Silent Flame

It took some time before Redwood had a plan to get the information she needed. After she had caught the thief in the filing room and found the folder, she noticed she was getting assigned to guard much more public places where she could be easily watched. To add to that, two guards were transferred to her barracks, and they were frequently put on guard duty with Redwood. There was no doubt that the higher ups were keeping an eye on her. Did they know she had stolen one of the documents? Redwood had squirreled it away before she had known she was being watched, so as long as they didn't find it, she was in the clear for now.  After a few weeks though, the new guards seemed to be watching her less and less, and she was being assigned to guard fewer public places. The powers that be either thought that she knew nothing and wasn't a problem, or there was some grander scheme at work. Either way, it was time for Redwood to act.

***

One day when Redwood was off duty, she decided to take a look at the arrest record of the unicorn who had tried to steal the folder. Doing so might end up arousing suspicion, so she would have to be discreet.

As Redwood walked into the record room, she was greeted by an older Pegasus sitting at a desk with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth. He was known among the guards as Keeper, and he was in charge of keeping all official royal guard records.

"Redwood!" he said with a raspy voice. "I thought you were off duty today. What brings you to my neck of the woods?"

"Ah need an arrest record, from a few weeks ago." she said bluntly. "And ah don't want nopony to know ah needed it."

Keeper let out a coarse laugh, which turned into a coughing fit. "I heard somepony high up was keeping their eyes on you; still might be. You're up to something, I know it. It could come and bite me later on."

Redwood placed a bag of bits with a decent heft on the desk and asked, "This enough?"

"I dunno, I'm not sure what kind of  risk I'm taking here," replied Keeper after looking at the bits for a few seconds.

Redwood produced a flask, opened it, and offered it to him. "Have a drink. Y'all'll feel better when ah leave."

Keeper chuckled again as he took the flask. He then went into the back and returned a few minutes later with the arrest record and a Redwood's flask, now a fourth empty.

"You got good taste in booze," he said, handing the flask and record to Redwood.

She took both and left without another word and made her way down to the mess hall. Redwood had purposefully come down at this time, as she knew it would be just about empty. It was three in the afternoon and most of the guards were on duty, and those who weren't tended to not hang around.

Redwood sat down and put the arrest record on the table. There was a mugshot of the unicorn, whose name was Paper Sheaf, his hoofprints, and all the usual identification. It said that he had been arrested for aggravated assault of a government official, and the arrest date was different from the date he had broken in. The details of his arrest didn't match up with what actually happened, and Redwood wasn't even mentioned. The one thing on the record that might have been true was that he was being held in the castle dungeon without bail.

Paper Sheaf's arrest record only further proved that Redwood was sticking her nose into something she wasn't supposed to. She could have very well been sealing her fate by investigating further, but this was too big to ignore.

As Redwood got up and left, she noticed a Pegasus guard who was out of uniform get up from across the mess hall and follow her from a distance. She continued back to the record room, acting as if she didn't realize he was following her. Redwood took a turn where she didn't need to, and began to take a much more roundabout route to see if she could shake him. The guard kept on following, so Redwood picked up her pace. The guard still followed, so Redwood began to walk even faster. Slowly but surely, he was closing in on her.

Redwood took a turn into a deserted hallway and looked behind her to see a glint of metal. She spun around and caught the guard holding a knife, ready to stab her in the back.

"Sunnuva-!" Redwood exclaimed as she shoved him back.

The guard quickly recovered and lunged at Redwood. She caught him while he was in motion and used his momentum to throw him against the wall, kicking him in the stomach after he had fallen for good measure. Before Redwood could deliver another blow, the guard shot back up and tackled her. He was on top of her now, with his knife just a few inches from her throat. Redwood pushed against the guard's arm, fighting to get it away from her neck. They were locked in a desperate stalemate, neither of them gaining any ground.

Redwood managed to knee the guard in the stomach, causing him to recoil in pain. She then slammed his head into the wall, slightly disorienting him. Redwood got back up and picked up the guard along with her, pinning him to the wall.

"Y'all tell me right now why y'all are tryin' to kill me, who y'all are, and who y'all're workin' for!" she demanded.

The guard headbutted Redwood, allowing him to escape producing a stream of red from her nose. He ran off down the hall, but Redwood was quick to pursue. As she had almost caught up with him, the guard leaped through a window at the end of the hall.

Redwood ran to the window and looked out, only to see something flying away in the distance. Now she knew for certain that somepony had it out for her. She couldn't trust anypony in the royal guard, maybe even the whole of Canterlot.  What her next move should be wasn't clear.

Before she went back to the barracks, Redwood picked up the knife which the guard had dropped during the fight. It was sleek, incredibly sharp, and of higher quality than what was standard issue for the royal guard. What stood out most was the symbol on the handle, a black circle with a cross inside, the same as on the folder that had been taken.