Twilight raced to the room where she'd been told Ivory was being kept under heavy guard. Seeing as how it was Trixie standing outside the door Twilight wouldn't dispute that. When it comes to guarding there was few more intimidating than Trixie. At least if you knew what she was capable of anyway.

Trixie smiled nastily as she saw Twilight. "Late to the party I see."

"What happened Trixie? Who tried to kill Ivory?"

"Well, he was dark grey, as in almost black, with an actually black mane and tail, and he had sparkling blue eyes. His cutie mark was a rather abstract snake that looked like a dagger, and in the most annoyingly professional way didn't scream 'for the Duke!' or something similar which would've given away exactly the thing we would like to know."

Twilight's mouth hung open, and for a moment words escaped her. "H-how do you know all- all that?"

"Both parts of him are in the morgue if you wish to go have a good look at him." Seeing Twilight's uncomprehending stare Trixie went on to explain, "I caught him in the act, killed him, violently, and saved Ivory's life."

"Violently? You did say both parts of him..."

"Ah, yes..." Trixie smiled awkwardly, "Trixie does feel sorry for the ponies that have to keep cleaning the blood up in this place."

Horrendous images filled Twilight's head, and she squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head until they went away. "Nevermind him, how's Ivory?"

"Alive. As Trixie said, I saved her, and not just from the assassin. Without you or Luna there wasn't anypony that could use the healing do-hickey, so Trixie had to. I couldn't use it for long, but long enough to keep her alive."

"How long?"

"I don't know. Half an hour, give or take."

Twilight was stunned, "Trixie, the average unicorn could only use one of them for ten minutes at most before feeling the strain. Even I start feeling it after an hour or so. You didn't use dark magic did you?"

"Good grief Twilight, even I could tell that's probably a bad idea. And how dare you compare the Great and Powerful Trixie to the average unicorn." Trixie raised her nose into the air, "You may as well call Trixie fat while you're at it."

"I'm sorry, but-" Twilight focused on Trixie's horn, then decided not to worry. Trixie's magic had already shown itself to expand in capability, and this was nothing more than further proof of that. "Nevermind. Thank you for saving Ivory's life Trixie."

"I'm sure the assassin feels differently, but you're welcome."

Twilight stood there for a moment, assuming that Trixie was going to step aside and let her in, but the unicorn didn't seem to want to move. "Are you going to let me in?"

"Nope." Trixie shook her head slowly, not even trying to hide the smile on her face, "No visitors. Doctors orders."

"Most of us are already in here Trixie," said Fleur, her voice muffled by the door.

"And Summer and I are the doctors," Octavia added.

"That's not the point!" Trixie shouted back. "Twilight doesn't need to be in there, making her a visitor, and there's to be no visitors." Trixie smirked at Twilight, "If she wants to get in she has to come through me."

"Stop being difficult Trixie," Fleur muttered. There was a popping sound, and a moment later Twilight walked in, "That was even quicker than I expected."

"I teleported her outside the main gates. I'm sure she'll be back in a couple of minutes." Twilight walked over to the bed Ivory was lying on, her chest rising and falling in gentle, yet shallow breaths, each one stretching the bandages wrapped around her middle. "How is she?"

"She'll be fine," said Octavia. She fiddled with her hooves for a moment, "But, and I can't believe these words are coming out of my mouth, but she'd be dead if it wasn't for Trixie. I also think Ivory must've fought back as the stab wasn't as deep as it could've been, and missed her heart by a few inches, which I can only assume is what he was aiming for."

"Why though? Why try to kill her?"

"Really Twilight?" the filly sniggered. "You put a unicorn mare in charge of Mareitania, or partially in charge anyway. About the only thing you could've done worse as far as some ponies are concerned, would be to put pegasi in charge. And a pegasi mare? Heck, that'd almost be anathema to them."

"She's not wrong," said Fleur. "Daybreak already has himself under extra guard."

"And his daughter?"

"Who do you think that extra guard is?"

"Okay." Twilight laid a hoof on one of Ivory's, watching the unicorn for a moment before bowing her head, "This is my fault."

"Kind of, yeah," agreed Fleur. She smiled gently at Twilight as most of the rooms other occupants turned to look at her with shock, "That doesn't mean what you did was wrong. You knew you'd upset ponies with this."

"I know, but I thought I'd be the target for anything like this after the summit ended, which I was fine with since I'm essentially immortal. But this?" Twilight shook her head, "This I hadn't really considered. This I can't accept."

"What are you going to do about it then?" Octavia asked. "You're not just going to sit here and mope over it are you?"

"Of course not. But with the assassin dead I don't know where to start asking. Unless you guys know anything of course?"

"Not really," Fleur said tiredly. "We have three options as I see it. One, the Duke had a spy here for the summit who decided to destabilize the government by killing one of its leaders who is also a wanted mare in the Duke's camp, therefore killing two birds with one stone. He might've gone after more than Ivory if Trixie hadn't so thoroughly stopped him. Two, one of the representatives ordered it. One of those less than pleased with the status quo after the summit ended. One of those that was chummy with the Duke before we put a stop to that. Chances are they'd go after Ivory for the same reason as the Duke. Then there's option three; a pony on our side did it."

Twilight stared blankly at Fleur, "What?"

"Hear me out. Ivory is a defector, formally being the Viscount's... not sure what to call her there actually. I want to say slave, but that seems a little strong. However, concubine doesn't seem strong enough-"

"Fleur!"

"Anyway, what I'm saying is that there might be ponies on our side less than pleased at having the Viscount's former... something, as a co-ruler of Mareitania. Less than pleased enough to try and kill her."

"Okay..." Twilight looked at the other ponies around the room, "how does any of that actually help us catch the ponies behind it?"

Fleur grinned sheepishly, "It doesn't really, but...yeah-"

Bam! The door slammed open in a haze of dark magic, "You little bitch!" Trixie gasped, having galloped all the way back. "I said go through me! Not remove me!"

"Trixie, why were you trying to stop me coming in here?"

The blue unicorn shrugged, her anger suddenly no longer visible, "Shits and giggles mainly. Anyway, Daybreak, Mash, Thorn, and what's-his-face-"

"Hayfield?"

"Yeah, him. They're waiting outside looking all serious and officious... and other things ending in 'ous.'"

"Delicious?" the filly suggested.

"Thorn is pretty cute in her way," Trixie said speculatively, "so that's probably a description I could arrive at."

"And apparently I'm the gay one," Twilight muttered. Louder she said, "Are you going to let them in? Or do I have to teleport you away again?"

"I'll be good," Trixie said quickly, standing aside to let them enter the room. Daybreak and Hayfield moved to Ivory's side, while Thorn sat in the middle of the room, allowing Mash to linger in the doorway looking uncomfortable.

"Look what happens when you leave for a few hours," Daybreak said to Twilight after a long silence. It was clear from his tone that he wasn't really accusing her.

"It's fair to assume he only attacked during the day because Twilight wasn't here," Mash argued. "A little reckless on his part since he hadn't reckoned on Trixie tearing him in two."

"Will you two please stop?" Hayfield smiled sadly at Twilight, "I'm afraid this does have us all in a bit of a state. I know the assassin is dead, but who's to say there aren't more?"

"Speaking of," said Daybreak. "Twilight, I- That is, we, want you to investigate this whole thing using whatever ponies you need. I don't think I need to explain how us four dying would throw a pretty big spanner in the works. Do you accept?"

"Wait," Trixie said slowly, "Is that a request or an order?"

"Think of it as a friendly order." Daybreak looked imploringly at Twilight, "Please?"

"Of course. I could hardly not investigate this." She smiled as reassuringly at the three councillors as she could, "You can count on me."

"Why do you think we're asking you?" Daybreak stepped away from Ivory's bed to stand next to Thorn and ruffle her mane, gaining a squeak of protest from the mare. "We're going to hole up somewhere secure with more guards than we actually need, just to be sure, so Thorn's free to help you with your investigation if you want her. Just... keep her safe yeah?"

"Of course." Twilight kept smiling at them as they left, letting it slip as soon as they were out of sight. "Taking orders is going to take some getting used to, especially when I was probably going to do it anyway. So, who else is going to help me?"

Fleur stood and stretched her legs, "Not us. We need to get onto the Shades about watching some ponies since those ponies, whoever they are, seem a little more proactive than us. Come on filly," she added as she walked to the door.

"But- But- Assassinations! Spies! Political intrigue!" The filly clasped her hooves together in a begging motion, "You can't seriously make me miss that!"

"Can and am, so get your butt moving. We'll have plenty of political intrigue to deal with if the Shades turn something up." Fleur left, the filly following morosely behind her.

"I never get to have any fun."

"So," Twilight said brightly, "anypony else have something to do?" She'd actually been hoping Fleur would help her, although she couldn't really think why.

"As much as I'd love to help you," Trixie sighed, "I have the unfortunate mandate of having to make sure nopony else tries to put any more holes in Ivory."

"Huh?"

Trixie rolled her eyes, "I have to guard Ivory, duh."

"Oh, well..." Twilight looked at the two other ponies in the room, "I guess you two have to look after Ivory?"

"I think one of us would be enough," said Summer. "I'm happy to stay here with Ivy if you want to help Twilight Octavia?"

Octavia cursed under her breath, "Oh good, assassins, attempted murder, dead bodies and blood. Four of my favourite things."

"You don't have to if you don't want to," Twilight said with a hint of annoyance.

"No, I'll help. You'll need somepony to hold your guts in if this goes wrong."

"Then the task is ahoof," Trixie said happily. "Our brave alicorn leader, assisted by her spunky unicorn assistant, who sadly isn't Trixie, and our token earth pony, shall find the dastardly fiends behind this most heinous of crimes."

"Spunky? Seriously?"

"And did you just call me a token earth pony?"

"Sure did," Trixie said, nodding with a smile at both Thorn and Octavia. "The only reason you came with us in the first place was purely because you were an earth pony, remember? Not that it's really helped us all that much."

Octavia glowered at Trixie, "So you're saying that I failed at the task of being what I was born as?"

"That's one way to put it I suppose."

"Do you guys often do this?" Thorn asked incredulously. "Just go off into random tangents with absolutely no connection to what we're supposed to be doing? All while being pretty insulting to one another?"

"All the time," Octavia confirmed.

Trixie nodded in agreement, "I find it's one of our more endearing features as a group."

"You should be used to it by now," said Twilight.

"So, what are we doing?" Thorn asked as she followed Twilight and Octavia through the castle.

"I've read a few Shadow Spade's in my time," said Octavia. "The first thing he does is... what?" she asked as Twilight stuck her tongue out.

"Shadow Spade? Really? You read that drivel?"

"Uh! Shadow Spade is not drivel!"

"Yes it is. Same predictable plots, same clichéd characters, same story layouts where every other chapter he tries to bed the 'dame' or 'broad' that walked into his office at the beginning of the story, just like the beginning of every one of his stories because there's no conceivable reason a stallion would ever need a private investigator, oh no. Then, by the end of the story him and the 'dame' fall in love, only for her to get killed, or kidnapped, or simply disappear without mention in the next book."

"It makes him out to be a tragic character!"

"And doesn't your heart just melt for him?" Twilight said back as she fluttered her eyelashes. "You realise they do that purely to stop the masses of single mares that read those books from getting jealous of a fictional character who's stealing another fictional character from them. Instead they have him fall in love every story, allowing the reader to imagine it was her in the mare's place, whereas to me, falling in love with Shadow Spade sounds like a serious health hazard."

"Are you done?" Octavia sighed.

"Nope. Apart from that, the plots are ridiculous and rely far too much on plot convenience. Shadow Spade is stumped? Oh wait, some mysterious stranger just left him a tip-off allowing him to solve the case. That or he strings a bunch of totally unrelated things into a theory using questionable logic, only for the bad guy to go 'aw, ya got me.' Totally ridiculous. And don't even get me started on his silly internal monologues."

"Those are a staple of the genre!"

Twilight blinked at Octavia a couple of times, then grinned. "The dame stood before me, her soft violet eyes hardening with anger as I accused her favoured reading material of being complete rubbish. But I knew the truth, as I suspected she did, that Shadow Spade was created purely to sell books to lonely young mares wishing for some dark and mysterious stranger to come and sweep her off her hooves and make her his mar-"

"Stop that!" Octavia fumed at the grinning Twilight for a moment, wanting to shout at her some more, but not quite willing to. "What about you then?" she asked instead, "What's your favourite series?"

"I read a lot of books actually, but my favourite series is Daring Do-"

"Pfft," Octavia scoffed.

Twilight was shocked, "You can't seriously tell me you don't like Daring Do?"

"I don't like Daring Do," Octavia said, taking care to fully pronounce each word. "The plots are wildly improbable, the characters stiff and boring, the writing style flip-flops from first to third pony without rhyme or reason, and what exactly is Owhi- Auhi- whatever his name is, even supposed to be? She spends ages asserting that she works alone, until suddenly deciding that working with others is okay, only to end up working with some sycophantic rainbow maned loon!"

"Hey... Rainbow Dash is not a loon." Twilight bit her bottom lip, unsure whether to reveal whether Daring Do was actually a real pony.

"She's inconsistent as a character, which only makes her decision making highly questionable as what she might have found morally objectionable in one book is somehow totally okay in another. She's also a terrible archaeologist, destroying ancient ruins for mere trinkets, and somehow manages to spend half her time injured. But the worst thing is that she over-describes everything! I'm a pony, I have hooves, so I know what hooves sound like on stone, or on snow. I know that the jungle is full of bugs that buzz, so I don't need an entire paragraph telling me what exactly that sounds like, and I don't need a dissertation on how salty sweat tastes when it runs down your face as I know full well what sweat tastes like having sweated plenty of times myself."

"You guys are insane," Thorn said, interrupting them. "I've seen you both do incredible things, things that many ponies couldn't do. You're brave, strong, smart, and capable of so much... and yet you're standing here arguing about fictional characters, and I can't decide whether that makes you less terrifying, or more. After all you've seen and done, the fact that you can do that also makes you weirdly normal, and I'm strangely uncomfortable with that."

Octavia and Twilight shared a look, "Haven't been called normal in a while," said Octavia. "Should we be offended?"

Twilight shrugged, "I rarely get called normal considering I was a prodigy, Celestia's pupil, and now a princess who led a rebellion to free a country. Normal just doesn't figure. However, I do think that we're getting side-tracked from our investigation."

"Quite."

"So," Twilight grimaced, "What would Shadow Spade do, besides fall hopelessly in love?"

"I imagine he'd check the scene of the crime."

"Not much point there," said Thorn. "It's just a blood stain in a hallway, and we already have the culprit so... yeah, not much to learn there."

"Alright then." Octavia hummed to herself for a moment, "I guess the next step is to have a look at the body."

"Then that's what we'll do," Twilight said as she led the way. "Come on." They started to make their way to the morgue when Twilight's ears twitched at the sound of Octavia speaking behind her.

"I walked down the cold grey corridor, my hooves, and the hooves of my erstwhile companions, ringing on the hard rock of the castle interior, creating a cacophony of noise that grated on the senses when you really listened to it. I mean, wow, it almost hurts with how annoying it is. The air smelled musty and stale as the fall of each hoof stirred up a new cloud of dust and dirt that tainted the very air around us."

"Octavia..."

"Said my companion Twilight Sparkle, a lavender coated alicorn with a starburst for a cutie mark. She looked back over her shoulder at me, the furrow of her brow and the lowering of her ears telling me that she was displeased with me for some reason I had yet to decipher. Perhaps if I were to keep over describing everything around me, the mystery of her ire might become clear-"

"Alright! Alright! Sheesh. Yes she does a lot of descriptive writing, but she's just trying to set the scene!"

"Uh-huh, sure. Meanwhile the bad guys have already stolen the treasure and ran off in the time it takes her to describe the roots of a nearby tree that caught her attention."

"We're not doing this," insisted Twilight. "We've had our fun, by which I mean we've diverted our attention from the horrors awaiting us long enough, so now we need to get to work."

"Very well." They remained largely silent as they finished the journey to the morgue, Octavia wanting to describe how the air seemed thicker down here amongst other things, while Twilight was spinning off an internal monologue on her thoughts. Thankfully both of them had the grace to remain quiet.

As they entered the morgue Twilight spared a second to look at the block of ice containing the frozen remains of Pearl, and looked away again as a shudder travelled down her spine. Even now it still weirded her out to see Pearl. While she respected Fleur's wishes to see the mare properly buried for closure, Twilight really did wish they could've done it already, instead of keeping her frozen body down here, creeping her out with its presence.

She forced herself to focus on the task at hoof. On a table at the side of the room, thankfully away from Pearl, was the body of their assassin, or rather both parts of it. Even the bloodstained sheet they had draped over him couldn't disguise the fact that there were two distinct lumps under it.

With a swish of fabric Twilight pulled the sheet off, and immediately regretted it as the smell of blood hit her full force in the nostrils, and she couldn't help but look away. Thorn staggered to the side, gagging as she fought to keep her stomach under control, while Octavia stiffened at the sight, her only movement being the shaking of her legs.

Twilight slowed herself and took a moment to recover before daring to look at the body again. "Why does Trixie feel the need to do this," she asked rhetorically. Honestly she hoped the answer was 'dark magic,' and not something to do with Trixie herself.

"Like you're any better."

Twilight turned to Octavia as the mare spat out the sour comment, "Excuse me? I do not tear ponies apart! I kill them with my magic as cleanly as possible. Wow, there's a sentence I never thought I'd have to say."

"Really? Have you not seen the mess you leave behind when you use that blasted sword of yours? Because believe me when I tell you it is neither clean or tidy. No death like that is, and I've seen enough of it to know."

Twilight bit her tongue as her argument died on its tip. Memories of being in a hallway full of bodies during the battle to take the very castle they stood in filled her mind. Extremely blood soaked memories. Maybe Octavia wasn't as wrong as Twilight wanted her to be. "Nevermind," she said quietly, "let's just focus on what we're doing here." Twilight forced herself to look at the body. The assassin's eyes were half open, and as Trixie had said they were blue, but they certainly weren't sparkling, leaving them almost grey with their lifelessness. Twilight pulled them shut, but rigor mortis prevented her from doing so completely.

"This is horrible," Thorn whispered, her voice hoarse. "Can we get on with this? I don't want to look at him any longer than necessary."

"Alright. For starters, do either of you recognise him?" Both Octavia and Thorn shook their heads. "Fair enough. We should still get somepony to fly to Puddingarde and get Script to check his cutie mark, just to be sure. I hate to imagine the implications if he is one of ours though."

"And if he isn't one of ours?" Octavia asked.

"In that case we still don't know who he is, or who he works for." Twilight concentrated her magic, and with a flash a piece of paper and a pencil appeared in front on her, allowing her to begin sketching out his cutie mark. It really was unique, even for a cutie mark; a snake winding around what seemed to be an invisible dagger. A talent in assassination. It left Twilight wondering if the mistake that cost him his life was his own, or one that he was forced to make by his employer. Maybe he was just the fall guy.

She rubbed at his cutie mark with her magic just to make sure. It seemed genuine enough if it could survive an alicorn scraping at it.

"Twilight." Twilight focused her attention on Thorn as the mare said her name. "Look at this." Twilight walked around to the head of the stallion where Thorn was holding his mane up at the front, showing a short vertical scar on his forehead. "It's too... nice to be a scar from an accident. He has to be one of those unicorns dehorned at a young age, like Iron Prize."

"Yeah..." Twilight studied the scar for a moment, then frowned, "How does this help us?"

Thorn shrugged, "I dunno, but I get the feeling that this guy has one hell of a backstory. Too bad we'll never know it."

"The ending isn't particularly happy if it helps." Twilight sighed and replaced the sheet over the body with a flourish of her magic. "I don't think we have anything more to learn here. I'll send this sketch off with a pegasus to Puddingarde to see if the mark's in our records, but that doesn't mean much unless it is." Twilight half smiled at Octavia, "What next detective?"

"The weapon I guess? Or maybe interviewing the witnesses, one of which is unconscious, and the other terminally Trixie."

"You're a terrible detective Octavia."

"So's Shadow Spade according to you."

It was a simple blade, the only tell it had was that it was blackened to hide its shine. Apart from that it was rather plain and indistinct, with no markings or anything to hint at its origins. Thorn had called it an assassins weapon. Trixie had scoffed and said "Obviously."

"See this candlestick?" Trixie held the candlestick up in her magic for emphasis. "If an assassin were to kill somepony with it, it suddenly becomes- dun dun dun! -an assassins weapon."

"I meant that it has nothing distinctive that could lead us to who wanted this!"

"So you mean it's a professionals weapon?" Thorn nodded, "Then how did he botch the assassination so badly?" Trixie raised her nose and sniffed, "Doesn't seem very professional to me."

"I imagine getting torn in two would hamper anything," Thorn retorted with a huff.

"Stop it you two," said Twilight. She adjusted her position, her horn glowing as she powered the healing device in the hopes of getting Ivory on her hooves sooner rather than later. It was becoming pretty clear that she might be the only pony that really knew anything about the attacker. "Just tell me what happened again."

Trixie groaned, "Fine. I was walking down the corridor I was in, minding Trixie's business while still managing to be fabulous, when I heard a shout from Ivory. I started trotting faster to see what the problem was, when I saw her and the assassin struggling. He was holding her around the neck and trying to stab her, but she had hold of his blade in her magic, enough to prevent him doing so. Then I saved her, obviously." Trixie grinned unconvincingly.

"So you said before, but what happened for it to progress from that to her being stabbed?"

"Oh, uh..." Trixie twirled the end of her mane with her hoof, "Nothing much really."

"Trixie..."

"Alright, alright! I shouted 'oi!' because that's the sort of thing you do, but I distracted Ivory a lot more than her attacker, giving him the chance to stab her. Then, when he tried to run I killed him." Trixie glared at Twilight, "Are you happy now you know Trixie's failure?"

Twilight stared back coolly, "I can hardly imagine why you think knowing that makes me happy, but I can at least thank you for being honest. At the very least we can conclude that he caught Ivory on her own, and decided to use the opportunity, much to his own detriment."

"Of course that begs the question of what he was doing in the castle in the first place," said Octavia. "I'm pretty sure we don't allow tourists."

"There could've been plenty of ways for somepony to sneak in as we set up the summit," said Thorn. "We had deliveries from all over the place, and I don't think we looked too hard to make sure the ponies involved left again."

"Great!" Trixie shouted, throwing her legs into the air with aggravation, "Just make it seem like it's all Trixie's fault!"

"Nopony's saying that Trixie." Twilight sighed tiredly, "This is starting to look impossible. Unless we get something from Ivory or Puddingarde I think we're stuck. I'm going to keep healing Ivory, so if you all want to have a break, or get something to eat, now would be a good time because we have nothing else to do."

Twilight sat on her own, save for the sleeping form of Ivory, wondering just how she was supposed to solve this mess. It wasn't like she had half a dozen other things she could be doing instead, but no, she had to do this, by order of the government of Mareitania, which rankled slightly for reasons she couldn't understand. Perhaps being a rebel had got to her.

Her hoof idly traced a circle on the bed sheet, going around and around until the tip of her hoof started to feel warm from the friction. She'd almost forgotten she was doing it until a white hoof grabbed it, making her yelp with shock.

"Do you have any idea how annoying that is?" Ivory mumbled quietly.

"Ivory! You're awake!"

"Seems so, despite some ponies best efforts."

"You remember what happened then?"

"Yeah, I do. I suppose I should be a little more freaked out that I'm not dead, but I'm too tired for that." Ivory gingerly pushed herself up and turned so she could see Twilight better, "I've actually been awake on and off through this whole thing, but I couldn't muster the energy to even open my eyes. Getting stabbed really takes it out of you."

"You should try dying sometime, although I wouldn't recommend it for non-alicorns. Honestly, I don't recommend it for actual alicorns either."

"Yeah, no thank you." Ivory sighed and rubbed her eyes, stopping with surprise as her hoof came away with tears on it. "Huh... Twilight, the pony that did this really is dead, isn't he?"

"Very much so, yes," Twilight said as she nodded vigorously. "Trixie made sure of that."

Ivory's hoof started to shake, and she hugged herself, "Good. That's- That's good." She wiped another tear away and laughed bitterly, "Is it weird that I miss Francis? He had a way of surrounding you with guards that made you feel really protected."

"Francis? Who's Francis?"

"The Viscount?" Ivory smiled and chuckled, "You honestly didn't know that?"

"No! I didn't even know the Duke's name until recently." Twilight tried to suppress a laugh but failed, "He's really called Francis?"

"There's a reason most know him only as the Viscount. He'd have been Duke Francis the second once the Duke died though, so there'd have been little chance to hide it after that."

"Francis," Twilight laughed to herself. The laughter died out though, "How come you've never told me his name before?"

"I don't know. I guess part of me still wants to respect his wishes in a way, to keep his name secret. I must sound insane saying that."

"Don't say that. I think it's sweet that you still care for him a little."

Ivory pulled a face and stuck out her tongue, "Ugh, not even slightly Twilight, and certainly don't let Summer hear you say that. I'll be glad when that pig is locked up and... whatever. For his few redeeming qualities he has several dozen irredeemable ones."

"Oh." Twilight wasn't sure why but she felt a little disappointed by that. Maybe it had a little something to do with forgetting what the Viscount had done to Summer for a moment. "Anyway, enough about him. I know you just woke up, but I was hoping to ask you about the pony that attacked you."

"Okay, but I don't know much. I think he used to work for Lord Woodberry, but in what capacity I don't really know. Whatever he was paid to do I suppose."

"And that would include assassinations?"

"Sure, probably."

"And he only worked for Lord Woodberry?"

"Not exclusively. He just had a lot to do with Woodberry because Woodberry was tasked with bandit control. I think he was a bounty hunter more than anything."

Twilight was about to ask about the bandits when she remembered that Woodberry hall was located near the Caverns and their bat-winged inhabitants who used to 'gather' for Caverndown. She supposed that there had been quite a lot of banditry going on when you thought about it. That still didn't come close to answering why this pony had tried to kill Ivory since his typical employer was being held in a secure place in Neigh Orleans.

"Maybe somepony else paid him to do it," Ivory replied after Twilight asked her. "Maybe he's on a personal vendetta, or he did it because he thought it was the right thing to do. Maybe some ponies are rebelling against us now? Who knows?"

"Don't even say that Ivory. The last thing we need is a pro earth pony rebellion trying to get rid of us fair and equal minded ponies in charge. I'm honestly not sure I could keep my patience with them."

Ivory raised an eyebrow, "Meaning?"

"Meaning I'm not sure whether I'd come down hard on them and risk looking like the Duke, or be lenient with them and risk them picking us apart slowly. Saying that though, there's a reason we're beating a purely earth pony based military."

"Good job that probably isn't the case then."

"Yeah, since he's technically a unicorn."

"He is?" Twilight explained about the scar on the stallions forehead. "Huh, I never even suspected. I suppose he has no reason to be pro earth pony then."

"Or every reason." Twilight shrugged, "I don't know. At least I know he wasn't one of ours now, making Spitfire's trip to Puddingarde completely pointless."

"Perhaps. Twilight?"

"Yeah?"

"I just wanted you to know that your healing thing is amazing. I feel great for a pony that was stabbed earlier on today."

Twilight's cheeks quickly coloured with a blush, "It was a nice clean wound, so it healed pretty quick," she said, trying to be as casual as she could. "Thanks though; it's nice to be appreciated."

"What now then?"

Twilight sipped from her mug of coffee before sliding it to the side and resting her chin on the table, "I have no idea," she sighed. She pouted up at the grey earth pony in front of her, "Don't look at me like that Octavia."

"Like what?"

"Like I should have all the answers."

"You have me wrong Twilight. I'm just concerned that even though we've narrowed things down a little, this mystery is still wide open."

"What do you want me to do? If this pony is some kind of assassin slash blade for hire, then it's in his best interests to be a total nopony. There's the possibility we might never solve this."

"What about what Fleur suggested?" said Thorn. "About putting the news out that Ivory died from her injuries."

Twilight looked up at Thorn, the unicorn shuffling her own mug from hoof to hoof as she looked at Twilight. "Huh?"

"We ran into Fleur when we first came down here," Octavia explained. "She suggested putting the news out that Ivory had died to see if anypony claimed responsibility for it. I thought it was a silly idea myself as I really don't think anypony would give themselves away like that. At least not until they could do some real damage."

"Yeah, let's save that for when we're really desperate."

"You mean we aren't?" Thorn muttered to herself.

"Actually," said Octavia, "Summer had a suggestion as well. It wasn't much better, but I should at least run it past you."

Twilight pulled herself up and downed the remaining contents of her mug, "I'm all ears."

"She suggested that maybe we stop worrying about it. Either the mystery will reveal itself, or cease being a problem altogether since our assassin is rather deceased."

"Hah! I wish. Do you really think that's an option?"

"No, but it might have to be the reality."

Twilight breathed out slowly and tipped her mug up so she could see inside it. Sadly it was still empty. "Boy, I sure could use some classic Shadow Spade plot convenience about now." She waited for several seconds, but nopony burst into the room with news, or an identity, or even a hopelessly cryptic clue.

Octavia snorted a laugh, "This is reality Twilight, I don't think we get plot conveniences like that. Although if some villain were to explain their plan in a lengthy monologue I certainly wouldn't complain. It would certainly save a lot of effort on our part." They waited several more seconds, but still nothing happened. "But as I said, reality."

Twilight refilled her mug, teleporting a portion of coffee straight from the pot into the ceramic container, "Reality sucks."

"Amen," said Thorn, her horn glowing as she lifted her own mug up to her mouth.

"So," Twilight said expectantly, "failing the sudden arrival of plot convenience, what would Shadow Spade do?"

Octavia shrugged and smiled mischievously, "Attempt to bed a mare and fall hopelessly in love probably. I'm sure we could find a mare that's willing if that's what you want to try?"

"No thank you."

"Then I have nothing to suggest. What would Daring Do... uh, do?"

"Swing on a rope, foil the bad guys, and trash an ancient temple probably. All while injured. Nothing really helpful to our situation at any rate."

"What are we really doing guys?" Thorn asked as she looked between the two ponies. "Are we really waiting for something or somepony to solve this for us?"

Twilight delicately sipped her coffee while Octavia got up to fetch herself some more of her own, "Actually we're waiting for either Spitfire to come back and tell us something we don't know, or for Fleur to have picked something up through the Shades, but that's going to take a while."

"Really? Wow... and here I was thinking this'd be wrapped up by nightfall."

"It's pretty much autumn now Thorn, nightfall tends to get earlier these days."

"You know what I meant."

Nightfall passed by, and still the mystery went totally unsolved, much to Thorn's annoyance. Rather than sit around and mope Twilight had decided to go to bed in the hopes that the next day would bring answers. And it did, only much earlier than Twilight would have preferred.

"What?" Twilight groaned after the hoof poking her became too much to ignore.

"Sorry to wake you ma'am," said the gruff voice of Spitfire, "but Trixie said this was important enough to disturb you for."

"She'd say that regardless." Twilight closed her eyes again and sighed, "Do you think it's important?"

"Uh, yes ma'am, I'd say so."

"Then what is it?"

"The assassins name was Quick Blade, and he was one of ours for a short while."

Twilight forced herself to wake up a little more, surprised at that little revelation. "How short?"

"A few weeks at most. He was one of the ponies that joined us at Woodberry, and was accelerated through basic because he was already good at fighting and we needed the numbers after Puddingarde. He joined us for the fight to take Whiplash, but went MIA during the battle, and has remained MIA until now. Thing is, he was just one of five that went MIA during the battle, but because we were kinda busy we never really investigated it."

"And nopony told me because..?"

"Because bigger things were happening."

"Great..." Twilight rolled over and tried to think. Having five ponies go missing in one battle was odd, but it just begged the unusual question of who led whom astray if they were connected. Did he lead them astray, or did they lead him?

"Did the others join at the same time as him?"

"No, they all joined before him at different times."

"Hmm... okay, thank you Captain. You can go and get some rest now, although I'll want you to be up in the morning."

"Why's that ma'am?"

"Because I have no intention of stumbling around in the dark, half asleep, so it can wait until morning." Twilight pulled her blanket up under her chin, "Goodnight."

Author's Notes:

Happy new year, etc, etc. Now the formalities out of the way it's time to get back to this, although I will admit it'll be a little bit nonsensical for a chapter or two because I was busy with Christmas stuff and totally forgot what I was doing as I wrote these chapters a lot slower than I usually do and I don't take notes of my plans. So...yeah, enjoy, you know, if you really want to.