It was a little after midday when Elusive made his way over to the modest cafe that he and Tempest tended to frequent. At first, it had simply been something of a convenience, being close to Tempest’s hotel when she briefly stayed in the city, and also providing a decent enough fare to be palatable. Since those events however, the two had come to use this place as a sort of natural meeting point. Whenever Tempest was in the city, the two would meet up for lunch at this very spot to chat and idly spar with one another.
Right now though, Elusive couldn’t help but feel a little ill at ease. Shining’s jab about mares and foals shouldn’t have rattled him like that, and yet it had. Perhaps he really was going soft in his old age? How else could a stallion who was so clearly barking up the wrong tree as Shining was still manage to get a hit in like that under his radar?
He tried to put those thoughts to one side, at least, for the moment. For Shining wasn’t the only pony investigating this little problem. Tempest was just as curious as to what had happened. And while Elusive doubted either one would be able to solve the puzzle alone, together, they might just stumble upon something.
He found Tempest seated at their usual table out on the street in front of the bistro. Glancing at the restaurant, a passing pony might have thought it quiet for lunchtime, but Elusive was fully aware of the real reason that almost every other table around the tall, imposing mare was empty. While she had made great strides recently, many ponies still gave her a wide berth, redemption or no. Her time away from Equestria had made her quite alien to many ponies. Maybe that was what he liked about her; another stranger in this happy little land of sunshine and rainbows.
“May I join you, Tempest?” he asked as he walked up.
Tempest, who was presently working her way through a dandelion sandwich and a cup of coffee, nodded.
“Help yourself, Elusive,” she replied, gesturing to the opposite chair.
The disguised changeling smiled as he seated himself, spotting one or two ponies looking their way. He wondered what comments they might be whispering to one another about them. The ex-soldier and the strange tailor who had his shop blown up right in front of a princess.
“I ran into Captain Shining Armor again this morning,” he commented idly. Tempest’s eyes darted up from her meal. He had her attention.
“I hope you didn’t do anything to annoy him?” she prodded back. Elusive chuckled.
“Well, perhaps a little,” he admitted. “But I was curious to see how their investigation was going. That, and I needed to survey the damage. I fear it will be quite some time before I am able to reopen.”
“And have they found anything?” Tempest asked. Elusive smiled.
“The good captain is convinced I am the victim of a terrorist bombing, or his dear wife was. He still doesn’t seem to have a firm grasp on who the target was. He was kind enough to subject me to another grilling too.”
“And I’m sure you gave him everything he needed, right?” Tempest asked, with just a hint of sarcasm. Elusive, quite unsuccessfully, feigned ignorance.
“Well, what could I tell him?” he asked earnestly. “I know no more about the whole business than he does. And yet despite my protestations, he seemed convinced that I knew something.”
Tempest let out a laugh. In a way, she loved this game of theirs. Frustrating as he could be at times, Elusive was nothing if not interesting.
“Does that really surprise you?” she asked with a smile. “You’re not exactly known for your honesty after all. I think if that cowpony mare Twilight’s friends with...erm...Applejack, if she met you, she’d probably lose her mind with how much horseapples comes out of your mouth.”
“Oh come, Tempest,” Elusive chided. “Surely you don’t think so little of me.”
“Shining certainly seems to,” she pointed out. “Honestly, Elusive. Did your mother never tell you the story of the colt who cried wolf?”
Elusive blinked at that. His mother had never really told him any stories. Then again, he hadn’t exactly been an only child. His relationship with her was...complicated at best.
“I don’t believe so,” he replied after a moment. “But what has that got to do with anything?”
“Well,” Tempest said, leaning back in her chair. “It all starts with a young colt. He’s a shepherd; watches the sheep, protecting them from predators. But it’s a very lonely job. So, one day he calls out to the village that a wolf was coming after the flock, and everypony came out to scare it away. The little colt liked the company, since he didn’t get lonely. So the next day, he does the same thing again, and again. Eventually, everypony realises he’s just doing it for fun and leaves him be. But then one day, a wolf really does come. He calls out, but nopony listens to him, and the wolf eats him and all the sheep. The point is, Elusive, that if you keep telling lies, nopony will believe you when you tell the truth.”
Tempest figured she was probably wasting her breath. But it was one of the few stories her mother had told that had stuck with her throughout her life. Still, she doubted that Elusive would be swayed by a foal’s tale. What she didn’t expect though, was his unique interpretation of it.
“I wouldn’t say that’s really the moral, Tempest,” he said, after mulling the matter over. Tempest chuckled.
“Elusive! That’s the whole point of the story!” she exclaimed. “To not tell lies.”
“I think not,” he replied serenely. Tempest shook her head in dismay.
“Alright then. What do you take away from it?” she asked. Elusive smiled.
“Never tell the same lie twice.”
Tempest could help but burst out laughing at that.
Only Elusive, she thought to herself.
Shining meanwhile, while a little pleased with himself at getting under Elusive’s defences, had now turned his attention to more pressing matters. The search of Elusive’s shop was beginning to bear fruit. Amidst the pieces of masonry, wood, and blown apart clothing, the guards had begun to find bits and pieces of what could possibly be an explosive device. Shining again found himself glad of the strange paradox that a bomb destroys everything except itself in a blast. If they could reconstruct the device, they would be one step closer to finding the culprit behind it all.
At the moment though, all that had been found was sitting on a ruined counter top in a small plastic box. Shards of metal that couldn’t be attributed to anything that had been in the shop now sat in there, forming a challenging jigsaw puzzle. You didn’t know if you had all the pieces, or if some of the pieces were from a completely different puzzle. But if they could reconstruct it, they would know almost exactly what they were dealing with.
While he was Captain of the Guard up north, and still held great prestige here in Canterlot, Shining wasn’t above getting his hooves dirty, and had joined the other more junior guards in searching through the debris. He was just looking through parts they may once have been a cash register, when a younger officer called out.
“Captain, I think we have something here,” he called, catching the unicorn’s attention.
Levitating his own find into a small tray set aside for possible, rather then definite bomb parts, Shining walked over to join his junior, a young pegasus who, if he remembered correctly, was named Swift Wing.
“Find something?” Shining asked. The guard pointed a hoof at a small trinket lying on the floor, having previously been covered by other rubble.
At a first glance, it didn’t appear to be anything, a small round thing, about half the diameter of a hoof, silver in colour, and with a slight bulge in the middle. But the three small wires protruding from the back gave it away. It was something electrical.
“It could just be part of one of the lights that was down here,” Swift offered. Shining shook his head. He knew exactly what this was.
“That’s no light, Swift,” he said sternly. “That’s a magical field resonance sensor.”
“A what?” the guardspony asked curiously. Shining explained.
“It’s a detector,” he said. "It scans the immediate environment for any kind of magic; ambient, background, or active spells. The key is it can be set up to detect certain forms from a variety of species, from unicorns to hippogriffs. It acts as a switch in an electric circuit. When it detects the magic it’s set to, it activates, completing the circuit. They’re usually used in alarm systems, and I know we used them to prevent cheating at the Equestria Games back in the Crystal Empire. But if you knew what you were doing…”
“You could instead use it in an explosive device,” Swift finished, making Shining smile. “Instead of a timer, or a switch that would need somepony to be close, they could leave the device in place, and it would only go off when the intended target got close enough.”
“Exactly,” Shining said with a nod. “But you’re not the first to get that idea.”
“Who did, sir?” Swift asked.
“The Griffons,” Shining said. “After the Changeling Incursion, they started to use them in their security systems. They’re also a favourite toy of their Kommandos.”
The Griffon Kommandos were the part time, citizen soldiers, that made up the core of the Griffon Kingdom’s military. Mnay lived on the kingdom's southern frontier with Zebrica. Able to live off the land wherever they went, and almost as skilled as the thestrals of the Lunar Guard in combat, they were experts in unconventional warfare, scouting, sabotage, and assassination. If the Kingdom wanted somepony dead, a small group of kommandos, typically those who were miners in their normal lives, would do the job.
But what in the name of Celestia would griffons be doing here? They had been allies with Equestria for decades. And kommandos no less. That would technically be a military incursion into another sovereign state. But it made sense. The Griffon Kingdom was known for holding a grudge against its enemies, and wasn’t above taking such drastic measures. It certainly seemed to move things towards the idea that Elusive was the target rather than Cadence. That at least gave him some pause.
“But if it was set to go off when the right pony came near,” Swift said, startling Shining out of his thoughts. “Why didn’t it go off until the princess and that tailor feller were outside, far enough away to survive the blast?”
Shining frowned; he was right. Kommandos didn’t make mistakes like that. And the sensor would have been near instantaneous in activating. When Elusive was close to that wall, it should have gone off. Taking the device in his field, he turned it over.
“Look here, sir,” Swift said to Shining, pointing to the wiring. “There’s a short in the wiring. Guess somepony up there was looking out for them.”
“Discord protects his own,” Shining muttered to himself, before raising his voice again. “Alright, get that back to the castle. See if we can find any identifying markings on it to confirm if this was really the work of kommandos.”
“Yes sir,” Swift said with a nod.
Shining was thus left alone for a moment with his thoughts. Was this really the work of griffons? Celestia knew that Elusive had made many enemies. But an extrajudicial killing on foreign soil? With a princess right in the firing line no less. Kommandos, or rather, former kommandos, had been known the sell their services for the right price. Perhaps this was a hired hit? But then who was the buyer?
That question could wait, he decided. For now, he needed to work out if this really was the work of kommandos. Leaving the store, ducking under the crime scene tape as he went, Shining made his way back towards the castle and the government district. Perhaps a check of recent immigration records would throw some light on all this.
Canterlot might be the capital of Equestria, and a major tourist destination, but that still didn’t mean that many griffons came to visit the city. Apart from visiting officials, there weren’t that many on record as having come through customs in the last few weeks. One stood out to Shining as he poured over passenger manifests and immigration records in his office.
His name was Gerhard. According to his immigration form, he was a merchant, and had come to the city on holiday under a tourist visa. A quick search through the archives brought back what Shining already suspected. Gerhard was indeed a former kommando, a veldkornet to be precise; something comparable to a sergeant or other senior NCO in the strange, democratic hodgepodge that was the many kommandos that made up the part time militias of the Griffon Defence Forces. According to his military record, provided by the Griffon embassy, he’d served in a number of campaigns as part of the Beaksburg Kommando, including a number skirmishes with changelings, to say nothing of the zebras along the country’s southern border with Zebrica.
He’d arrived in the city a week before Elusive’s shop was bombed. It wasn’t much, but it was enough for Shining to want to speak with him. He by no means had enough to consider arresting or detaining Gerhard, but he had his suspicions.
It was hardly difficult to track Gerhard down. He’d provided the address of his hotel on his visa application, and confirmed it with customs when he arrived off the airship in Canterlot. In a city where even earth ponies and pegasi were somewhat unusual, the griffon stuck out like a sore thumb. Shining had two guards quietly pick him up, voluntarily, of course. He was brought to the castle, and from there escorted to Shining’s office.
He was quite a sight to behold. Standing about as tall as Shining, he was well built, with ashen grey plumage that gave way to almost pure black fur on his hind quarters. His beak had a sharp hook to it, giving him an appearance one wouldn’t expect of a simple trader or merchant. The two guards escorted him inside, before being dismissed by Shining.
“Thank you for coming, Mr. Gerhard,” Shining said, keeping his tone formal, but more or less neutral. The griffon was unimpressed.
“Your men didn’t exactly give me much choice,” he replied in a somewhat surly tone, with a marked Zebrican accent common to those living on the souther frontier. “Tell me, do you randomly arrest all the griffons that come to your fair city?”
“You aren’t under arrest,” Shining answered. “Nor are you forced to be here. If you wish to leave, there is the door. My men won’t stop you. I was just hoping that you might be able to help me with an investigation I’m dealing with.”
Gerhard turned and shot Shining a quizzical look. Griffons were argumentative by nature, and there was often a cultural clash when it came to the more cooperative nature of ponies. Still, if Gerhard left without asking the obvious question, Shining would know he had the right man.
“What investigation?” he asked carefully. Shining was careful in what he offered.
“A tailor’s shop was destroyed about a week ago,” he explained. “Someone placed an explosive on the gas main. When it blew, it nearly killed the shopkeeper, and my wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”
Gerhard visibly started at that. But a moment later, he recovered himself.
“Ah, I see. I assume then that you’ve seen my military record. I was an expert in sabotage and the use of explosives. The big, nasty griffon must be the one behind it, is that it?” Gerhard snarled. Shining kept his own voice even.
“Wouldn’t you be suspicious?” he asked Gerhard. “A griffon, an expert in explosives and assassinations, just happens to arrive, and a week later, a shop gets blown up?”
“I haven’t done such things in a long time!” Gerhard countered. “I haven’t been on kommando in years. I’m a merchant now.”
“Oh? And what are you selling?” Shining asked.
At this, Gerhard produced a small black case. Opening it revealed a collection of vials, each filled with various colourful liquids. The moment it was opened, Shining was hit with the smell of perfume.
“Perfumes and colognes,” Gerhard said. “Customised to each customer’s exact needs. Just as I was good at mixing dynamite and gelatine to produce an explosion of the perfect size, so too am I skilled in mixing just the right ingredients for the perfect scent. My special talent, as you ponies would put it.”
Shining examined the box. It did indeed seem to be nothing more than a collection of, in all honesty, fairly cheap perfumes. The sort of thing you might pick up from a vendor in Saddle Arabia for a couple of bits. However, his sensitive equine nose picked up something that didn’t quite fit. It was well masked, but just faintly there.
“Is that so?” he said, after a moment. “Well, perhaps then, you could help me. My wife’s birthday is coming up in a few weeks and I’ve been meaning to get her something. Unlike you though, I never had much of a nose for perfumes. Tell me, what do you think of this scent?”
Using his magic, he carefully lifted a small vial of light purple liquid and held it aloft between the two of them.
“Ah, wildflowers,” Gerhard commented. “A subtle yet pleasing scent. Might I suggest mixing it with this?” He carefully picked out another vial, this time of a pale yellow colour. Shining however, had other ideas.
“Actually, I was more keen on this one,” he replied, lifting another, greenish concoction out of the box. “Perhaps mixed together they would make a nice combination?”
He carefully moved the two vials closer and was just about to pour one into the other, when Gerhard stopped him.
“I wouldn’t do that,” the griffon said, with just a trace of worry in his voice. Shining paused, doing his best not to smile.
“Really? Why?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“I don’t think your wife would much care for that particular scent.” Shining now let himself smile as he moved the two vials away from each other and placed them on his desk.
“No, I suppose not,” he agreed. “After all, when you mix those two compounds together, innocuous as they are apart, you do create a rather potent poison, don’t you? In these close quarters, we might even be overcome by the fumes in mere moments.”
There was now barely concealed panic in Gerhard’s eyes. He was caught, and both stallion and griffon knew it. But he wasn’t going to give in just yet.
“I didn’t know that!” he objected. “I just thought that you wouldn’t care for the scent.”
Shining narrowed his eyes at the griffon. He had him cold, from a practical standpoint at least. But from a legal one, things were more murky. They were a long way from an cast iron case. Was he more suspicious of Gerhard now? Absolutely. But suspicion did not equal guilt. And thus, for the moment, Shining’s hooves were tied.
From her hidden perch outside the castle wall, Tempest looked on with contempt as Gerhard strutted out of the gates with all the pride of a peacock. Her route to viewing the griffon with suspicion however, had been quite different from Shining’s.
While the unicorn guardsman had searched for evidence, formulated theories, and eventually arrived at a conclusion, she had taken a more practical approach. She asked herself how she would have done it. If she wanted to kill Elusive, or a princess, how would she proceed? She felt a twinge of remorse when she considered Cadence, considering she had almost killed the alicorn on their last meeting, petrifying her and her aunts so that their magic could be stolen. She hadn’t even spoken to Cadence since she’d been pardoned for that. And honestly, she was surprised that Shining hadn’t brought it up.
But turning her thoughts back to her question, she considered her options. If she wanted to kill either her or Elusive, it would be a challenge. Alicorns were extremely tough, and Elusive, having a skill set similar to her own, would more than likely catch any attempt. He never truly let his guard down, not around anypony. No matter how jocular he seemed and perfectly at ease, his mind was always working away, plotting and scheming, planning contingencies, contingencies for those contingencies and contingencies for them too. He was always one step ahead of you it seemed. So how had he been caught napping like this?
A bomb was indeed a sure fire way to kill somepony. If the blast didn’t kill them outright, the resulting shrapnel and fireball certainly ought to. An ideal place for such a device would be on a gas main, producing a more powerful blast, while still keeping the device itself fairly small, and thus less likely to be detected. Planting it near the doorway would put the target into a confined space, further increasing the likelihood of being killed outright All in all, it seemed like a good plan. There was just one problem.
How did the killer know when to set it off? And why had the timing been so poor? When the device had exploded, both potential targets had been well clear of the blast, with only one sustaining injuries requiring hospitalisation. How could somepony create a device designed to kill a target and then botch the execution so badly?
Was the fuse or timing device at fault? Tempest doubted that. Somepony with this much know how wouldn’t make a rookie mistake like that. And a timer would be a poor choice anyway. With no way to stop a detonation, a single wrong move could result in precisely what happened taking place, with the target being well clear of the explosion. Timers were for arson, destruction of property, not assassination. So what about a manual detonator? That too had flaws when dealing with somepony like Elusive. Surely he’d spot even a single stray wire, and how would you even install it? It was an incredible feat that this device had been planted without his notice, but a length of electrical wiring would be even more obvious. Besides, even if it was some sort of remote, you would need to be close by, and thus vulnerable to detection before and after the event.
That was when it hit her. This bomb was designed for a specific target. Both Elusive and Cadence had unusual magic, changeling and alicorn respectively. Unique enough that a magical detector could be useful. Wired in as a switch, the device could be safely left, lying dormant until the target drew near. It would keep the device’s size small, but guarantee the target would be close before completing the circuit and setting the bomb off. The killer could then slip away long before the moment of truth, and be far away if something went wrong.
As with Shining, Tempest had considered looking to the experts in the use of these devices. After all, who would find such a device more useful than griffons, who lacked magic of their own? Placed in mines, these sensors had been deadly during the last war with Equestria. Back then, they had been used on a huge scale in minefields. Griffon troops could safely pass through them, but ponies would set them off with their innate magic.
With her own access to Royal Guard resources through her new employer in Princess Luna, she too had tracked down Gerhard. She’d arrived at his hotel just as the two guards Shining sent were escorting him away. While Shining had been busy interrogating him though, Tempest was taking a leaf out of Elusive’s play book.
While she would never admit to working for a non-existent agency, whose supposed existence was nothing more than a preposterous rumour that flared up in the wake of a bizarre incident involving a bugbear, her new position did give her access to some rather useful kit, which the Royal Guard’s most skilled investigators did not have access to.
It also allowed her to bypass little foibles like warrants, the notion of due process, or that marvellous nonsense of habeas corpus, but that was by the by. At least some good had come of the Changeling Incursion it seemed.
Listening devices were difficult to make, but magical technology allowed for them to be made barely the size of a small gem; small enough to easily conceal in a hotel room, if you knew what you were doing. And so, while Shining grilled Gerhard for information Tempest knew he wouldn't give, she quietly made her way into his hotel room.
She did a quick sweep for the obvious; weapons, explosives, circuitry, anything to suggest Gerhard had had such a device in his possession, along with looking for any kind of documentation, such as surveillance photos, notes on either potential target, or anything else to suggest he was more than he appeared. She found nothing however.
“Damn it,” she muttered to herself as she carefully placed his suitcase back exactly as she’d found it. “Maybe he got rid of everything after the bomb went off. It’s what I’d do.”
It was true. Once a job like this was done, you burned the evidence, burned your identity, and took off before anypony had a chance to even consider you. Gerhard had done well on the former, but lingering may well cost him.
Still, try as she might, Tempest could find nothing to cast suspicion on Gerhard, so she followed through with her plan. Lifting up the somewhat vulgar table lamp on the small night stand by the bed, she carefully concealed the bug inside, just below the switch, where it wouldn’t throw an obvious shadow should the light be turned on. With any luck, Gerhard would try to contact his employer for instructions, or a contact would arrange to meet him. Tempest could then trail the griffon and nab both parties in one fell swoop.
Finishing her work, she carefully made her way out of the hotel, and from there, headed back to the castle, arriving just in time to watch Gerhard stroll out a free griffon. It wasn’t too much work to tail him discretely, certainly far less of a challenge than Elusive had been. He made straight for the hotel, while Tempest made herself comfortable at a small cafe across from it. Close enough for the transmitter to get a clear signal through. The earpiece meanwhile, was difficult to see, allowing her to listen in without worrying about ponies noticing. To passers by, she was just a mare enjoying a cup of coffee, although, she reflected, a somewhat notorious mare. But why would Gerhard be looking for her?
Contrary to popular belief, spying, as with police work, isn’t exactly glamorous. A great deal of time is spent simply waiting, listening, indeed hoping, that something will happen. It was this way for Tempest as she waited for Gerhard to head up to his room. She was halfway through a fascinating newspaper article on cherry sales in Dodge Junction, when she heard the click of a lock in her earpiece.
She started for a moment, but soon returned to her zen like state. Now she would get some answers she hoped.
Her hopes however were quickly dashed as music began to fill her ears. The radio in the room. Perhaps Gerhard wasn’t as foolish as she first thought. He’d turned the volume up a fair way, and some irritating pop tune filled Tempest’s ears. Only barely could she make out bits and pieces of conversation, but she hadn’t a clue what was being said.
With a snarl, she prepared to get up and leave. It was clearly futile trying to glean anything this way. A quick glance up at the room also told her that Gerhard had had the foresight to draw the shades too, so a little rooftop sightseeing was equally out of the question.
She was just about to remove the earpiece and go on her way, when the music suddenly stopped. She tensed once again. Did he have eyes on her, and so know she was leaving? She strained to listen over the chatter around her. She could hear a voice coming faintly through the microphone.
“I tried my best!” a voice said. It was Gerhard, and by the sounds of things he was deeply scared.
“Your best didn’t even hurt the bug that badly!” a second, unknown voice said with contempt. “You were told to do this quickly, cleanly, and above all, quietly. Now the Guard is sniffing around and our target will be that much more careful.”
“I have everything I need,” Gerhard replied. “I’m ready to make the attempt right away.”
“Too late.”
Tempest picked up the sounds of a struggle, the squawk of a griffon in fright, the flapping of wings, furniture being knocked over. Evidently Gerhard’s friends didn’t care much for screw ups. Getting up, Tempest broke into a gallop toward the hotel, taking the stairs three at a time. If she could get there, Gerhard ought to be more than willing to talk now.
Bursting into the corridor, and scaring the living daylights out of a hotel maid in the process, Tempest made for the room Gerhard was in. The door was already ajar. Readying herself for a fight, Tempest roughly shouldered the door, sending it flying back on its hinges.
Inside, the room was a mess. The small table and lamp had been tipped over and smashed, the bedsheets and had thrown all over, and the curtains had been torn down and now partly covered a form that lay in the middle of the room. Moving closer, Tempest yanked the fabric away to confirm what she already suspected.
There was Gerhard. He’d not gone quietly that was for sure. But whoever he’d been up against was clearly a better fighter, and they’d brought something extra with them. The griffon’s craw was slashed open, staining the white silk curtain a deep crimson, his eyes stared up at Tempest, fixed, while his beak hung open in a silent scream. Half heartedly, Tempest reached down and felt for a pulse.
“Dammit,” she cursed to herself.
And just like that, the only suspect, indeed, only witness to the bombing of Elusive’s store, was dead.
And that’s when she heard the Guard’s whistles blowing. All Tartarus was about to fall around her ears.