Hell Fire

We were all quiet on the chariot ride back to Canterlot. Rove cried his eyes dry and sat in silence again. Gridiron felt too guilty to try and make conversation and decided to concentrate on flying. I gave the blue unicorn some space to get his composure, but there were questions that had to be asked.

“Rove I know that you aren’t in the mood to talk, but I need you to try and tell me what happened. Do you think that you can do that?”

He looked up from the floor and stared straight into my eyes, for a couple of moments I thought that he was going to go back to his own thoughts then in his faintest voice he answered “Yes.”

“Thank you Rove,” I said taking a deep breath and trying to find the right words to continue with “Am I right to say that you saw what happened?”

“Only with dad, could only hear what went on with mom.”

“Did you get a look at the ponies that did it?”

“Just the one he k-… he killed them both.” As Rove said this I could see that he was on the brink of tears again.

“Sorry but I have to ask this, how do you know that it was only the one pony who murdered your mother, you told me that you couldn’t see her?”

The unicorn looked out into the night’s sky as he answered. “Blood, he was the only one covered in blood, he used his horn. One of the others had a white coat and he was clean.”

One final question for the night. “Can you remember what he looked like?”

Turning to look at the night’s sky he answered in a shaky voice. “Like fire. His coat was orange and his mane red, even his cutiemark… there was just so much fire.” He went back to a period of sobbing.

I sat there quietly again expecting Rove to just sit there for the rest of the night, but while I was busy writing in my notebook I heard his voice “His coat was bright orange and his mane red,” The unicorn was looking me in the eyes again, this time all the sadness was gone and replaced with pure rage, a look that I was too familiar with. “Even his cutiemark was a fireball, but he didn’t just have fire. Dad tried to attack him, dads strong you know, but that pony had dad fall down screaming, I’ve never heard dad scream in my life but he made him cry out just by looking at him. I can’t really do magic so maybe I just don’t know, but I didn’t think that there were spells like that, did you?”

I was so taken back by what this young pony was saying that I could only answer with a simple “No.”

“Dad fell against the counter where I was hiding, and the net moment he was on fire. It was strange, I couldn’t feel the heat but dad defiantly could. I don’t know what they wanted, they didn’t ask for anything and we don’t have that many bits to give. Why would they do this?”

“Some ponies are just bad,” I tried not knowing what else to say.

“Ponies like that don’t deserve to live, and I swear to Celestia Detective I am going to find the pony responsible for this and I’m going to make him pay,” I still don’t know what part of this statement disturbed me more, the fact that I believed wat he was saying or the way it reminded me of my own oath I made many years ago.

The rest of the trip was held in silence with all of us glad to finally arrive at headquarters in Canterlot. I saw the same looks that I always got when I went down there as well as some of sympathy directed towards Rove.

I ignored the guards and went straight to where I knew the captain would be. Shining Armour didn’t come down to Canterlot as much as he did before he got married, but we could always expect him for something big like this.

“Greetings Detective.” He said looking at my companion. “This must be Rove, I’m sorry for what happened and I swear that we will catch those responsible. Now tell me, have you found anything.”

He always tries to be so formal. “Why hello Shining, yes its going great thanks for asking, but no nothing new has happened since we last spoke, well I bought a new toaster but I’m sure you don’t want to hear about that.”

Shining looked at me for a moment then let out a sigh and replied with a small smile. “Sorry Hawkeye it’s been a long flight and I’m sure that we all want to finish here and move on. I know that your friend could use some sleep.”

“I’m Ok,” Rove said breaking his silence once again. “I’m used to working all night; ask what you want to ask.”

“Why don’t you two start by telling me what you know?”

And so we did, I repeated everything that happened with Rove only filling in gaps as he remembered them. By the time we finished Celestia had already started to raise the sun.

“It sounds like we may have a new gang in Equestria.” Shining said with a worried look. “I don’t recognise this marking, where do you think it comes from?”

“I don’t know but I think that I’ll go and ask Pageturn this afternoon, after I’ve gotten a couple of hours of sleep. For now I think that we should concern ourselves with what to do with Rove over here,” I said turning my focus to the young unicorn. “Do you know of any other ponies that can take care of you for a while?”

“No, mom and dad didn’t have any other family and no real friends I can think of,” he turned staring into my eyes again. “And I’m not going to let you send me away, I told you that I’m going to get him and that’s wat I’m planning to do.”

Shining looked strangely at the unicorn standing next to me. “Rove I know that you’re upset but these ponies are dangerous-”

“I don’t care! I’ll kill him and anypony that stands in my way,” He didn’t sound like a foal on a tantrum; instead he was a stallion swearing vengeance.

“Listen kid you can’t go around Equestria looking for this pony, you’ll just wind up dead,” Shining said before looking at me. “Tell him Detective.”

I crouched down to his level so that we could be on better speaking terms. “Rove I know how you feel, but Shining’s right, if you try to go after them yourself you’ll probably end up dead,” I turned my gaze to the white stallion. “That’s why you’ll come stay with me until we catch them.”

Shining looked like he misheard me “You can’t be serious. You’ll put his life in danger, look at him he’s just a-”

“a filly? No he’s not. Whatever he was yesterday died with his parents. Rove I don’t think that I can stop you, and I can’t make you come with me but I doubt your odds against these ponies alone, that is if you ever find them. I promise that I can get them and maybe keep you alive in the process,” Shining wanted to protest but I didn’t give him the chance. “Remember captain, I don’t work for you so don’t try to order me around. What do you say Rove, do you want to come with me?”

I could see that the unicorn didn’t expect things to go the way they did, but he wasn’t about to let the opportunity to slip by him. “Yes Detective, if you help me find him I’ll come with you.”

“Well then if all that’s sorted out we should be leaving. Have a safe trip back Shining and please send my love to that beautiful wife of yours,” I said with a wink as we walked towards the door.

My house wasn’t the fanciest place in Canterlot, but with it being next to the waterfall I had a pretty good view. My bed was always so much softer when I was tired and sleep took me the moment my head touched the pillow.

A couple of hours later I forced myself out of bed and made my way to the living room where I found Rove looking for food in the kitchen.

“How’d you sleep? Sorry about the couch I’ll have the guestroom ready by tonight,” I said taking out some apples and giving them to him.

“Its fine I slept Ok,” The bags under his eyes told a different story. “So what are your plans for today?”

“I’m going to talk to Pageturn, he’s an old friend of mine, and hopefully he knows something about this symbol. If he doesn’t I’ll just have to ask around the darker side of Canterlot, trust me if someone brands their mark into a wall they want to be discovered,” I looked at him trying to read his emotions. “Are you still coming with me or have you decided against your vendetta?”

“I’m coming and I won’t get in your way.”

“I didn’t say you would, now go get ready I want to be on the road soon.”

Rove finished his last apple and went upstairs to wash the dirt out of his mane. Sitting there alone I wondered if I was wrong to bring a kid along like that. If he got hurt his blood would be on my hooves, but if I let him to go alone he would find a way to track them down on his own and then who knows what could happen. Like I said this group wanted to be found.

The road to Pageturns home was less busy than I thought it would be, but we still had to wait for almost half an hour before we were allowed to enter the house. I was always awestruck whenever I entered his place; almost every inch of every wall was covered with books.

“Is this some kind of library?” Rove asked looking around.

I chuckled after seeing the wonderstruck expression on his face. “This is Pageturn's private collection; it’s the biggest source of privately owned knowledge in all of Equestria.”

“Come now Detective you’re underselling my life’s work,”  The old unicorn said coming down the stairs. Pageturn had lost his good looks long ago with the only appealing feature left on him being his cutiemark of a beautiful mint condition book. “You see lad my collection is only a couple hundred shy of Canterlot public library and all of them are in better shape.”

“That’s incredible,” The blue unicorn said with real amazement in his voice. “Have you read all of them?’

“Those I haven’t I’m planning to, but I’m guessing your friend hasn’t brought you here so that you can catch up on your reading. What do you want Detective?”

“I need your help with a case; there was a murder last night in the woods next to Baltimare. The pony responsible is a unicorn that seems to specialise in fire spells, he left this image branded on the wall,” I said while showing him the picture in my notebook. “Do you know what it means?”

“What did you say your name was lad?” Pageturn asked my companion.

“Rove.”

“Well Rove, would you mind going to that shelf back there and bringing me back a book titled ‘News clippings: the unicorn rebellion’“

He waited until Rove was out of earshot before addressing me again. “So I’m guessing he’s involved then?”

“He saw what happened; it was his parents that got killed.”

“And you decided it best to bring him along while you hunt down murderers?”

“He wanted to come, he’s hell bent on getting revenge on those responsible. I couldn’t stop him even if I wanted to. I’m trying to keep him alive.”

“Sounds like another pony I knew long ago, only she almost turned out worse than those she hated. Don’t let him- what are you doing?” he yelled interrupting himself when he saw Rove coming back. “Give it here before you ruin it.”

Rove was stunned as Pageturn plucked the book from his mouth. “The reason I wanted you to get this and not her was so that you could use your magic. I can’t let every spine in here have teeth marks, why the hell would you carry it in your mouth?”

“I- I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to… back home they don’t like it if I use magic. I’m not used to…” Rove struggled to find the right words.

“It’s alright lad,” Pageturn said regaining his composure “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to upset you, the book’s fine see,” He held it up for Rove to examine. “Why didn’t your parents allow you to use magic?”

“Mom and dad didn’t mind much, but some of the ones I worked with did. They said that magic is for lazy ponies. And besides there wasn’t a magic teacher at our school so I couldn’t learn anything anyway,” Rove said looking at the ground.

“Makes you lazy, now isn’t that a laugh. Those earth ponies have their strength to help them just like you have your horn,” Pageturn said looking appalled by the idea. “You didn’t have a teacher, don’t you know any spells?”

“I figured out the basics myself; I can lift things and make a light and if I concentrate I can teleport a couple of hooves but nothing like the unicorns here can do.”

Pageturn and I looked at each other and back at Rove trying to figure out if we heard him correctly. The unicorn was the first one to break the silence. “You can teleport?”

“Not far enough to make it useful only a ponylength or two. I saw a performer called Trixie do it once and it look like fun. After I learned to do it mister Pine said that I was becoming too lazy to even walk, so I stopped.”

“Show me,”  Pageturn demanded.

“What, why?”

“Please Rove just show him,” I may be an earthpony but even I knew what teleportation meant to a unicorn.

Rove closed his eyes and his horn started to glow a bright yellow. There was a loud pop and he disappeared only to reappear a couple of hoof lengths away. “Was that Ok?”

Pageturn left and returned with a beautiful leather-bound book. “Here, it may not be as effective as a teacher but maybe it can help you learn a couple of spells.”

“’A Beginners Guide Too Advanced Spells’ I can’t start with this, don’t you have something more basic?” Rove asked holding the book in a yellow glow.

The elderly unicorn gave him a knowing smile. “Try reading the first chapter.”

Rove flipped through the pages until he found the right one. “Teleportation: it can be done”

“Teleportation is something that’s reserved only for the most gifted of unicorns. You’ve learned something by instinct that some ponies spend years trying to master,” Rove just stared at the old stallion not believing the praise coming his way. “I’m lending you this book because I refuse to see talent wasted, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not precious to me. I expect you to learn everything in there and return it in the same condition as what you found it, is that clear lad?”

“Yes sir, I’ll take good care of it,” He said as he carefully put the artefact into my saddlebag.

“This is great and all,” I stepped in before we went even further of topic than we already had. “but there is business that has to be done.”

“Yes, well like I was saying before I got distracted, I think that I’ve seen this symbol of yours before,” Pageturn took the book that Rove brought and opened it about half way revealing a cracked and fading newspaper article.

The picture was of the same image on another wall made countless moons ago. “How old is this article Pageturn?”

“Of the exact date I can’t be sure of, it was sometime after Luna’s banishment but before the formation of the E.U.P. so we can say about a thousand years ago.”

I was still thinking about this when Rove spoke. “So who are they, have they been around for the last thousand years?”

“They called themselves the seekers of truth; they were a bunch of unicorns who thought that we are the superior race and all other ponies are beneath us. And no I don’t think they have existed in secret all this time waiting for the perfect time to strike, it’s more likely that this is a new group using old morals.”

“That may explain why they went after your family, a unicorn being raised by earthponies isn’t exactly the best image if you want to show that unicorns are the master race. Is that everything that you know about them?” I asked hoping that we had more to go on.

“I’m afraid so, after the E.U.P. was formed Celestia ordered all of their known associates to be eradicated. This wasn’t too long after her sisters banishment, during her bloody faze.”

“So we have a group of racist unicorns’ part of a thousand year old secret organisation willing to murder a family because they’re raising a unicorn. Perfect now all we have to do is find them and stop them.” Yup easy “Thanks for your help Pageturn, I’m sure to come back when I need to know more history.”

“You’re welcome any time Detective, and so are you Rove. Remember to study hard and don’t just learn to shoot lightning, there are a few other good spells in there too,” as an afterthought he added. “Maybe start with the shield.”

“Thanks Pageturn, I’ll learn everything,” Rove said with a smile, it was good to see him smiling. After we exited the gates he turned his head and spoke. “What are we going to do next?”

“We’re going home. I have to write a report and figure out where to start looking,” I saw that he needed more than that “And then tomorrow were going to find these seekers of truth and bring them down.”