Will of Fire

Chapter 30 - The perfect crime

By: TheXIIILightning

"Phew, now that hit the spot." I said, shaking the water out of my fur.

There's nothing better than a cool, long shower after a long day of training. I literally spent hours in the training grounds, trying out my new sword. It's perfect, I can even fly with it!

After a while I went to the Armory, to see if the blacksmith had something that I could use has a sheath. The poor guy was still shaken up for loosing a quarter of his weapons, but he cheered up when he saw my sword.

He said that he'd offer me something cool if I let him examine the sword, I didn't see any problem, so I went further into the Armory in search of something I could use. He gave me a very interesting saddlebag, if you could call it that.

It was composed of two belts, that had to be tied around my belly, so they didn't touch my legs or wings. Both sides had another belt connecting the two, my left side had a sword sheath that fit my weapon. and my right side had a small bag. It was useful if I needed to carry anything, money, papers, smoke-bombs. Anything!

It was light, useful, and pretty darn cool.

I spent another half-hour talking with the blacksmith so he could examine the sword, and told him to call me if he needed anything.

Since Shining Armor was nowhere to be seen, I just returned to my room and took a shower. If my schedule is right, it's almost time for supper, so Trixie and Sunshine should be back by now.

"Took you long enough..." Right on the dot.

"Hey! What's up?" I greeted the girls, they looked tired but still happy.

"I could ask you the same thing." Sunshine said, pointing to my belongings. "Where did you get that stuff?"

"I met Commander Hurricane today, we talked for a while and he gave me that sword." Trixie started using her magic to levitate the sword, she moved it closer to her so she could get a better look. "Be careful, it's really sharp." Trixie frowned a bit.

"Have more faith in Trixie, she is no longer a foal..." She put the sword in it's sheath again, and lied down on her bed.

"Speaking of foals." Sunshine said. "I got a job today Light, can you guess where?" She stared intently at me, Trixie smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Let's see..." I scratched my chin a bit. "You got a job at the school?" She shook her head.

"No, try again!"

"Uh... last time you worked at the hospital, did they give you a job there?" She shook her head, again.

"Still wrooong~! Try again." She said in a singsong voice, still smiling.

"At an ice-cream stand?" She shook her head.

"Nope, try ag-" She gave an odd look. "Ice-cream stand? What does that have to do with foals?" Trixie shared her look.

"What?" I shrugged. "Foals like ice-cream, it's a good guess." She nodded.

"Fair enough. Well, I got a job at our old orphanage. Isn't that great!?" She said with a small squeal.

"Yeah, that's great Sunshine. I'm sure the foals will love you." I said, patting her on the shoulder.

"I hope so too, the orphanage staff have their hooves full with so many foals. When I said that I wanted a job there, they almost kissed me! Trixie and Sunshine shared a quick laugh, and so did I. Just imagine a bunch of kissy-kissy ponies chasing Sunshine through that old place, you'd laugh too.

"Trixie also has good news." Trixie told me. "She searched around town, and found a well payed job at the local bar, the "Drunken Mare"." She made a posse, full of pride.

"Isn't that the shady pub in Lower Canterlot?" She nodded. "I heard that place is dangerous, are you sure you want to work there?" I asked her, voicing my concern.

Crime in Canterlot is very rare, due to all the guard patrolling the streets. But the bars and pubs located in Lower Canterlot, are like honey to shady merchants, thugs and the like.

If Trixie is working there, she might have to deal with ponies of bad intentions, to say the least.

"Trixie is positive, she will get well payed, and doesn't have to stoop as low as some mares in Las Pegasus." She blushed a bit and shook her head. "She will get payed to perform her magic tricks, sing, and serve the occasional drink. Nothing to worry about." I still wasn't convinced.

"Well Trixie, you're a really pretty mare. What if somepony tries to... you know." I nodded my head slightly and opened my eyes a bit more. Trixie blushed a bit more and gasped at what I was implying.

"T- Trixie is more than able to avoid such scenarios, she's been on the road many times, most of them alone. She is also perfectly capable of defending herself if anypony decides to..." She went silent and shook her head, clearing her head of those thoughts.

"Besides, Trixie choose that place for a reason." Now I was intrigued. "If we want to find who robbed the Moonstone, we need reputation with the thieves, if Trixie works there, it won't be has hard to get some questions answered." She smiled proudly. Yeah, that is a very good plan. It'll certainly pay off in the future!

"Trixie, you're a genius!" I yelled. "I could kiss you right now!"

She blushed a bit and started stammering, I blushed as well when I realized what I said. Sunshine? Sunshine started laughing.

"W- Well, I don't know about kissing..." She gave an awkward chuckle. "But Trixie wouldn't refuse a hug." A hug it is!

I moved a few steps forward and hugged her, it was a bit awkward at first, but thankfully Sunshine joined in and made it... It was still awkward, but the good kind of awkward.

"Our lives are going back to normal..." I said, they didn't move away from the hug. "Just promise me that you'll leave the investigation to me, and the guard." After a few more seconds they nodded lightly and broke free from the hug.

The room was now filled with a very awkward silence, Sunshine was trying not to laugh and Trixie was sheepishly scratching her left foreleg. Thankfully, my growling stomach saved the day!

.

.

.

"Who's hungry?"

"Sparrow..." I said.

"Lightning..." He said.

We both sat on opposite corners of the table, Sparrow sat down with Sunshine and Rainbow Dash. While I sat down with Trixie, Twilight and Shining Armor. It seems like the Princess's won't be joining us tonight.

Sunshine and Sparrow were getting along great, even if we weren't talking to each other.

Rainbow Dash seemed to be lost in her own, little world. Twilight noticed it too, and was beginning to worry again.

"I just can't figure out what's wrong with her." Twilight said. "I haven't seen her all day, and when she came back she acted like nothing happened..." Twilight used her magic to roll around a piece of pasta she was eating, she would roll it around her fork until it fell off, and then she would repeat step one, over and over again. It was driving me crazy!

"I don't know why, but it's like she's avoiding us for some reason..." She took the first bite out of her pasta. Shining Armor gave her a small nuzzle.

"Don't worry Twilight, I'm sure she'll be fine." He said, Twilight just sighed a bit.

"Shining is right Twilight, if Rainbow Dash needs our help she will ask for it. We just have to make her realize we'll be there for her."

The three of us glanced at the other side of the table. Sunshine was making small talk with Sparrow, while Rainbow ate alone a few chairs away from them. Completely ignoring the conversation.

Twilight got up and levitated her plate with her.

"Sorry, but I'm going to eat with her. I can't stand seeing her like this anymore." She made her way towards Rainbow and sat down in front of her.

"Well, that takes care of that." I took a small bite of my salad and turned to Shining Armor.

"I've been meaning to ask you, Shining." He looked away from his oatmeal and lift his eyebrow at me, I continued. "What is the current state of the investigation, I assume you read some reports before I got here?" He nodded.

"Indeed I have, I can't tell you every detail but I can tell you whatever you need. What do you want to know?" He asked me.

"Well..." I glanced at Trixie, she needs to hear this if she'll be looking for clues at the bar. "Tell me everything." He scratched his chin in thought.

"About the robbery." He started. "There was no forced entry into the vault, so we concluded that whoever stole the Moonstone was either a skilled locksmith or had the forgery of a key. The Moonstone was stolen the night before Il Mentore's murder, the same night that Sparrow was promoted, we concluded that the thief used the lack of guards as an opportunity to steal the item. The strangest thing, is that we didn't find any hoof prints, feathers or magical residue inside the vault. Needless to say that it was a professional hit."

Trixie and I stopped eating and evaluated the situation. Trixie spoke first.

"The lack of magical residue leaves levitation out of the picture, so it wasn't an unicorn who stole the Moonstone. And the lack of feathers leads us to believe that it wasn't a pegasus either. It may have been an Earth Pony wearing socks or something to cover his hooves, but Pegasi and Unicorns could easily copy that procedure." Shining and I nodded.

"That's one of the reasons why we don't have any suspects." He sighed.

"What about the entry? You said the lock wasn't forced, so anypony with a key might have stolen the Moonstone?" He nodded.

"Yes, there are only two keys for the vault. One of them is always with me, and the other one was with Hurricane at the time of theft. Only the Captains and the Princess's may enter the vault." He nodded towards Sparrow. "Sparrow has the other key right now."

"I assume you didn't include any guards in the suspect list, because either one of you could have been pickpocketed without noticing." He nodded. "If the thief managed to steal from the castle's vault, he would have no problem in stealing from you while you were on patrol." He nodded.

"You're correct. You can see why you were our only suspect."

"What about that pony who asked me to deliver the package with the stone, did you find him?" He shrugged.

"Aside from Sparrow's testimony of what you told him, we found no witnesses to such transaction. From what we know, you're the only pony that had contact with the Moonstone after the theft. We would have gotten Il Mentore's testimony, if he hadn't been murdered."

We stood in silence for a while, it seem's impossible to find the thieve through the stone, so maybe we can through the murder.

"Assuming whoever killed Mentore also stole the Moonstone." I said. "What clues do you have?" Shining Armor closed his eyes in thought.

"We concluded that Il Mentore died by a clean cut in the throath, possibly done by a blade of sorts. But we didn't find any blood stained weapons inside the house, but since you use a sword as a weapon that made you our prime suspect once again." He deadpanned.

It's true, a few guards have seem me spar with Sparrow while using my old sword. I also used to walk around town with it, it was like my trademark.

"What about hoof prints?" Trixie asked.

"We only found some blood-stained prints, and those belonged to Lightning." He looked me in the eye, not in a threatening way, just kinda asking me why did they find them. I turned to Trixie.

"After getting caught at the gate, I escaped and came back to warn Mentore, but I found him like that. I moved closer to him, to see if he was still alive, but..."

I fell silent, I didn't say anything else. I couldn't... I felt a hoof on my shoulder, it was Trixie's.

She was smiling warmingly, trying to cheer me up.

"Thanks Trixie..." I said, after a long sigh to gather my thoughts.

"Shining, can you do me a favor?" I asked him.

"Sure, ask away." He smiled. Hopefully he'll agree with me...

"Take a day off tomorrow, I'll spend the day at the Training Grounds, I think better when I'm busy." I said.

"Okay... I don't see how tha-"

"I'm not finished." I interrupted, he frowned a bit. "I need you to get me a private audience with Princess Luna." I grinned.

"WHAT!?" He yelled! I looked around and everypony at the table was staring at him, except for Rainbow... What th-

"ARE YOU CRAZY!? I can't do t-"

"Calm down, I was just messing with you. But I do in fact need to speak with Princess Luna, but i also need you, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Sunshine and Trixie to be there. I have a plan, but I only need to figure out a few details. That's why I'm asking for a free day tomorrow."

"Fine, I'll see what I can do. But say something like that again, and you'll spend the night in the dungeon."

"Yes, yes. Understood." I took another mouthful of my salad. "Now eat you oatmeal Shining Armor, it's get-"

The sound of silverware hitting the floor made me forget what I was about to say, I looked to my right and what I saw shocked me.

Twilight was leaning back on her chair and Rainbow Dash stormed out of the room, her bowl of oatmeal cracked on the floor.

I was not expecting that...

End of Chapter 30

Yes, I want a private meeting with Princess Luna.
I know you do too~!

Now for the Hype. *Ahem*

Rainbow Dash! Come back and clean that oatmeal!
With you tong- *get's slapped by Trixie*

Find out in the next chapter of...
Will of Fire!