"Careful," Shining Armor instructed his guards, who were currently scanning the space in front of them with their magic, "We've already dealt with no less than three trapped hallways. We're probably going to find a few more before-"
That was as far as he got before the underground hallway in front of him and his three guards erupted into a cloud of flying metal. Almost as a reflex, Shining Armor cast his shield spell and winced at the sudden strain. Nonetheless, all the guards breathed a sigh of relief that the trap had been stopped.
Disbanding this den of thieves is becoming troublesome, the Guard-Captain thought to himself. They'd already picked up fifteen ponies, and while all of them had been skilled in a fight, slipping in and around the guards, almost dancing around the magic and metal, each one had been subdued.
Especially when Shining made his shields airtight and just waited for the ponies to pass out due to lack of oxygen.
However, one of the...apprentices, that was it. One of them had let slip that while they'd nabbed the apprentices, regular members, and masters, there was one more hiding in the basement. The grandmaster. Of course, he'd been chastised for his slip-up, and even he himself seemed sheepish that he'd admitted to it, but the damage was done.
Shining and his three trusted lieutenants had descended to find themselves having to run a gauntlet, the likes of which none of the guard had even been aware could exist. Pressure plates linked to numerous devious devices, swinging metal meant to test agility, and even a target range. With dummies in guard armor and targets drawn on.
It's not all bad, Shining mused to himself. We could definitely use some training in dexterity, if these things and our inability to dodge them are any indication, and they're giving me ideas for an obstacle course to implement back at base.
Casting out a quick pulse of magic and receiving an echo back, Shining smiled. The corridor ahead turned and ended at a room with no other apparent doors. Got you, whoever you are.
Shining charged up a stunning spell, intending to end the final fight before it even began, and motioned to his lieutenants to do the same. Pausing for a second to impart some last-second non-vocal commands, Shining took a deep breath. On the exhale, him and his squad burst around the corner, into the room, and were greeted with absolutely nothing.
Oh, the room was furnished, and even had a few maps of the city, Manehatten, hanging around. A few filing cabinets were open and bare, and the desk appeared ransacked as well. It didn't take long, though, for the oddities to start stacking up.
For one, the desk and chair appeared far larger than normal, as though they'd been built for a minotaur rather than a pony. Second, it appeared that none of the cleaning out of this den had been done in haste, as evidenced by the fact that everything, not just what had been important at the time, was missing. And third- was that a bed over there?
Yes, a bed. Meaning that who or what ever the grandmaster was, he slept down here as well. And it, too, was oddly proportioned. Glancing around showed that whoever was in charge of this den had taken great pains to make sure that it ran smoothly. And then Shining's eyes fell upon the folded paper on top of the desk. Wordlessly, he floated it down and opened it, reading it out loud.
To the Guard-
Well done, I say! You found us!
...Of course, that means bugger all. I knew you were coming. You can't run a den of black-hearted scoundrels and not expect to be found out at some point. The trick is not getting hauled off with the rest of them.
And while I will lament the loss of the individuals I left behind, I made it quite clear from day one that this was a thing that could happen to them, and they still stuck around. Adding in the fact that they all know not to say a word to implicate their fellow pony, and, well, I estimate that you'll be able to only make the charges of resisting arrest actually stick.
In the meantime, I'm skipping out with the funds and settling down again elsewhere. Do take care on your way out!
Sincerely-
The Grandmaster
Shining's fur bristled more and more as the note openly mocked the Guard. None of his squad said anything, even as the note burst into flame in his grasp. Who or whatever the grandmaster was, he was certainly one thing:
Annoying.
-----
(POV shift - Marketh)
I stood atop a nearby building and smiled as the Guard-Captain emerged from my former Guild. I would be set back by this, true. One does not just find ponies that have a talent in theft. My ears picked out what he was saying, even from this distance.
"Get the criminal investigators down there as soon as possible, try to determine any and everything about the grandmaster. The more we know, the better we can fight him."
I sighed and pulled out a world map that had been one of my first acquisitions in this world. I'd had to update it every so often, of course, but it was still a useful tool. I pulled out a pencil and drew an X over Manehatten, wincing at the pun.
Manehatten. Seriously? What will they think up next?
I looked over the map and the various X's that were on it, whistling lowly. Every time I'd been caught in a town or city, even slightly, I'd fled and made sure not to return for a while. But it would seem my options in this past century had been diminishing rapidly.
And ever since Canterlot had become the capital and Celestia, along with her newly-recovered sister Luna, had taken residence there, I'd put it on the list of places I would not visit. At least, not for any extended period of time. Not yet, at least. I was only beginning to learn my feats, and I wouldn't be able to stand against magic of their magnitude until I prepared.
There were only a few places left to me, really. At least for a while, and even then, they might have heard of me already.
One was a town out in the dusty desert known as Appleloosa. And it was small and new, nothing worth my time there, most likely.
Whereas the other was known as Ponyville. And while it too was small, its location near the base of Mt. Canterhorn, while regrettable, also meant there was a high influx of stopover tourists, people who came for one day to rest while they proceeded up to Canterlot.
I winced again at the pun. Are there no names that are sacred to them?!
Still, Ponyville's high tourist rate meant that there would be no shortage of targets...or recruits, assuming I could find them.
I smiled and packed my map back up before making my way across the rooftops to the edge of Manehatten. Dropping down to the ground left me facing the most dreaded, by ponies, of places:
The Everfree Forest. It loomed in the distance, projecting an aura of something both sinister and twisted. I'd vowed to one day look into the history of the place.
Y'know, when I wasn't on the run from the Guard.
I smiled as I drew closer to the forest. Last time I came through here, I got a level. Let's see how many I can get on my journey to this Ponyville place.
And with that, my latest relocation trip began.
-----
(POV shift - Celestia)
Celestia sighed in disappointment as she read the report from Shining Armor. "Another guild, another failure."
Luna perked up and peered over her sister's shoulder, quickly glancing over the document. "Pray tell, how so, sister? The Captain doth say that he hath captured all the members of the guild spare for their master. Even a partial success is a success."
Celestia's horn glowed and summoned a map from her bedchambers to float in front of the duo. Marked on the map were several notes, tiny, near mistakable for errant inkblots. "Every time a den of thievery has been seen in the last millennium, I have taken pains to see to it that the details were recorded. And a pattern began to emerge."
Celestia motioned at one of the notes, which was near a dot symbolizing the town of Trottingham. "Whenever a scarily competent guild emerged and the guard moved in and disbanded it, their guildmaster always escaped."
Celestia motioned towards the note near the town of Baltimare. "Whereas when it was a guild that bumbled more than stole, it was determined that it was a copy-cat guild, made of ponies entire, and their guildmasters never fled before the guard moved in."
Celestia sighed and began to make a note around the city of Manehatten. "As such, I can only determine that who or whatever has been running the competent guilds can only be some sort of wicked, long-lived being. It began shortly after your banishment, sister dear, and I took little interest at first. But when it kept happening time and again, it became a project of mine to try and find this being and stop them."
Luna peered at the map, studying it intently. "Sister, hath this being ever set up a guild in the same town twice?"
Celestia blinked. "No, never. Sometimes in the same town as one that had a copy-cat guild in it, but never in the same town twice."
The two sisters peered at the map with a renewed fervor, realizing that their quarry might now be predictable. Three towns lacked notes around them.
One, out in the desert, known as Appleloosa.
The second, Ponyville.
And the third, Canterlot.
One seemed far more likely than the others to be the next destination of their mysterious antagonist. At least, if he were interested in the acquisition of wealth and not getting caught.
The sisters shared a grin as Celestia began penning a missive to Shining Armor, detailing what the two of them had puzzled out about their elusive target...