It didn't take long for the Royal Guard to find the bodies of Luna's guards. It took longer to find out just who did it. Eventually they followed standard protocol and sent scouts out into the Everfree. Which brings us to one of the last of two living scouts in front of me, on his knees. He was battered and bruised, and bleeding from his missing teeth.

"I will ask you this one last time. What will you tell your Princess when you report in?" I asked as I stared into his red eyes. His Brown fur was matted with sweat and blood, and it glistened in the torchlight as he glanced around at the Conquerors.

"Th-there was nothing here!" He answered. I backhanded him with my armored glove. He recoiled in pain, clearly shocked by this.

"You will tell her there were simple bandits here. Bandits whom are unorganized and ill equipped. And that Princess Luna was nowhere to be found, leading you to believe she either escaped or we were not the ones who hit her convoy. Am I clear?" I said. He nodded his injured face. My Blackstones lead him to the other scout, whom was told the same message. We let them loose, and as they ran into the distance, I looked at my best archer. "How many ponies does it take to deliver a message?" She smirked darkly, pulling back the string of the pitch black longbow.

"One."

Celestia POV:

I was waiting in my throne room, waiting for my various scouts to return. I was disheartened when a single scout returned. Her Grey fur was matted with sweat. She limped over to me, her head hung low.

"There was a bandit tribe in Everfree castle. they were unorganized and ill equipped. Princess Luna was nowhere to be found, leading me to believe she either escaped or they were not the ones who hit her convoy. Timberwolves got the rest of the scouting force." She said, looking down to her blood covered hands.

I placed my hand on her shoulder, assuring that she did what was asked and nothing more could've been done. I sent her out to get some time off. I turned to Shining Armor with a dark look.

"Send a detachment to the Everfree Forest now. I want those mindless bandits dead." He nodded, and marched out, following my orders. I then received a letter from Twilight Sparkle.

"Dear Princess Celestia, last night's Nightmare Night Celebration was interrupted by an apparent suicide. No evidence other than the stallions knife in his own neck were available. But something disturbs me Princess, there were bruises on his knife hand's wrist. The citizens of Ponyville are panicking. I would appreciate any help you could send our way.

The letter worried me. A murderer in Ponyville? Situations like this was never just a one time thing. Somepony was going to be killed again. I sent a message to the Royal Barracks detailing the assignment. Hopefully somepony would volunteer.

Abigor POV:

I was in the middle of discussing Ashfeld's culture over afternoon tea with Luna when a guard burst through the door panting.

"*pant* Master! *pant* Ponies to the west! *pant* they are armed to the teeth!" He said. I stood, looking to Luna.

"My apologies Luna. Perhaps we could continue this discussion at a later date?" I said to the sitting mare. She smiled ever so slightly and nodded. I walked out of the room, followed by the guard. "Keep an eye on her. Make sure she's safe." He nodded and stood guard at the now closed door. I walked out onto the ramparts fully covered in my armor. I looked out across the Den to see a large group of Royal Guards crossing the rope bridge to the west. I looked to the commander of the Archers. She looked to me, waiting for the signal. I nodded, signaling her to proceed.

"ARCHERS!" She barked. The archers took aim, their black and orange colors visible in the fading sunlight. They had trained their arrows, not on the ponies, but something far more important. "FIRE!"

The arrows sailed through the air, flying towards their targets with deadly accuracy. The ponies raised their shields, blocking a few arrows that were off target, but only then did their commander know my plan.

"GET OFF THE BRIDGE!" He cried! The ropes gave, and the ponies were sent into the canyon below. I nodded to my commander, showing my approval of the teachings she gave the archers. She grinned wolfishly as she turned to her archers.

"Good work lads! That bridge shouldn't be a problem anymore!" Almost all archers were cheering save one. His eyes were still trained on the canyon. I followed his gaze to see golden armor, and the troops inside the armor. Flying. With their wings. That is very unfortunate. I waved my arm, signaling for another volley. The arrows sailed once more through the air, but few hit the intended targets. The remaining twenty ponies flew at incredible speed towards the Den.

"For Equestria!" I heard the lead pony yell. I simply walked back indoors. I heard hooves land on stone as I closed the door behind me. The door then burst open, revealing a very muscular pony. He swung a broadsword downwards, it would've cleaved my arm off had I not blocked it. His confusion was apparent.

"How are you so fast? That should've hit you!" He said indignantly. I chuckled before headbutting him, breaking his nose.

"Open-faced helmets. Big mistake." Was all he heard before catching a sword that was hanging on the wall to the face. "That just makes this easier for me." I said as I tossed his corpse out into plain view of the rest of the ponies. Most let out howls of rage, but one mare let out distraught wails.

This mare to broke off from the main group. The main group was both taking note of any and all changes made to the castle, and firing their bows down upon the Blackstones below them. As the mare dived towards me, I noticed she was crying, and holding her sword in such a way that she would skewer me like a wild boar. I had to time this just right.

As she approached, I was moving my sword into defensive posture, waiting for just the right moment. She got within two feet of piercing my heart when I moved to the right ever so slightly, angling my sword upwards and leftwards by an almost miniscule amount. Her blade went beneath my arm, scraping the metal. My blade imbedded itself in her breastplate. She looked right at me, and as the life left her eyes, I uttered two simple words for only her and I to hear.

"I'm sorry."

I then shifted my attention to the ponies in the sky. A large quantity of arrows were sent in my general direction. I hefted one of many shields that adorned the walls above my head, blocking most of them. A single pitch black arrow managed to puncture my armor though. I grunted as pain flared in my left thigh. Not deep enough to be fatal or injuring. Just deep enough to cause pain. I snapped the arrow two inches off above my flesh.

"Archers, take them down! We need some of them alive, but it does not matter how many are alive by the end of this day!" I shouted to my Blackstones.

The next few hours were Hell. We had to either kill or capture the most hard to hit targets we've ever encountered. We only were able to capture five of them after they and the rest of their group killed fifty of our men. I went back to Luna's room to see her reading a book on knights.

"Ah, Abigor. Is it true thou took an oath to your master in order to become a knight?" She asked, looking at the page, I noticed this book was from Ashfeld. Where were these items and occurrences coming from?

"Uh, yes. My mother was the current Warlord of the Blackstone Legion. I had sworn my oath before Blackstone Keep was under siege, forcing me to follow my mother's orders and abandon her to her most probable death. Now I hold title of Warlord, a symbol of determination and strength. I had never really met royalty before. My mother always stressed that I stay away from them, but you seem to be okay." I told Luna. She looked down at the book and frowned.

"We see no 'Blackstone Legion' in this book Abigor. Were you relatively new?" She asked. I chuckled at the thought.

"No. That book is at least a hundred years old. We've been around for about... twenty years? I do not recall the exact amount as I am only nineteen." This comment shocked the princess and I understood why. A nineteen year old commanding an army? Unheard of in this world. I stood up, and bowed in respect to the princess. When I stood straight, she was already back in the book. I walked out of the room and down several hallways to a single unlit room. Upon entering I saw my guards and five shapes in the darkness.

As I looked down at the five survivors on their knees, I asked them one question, and one question only.

"What will you tell your Princess when you report in?"

Lieutenant Blank Embershard POV:

I was busy getting drunk in a seedy dive in Canterlot when he found me.

"Lieutenant! I am glad I found you. My name is Copper. I'm the Guard sent by Celestia. I've been looking for you, I was lucky to find you at the fifth bar. I've been assigned to this case with you. We are to go to Ponyville as soon as possible."

I pretty much ignored him until he got me another round for the road. After making it a double and slamming it down the hatch, I got off of my stool and followed Copper out of Jimmy's Bar. We were on a train within the hour.

Upon reaching Ponyville, I felt as if something was off. The tension in the air was so tense it could be cut with a knife. Copper lead me to the crime scene. He knelt next to the victim.

Copper POV:

I looked over the body, analyzing whatever I could. I noticed there was significant bruising on his wrist that held the knife. Indicating someone grabbed his hand and forced him to kill himself. It was a quick and clean kill. Not to mention brutal and efficient. Whomever did this, knew how to kill, almost religiously so. I observed a piece of cloth in the stallions hand. He must've ripped off a piece of what his killer was wearing. I opened his hand up to reveal a small black piece of cloth with an orange symbol on it.

The symbol was a sword dividing half of a helmet and half of an oddly shaped skull.

Author's Note

Here it is! Another chapter in the story.

The reason I described the skull as "Odd" is because the ponies are anthro. They've never even seen a human skull. For those of you who'd want a visual, here you go.

Also, If you can find the Detroit: Become Human Reference, you deserve a cookie. I totally thought that bit up as i was typing and thought to myself. "I could make that work".

If you want more sidestory, let me know. There's always room for improvement. I'll try to post these regularly but College is a major factor in my time.