Training - Chapter 8
Chapter 8
Hunter looked up from his work as the barrack's doors swung open with a muted thump. Nova limped into the room, his hooves dragging with every step. His mane and coat were damp with sweat, making him an even darker shade of purple than normal, and he was wincing with every movement. The only part of him that didn’t look as if it’d been through the wringer was his eyes. Even through the weariness however, there was a flash of insolence in the eyes. Which at the moment was directed right at Hunter.
“So,” Hunter said, sitting back and giving Nova a grin. “Done paying the price for swiping Dawn’s jewelry last night? Was it worth the ten bits?”
“Oh shove it,” Nova said, collapsing on one of the other benches around the table. He lifted his head up just enough to speak. “You were the one who kept her jewelry from her until it was almost over. Why the hay aren’t you getting punished?”
Hunter laughed. “That’d be the privileges of rank, at least as far as how you got punished.” His face soured for a moment, color fading. “She did mutter something about me needing boosters on all my shots soon this morning, so don’t think you’re the only one getting off free.”
“Right,” Nova said as he rolled over onto his back with an overt wince. “You get stuck with needles, I run a few extra miles and get stuck doing push-ups and muscle exercises for three hours.” he let out a groan. “I haven’t even had lunch yet, and I don’t think I could magic up the energy to move a spoon.”
“How many push-ups did she have you do?” Hunter asked as he leaned forward, turning part of his attention back to the lists in front of him.
“Five. Five push-ups and five crunches for every bit the jewelry was worth,” Nova said, rubbing a hoof up and down one of his forelegs. “She said it was all worth five-hundred bits too.”
Hunter winced as he did a quick mental calculation. “So … twenty-five hundred of each?”
“Yeah,” Nova’s voice was deadpan. “And I know that jewelry wasn’t worth that. She just wanted to get at me. And to make it worse, word’s apparently gotten around to a few of the Night Guard that I’m that guy they were chasing years ago, so a bunch of them showed up to ‘assist’ me, mostly by watching and making smart remarks.”
“Ouch. You do anything about it?”
“Are you kidding?” Nova asked, rolling just enough that he could make eye contact with him. “I’m burned out as it is. I just let them have their fun.” He rolled back onto his back and resumed rubbing his forelegs, wincing occasionally.
Hunter paused for a moment, waiting to see if Nova was going to say anything else, but when all he heard was the faint thumping of bass notes from the workshop, he turned his attention back to the papers he’d spread across the low table.
Since he’d been begun getting reports on the train thefts just over two weeks ago, there had been seven more thefts. One almost every two days, although the actual times were irregular enough that no clear pattern had popped up. And the thefts were still just as bizarre. Part of a shipment of geologic samples being sent to a college in Los Pegasus. One quarter of a shipment of children’s toys. And of course more jewelry, which seemed to be the one consistent item. Although following that chain had been inconsistent as well. The street value on most of the jewelry wasn’t enough that the thief was making a profit at it, and in several cases, the thief had left jewelry that was far more valuable behind.
“So, what are you looking at?” Nova asked, pulling himself from the floor with a noticeable twinge of pain.
“Well,” Hunter said, sliding across his seat so he could push a few of the papers towards Nova. “These are the reports on everything that’s been stolen in the train robberies. Everything the guard knows about as of yesterday.
Nova gave a low whistle as he picked up a few of the papers. “This is quite the list.” He frowned as his eyes rolled down through the text and onto another paper. “It’s an insane list actually,” he said, dropping the paper. “What the hay is this pony? A kleptomaniac?”
Hunter shrugged. “You got me. That’s been my problem over the last few weeks, trying to find some sort of pattern in this stuff.” He shuffled the lists around again, looking at the lists he’d written as he’d tried to find something, anything that would match up. “It’s making me go starkers. I can’t see any pattern to it. You?”
Nova stared at the list he was holding for a moment, swapped it for a second, and then a third, his expression growing more exasperated each time. Finally he tossed the paper down with a look of disgust, shaking his head.
“I don’t see it. It’s like they’re just picking up stuff at random.” He gave a small sigh and picked up another list. “I mean look at this. Three specialty Celestia clocks. Cheap jewelry taken while the expensive jewelry was ignored.” He tossed the paper down. “What a loser!”
“Or ...” Hunter said as he looked at Nova, a new idea springing to mind. “Maybe they’re just trying to show off? Think about it,” he said, cutting off Nova’s response. “Most of the stuff they steal isn’t worth anything to a thief, even the Guard has worked out that much. So they can’t be in it for what they’re stealing. So what else would they be in it for? To show off!” He say back, giving his hat a rough tap. “Best explanation I can think of, they want to show off just how good they are. Maybe as a call out to another thief, like say, you.” His hoof came up, making a quick jab in Nova’s direction.
“Me?” For a moment Nova looked surprised, then he broke into laughter, only to stop short with a wince and put a hoof on his side. “Ow! Right, no laughing for a day or so. Anyway,” he said with a shake of his head. “I don’t think so. A, if anypony actually wanted to impress or call out any other thieves, this would be the wrong way to go about it. B, if they wanted to get my attention specifically, they’d have to do a lot more then just swipe some luggage. And C, no thief would respect this guy after what they’ve been pulling.”
Hunter felt his ears stand up in surprise. “Wait, you mean thieves actually have some sort of ‘code’ or something?”
Nova nodded. “And this thief is breaking every rule of it.” He gave a snort. “I mean, if it fit a pony I recognized I just would have gone and told him to cut it out rather than letting myself get caught. Or anonymously turned him in.”
“You’d do that?” Hunter asked, even more astonished than he’d been a few seconds earlier. “Turn them in a mean?”
Nova nodded. “Look, being a thief in Equestria is a dirty, tricky job, and there’s a set of unspoken rules. You play by the rules, everyone stays nice because everyone stays clean. You start running dirty though ...” He clicked his tongue, shaking his head slightly. “And well, no one wants a stupid thief ruining things for everyone else. The group’ll sell you out.”
“Honor among thieves?” Hunter asked with a chuckle. Nova cocked his head and smiled.
“It’s more likely than you’d think,” he said. “Thieving in Equestria isn’t really a thing, not like it is in other nations. We looked out for each other, in our own odd way.”
“But not enough that they’d come forward if you got blamed for the train robberies?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah, well now that I’m actually seeing what’s stolen it seems a little harder to believe they’d come after me, but no,” Nova said, his ears drooping. “They wouldn’t have. When you’re a thief, it's about you and no one else.”
“A strange sort of honor, one without friendship,” came Steel’s voice as the massive earth pony stepped out of his office and began to descend the stairs, a small pair of saddlebags on his back. Nova’s brow wrinkled, and for a moment Hunter worried that he might have seen Steel’s appearance as invasive, but then Nova spoke up and dispelled his doubt.
“Well, it’s not exactly the greatest career choice. But I can’t blame them for it,” Nova looked down at the table. “It was an unspoken rule that you didn’t stick your neck out for anypony, and you didn’t sell out anypony if you got caught.”
“Well,” Steel said as he made his way down the stairs. “If you ask me that sounds like a dubious kind of honor. Honor it might be in part, but it’s not real honor. You ask me,” he said, stopping by the table and looking down at the notes. “Real honor is different. If there’s one thing I can say for certain, Nova,” he said, looking the still shaky colt right in the eyes. “Myself? And this team? We’ll stand by you when you need us to. That’s real honor.”
For a moment Nova looked confused, as if he didn’t know how to react. Than a smile began to cross his face, although his ears were still down. “Thanks? I guess?” He gave Steel an apologetic look. “Sorry, I’m not really sure how to respond to that.”
To Hunter’s surprise, Steel smiled. “Just promise us you’ll stand by us as well, and that’s all I need.” He turned to Hunter before Nova could respond. “Any luck with this?” he asked, tapping the lists.
Hunter shook his head. “No. It’s still a total mess.”
“I can’t even make sense of it,” Nova added. “Whoever this pony is, they look like a completely insane klepto.”
Hunter nodded in agreement. “I’m with Nova, this pony’s starkers.”
Steel sighed. “All right, well, keep at it. Who knows, maybe you’ll see something. Also, Hunter, are you going to bring up the other theft?”
Hunter nodded. “Actually I was, but I’ll do that in my office.”
“Take mine,” Steel said. ‘It’s soundproofed, and I’m going to be out for the next half-hour anyway. Princess Celestia wants to see me, so you’re in command until I get back.”
“Alright then boss,” Hunter said. “But I may pass that over to Dawn, remember?”
Steel’s brow dropped for a moment, then he brightened. “Oh, right, you did have that lunch leave—”
“Lunch with Thistle,” Hunter said, grinning at his commander and puffing his chest out.
“Right, right, what are you looking for, a medal?” Steel asked, rolling his eyes but offering a rare smile. “I’ll see you both later.”
“Right, boss,” Hunter said, tossing him a quick salute. Nova followed suit moments later, although his own salute was a bit more shaky and broken by a momentary wince.
“So,” Nova said, as soon as Steel had walked out. “What’s this other theft?”
“Come this way,” Hunter said, picking up the one folder on the desk that was still closed and heading for Steel’s office, “and I’ll tell you.”
* * *
“Captain Song, how nice to see you.” Princess Celestia’s warm voice reached his ears as the door to her office swung open. The Princess was sitting behind her desk, papers floating in front of her. As usual, she looked the very picture of regality. Her office was much the same as the last time he had seen it. Her pet phoenix was napping in a corner, the shelves were still full of various apparatuses, and the reds and gold color scheme still dominated his vision.
“Please, sit down,” Celestia said, indicating one of the chairs that was sitting in front of the desk.
One of the seats in front of her desk was already occupied by a fuchsia earth pony mare with a soft green carefully permed mane. She was wearing a small pair of glasses and a business vest, and her straight sitting position said to Steel that she was either important, or thought she was in some capacity. Her cutie mark was a cracked rock with crystals on the inside—it took Steel a moment to remember that it was called a geode—with a hammer hanging over it.
“Always an honor to meet with you again, Princess Celestia,” Steel said, offering a bow in the Princess’s direction before seating himself.
“Captain Song,” she said, gesturing with a hoof towards the mare sitting next to him. "This is Amethyst Star, head of the Equestrian Geological Department here in Canterlot. Amethyst, this is Captain Steel Song of the Dusk Guard.”
“Nice to meet you,” Steel said, offering his hoof to the mare. She nodded, a short, polite thing that spoke of an insistent nature. Or, he thought. Maybe she’s just nervous about being in the presence of the Princess.
“Captain,” the Princess continued. “I’ve asked her to meet with you today because of your unusual request for access to crystal supplies. I don’t think we need to specify the reasons that you need such crystal,” Celestia said in clear tone that said ‘that’s a secret.’ “But,” Celestia continued, “your needing access to such crystal stores coincides wonderfully with the Geological Department’s renewed interest in the crystal caverns beneath Canterlot.” She paused, as if waiting for one of them to speak. Amethyst broke the silence.
“Well, yes, what the Princess said,” Amethyst said. Her words sounded stilted, as if her mind had ran on ahead and left her voice behind. She gave her head a quick shake, shutting her eyes, and when she opened them again, it looked like everything was back on track.
“My apologies,” she said, looking slightly embarrassed. “I’m just so excited to be getting this chance. The crystal caverns underneath Canterlot mountain have been off-limits for hundreds of years. We’ve been allowing the crystals to reform themselves naturally, you see.” Steel nodded. It was earth magic. He understood that.
“Well,” Amethyst said, on a roll now. “After the events that took place during the changeling attack we learned that not only had Princess Cadenza been sealed in the caverns, but one of the Elements of Harmony as well. Naturally, those caverns have been off limits for hundreds of years, so learning that powerful magics have recently been unleashed there was quite alarming to our department. If their growth has been damaged, the eventual result, untreated, could damage an entire crop of crystals.” She looked back to Celestia.
“The department has requested that they be allowed back into the sealed off Crystal Caverns in order to inspect the crystal growths for damage,” Princess Celestia said, continuing the explanation. “Since Twilight Sparkle indicated that some of the crystals may have matured early, it may be possible for the Dusk Guard to accompany the Geological Departments investigation of the caverns and select a few large growths of matured crystal, which will be sold at the equitable wholesale price.”
“In addition,” Amethyst said with an excited lilt to her voice. “It will give our department a valuable chance to perform some studies of varying crystal growth rates in the caverns. In the past the caverns have been sealed for centuries between openings. We weren’t due to open them for at least another two-hundred years. But with what we’ve recently learned, we may be able to open them more often.”
“Simply put,” Princess Celestia said, giving Steel another one of her soft smiles. “All you need to do is send that young engineer of yours and a few ponies to help collect what crystal she needs, and in return the Geological Department is given the chance of a lifetime.”
“So, what do you say?” Amethyst asked. “Are you in?”
Steel’s grin was the only answer she needed.
* * *
“Ah, horseapples,” Hunter said as his eyes caught the time.
“What is it?” Thistle asked, her eyes following his to the large clock overlooking the plaza. “Oh drat,” she said, coming to a stop and putting an exaggerated frown on her face. “Time already?”
Hunter nodded. “Yeah, I’ve got an appointment I’ve got to go keep, then it’s back to staring at paperwork for a few hours.”
“Ugh,” Thistle said, rolling her pink eyes. “Paperwork. I’m glad I don’t have to deal with much of it in shipping.”
“Really?” Hunter asked, taking a final lick at what was left of his ice cream cone, leaving a delicious if somewhat soggy cone behind. He gave it a quick bite, the sugary substance parting with just a faint crunch as it vanished.
“Really,” Thistle said, giving him a smile. “My boss handles most of the paperwork. I just sign off on things. Most of my work comes in with these,” she spread her wings wide, fluffing the feathers and sending a light breeze across Hunter. “Anyway, you’d better get going if you want to make your appointment. What is it anyway?”
“Oh, nothing much. Just checking on something down at the Canterlot museum. Security stuff, they asked us to look into it.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, with a small smirk. Hunter hoped it meant she knew there was more to what he’d said than he was telling, but then again, it could have meant anything. The pair stood for a moment looking at each other, ponies flowing around them.
“Well, it was fun,” Hunter said at last, breaking the silence. “But uh, I’ve got to get going,”
“Yeah, I know. You said that already.” Thistle said, smiling and popping the last of her cone into her mouth with a crunch. “And you’re right, it was fun. We should do this again sometime.”
“Yeah, we should,” Hunter said, giving her a tip of his hat. “Well, until next time. I’ll catch you when I can and—” he took a quick look at the clock, “—I’ve got to fly!” He unfurled his wings, striking a dramatic pose and leaping into the air with a quick barrel roll that luckily enough, didn’t unseat his hat. Then, with a final salute towards Thistle, he headed in the direction of the Canterlot Museum.
By the time he arrived at the office of the museum watch several minutes later, he’d made up the lost time he’d spent saying goodbye to Thistle at the cost of a small sweat. It wasn’t hard: the stifling summer heat was still in full effect, although the weather department had announced that there was going to be a ripper of a storm the next evening.
“Hello?” Hunter called as he knocked on the door to the small office. “Anypony home?” He took a quick look around. The place was small but clutter-free, although that didn’t really give the illusion that there was any more space available. A single small desk was up against one wall, written schedules pinned to a small cork board above it. Several filing cabinets in the back completed the look of “office.” It was, he decided, about as average and bland an office as he could have expected.
Faint hoofsteps sounded behind him, and he turned just in time to see a navy blue unicorn in a pale blue shirt and tie walk in, head up and eyes alert. He spotted Hunter almost immediately. Not hard, considering the size of the room.
“Can I help you?” The pony asked. His tone wasn’t threatening, just curious. “Are you looking for somepony?”
“Are you one of the night watch?” Hunter asked. The unicorn nodded. “I’m first Lieutenant Hunter of the Dusk Guard,” Hunter said, giving the pony a nod.
“Oh,” the guard said, his eyes going wide. “Oh! They told me you were coming, I hope you weren’t waiting long, what can I do for you?” The pony stepped forward and stuck out his hoof, and Hunter gave it a shake. “Do you need something? Is this about that weird break-in we can’t talk about anymore?”
“Actually, it is, Mr. … uh...” Hunter’s eyes darted to the pony’s shirt. No name tag.
“Quicksilver,” the pony said, still shaking Hunter’s hoof. “But you can just call me Quick, everyone does.” He finally dropped Hunter’s hoof and trotted past, tossing himself into a small office chair by the desk and spinning a few circles before coming to a stop. “So, what do you need?” he asked, looking up at him
“I wanted to take a look at your copy of the report made by the Professor who discovered the break in last week.” Hunter said, watching as Quick gave himself another quick spin in the chair.
“Oh, yeah! I wasn’t on duty that night, but I remember hearing about it,” Quick said, hopping from the chair and pulling one of the filing cabinet drawers open. “Poor guy thought he was going to be devoured by bone monsters or something.” He laughed.
“Bone monsters?” Hunter asked. “Why would he think that?”
The guard shrugged as he pulled a piece of paper from the cabinet and slid the drawer shut. “‘Eats me,” he said, his mouth muffled by the piece of paper he was holding in his teeth. “‘e ‘works in t’e bone depar’ment.” He spat the paper out onto the desk. “So I guess it gets to you after a while. Still, I guess the guy's lucky. I saw the number done on those doors,” he said with a shake of his head. “They’re still fixing up the damage. Anyway, this is the incident report, knock yourself out.” He paused. “Any particular reason you wanted to see it?”
“Nothing specific,” Hunter said, putting his hooves up on the desk and skimming over the report. “It’s just that the report I saw was a condensed version of this, and I wanted to make sure that—” he paused as his eyes ran over a single line of text. “Hello, what have we here?”
“What?” Quick asked, peering over his shoulder. “You find something?”
“I think so,” Hunter said, a satisfied smile on his face. “Can I get a copy of this report?”
“Yeah, one second,” The watchpony grabbed the paper and headed for the door. “Just wait here,” he said as he trotted out of the office, the sound of his hoofsteps fading as he raced down the hall. Hunter leaned back against the desk. It wasn’t a major clue, but it was the first thing he’d found so far, and that was something.
* * *
“Wait, you’re sure?” Steel asked.
Hunter nodded. “I was up late last night checking over everything I’ve got. It matches up. Whoever is pulling the train robberies has to be connected to the whoever stole those keys Princess Luna is looking for.”
“And you’re sure about this?” Steel asked him, one eyebrow raised. “And how did the Royal Guard not pick up on this? Just because the lights went out on both witnesses—”
“It’s not just that boss,” Hunter said, shaking his head. “It’s how they went out. In both cases the lights worked just a few minutes later. They’re magilights, like the ones above us right now.” He gestured up at the soft overhead lights. “They don’t go out unless they burn out or the power’s cut. And Paleo clearly mentions that the light switch wasn’t working.”
“Ok, so whoever did either job cut the power.”
Hunter shook his head. “Not that simple, I asked Nova about it. The only way to get lights like these—” he jabbed a hoof at the ceiling, “—to go out is to suck the magic out of them.” Steel gave him a blank stare and he shook his head in response. “I can’t even get into the technical details of it, so don’t ask. Sky Bolt might know. But it’s not easy. Something about frequencies and tones. Point is, it takes enough technical knowledge and skill that it isn’t really worth it. It’s not something you can just do with a spell, it takes equipment.”
Steel sat for a moment in silence. “All right,” he said at last. “I’m with you. It’s something. But you said that it has to be a group?”
Hunter nodded. “Got a fresh stack of reports from the Royal Guard this morning. Not only are the train robberies still taking place, but there was one the same night as the museum theft. Same tech, same MO, I assume.”
Steel nodded, looking down at his desk as if giving his explanation some thought. “Alright. So say they are connected, does that give us anything new to follow?”
Hunter raised both hooves. “I’m not entirely sure. It means I can add the keys they stole to the lists of everything else that’s vanished, but outside of that, I’m still not sure what they’re looking for. Even if the Guard are sure there’s something there.”
“What makes you think they’re so sure of that?” Steel asked, taking a sip from a glass of water that was sitting on his desk.
“A note that came with the last stack of reports,” he said. “The guard who delivered it didn’t know who’d put it in the report, but it said that there had to be a pattern, just keep looking.” He frowned. “It was a weird note. It had a heart on it.”
“What kind of a heart?” Steel asked, setting his cup down with a frown.
“Well—” There was a knock at the door, cutting him off. He looked at Steel and gave him a shrug.
“Come in!” Steel called with a nod, casually sliding a few papers around on the desk so that anything important was covered.
The door opened and a grey coated unicorn walked in. His shoulders were hunched, and the tufts of mane sticking out from underneath his cap were as sandy blond as his tail. A pair of saddlebags was slung over his back, resting back in a relaxed fit that just covered his cutie mark, leaving only a small glimpse of red visible.
“Can I help you?” Steel asked, standing with a confused look on his face.
The grey unicorn looked up at him, a bored expression on his face. Then a large grin began to spread across his muzzle, a grin so large it almost stretched ear to ear. “I’ll bet you can, captain.” The unicorn said in a familiar voice.
Hunter’s jaw dropped in surprise. “Nova?” The grey unicorn let out a laugh and tossed his head back, no longer slouching. He could see it now, although the face still looked … off, although he couldn’t quite put his hoof on why. But it was Nova, only grey coated and blond maned.
Even Steel was speechless as Nova whipped the cap from his head and tossed it aside with a flourish. “I take it from the look on you two’s faces that my disguise is pretty good.”
“Pretty good?” Steel managed to say. “That’s impressive! What kind of magic did you use?”
Nova rolled eyes which, Hunter noted, were brown instead of their usual yellow. “Magic?” he said, prying one of his eyelids back with one hoof and popping a small lens out of his eye with the other. He blinked a few times, his eye was back to its normal shade. “How many times do I have to say it—uh—sir,” he corrected, catching himself as Steel’s stern look came back in full. “Everypony always expects magic.” The other contact came out, leaving Nova blinking through normal eyes again. “So you don’t use it.”
“So what is it?” Steel asked. “Really good dye?”
Nova nodded and tapped his side with one hoof. “Yep. High quality stuff. It’ll wash right out with the right cleaner though. Costs a bundle.” He shook his mane, returning it to its usual style if not color. “As for the cutie mark, well, you can’t really cover that with dye for long, so I do something else.”
He tapped the loosely secured saddlebags laying across his flank. “See these saddlebags?” he asked, looking at both of them. Hunter gave a nod. Nova threw his rear legs up, standing on his front hooves. Rather than falling, the bags stayed exactly where they were.
“Special design,” he said with a smug look once he’d dropped to all fours once more. “It only looks like it’s relaxed. It’ll cover my cutie mark all day if I need it to. Plus, the little bit of red dye there makes everypony think of something completely different if they’re asked to.”
“What about your face?” Hunter asked, pointing at his muzzle. “It looks different too.”
“Shading,” Nova said, wiping a hoof across the top of his muzzle. “I apply a little dye lighter or darker here and there, and it makes me look just a tad different.”
“Nice work,” Steel said. “Did anyone try to stop you from getting in here?”
Nova shook his head. “To do that they’d have to see me first. I snuck in with a tour group and disappeared about halfway through.”
Steel put a hoof to his face with a groan. “So I assume that there’s a reason you’re all dressed up?” he asked.
“Of course,” Nova said, sliding the bags off of his flanks and setting them on the floor. “It was orders from Lieutenant Hunter.”
“Wait, what?” Hunter sat up, giving Nova a confused look. “When did I—”
“When you asked me to get in touch with some old ‘contacts.’” Nova said, unzipping the bag. “I didn’t exactly want them to know who I was, so...” He waved a hoof at his body.
“Anyway,” he said, putting a hoof inside his saddlebags, “it wasn’t for nothing either. Take a look at this!” Hunter’s jaw dropped a second time as Nova pulled his hoof out of the bag, revealing a triangular chunk of faintly glowing crystal.
“Is that—”
“Yeah,” Nova said. “I think it is, anyway. One of the key pieces you were looking for.”
Hunter gaped at the glowing piece of crystal. Princess Luna’s drawings hadn’t done it justice. It was clear around the edges, almost as if the entire piece was made of clear glass, but it’s core pulsed and throbbed with some sort of inner light, a blue shimmer that forked and darted out from the center, brilliant and vivid in some places, so dark in others it was almost black. It was twisting and pulsing as he watched it, making it look as if blue lightning had been contained inside the clear gem.
“Unless I miss my guess,” Nova said. “Its some kind of black opal. But there’s a lot of magic in it. Here, catch.” He tossed the gem and Hunter, who grabbed at it.
“Nova!” Steel yelled as Hunter almost dropped the pulsing gem. “What if he’d dropped it?”
“Relax, captain,” the temporarily grey coated unicorn said. “That thing's hard as diamond. Dropping it isn’t going to break it.” Now that he was holding it, Hunter could feel the magic in it making his hooves tingle.
“Wow,” he said, setting the gem on the desk. “That tingles.” Frowning, Steel put out a hoof and rested it on top of the pulsing blue piece. His eyebrows went up, but he said nothing.
“So how did you find it?” Hunter asked, turning back to Nova.
“Just checked the most likely shop to be dealing in goods like these,” Nova said, twisting his head, his neck popping. “Shopkeeper had already sold the other two pieces though. He wouldn’t say to where or when, but I caught a look at the books he was using, and he recently shipped something big up north, out of Equestria. Just a few days ago, in fact.”
“North a few days ago?” Hunter asked, surprised. What was in the far north aside from the unclaimed territories around the Ocean of Endless Ice?
“Yep,” Nova said. “It was a surprise to me too. For him to have sold them to somepony outside of Equestria already, they must have come into his possession not that long after they were stolen. Plus, he sold me that for only four-hundred bits—"
“Four hundred bits?” Steel said, looking up in shock. Nova ignored him.
“—so I don’t think he had any idea what he had.” Nova finished. “So between that and the dye, that five-hundred you gave me last night is gone already, Lieutenant, sorry. Although,” he said, his face brightening. “I may have some change left over from lunch in my bag.”
“Five hundred bits?” Steel said, raising his voice. “This was stolen property!”
“Yes it was,” Nova said without even batting an eye. “And now the dealer will still be in business if we want to look for other stolen property.” Steel frowned, but Hunter could see in his face that Nova’s logic had won him over.
“Alright,” Steel said at last. “Good work. Go get cleaned up and ready for the afternoon, we’re starting weapons training in a half-hour. Dismissed!” Nova tossed a quick salute and trotted out the door, pausing only to grab his saddlebags and toss them over his back once more.
“Well,” Hunter said as he looked down at the key sitting on the desk. “We’ve at least gotten part of this taken care of.”
“Yes, we do,” Steel said. “Kind of wrecks any theories about why these thieves would hit the museum though.” He tapped the crystal again. “Did they not know what they had? Why steal it in the first place? They clearly didn’t sell them for much.” He shook his head again and looked up.
“Keep thinking about it,” he said with a nod. “In the meantime, could you go have the Guard relay to Princess Luna that we have something of hers?” He slid the key across his desk with on hoof, dropping it into an open drawer. “Until then, it’s not leaving this office.”
Hunter nodded and tossed Steel a salute, trying to remember what they’d been talking about before Nova had come in with such surprising news. Something to do with the stuff he’d gotten from the Guard that morning? He shook his head as he flew towards the barracks door. Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t important.
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Well the audience knows it has to do with the Crystal Empire and probily King Sombra. They don't . We know why Celestia and Luna want the train line in the north .
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Well, I won't say more than this: Don't forget Steel knows about the Crystal Empire. And about Sombra, although not by name or detail...
2828908 Steel does know about the cristal empire, but only that it existed, and same with Sombra. Luna and Celestia didn't go into a whole lot of detail. And gosh darn it, every time I type Sombra I want to say sabra.
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Yeah, I've mixed up the two's names more than I'd care to admit in day to day conversation.
2840832 It's because they are so similar.
Please let me know if this is annoying you. I can stop. I love this story, and if it was mine, I'd want someone to point this out to me.
I really enjoy your work. Thanks so much,
~Lexomancer
So at this point I'm expecting the Mane cast will be involved, but indirectly at most. Good idea, since it doesn't draw attention away from your own characters, yet acknowledges their existence.
Ladies and gentlemen, our cast finally finds the link that was apparent to the readers since the museum break in! Still no leads on who, and a few on the target (Sombra), but at least there's progress. And one of the gems to boot.
Ending is ominous.
The thefts made sense to me for a minute. For example high end clocks typically have jewelled movement (usually ruby if I remember correctly as well as quartz, but when in Equestria) therefore the jewellery and clocks could have had miniscule portions of the key in them (break the crystals into hundreds or thousands of pieces and no one would find them all without serious effort) I'm pretty sure we all have an idea about the thief... I'm looking forward to finding the answers.
sat
Magic-absorbing powers? It looks like we're either dealing with Tirek, or Doctor Strange
clutter-free,
to
thing's
Somehow I missed this the first few times I read the story, but… you can break diamonds by just dropping them into a (steel) sink. People lose rings that way.
Maybe swap it out for sapphire, which actually *is* extremely tough?
The hardness of a mineral isn't related to it elasticity. Minerals like diamond can shatter quite easily because there's less room in the structure to shift. Besides, you strike anything at the cleavage face hard enough, it will crack.
striking a dramatic pose and leaping into the air with a quick barrel roll that luckily enough, didn’t unseat his hat
Didn't you say when we first met Hunter that his hat was in chanted to not fall off once it was on his head
Okay, Dawn might have gone a bit far with the amount of PT'ing to death she did to Nova... but that is minor, so very insignificant, compared to her next sin.
From the sound of it, those Night Guard were brought in by Dawn for the sole reason of adding to the punishment.
She brought in OUTSIDERS from a completely **DIFFERENT UNIT!** As an Non-commissioned Officer in the Marine Corps, (Corporal, 91-95) what Dawn has done is a severe breach of trust and morale within her own unit. You keep punishments IN HOUSE, unless the crime committed was so severe it requires being administered by officers significantly higher in the chain-of-command.
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Dawn had nothing to do with it, otherwise Nova would have said something. Word just got around, as it would after a famous thief shows up in a new guard unit and at a diplomatic dinner.
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Except it isn't the marines my dude lol