The crates proved more worrying than Night initially thought they would. The Scarlet Hoof had brought in twelve crates, or thirty-six thousand pounds of troll dust. Besides being incredibly unethical to harvest, troll dust also made a dangerous street drug.
The high of the dust wasn’t any worse than what you’d find with a slightly too large dose of cough syrup, but the power behind troll dust was the regenerative properties. Depending on the severity, inhaling a dose of the stuff could heal most cuts, breaks, and bruises on a pony within seconds to minutes. So long as somepony could ignore the pain of any incoming attacks, they were all but immortal for an hour.
All for the low, low price of nearly guaranteeing your chances of getting cancer.
Night didn’t have to live on the streets to know that handing desperate ponies a guarantee of living, no matter what they do, was a formula that promised trouble. He shuddered to think what Gleaming would have done if she promised to give everyone who worked for her a magic pill that meant you’d only have health problems many years from now.
It wasn’t as elegant as Gleaming’s plan nor as forceful as a complete takeover of the major players of organized crime. Still, Night couldn’t help but respect the Scarlet Hoof’s plan of turning waves of individual criminals into nearly unstoppable hydras. After some consideration, Night decided this would be the perfect opportunity to teach Ardent a new lesson that Twilight told Night he needed to remember himself on several occasions.
Captain Azure Heart glanced down at the building plans and would frown if not for the stoic glare he gave everyone and everything. “This would be devastating,” Azure said, “if they managed to succeed. We need to get this off the street as soon as possible.”
Night nodded. “That was my thought as well. In fact, I already set most of his stash on fire. The problem is this goes beyond our normal plan of breaking them down. They’ve gone straight past being an annoyance we can toy with into pointlessness. We need the guard to go in and smash this group to pieces.”
“Is there still enough evidence left for us to arrest them?” Azure asked.
“I burned their latest shipment. They had another one that they were saving. It’s only one crate, but it’ll be enough.”
Azure nodded and pulled out a jar of bottled dragonfire to stay on the table. “I’ll head to the local outpost. I’ll have two platoons ready in an hour. We’ll have the streets cordoned off and be ready to assault them ten minutes from that.”
Night nodded. “Inquisitor Ardent and I will lead whatever forces we brought here with you to cause a distraction right before then. I will hopefully keep their defenses elsewhere while you come through.” He wasn’t sure why he called Ardent by his title. Azure brought that out of him every time.
“Sounds excellent, Master Night. I’ll stay in touch.”
He nodded, and Azure stood to leave before pausing. “Shall I send up the other Inquisitors?”
“Please,” Night said with a shake of his head. “I’m going to have to work some miracles to make this assault work, and the more time I have, the better.”
Azure nodded again and left, heading toward the local guard headquarters and leaving Night and Ardent behind.
“So he acts like he’s had a stick surgically implanted in him around his peers too, glad to know,” Ardent muttered.
Night sighed. “Captain Ardent is a stallion who almost literally eats, sleeps, and breathes his job. His hobbies include his job, his pastimes are his job, and he has a wonderful special somepony named ‘his job.’ I think Princess Celestia hired him because she knew he couldn’t do anything else.”
Ardent shrugged and joined Night at the table. “So what’s our plan, sir?”
“Well, your little fight did a great job at the moment, but it might have been the wrong move tactically.”
“It was still pretty fun,” Ardent said.
“Glad to hear,” Night said. “Because they know to look out for infiltrators, they’ll be on alert for us now. So we need to figure out how to get you and the other four inquisitors-in-training in there and cause chaos so the guard can get in without punching through some defenses.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem for them, right, sir?” Ardent said. “The guard can probably break any siege they bring without much issue.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about,” Night said. “I’m worried what happens if the Hoof decides that using whatever dust they have is better than getting arrested.”
Ardent blinked and went quiet.
Five training inquisitors stepped into the safehouse room a few seconds later.
Night took a deep breath and looked over at the new ponies. An earth pony, two pegasi, and a pair of unicorns. Without their armor, they no longer had the white or gray coats of the royal guard but instead had colors ranging from greens to brown to blues. They stared at him with wide eyes, unsure of what they were about to do.
They all wore what amounted to the Inquisitorial uniform: a cloak, a belt with a small knife, a badge, and a bag filled with essential tools, including picks, rope, and a towel.
The Spymaster sighed. He’d have to give a speech. “Fillies and Gentlecolts, this is not how I wanted your first raid. I wanted you to plan it, weaken them, and reap the reward with the satisfaction of knowing you were the one breaking whatever operation they were building.
“You don’t get that tonight. I’m sorry. Instead, tonight, I’ll be relying on you and the skills that you’ve just begun to develop. The risk of injury is very high, and things can go very wrong, but I need you here so things don’t get worse for those on the guard.”
One of the unicorns, a mare with a dark green coat, visibly swallowed, but everyone gave him their undivided attention.
“This,” Night said, pointing to the warehouse map. “Is where we’re going, and our main concern is stopping the ponies inside from reaching one of the crates they’re guarding. The crate is here,” he said, circling where he last saw the last box of troll dust, “last we saw, anyway. Inside are several hundred pounds of troll dust, dust that we don’t need any of the ponies inside the warehouse taking. If they snort a dose, all the ponies following us will have more difficulty making the arrest.
“Your mission is to get in there and secure the dust so the guard is safe. Lead Instructor Ardent and I will do whatever we can to pull ponies away from that location so you can work. Any questions?”
The fledgling Inquisitors said nothing.
“Then let’s get ready, and if you’re praying ponies, we’ll need the help.”
---♦---
Night watched as his Inquisitors moved around the warehouse perimeter. The watch set by the Scarlet Hoof had been doubled, and they moved in three distinct routes, each making rings around the warehouse in staggered patterns that cut the space between the patrolling criminals to short distances. The work was good, and for a while, Night worried that his ponies wouldn’t entirely be up to the task.
The unicorns answered by using illusions. Though they were both only scratching the surface with Image spells, they still worked wonders. Since discovery wasn’t a risk, they both had a license to make mistakes and be noticeable. They created Images of full ponies yelling for help or ducking around corners and making as much noise as possible. It worked like a magician’s trick, pulling attention away like flash powder and smoke.
The pegasi worked excellently as well. Using some careful feather treatments, they could fly silently through the air, so much so that they hovered over the ground, keeping their hooves from crunching into the stone beneath them.
The earth pony, a lithe, wispy thing, followed in the shadows of the unicorns like wind passing through branches.
As they closed in on the building, the inquisitors took positions against the walls, crates, and whatever other cover they could find. They were doing well, but Night decided to give them a slight correction here and there. They were using all the subtlety of a club right now, but if he could teach them how to be better here, they’d save themselves some trouble down the road.
The door gave way to Ardent’s gentle touch, and they slipped inside the warehouse without a sound. The unicorns, with Night leading, came in first, using spells to conceal the door. The pegasi came next, followed by Ardent and the Earth Pony.
They were doing well.
A guard turned the corner and would have continued for a fraction of a second before his head snapped to the seven Inquisitors. “Intru—”
Ardent cut the space between them before the criminal could finish screaming the word and answered with a powerful blow to the temple. The pony dropped like a rock, but the call was going up, and the motion deeper inside the warehouse began to stir.
The inquisitors ran, their guard training kicked in, and they turned all of their focus on securing the objective. Night found himself left behind for a second as the others surged across the warehouse floor, covering the distance as fast as they could.
A pair of ponies tried to get in their way, and they were answered with pain as Ardent threw his entire body into one while a unicorn threw lightning at the other. As the second’s muscles spasmed and went taut, a pegasus joined Ardent in pummeling the first unconscious, leaving the others to reach the crates.
The stallion of the unicorn pair cast a spell, creating a shield around the crates, and spun on his hooves to keep them toward his back. The other inquisitors took up similar positions, keeping the container of Dust to their back and facing the criminals now charging their position.
Crossbow bolts began to fly, fired by ponies on the catwalks above, and the second unicorn, the mare, cast a spell that formed a wall of stone between them, growing out of the ground. Night threw himself against the wall, and his heart finally processed his discomfort, relief at the lack, and the abundance of cover.
More crossbow bolts clattered against the wall, and Night peeked out from behind the wall just in time to see a handful of ponies cranking back the heavy bows to reload. The pegasi struck then, as though they had been waiting for the moment, and streaked out from behind cover to harass the arbalists on their catwalks.
Night didn’t even need to say anything.
A charge from the left meant to break in on their flank on the far side of the wall from Night, and Ardent and the willowy earth pony stood in the gap. Ardent defended the wall like the bruiser he was born to be, smashing heads like nearly rotten pumpkins, while the thinner pony spun like a whirlwind, striking at a thousand places at once.
Night blinked at the spectacle. Perhaps he should get some lessons from her when he had the chance. The criminals gathered to try and attack the other side, and Night stood, readying himself for the fight to come. The unicorn mare stood beside him and cast again, throwing a bolt of lightning that jumped from one pony to another, sending the attackers into spasms.
More ponies were gathering around, throwing crossbows, bolts of fire, and anything else they could find down on the fortified position.
One of the pegasi landed behind the wall, grunting as his leg buckled, blood pouring from a deep wound where bolt fletchings were poking out of his shoulder. “I’m hit!” he called, and the unicorn stallion moved over to him, still focusing on the spell that held the crates shut. He pulled his knife with his hooves and cut the fletchings free before reaching into his bag for the towel and applying pressure to the wound.
“You know,” the pegasus said through gritted teeth, “I never thought I would miss that inferno of a suit of armor, sir.”
Night wasn’t sure the armor would have done much against a shot that went that deep, but he didn’t say anything either. He wasn’t sure what to say.
Another volley of bolts clattered against stone and pierced thin metal sheeting as the criminal arbalists fired at the stone barricade, the warehouse’s far wall, and anything else they could find that looked like it could threaten them. The second pegasi’s neck snapped backward as a bolt flew at her, and she fell to the ground in a tumble.
A pony among the criminals cheered, and blood began to pool around the young inquisitor.
Night was moving before he realized it, his horn glowing with the Control Image transposing spell he’s used so often. The crossbow fired into the Image, running ten feet behind him, giving him a second of a head start.
He stopped at the downed pegasus and dragged her onto his back with his teeth, his horn already occupied with a spell before someone on the mezzanine cried. “Illusion! He’s an illusion! He’s picking up the mare!”
A handful of bolts flew closer to his unseeable body, most missing by feet or inches, though he did feel one shave the fur on his belly. The rest of the bolts continued to pass through the transposed Image.
He ran back to the safety of the wall, and the mare on his back spoke up. “I’m okay. I’m okay!” the pegasus said. “It grazed my head. I’m okay.”
Night put her onto the ground, and the unicorn stallion moved to check her. She bled heavily from the head, but she seemed conscious.
“Charge again!” One of the criminals yelled. And the unicorn mare answered with an inferno that shot forward and threatened to burn anything that got too close. The line that was forming scattered as the fireball chased after them.
Night tried to catch his breath.
The willowy earth pony took a baseball bat to the gut and doubled over. Ardent answered by bending the pony over backward and throwing him to the ground before picking up the improvised club and smashing another pony’s jaw.
“We’re down three ponies,” the stallion that had become the medic warned. “We might need to use the dust ourselves if we’re getting out of here.”
“That’s a great way to spend your retirement,” The pegasus mare said, holding a bandage to her head.
“We just need to hold on a little longer,” Night told them.
“Let’s hope we can make it, sir!” the pegasus stallion said.
He really should have learned their names.
A bottle flew over the wall, flame licking at a rag stuffed into its mouth. “Firebomb!” The pegasus mare yelled.
The medic dropped the shield spell on the dust, reached out with a telekinetic grip, and grabbed the bottle before throwing it back over the wall.
“They really need to get here quickly if we’re going to stay alive,” the medic said before he reformed the shield.
Someone yelled. “The guard! The guard’s here!”
Night sighed with relief at the sound.
A handful of ponies looked around; others ran, moving for the doors, but it was too late. The flash of golden armor sparkled in the doorways, and criminals screamed in horror as the steel-shod hoof of the guard came down on them.
The Inquisitor line found themselves reinforced by the guard, two ponies taking each end of the wall, and a guard pegasus specifically decorated with a medic’s cross landed beside them and began treating the wounded.
They did it. His Inquisitors succeeded.
---♦---
As Night left the warehouse, followed by his team of Inquisitors limping behind, he found Azure watching the proceedings. “Spymaster Night, glad to see you made it out.”
“Are you…smiling, Azure?”
“A trick of the light, I assure you, Master Night,” he answered. “I have to congratulate you and your Inquisitors. You’ve managed to keep casualties down to a minimum. This will make a wonderful headline.”
“You’re worried about the Press?” Night asked.
“I’m worried about the Princess,” Azure said, “and if her Majesty’s Inquisition proves itself in its first action with the Guard, it will go a long way to silence her critics.”
Night nodded. “I suppose it would make for a good headline, then.”
“Which just leaves us to clean up. You should send your inquisitors home; you’ve succeeded at what you needed to do here.”
Night nodded. “I should, but I do have more work to do.”
“You are correct,” Azure said. “You do have more work to do. At the Castle.”
Night blinked. “At the castle?”
“The Princess has not been herself lately. You need to speak with her.”
Night blinked. “Um…”
Azure’s face returned to the usual stoic mask he always wore, and he turned to face Night so that his whole bulk filled Night’s vision. “As the Captain of the Guard, the Princess’s physical, political, or mental well-being is my primary concern. Everything else is minor by comparison. So, you need to speak with the Princess posthaste.”
“Well, I—”
“In case I was unclear, Master Night, I am giving you a choice in the matter. Your options are to go on your own or be brought before the Princess bound and gagged.” Azure backed away a bit. “I won’t need to do that, will I, Master Night?”
“Um, no. No, Azure, you won’t.”
“I am glad to hear it. It would not be proper for the Spymaster to be forcefully returned to the Castle after such an important victory.”
“You know, I have to agree with you there. It wouldn’t be proper at all.”