past Night Light with the parchment levitating just behind his head. "A good start would be going after your wife before she looks completely different, but other than that, maybe you can talk to some of the neighbors and see if they have anything extra to give. Most are still in shock over what happened and don't seem to have their tale weavers set to on yet, so I would advise waiting a few more hours."

After we have finished interrogating them ourselves, was the subtext that Night Light picked up on. Rather than go after Twilight, however, Night Light instead followed Redcoat out of the tent, with the remaining unicorn officers not far behind. Looking about, he noticed that both day and night guards seemed evenly distributed among the guard crowd, which seemed unusual considering the time of day.

"What about Twilight? When may I speak with her, since back there it did not seem like I could just follow after her and start asking."

Redcoat smiled, but did not stop walking forward towards the main street. "Well, she will be at the station, but you are not going to get another opportunity to ask this many guard members at once about anything. I am surprised you have yet to ask why both night and day guards are involved."

"That would have been my next question." If he were not more concerned about his fiance than the deployment practice of the guards.

"Well, about two nights ago the Canterlot Library was broken into in the dead of night," Redcoat explained, coming up to an apartment lightly guarded by two pegasi day guards. The two guards saluted Redcoat as he opened the door, Night Light trailing behind. The officers by this point had branched off, no doubt to return to their previously assigned duties rather than puppyguard a non-suspect and the captain of the guard.

"Most of the night guard had no recollection of encountering any thieves, but something special was taken from the library. Celestia ordered a soft lockdown of the city for several hours after that, such was the significance of whatever was stolen. The night guard is conducting its own separate investigation here, because they suspect that it may be the same party, or there may be some connection. I think it's unlikely."

The apartment only had a single room, or so it appeared, with a wide open living space with a heavily stained carpet near the center. It was roped off with police tape and stained in what looked to be bright blue ink. Redcoat stopped just short of walking onto the carpet. Night Light joined him on his right flank with a curious gaze towards the carpet. "Why do you find that unlikely?"

"Who breaks into a library, gets the night guard riled up, and then goes on to murder several talented unicorns and steal their horns?" Redcoat shook his head, frowning deeply. "The strangest thing is, they didn't even steal a book or a scroll let the night guard tell it. If it were not for Celestia's lockdown order, the only story you would have is that the perpetrator or peretrators just broke into the library and slipped out for no reason."

"It would take some serious talent in order to get past the night guard guarding the Library," Night Light argued, "It would also take some serious talent to take down these unicorns, graduates of Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns mind you, all without making a ruckus until they came to my door."

"True, but very different skillsets. No member of the night guard was killed during the Library incident, nor were they ever actually seen let the night guard tell it. Smells a bit like that one was an inside job."

Night Light laughed, drawing Redcoat's critical gaze. "What's so funny?"

"An inside job?" Night Light shook his head and turned away from the stained carpet, disbelieving what he heard. "That's ridiculous. Every member of the guard is an upstanding citizen of Equestria, such as yourself. Even if that were the case, why is it the Night Guard didn't practically arrest me, seeing as I was on the suspects list for all this?"

Redcoat shrugged, his gaze still over the carpet. "No idea. But I will tell you this."

Night Light perked up, returning to Redcoat's side, attempting to follow his gaze out to a specific part of the carpet. While he could not find the same focal point, he did notice that the stains on the carpet were just barely spaced out enough to suggest that the actual stains were the tan coloration between the blue stains, and the actual carpet was blue. Which was which, then was not as obvious as when Night Light had looked at it previously.

"If you do happen to get more involved in this, I suggest watching your back. Your guard is unusually interested in this otherwise daytime case; might be because one of their own had their home invaded, or there could be an ulterior motive. I cannot say for sure." Redcoat turned to look towards Night Light. "What is pretty likely is that your household's invader knows you and or knows your soon to be wife personally. And that makes you both ripe targets for conspiracy, if my own suspicions did not already give you a hint on that."

Redcoat was being surprisingly helpful for a stallion who, mere minutes ago, suspected that Night Light was deeply involved. Or, better yet, still suspected that his fiance might still be involved. In knowing all of this now, it was clear now why Redcoat had not just had Twilight spill her entire version of the story there in the tent. Night Light's fellow night guard members were likely to come knocking at some point, and if by some chance it were an inside job, knowing his wife's testimony would make him another witness.

Another loose end needing to be tied up. But his fiance was still in danger regardless of whether she spoke to him or not; if it were an inside job of the Night Guard, then the police would do very little to stop trained, determined members of the guard from getting to Twilight if push came to shove. If anything, they would merely serve as a doorstop. On the other hand, if the perpetrators are connected and it's not an inside job, then the wounded pride of the Night Guard would limp in his direction looking for answers as well. Or his fiance's direction.

It was more likely the latter, Night Light reasoned; no way would a traitorous night guard member be stupid enough to invite a unified investigation into both of the crimes. Too many eyes would be checking evidence, too many heads being put together to solve the case. Unless that was the desired outcome in order to frame some other pony or ponies for the job.

There was not enough information to conclude either way, at least not yet. "Thanks for the heads up Captain Redcoat. Chivalry is going to have to be informed of this as soon as possible."

"He should already be aware." Redcoat raised an eyebrow, "Not to sound cynical, but for as much as he talks about your trustworthiness, I highly doubt he sent you back here on that basis alone."

"But the library incident was more than two days ago, far less for these murders," Night Light pointed out," How could he have been aware of this particular event before it even happened, since that's the only way he could have already heard about these murders?"

Redcoat did not answer the question, but instead turned back towards the door, leaving Night Light short of an answer.