Moonwhisper took a deep breath as he massaged his temple with one hoof. “Let me make sure I have this correct. A unicorn mare dressed in guard armor attempted to access the palace, had her access badge fail, and neither of you thought to take her into custody? Or even report the incident until after the festival? The festival where we had multiple unexplained security issues?”
“To be fair, sir, with all the increases to the Canterlot garrison it’s not all that unusual for us to run into guards we don’t…recognize,” one of the two guards standing in front of Moonwhisper said, his words faltering as Moonwhisper glared at him so furiously the guard worried he might catch fire.
“Let me make this perfectly clear. If somepony attempts to access a restricted area without a working badge you are to detain them until their identity can be verified. I don’t care if that pony happens to be your squadmate, your mother, or PRINCESS RUTTING CELESTIA!” Moonwhisper slammed both of his front hooves down onto the desk in front of him as he roared out the last part. As the two terrified guards in front of him nodded their heads, Moonwhisper settled back down into his seat. “Alright then. Now, you two are to report to Criminal Investigations, where you will provide them with a thorough description of this mystery mare. If she is an actual guardspony then I want to know what she was doing, and if not then I want Canterlot turned upside down until she’s located. Dismissed.” Both guards quickly exited the office Moonwhisper had temporarily commandeered, nearly crashing into each other in their rush to escape. “Now that that’s settled you can come out in the open,” Moonwhisper said to the apparently empty room. After a moment or two passed, however, the shadows in the corner of the room started to twist and distort as Greater Good stepped out into view.
“Aw, you’re no fun. How long have you known I was there?” Greater Good asked.
“Somewhere between hearing how the idiots Shining Armor installed have managed to fail to report a major potential attempted security breach and the realization of the likelihood of a connection between that and the rest of the chaos the festival had,” Moonwhisper replied. “Now, do you have something useful to tell me, or are you just here to annoy me?”
“A little of both, to be honest,” Greater Good quipped. “On a semi-related note, I’d like to thank you for deciding not to, quote, ‘shove the Flashstone Amulet so far up my rectum that ponies would be able to see it when I open my mouth’, end quote.”
“I was cautioned that doing so would have potentially damaged the amulet,” Moowhisper replied dryly. “Now, you indicated that you actually had a valid reason for being here?”
“Ugh, fine. I wanted to let you know that, in addition to everything else, we apparently had a theft from the Canterlot Archives. Specifically, one of the more valuable books in the Starswirl the Bearded wing,” Greater Good said, prompting Moonwhisper to smack his head down onto the desk.
“Oh, for the love of Celestia! At least tell me you were able to identify what was stolen,” Moonwhisper said.
“Would we be having this conversation if I hadn’t already figured that much out?” Greater Good asked. “I mean, how could I be smugly self-confident if I didn’t know that by now?”
“Oh, I have faith you’d find a way, but if you know the answer then why don’t you tell me already,” Moonwhisper snorted impatiently.
“Alright, fine. Thankfully it wasn’t anything particularly dangerous, just a historical record of Grogar’s rein back in the pre-Classical era. You know, accounts of crimes against ponykind, what his artifacts did, that sort of thing. It was worth a fortune, that’s why it was under lock and key, but nothing dangerous by itself,” Greater Good said. “Honestly, I wouldn’t have even mentioned it if it weren’t for all the other stuff that was going on.”
“‘Not dangerous by itself’…” Moonwhisper muttered to himself. “Have your contacts ever had any luck tracking down any of the artifacts linked to Grogar? I don’t recall there being any back at the Toybox, but I’d have to think that’s exactly the sort of thing your agents would be watching for.”
Greater Good shook his head. “Frankly, Grogar never had all that many artifacts associated with him in the first place, and most of those have been confirmed destroyed.”
“Most of them?” Moonwhisper asked.
“The big enchilada of the whole deal would have been the Bewitching Bell. That’s the thing Grogar used to steal and redistribute magic, kind of like a portable Tirek that didn’t smell like the inside of a gym bag. It also happens to be the thing that Gusty the Great swiped from Grogar to take him out. Nopony has any idea what Gusty did with it, and believe me I’ve tracked down every conceivable lead on the subject already.” Greater Good shrugged. “The only think I don’t think I’ve tried yet is asking Discord about it, and I think we can agree that that’s not really a viable option.”
“Agreed, for once,” Moonwhisper replied. “If Discord isn’t familiar with the item, then I’d rather not alert him to its existence, and if he does know then I’m skeptical as to whether he’d be all that helpful. In the meantime, keep an eye on the black market to see if this missing book shows up and I’ll have the rare book dealers I know keep an ear out as well.”
“You know rare book dealers?” Greater Good asked in a bemused tone.
“Twilight has rather well-defined areas of interest, and locating books she hasn’t already read somethings requires expert assistance,” Moonwhisper said. “Though, to be honest, I’ll be immensely grateful if this just turns out to be a thief looking for a few quick bits. I realize I’m probably jumping at shadows a little here, but the issues that cropped up during the festival make me nervous, especially with Chrysalis unaccounted for.”
“As much as I’m a proponent of being properly paranoid, don’t you think you’re being just a tad melodramatic?” Greater Good said. “I mean, yes, Chrysalis is a malicious, dangerous nutjob, but nothing we know about her leads me to believe she’d be mindlessly petty enough to try and ruin the Summer Sun Celebration. It would be too much of a risk for no real gain beyond making Princess Twilight’s life difficult. Now, if it were making Starlight Glimmer’s life difficult, then I might buy it.”
“Still, the details I’ve heard regarding the issues are concerning. For one thing, according to an interview of the fireworks crew, their little revolution was prompted by a conversation with some unicorn mare none of them had ever seen before,” Moonwhisper said.
“And you find that concerning because…?”
“The description they gave bore a striking resemblance to what Pharynx described as Chrysalis go-to pony disguise. Then, you have the weather coordinator, who swears up and down that some little pegasus filly had offered to ‘help’ him get everything set up. What are the chances that two troublemakers decided to stir things up in Canterlot on the same day?”
Greater Good shook his head. “Okay, that’s a little more concerning, but it’s still not enough for us to take any serious action, and it still leaves the question of why Chrysalis would take a risk like coming to Canterlot in the first place. For the time being I’ll lean on a few researchers I know to see if there was anything in the book that was stolen that might have been of interest to her. Beyond that, I don’t know, maybe we can use this to convince some changeling to volunteer to help our R&D come up with a working detection spell. You think the changeling going to Princess Twilight’s school would be interested?”
“Ocellus? It’s possible, from what I understand, she wasn’t especially fond of Chrysalis,” Moonwhisper replied. “That said, before you talk to her you’d need to speak with Twilight and be fully transparent about what you’re planning; none of your usual ‘apologize after the fact’ nonsense,” Moonwhisper said.
“Oh come one, do you really think I’d try and deceive a princess-”
“Yes,” Moonwhisper said immediately.
“What I meant was, would I try and deceive a princess about something that could potentially cause a major international incident?” Greater Good asked.
“Again, yes,” Moonwhisper replied.
“Alright, but would I do it when it could be easily traced back to me?” Greater Good said.
“Probably,” Moonwhisper said before pausing to think for a moment. “But, I will admit, you would be substantially less likely to do so under those circumstances. Alright, I’ll talk to Twilight about setting aside some time to listen to your proposal. I will warn you, however; if anything happens to Twilight’s student under your watch-”
“Right, right, banished and then locked in a dungeon wherever they banish me to,” Greater Good said rolling his eyes.
“No,” Moonwhisper replied. “Because I’ll see to it personally that you won’t survive long enough for that to be a concern.”