//------------------------------// // Chapter 31 // Story: Twilight Sparkle and the Master Thief // by DungeonMiner //------------------------------// “Using the shaft to let the guard in seemed like a great idea,” Night said, as he listened to the sounds emanating from the cave. “Of course it was,” Azure said, standing next to him and the Princess. “The Princess has an incredibly tactically sound mind. Attacking both sides means that the enemy cannot take shelter and hold their defensive positions easily. Instead, they are caught between two forces, and if they defend from one, they’ll be vulnerable to the other.” “Don’t sell yourself short, Azure,” Twilight said. “You already began to split the teams once I said it existed.” “I merely tried to anticipate your will, Your Highness,” Azure replied. Night nodded. “And Moon was the first arrest?” Night asked. “He actively surrendered when he saw the guard. Claimed that we’d have to help his father.” “If he’s here, we’ll find him,” Twilight said. “If not, then you’ll still have to hold up your end of the bargain.” “Does this really count as him helping me?” Night asked. “I mean, I hoped he might have started a rebellion or—” “He distracted the cave entrance guard and gave me the directions to your cell,” Twilight said. “That is help.” “Fine,” Night muttered. “I guess that’s fair.” The three watched for a moment or two as another set of screams echoed out of the cave. “Really bringing the hammer down,” Night remarked. “Reminds me of the times that we worked on taking out some slave trading rings.” Azure smirked. “Yes. That was what, nine years ago? Under Captain Armor, right?” Night nodded. “Yeah, he did—” “Wait, wait!” Twilight interrupted. “Armor as in Shining Armor?” “Yeah,” Night said. “You worked with Shining?” Twilight asked. “Who else would I mean? He was the captain of the guard.” “And you didn’t say anything?” she asked. “I have the Crystal Empire on speed dial! I could have gotten a letter from him in a day!” “Well, I wasn’t sure you’d bother tracking a pony that quit something like seven years before your ascension,” Night said. “Captain Armor is actually the Princess’s brother,” Azure explained. “Oh...actually, you know I can see that.” Azure nodded. “The similarities are subtle but uncanny.” The silence continued for a moment or two, and the three stood outside for their vigil. The warehouse stood nearby, just slightly to the side of the trio of ponies watching over the cave to make sure no one escaped. “I hope Gleaming doesn’t put up a fight,” Night muttered to himself quietly. “I’m still going to try to help her, Night, I promise,” Twilight said. “We can arrange a good cell for her, can’t we, Azure?” “As you will, Your Highness,” Azure said. “I shall also prepare a therapist to begin meetings with her, as well as a full mental evaluation. If you wish her to be reformed, I will do all in my power to give you the tools.” “You can tone it down a notch, Azure,” Twilight said. “As you will, Your Highness,” he replied. Twilight glanced down at the cave and cast a Perceive spell to glimpse into the tunnels. Ponies were fighting desperately with the guard, throwing their bodies into the wall of golden armor and spears in a vain attempt to escape. None of them had been caught with something so serious on their records. These were crimes that might have no chance at parole, and wildly expensive bails, that only their bosses could pay. The same bosses that stood behind them panicking. Twilight’s vision was missing a few spots, areas where the Thronestone hid with rock and dirt, but from what she could see, her guard was making good time and good progress into the tunnels, securing prisoners as they went. “They’re doing well,” Twilight remarked. “Holding chokepoints, forcing the enemy to move into disadvantageous positions. They’re doing an excellent job. You’ve trained your ponies well, Azure.” “Thank you, Your Highness,” Azure replied. “I train them only to carry out your will, Princess.” Twilight nodded before she cut her spell. “Well, they certainly seem like they’re going to manage just fine on their own. Do make sure though that Gleaming is secured properly so that we can work carefully.” Azure nodded. “Do you think it’ll take, Night?” Twilight asked. No response came. “Night?” But Night was gone. ---$--- “Idiots,” Gleaming muttered to herself as she pushed a crate to the motorized riverboat she was trying to commandeer. “Not one of them could make sure they weren’t being followed. Not one of them could make sure they were staying around the Thronestone at all times. Somepony had to mess…” She struggled as the crate hit a bump in the floor. She groaned as she lifted the wooden box over the ridge before she dropped it back down. “...mess it up.” The crate had everything she needed. Ever since she collected them, Gleaming had nearly run Moon Light’s thieves into the ground with work. They managed to steal a dormant Siren Stone, the Sword of Lusitano, the Hooked Blade of Harpsong, the Radiant Shield of Razdon, and a small, lead chest of Thronestone sitting at the bottom of the crate. The Siren stone had the incredible promise of charming ponies if she could get it working again. The Sword of Lusitano was a golden macuahuitl whose emerald blades could light afire to bite through castle walls. The Hooked Blade of Harpsong, whose single edge could cleave through armor and whose hook-like protrusion on the back could turn a pony to stone, gleamed in the light there as well. Everything in that crate would get her started somewhere else with a better crew. Maybe Abyssinia would be an excellent place to start, their need to go to lawsuits meant that she could probably get away with buying off a good lawyer and— “So this is where you ran off to,” a voice said behind her, and she turned to see Night standing on the mezzanine floor in the back end of the warehouse. Gleaming stared up at him, eyes narrowed. “How’d you know I was here.” Night smirked. “I saw you trying to close the door. I barely noticed you if it’s any consolation.” Gleaming scowled. “So what? You’re going to stop me now?” “I’m going to try,” Night replied, “but not before I ask you a very important question.” “Oh, really, and what’s that?” “I’m going to ask you, Gleaming, one more time, join my side. Come work with me for the Princess. It’s not nearly as much glory, but the pay’s good. It’s not ruling the world, but it’s nice... it’s nice to be appreciated.” “That’s your sell?” Gleaming asked. “It’s nice?” “It’s... it’s more than that, Gleaming. It’s... it’s hard to explain.” “Then maybe it’s just not worth it,” Gleaming snarked. “Look, Night. How about this, you’ve won. My whole operation here has been effectively undermined. You’ve won. I’ll leave, and we’ll call it even for old time’s sake.” “And then what?” Night asked. “I dunno,” she said. “I might head off to Abyssinia, try and start a business.” “With those artifacts?” Night asked. “Try to build a new criminal empire in a different country before you try and come back here?” “Who says I’m coming back?” “I know you too well, Gleaming. You’re angry. You’ve made that clear back when you had me tied to a table. You don’t let things go. You never have. You’d rather die than let something go. You’ll come back, this time with more ponies, more money, and with even greater ambitions. No, I can’t let you go. We both know that.” Gleaming snorted before she glanced up at him and reached for the crate lid. She pulled out the golden sword. The intricate emerald guard seemed to erupt from the handle, and the gemstone blades gleamed in a non-existent light. “Yes, we do both know that, don’t we?” She spun the sword, and the emeralds sparked to life, roaring with emerald fire as she threw the blade across the building. The old, dry-rotted wood caught fire in a flash as the sword flew in a broad arc, spinning through the air like a boomerang before it returned to Gleaming’s hoof. “Then let’s not waste any more time.” Night blinked and tried to hide the fact that he felt taken aback by the fact that Gleaming just lit the entire building on fire. He leaped from the mezzanine and suddenly found himself facing the brutal blade. The macuahuitl bit into the floor, and Night just barely missed the attack, only for Gleaming to swing the flat of the massive golden blade slammed into him. He felt ribs crack beneath the blow, and he went flying to the wall. Gleaming laughed. “Magical weapons are so fun, aren’t they? Incredible strength, the ability to never bleed no matter how deep the wound, fire, ice, or even a combination of them. Who knows what you’re getting when you pick one up?” Night tried to get up, his chest burning from the attack. “And I didn’t even hit you with the blade,” she said, smiling as the emerald blades glinted in the firelight around her. Night got to his hooves, the fire burning higher and hotter with each second. She leaped at him, driving the blade down and rending the wall behind him apart with the jagged, razor edges of the macuahuitl. Fire flashed out of the new hole, eating new and fresh oxygen with glee that only an inferno could match. Night jumped to the side, feeling the ache in his ribs as his muscles, still exhausted, could barely keep up. He felt his legs shaking as they ran on pure endorphins, and he felt slow compared to Gleaming’s fresh and rapid movements. A horizontal slash cut across the air, which brought the weapon’s sparkling, razor-sharp blades within a fraction of an inch of his throat. Gleaming continued to push forward, attacking with reckless abandon as she forced Night back across the warehouse toward the sheltered dock. Night was quickly beginning to regret this. He wasn’t a fighter, and he never had been. He couldn’t take on Gleaming like in a fight like this, which became even more apparent with each strike she made. He dropped beneath another swing, which cleanly cleaved through the supporting pillar that stood behind him, and forced him to change his retreat. He continued to fall back against the pegasus’s assault, the heavy, golden weapon whistling through the air with each strike. She laughed, grinning savagely while a mad glint shone in her eye. “You’ve made me do this, Night,” she cried. “You’ve made me! We could have ruled this country together like we always wanted to, but you had to run from it like the coward you are. Too afraid of your precious Princess to see the truth. You could have let me go, but you’ve turned yourself into a loyal dog that had to bark when the Princess said so.” She kept swinging, forcing Night closer and closer to the water’s edge. “Now look at where you are, look at what you made me do!” Night bumped into something, and he risked a glance back to see the crate of magical artifacts. He grabbed whatever he could with his magic and raised it vainly in defense of the next blow. The ring of steel sound and the macuahuitl stopped dead as it hit the Hooked Blade of Harpsong. The long straight blade held firm against the deadly emeralds, and the hook-like protrusion on the other side of the sword glinted evilly. “Foster used to say that too,” Night said, saying the only thing he could that might distract her. “I didn’t believe him either.” For a brief moment, Night watched as Gleaming’s face flew from shock, confusion, and then to rage. She roared as she pushed Night away, though the hooked blade proved harder for her to move than before. She swung wildly, her eyes wild, but focused with terrible concentration. Night raised his own blade to block, and the macuahuitl ran down the blunted edge of Harpsong’s sword before resting softly in the hook. He raised the weapon, up and over his head, in a move that seemed to perform itself, but Gleaming came around, smashing into Night’s head with the flat. The world spun, and Night couldn’t see for the sparks that flashed against the back of his eyes. He was vaguely aware that he dropped his sword. “Don’t!” Gleaming yelled, binging the flat back down into the back of Night’s skull. “Ever!” Again she brought it down, and Night felt his legs go out from beneath him. “Compare me to him!” Night’s world was spinning. He couldn’t see, he could barely hear, and the only thing that let him know he was still awake was the heat of the fire against his coat. Night looked up, trying to see what was going on, and did the only thing he could. He cast a spell. ---$--- Night tried, to his credit, to roll out of the way. He tried to escape judgment. But Gleaming knew better. He wasn’t going to make it out alive. She brought down the sword in a brutal chop, cutting off Night’s escape as he tried to roll off of the old, wooden dock. The flames began to burn across the port hungrily, and Night found himself cornered by fire. “Well this is it, huh, Night?” she asked mockingly. “This is how our precious little family ends? I kill you and run off to Abyssinia? It’s a shame.” Night moved back, stumbling across the dock, the groaned against the Gleaming’s weight. She swung the Sword of Lusitano down on him again. He barely managed to skitter out of the way of the attack. He glanced around wildly, trying to search for something. “Looking for a way out, Night?” Gleaming asked. “Are you trying to run away again? Haven’t you learned anything?” Night glanced around again before he leaped for something to the side. Gleaming brought the sword down on him, and the emerald blades but deep into Night’s leg. And then he stood up, as though nothing happened. Gleaming had just enough time to be surprised before the Image before her disappeared, and she felt cold steel against her neck. For a moment, the burning warehouse meant nothing. The fire climbing higher and higher seemed to fade into the background, and everything was quiet. “I’m sorry, Gleaming,” Night said. “I’m so, so sorry.” He had the hook around her throat, Harpsong’s blade pressed closely against her. Gleaming didn’t move. “I’m so, so sorry, Gleaming. I didn’t want this for us. I just wanted us to be safe. That’s all I wanted…” Gleaming didn’t move, didn’t even breathe. Night glanced up at her again, only to realize that she was no longer flesh and bone. Gleaming had been turned to stone. Night blinked before the dock groaned again. He was then plunged into the water, surrounded by rotten wood and a large, massive statue of the mare he once called a sister. The figure was pinning him and dragged him to the bottom of the dock before something exploded. Night went spinning deeper in the water before something small, hard, and metallic slammed into the water and smashed into his head. And then his world went dark. ---$--- It took Twilight longer than she would care to admit to notice that the warehouse was on fire. She had been searching the area for Night, trying to figure out where he was and what he was doing before she saw the flickering lights of the fire peeking through the warehouse. The second she did, she knew that Night was in there. She ran over, blowing the doors open with a blast of magic, and called out. “Night! Night are you there!” Night didn’t answer her. Instead, she barely caught sight of a statue, falling backward into a hole in the burning dock. “Night? Night?” she called out again before she turned to the riverboat. The gas cans loaded up on it were being licked by the flames. Her eyes widened as she saw it, and she had just enough time to Create a wall of Energy to shield herself. The explosion rocked her through her shield, and Twilight was pushed harmlessly away. She skidded back in a bubble of her own defenses, and she quickly found herself surrounded on all sides by flame. She reached out and cast Destroy Energy, snuffing the fire around her as the explosion began to die. The warehouse had been nearly destroyed. The riverboat was sinking, split in half, the mezzanine leaned crazily to one side, and the crate had been nearly vaporized, the magical contents scattered across the warehouse but otherwise unharmed. “Your Highness!” Azure called from the door, keeping them open. “I’m alright! Find Night!” She cast her scrying spell on Night, trying to get a sense of where he was. The spell grasped at nothing. Twilight’s heart leaped to her throat, and she cast the spell again, this time on Night’s old rebar hook. It appeared in her sight, fourteen paces to her right. Twilight cursed. “He can’t be dead,” she said. She began to search the burning building more frantically. Night had to be here somewhere in all this rubble. He just had to be, and she had to find him. The metal struts that held the roof in place began to groan under the strain. A chunk of the ceiling fell to the ground with a clang. She cast Destroy Energy again, snuffing out another radius of flame. He had to be here somewhere. He just had to be. He couldn’t be dead. “Your Highness!” Azure called again. “You need to get out of there!” “I need to find him!” she said. “The building is about to collapse!” Azure cried. “I need to find Night!” “Your Highness, with all due respect, you cannot find him buried under the rubble!” Twilight grit her teeth. She needed to find Night. But...but he was right. The warehouse groaned again, and she looked up. Then again, she was the Archmage Ruler, and that had to mean something. She dropped to the floor and poured all her concentration into her horn. Her eyes began to glow white with power as she began to cast Control Matter on everything around her. She grabbed the walls, the roof, and everything around her before she pushed it all away. She tossed the walls aside, some still burning as she pushed it aside. She released them all with a heavy breath and nearly collapsed to the floor. Azure was next to her in an instant. “Your Highness!” “I’m... I’m fine…,” she said, “but I need you to find Night.” “As you will, Princess,” Azure said. Once the guard had returned from the cave, Azure organized them into a search party. They looked everywhere, sifting through the rubble and even diving in the river to search for Night. However, after hours of searching, the only thing they found that was even remotely pony-shaped was a statue in the perfect likeness of Gleaming Coin. Not a sign was found of Night.