It was another beautiful day in Equestria. The sun was shining bright, there was hardly a cloud in the sky, and ponies all across the land were happily going about their days like it were any other. Unfortunately it cannot be said that everypony was enjoying the day that they had been given. Unbeknownst to all but two alicorns, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, Canterlot held a dark secret. Deep beneath Canterlot Castle lays Equestrian’s only dungeon. The entrance was invisible to the untrained eye. Only those versed in high level illusion magic could sense it. Even then, the doorway was protected by a powerful force field through which only the princesses could pass. In the instance that somepony tried to breach this force field, it immediately alerted the princesses and ensnared the intruder. Although it was carved from the same marble that made up the castle in its entirety, the dungeon’s stone had been darkened from lack of exposure to sunlight. Moss hung from the ceiling in places, the air was stale and tainted with the smell of dust and decay from lack of cleaning. A faint dripping could be heard echoing from deep within the chamber.
Throughout the castle’s history these dungeons had only been used a small number of times, but never was it for something like this. Cells line the hallways branching off the main chamber. All of them are identical in size and contain the same furnishings. At first glance, one might even mistake them for sparsely furnished rooms. Each had four walls, a ceiling, a floor, a small window, a couple of torches for meager lighting, and a small hook in the floor. Upon closer inspection, however, one would notice the room lacked a doorway. While normally vacant, three of the rooms were occupied. One contained an unconscious unicorn stallion with a speckled coat, a shaggy deep brown mane, and a map-like cutie mark upon his flanks. The other two rooms held inebriated earth ponies. Both were identical in almost every way; a slightly off-white coat with black manes. Even their cutie marks were pickaxes striking ores. Each of the group was loosely chained to the hook in their cells.
Of the trio, the first one to stir was the unicorn. Reaching up to rub the back of his head, he found a tender spot. “That would explain the headache,” he thought out loud as he winced at the pain.
“We are sorry that we had to go to such drastic measures to subdue you,” a mysterious, yet familiar voice said. The unicorn glanced around the room to find the source of the voice. As he turned his head back towards the front he saw the slender figure of the sun princess step from the shadows before him. Startled by her sudden appearance, he quickly regained his composure and bowed as per protocol. “Please rise. There is no need for formalities here,” Princess Celestia said.
Still confused by her arrival, the unicorn took a better look at his surroundings. The bareness of the stone room and the chains cuffed to his forelegs didn't help. “If you don’t mind me asking, Your Highness, where am I? And why am I chained to the floor?”
“To answer your first question, I am not at liberty to say. The reason you are chained up, however, is quite simple. We would rather you didn’t escape. And before you try anything, your magic won’t work here. Only my sister and I are able to use it here,” Celestia answered.
“I guess that would be a pretty obvious question to come from a unicorn in this situation,” he replied, feeling defeated for ever thinking about it.
“Now it’s my turn to question you,” Celestia said as she struck an authoritative pose. “Why do you think you are here?”
“With all due respect, Your Majesty, I don’t understand your question."
“I asked you why you thought you were here. Plain and simple. Now please, answer the question."
After a few moments of silence between the two, Celestia turned to leave. “It seems that you need some more time to think over your current predicament. I will return later, and when I do, I will expect an answer.”
As Celestia blinked from the room, the unicorn let out a sigh in relief. ‘That was a close one,’ he thought. ‘One more minute and I would have told her about what the team and I were up to.’
No sooner had he finished that thought that he noticed the shadows around him had begun to move. Intrigued by this phenomenon, he didn’t notice an eerie cloud of purple smoke forming behind him. The smoke coalesced into a tall figure resembling a slightly smaller, but much darker version of the sun princess. “My sister may not be too forceful, but I will not make the same mistake,” the ominous phantom said.
As a chill ran along his spine, the unicorn slowly turned his head until he could see the phantom over his shoulder. Letting out a startled scream, he quickly tried running from the shadowy being behind him only to be tripped up by his bindings. Sheer instinct kicked in and he tried to blink out of his shackles and the room altogether, but to no avail. Reverting to the only other tactic he knew the unicorn curled up into a ball trying to make himself as small as possible.
Taking a step towards the cowering unicorn, Princess Luna shed her ghostly cloak and glowered at the pitiful sight before her. “Tell me your name," ordered the Princess of the Night.
Slightly relaxing at the sight of the princess, the unicorn answered. “My name is Milez. Milez Mapper."
“Do you know why you are here, Milez?" Luna asked.
“No, Your Majesty, I don’t. I swear!"
“We have been watching the Black Market for a while now and have started to notice some very odd crystals appearing. We hired an informant to purchase one. They brought a sample and we immediately recognized them as originating from the Crystal Caverns on the outskirts of the city. After this discovery, we put some surveillance on the caverns. Workers were seen entering the caverns and returning a day later carrying a cartload each. The last occurrence was a week ago and the detail sent to monitor the situation was about to arrest them on the spot when they lost track of them in the crowds of Canterlot. We were willing to wait until they entered the caves again and catch them in the act, but we got an alert about two earth ponies matching their description at the Blue Moon Inn. It said that the couple was there, bragging about making a large sum of money by selling crystals from the cavern. As everypony knows, those caverns have been off limits ever since they were rediscovered during the Changeling Invasion last year."
“I understand that the caverns are illegal to enter, but how do two drunk earth ponies link me to the crystals being sold on the Black Market?" Milez asked.
“When we brought them in we figured that we would try to get as much information out of them as we could before they passed out. Because their lips were already loosened from a night of drinking it was much easier to get what we needed," Princess Luna responded.
“I still don’t see how this connects me to them," Milez stated with a tinge of anger in his voice.
“We made the connection when we asked them if they had a boss. Before this point, their stories tended to vary, but when we asked about their employer they immediately mentioned your name and place of residence. That night a couple of my guards visited your residence and … well, you know the rest."
"Fine. I’m involved in the sales of the crystals. But why am I in a dungeon? It’s not like I killed anyone," Milez said.
“It is true that none have perished. The reason we have confined you is because you and your men have been intruding on the scene of an unsolved crime.”
“What crime?" he asked incredulously.
Luna looked away, backing into the shadows again slightly. “I have already said too much in that regard. The reason that you are not sitting at home right now is because we need more information. One of your men said something about finding something other than the crystals in the cavern during their latest expedition. A book. When asked about its whereabouts he said that they did not have it any more. We asked the other one about the book and he said that they had given it to you. Do you still have this book in your possession?" Luna asked.
“No princess, I was not ever given a journal by my men," Milez said.
Her eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “I never said anything about a journal, Milez." She slowly advanced toward him, each step sending a wave of terror shooting up his spine. “I will give you one more chance. It is in your best interest not to lie to us. Tell us where it is and we will cut you a deal."
“Okay princess," Milez said hanging his head. “Yes, I was given a journal. It is still at my house. If you allow me to accompany your men to search for it..."
“We cannot allow that, Milez,” Luna interjected. “The only way for you to get out of here is for you to cooperate in the recovery of this journal.”
“But Princess, it would be much quicker if you let me get it.”
“We are well aware of this, but as we said before, cannot allow it.”
“But…”
“Milez! We do not like having to repeat ourselves! Do not make us do it again!”
“Y-yes Princess.”
“Good. Now where would we be able to find this journal?”
“It’s back at my house in my work room. It’s up the stairs in the first door on the left. It’s wrapped in a brown cloth bound by string. It should be on top of a stack of books.”
“Thank you for your continued cooperation. I will be back once the guards have returned with the book.”
As Luna turned to leave, Milez spoke up. “Oh, and before you go please note that my wife is out of town, so the house should be empty. Please try not to break anything, I would rather stay in here than incur her wrath should she find anything missing or broken.”
“Dually noted,” Luna said as she blinked away.
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“Captain!” Luna shouted as she appeared in the throne room.
“Yes, Your Highness,” the nearest guard said as he snapped to attention.
“Please select a few guards. We have a mission for them.”
“Right away, Princess,” replied the captain before he blinked from the room.
Not ten minutes later, the captain returned with three other guards following close behind. “The guards, as requested, Your Highness.”
“Thank you, Captain. You are dismissed. As for you three, I need you to retrieve something for me.
Here is what you need to know,” Luna said as she passed a folder towards the group.
An hour after the party left, around four or five that afternoon, the guards returned to the throne room. The one in the lead opened his saddlebags and brought forward what looked to be the item in question. “I believe that this is the book you requested, Your Majesty.”
“It would seem so. I take it the book was where it was supposed to be?”
“Yes, Princess. It was on a pile off to the side. It seems like it was well taken care of.”
“Thank you. You are all dismissed.”
Giving one final salute, the guards left the throne room with heads held high.
“What shall we do now, sister?” Luna asked as she turned toward Celestia.
“Bring Milez here. I would like to speak with him once more.”
“As you wish,” Luna said as she blinked into nothingness. Arriving in the hall in front of the entrance to the dungeon, she looked around to make sure none were watching. When she was certain that she was alone, she entered the dungeon and walked toward the cells containing Milez and his men. As she got to Milez’s cell she noticed him pacing back and forth, awaiting her return. She watched the spectacle before her for a few moments before tapping on the cell’s window. The sudden sound of hoof on glass got its desired effect as Milez visibly jumped and looked in the direction of the princess. As Milez bowed she blinked into the cell. “You may rise, Milez.”
“I take it you found it?”
“Indeed, we recovered the journal. Our sister would like to have a word with you. Come with us.”
Before Milez could reply, he felt himself being teleported twice in rapid succession and finally found himself in the throne room with the Lunar Princess by his side.
“Here is Miles, as you requested, sister.”
“Thank you, Luna. Milez, I hear that you have been most cooperative. I thank you greatly for this. Now that we have this journal in our possession I will be releasing you and your men, as promised.”
“Thank you for your generosity, Your Highness. And if it makes any difference, I haven’t opened it. It seemed like a personal possession of somepony else, and I wouldn’t willingly disturb somepony else’s privacy. That’s why the journal is...”
“Silence, Milez! You have not been given permission to speak,” Luna barked.
“It’s alright, Luna. He’s just a little nervous. You know how ponies can get when they’re nervous,” Celestia said. “I have one last question for you, Milez. Do you know what this is?” she asked, levitating the journal in front of the quivering unicorn before her.
“N-n-no, Your Highness. My men gave it to me in that condition. They asked me to cover it up to protect its value. I swear!” Milez pleaded.
“Then you are free to go.”
As the previous statement passed through her mind, Luna’s expression of noble superiority faltered for the briefest of moments.
“As for your mining operation,” Celestia continued. “It must be stopped immediately. Those caverns are off limits for a reason. Let this be a lesson to you.”
At this, it was now Milez’s turn to falter. As he hesitated, he couldn’t help but think why they were so willing to overlook them trespassing into a forbidden area? But, then again, where’s the sense in not taking a free ride out of prison? “Thank you, Your Majesty. You have my word. I will no longer dabble in the Crystal Mines. I will relay this information to my men and we will bother you no longer. Again, thank you. Oh, and when will I be able to use my magic again?”
“It will be restored after a good, long rest. All we did was siphon some energy from your reserves,” Celestia replied.
Milez merely nodded in reply and promptly left the throne room.
After she was sure Milez had gone out of earshot, Luna whipped around to face her sister. “’Tia, you are much too light-hoofed. That colt was a thief and tampered with my investigation! How can you just let him leave?”
“He knows nothing more than he has already told us. I could see that he wasn’t lying,” Celestia responded coolly. “We can argue over that point more at a later time, Luna. We have more important things to worry about at the moment, and it looks like your case might have just warmed up,” she said as she levitated the journal over to her agitated sister.
Luna took a deep breath to calm herself. “You are right, sister. Shall we see what is under the cloth then?”
The younger princess undid the binding that held the cloth in place. As it slipped away, they saw that the journal was still in good condition and had a very familiar picture adorning the cover: a large, blue, crystal heart.
“Could this be her’s?” Celestia asked.
Luna lifted the cover and confirmed their suspicions. On the inside of the cover, in the upper left corner was written “Property of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”