The Ties That Bind

by Scyphi

Mastermind

While Ditzy went about interrogating Blueblood’s office staff, Twilight privately discussed their next move with Kibitz and Raven. Gallus and Spike weren’t included in this conversation and were left waiting nearby with their escort guards, a notable cloud of moodiness lingering as they sat in mostly uncomfortable silence. Eventually Kibitz and Raven departed and Twilight rejoined Gallus and Spike, asking if they were interested in an early lunch or to go back to their room, of which the latter was selected—neither of them were feeling especially hungry in this atmosphere. They were just starting to leave when Ditzy caught up with them.

Twilight immediately turned her attention to the Night Guard. “That didn’t take you as long as I’d thought—did you learn anything?” she asked hopefully as they walked.

“Nothing especially useful, no,” Ditzy admitted with a sigh. “But the office staff confirmed that Blueblood did indeed leave the office without giving a reason why around noon yesterday, when the destroyed documents were signed out, and has been consistently doing so for about a week before that. He’s been shirking giving any sort of explanation since, suggesting he’s hiding something.”

“That would seem to incriminate him all right,” Twilight hummed without feeling.

“Then why is all of this leaving me with a sick feeling in my stomach?” Gallus asked suddenly, unable to keep his peace any longer.

“Yeah, something about all of this feels…wrong,” Spike swiftly agreed, a concerned expression forming on his face.

Ditzy glanced at Twilight and noticed she seemed uneasy about it too. “So I’m not the only one then,” she stated, confirming they were all in agreement.

“But the archive clerk’s description of who’d signed out the documents did fit Blueblood,” Twilight pointed out weakly.

But Gallus immediately scoffed. “I don’t know if you noticed, princess, but that clerk’s eyesight was bad, even with her glasses,” he argued. “And it was a pretty generic description anyway. I’m thinking all she saw was a blurry shape that happened to resemble Blueblood, a pony with a coat and mane of light colors like his.”

“A description that could match any number of different ponies in the palace,” Spike said and motioned to Ditzy, “Even Ditzy, for that matter. Plus, her memory could’ve always been faulty.”

“Or just outright lying,” Gallus added. “How do we know she isn’t in on the conspiracy somehow?”

“All valid points,” Ditzy agreed. “We shouldn’t take the clerk’s testimony at face value, not when our current evidence is still circumstantial at best.” She looked to Twilight again. “I still need to interrogate Blueblood properly but…you know we can’t definitively prove he’s involved right now.”

“We can’t exactly disprove it either though,” Twilight countered with a heavy sigh. “And the fact the documents we could’ve used to prove one way or the other were still destroyed in his office, documents we have record of being signed out under his name during a time where his whereabouts cannot be confirmed, is still very suspect.” She glanced to Ditzy solemnly as they rounded a corner. “Ditzy, you might as well know that Kibitz has asked to be the first to question Blueblood, so to make his legal situation clear to him.”

Ditzy frowned. “Sounds like he’s already decided this is going to the courts,” she concluded.

Twilight nodded, rubbing her temple with one hoof. “I have Raven speaking with the palace’s legal experts about what our options are, but… I can’t exactly blame him. If Blueblood is the pony we’re looking for, then potentially that means we can end this right now.”

“And if he’s not, and we’re just wasting our time with Blueblood?” Spike questioned.

Twilight declined to answer, the implications obvious enough.

Gallus let out a frustrated growl. “If it’s not one thing it’s always another, isn’t it?” he muttered darkly.

A moment of silence fell as they all continued mulling it over. Eventually though their journey was interrupted by a growing commotion taking place in an adjoining corridor. Moving to investigate revealed a pair of guards attempting to keep another very anxious creature from proceeding. Ditzy immediately reached for the crossbow she’d been carrying all day, but she didn’t bring it to bear on the pale purple colored hippogriff trying to push her way forward.

“I’m sorry ma’am, but my orders are clear—I currently cannot let you meet with the princess without permission!” one of the guards grunted as they tried to bar the taller creature’s path.

“But I need to speak with Princess Twilight Sparkle right away!” the hippogriff desperately pleaded, not letting up in her attempts to squeeze past them. “It’s extremely urgent!”

“Ambassador Aquila!” Twilight declared in surprise, interrupting the squabble. “What brings you here?”

“Princess Twilight!” the hippogriff swiftly called upon getting the alicorn’s attention. She propped herself up higher by putting one arm on a guard while waving her other above her head. “I need to speak with you right away! It’s about Blueblood!”

The others exchanged surprised glances—clearly, word was traveling fast. “Go ahead and let her through, gentlecolts,” Twilight finally instructed.

The guards glanced at her, silently asking if she was sure, before relenting and allowing Aquila to rush forward. Gallus took in the pale purple hippogriff now that she wasn’t fighting the guards, deciding she somewhat resembled a taller, posher, and more mature Silverstream. “So who’s this?” he asked before she could launch into whatever she’d come to say.

“Gallus, Spike, this is Ambassador Aquila, representing Mount Aris,” Twilight introduced, motioning to the hippogriff. “Aquila, this is Gallus and my assistant advisor in training, Spike.”

Aquila barely acknowledged them in her haste. “Yes, hi, nice to meet you,” she mumbled distractedly before turning her whole attention on Twilight. “Princess, you can’t arrest Blueblood! He’s innocent, I’m sure of it!”

“So Blueblood has already claimed himself,” Twilight patiently explained. “We’ll be interrogating him shortly for more information, but I’m afraid we do have evidence which seems to implicate him.”

“Then he’s being framed!” Aquila declared instantly, resolute in her defense of Blueblood. Gallus wondered why she cared so much. “You know Blueblood as well as I do, he wouldn’t do something like this!”

“I should remind the ambassador then,” Ditzy interjected here, “that not only is it not her position to determine that, I know for a fact one shouldn’t let Blueblood’s foppishness fool you—he’s still a trained and skilled bureaucrat perfectly capable of playing factors to his advantage, even if it means misleading others to do it.”

“Yes, but for murder?” Aquila argued. Without warning she suddenly hooked one leg around Gallus’s neck and all but dragged him before Twilight. “Do you really think he could harm a feather on this kid’s head?”

“Aquila, I understand you think highly of Blueblood,” Twilight said, maintaining her patience while magically extracting Gallus from the ambassador’s grasp, to his thankful relief—the gal had surprisingly good grip. “You two have gotten along well since your appointment as ambassador. But unless you have actual evidence that disproves or counters ours, then sadly approving words alone won’t be enough to exonerate him, no matter how much we wish it would.”

Aquila wasn’t about to give up though. “Then what is your evidence?” she demanded. “What makes you think he could even be part of this?”

Twilight exchanged a glance with Ditzy. Ditzy shrugged, deferring the call to Twilight. Apparently taking that to mean she didn’t see any immediate issue telling her, the princess continued. “A folder of pertinent documents was signed out under his name and their destroyed remains were found in his office fireplace. We also haven’t been able to determine his whereabouts at the time this would’ve taken place.”

Aquila pulled back in shock. “What?” she exclaimed. “When did this happen?”

“Yesterday, at around noon.”

“Around noon?” Aquila’s sense of urgency returned to full strength. “But it really couldn’t have been Blueblood then, because I know where he was at noon yesterday!”

“Really?” Ditzy asked, intrigued while stepping in. She adopted a somewhat interrogative stance towards the hippogriff. “You can provide an alibi for him?”

“Yes!” Aquila said, nodding empathically. “He was with me at the time!”

“Okay, so what were you two doing at that time?”

It was then that Aquila’s bravado abruptly deflated and she turned sheepish. “Do…you really need to know the details?” she asked hesitantly. “Isn’t it good enough to know he was with me?”

“Unfortunately no, Aquila,” Twilight replied apologetically. “Saying he was with you without giving any details only makes it look like you’re grasping for straws. So if you really want to help Blueblood, we need you to give all the details you can.”

Aquila fiddled with her talons awkwardly for a long moment, conflicted. At one point she glanced over at Spike and Gallus watching this all play out. Gallus raised an eyebrow at her in response, starting to get a sneaking suspicion as to what it was she didn’t want to say. Finally, Aquila motioned for Twilight to lean closer and, in a hushed whisper, proceeded to elaborate into the princess’s ear while Ditzy also listened in. She only got maybe a sentence or two in before Twilight’s eyes shot wide open.

“WHOAkay, I think I get the idea, thank you!” Twilight interrupted suddenly as she jerked away from the now blushing hippogriff.

She then shot a side-glance in Gallus’s direction upon hearing his stifled laughter, but he didn’t much care what Twilight thought about his reaction. “I think I know why Blueblood also didn’t want to say where he was,” he murmured to Spike, keeping his voice low so the others wouldn’t overhear. Clearly, saying that the ambassador and Blueblood had been getting along lately was an understatement.

“But that settles it, right?” Aquila meanwhile said, forcing down her embarrassment so to keep pressing the matter. “Blueblood must be innocent and you can release him now, right?”

Ditzy, however, bit her lip. “Unfortunately, ambassador, while it does serve as a good argument in his defense, just because you two were at the time engaged in…romantic activities…”

“Oh ho ho!” Gallus blurted out, probably unhelpfully, but he couldn’t stop himself.

Ditzy ignored him. “…it still doesn’t necessarily mean he wasn’t involved.”

“For example, he still could have had a servant sign out the documents on his behalf,” Twilight offered. “And I know the nobility have servants trained and able to sign for things in their employer’s signature precisely for things such as this.”

Aquila wilted a little. “…he does have his servants do that sometimes…” she relented dejectedly, unable to counter that point as easily.

Gallus frowned skeptically. “Yeah, but given everything we know about this conspiracy, I kinda doubt a lowly servant would be entrusted with so sensitive a task,” he reasoned.

“…unless the servant’s the one who’s trying to frame Blueblood!” Aquila swiftly added.

“With respect, ambassador, that’s mere speculation on your part, not proof of anything,” Ditzy reminded apologetically.

“In any case, I’m having ponies search Blueblood’s mansion as well as interrogate his personal staff as we speak, in hopes of finding more clues confirming one way or the other,” Twilight explained.

“There must be!” Aquila persisted desperately. “Blueblood can’t be guilty, he just can’t!”

Twilight sighed wearily. “If it helps, Aquila, I’d like to believe you,” she admitted. “But I can’t risk letting him go free while there’s still any chance we’re all wrong about him. I’ve been bit in the tail making assumptions about this already and I don’t intend to do so again.” Seeing how crestfallen that made Aquila though, she went on, “Though I suppose him being in an apparent relationship with you, a non-pony, would go against this whole anti-hybrid conspiracy.”

“For that matter,” Spike said, having been thinking everything through while the others talked, “wouldn’t Blueblood signing out the documents in his own name seem kinda…foolish?”

“Spike has a point,” Ditzy agreed. “Considering how competently this conspiracy has been ran, with every precaution taken at every turn, to slip up on something so obvious and basic seems a bit too convenient.” She shrugged. “I mean it can happen—the Night Guard has nabbed baddies for making similar slip-ups before, but still…”

“Come to think of it, that this conspiracy’s been ongoing for over a decade is probably notable too,” Gallus added in, rubbing his beak. Seeing the others weren’t following, he motioned to Twilight. “Just how old is Blueblood anyway? Not much older than you, right?”

“I believe he’s only about a year or two older than me, yes,” Twilight confirmed. “Why?”

“Well, think about how young he’d have to be when this all first began,” Gallus pointed out, “Too young to possibly be involved, right?”

“That is true,” Twilight admitted, “he would’ve been a mere foal at the time, possibly having only just gotten his cutie mark.”

“That is young,” Aquila agreed, her eyes going wide. Still unwilling to give up though, she quickly jumped on the implications. “But then isn’t that just more proof that he can’t be involved?”

“Circumstantially, perhaps,” Twilight relented, though without confidence.

“Unless the role was passed onto him by a predecessor,” Ditzy said. “Like what happened between Rhyolite and his son, Diorite. But I can’t think of any possible candidates that’d want to choose Blueblood over others…”

“That’s all speculation anyway!” Aquila said in a dismissing tone. “You can’t prove Blueblood’s involved because he isn’t!”

“Except for what we already have implicating Blueblood,” Twilight reminded before sighing. “But even that we’re clearly having second thoughts on.”

It was about then that Raven Inkwell suddenly returned, joining the group. “Princess, I have that report you asked for,” the unicorn began only to stop upon seeing Aquila. “Oh! Ambassador! What brings you here?”

“I’m exonerating Blueblood’s good name!” Aquila declared resolutely, stomping her hoof.

Raven blinked at her intensity. “Um…”

“She and Blueblood are a thing,” Gallus explained in a teasing tone, at which Aquila blushed again.

“…oh,” Raven concluded, uncertain, “well…I wish you the best of luck with that? But um, that said…you may not want to be here for this then.” Without waiting for a response though, she turned to Twilight. “Princess, after consulting with the legal department, they support what we’ve already planned. Kibitz is awaiting your final okay to proceed with questioning him.”

“And the longer I put off deciding, the longer we risk this conspiracy pushing onward,” Twilight added with a sigh. She took a deep breath. “Raven, tell Kibitz he can start preparing to question Blueblood as requested. Have him make whatever safety precautions he thinks are necessary, I just insist that I be present to observe before he begins, and remind him that Ditzy will also interrogate him as soon as he’s done.”

Raven nodded. “Yes, your highness.”

“What?” Aquila squealed, disliking this news as predicted. “But he’s innocent, I keep telling you all that!”

“Aquila, if Blueblood does prove innocent, I promise you, I’ll find a way to make it up to you both,” Twilight assured the dejected hippogriff. “But you’re welcome to accompany me so to give Blueblood moral support if you’d like.” She then turned to Ditzy. “Ditzy, before you join us in the security wing, please finish escorting Gallus and Spike back to their room.” Glancing over at them, she added, “I still want you two staying there and under constant guard until I’m certain the danger has passed, understood?”

“Yes ma’am,” Ditzy said with a salute, with Gallus and Spike mumbling their agreement.

“Good,” Twilight said, glancing over the group once more. “Look, I know the situation doesn’t feel great. But just hang in there and keep hoping we’re almost at the end of it.”

And with that last word of comfort, they all headed off to their separate destinations.

---

“I still don’t really like this,” Spike mumbled as they resumed being escorted through the palace halls.

“If it helps, I don’t really like it either,” Ditzy admitted as she led the way, their other escorts following behind them, “But it’s not our call to make, and the princess is definitely right about one thing—we can’t exactly take the risk.” She glanced knowingly back at her charges. “You two know better than anyone just what these creatures are capable of.”

“Yeah, but if Blueblood’s not our guy, then we’re still wasting time,” Gallus reminded.

“We ended up wasting time getting all that evidence from Griffonstone and the Dragon Lands too,” Ditzy contrasted. She sighed. “Look, it’s out of our hooves either way, so now we just need to trust the system.”

“That’s easy for you to say,” Gallus muttered darkly. Still, he supposed he could trust Equestria’s legal system a lot better than the Griffon Kingdom’s, which was infamously very broken and corrupt—part of the reason the kingdom was in the sorry state it was. Nevertheless, he huffed angrily. “Gah, it all still comes down to the same thing—we need more information.”

“If only those documents hadn’t gotten destroyed,” Spike likewise bemoaned. “It could’ve at least told us who scheduled Spark’s appointment and then we could’ve asked if they knew anything.”

“Assuming they’re still alive,” Ditzy said as they turned a corner. “I don’t want to be the pessimist here, but…there has been a pretty consistent track record on that.”

“Tell me about it,” Gallus groaned, reviewing in his head all the creatures that’d died as well as Gruff still in his coma—he wondered what the old coot would think about the Blueblood problem. “Is there any other way we could find out what was on those documents? Whatever it was, it must’ve been important enough to destroy before anyone could see them.”

“Not really,” Ditzy said with a sad shake of her head. “The copies in the archives were really the only other place it could be.”

They went quiet for a moment, during which Gallus noticed Spike lapsing into deep thought. “Hey Ditzy?” the dragon asked. “Think I can go back to the archives? I want to keep digging around for anything else that could help.”

Ditzy glanced back at him. “You really think you’d find something when no one else has?” she asked him.

Spike shrugged. “Might as well still try,” he pointed out. “And anyway, I’ve done enough royal advisor work to know my way around the archives. I’ve got a few ideas for some places I could still check.”

Ditzy considered it for a moment then turned around, signaling for the group to halt. “All right, we can go down to the archives for a bit.”

“Aw, do we all have to?” Gallus groaned without thinking, not eager to endure dull file sorting a second time that day. But realizing it probably seemed insensitive, he added, “No offense to Spike—if it can help then it can help—but since that’s not really something I can help with much, I’d just be bored out of my mind.”

Spike was unbothered though. “I don’t think we all need to go,” he assured. “I can just go myself.”

“You are not going down there alone,” Ditzy however ruled out. She pointed at the two escorts closest to Spike. “Go with him and make sure absolutely nothing happens to him,” she ordered. “The rest of us will finish escorting Gallus to his room then before I double back for Blueblood’s interrogation I’ll have additional guards come and join you in the archives.” She gave the little dragon a grin. “Just in case.”

Spike returned it before giving Gallus a pat. “Hopefully I won’t be too long,” he said to the griffon. “You sure you don’t want to come with? There’s probably some way to keep it entertaining…”

“Nah, I’d just get in your way anyway,” Gallus assured, waving him on. He trusted Spike knew what he was doing. “But for the record, I do hope you actually find something.” He then became a little more serious. “Stay safe though.”

“You too,” Spike replied before giving him a little wave and leaving with the guards for the archives.

Gallus watched him go before joining Ditzy and the remaining two escorts continuing through the corridors. “Think he’ll find anything?” he asked the pegasus quietly.

“I think he’s right about checking anyway,” Ditzy replied. “Besides, if it helps give him peace of mind then I’m not going to tell him no.”

Gallus fell quiet after that, mulling that he could use some peace of mind too and pondering how exactly to get some. He’d settled on finding something to preoccupy his mind when they started to arrive at their destination. A unicorn Night Guard had taken up the post beside the double doors in their absence, despite the room currently being unoccupied, and made a friendly salute upon seeing them coming. Ditzy returned it as she started to close the gap, but then she, without warning, completely stopped dead in her tracks. Gallus didn’t notice in time to keep from bumping into her, and in so doing noticed she’d gone as tense as a rock.

“…something wrong?” he asked as he watched Ditzy’s uncovered eye narrow in the direction of his room, as if peering through its walls.

She didn’t answer though and turned her attention back to the unicorn guard. “Private, has anyone entered this room since this morning?” she asked in a calm but weirdly pointed tone. It made her phrasing sound forced.

It confused the private at any rate. “No ma’am,” he assured. “No one has been inside since it was vacated. I was assigned here so to ensure that, ma’am.”

Ditzy nonetheless raised a questioning eyebrow at him. “Are you sure?”

The private, growing confused, glanced between her and the room’s door, silently asking himself if he’d somehow missed something. “…positive, ma’am,” he again confirmed all the same. “No one has been in or out since then. It hasn’t even been opened.”

“Has it now?” Ditzy asked, not sounding convinced.

She glanced back at Gallus and the remaining two escorts, noting how all three of them were now alert. Despite that though, she gently motioned for them to remain quiet before pulling aside the unicorn guard and discussing something with him in a hushed voice. They were apparently instructions, because a moment later the guard lit his horn and proceeded to wave its magic back and forth over the room’s entrance. Gallus realized they were scanning the room’s interior, making him wonder all the more what was up.

Whatever it was, the guard apparently didn’t expect it because his eyes widened upon finishing. Ditzy silenced him before he could speak though and discreetly spoke further with him. Just as Gallus’s curiosity had nearly gnawed its way through his mind though, they stopped and, looking somewhat smug, Ditzy waved for him and the other two guards to join them.

“Is something up?” Gallus asked, also keeping his voice low.

“Something is indeed up,” Ditzy replied, but her sly grin suggested she had a plan, “Which is why we need the help of all three of you.”

Gallus felt his brow furrow. “Okay…but help with what?”

“We’re going to set a little trap.”

---

The unicorn guard was telling the truth—no one really had been through the room’s doors since that morning, but as Ditzy went on to point out, that didn’t mean there weren’t other ways in and out of the room. Not that the room, normally the princess’s private bedchambers, didn’t have plenty of measures securing even these, but that was what made the situation all the more interesting. And also made Gallus all the more nervous about was likely coming next.

Nonetheless, only one of them actually entered the room while the rest remained outside. No lights were turned on, instead leaving the room somewhat dim. Once inside, there were no diversions or delays, just a walk straight to the bed, climbing in, and pulling covers all the way up and over the head as if taking a nap. Gallus could only wait tensely from there, his heart thumping against his ribs hard enough that it felt like it was trying to put a window in his chest using a sledgehammer.

There was a long stretch of silence, made eerie due to the high tension. But finally there was new movement. Gallus hadn’t really thought about it before, but the room did have a fireplace. It’d gone unused this whole time, but that was what made the sudden sound of trickling soot from it alarming. This trickling began faintly then increased into a steady stream. Before long, a set of hooves was heard quietly lowering themselves onto the hearth, moving so quietly and cautiously that, if Gallus hadn’t known to listen for it, he probably would’ve missed it.

Eventually a shadowy and soot-covered figure emerged from the fireplace and, glancing around to make sure no one else was in the room—and for the moment there wasn’t—they silently closed the gap between the fireplace and the bed. Before long they were looming ominously over the lump hidden under the covers, withdrawing a weapon. Pausing just a moment longer while Gallus waited anxiously, the figure suddenly grabbed the covers and whipped them back expecting to reveal the young griffon underneath.

Instead, they found Ditzy waiting and ready for them.

“Pro tip,” Ditzy sassed as she pointed her crossbow at the shocked would-be assassin, “when hiding someplace where you can’t physically see your target, do make sure it’s actually them before you act.”

Before the attacker could even finish reacting, Gallus looked up from the keyhole he’d been watching all this through and signaled the other three guards who threw open the room’s double doors. They quickly surrounded the attacker, bringing their weapons upon them. The attacker immediately backed away from Ditzy at the same time, dropping their weapon and putting their forehooves into the air. Gallus then got his first good look at them and was surprised to see she was a fairly ordinary looking mare.

Amazed, he looked to Ditzy. “How did you know she was even in here?” he asked.

Ditzy grinned. “While you and Spike were elsewhere yesterday, I hid a few extra security triggers of my own custom design in here,” she tapped her magicked eyepatch, “all of which rigged to alert me specifically if any of them are tripped.”

Gallus raised his eyebrows at her. “You never said anything about that.”

“Of course not,” Ditzy replied. “We knew we had a security leak, so I figured the less who knew about it, the better.” She gave the intruder a smug look. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

The intruder just gave a sour look back in return, so Ditzy turned her attention to other affairs. Upon double-checking that the guards had the mare securely surrounded, she set aside her crossbow and picked up the intended murder weapon by its handle, carefully not touching any other part of it.

“Appears to be an ordinary dart,” she noted aloud before holding it up before the assassin. “I assume the point is poisoned or else this isn’t doing terribly much to anyone.”

The assassin defiantly didn’t reply, but she did reflexively lean away from the dart’s tip when Ditzy brought it closer to her face.

“What about her bags?” A guard asked, for the mare had a sleeker version of saddlebags strapped about her barrel, colored black so to match the rest of her functional outfit.

“Yes, the bags,” Ditzy agreed as she made a show of refocusing her attention on them. Gallus could tell she was enjoying this. “They look like a chimney sweep’s bags, which is what I’m guessing you’re disguised as so to get onto the premises without raising the alarm…although how you did so while a lockdown is in effect is another mystery.” Ditzy mulled upon that for a second before nodding at the bags. “Anyway, I’m guessing what you’re carrying is not the usual array of chimney sweep tools.”

She signaled to a nearby guard who removed the bags from the still-silent assassin and proceeded to open them. “She came armed, ma’am,” he reported, holding open the bag for her to see.

Ditzy gave the inside a cursory glance. “Incendiary charges and Choker’s Gas grenades,” she noted aloud before looking knowingly at the assassin. “You wouldn’t also happen to have had a hoof in burning down the apartment of one Gene Type or the lethal gassing of one Streamline, would you?”

“She’s at least the one who destroyed the evidence locker,” Gallus observed with a flare of vindictive justice, eyeing some scabbed gashes on the mare’s cheek leftover from a set of talons scoring a lucky hit. He gave the assassin a nasty look. “Probably also got into a fight with a crotchety old coot, right?”

The assassin persistently kept silent.

Ditzy harrumphed in amusement. “Well, it doesn’t matter anyway,” she said, taking in the mare’s face. “We’ve at least got her for the assassination of Southern Equestria’s Deputy Minister Atem.” When the mare expressed visible surprise at this, Ditzy nodded smugly. “Yeah, didn’t think I’d recognize your face since the wanted posters are over two years out of date now, did you? But I did. I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I didn’t.”

The assassin stared at Ditzy for a moment, her composure visibly changing now that she knew she was sunk either way. “I want a deal,” she finally announced, speaking for the first time.

“Oh ho, do you now?” Ditzy chortled, amused by the assassin’s audacity. “That’s cute, seeing you’re hardly in a position to bargain. You’re going to have to give me way more so to get that anyway. But we can talk about it more once you’re safely in an interrogation room.”

“Besides, we’ve already got the guy that’s supposed to be behind all of this,” one of the guards remarked. “Last I heard, they’ve arrested Prince Blueblood and…”

“Blueblood?!” The assassin suddenly blurted out. She twisted around to look at the guard, incredulous. “What in the world made you think that idiot is in any way—” She then cut herself short upon realizing what she was saying.

A moment of stunned silence fell. “No, no,” Ditzy then said as she leaned closer, intrigued, “By all means, do continue.”

The assassin, however, stayed silent, though no longer as self-confident as she once was.

Nonetheless, the implications she had let slip made Gallus’s gizzard tie itself into knots. “Ditzy, if she’s telling the truth and Blueblood really is innocent…” he breathed urgently to the pegasus.

“I know,” Ditzy acknowledged, nodding at the guards to start arresting their prisoner. “We’ll get to that as soon as this gal’s where she can’t do more harm. Blueblood isn’t exactly going anywhere after all.”

But Gallus’s heart was thumping in his chest again as he started to pace blindly. “What did they hope to gain from framing Blueblood anyway?” he asked himself aloud. “They must’ve known we’d figure it out eventually and then we’d just continue tracking them down. The only way around that would be to somehow stop us from getting the chance, and to do that, you’d not only need to stop Blueblood from testifying entirely, you’d also need somepony at precisely the right spot and the right time to…”

Then, all at once, the final piece of the puzzle fell into place in Gallus’s mind.

A chill washed over him from head to tail tip. “…Ditzy, we need to stop them from interrogating Blueblood,” he stated, realizing how short the time remaining must be, “Now.”

“And we will!” Ditzy promised, her attention still on securing the assassin. “Just give me a second to…”

“There isn’t time!” Gallus stressed, growing more and more alarmed. He doubted he even had time to explain. “Look, I’ll go down and do it if you really can’t—”

“You will do no such thing!” Ditzy objected, shooting him a look. “You will wait until one of us is free to go with you, do you hear me?”

Gallus stared at her for a second then glanced at the bed beside him. “Then you shouldn’t have set down your crossbow.”

“…what? What are you—GALLUS!”

But Gallus had already snatched the crossbow she’d left on the bed and started racing out the door. He heard Ditzy shout after him, then at least one of the guards give chase. Knowing there wasn’t time for delays, he ran for the closest window trying to shake his pursuer. He had just enough time to flick open the latch and bodily slam it open before feeling the pursuing guard try to grab him by the tail. Miraculously they failed to secure a good grip and Gallus tumbled unhindered for a brief second out the tower window before spreading his wings and taking flight, swooping through the air outside the palace for the first time since he’d arrived.

He had no time to relish it though and immediately banked around for a floor closer to the palace’s security wing. There his luck held as a maid had opened a window so to clean and used this opportunity to shoot back inside by flying over the startled mare’s head. Bursting out into a new corridor, he started again in the direction he hoped Blueblood would be. Admittedly, he didn’t really know the palace’s layout that well, making his only guide the vague signs posted at key intersections. But going off of those, he did seem to be heading in the right direction.

Fate really must’ve been feeling extra generous then, because while following a sign around a corner at a full gallop, he saw another pony already in the corridor turn in surprise upon seeing him. She wasn’t wearing a guard’s armor, but she did wear what appeared to be a uniform so Gallus gambled that she worked here. “Where’s Princess Twilight?” he asked as he approached, “It’s an emergency!”

The mare quickly pointed with one hoof before moving out of Gallus’s way as he rushed past without slowing, following her directions to the door in question further down the hall. Slamming it open revealed a sterile office area divided off from a routine interrogation room by a white-washed brick wall. Inside were Twilight, Raven, Blueblood, Aquila, and Kibitz along with a pair of guards. Kibitz was just starting to escort the cuffed Blueblood into the interrogation room when Gallus entered and everyone turned their heads in his direction.

“Hold it!” Gallus panted as he whipped up the crossbow he’d stolen, pointing it at them, “Stop everything!”

The reaction was immediate. Aquila yelped and lunged for Blueblood standing in the interrogation room’s doorway, pushing aside the shocked Kibitz as she wrapped her body protectively around the prince. Raven jumped back a full pace while Twilight hurriedly threw up a magic barrier big enough to enclose herself and Raven. Kibitz, left standing alone to one side of the room, also cast his own a barrier, but Gallus noticed he was already decked out in additional body armor too. Despite being the most protected though, he initially seemed the most alarmed of the group. Finally the guards, left outside the two barriers, raised their weapons at the armed griffon but then just stood there uncertain what else to do, hoping for further orders.

A tense moment passed as the impromptu standoff began and everything came to an immediate halt. Nobody moved. Gallus used it to try and catch his breath, not daring to let his aim waver.

“Please don’t shoot!” Blueblood pathetically begged as he cowered in Aquila’s protective hold. “I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“Gallus, what are you doing?” Twilight asked in alarm. “Where’s Spike?”

“Safe,” Gallus promised, though he didn’t want to say exactly where just in case this didn’t go as expected. “But Blueblood certainly isn’t.”

“Then explain,” Twilight demanded, not wanting to play games. “What’s going on?”

So Gallus obliged. “We got it wrong, princess. If I hadn’t stopped you, I legitimately think Blueblood wouldn’t have walked out of here alive.”

He saw Blueblood turn a shade paler, which was rather impressive considering his already white coat.

Kibitz meanwhile immediately scoffed. “Whatever makes you think that? If anything, we’re the ones endangered by him and his criminal acts!” Without waiting for a response, he looked to Twilight. “Princess, with respect, he’s clearly not thinking straight!”

“Gallus, I promise that everything is under control,” Twilight assured, still trying to defuse the situation. “We’re on the right track to sorting this out.”

“That’s not what the assassin in my room said,” Gallus replied pointedly.

Twilight once again reeled back in alarm. “What assassin?”

“This assassin, your highness,” Heads twisted around to see a panting Ditzy arrive through an adjoining door on the office’s right side, dragging in the cuffed mare in question and closely followed by the two guards still with Ditzy—Gallus assumed the third was still searching for him on a different floor while the others rushed here with Ditzy. “Posing as a chimney sweep, she snuck into Gallus and Spike’s room through the chimney with the clear intent of killing them. Fortunately, we managed to stay one trot ahead of her.” Ditzy then looked past the others and at Gallus. “You took my crossbow.”

Gallus shrugged, keeping it casual. “Impressed?”

He’d meant it as a quip, but Ditzy had to nod. “Actually, yeah, little bit.”

“Ditzy,” Twilight hissed in disapproval.

“And so you brought this assassin here?” Kibitz demanded, incredulous but also very anxious. “Shouldn’t you be investigating how she got inside despite the current lockdown?”

“Well, obviously, someone high up gave her permission, bypassing not just the lockdown but also the normal security too,” Gallus offered. “And I’m pretty sure that, given circumstances, the only creatures who could’ve done that are here in this room.” He then nodded his head at the assassin. “You know who it is too, don’t you?”

The assassin glared back defiantly, though Gallus couldn’t help but notice an aura of uneasiness lying under it. “If you expect me to tell you, I do not dare,” she replied, deadly serious about it. “Punishments are swift for those who blab.” However, for a split second, Gallus saw her eyes dart worryingly to a specific pony in the group.

Gallus smirked to himself. I thought so.

And he was sure Ditzy noticed too, because she started to whisper urgently into the ear of the unicorn guard at her side.

“Princess, this is going nowhere,” Kibitz interjected urgently. “We need to get back to interrogating Blueblood and end this mess!”

“No!” Gallus interrupted, his voice firm. “Blueblood is not the mastermind, he never was.”

Blueblood breathed a sigh of relief while Aquila let out a victorious caw. “Thank you!” she said. “I told you he’s being framed!”

“But that’s why I’m confident this was also a trap,” Gallus pressed on. “Framing Blueblood for everything doesn’t work if he testifies. So naturally our culprit needs that to never happen.”

“By silencing Blueblood,” Twilight finished ominously.

“That way, no one would ever be definitively sure Blueblood was the mastermind or not,” Gallus said with a nod. “And with the plan for that gal to bump off me and Spike at about the same time,” he nodded at the captured assassin, “that’d tie off all the loose ends and cause the trail to go cold.”

“But then…” Raven asked pointedly, “…who is the real mastermind?”

“Someone with enough authority to bypass a lockdown,” Gallus reasoned. “Someone who’d have inside information on everything that’s happening at the palace, someone close to the princess that knows their meeting schedule, someone with enough means to give secret missions to the Royal Guard, and above all else…someone who has been here for the past fourteen to fifteen years.”

And with that he shifted his aim, pointing the crossbow at Kibitz.

Kibitz, naturally, turned incredulous. “Oh, don’t be ridiculous!” he argued, pointing an accusing hoof at Gallus. “You are simply throwing blind accusations!”

“Then explain why you wanted to be the first to interrogate Blueblood, before even Ditzy,” Gallus challenged.

Sputtering, Kibitz threw out his hooves. “So to brief Blueblood of his legal situation and personally ensure his rights are upheld! I have that authority! I’m not the only one who does either!” He flung a hoof at his fellow advisor. “Miss Inkwell could’ve just as easily done it, so why not accuse her?”

“Because Raven wasn’t in that position back when this was kick-started with Gwen and Spark,” Gallus reminded, sternly looking Kibitz in the eye, “But you were. You’ve been here a long time. In fact, aren’t you due to retire in just a few days? Wouldn’t that be convenient, to go into retirement right after successfully completing a conspiracy like this?”

“It would make it easy to all but disappear from the public eye,” Ditzy added, following Gallus’s logic.

Kibitz sputtered again. “But I’ve served faithfully for that whole time! Does that not prove I can be trusted?”

“Trusted enough to be managing everything on the princess’s schedule without question?” Gallus asked, “Because that’s part of what you do as advisor, right?” He then glanced at Twilight looking on with mixed feelings. “As I recall, Princess Celestia said she had no recollection of Spark’s meeting being scheduled, correct?”

“So she said, yes,” Twilight confirmed uncertainly. “But she may simply not be remembering it.”

“Assuming, of course, she ever knew about it at all,” Gallus said and looked back at Kibitz. “You were there, Kibitz, so you tell me—did you even tell Celestia about it or did you just never actually put it on her schedule?”

“It doesn’t matter!” Kibitz hissed. “You cannot prove I had anything to do with it! Every copy of that meeting being scheduled was destroyed!”

“Not all of them.”

All eyes turned as Spike and the two guards accompanying him suddenly arrived at Gallus’s side. As he strolled up grim-faced, he held up a plain manila folder stamped with the Night Guard crest.

Kibitz’s eyes widened in shock. “Where did you…how did you…?”

“Protocol thirty-three-A,” was Spike’s steely reply. “In the interest of promoting interagency cooperation, all documents filed into the Royal Guard archives must have a corresponding duplicate likewise filed within the Night Guard archives, and vice versa. Originally this was done manually. However, when Princess Celestia discovered duplicates weren’t being made like they should, she devised a spell that did this automatically from that point onward. Incidentally, she did this about a month before Spark’s death, so since it was still so new at the time, I thought, maybe, our mastermind hadn’t taken that into consideration. So I checked.” He held the folder up higher. “It paid off.”

Kibitz stared at the little dragon. “How did you even know all that?” he asked.

Spike held his paws askance. “I am a royal advisor, aren’t I?” he replied pointedly. But then he motioned to the folder he held. “More importantly though, I have documentation which scheduled Spark’s meeting with Princess Celestia. Guess who signed off on it?”

Without waiting for him to tell or show them himself, Twilight suddenly snatched the folder with her magic, whisked it through her magic barrier, and flipped it open to peer inside. She only needed a glance. With a frown, she then turned the folder around so everyone else could see too. Kibitz’s loopy signature was impossible to miss upon the archived document. All eyes then turned to Kibitz, who was momentarily unable to vocalize any counters.

Ditzy turned somewhat smug. “You are infamously anti-Night Guard, Kibitz. So you probably didn’t even think to consider what our archives may or may not have held…didn’t you?”

“Come to think of it,” Twilight also remarked suddenly, her demeanor turning cold, “Kibitz was the one who not only introduced me to Gene Type but also repeatedly recommended his services. I hadn’t thought about it before, considering Gene Type was very good at what he did…but now it does seem like too much of a coincidence…”

“Kibitz was also the one who okayed the lieutenant commander going to meet with Streamline yesterday,” Raven also breathed, eyes going wide in realization. “Right before Streamline was assassinated too.”

“And it was Kibitz’s idea to even look for these documents, ultimately leading to us discovering copies were missing in the first place,” Spike also added.

Kibitz’s breathing had notably accelerated but otherwise remained resolute in denying everything. “All of this is not proof of guilt,” he reminded firmly.

“Then how about the two Choker’s Gas grenades hidden in your saddlebags?” the unicorn guard Ditzy was whispering to earlier suddenly announced. When this drew everyone’s attention to him, he motioned to his horn, its aura having been lit for the past several minutes. “Apologies, but it took a while for my scans to penetrate his magic barrier and get a reliable reading.”

Gallus then noticed something Kibitz had mostly hidden around his neck in addition to the body armor he wore. “That wouldn’t happen to be a gas mask you’ve got there, is it?” he asked the advisor, who he noticed tensed sharply at the question.

“Add that in with the body armor and the grenades and I’d think you’re preparing for a war instead of questioning a suspect,” Ditzy added sarcastically.

“The armor was a precaution, in case Blueblood tried something,” Kibitz growled weakly while conspicuously ignoring the matter of the grenades entirely.

“Was that the plan then?” Spike asked. “Sneak those grenades into the interrogation room then, once you were alone with Blueblood, discreetly set one off so to make it look like he was desperately trying to attack and use that as an excuse to finish him off, arguing self-defense? Was all that body armor just so to make it look good?”

Kibitz, at this point, was refusing to reply. Twilight narrowed her gaze, lowering her magic barrier. “…Kibitz, I think it’d be best if you stand down and submit to the authorities at this point.”

“I will do no such thing, your highness,” Kibitz retaliated, starting forward. “I will not submit to trumped-up charges and shaky circumstantial evidence because of—!”

“Hey, hey, hey!” Gallus interrupted, waggling his weapon at Kibitz. “Let’s not forget that I’m the one with the crossbow pointed at you, not the other way around. And as I recall from Ditzy, this arrow is enchanted,” He nodded at the sole glowing arrowhead on the crossbow then at Kibitz’s shield, “meaning it’s capable of piecing your magic barrier.”

“You only have the one arrow though,” Kibitz argued back as he stopped but threw a hoof at Gallus, undeterred. “And I highly doubt you know how to properly fire that crossbow!”

Gallus just raised an eyebrow at him. “You want to put that to the test then?” he challenged.

Kibitz scoffed. “The only thing I am guilty of here is doing my job!” he hissed instead. “Part of that job is to help ensure any and all threats to crown and country are removed, and right now you are making yourself into quite the threat to both.”

“What makes you so sure that we’re what you think we are though?” Gallus countered. “Because that’s what this is really about isn’t it, us being the unnatural hybrids? You know, there was always something about how you acted around me and Spike from the moment I met you. A sense of distancing and disdain, like you didn’t really want to be in the same room with us, all just because we’re the freaks of nature to you.”

“Don’t go putting words into my mouth, griffon.”

“And yet those same freaks of nature are the ones who’ve backed you into a corner. You must be so infuriated we kept escaping every trap you’ve laid with increasing desperation. Nothing in all of this has gone as you planned, has it? Never once expecting we’d walk away from Gene Type’s airship alive.”

“You weren’t supposed to!”

Kibitz’s impulsive outburst seemed to echo within the suddenly silent room. A cold mood settled as all eyes not only stared at Kibitz but also darkened gravely. All pretenses vanished. The guards shifted their defensive stances onto him as well. Kibitz, perfectly aware of this, glanced around just as darkly before returning his gaze back to the griffon aiming the crossbow at him and the little dragon standing beside him.

“It doesn’t matter,” he ultimately concluded, intensifying his magic barrier’s strength with a flare of his horn and readjusting his stance so his body armor could maximally shield him. “I will not surrender. I will not give you your so-called justice. So what do you intend to do now, hmm? Do you intend to kill me?”

“You have enough blood on your hooves that I’d be more than justified,” Gallus replied coldly, feeling his blood boil at the thought of how many creatures had been killed throughout all of this, including his parents. Still, he caught on to what Kibitz was getting at, narrowing his gaze at him. “But you’d like that, wouldn’t you?” he asked. “Have me be the one resorting to violence. It’d be your chance to prove I am the danger you want everyone to think I am, twistingly justifying everything you’ve done.”

“Call it what you will,” Kibitz dismissed, not backing down. “But you may not have much other option in a moment if this continues.”

Letting that warning hang, he stared Gallus and Spike down, awaiting their response. Gallus glared back for a long moment, observing that the only vulnerable spots on Kibitz he had clear aim of would almost certainly be lethal. He glanced at everyone else bracing for a fight, likewise expecting no other alternative, before finally settling on Spike standing beside him, deeply concerned. Finally, Gallus looked back at Kibitz.

And lowered the crossbow.

“No,” Gallus replied resolutely as he did this. “I am not the creature you think I am.”

Kibitz’s eyes widened briefly. “How do you plan to capture me then?” he demanded.

“Take it up with them,” Gallus said, motioning to everyone else as he tossed the crossbow back to Ditzy, who swiftly caught it and aimed it at Kibitz. “But I refuse to stoop to your level.” He wrapped one leg around Spike, who swiftly fell in step with Gallus’s intentions as he pulled the dragon closer. “Neither of us will.”

“You can’t be serious!” Kibitz snapped with growing fury.

“C’mon Spike,” Gallus said, ignoring Kibitz as he turned to leave.

But then he suddenly heard Ditzy shout urgently. “Gallus! Spike!”

He turned back to see Kibitz had whipped out a Choker’s Gas grenade from his saddlebag and held the baseball-sized green orb aloft with his magic. Raven let out a panicked yell while Twilight lit her horn. Ditzy and the other guards all tensed, gearing up to act. Behind Kibitz, Blueblood grabbed Aquila and voluntarily dove into the interrogation room, slamming its door closed behind him and sealing themselves within. Kibitz ignored all of this though, keeping his glaring eyes on Gallus and Spike—the only two he cared about now.

“I can end this,” he hissed at the pair in warning. “Right here, right now.”

Spike and Gallus stopped and stared back at him. Silence fell for a long moment, but nothing further happened. Gallus realized Kibitz was still trying to force the two into attacking. But, daringly and to Gallus’s somewhat surprise, Spike folded his arms in refusal.

“No,” he spoke confidently to Kibitz, “you won’t.”

Kibitz’s eyes widened at the dragon calling his bluff. “What do you mean no?”

Suddenly, Gallus understood Spike’s point. “Because you’ve had everybody but yourself do your dirty work up to now,” he replied. “So if you really ever had the guts to kill us yourself…you would’ve already done so ages ago and avoided all of this.”

Kibitz raised the grenade in his grasp higher, but his body trembled as his resolve clearly faltered. “No…no…”

“Immoral enough to order innocent children to be murdered, but too much of a coward to do the deed himself,” Spike summarized coldly. “And yet you’re the one who dares call us the monsters.”

Kibitz eyes were ablaze with fury, but he still couldn’t bring himself to throw the grenade. “You…you…”

By that point he had delayed too long. Determining she had her chance, Twilight cast a spell at the unicorn’s magic shield which popped it like a soap bubble. The moment it was down, Ditzy and all of the guards but one (who remained guarding the cuffed assassin) surged forward and surrounded him, the unicorn guard wrenching the unused grenade from Kibitz’s grasp before also relieving him of his saddlebags.

Kibitz’s glare remained on the two hybrid brothers that remained eluding him though. “Don’t you ignore me!” he demanded with growing desperation, still trying to get a rise out of them.

Gallus did anyway. “Let’s get out of here, Spike,” he concluded and once again turning to go. “We have better places to be.”

“Yeah,” Spike agreed as he gave Kibitz one last parting glare before following. “There’s nothing for us to do here.”

“Get back here!” Kibitz howled after them. “GET BACK HERE!”

But it fell on deaf ears, the disgraced unicorn left to face the growing fury of the rest while Gallus and Spike walked off side by side, never once looking back.

Author's Note:

So yeah, y'all guessed correctly who our baddie was...surprisingly quickly too.

Like, I always figured someone would before the big reveal, but only one or two chapters before and even then with some uncertainty, so much so I had spent the whole of writing the story wondering if I wasn't giving enough hints about it. But nope! Everybody figured it out pretty much the moment he first appeared in the story. If I had known that would be the case, I probably would've done certain things a bit differently.

That all said, I'm not too bothered by it. It had always been the intent that, if you were paying attention, you could still pick up on the hints of who our baddie was, so this all simply proves that I succeeded. Just...a whole lot better than I was expecting, I guess. Go figure, right?

Also, yes, I borrowed Aquila from "Weekend With The Dragon Lord" for a cameo in this, mostly as a consolation prize to myself for having failed to produce a sequel to that fic by now.

Comments

[SpikeSmolder fan]

So the red herring was actually the mastermind behind all of this bloody crusade, and a pitiful spineless mastermind at that! You were right in saying Gene wasn't the worst yet Scyphi cause this guy really took the cake & ate it too!!!

Also nice cameo by Aquila for *proving* Blueblood's innocence, well played!

Kibitz’s glare remained on the two hybrid brothers that remained eluding him though. “Don’t you ignore me!” he demanded with growing desperation, still trying to get a rise out of them.

Gallus did anyway. “Let’s get out of here, Spike,” he concluded and once again turning to go. “We have better places to be.”

“Yeah,” Spike agreed as he gave Kibitz one last parting glare before following. “There’s nothing for us to do here.”

“Get back here!” Kibitz howled after them. “GET BACK HERE!”

But it fell on deaf ears, the disgraced unicorn left to face the growing fury of the rest while Gallus and Spike walked off side by side, never once looking back.

Go back under the rock you crawl out off & never come back!

[nfreak]

nicely done, this chapter was a treat to read. I was expecting the story to go on a bit longer, but also glad it didn't end up dragging things out more than it needed too. once they got to the palace there was only so long the story could keep being.

yea sorry for picking up on it super early, but to me the embassy attack was the smoking gun. No one should have known they were there, especially when the guards were instructed to pick them up where Ditzy's transmitter was. So that only left people who took the scarab call, and of those Kibitz was the right age. I had a bit of doubt that maybe more Griffons were behind it, but everything after just kept cementing it to be Kibitz unless there was some crazy plot twist with little to no hints given.

I don't think its a bad thing that it can be picked up fairly early though, since the age thing makes it so your list of suspects isn't that large realistically. If the game of cat and mouse section that is the castle arc went on way longer, then yea it be like "why are none of the characters figuring out something obvious" but I think you kept it the right length.

But I agree the best mystery are those that the reader can pick up on, and if they don't they make total sense in hindsight. If you wanted it to be a bit more of a question mark I think having more potential suspects, all with plausibility would have helped, but also would have ballooned the length. And the story isn't really about figuring out the mystery, its more about gallus and spike learning the truth and how they begin to process that, in addition to making sure to keep each other safe.

I do think its a little unbelievable kibitz never realized about spikes egg, but considering he's someone who tries to do everything perfect and forgot about little details like the night guard files, its not that unbelievable.

Also I really like that Spike got his moment to shine. When him and Gallus had the conversation way earlier about Gallus taking the lead in Griffonstone, but Spike contributing when in his element, I had been waiting for that moment to arrive. And it did in a glorious fashion!

I'm interested to see how the rest of the story wraps up, clearly we're nearing the end. I do hope we get to see the student 6s reaction to everything that happens in the epilogue .

[Yuri Bacon]

I knew it! Damn guy complained about the night gaurd taking control away from the royal gaurd too much.

[Scyphi]

11870926
Give it a couple more chapters.

[LtMajorDude]

Haha, get fucked Kibitz