Eventually Ruff led us out of the servants’ passageways and out into the castle courtyard. On the other side of the yard stood a tall tower made from white stone and topped with gold. We crossed the courtyard to the base of the tower where Ruff came to a halt.
“This is the Ivory Tower. The student you seek resides at the top.”
“Thank you Ruff, is there anything else I should know?” I asked the diamond dog.
“I would advise that you remain polite, she is not a mare to be trifled with. I must return to my duties, good day.” Without waiting further Ruff walked away at a fast trot, leaving me and Lucky Catch to climb the tower.
“'Not a mare to be trifled with', what do you think he meant by that Timey?” Catch asked me with a note of uncertainty in her voice.
“Well, apparently this pony is important enough that the immortal avatar of the sun and moon is willing to take a significant amount of time out of her busy day in order to teach this student on a personal basis.” I gave Catch an aside glance. “I think that means she worthy of some respect at least. Come on, I actually want to meet her and find out what all this fuss is about.” I led the way up the walkway that circled the tower and eventually reached a small balcony where petitioners could wait to be received. I gave the door a polite set of knocks and waited.
There was a sound of a muffled cry and the pattering sound of approaching feet that didn’t sound like any pony I heard of. I assumed the student had a diamond dog for a servant as well, paws must be useful for menial fetch tasks and scribe work.
The door opened to reveal a much shorter creature, it was a biped as I guessed but it was far away from the dog I had assumed.
“Can I help you?” asked the short biped, it looked somewhat draconic and was covered in purple scales with green spikes.
“Good afternoon,” I began. “Are you Celestia’s Student?”
“What? No that’s not me, its Twilight you want. I’m her assistant, Spike.”
“My mistake, I was told to consult Celestia’s student who supposed to be brilliant. I honestly thought that it was you, you certainly look intelligent enough.” Flattery will get you everywhere, Spike seemed to brighten up a bit and stood a little straighter.
“Well of course, I have to be to keep her in line,” he boasted.
“He’s such a wonderful looking thing,” Catch said to me in a stage whisper that Spike could hear, “those scales shine so brightly in this light.” This complement didn’t have the same effect on Spike, but he didn’t object to it either.
“Well you probably want to talk to Twilight, come in I’ll just go get her for you.” Spike opened the door wider and gestured with a claw for us to enter, shutting the door behind us one we were inside. “Make yourselves comfortable, I’ll be back in a minute.” We sat down in a lounge area where every available surface had been covered by books that laid everywhere.
“Certainly feels like a student’s room,” I mentioned to Catch and she giggled lightly.
“Spike!” called out a voice from upstairs, “who was at the door?”
“Guests, Twilight, they’re here to see you about something,” Spike called back as he climbed upstairs.
“Can it wait until later? I’m busy.”
“They want your help, come down and say hello at least, they’re nice.” The assistant left my sight and I started to hear a quieter conversation from above. Eventually Spike came back to the balcony and called out to us. “Are you sure it has to be right now, right now?”
“Yes,” I returned and then added, “The Princess sent us!”
“What‽” Came a cry from upstairs, as a lavender coloured unicorn came bolting down the stairs to see us. “I’m-so-sorry-I-didn’t-realize-it-was-important, how-can-I-help-you?” I smiled as Twilight came to a halt in front of me.
‘I should invoke the Princess’s name more often, if it gets me this kind of response,’ I thought to myself.
I rose to my hooves, “Good afternoon miss…”
“Twilight Sparkle,” she filled in.
“… Sparkle, my name is Time Turner and this is my assistant Lucky Catch.”
“Afternoon,” Catch greeted with a wave.
“I’m a detective and I’ve been hired to investigate a series of strange occurrences. I have a few questions to ask and the Princess said you were good with questions.”
“Questions? She said I was good with questions? Is this a test‽ What sort of test is it? How hard is it to pass? What if I don’t pass‽ When do I—“ Spike gave Twilight a kick in the back of her leg to interrupt her. “Spike! Why did—.”
“Twilight! Calm down,” I said to break her out of her tantrum spiral. “You definitely have a way with questions, so I’ll get to the subject.”
“Oh, yes, go on.”
“I need to find out about an old legend, ‘The Panther of the Bluebloods’.”
“Hmm, I think I’ve read about that somewhere before…” her horn lit up and every book in the room flew up into the air, Catch gave a mild squeak of shock when one of the books she was sitting on joined them. I was impressed, every unicorn can perform telekinesis but this was better than I’d ever seen before. Even Rarity who had more skill than anypony I’d known before couldn’t hold this many things at once, although perhaps she had a more deft touch as Twilight tended the throw things around in abrupt motions. The books flew into a line that passed in front of Twilight where she checked each volume as it passed.
“No, no, no, no, no…,” Twilight murmured to herself as she checked each and every book in her grasp before returning it to a shelf.
I shifted in my seat and noticed a book that had fallen down underneath the table, it was a brown tome embossed with a golden unicorn on the cover. I dragged it out and opened it to find the title ‘Legends of Equestria’. I flipped through it to find lots of wonderfully drawn pictures that illustrated several legends that I’d either heard of before or knew myself. The first detailed the ascension of the royal pony sisters, beyond it lay the disappearance of the Crystal Empire, the founding of Equestria and toward the back I found a small entry labelled ‘The Royal Panther’.
“Ah hah, Twilight, I found something.” The book was yanked out of my grip as Twilight inspected it.
Eventually she asked me, “Where did you find it?”
“Under the table, it was fairly obvious.”
“I don’t think I’ve seen this book before… Spike! Did we get any new books lately?”
“You don’t need to yell, Twilight. I’m right here.” The assistant had been sitting behind Twilight the whole time. “And no, not in the last two weeks.”
“Where did this one come from then?” Twilight asked and Spike simply shrugged in response. “Well I’m going to read it now.”
This exchange had me and Catch sharing a glance. “Time Turner," she asked quietly. "Don’t you think it’s rather strange that a book that Twilight has never seen before, would show up in her personal collection with just what we needed?”
“It is, this sort of coincidence has to be a symptom of chaos in the underlying harmony. This means that we’re on the right path to finding the questions we need to solve this case.”
“Don’t you mean the answers we need to solve the case,” Catch pointed out.
“Answers only leave you with more questions,”I said with a smile. “Which is good because questions are the things that lead you to where you need to go.”
“Timey that makes no sense.”
“I’m a Discordian Detective, remember? That’s half the point.” I winked at Catch and she rolled her eyes at me.
“So Twilight, what does the book say?” I asked the unicorn, she had already lost herself to the book.
“Oh sorry, it’s a bit of an old-mare’s tale. Did you actually want to hear it?” Twilight asked sceptically, “It’s a little far fetched.”
“Might as well, read away.”
Twilight gave a little cough before she began. “Once upon a time in the Old Kingdom of the Unicorns, there was a young princess who was scared of the dark nights of winter. Such was her fear that she could not sleep for she was scared of monsters and creatures of the night attacking her in the darkness of her chambers.
“Soon she would only sleep during the day, failing in her duties to her mother and her subjects during the day, while remaining alone in fear at night.
“Thankfully an enchanter of renown heard of her plight and offered his assistance. He offered her companionship and watched over her safety during the night, allowing the princess to once again rest easy knowing she was protected from monsters. But the wise enchanter knew he could not always be there to protect the young princess and began to construct a guardian for her. Using the smoke from a burning scroll of magic—really? Who would burn a scroll or a book?—, the mist from the top of a mountain and the light of the moon, he constructed a spirit in the shape of a dark cat.
“The princess was delighted with her companion and the enchanter told her, ‘forever will it protect you and your descendants from creatures of the night, the forces of darkness and those that hide in shadow.’ Thenceforth the Royal Panther followed the princess, protecting and became her closest companion (1).
“While the princess treated the Royal Panther with kindness and friendship her children came to fear it, for while it was their protector it was also a shadowy spirit as well. Their children openly shunned the spirit, eager to exist without it haunting their shadows.
“The Panther bore this stoically, until one day a member of the royal household attempted to undo the enchantment that held the guardian spirit together. He failed to do so entirely and released the spirit from its bonds, freed from the need to protect the royal line the Panther acted to preserve itself. The hubris of the royal blinded him to the danger the spirit could pose and left him uncaring to the plight of his oldest servant, for this lack of judgement he lost his life.
“Without purpose, unbound and unwanted the Panther departed, leaving the family it once served to fend for itself as it vanished into the night.”
Twilight laid the book down on the table where an illustration depicted the Panther fading away into the shadows of the night.
“That was a bit dark,” Spike remarked. “But there is a lesson in there for everypony, treat your servants properly. Isn’t that right Twilight?”
“You’re right Spike,” Twilight agreed. “I should get a gift or something for the palace servants who clean our tower.”
“I’m the one who cleans the tower…” Spike grumbled but Twilight didn’t seem to notice.
“Doesn’t look like he’s doing a good job,” I said quietly while noting the clutter spread around. Lucky Catch gave me a kick to a shin and gave me a “shush” to keep me quiet.
“Miss Sparkle,” Catch began. “Is that all the book says about the Panther?”
“That’s all, though now that I think about it I remember that the reason sentient magical constructs are banned is because one killed a member of the royal family more than a thousand years ago. It might be the one mentioned in this book… if that’s true then perhaps the same can be said for the other legends in here. This means it’s time for some more research!” Twilight picked the book back up and started to look at the contents page.
Before we could lose her to the book again, I used a hoof to get her attention by waving it in front of my eyes. “If that’s all that you have on the subject, Miss Sparkle. Then we’ll leave you to your studies, one more thing though.” The student looked at me, non verbally asking what I wanted. “I was wondering if I could borrow a telescope. Nothing too powerful, but I suspect you have a few around.”
“Spike, could you get my backup telescope for Detective Turner.”
“Sure, but what do you need a telescope for?” he asked me.
“Just to test a theory, I’ll bring it back tomorrow or the day after.” Twilight nodded and Spike ran off to fetch the telescope for me. He returned moments later with a saddle case that presumably contained the optical instrument.
“Bring it back in one piece,” Spike reminded me and I nodded in return. I lifted the case onto my back with my saddlebags.
“Thank you for all your assistance,” I addressed the pair, “good afternoon.”
I trotted toward the exit, giving a slight motion of my head toward Catch to ask her to follow, leaving the unicorn to study her new book. I shut the door behind us and we walked down the ramp to the courtyard of the royal palace.
Once I reached the ground I turned to wait for Catch to catch up, she had taken a moment to enjoy the fresh breeze and clear the musty smell of the room.
Once she caught up she gave me a quizzical look and tapped the case on my back. “What’s the telescope for?”
“You’ll see,” I answered vaguely. “Are you hungry?” Summoned by the mention of food both our stomachs growled. We both chuckled at the obvious sign that we had both missed lunch as the afternoon had run on. “My detective deduction skills say yes, let’s go get something and find a hotel for the night.”
“Why a hotel? We could just stay at my place instead. It’s not far from here, and I have room enough for both of us to be comfortable together.”
“Stay at your place while Prince Blueblood himself is paying for our expenses?” I chuckled. “He’s not short of bits so we can afford to stay someplace with room service.” Catch giggled at the thought of abusing the expenses sheet, the hotel I had in mind had chocolate mousse moose available.
We started to cross the courtyard back into the main palace itself down a pleasant path that wound through a well-tended garden. The garden combined a mix of private hedge “rooms” and wider planes broken up by strategically place flower beds. The Princess must enjoy walking in the gardens if the level of care taken by the maintenance staff was any indication.
As we turned a corner we found a guard headed in the opposite direction, towards Twilight’s ivory tower. He was a unicorn wearing the blue trimmed golden armour of a lieutenant, marking one of the few genuinely competent members of the royal guard. Of course just casually walking in the palace gardens is not suspicious, no reason for a guard to take interest in a pair of earth ponies. I continued to walk as if I wasn’t actually trespassing.
“Halt,” the guard spoke as he accosted us. “who are you two and what are you doing here?”
“My name is Detective Time Turner and this is my assistant Lucky Catch,” I answered obediently. Trust me, if you act evasive around somepony in authority they’ll notice and start asking uncomfortable questions.
The guard’s attention shifted to the ivory tower we had just left. “What was your business with the Princess’s student?”
“Consultation on obscure unicorn history,” I replied.
The lieutenant turned to face me directly, “Twilight doesn’t get visitors for ‘consultations’ and if you wanted history you should have visited the royal library.”
Of course he caught me being evasive. My calm act started to deteriorate as I quickly realized this guard officer knew Twilight Sparkle on a personal basis. I suppose the “Princess’s Favored Student” would be considered quite a catch for the stallions in the guard.
“What’s your name Lieutenant?” I asked the guard.
“Lieutenant Shining Armor, 1st Division of the Royal Guard.” Typical, that division was Princess Celestia’s personal retinue and with a name like “Shining Armour” he had to be prime guard material. He was probably also the really honourable, holier than thou self-sacrificing type that tended to think I was some form of con-artist and a fraud. I can’t say that I am a fan of those types either.
I didn’t plan on standing around answering the questions of some jumped up layabout, so I started working on a distraction. “Do you know the story behind the Gingerbread Dog?”
The gingerbread dog? The guard asked with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes, the gingerbread dog,” I replied flatly.” He was an interesting case from a few years back. It took me a week to track him down, but the Royal Guard helped me get him in the end. It wasn’t something they were proud of though.” I tilted my head back. “I chased him down a street from the bakery, where he’d made stolen thirty nine cakes.”
“So he stole three baker’s dozens worth of food?” Catch noted with a tiny amount of wit. “That’s almost as many as four tens.”
“And that’s terrible,” Armour noted.
I sighed as I brought a hoof to my face. “Anyway, I chased him around a corner into an alleyway and into a member of the Royal Guard. I made sure he was secured, returned the cakes to the bakery and got a batch at half price. The gingerbread dog went to the palace dungeon to serve out his time for the crime.”
“And the guard got a medal?” Armour guessed with a smile crossing his face.
“He was arrested for ‘lollygagging’,” I returned dryly.
I started walking before Armour could work out the insult and Catch quickly followed my lead. After a few seconds we broke into an open gallop when we heard an angry shout as Armour figured out the punch line.
I suppose indirectly calling a guard—and by extension all guards—a “lazy twit” isn’t exactly politic (2). Still, you do have to admit that they mostly stand around and do nothing all day.
The pair of us easily outran Shining Armour, he was quite naturally weighed down by his namesake attire and like most unicorns a terrible distance runner. We got back into the palace’s service tunnels before he could catch up.
I was well aware of the trouble that an irate guard officer could cause, so we decided to leave the palace as soon as possible. I doubted I would be learning anything else about the panther by consulting the library and I had a theory to test.
Setting up what I needed to test this theory was going to be difficult, the telescope was crucial to my plan but I needed to be in the right place to use it. Getting to the right place required its own plan that I was putting together as we left the palace. Lucky Catch was going to absolutely love this one.
“Catch, you know you’re beautiful right?” Judging by the look that quickly spread across her face I had just made her day. I hadn’t actually called her beautiful before then, or even admitted to liking her, so actually saying that was a probably a big deal to her. She threw herself onto me and hugged me with every little bit of her earth pony strength.
“Ca *ack* I *gasp* air.” The crazy mare was crushing my lungs and I couldn’t even get enough air in my lungs to reset my way out of it. Black dots started to form before my eyes as the lack of oxygen started to take effect, thankfully Catch released her hold before she could hug me to death.
“Oh Timey I knew you cared, I knew—Timey, are you okay?”
My only response was a coughing fit as my lungs returned to their normal size.
“Oh, I’m so sorry,” Catch apologized as she moved toward giving me an apology hug that was—thank Celestia—less organ crushing than the last.
“Oh its fine,” I rasped. “But I need your help, I have a cunning plan and it centres on you.”
“What is it?” she asked, with her usual instant desire to help no matter how insane my plan was.
“Do you know where noble mares go to get their makeup done?”
“Salon de Prestige,” Catch answered with a note of awe in her voice. “Every mare in Equestria wants to go there, but few can afford it.”
“Well, I’m taking you there, my treat.” Catch started to hug me again, squealing in delight and acting like a little filly, in the middle of a busy Canterlot street.
“Thankyou, thankyou, thankyou, thankyou,” Catch blurted out, eventually coming to a sudden halt as an unwelcome thought crossed her mind. “Time Turner, how can you afford this?”
A grin crossed my face.“Blueblood is paying for it.”
Luna’s Notes:
(1) Despite not being mentioned in the story, the Panther has on several occasions protected members of the unicorn royal family from assassination attempts and attacks by night creatures. These are unrecorded and forgotten incidents that only we remember with clarity.
(2) We are sure an implication of brutish violence on the guard’s part was also intended. Whether it twas this or the implication of slothfulness on the part of the guard that Shining Armour reacted to is not elaborated on.