//------------------------------// // Mistakes: Assignment // Story: Shine Of The Silver Sun // by Nameless Narrator //------------------------------// Next morning, an Order recruit watched the three finish their lap on Cross' training course before approaching and saluting to the group. "What's going on?" asked Anvil, saluting back. "Sir Cromach asks for your immediate presence in his office. Top priority." "We'll be right there." Training session cut short, the trio arrived in the griffon's office soon after. Cromach pacing from side to side behind his desk didn't fill them with optimism. "When was the last time you saw Connie?" he asked. "When she killed us," answered Anvil. "Actually," Astray coughed, "The night before yesterday." "Oh?" Cromach raised an eyebrow. "I couldn't sleep so I went out for a glass of water and found her completely drunk on the second floor balcony. She seemed calm, but said something about fixing her mistakes." The griffon closed his eyes and let out a loud sigh. "I was hoping the letter was a mistake," he pointed to an open envelope on his desk right next to a newspaper, "I got a message few hours ago that said Connie's order badge and her belongings including... nevermind were found unattended on the last train able to get to upper Canterlot." "What do you mean by 'able to get to Canterlot', sir?" Anvil tilted her head. "Is it about the mountain crumbling thing?" asked Bubbles. "Indeed," Cromach nodded. "EHM," Anvil coughed loudly, "What did I miss that everyone else knows?" Cromach shoved the newspaper to her across the desk. She picked it up and skimmed through the main article. The griffon gave her the short version. "The train track between lower and upper Canterlot has been demolished by an unexplained avalanche. The last train that got to the upper city had a single window broken. Connie's things were found in the empty coupe along with small amount of blood. According to the private report Celestia's agent sent me the window had been broken from the inside as if something forcefully pulled whoever was in the coupe out. The interrogated passengers said they heard stomping on the train's roof shortly before the avalanche." "Holy..." Anvil said a minotaur swear that sounded like her crunching gravel. "Any pointers to who... or what did it?" asked Astray. "No, but the train roof was dented as if an extremely heavy pony jumped all over the cars." "Where do we come in, sir?" Anvil tossed the newspaper back on Cromach's desk. "I think the attacker could have been the undead earthpony whom Connie fought off in the hospital. It is possible Connie was attacked for knowing Black Shield's face and name. Shield is cooperating with an unknown powerful unicorn magician who must be behind her reanimation into a flesh golem like the one we encountered in the sewers, but much stronger. For now I want you to go to Canterlot and ask for more details. I have to stay here since aside from me and Connie there's no one who really does the overall paperwork. Stars know Shadowstep's changelings don't give a damn about it." Cromach followed the complaint with a clear description of all he could remember about Black Shield and his encounters with her. "Alright, sir. When are we leaving?" "Pack anything you deem necessary, then go down to the treasury and the blacksmith. You'll have an official mission budget and real equipment. And one more thing," Cromach's tone turned even more serious, "If this Black Shield knew about Connie leaving the mansion and really is behind the attack, then she might know about you. Be extremely careful in anything you do. If you find any trace of Connie's... death, then report to me immediately. If you find her alive and following some sort of clue, don't try to stop her. Observe her, watch her back, help if necessary, but don't force her into anything. Anvil, you are still in charge of your team. Consider Connie a free Order agent this time." All three saluted. "Yes, sir!" they said as one. *** The Manehattan-Canterlot train pulled to a stop at the base of the mountain. From distance, the buildings of lower Canterlot formed a half-ring where the mountainside touched the ground. Above them and slightly further clockwise, the white spires of upper Canterlot halfway up the mountain cast shadows in the morning sunlight. [Attention all passengers! The train to Canterlot terminates in the lower city due to track problems up on the mountain. If you wish to continue to the upper city you need to use the wagon route leading up the other side of the mountain.] The announcing mare's voice coming from the speakers in the coupe went quiet. "Alright, here it goes," Anvil grabbed her belongings from the floor and started putting everything on and fastening it properly, "Our first real mission as a team. I know we're here only to get some information, but be ready for anything." Bubbles nodded and Astray saluted, both immediately checking their baggage and fastening everything where it should be. The seriousness of the situation was underlined by Anvil wearing real clothes for once rather than her usual skimpy attire. A chainmail had been made for her during her stay at the mansion, although she'd never worn it before today. The steel rings of the shirt fitted snugly around her endowed and also well-built chest, abs, and broad shoulders. Underneath, she wore one more shirt, although just a plain, white cloth one with no buttons so that the hair of her coat didn't get caught between links of the armor. Her bulging arms were bare aside from steel gauntlets ending high up her forearms. Astray had at first thought that she would wear her usual loincloth or tight pants even in the city like before, but Anvil had recieved perfectly fitting chain leggings along with a set of high boots and armored leather skirt. Her equipment was what made everyone turn their heards and their jaws drop at the show of how incredulously strong the minotaur truly was. Over one shoulder, she had a bandolier with all necessary documents, some food, gold, Order insignia, spare rolled-up clothing, and several small necessities. Over the other, though, she had slung a harness for her two-handed warmace which was held by studs so that she could easily just rip it from her back in need. Around her waist hung a sheath with a plain bastard sword, a holster with a griffon pistol for the use of which Anvil had an uncanny talent despite almost no training, and a pouch with spare ammo. In short, her whole equipment weight totalled to that of three ponies, and yet she moved as if it wasn't burdening her whatsoever. Astray recalled that during the outfitting session Anvil had said that nothing would make her wear a helmet, ever. The satyr, on the other hand, travelled fairly lightly. Aside from his paladin gauntlets, greaves, and boots, he'd opted for a chain mail like Anvil, but only cloth pants. He wore a backpack containing similar stuff to Anvil's - food, money, and the common daily things. In addition, he packed stuff Anvil had no space for - flashlights, protective bandanas, weapon cleaning supplies, and quick-burst lighters. Weapons-wise, he hadn't really wanted to take any, but he knew his gauntlets wouldn't be enough so he kept his longsword and a pistol, both hanging on a belt around his waist just like Anvil's. After the experience with his own helmet, Astray very much agreed with Anvil that he didn't want to wear it as long as it wasn't a certain life or death situation. Bubbles was carrying the least stuff. Her skin was the best armor ever considering the weight to protection ratio. Her teeth would outshine any blade a normal craftspony could forge, and her claws were a secondary weapon much, as they say, closer to hoof. However, she wore a helmet with triangles over ears which had a sliding part with muffs she could quickly shove to protect herself from loud noises. Around her neck, after last experience, hung the protective bandanna ready to be pulled over her muzzle because of a high possibility to encounter some rotting undead. Aside from that, she only wore a pair of saddlebags with the same contents as that of the others, but also a ball and a chew toy in case of some spare time. And a book for Anvil for the same reason. Oh, and something called 'rum' which smelled sharp and all herb-y and spicy. Astray had said she wasn't allowed to drink it unless told to. Thanks to all that, it made perfect sense for every pony who noticed the trio leaving the train to stop doing what they'd been doing and openly stare at least for a minute. The good part was that a wide path cleared for them as soon as Anvil took her first few steps on the platform. "So, where do we start, boss?" asked Astray with a smirk as they left the train station. "By shoving you into this mailbox if you call me boss again," Anvil retorted with absolute calm, "But since sir Cromach got that report about Contradiction likely being involved, I think the stuff she brought with her should be in the hooves of the Royal Guards. It might hold a clue to what she was trying to do in Canterlot. So, the nearest guardhouse would be a good place to start. They'll tell us who is responsible for this investigation." Several questions answered by local ponies later, the three entered a pristine building with two small alicorn statues, one of princess Celestia and one of her sister, by each side of a wide entrance from which armored ponies walked out, giving them surprised stares. Across the hall from entrance to main lower Canterlot guardhouse there was a desk with a brown pegasus wearing a blue police uniform. The writing on a grey metal plaque above read: Information. The walking armory currently by the name Anvil approached the guardspony cautiously watching her. The raised desk provided no help against the minotaur's towering form, and the pony had to crane his neck when Anvil got closer. "I'd like to know everything about the problem with the train tracks and a missing pony by the name Contradiction." The information pony shifted in his chair. "Miss, we don't just give such information to anypony. Unless you have some official recommendation then all I can tell you is that an investigation is currently underway and any pertinent results will be released to public when it is concluded." "Astray," Anvil nodded to the satyr who took his bag off, opened a small pocket on the front, and gave the information pony a silver badge with a sun rising over the horizon. The pegasus dragged a binder from a drawer, skimmed through it while looking at the badge, got nearly to the end, and then nodded, shoving the badge back to Astray. "Order of the Silver Sun, right. Ask commander Starstruck in office fourteen," he pointed to the left down the hallway, "Right door just behind the corner. Light purple unicorn, yellow mane. He's in charge of the digging operation." "Digging?" asked Anvil. "Through the avalanche," the pegasus nodded, "He's the pony you want to talk to." "Thank you for your assistance," Astray hid his badge back into his backpack, and followed Anvil to Starstruck's office. The unicorn nearly fell from his chair after answering the knocking and calling out to the visitors to come inside. When he gathered himself, and resigned himself to anything that was coming because Anvil, Astray, and Bubbles were between him and his suit of armor resting on a rack by the door, he nodded to the single visitor chair in front of his desk. "What brings you here?" he asked, still visibly nervous. "We're from the Order of the Silver Sun in Manehattan. Our boss recieved a report about the train incident and sent us here to investigate a disappearance of one of our fr- colleagues." Astray immediately presented his Order badge again. After yet another careful examination, the item was returned and Starstruck shuffled some papers on the side of his desk, pulling out a single document. Then he stood up, rummaged through bunch of drawers covering the entire wall behind him, and recovered a grey, significantly thicker, binder. "Alright," he muttered while turning the pages, "It states that ambassador Cromach of the Silver Sun has already been informed about the situation. I assume he is your boss, right?" "Exactly," Anvil nodded, "But he sent us to investigate as Silver Sun representatives." "I see. Well, the only ongoing operation is the cleanup of the avalanche. The train has already been checked and is currently in upper Canterlot train depot where it is awaiting repairs which can't happen until the investigation is over." "Where are Contradiction's things? Sir Cromach said they were left on the train." "They are up in the castle. Considering your Order is a semi-government agency, all official belongings that might lead to revealing secret information must be held in a secure vault until recovery by an official agent." "Umm," Bubbles poked Astray and whispered, "What does that mean?" "That someone could steal our badges and pretend they're us to get classified info," Astray answered. "Oooooh." "Exactly," Starstruck nodded, "So, you'll have to ask in the castle for your colleague's belongings. I have a copy of the latest results here, though. As far as the train goes, it seems that only one window has been broken, and that happened several minutes before the train reached the place where the avalanche occured. We found shards of glass further down the track which fit the train window. However, we also found some splinters of wood and a piece of iron frame." "Sir Cromach assumes Contradiction was pulled out of the coupe by something on the roof of the train." Starstruck nodded. "Correct. The thing is that whoever or whatever pulled her out was extremely strong to drag her out along with a piece of the window she'd been holding onto." Astray and Anvil exchanged glances. Starstruck continued, reading his documents: "The second clue we found were dents and some broken vent covers on the train roof. Somepony, and I am sure it was a big pony, jumped across the train cars. The dents led from the car in which Contradiction was seated towards the end of the train. Two things were strange about the whole thing. The big dents were filled with traces of decomposing necrotic tissue, and in several places there was a cleanly pierced hole through the roof behind those." "The tail," Anvil scowled, "An undead flesh golem with a stabby whip tail." "I take it you have an idea who is involved, hmm?" Starstruck raised an eyebrow. Anvil recapped what had happened at the hospital, and mentioned Cromach's brief explanation of the events at the Goldhorn mansion. "-and he said her name was Black Shield." Starstruck's ear twitched. "Black Shield... Black Shield... name rings a bell," a spark shot out of his horn, "Ah hah!" he jumped up and explored his drawers again, eventually pulling out a different binder, one with red 'CLOSED' stamped over it, "Black Shield, a Royal Guard gone missing after being sent to investigate a break-in into Princess Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Supposedly she has not reported to the school after the call for assistance. The case was closed due to lack of clues of any sort. Are you saying she is dead now, or undead?" "Sir Cromach thinks a powerful wizard killed her and reanimated her as a golem of some sort. She and the wizard stole something from the Goldhorn mansion. We weren't told what exactly." "I remember that case as well. We don't get too many big things like that one here often. Two culprits, one definitely a unicorn necromancer, attacked some important party of nobility. I suppose the other one would be your Black Shield then," Starstruck shook his head, "I'd like to help you, but aside from reporting to those upstairs that those cases are connected with Black Shield's disappearance I can't do much. You can go check up on the avalanche investigation party if you want. I'll write you an official letter that'll make them cooperate. That, or I guess you can get your Order member's belongings from the castle. Maybe check the train for something we might have missed?" "I'll think about that," Anvil gave Starstruck a quick bow, "Can you write that official letter in the meantime?" "Of course. Wait for me outside, please," the police pony walked over to a side table with a prepared typewriter. Outside the office, Anvil called for a strategy huddle. Well, not literally. "I think we should split up," she said, "I'll go check the avalanche with Bubbles. She has crazy senses and might spot something. I'll be there just in case someone refuses to cooperate. That, and I used to be a tracker up north before leaving. I know what to look for on the ground. I hope I haven't gone completely soft with you little ponies in your safe cities." "I can come with you, or...?" Astray gave her a puzzled look. "No reason to waste time, I think. I doubt you can bring anything I or Bubbles don't already have concerning the wilderness. You could check the train and get Contradiction's things from the castle. You're not bad at the diplomatic talk, and I think you'll need it." "Oh, expecting trouble at the castle?" "No, we are clearly going against a powerful wizard. I want you to use that kind-hearted naive idiot face of yours to ask around the School for Gifted Unicorns. Even I heard about that place and it's supposed to host some of the best magicians in Equestria. Black Shield disappeared on the way to the school, someone might have snagged her and covered tracks. If not, we're going to need magical help anyway. Maybe ask a janitor or somepony if he didn't see her, anyone who isn't a wizard." "I probably should be offended but I'll take it as a compliment that you believe I can do it," Astray chuckled. Anvil put her hands on his shoulders and looked down at him with a serious expression. "If anything goes wrong, run like blazes. I'd hate to have to kill your undead ass." Astray couldn't help the wide grin growing on his face. "Don't worry, I doubt I'd have much value as a zombie." "I'm serious! On the first suspicious move, punch the closest asshole you see and run," she pointed her finger at his chest. "Alright, alright. Calm down, nothing in the world can stop me from ogling that," and in turn he pointed his finger at her vastly broader and rounder upper body. "Good, though I know you prefer something a little lower." Astray's waist suddenly felt heavy and incredibly hot. He looked down on Bubbles hugging him with a worried look. "Be careful..." "Come on, we're making this too over the top. No one is going to attack me in a building full of ponies in the middle of the day. You're the ones in danger in case more rocks decide to drop out of nowhere. So, where and when do we meet afterwards?" The office door opened behind them, revealing Starstruck with a piece of paper he offered Anvil. "Show this to the rescue party. There's a bunch of ponies at the base of the mountain checking the stretch of land the avalanche destroyed. There are volunteers, Royal Guards, and I think even a wizard from the School of Gifted Unicorns helping. They usually don't work with the Guard, but they know some serious complex spells the Guard doesn't teach." "Who do we ask for?" "Either sargeant Pavement Pounder, a big dark blue earthpony, or the wizard guy they sent from the top... Secret Seeker was his name." "Will do," Anvil nodded. "Anything else I can help you with?" "If we remember something we'll be back." "Good luck then. I'll report the Black Shield thing as soon as possible," Starstruck disappeared back into his office and closed the door. "So," Anvil patted Astray's shoulder, "How about we meet up at the entrance to the lower Canterlot train station at six? We have to circle around the mountain to find the search party and you have to go up and down. We can look for a place to sleep afterwards. We passed at least four taverns on the way here." "Understood," Astray saluted. *** It took Bubbles and Anvil close to two hours to circle around Canterlot mountain and reach the investigation site. The base of the mountain was filled with crumbled rocks and dirt, some crooked trees only growing in high places, making the whole area look like it was washed down from the top. Anvil had good eyes, and something felt off about the place. "Strange," she muttered to herself which didn't go past Bubbles' ears. "What is? The ponies?" The halfling meant a group of about thirty ponies walking between the rocks, only few of them wearing Royal Guard suits of armor and the others likely being the diggers and helping hooves. "No," Anvil shook her head and looked up at the mountain again, shielding her eyes from the bright blue sky, "We get avalanches all the time up north, although snow ones. They start as small rocks letting loose and rolling around in snow until they are giant balls. These rocks look weird, big. As if a chunk of the mountain simply collapsed. The thing is that if mount Canterlot was crumbling somepony would have noticed already. The Canterlot wizards must be checking their home for any irregularities." "Excellent observation," a unicorn wearing a brown robe commented, stepping carefully over the bigger of the rocks. He had a rusty red mane similar to Bubbles' coat. From what Anvil could see not covered by the robe his coat was dark purple, "However, may I ask what brings you here? This isn't exactly an area open to public." Reaching down to Bubbles' bag, Anvil took out Starstruck's letter and presented it to the unicorn. His eyes narrowed as he read it. "I... see. Order of the Silver Sun," he said slowly, then smiled and levitated the letter back to Anvil, "My name is Secret Seeker, and I'll be happy to answer all your questions. Plus, if you're willing to help you can check the part of the avalanche which hit the forest. We haven't gotten there yet. Some preliminary examination would not be wasted." Anvil nodded. "My name is Anvil. I used to be a tracker up north, and Bubbles here has really good sense of smell. Any idea what we should be looking for, though?" Secret Seeker shrugged. "Anything unusual that might be related to the reason why a landslide of this magnitude would happen. The royal wizards monitor the mountain's structure keenly, and saw nothing like this coming. A sabotage, maybe? The damage to the mountain itself makes no sense either, so look for remains of explosives and so forth. Anything out of place. Plus, a pony supposedly went missing from the last train able to get up the tracks around the time of the event, so there's that as well. Oh, I almost forgot. Some witnesess from lower Canterlot said they saw flashes up on the tracks right before the collapse. That's why the explosives theory." "I see. Thank you for your assistance, mister Seeker," Anvil nodded, "We'll be sure to tell you if we find anything." Secret Seeker nodded and strode away towards an earthpony currently talking to two diggers with shovels who according to Starstruck's description had to be Pavement Pounder. On the way, his horn started to shimmer and kept sending pulses of light all over the ground near him. Anvil looked at the completely shaved track of mountainside and shook her head. The area was wide open into grasslands of Equestria on all sides but the one away from their location where a forest stopped the falling rocks like a dam. "This place is huge," she muttered, "and, to be honest, I am better at spotting tracks than sorting through this mess. I think it is up to you this time." "I'll sniff like I've never sniffed before!" Bubbles performed the best salute she could and started taking deep breaths. Anvil just stood and watched her. Suddenly, Bubbles' ear twitched and her nostrils flared. Turning her head around to get the right direction, the mare opened her eyes not to trip on the ground full of obstacles, but followed only the lead of her nose. The crunching of rocks and grass underneath Anvil's boots was distracting, but Bubbles focused harder and harder on the unpleasant scent of iron and faint trace of familiar sweat until... "Ow!" she recoiled and rubbed her muzzle. ...she bumped into a rock bigger than Anvil half-buried in the ground. Circling it around, she sniffed it from all sides. "I smell blood and miss Connie's sweat, I think. She always smells weird, it makes me hot." "She always smells like someone with her hoof up her crotch most of the time who doesn't know what a shower- ooooh, I see," Anvil stopped her muttering, looked at the huge rock, and bit her lip, "Do you think this boulder crushed her?" Bubbles shook her head vigorously. "I don't smell much blood, and no dead body. I'll never forget how bleh that is," Bubbles stuck her tongue out and spat on the ground. "So she was up there. Blood and sweat? Maybe this just hit her or she was wounded and propped herself on this. Are you getting anything else?" "I smell only this." "Have a run around the dig site and see if you can sniff anything out," Anvil lay on the ground as if getting ready for pushups, "This is more of my thing." "Is it time for more training?" Bubbles hesitated. "I'm looking at the grass, dummy. Go sniff around as I said." "On it!" Bubbles rushed off. This far away from the other digging or chatting ponies, Anvil could listen and think. She ruled out that Contradiction had been around. There were absolutely no tracks, or if they had been they were now ruined by the rockslide. Other than that, in the ten minutes of Bubbles being absent, she found absolutely nothing. The mare returned with a dejected expression. "Nothing, I take it," the minotaur frowned. "No. I talked to mister Seeker again, though, and he told me he is in charge of magical recon-nose-sense?" "Reconnaissance," Anvil corrected her, "That means information gathering." "Yeah, that. He even showed me his cutie mark. It's a question mark, all glowy and stuff." "That's... nice and all," Anvil hated to disappoint the enthusiastic mare, but this really wasn't what they needed, "but how does that help us find something Contradiction-related?" "I'm not sure, but I think he doesn't like me. He smelled worried, and I didn't even grin at him." "I'm certain he's just nervous from having a minotaur and a half-demon running around. Plus a mountain can drop on him at any point for no reason. It would take nerves of steel ot ignore that. Oh well, I'm not really one to go walking around for hours with a shovel, and I doubt we can make this digging progress any faster. Maybe we should go back and wait for Astray. See if he found something better than we did." "We should tell mister Seeker about this rock as well." "Definitely. Maybe his magic will show-" Anvil stomped to get the dirt off of her boots with her hand propped against the boulder for stability. The ground cracked. She looked at her legs, and at dirt starting to trickle into some sort of a hole. Growing hole. "Oh sh- aaaaah!" "Aaaaaaaaaaa- oof!" Darkness, feeling of stomach attempting to leave via ears, pain in her back as Anvil hit something hard, then pain in her tight abs as something not so heavy and hard hit her. "Arrrgh," she groaned, and the burden left her belly. "I landed on something soft," Bubbles chirped in the near darkness. "That... was me..." huffed Anvil, rolling over and standing up on what felt like chiseled stone. The fall couldn't have been long, and as Anvil looked upwards and her vision cleared, she saw a square of clear sky at just over twice her height. "Hey, here's the blood!" she heard Bubbles exclaim amidst the scritching and clopping of her claws and hooves on hard stone surface. Unfortunately, the light coming from the improvised skylight barely brightened the complete darkness, and while Bubbles was adapting and seeing better with each second, Anvil was in a grey and black world of waving her hands and taking careful steps. "I can't see anything." "Mpfh mmt heew," said Bubbles, clearly with something in her mouth. "Hey!" Anvil heard a cautious voice from above, "I heard a scream. What's going on?" She looked up at a unicorn head outlined against the sky. The pulsating horn belonged to none other than Secret Seeker. "The ground gave out under my legs and we dropped in here," the minotaur called out loudly, immediately followed by a shoving of metal as Bubbles slid the mufflers on her ears. "I hear you loud and clear. Stay there! I'll get someone with a ladder," Seeker's head disappeared, leaving Anvil in complete silence. Long silence. "Umm, should't he be calling somepony? I only heard him walk away," Bubbles commented. "Yeah, considering our situation he could have at least been running..." Anvil's voice drifted off. "The police pony said mister Seeker was a bigwig from the wizard school. Why didn't he just teleport us out, or levitated us or something? Is it because you are carrying all those weapons and armor?" "Being a high-tier mage doesn't make you adept at handling a crisis. Most ponies just stop thinking and run around like chickens with their heads cut-" A loud creak from behind was all the warning Anvil needed to grab Bubbles standing next to her by her mane with one hand and toss her forward with a surprised yelp. The minotaur herself simply lunged ahead in hope that the empty space she had blindly explored before was open and wide. Rumbling, chaos, dust, coughing, complete darkness. "Dammit!" Anvil cursed, coughing and gathering herself from the floor again. All of a sudden, bright light blinded her completely. "Oops, sorry," Bubbles shone the flashlight away from Anvil's face, "I never know which end is the blinding pointer thing and which one is the light." "Damn, you're smarter than I am," Anvil dove into her bandalier and pulled out the thin Order spotlight along with the bandanna which she promptly put over her muzzle to deflect all the raised dust, "Much better." Behind her was a mass of rubble and soil propped by the enormous boulder the top of which must have been what they had been examining on the surface. It must have gotten loose and tipped over, taking the ceiling of whatever... tunnel they were in now with it. Unfortunately, there was no way out of the crumbled corridor other than to follow it. "Bubbly, cover your ears." *Click, click!* "HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY! WE'RE DOWN HERE! CAN ANYPONY HEAR US?" Anvili repeated the scream as loud as she could several times, only to be answered with absolute silence. Finally giving up, she tapped on Bubbles' helmet. "They can't hear us, I think," the mare added her helpful analysis of the situation. "Can't... or maybe don't want to," Anvil mumbled, suddenly filled with suspicion. "What do you mean?" "This Black Shield pony disappeared investigating a crime in the wizard school. Evidence points to her being on the train with Contradiction. Sir Cromach said she was an undead serving a powerful wizard. The most powerful wizards in Canterlot teach at the school where they can also do research. All that, and Starstruck said it wasn't usual for a member of the wizards school to work with the Royal Guards. That, and you yourself said Secret Seeker was nervous around you." "You think he tried to collapse the tunnel on us?" Bubbles gasped, and immediately started coughing from all the dust slowly settling around. "Actually, I wasn't," Anvil hummed to herself, "but now that you mentioned it... it could be. It could also be a complete coincidence," she shone her flashlight on the celing of the tunnel where wooden beams propped what looked like solid stone. The boulder from the mountain must have crashed through and they had fallen through the edge of the main hole, "I just thought that more wizards must know about this Black Shield because it can't be easy to hide a monster like her and a powerful unicorn able to control her." "Wait, isn't Astray going to the wizard school place?" asked Bubbles, following it by a whimper. "Yeah, but calm down. As he himself said - there's no way anypony would try to do anything to him in a building full of ponies." Too bad she knew full well she sounded like trying to persuade herself. "Mhm." "Anyway, ehm, let's find our way from here. If my craaaazy suspicion is wrong, which it must be, we can always come back here to a hole dug for us. If not, we'll have to find a way out ourselves," she tried to sound as sure of herself as possible not to worry the little mare, "Let's go. I wonder where this tunnel leads." "Another sewer, or maybe a cellar?" Anvil shrugged, walking forwards with her flashlight in her hand and the other on the handle of her sheathed sword. "Maybe. No point in just guessing, though." The silence was penetrated only by their steps echoing in the seemingly endless tunnel. "Wanna play a game?" she asked uncharacteristically quiet Bubbles after a while. Anvil was sure the demonette was worrying sick about Astray and decided to lighten the mood. "Huh? Fetch?" "No, something we can do while walking. How about word hoofball?" "What's that? You write a word in the dust and I kick it?" "No, dummy. I say a word, and you have to say one beginning with the same letter mine ended with. Then it's my turn and so on. You can use each word only once." "Sounds fun. I'll prove that I listened to you reading your big word history books," Bubbles sounded much more cheerful, "What's the word?" Anvil grinned to herself. "Morale." "That ends with L, right?" "E" "Damn it!" Bubbles clicked her tongue, "Got it - ammo!" "That starts with A, not E." "Really?" Anvil couldn't help smiling. The little devil had pretty much no education. She could read and count if she tried, but definitely wasn't used to it too much. Oh well, at least she was doing her best. "Element." "Great job, Bubbly," Anvil patted Bubbles' head, "Tradition." "Nose," was the quickfire answer. "Empathy." "Teacup." "Nope, mine ends with Y." "Damn it!" Meh, better than nervously shaking in her boots anyway.