"Sir, Lieutenant Skyver really wants you to come out and see this."
"... How important are we talking here, Guard? I've got a lot of paperwork to deal with yet..."
"An-AWOL-found-dead-in-a-dumpster-important, sir."
"Oh no, they got another one! Lead the way, Guard! I'll get the briefing from the Lieutenant when we get there."
"Yes, sir!"
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A LITTLE LATER, IN THE STREETS OF CANTERLOT AT NIGHT...
Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor sighs in exasperation as he notices several curious civilian ponies observing the operation currently underway down the alley. The discovery of a dead Guard in a dumpster was bad enough, but having it be a nighttime spectacle was even worse. With Lieutenant Skyver busy setting up the operation to retrieve the dead Guard out of the dumpster, Shining would have to get the spectators to go away himself.
"Guard, could you please convince the spectators to move along? I need to talk with the Lieutenant and don't want the extra civilian distractions." Shining orders his Guard escort.
"Yes sir, right away sir." the Guard replies, turning away toward the curious ponies at the entry to the alleyway. Once Shining sees the Guard is off, he continues down the alley, stopping beside Lieutenant Skyver.
"Good to see you, sir. We're almost ready with the extraction now." Lieutenant Skyver comments with unsurprising somberness as he notices his superior approach beside him. The Lieutenant involuntarily crinkles his snout at the stench around him from the garbage in the dumpster - the only way to hide a dead body in such a place was under a mound of odorous, oozing garbage.
"What happened?" Shining Armor asks Skyver as both stallions observe two Guard pegasi hovering above the dumpster, each with the end of a rope tied around their mid-section. The rope dangled down between them into the contents of the dumpster, presumably also going around the dead Guard inside so that by the two Guards pulling upwards the body could be raised from inside and deposited on the ground.
"One of the morning-shift guards was found to be AWOL when an afternoon-shifter came to replace him. Aten showed paperwork that accounted for him over the course of the shift, and nopony claims to have seen him leave his post, so the afternoon shift was told to simply look for where he went. Just before the evening changeover, one Guard got a report from the users of the dumpster that they had seen a cloaked pony use unicorn magic to toss a body in the dumpster and then cover it with trash. Putting two and two together, I decided to order an extraction and summon you here." Lieutenant Skyver explains.
Shining Armor knits his brows under his Guard helmet. Claiming that Lieutenant Captain Aten and his lackeys in the morning shift were lying in concert to cover up the apparent assassination of an member of the Royal Guard was previously something that only would've been done by the tinfoil-hat-wearing crowd, but now there was good reason to not immediately trust any report Aten submitted. He pushed the conspiracy-encouraging thoughts out of his head for the moment and turns his attention back to the Lieutenant.
"Understood. I'll relay the information to the Captain in the morning. If you're ready for the extraction, go right ahead." Shining Armor replies to the Lieutenant.
"Yes sir." Skyver replies just before giving a "lift up" signal to the pegasi hovering above.
The pegasi start going straight up, the rope between them going taut. At first, the pile of garbage inside the dumpster just shifts slightly, but after a few moments of pulling, a stallion's form starts emerging from the pile, leachate and bits of rotting food in the coat and mane. Both Shining Armor and Skyver are repulsed by the fate their fellow Guard has suffered - not only taken by surprise (and probably betrayed) at the prime of his life, but dumped in what seemed to be the wettest and stinkiest dumpster in all Canterlot!
The lifting pegasi stop once the dead stallion is fully exposed, both to make identification easier and to let the gross liquid that had seeped into his coat drain out back into the dumpster. In the low light of the waning moon, Shining can see the stallion's wings had been broken, likely just before his death. The outsplayed wings hang down, but both they and the legs are stiff - they don't swing at all when the two lifting pegasi finally move from over the dumpster to the area in front of it to set the dead stallion down.
"Rigor mortis has set in - poor stallion has probably been dead all afternoon, at least. Maybe if somepony had spotted him leaving his post..." Skyver speculates.
"I'll just say this for the record, Lieutenant. I do not have trust any more in Lieutenant Captain Aten to do his job correctly, not when it is reasonable to believe lying and covering up is to his personal benefit. His shenanigans have pushed Princess Celestia to the end of her patience, and sooner or later something will have to give." Shining Armor warns.
Skyver pauses to absorb the implications of Shining's statement - very worrying for the future of the Royal Guard and Equestria in general. Meanwhile, the two lifting pegasi set down the dead stallion - on his side due to the stiff legs - in the area in front of the dumpster and begin working the ropes off while remaining in the air above the alleyway.
Shining and Skyver now approach cautiously - each taking one look back to make sure the alley is still secured by the Guard shooing away the civilian witnesses - and for the first time can get a good look at the dead stallion. The coat was at one point a minty green, but has been darkened by the leachate fluid and the first signs of livor mortis. The mane and tail are primarily a darker shade of pink, but have a pair of bright orange stripes separated by a gap. Interestingly, both mane and tail show signs of being chopped at very short but different lengths, as if somepony tried to cut them off in a hurry but ran out of time.
Shining Armor recoils back in disbelief when he gets his first good look at the dead stallion. Skyver turns his attention back to his superior officer when he realizes what is going on. The pegasus Lieutenant sees Shining shaking his head in sad dismay, which prompts the natural question of why.
"Well Lieutenant, I didn't want to involve you in this, but I'm going to have to explain it now..." Shining Armor sadly starts...
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THE PREVIOUS EVENING...
"Captain, I still don't understand why you want me to attend this. Surely you don't need me to assist in this?" Shining Armor was saying to Captain of the Guard Gibraltar as the two were walking side-by-side toward the Captain's office.
"I want you to witness it anyway. Just trust me." Captain Gibraltar replies as the two turn into the office. Shining observes Lieutenant Biro calmly working away at the paperwork in a far corner of the room, and in the other far corner sits a dejected pegasus stallion wearing a Guard dress uniform. The stallion has a mint-green coat and a dark pink mane and tail, both mane and tail streaked with a pair of bright orange stripes. A pair of "soft", light-blue eyes tentatively stares out at Shining and Gibraltar as they approach him. Shining gives a curious look in return, and he can see the other stallion with burning cheeks of embarrassment.
"At attention, stallion. State your name and rank for the record." Gibraltar orders as he and Shining move to in front of the sitting stallion.
The sitting pegasus stallion straightens up, clears his throat and recites the required information: "Thornwing, Guard Upper Class."
"Very good. Now, will you please repeat for the benefit of the Lieutenant Captain the events that transpired early this afternoon?" Gibraltar asks.
"Yes, sir. I have some information that would interest the Lieutenant Captain." Thornwing cautiously begins, his continuing blush seeming to indicate his reluctance to even speak in the position he had found himself in.
"Go on, let's hear it." Shining Armor acknowledges, his curiousity suddenly piqued by Thornwing's statement.
"Thank you, sir." Thornwing begins. "It started this morning, when Lieutenant Captain Aten assigned me to guard the medical complex, that includes the morgue where the 'Jane Doe' that was found with Lilly Withers was being preserved in lieu of an identification."
"Have you ever been assigned to that area before?" Shining Armor asks.
"No, sir, and that's why I found it odd that the Lieutenant Captain would put me here." Thornwing replies.
"Understood. Continue." Shining Armor acknowledges.
"Yes sir. As I was doing my patrol through the complex, I spotted the 'Jane Doe' laying in full view, and I thought I recognized something about her as I passed. I asked the doctor on duty to let me take a closer look, and as soon as I got close enough... it was horrible, sir!"
"You were able to identify the 'Jane Doe'?"
"Yes, and it was my mother, sir! That's the reason I'm here now!"
Shining Armor recoils back in shock - he can hardly imagine the horror Thornwing must've experienced in seeing his own mother dead and desecrated, preserved like a museum specimen on a table. He catches Gibraltar giving a somber nod of acknowledgement out of the corner of his vision.
"I went into the Royal Guard, joined the Agents of Chaos, in hopes that I could save my mother. And now she's gone!" Thornwing exclaims.
"Agents of Chaos?" Shining naturally enquires of Thornwing.
"Yes, I am Agent 20. My father was a member too, and he wanted big, strong colts to go into the Royal Guard and follow in his hoofsteps. He married - although I'm not sure it was ever 100% legal - my mother, Posey, in hoping that her earth pony genetics would fortify the offspring with the best traits of both pegasi and earth pony." Thornwing explains.
"It's not an unreasonable train of thought, considering that kind of breeding was how the Royal Guard was built in the first place. Continue on, Guard." Captain Gibraltar comments.
"Thank you, sir. When it was just me and my parents, everything was fine. But then my mother got pregnant again, and it was with a filly this time. My father did not like this at all and threatened to walk away from the relationship unless she gave up the filly. It broke my mother's heart, but she agreed to do it." Thornwing continues on.
"What happened to the filly?" Shining Armor asks.
"My aunt - mother's sister - and her mate agreed to take the filly in and raise her as if she were their own. The birth certificate also had their names written on it instead of my mother's and father's. I saw that filly right after she was foaled - a pegasus, but the same coat and mane colors as my mother. I'm sure she would've been proud of the young mare that filly has now become. I know I am, sir." Thornwing answers with a shy smile.
Captain Gibraltar and Lieutenant Captain Shining Armor exchange surprised eyebrows, as both are aware of Posey's coat and mane colors from seeing her previously as displayed in the morgue. Gibraltar gives a little nod in Shining's direction and the latter turns attention back to Thornwing.
"So what you're saying, Guard, is that...?" Shining Armor asks, waiting for the shocking answer that had popped into his mind.
"I am Fluttershy's biological older brother. Because of the birth certificate and her adoptive parents being total pushovers, there's no way they'd ever work up the courage to tell her the truth." Thornwing quietly answers. "After the filly who is now called Fluttershy was given up, my father was sent into a field assignment as part of the Guard and ended up dying in an accident out there, which meant my mother became part of the 'herd' of Agent Snake. I continued into the Guard in the hopes I could rescue her, but now..."
"Say no more, Guard. We get the picture." Captain Gibraltar interrupts, raising a forehoof as he and Shining Armor exchange worried and concerned glances. Suddenly this otherwise unassuming stallion had become a very pivotal figure in the ongoing conflict against the Agents of Chaos.
"But why did you keep this information to yourself for so long? Why did you not say something to us sooner, Guard?" Shining Armor asks with great concern in his voice, again worried he would already know the answer.
"My mother would surely have died if I betrayed them while she was still alive. Now she is dead anyways, and I have no more reason to stay loyal to them. I have access to their inner sanctum, gather a force and I will lead you to it." Thornwing explains.
Shining and Gibraltar look over at each other again before Gibraltar replies: "That is a very generous offer. We will accept it, and just maybe you will get to see your sister again, even if she doesn't know who you are..."
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BACK IN THE PRESENT...
"Well, that explains the whole business around Posey and Thornwing, but why wasn't Thornwing kept under 24 hour monitoring?" Lieutenant Skyver asks as the two subordinate Guards gingerly prepare to wrap Thornwing's trash-covered body for immediate transport to the morgue, to be beside his mother in death.
"The Captain believed doing that would tip off the Agents of his defection. The fact they got him so quickly means one of two things - either he was being actively monitored by the enemy, or they engineered a situation in which he would likely defect and make himself a target for immediate elimination." Shining Armor grimly replies, his tone conveying a touch of frustration.
"Considering the situation at the morgue, I'm inclined to believe the latter possibility, sir." Skyver comments.
"And now we have lost a golden opportunity to destroy the Agents of Chaos. His parents are dead, and with a forged birth certificate there's no chance that Fluttershy will ever know about him..." Shining Armor comments in turn.
"You seriously believe that story, sir?"
"He did identify the Jane Doe, Lieutenant. You can believe what you want, and it may not matter much in the end. But I believe the pernicious influence of the Agents of Chaos has done many bad things to good ponies, and if Fluttershy is one of those victims then it makes her success despite her beginnings that much more inspiring."
"If you say so, sir..." Skyver trails off, observing the dead Thornwing being wrapped by his subordinates, and wondering whether that dead stallion's story really was true and whether it would matter or not in the end...